Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall - a nice place to visit in Taipei

Don’t be surprised to know that our visit to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei two weekends ago is our first step on the place after almost three years of living in Taiwan. Sadly, our 1st year of stay here was devoted to work that sleeping late on weekends was of higher priority than going to places back then. Good thing, we were able to visit the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall two times before it has been renamed to National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall.

The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

Sky was vividly blue at that time

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is located at the middle of Taipei City and is accessible to tourist commuters, local or not, via MRT. From our place in Tamsui, we had to take the red line until the main MRT station in Taipei, transfer to the blue line and get out at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall station. We had around five minutes walk to get to the place. At first, we thought it was just the hall that was there, and then came a small garden on the side where Jade headed right away and took the grass path, instead of the side walk. To our surprise, the view of the Taipei 101 building was very vivid from the place and infront of the memorial hall was a wide playground and a huge water fountain. To us, the place provided a child-friendly environment that adults are tempted to be child-like seeing the kids running around here and there. More so, hubby figured that there were a number of people kite-flying to which he followed suit after we had a quick snack-picnic for Jade to have her late lunch meal.

Taipei 101 is clearly seen from the hall's ground

Which among the two is hubby's kite?

Dennis had to buy a ball for her because she appeared very envious of the kids around playing balls and bubbles. While her dad went kite-flying, Jade and I played on the grounds with her chasing her ball and me chasing her. She seemed so tireless and unmindful of the people around her not even caring if mom is following her or not. She would stare at people when she couldn’t run any further and look around for mommy. On the other side, hubby was enjoying his kite even if it fell down three times because of sudden change of wind strength and direction. He said he didn’t feel bad because all of the kites fell at the same time anyway.

Man-made lake park within the memorial hall's compound

This is where Jade saw the turtles and duck...

We exchanged roles of playing with Jade when the wind suppressed with the little girl enjoying every moment spent in the grounds. Later, we left the grounds and went around the place where she got the chance to see real turtles and a duck in the man-made like on one part of the hall’s park. With the sun about to set, we decided to leave the place exchanging ideas that we should go there more often on spring and summer.

Here are some of the hundred pictures we took. More of which can be found in this album.

Sun Yat-sen's statue

A statue that depicts a father telling stories to his children

That should be tea they're drinking...


Another statue depicting an elderly narrating to two children

The girl looks so interested in the man's story

A Chinese philosopher's statue around SYMH

Sorry, I can't figure out who he is...

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The bridge that changes color at night...

It's actually the light on the bridge, not the bridge , that changes color starting at twilight.

I thought F4 fever is gone but I think I’m wrong. I thought of calling it "Meteor Garden mania residual". Three weeks ago, hubby told me two of his highschool classmates, a couple, informed him they were coming to Taipei only to watch an F4 concert. Surprisingly, the concert’s venue is right here in Tamsui. What luck it is that this group will reunite hubby with his highshool classmates! By the way, we never heard about it as it seems the group’s no longer in the limelight here. Hearing the news from hubby, I checked the web for information about this concert and google led me to one website that’s managed by F4 fans. I figured that the group is no longer called F4, they’re JVKV now. The Taipei concert is scheduled on Saturday early evening in the Fisherman’s Wharf while a fan/autograph signing day follows on Sunday somewhere in Taipei City. We thought we can bring the two, KC and Alexis, out first before the concert or maybe the day after but it appeared that they have been booked already. Thus we met them at the MRT station and decided to bring them to the concert place which is less than 10minutes bus ride away from the station.

On the way, we chit-chat and I was like, “did you really just come here for the concert?” And the answer I got is of course, yes, indeed! I asked how much the tickets cost and found out there was none because the concert was actually a free one! Free? Then does that really mean they’re no longer in? Hmmnnn… that did not come from me that was from one of them. We arrived at the place just after sunset and we saw the crowd already gathered and waiting for the group. We saw a group waving small Filipino flags. KC mentioned that one of them may be another Pinay she knew who came to the concert venue a lot earlier than us. She told us that the said Pinay fan and her friends went to the place in the morning. I am not sure if they also flew from Manila just to watch the concert. With time still available for quick exchange of stories, I figured out that Alexis came to like the F4 group through KC. They also went to Hongkong last year to watch the group’s performance and mind you, they watched the same concert, on the same venue, for three consecutive nights. Awww, these two are really fanatics.

