Coffee at Vietnam

Vietnam is pretty famous for its coffee. When I was making our itinerary for our trip, I made sure that there will be free time for coffee.

We were going to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Located north of the country, Hanoi is known as the city between the rivers and the second largest city in Vietnam. Since we purchased out tickets during an airline sale, choice of dates was limited. Nite to self, check the yearly forecast o the country first prior to booking. September is the time where the season changes in Hanoi, from summer to fall. Summer seems to be also a rainy season for Hanoi, and since I was planning on going to Halong Bay, I was praying it doesn't rain so the view won't be ruined.

And finally, it was time for our flight. Since the airline only has a few flights going to Hanoi, our trip was set Saturday (late night) to Wednesday (early morning). And since this is the most ideal schedule, almost everyone that we rode with going to Hanoi were also the same as the ones we went home with.

Our flight arrived early Sunday midnight, just enough time to let us rest for a whole day of city tour for the rest of the day.

Suggested places to go is the Ho Chi Minh museum, followed by the One Pillar Pagoda, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Presidential palace, the Flag tower, the the Temple of Literature which are actually walking distance from each other if you are up for it. It is important to note that the mausoleum is only open in the morning from 8:00 am to 11:00, and is closed Mondays and Fridays so it is best to start early and wear long pants rather than shorts.

Clockwise from the top: Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, One Pillar Pagoda, Ho Chi Minh Museum, Flag Tower

After a tiring but fun stroll along the area, you can head off to Old Quarter for lunch. After lunch, you can head off to Hoan Kiem Lake
Were the Turtle, the Huc bridge and Ngoc Son Temple can be found. The lake is also next to the water puppet show.

The Hub Bridge
If you are interested, you can visit St. Joseph's cathedral. The church was built in 1886 in the neo-gothic style. Near the church are coffee shops which are fillef with people sitting down on small stools placed on pavements around the street, which is the common site to see through out Hanoi.

St. Joseph's Cathedral

We decided to stop by for some coffee after attending mass. We chose a place that wasn't so crowded and order iced coffee and iced tea to cool down. We were curious at what the people were eating while drinking coffee and we realized that they were sunflower seeds, it seems that the snack is abundant in the place.




After coffee, it was finally time to head back to the hotel to rest our tired feet. After a quick rest, we headed off to old quarter to check out the night market, nothing really much to see though. Since all our energy was used up, we just ate dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel. Aside from coffee, your Hanoi trip will not be complete without trying their Pho noodles (both dry noodles and with soup) and rolls.




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Korea, Be Inspired.

Since I enjoy travelling, I also want to share one of my collections: the Starbucks City Icon series tumblers. Although my Seoul and Korean tumblers are not my first, this was the first international tumblers that I personally bought as an official collector (I bought my Singapore tumbler first, but I wasn't collecting yet).

Having to plan my trips myself with a lot of help from bloggers and other sites, I really made sure that no matter what, I get to visit all the famous spots in Seoul that I see in Koreanovelas. A bit die hard? Not really.

The Starbucks Icon series features famous "icons" that represents the city or country, and one of my goals, aside from completing the collection is too also have a picture of the real life icons, too bad I didn't have a picture of the mask with me in it. :)

The Seoul tumbler features the N Seoul Tower, officially the CJ Seoul Tower and commonly known as the Namsan Tower and Seoul Tower. According to wikipedia, it is a communication and observation tower located on Namsan Mountain in central Seoul, South Korea.

The Korea tumbler on the other-hand shows Korean Masks. They were used in war, on both soldiers and their horses; ceremonially, for burial rites in jade and bronze and for shamanistic ceremonies to drive away evil spirits; to remember the faces of great historical figures in death masks; and in the arts, particularly in ritual dances, courtly, and theatrical plays. The present uses are as miniature masks for tourist souvenirs, or on cell-phones where they hang as good-luck talismans. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_mask)  

The other Cagayan

I read in an airline magazine, when you say Cagayan, people would normally think Cagayan de Oro. This seems to be true. It's famous for white water rafting, and also is the nearest airport to some Mindanao destinations. But I'm not blogging about CDO right now. Today, I will let you see the other Cagayan, or parts of it.

Cagayan in the north, is part of the region of Cagayan Valley (Region 2) in the Philippines.  Cagayan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of Smiling Beauty, its capital is Tuguegarao City. It is at least a 15 hour drive from Manila, or you can also opt to take a plane which only lasts 45 minutes. The ideal days to vist the place would be during summer because the whole Cagayan Valley may be the most visited region of storms and heavy rains.

