Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
It has a huge globe monitor that looks funky at night when changing colors hanging just right below the main entrance facade arc of this huge chrome and crimson colored building. It has statues of cows dressed in different patterns on the entrance grounds. Located just beside the old town of Macau and an inner harbor with Mainland China just across. Ponte 16 five-star resort is where we stayed in Macau for three nights. So how was it?
I felt the driver crank up the speed as he leaned forward the tricycle looking at him from the back seat. It’s not that the three of us were heavy along with our baggage coming from Lio Airport, it’s just that the road going to El Nido town slopes prominently high. Once past that it was a breezy 10-15minutes ride into town. The group was split into half, Melo and I would be staying in Hadefe Cottages in Caalan Beach.
Have you ever wondered how it’s like to sleep at one of those native Ifugao houses? Waking up with the cold mountain air and opening your windows to the soothing sights of pine trees swaying? The first time I went to Banaue, I was able to sleep at one of those native houses on top of a terrace in Bangaan. I enjoyed the cool space and walking the wooden floors with my bare feet. Little did I know that there’s a place closer to Banaue town proper until we found Banaue Ethnic Village and Pine Forest Resort.
It’s only fitting we visit one of the biggest tea producing companies when we were in Cameron Highlands. After our visit to the Rose Center, we headed to one of the large tea gardens from BOH Tea Company, the first tea company that set up a highland tea garden in Malaysia in 1929. We were supposed to visit this garden near Rose Center but it was closed so we had to drive a little longer south to where their BOH Tea Factory is located.
We continued on the road to Pahang after our brief stop at the Batu Caves. The ride to Cameron Highlands from Kuala Lumpur was said to take around 6 hours. Somehow it reminded me of the trip to Baguio. But thank god we were comfortable on the van with each of us having our own rows and could sleep off in between talks and in-ear happy music. But the road to Cameron itself has some interesting stops as all of us, Nina, Martin and I would be visiting for the first time.
It was great that our first day in Puraran, Catanduanes was blessed with good weather. As we traveled back to Virac, the sky grew gloomier. The ride on the big jeep was eventful as than usual. Aside from having an interesting conversation from the lone Japanese Jun about traveling around the Philippines and some tips on the road, we were joined by this man in formal polo wear about his 50s. He was a tourism officer and shared in some ideas.
The day before was packed with a visit to Petronas Skybridge, Aquaria, Istana Negara, Tugu Negara, and Sunway lagoon. It’s a good thing that this day we were allowed an option to sleep over a little and regain some needed zest for this day. While it’s pretty packed as well considering the main event this afternoon it’s a lot relaxed. Our day started with the chocolate factory at Beryl’s Chocolate Kingdom, Malaysia’s best chocolate brand.