The concert stage

F4 fans waiting

(I was not able to take a close shot of the fans waving small Philippine flags)

Jade curiously trying the "concert light" I bought for her

The concert was scheduled to start at 6PM so we left them earlier so they could find a good place. We strolled for a while then headed to the coffee shop nearby. Realizing we haven’t gone to the Wharf for a number of months, and no night shots yet, I left hubby and Jade in the shop while I went out to take some pictures. I found out that the bridge light alternately changes color. We were able to see it lit in blue and green. We peeked on the venue hoping to catch a glimpse of the F4 guys since we were already there but with no luck. We left the place before 7PM without seeing any of the F4 members. I guess the concert started late.

The so-called lover's bridge in blue
Twilight shot

This time light's changed to green

Boats at the wharf

(Noeds commented it looked like it's inVenice)

The wooden bridge at twilight

More photos can be found here.

On Tuesday, hubby received a message from the couple informing him they got back to Manila safely on Monday and was happy to have watched the concert. I’ll not be surprised to hear that the two will fly back again to Taipei for yet another F4 concert.

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Pictures speak louder than words...

My first post for year 2008! It's not that I forgot publishing in Page 101 but I've been busy and overwhelmed uploading hundreds of photos in my multiply album, most of which are set to be viewable only by people in my network. I may need to set a time to filter the pictures suitable for posting here and will have to find the words to draw the emotions that came along with those pictures.

Anyway, after Christmas, we had a busy weekend - a year ender family getaway in an indoor hotspring (more of a bath house) in one of the oldest hotels (1950 built) in Yangmingshan followed by a fun-filled cold Sunday in the grounds of Taipei Municipal Children's Recreation Center. We had a happy New Year celebration, hubby and I waited for the countdown on the TV while Jade went to sleep and didn't want to be awaken. We celebrated New Year's daywith friends and colleagues at home, we served lunch this time. First weekends of January were spend outdoors - mainly meant for Jade to enjoy. Full stories to follow soon. Just to let you know that I'm still around :) Here are some of the pictures, insignificant number compared to the collection :)

The family enjoying the warm soak on a cold Saturday night,

last Saturday of year 2007

Dynamic Jade enjoying the grasses on a cold Sunday afternoon,

last Sunday of year 2007

Cheers to Year 2008

The family celebrating with friends on New Year's Day

(Jade had her first taste of red wine, just a single drop)

Another family outing on a cold Saturday,

1st Saturday of 2008

(Mini-San Francisco Bridge on the background ???)

Jade displaying her independence by taking the slide by herself,

1st Sunday of 2008

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Family hiking in Yangmingshan Nature Trail (1st weekend of December)

Winter ambience in Taiwan was felt last month but with the weird weather, it somehow started to get warm again from time to time. We thought the chill felt earlier is the official start of a cold winter but it seems to be only a hint that it should be winter now. We're lucky that most weekends end up with a good weather much as the week starts with rain and some chills. I'd say that kind of weather without rain and scorching heat makes it a good time to go out with the family. We should take advantage of the neutral climate if I may call it that. But I guess it's more of an unpredictable weather.