So, what can you do in the place? You can visit Callao Cave in Penablanca, the most known tourist spot in the province. It is roughly 45 minutes away from the city. You can hire a van or trike to take you to the place. If you are in a large group, it is best to hire a van. The cave has 7 chambers, 5 of which have sky lights. The last 2 chambers are more harder to reach as you would need to go down a rocky pathway and is not advisable to visit during rainy season as the way becomes muddy, none the less, the first few chambers are sufficient enough for you to enjoy. There is a minimal entrance fee and a volunteer tour guide will assist you inside the cave.

From the entrance, you will climb stairs to the entrance of the cave which will take 15-25 minutes depending on your phase. The chambers are just a few meters away from each other so this is really not as strenuous as you may think.

The Chapel at Callao Cave

After trekking the cave, you can also go for a relaxing boat ride along Pinacanauan River just at the side of the cave. A both ride will cost you Php 500/boat and you can also eat at the end of the river where the boatman will pick you up after. At nightfall, you may also be able to see bats storm out of the bat cave near the river.

Once you are back in the city, one thing you should miss is trying out Tuguegarao's famous noodles, the Pancit Butil Patong. It got its name from patong or to put on top. The noodles, together with its toppings also comes with soy sauce, onions, calamansi and a bowl of soup.

For Catholics, the next activity you can do is visit some of Cagayan's churches. Cagayan is a great place during the Holy Week if you want to do some Visita Iglesia. Some known churches are the Basilica Minore of Our Lady of Piat, Iguig Church in Calgary Hill, and St. Peter's Basilica in the capital. The Basilica Minore in Piat houses the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin Mary while the Iguig Church has life size images of the stations of the cross and has a view of the Cagayan river.

Basilica Minore (L); Iguig Church (M); St. Peter's Basilica (R)

If you have run out of activities to do in the capital, you can also consider going to Santa Ana. Santa Ana is the home of the Cagayan Special Economic Zone which host casinos and other gaming facilities, some exclusive to Chinese visitors. You can also see several second hand vehicles for auction there. To know more of the place, visit the municipality's facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MySantaAna. 

Being on the northern part of the Luzon, there are many coastlines and beaches in Santa Ana. Port San Vicente is located at the edge of Santa Ana and is the entry point via boat to the place, across the Port, you will also have the view Palaui Island.

You can take a ferry trip from Santa Ana to Batanes, the farthest place north of the Philippines, during the calmest of weathers.

From the port, you can hire a boat that can take you to the three most famous destinations in the place; Palaui Island, Maninad Island and Anguib Beach.

Palaui is considered to have one of the great beaches in the Philippines. The view is breathtaking and can be compared to a mini Batanes. You can either trek the island which will take you at least 2 hours to reach the other part or you can ride a boat that will take you to the other side which takes 45 minutes. On the other side of the island you will see the lighthouse of Cape Engano.

As mentioned on the picture below, the lighthouse was inspired by 3 lighthouses: in Cape Bojaedor in Burgos, Ilocos Norte; in Capones Island, Zambales and Isla de Cabra in Mindoro.

The lighthouse is an additional climb of 20-30 minutes, which was really tiring especially during the time the sun rises the highest. Good thing the view of the island was really worth it.

After a tiring walk from the lighthouse, you can relax at Anguib beach (pronounced as angib). Half of the beach is private and offers an entrance fee of PHP 500 together with buffet lunch. The other side costs only PHP 20. According to the locals, you can also reach the beach via land but the gate towards the beach is normally closed, so the best option is still to take a boat ride to the San Vicente.

Anguib is tagged as the Boracay of the North. Don't get your hopes up as the sand is not as fine as Boracay, and there are also many weeds in the water. There is also not much to do in the place. During weekends, they say that the beach really gets packed with locals.

Maninad or Crocodile Island is a small island between Palaui and the mainland. From afar, it looks like a crocodile and the place is really stoney.

Well, can I say that the trip was worth it? Honestly, for me I travel to explore. I want to learn as much as possible, as they say, the more you travel the more open-minded you become. You get more experience. If you are after the beaches, I'd give it an 8. There is not much to do in Cagayan considering you will have to travel for 15 hours by land, but I recommend the place to people who wants to learn about caves, if you want a secluded place to enjoy on your own, if you want to hike and explore.

If you are planning a trip to Tuguegarao via plane, 4 days is enough (flights are in the morning only). An overnight stay at Santa Ana in the first night, rest on the second, then tour the city on the third day.

View of the Cagayan River from the airplane.

Renewal

My passportvis about to expire by March next year. But since travelling abroad requires atkeast 6-7months passport validity, I needed to apply for my renewal so we can book a flight this January for niece's birthday.

