skin deep

Misibis Bay Resort looked great this morning. There's nothing like a good hard scrubbing by a typhoon to make everything appear squeaky clean and new.

The lobby and reception area. Notice how I "froze" the water? jeje

Cabañas on the beach.

Lounging beds on the beach.

Huge-ass driftwood on the beach.

freedom at 1100 meters asl

There are two routes to Sagada. Because I had never seen the world-famous Banaue Rice Terraces, we decided to go via Banaue instead of Baguio, and apparently, it is the shorter way. Our Florida Bus left Manila promptly at 10:45PM on 11 June 2011, Saturday. Ticket price was PHP500 per person one-way. Although our bus wasn't a sleeper, it had a toilet. That was good enough for me.

There were three or four rest stops. I was conscious for only the first one. The rest of the trip I conked out. When I finally opened my eyes, it was a little after 8AM on Sunday morning and we were in the mountains.

First, some breakfast.

a perfect day

This is the story of our trek to Big Falls in Sagada, on the most beautiful day of the year, 13 June 2011.

ode to the tomato

This blog entry is dedicated to Jeffrey, our server at Log Cabin, Sagada.

I do not think that I can ever recall

Deriving pleasure from something so small

the last time i did something for the first time

Today, I shot a gun for the first time in my life.

Forty rounds.

Turns out that I'm pretty good at it.

where have all the tomatoes gone?

Our very first meal in Sagada was at Log Cabin. Thank you, Wikireena and Mr. DJ for making the arrangements. It sure was a nice treat for us after almost 24 hours on the road.

Reservations are a must at Log Cabin. The place is quite small-- I'd say 20 to 25 diners max-- and the French chef apparently doesn't like to stock up on produce and prefers to serve everything fresh. Wikireena pre-ordered some dishes, including tomato soup, but when we arrived we were told that we couldn't have it because of a lack of tomatoes.    

Some kinda bruschetta with chopped tomatoes.

Tomato salad with olives, capers and mint.

time for a cool change

Sorry, but I just had to interrupt my Banaue-Sagada series for this. Watch it. It's the most amazing thing you will ever see.



Who knew that Target could be this cool?

the best yoghurt in sagada

After basking in the glow of the Sagada sunrise, we were ready for some grub. Good thing we discovered that Strawberry Café opens promptly at 7AM. And it was right next door to Sagada Homestay Inn, our home for three nights.

Their menu is somewhat limited, but seems to cover all the basic food groups, like cakes and milk shakes.

rise and shine

14 June 2011. Six exceptional reasons to wake up at 3:30AM:

5:05AM

5:36AM

sparky leads the way

The morning of 13 June 2011, I stepped out of my bedroom at Sagada Homestay Inn and was greeted with this view:

My immediate thought was: I want to go to THERE.

And so, that afternoon we went. We picked up a local guide along the way. We were told that he was our innkeeper's neighbor's doggy, not a stray, but we went ahead and named him Sparky.

on top of the world

The last spot in Sagada that we visited before we left was Lake Danum.

OK, so it's true that the lake is not very big and the water's murky. But I think that's what makes the great reflections-- Shallow, opaque water with hardly any ripples. It reminds me of the reflecting pool at Angkor Wat.