Anyway, starting November, our weekends were always busy. We also made plans on how to spend December weekends. Part of the list is to visit the nearest hotspring located in Beitou which is very accessible through MRT. That plan was marked on the 1st weekend of December. One of our friends heard about this plan and she suggested that we go to Yangmingshan hotspring instead because the water up there in the mountains is better than that in Beitou. Since Yangmingshan is farther than Beitou, we thought of booking an indoor hotspring for overnight then. Another friend learned about our weekend plan as well and offerred to help us look for an affordable hotel in the mountains and have one room booked for us on any available weekend. That spared us from searching for a place to stay. She then got us booked for the 2nd weekend of December so we had to change plan for the earlier weekend. Getting tired of the city area, we opted to still visit the Beitou hotsprings just to get a picture of the place so off we went. We took the MRT from Tamsui to Beitou and transferred to another train to get us to Xinbeitou which is around 5 minutes away.

Since it was almost lunch time, we stopped in one of the stores to buy some food and headed to the path shown on the landmark. As we were about to head towards the park, I saw a bus stopped and asked hubby if he wanted to just go to the mountains instead and he immediately said "let's go!" We boarded on the bus right away. That was indeed a sudden change of plan! Without any idea of where to stop, we just decided to follow suit wherever the other foreigners in the bus get down.

We were getting farther but none of the foreign looking passengers left their seats. Then in one of the bus stops where most local people unboard, the driver exclaimed something we didn’t understand and for no reason at all, we decided to get off. Jade was already sleeping at that time so at least, the pressure to look around at where we ended was lesser. The first thing we searched for was some place to eat lunch. We saw what appeared to be a restaurant to us but to our dismay, the place was not really tidy and no one was there except us so we left the place. We followed the road and found some roadside stalls selling sausages but it was not at all what we wanted. It appeared that the big building near the park is home for the aged. We really didn't feel comfortable so we just kept on following the road. I was like wanting to argue with hubby (I think I actually did) for the decision we made but realizing nothing better can be done, we kept on walking. We met two bikers then one hiker. We saw a trail on the roadside and just took it. Then we started to appreciate what we see so we kept walking. We met several people, locals and foreigners alike and somehow, it made us feel comfortable knowing that we followed a regular trail. We passed through a river and ended up in a crossroad. We decided to take the path going right but it got us back to the road. We went back and seeing people coming from the left path, we thought the way will bring us somewhere else. We stopped for a while to look around us and at that time, Jade got up from her sleep. She may have been surprised to the unfamiliar surrounding but started to love it when we showed her the river. We took pictures and headed uphill.

We saw more people passing us by when we decided to take a rest and give Jade her noon snack (we didn't bring her regular lunch because we thought we'd find a restaurant somewhere around the place anyway). Some passersby would stare at us and mumble some words we don't understand. I think they're talking about seeing a toddler with the parents feeding her while they stop for a break - meaning us. On where we stopped was a post showing trails. We had to use our instincts as to where to go first. We figured that people coming from our right side carry food or drinks with them so we thought there would be stalls up there and right, following the path they came from led us to a major road and a busy small town actually. We saw a Catholic church as well. We were glad to see decent places to eat where we ended up eating in a restaurant that serves pasta and sandwiches. We rested for a while and enjoyed the mountain view from where we sat. As we were on the road already, I suggested to hubby that we find the bus stop and just ride back to wherever it will lead us.

He agreed but not being able to locate any visible bus stop and hesitating to ask any body we meet made us think twice as to go back to the trail or follow the road. Hubby said he still wanted to hike and enjoy the view to which I complied. We followed a trail and ended up in a very steep stairway. Oh I'm glad we're headed downhill but meeting some older hikers carrying some hiking rod or stick amazed me and reminded me of folks back home. Of course, Jade was carried all the way down. I pleaded that she sticks with her dad as much as she insisted to be carried by mommy. To stop her whining, Dennis had to run down the stairs from time to time and that made her giggling with delight. Down the way, we ended up in a flat trail and to our gladness; there was a resting area with available seats. A post there showed that wild monkeys still exist in that area and ways how to get rid of them were listed. After few minutes of rest, we continued to walk, walk and walk. Jade walked from time to time but wary of the stony path, she'd squall to be picked up. At this part of the trail, we met family with kids but not any younger than ours.