Good thing that during the time I checked the online schedule, the closest was a week and a half. The scheduling system has improved since the time mh brother renewed his passport early this year.

My current passport was the older version which was not yet electronic thus when I go to other countries, data entry was longer. I still remember the old process when passport renewal was still being done in their Libertad branch. There was no appointments neede, it was a first come first serve basis. You had to come early to get a numbef and if you are not familiar with the process, there's a possibility of getting fooled by fixers telling you all sorts of things like pointing you to another place and asking you to pay more.

Although the new process had negative reviews in the beginning, it is slowly improving.

Once you have set up an appointment, you can be at the DFA office in Macapagal Blvd at hour earlier. It is recommended to always get the 8 am schedule. People start coming in at 6. Gate 1 is for agency renewal and Gate 2 is for the scheduled applicants. You would need to first get your form that you will receive after setting up an appointment verified. Proceed to step 1 were they will process you papers and issue you a receipt for payment. Charges are P 950 for standard processing of 20 business days, or P 1200 for rush processing for 10 business days. There is a total of 23 counters for step one but not all are usually occupied.

The next step is to pay the procesing fee. Once paid, you will need to get a number and wait for you turn for your applcation be processed and get your picture and biometrics taken. After that, you will just need to wclaik your passport based oj the processing time you have chosen, or you can go to the delivery service and have your passport delivered to your home instead for P120.

For requirements and to schedule an appointment, please visit www.passport.com.ph

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Lime Stones and Lakes

Last week, I was able to finally able to go to Coron with my mom's friends. It was a spontaneous trip for me bacause I was originally not included in the trip, but since I really wanted to go, I was able to get my way and book a ticket. Airphil has only two flights to Busuanga and we chose the later flight, which was adjusted to 2:20 from it's original schedule of 1:50 and was delayed a few minutes.We finally boarded the Bombardier and was headed for Busuanga.

I did our last minute booking at the hotel 2 days before our flight and also scheduled a pick up from the airport to Ralph's Pension house in Coron. Once we arrived at the pension house, we were grated by the owner Jun, who was hands on with welcoming guests. Our accommodation was in the center of the town, near the market place and just at the foot of Mt. Tapyas, plus near the port for island hopping.

After Jun's orientation, we headed for dinner at went to Maquinit Hot Springs. The hot spring they claim is the only salt water hot spring in the Philippines as per the locals. From the main town, it costs P 300.00 per tricycle with a capacity of 7 persons, but due to the rough road, it is advisable for 4 people to ride a tricycle.

The hot spring is really hot and is best to be visited during night. They accept people up to 8:00 PM but is open until 10:00 PM. Most people visit the hot spring after climbing the tiring yet refreshing Mt. Tapyas which consists of 700 plus steps. But since we arrived late, we decided to climb the mountain on another day.

After an hour or so of soaking in the hot spring, we decided to call it a day. The following day, we went island hoping and visited some of the main attractions of Coron including the Kayangan Lake which is considered the cleanest lake in the Philippines. The lake is like a big swimming pool that is very deep but the water is very clear and you can actually see the reflection of the suns rays underneath.

There are several tour packages available in Coron for island hopping. You can opt to rent a boat, buy food for lunch, and pay for entrances or buy the complete package at $ 650-750 that is already inclusive of lunch and entrance fees. The island hopping usually starts from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM where you get to visit Kayangan Lake, Banol Beach, Barracuda Lake, and the Twin Lagoon among others.

Coron is rich in lakes and rock formations, and there are also several dive sites with several ship wrecks. There are sites that you can see easily see the sunken ships with having to go very deep. The nearest is 5 meters deep. But if you are a licensed diver, you can check out one of the many dive sites in the area.

Since the island hoping is an all day event, do not forget to put on sun screen because you will surely get a sunburn.

Our last activity before we went home on our third day was to finally climb Mt. Tapyas to get an overlooking view of the whole town of Coron. We started climbing the mountain 6:00 AM to be able to get a view of the sunrise. After an hour climb and 30 minutes of rest on top to marvel at the view, we came down and arrived at the bottom of the mountain at 8:00 AM.

Palawan is known to be abundant in cashew nuts, but unlike Puerto Princessa, Coron does not have that many cashiews available and most of the cashews harvested in the area is taken to Antipolo for cracking. Please note also that it is prohibited to take home shells from the island and bags are manually checked at the airport due also to the lack of x-ray machines.

If you plan to stay in Coron, 3-4 days should be sufficient. Prepare a budget of P 3,500.00 that already includes accommodation, food at tours.