traveler

Camotes Island Invasion | Where to Go

It was year 2015 when I first visited this island and promised to myself I’d go back one day. Well, I just did two years later. Last week, my officemates and I went to Camotes for our summer outing. It was just two days though. If you’re from Cebu, then I could guide you on how to get there.

HOW TO GET THERE:

  • Ride a jeepney bound to Danao from North Bus Terminal. I forgot how much is the fare but I think it’s Php35-40. Tell the driver to drop you off at Danao Port. It’s beside Jollibee.
  • Tickets are sold there at Php180 for one way. A barge will take you to the island for at most 2 hours. The earliest trip is at 5:30am. Be sure to come at least an hour early. The line at ticket counter would take you long. They also have trips at 11am and 3pm, if I am not mistaken.
  • Once you get to the island, the adventure begins. You may ride a motorcycle or tricycle that would take you to where you wanna stay. There is no taxi there, just so you know. Well, there are multicabs, too, that you could rent but I have no idea how much they’d ask. If you go on a group, they charge 100 per head. It depends on how you haggle with the driver.

Last 2015, I toured around the northern part of the island. And just recently, I invaded the southern part. Alright, I guess I have conquered the whole island already. In fact, I have been to the island across it, too. I was invited for a holy week celebration. Why do I keep saying the word island? Lol.

Now, here’s a tip that would cost you additional money to shell out, but it’s worthwhile anyway. So, on the second day of our team outing, we didn’t have an itinerary. Most of the gang just slept and took a good rest since they stayed up until dawn by the shore. AJ and I decided to tour around. We rented a scooter for Php500. That’s the normal rate, regardless if you use it for a whole day or half. You can go anywhere you want! On our next getaway, we will rent again a scooter, so we can sulit the trip. It’s more convenient than renting a car and it’s cheaper. Plus, I can spend time alone with the boyfriend. Yaiks! Also, we ticked off roadtrip from our bucketlist on that day. By the way, you can just ask the residents there on where to rent scooters or cabs. The people are friendly anyway.

On the way, we just relied on google maps since there are roads where you can ask no one because there are no residents. But every now and then, we asked people for directions just to clarify if we were still on the right track. Also, the signal there is limited. Good thing we have network options. I am a Smart user while AJ is a Globe user. There’s not much signal on Smart there.

Okay, I should start talking about the tourist destinations you shoud visit there before this blog gets longer.
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The Ilocos-Baguio-Manila Travel

This is really a loooong overdue blog but I’m still gonna share it anyway.

I was on a not-so-long vacation last February this year. The plan was
actually just travel around Ilocos for 3 days but what happened? We went to
Baguio for the second time but just a short drop by.

Actually, I just thought of giving you tips on traveling to
Ilocos. Don’t worry, this is budget-friendly. If you are like us (me and
friends) who travel for leisure, then these things I will list below might
be helpful.

– Book a promo flight. For us, we booked 6 months
ahead of travel period since we still needed to save up for the big trip and
also, we were busy at work.  Ilocos is
kinda little costly, just so you know.

– Hire a private van. Preferably someone you know
so you have no worries on leaving your valuables inside the van. But still, be
responsible and extra careful. My
friends and I hired a van whose driver is our officemate from Manila. We also
had him on our Baguio trip last year. We rented the van for 4 days and 3 nights
so it was quite pricey but all worth it. No regrets at all. He picked us up
from the airport and drove us back to Manila. You can also just book a package tour if you don’t have enough contacts.

– Search for places you want to visit and note the
location. What’s so good about renting a private van is that you can go
wherever you want without time limit. Also, we had no fixed itinerary so Kuya
Arbee (the owner and driver of the van) took us to a lot of places as
sidetrips. We also dropped by to some tourist spots along the drive.

– Search for affordable accommodations. If you
come in a group, a dorm type would be preferable. For us, we got two rooms.
Gentlemen separated from ladies. We didn’t opt to stay in luxurious hotels
‘cause we only use the room for sleeping and shower. We are a group of
practical friends actually. We were after the trip, not the sleep. But if you
guys would go for expensive accommodation, I have nothing against that.

– Search for nice restaurants. You wouldn’t want
to miss trying their local cuisine. Just try at least one good food. That won’t hurt the budget. *winks*

Now I’ll just let the photos tell the story.
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The Traveler’s Story

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I don’t know why but I have a thing for packing things up. Maybe because I got so used of transferring from one place to another. Way back in school days, I transferred schools four times. Imagine the adventure of my life back then. If I only started blogging at 5 years old, I could’ve toured you to places I’ve been to through my photos. My parents’ work involves travel and they used to bring me and my brother along with the trip. I had to adjust living in a city to a province and vice versa. I’m grateful though that it happened it to me. It made me more flexible. As I grow up, adapting to diverse environments is no sweat for me. I could go demure you’d think I’m a mute, and I could go crazy you’d think I’m not normal.

Everytime we packed up before, I would really help them box our things. I love the sound of packaging tapes being pulled, the sound of carton boxes being piled up in the car, and my favorite part? The travel along the road while listening to some mellow music with my headphones on. Then after a long hour drive, I’d wake up to the humidity of air ‘cause guess what, it’s already morning and we almost reach our destination. We usually travel at dawn or in the middle of the night because guys… I’ll just whisper this softly… “we are vampires”. Just pretend you heard my whisper.

Traveling was not always happy times. There were also moments when I didn’t want to leave but we had to. The most heartbreaking relocation I’ve ever had was when I had to leave a place for good. Like never really coming back to stay there, maybe just visit some time. The place is Antique Province. It’s where I lived half of my teenage years. I have best friends there whom I won’t be able to see for a long time.. At first, I didn’t like it there because there were no malls, I didn’t know how to speak their dialect, people slept very early. It was really a province, but somehow I got used to it. I learned their mother tongue in 2 months.

Being used to traveling, on my college days, I barely had time to travel. I was too busy tryin’ to maintain good grades and hung out with friends on weekends. I always looked forward to Christmas break and summer but I didn’t enjoy much. Idk why days fly so fast during vacation when you’re a student. Summer was just like a two-week vacay. You haven’t gone to the beach yet and wear the two-piece you prepared last September, the next week you’re busy chatting your friends about the upcoming enrolment. Oh com’on!

And that is why when I started working, I made a bucketlist of all the places I’ve been dying to visit. It started when I had a four-day vacay in Camotes Island on April 2014. Will post a blog about it soon, though it’s too late. Just let me share my experience. It was followed by an unplanned trip to Antique Province the following month. June, I was at Badian Island. And my last travel for that year was that in Baguio City on August.

This 2016, my first month was so busy and perhaps a good start of the year. My sweetest boyfriend introduced me to his super welcoming relatives.

Just last month, my officemates and I went to Ilocos Sur and Norte, a little sidetrip to Baguio, and Manila City. Next on the list this year would be Kalanggaman or Bantayan Island on summer and hopefully Sagada, Banawe, and Batanes. Hoping for more travels to come while I’m young.

I travel for leisure. I travel to see the beauty of the world with my own eyes. I travel while I still can. I travel for serenity.

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