We stopped in yet another rest area that showed another post as to where the trails are leading to. We decided to take the Tianmu trail knowing where Tianmu is but not really having any idea as to what part of the town will we end up at. Not a bad decision because along the way, we saw the view of Taipei City with Taipei 101 outstanding all the buildings. To my regret thought, the sky was cloudy and I wasn't able to take a decent shot of the view. Anyhow, at least now I know where all those pictures in the internet showing Taipei City and Taipei 101 view were shot from - somewhere where we were. Again, I was glad we started from the top of the trail as it was easier to walk downhill but not until I felt pain in my toes and ankle. I was more than glad when we eventually reached the starting point of the trail - Tianmu.

We followed the road to find bus stops though we noticed that we seemed to have ended in a ghost town because we couldn't even see any single person. I bet with Dennis that we'll meet a Filipino somewhere along the way - just according to my instinct. Glad to see the main road with buses passing by, we stopped in one of the buildings entrance and let Jade take her milk. While on our rest, a lady with a big dog passed by. Dennis exclaimed something about the dog in English and the lady responded in English too so we thought she was a local. But when I spoke to Dennis in Tagalog, the lady started to talk to us in the same language. I won the bet! She worked for a foreign household - that explains why she was also talking to the dog in English, not Chinese. Thanks to her, we found out that we are in a familiar place, we're near the Catholic church in Tianmu, a place we already visited before so we already knew how to find our way back home.

Whew, we were down in town at four in the afternoon. We hiked for at least 2 hours with stopovers. On the bus, my legs started to shake. As we approached the MRT station, Jade dozed off. On the train, all three of us slept. And when we reached home, pain started to be felt from my legs up to my waist and shoulder. My, that was a great adventure but it was a wrong move not to have any stretches or light exercise before taking the nature trails. I wouldn't make the same mistake next time. Dennis was bugging me that we do visit the place again some other time and instead of starting from top, we'd head uphill. I told him back I'll not do it anymore. It would be fun though but we have to make sure we're physically ready for it and he has to make sure, Jade will be willing to be carried by daddy all the way up else, we'll wait for him on top by riding the bus.

More pictures we took on the way can be found in my multiply albums HERE and HERE.

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Nice places to visit in Taiwan - 1st of a series

I was organizing our pictures when I realized I haven't really said much about Taiwan and the nice places in here so I thought of putting all these pictures together to show you the few places we have visited in our stay here. (i.e. aside from those already posted earlier).

The pictures are posted in this multiply album.
1. Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf - this is one of the tourist spots here in Tamsui where you would see a lot of people during the weekends esp. during the summer season. It's one bus ride (~10 to 15 mins) away from the MRT station
2. Tamsui River Park - our frequently visited place as it is very near to our place. It's right at the side of the MRT station. Like the Fisherman's Wharf, this place is jampacked during the weekends. There's really nothing much to see here but there are many and different kinds of food sold in the stalls by the riverside.
3. Taipei 101 - it used to be the highest building in the world. It is located right at the heart of Taipei City. We have to take an MRT right to Taipei main station and transfer to the blue line. We either take a walk to get to the place or take the free bus ride. We've been here several times already that it doesn't facinate me that much anymore. There are shopping centers inside but my, stuffs are very very expensive - all branded...
I've been on top (via the world's fastest elevator as it is claimed) once, lucky to have dined out with our customers and had a free ticket to get to the top. Entrance fee is quite expensive huh!
4. The Grand Hotel in Jiantan - we used to see the place from the MRT then we got the chance to get to the place when we had our company's year end party last year. I love the architecture of the building. I wonder how the hotel rooms look like.
5. National Palace Museum - one bus ride away from Shilin MRT station. We've been there twice already. The displays are changed every 3 or 6 months - that was at the time when the place was under renovation. I'm not quite sure how it is now. You'll be amazed at how the people preserved their culture. There's a coffeeshop in the place and there's a small nice park next to it (10NTD entrance fee, not bad!)
6. Guandu bridge - just a bridge but is famous though. The night shots I've seen are spectacular. The bridge is lit at night (blue and red I think). To get a good shot, you've got to know where to position yourself. Can't just take if from Guandu MRT station...

