Tag Archives: ilocos

Philippines-Playa Tropical Resort Hotel

Today we woke up and had breakfast then came back to the room because it was raining and we really didn’t know the plans. We packed our stuff to go to the new hotel and good thing we did because soon a hotel worker came and said he was there so we could check out. He wanted to take our bags to the van. So we went out to the van and got in.

We went to Don’s grandfather’s place where he grew up called Pigdig…I think that’s how you spell it. Basically just drove around and he got to see some old neighbors and family. Then we took pictures of a church. Mostly just drove around all morning. Then went to a restaurant for lunch.

Luckily this restaurant had some normal foods haha. I’m just getting kinda tired of Filipino food. So I ordered a grilled cheese and fries…except they said the grilled cheese will just be a cheese sandwich, not grilled. Carol, from Australia also got this. The sandwich turned out to be not so great…it had mayo on it and some cheese like velveeta. The fries were okay though. I also ate some of the other stuff they ordered I just wanted some comfort food haha.

I’ve pretty much noticed though, here, any food I would normally eat in the US is never cooked the way you would expect it. It always ends up having some weird sauce on it or just not tasting right at all haha. I like Filipino dishes but I miss the food I always have haha. And I miss my Dr. Pepper, there is none here.

After lunch the sun came out! We started to head towards the new resort. As soon as we got here we swam. I had some Pineapple juice with Vodka. We were in the pool all afternoon. It was great. Then we came back to our room to get cleaned up for dinner. We took a lot of pictures while swimming with our underwater camera…here’s a few.
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Some people wanted to go out for dinner but some people didn’t. No one could agree really and I didn’t see why we couldn’t just eat at the hotel. So Don, Jonathon, Regan and I decided to stay here. We ordered food from the hotel restaurant and were able to eat it in one of the little huts. Surrounding the huts is a pond with fish in it and when we were done eating we starting throwing rice at the fish. They were eating it like crazy. There were tons of fish at the surface waiting for food. We fed them pretty much all the food we didn’t eat. Rice, bread and meats hahaha. These fish were going crazy.

After dinner we decided to swim again so we came back to our room to change. Our power in our room would not work, nothing would work so we had to switch rooms. Then we went to swim with Jonathon, Jonas, and Eunice. Reagon found a crab by the side of the pool and it grabbed onto his flip flops and he brought it over to show us. When he sat the flip flop down the crab got off and just ran into the pool. Jonathon was the closest to it. We got kinda freaked out cause now there’s a crab in the pool. So we got goggles and started hunting it to get it out. It took a long time but finally we got it cornered and used part of folding chair to lift it out. It was also pouring down raining when we did this. When we flipped the crab out of the water Jonas saw where it went but then seconds later we couldn’t find it. So who knows where it went. Hopefully it’s ok.
Since it was pouring we were getting kinda cold so we came back to the room and changed. Then Don decided to go play poker with his cousins. Hopefully he doesn’t lose.
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Philippines Trip-Ilocos

Woke up today around 8 and had breakfast. We had to leave the hotel around 10 to get to the airport to catch a flight to Ilocos. It is in the northern part of the Philippines.

We are feeling better today. Still not much of an appetite, but at least my side is not hurting.

We made it to our new hotel around 3. This place is very rural. The hotel is very minimal…I mean not the most I’ve stayed at I guess. We still have some cable and supposedly some wireless internet out in the garden area where people can sit. We have a pool. Most of Don’s family is staying here so we have most of the place.

View from our room balcony.
View from our room balcony.

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Entrance to hotel.
Entrance to hotel.

When we arrived we settled in for about 20 minutes then it was back in the vans to go eat. It was a “snack”, more like a meal. We had empanadas, which had bean sprouts, pork, and an egg in it. Seriously it was great, best food since I’ve been here. Then we had a soup, which was kinda like ramen.
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Then we got back in the van to go to Tito Rom’s house to have a little birthday celebration for him. It was cool. The guys there used to be in a singing group in school together so they sang songs all night with a guitar.

We walked around a little bit to see a very old church. When we were there a group of girls asked me to take a picture…at first I thought they wanted me to take their picture but they just wanted a picture with me…I guess they don’t see Americans a lot. I don’t know…kinda weird for me.
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After eating and hanging out we came back to the hotel and now the boys are playing poker and I’m relaxing in the room. It’s nice to have some privacy!