Excess: I've added some images of the common night market street foods and some shots in one of the pinoy meeting place in Zhongshan Pei Lou (Zhongshan North Road)

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Up in the mountains of Yangming

On September 7, our good friend Juvel called to ask if we’re free next weekend, 09/15, because her husband wanted to go Yangmingshan for a lunch picnic. Without second thought, I told her we’ll gladly join their family. We have been in Taiwan for more than two years now but we’ve never been to Yangmingshan (BTW, Shan means mountain). Our friend got their car so it would be very convenient for the two families to go out. With all excitement, my family looked forward to that outing.

When I fetched Jade the afternoon before our planned trip, I felt something different; she was warmer than usual so I asked Ate Rosie if she had fever during the day. Ate told me that she just had a warm shower so maybe that’s why seems to be warm. I talked to Jade and asked her not to get sick because this is our only chance to visit Yangmingshan. I observed her closely during the night and started to worry when her temperature was quite high. I gave her medicine before we went to sleep and sent a message to Juvel to inform her that we might not be able to make it to the trip. I woke up early the next day and realized that Jade’s temperature has decreased from last night but it still worried me. Not wanting to wake Juvel, I sent her another message to let her know that we might not really be able to go out with them and told her I’ll give her a call later. I went back to bed and then at 7am, we all woke up and were glad to see that Jade’s ok already. Dennis and I thought that she also felt our excitement and knows that we have a scheduled trip. So I went to cook our baon which I prepared last night and gave our friend a call to tell her we can finally make it to the trip.

We planned to get out of town around 10-11am. Juvel will just call us when they’re heading to fetch us from our apartment. I tried to put Jade back to sleep after breakfast so she wouldn’t be fuzzy later but she wouldn’t. Few minutes before 11am, she finally slept, so did I. Several minutes later, I heard the phone ring; I thought they were already on the way to fetch us. Fortunately, Juvel called to let us know that her daughter is also sleeping and we’ll just wait for them to wake up before we leave. We eventually left town at noontime.

The road Andrew (Juvel’s husband) took was all new to us. From Shanggong Road, we went out to central Sanzhi then up to the mountains. When the path started to appear zigzagged, we thought of its similarity with the path going up to Baguio from the lowlands. Juvel also grew up in Baguio so we had something in common. The winding road and the trees really reminded us of both Kennon Road and Marcos Highway. The more it did when the clouds started to thicken and rainshowers started to pour cooling the insides of the car that we asked the aircon to be turned off. All of us started saying wow. We passed by a nature park with a swamp and a wooden bridge but we couldn’t stop because of the rain. An ongoing bridal pictorial in the park caught our attention as well.

In an attempt to find a shaded place where we can have lunch, we reached until the highest part of the mountain (or maybe not really the highest) where we saw one shed. We parked nearby and de-loaded our stuffs but only to realize that it was very cold and even with a shed; water is getting into the place sideways. Moreover, the two men seated in the shed were wearing windbreakers and enjoying hot tea. Good thing our kids had their jackets. We headed back to the car and decided to return down to look for a better place until we went on and on and on without seeing a good place to stop. Jade even threw up. Then we passed by a place that seemed to us like Tagaytay with several Sonya’s gardens. People started to call us to stop; we didn’t because we have our own food anyway. Then when we took another road, the weather started to get better, the sun started to shine. Finally, we found another shed, on the end of that road. We checked the time and it was already 3PM. Our lunch picnic turned out to be an afternoon snack picnic. We were all famished and glad to have eaten all the food prepared. We brought pasta while Juvel cooked curry, salmon and salad. We didn’t feed the kids that much afraid that both will throw up on our way back.

I noticed a couple in their 60’s just seated in foldable seats they brought and just reading their books and exercising from time to time. I realized most of the elders do that; they go up to the mountains to relax. We saw more people coming and passing by our position. We noticed that there was a hiking path very near to our place.

After eating, we packed our things and decided to take the path. It was my family’s first time to go hiking. As Jade doesn’t fit in a carrier anymore, we had to take turns carrying her. The scent of the leaves brought us a lot of comfort. We were awed by the scenery and all we could do was wowed all that we see. Andrew got back to us saying that the best way to appreciate nature is to be silent. I almost feel ashamed but Juvel eventually said he was only kidding. We moved on and noticed red leaves along the path. Juvel started to pick some of them. I noticed that Jade was keenly observing the environment and was glad that she didn’t cry. Dennis even mentioned about saying “tabi-tabi po” or something like that but he retracted saying we’re in Taiwan and it’s not applicable. Hahaha. We stopped from time to time to enjoy nature. We took another path, this time, Chinese bamboos were around. Thenwe headed to the viewdeck, this time, the path is cemented. I was left as I was taking pictures here and there. When I tried to catch up, I took a look back to where we came from and realized that we’re in the midst of mountains. It made me miss home and my mom’s hometown Lacub in Abra. I took a few moments to reminisce our summer vacations in Lacub.

I followed them in the viewdeck and wow, the view was so great. There were several mountains surrounding us and far below, we could see the urban town of Keelung and the sites of our place Tamsui, and Bali. I kept saying wow then I heard Jade also starting to say wow from time to time. Up there in the viewdeck, there were another couple reading their books and like the older couples I mentioned earlier, they also excercised from time to time.

Being up there seeing the mountains, the trees, the rivers from afar… breathing fresh air, seeing my family enjoy… and all that brought me a natural high. I wanted to go back to that place.

When it was time to go back to where we parked, Dennis and I talked and realized that we should have gone their long time ago but then the question of how was raised. Anyhow, we were both satisfied that we had this chance to get there. On our way back, Jade asked me to carry her, since the path was uphill, I asked her to go to her daddy but she resisted. So as not to make her cry, I then carried her and Dennis told me “wow, you made it to the top with her in your arms”. I indeed up with body pain on that night.

We had a glimpse of the popular hot spring in the middle of the mountain and breathed some sulfur scent on our way passed that mountain. The clouds were already clear so we once again enjoyed the view on our way down back to town. We hoped to stop for coffee down on our way but with our kids already tired and sleeping, we decided to do it some other time.

We will definitely go back to Yangmingshan but we’ll have to figure out how to get there by taking the bus ride from Shilin.

More pictures can be found here.

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Revisiting Sanzhi Beach

We first went to Sanzhi beach sometime on April 2007. We thought it would be nice to get back there again especially with Jade now walking so she could enjoy the beachside. The weather is nice anyway. So we decided to go their on the afternoon of September 1^st. More people are on the beachside as compared to our 1^st visit. One of the 1^st things we did was of course to take pictures. Then as we went nearer to the waters, we tried to put Jade down on the sand with her shoes removed to see if she could now stand the texture of the sand because she dreaded it on our 1^st visit. I put her down slowly so she wouldn’t panic. I thought she would love it but then I realized the change in her facial expression – ah the same thing as before. So I carried her back and let her feel the sand with her hands instead. She didn’t resist, she even offered her other hand and reach to the sand herself. But when I tried to put her down again, she didn’t like. Fearing that she would cry out louder, I opted not to force her. We went to the waters and all she did was to stare on the waves with a grin. She even moved to a position where she attempted to reach to the waters with her hands. Then we decided to try to put her down. She likes the combination of the water and the sand and we saw how happy she was. Toddlers just love water. But then, when the waves were gone, she was left standing on the sand. She realized that and so she started to show a panicky expression on her face. We just ignored it since the waves will be hitting back in a little while. In her attempt to move and walk towards us; she fell to a sitting position, just in time when the waves hit back her place. Oh how she loved it. We left her enjoying that moment; we brought extra diapers and clothes anyway. I handed her the small ball that we also brought and we watched her play. We let her have her own moment in the waters for around 10 minutes. We could have left her longer but I worried that the sand will get into her soaked diapers. So we took her out and changed her wet clothings as soon as we were out from the water. The sand indeed went into her diapers so we headed to the wash area to clean her up. Good thing she didn’t resist otherwise, we could have put her back in the waters and she would end up really soaked.

After leaving the waters, we took a walk and headed to the coffeshops and only then did we realize how many coffeeshops there were on that area. And the ambience of the coffeeshops all looked appealing to us. We decided to go to the shop called “Bossa Nova”. We didn’t find a suitable seat so the waiter suggested that we transfer to their extension shop. I ordered for a cup of coffee and waffle while Dennis ordered for a Heineken ice spin which was served in a really huge glass. When I got my order, I was served chocolate cake instead but since the waitress didn’t speak English, I just took it, Jade enjoyed it anyway. But when I saw the waiter, I told him I got chocolate cake instead of waffle and he insisted he asked for waffle. He checked on the receipt and realized chocolate cake is on the list so he offered to still get me a waffle and would just leave the chocolate cake for free.

It was already dark when we got out of the shop and we had to walk for 10-15minutes to get to the nearest bus stop. We all ended up happy from our Saturday’s family outing. More of our pictures can be found here.

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sanzhi trip

Here are our own pictures taken from our trip to Sanzhi...

I tried to let Jade feel the sand (and hoped she would love it), unfortunately, she did not welcome the feeling this new experience brought her. Instead, it caused her to panic and somehow brought her bad dreams that night.

I enjoyed the sand myself.
After her bad experience, Jade pouted all the time we were in the seaside. She cling on to both her Dad and me.
She started to smile and get back to a conversational mood when we went to the bicycle path. I was able to make her walk this time.

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A journal...4 months ago (last part)

Finally, here's the last part of my long overdue post. Got so busy at work these past few weeks. Anyway, this concludes our Sagada trip.

DAY 3 (TREKKING)

We decided to take the trekking package on our third day and started our day early at 6:00am. We picked our pre-ordered packed meal from one of the inns and met with the same guide in the tourist office. It will be a long hiking day for us thus we ate some sandwiches along the way to keep us energized.

The early morning hike was yet another experience. We enjoyed the morning breeze on our way up the cemented road (yup, we didn’t go thru grassy path) Our destination is the big waterfalls, this time, Dennis and I were hoping we could swim in the river. Unfortunately, the water was so strong so again we just had to take splashes to bathe ourselves.





The footpath in the rice fields is cemented…



BOMOD-OK FALLS

We went downhill for almost an hour and our tiredness vanished when we saw these…








enjoying our packed meals…


late morning nap…


enjoying the sight…


pose before we left the place…


On our way back, we met again the same pair of foreign tourists along with two more companions. This time, the dog was no longer with them.

Our next and last destination was the Kiltepan Tower which gave us closer view of larger area of rice terraces.





We spent less than one hour sitting, eating and just enjoying the view. Then we had to head back to town to rest and get ready for tomorrow's departure. On our way back, I noticed that my hubby's slippers are almost worn out. The part which supports the heels is so thin already that it hurt his feet. A sign that he is too heavy for the slippers hahaha! We exchanged slippers since mine are still as get as it was before we left. Fortunately, a police cab stopped to pick us up. It saved us some energy to use for the rest of the day.

We dropped our stuffs in the our place and had early snack. We were so tired that we took advantage of the resthouse's massage service. At first, I was the only one who had the massage but then later, Dennis also decided to have. We got relieved after it. We had early dinner and started to pack our things because our trip the following day is at 6:00am.

We really enjoyed our vacation there and hope that next time, we can go back to the place and have the same feeling of enjoyment and relaxation. I really love Sagada, Dennis does too! I am proud to be a Cordilleran =)

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