Surfing in Baler, Aurora

Baler is said to be the surfing capital of the Philippines maybe because it is the first place that Pinas surfing was born. According to the residence it was started when the movie Apocalypse was shot in the area.

The most challenging part here is the reservation of the bus, well, you have three options, the first one is the Genesis’s Joybus, their luxury bus going to Baler the other one is the standard bus and the last one is the split trip, you have to get on a bus going to Cabanatuan and from there you need another ride to Baler

If you want to have a comfortable journey you need to reserve a slot in Joybus a month before your trip, it is spacious indeed and it also provides snack for their passengers and even a blanket. (don’t forget to bring jacket, aircondition is so cold)and it also has comfort room on board because it doesn’t have stop over. The travel time is 4-5 hours. They have 3 trips in a day 12:30am 1:30am and 3:30am.

If you are not lucky enough to get a slot in Joybus and you still want to pursue they still have the standard bus and it is airditioned as well.

We had the first trip which is 12:30am, the trip was smooth and you will not notice the travel time since all passengers were asleep. We arrived at the terminal at 5:00am. From terminal you have to ride a tricycle to sabang front beach for 12php each. We headed straight to Bay’s Inn restaurant since they said it is the only place that is open at early morning. They offer breakfast buffet for 150php each only, all the foods were delicious (SULIT!)

We still don’t have a place to stay so we tried our luck and find a lodge in the vicinity and luckily we still got a vacant room in Surfer Girls Lodge for 1,300 2pax and air conditioned, it does have tv too. For a group who is travelling for a limited budget we found a decent homestay in June Samano Homestay for just 1,500 for 5 pax and it is also airconditioned with private comfort room.

After settling down and catching some rest we rented a surf board and hired an instructor since it was our first time

Surf board 200php/hour

Instructor 150php/hour

But you can rent a board for half day or whole day if you can already be on yourself.

After a surfing lesson we went on a tour to the Mother Falls and Balete Tree. All the means of transportation here is tricycle, you can’t see any jeepney on the road actually, so we hired a tricycle and a driver whose name is King to give us a tour for 800php, since we are four in group we just paid 200php per head.

The falls is 30 minutes away from Sabang and when we got to the jump off we need to trek for an hour to the main attraction. Once we reached the falls it looks majestic J and the water is so cold but still tolerable.

After that we went straight to Balete Tree and can you believe it the age of the tree is 600! Mother of all trees ha ha! You can even go inside of it and for more adventure climb at the top of the tree.

For our dinner we went to the famous Gerry Shan’s restaurant you can have an eat all you can buffet for only 180php and the food were also delightful and right after that we went to Bayler View to have some drinks.

There is ongoing surfing competition when we are in Baler so it is really fun watching the pros surfing especially with the first timers like us.

To maximize the stay you can still surf in the morning which has the best waves. And right after that we packed our things and had our lunch at rolling store they were the cariderias at the town proper and since our bus will leave at 3:00pm and it is still early we managed to take a tour in Baler Museum and Donya Aurora Quezon House and it is for free! All I can say is our free time is well spent :D Thanks anyway to Boy 2 for the tour and your action star stories :D

Will visit again Baler for sure, it gave us new adventure and new friends as well. And another amusing thing is that you can see the camaraderie in the place and their warm welcome to their guests even if they are from different places.

Places I want to visit: Philippines

Definitely I want to visit all the provinces in the Philippines

Hope that I will cross out all of them some day :)

Abra Agusan del Norte Agusan del Sur Aklan Albay Antique Apayao Aurora Basilan Bataan Batanes Batangas Benguet Biliran Bohol Bukidnon Bulacan Cagayan Camarines Norte Camarines Sur Camiguin

Capiz Catanduanes Cavite Cebu Compostela Valley Cotabato Davao del Norte Davao del Sur Davao Oriental Dinagat Islands Eastern Samar Guimaras Ifugao Ilocos Norte Ilocos Sur Iloilo Isabela Kalinga La Union Laguna Lanao del Norte

Lanao del Sur Leyte Maguindanao Marinduque Masbate Metro Manila Misamis Occidental Misamis Oriental Mountain Province Negros Occidental Negros Oriental Northern Samar Nueva Ecija Nueva Vizcaya Occidental Mindoro Oriental Mindoro Palawan Pampanga Pangasinan Quezon Quirino

Rizal Romblon Samar Sarangani Shariff Kabunsuan Siquijor Sorsogon South Cotabato Southern Leyte Sultan Kudarat Sulu Surigao del Norte Surigao del Sur Tarlac Tawi-Tawi Zambales Zamboanga del Norte Zamboanga del Sur Zamboanga Sibugay

Potipot, Candelaria Zambales

If you want to have a camping adventure you must try to visit the Potipot Island in Zambales. It’s a 5-6 hour drive from Manila.

You can ride a bus going straight to Sta. Cruz Zambales, Victory Liner Caloocan have the first trip to Sta. Cruz at 4:00 am, we arrived at the terminal at 3:30 am but there’s already a long line for Sta. Cruz bus, since we really can’t make it for the sta. Cruz bus we just rode the bus going to Iba Zambales. When arrived at Iba, we rode again an ordinary bus going to Sta.Cruz until we reached our Inn.

We stayed at Alta Nina Resort and the negotiation went well with Ms. Nina but we got a little disappointed with the service of her care taker, he’s not very accommodating like what we expect based on the reviews on the internet but the place is quite relaxing, they have a kitchen and grill place that you can use but you will be charge for it.

Potipot was just a small island, you can choose if you want to spend your night camping at the island or you will just have a day tour.

Island Rates

200 overnight

100 day tour

In our case we booked two rooms at a hotel but we spent our night at the island. So if you want to pay cheaper and you are fully armed with camping tools you have the choice of not booking a room if you want a more relaxing trip you can also try what we did after all the long drive we went straight to the accommodation and took a nap to rest, cooked food for lunch and for our baon at the island.

You can visit their market nearby for food. We forgot to bring containers for food but we managed to purchase some at the market as well. By the way, we got the number of the tricycle driver that sent us to Alta Nina so we just texted him when we are about to buy food in the market.

After preparing and all, at around 5:30pm we went to the island with our tents for an overnight. We planned to have a bonfire but unluckily, it rained L

Day 2

We woke up with a majestic view of the island. The sunrise and the coastal line made the view dramatic so we didn’t waste our time and enjoyed the white sand and the beach.

Since it was just a small island you can stroll and walk around and appreciate the scenery altogether. And while we are walking we saw our high schoolmates at the place as well.

We found out that there is a comfort rooms at the middle of the island so you can really stay here even without booking a hotel.

At around noon we went back to Alta Nina to freshen up and we also took a long rest before heading back to manila.

When we got to Victory Liner terminal, the bus going to Manila already left and the next trip will be in 3 hours, since it is too late for me and my boyfriend because we still have work tomorrow we decided to take a bus going to Olongapo and from there we took the last trip to Cubao that night.

It was indeed a long trip but we all had fun J

Pictures soon to upload :)

 

 

 

How to organize a hassle free trip

1.       Choose a place.

If it’s in the Philippines you can never get enough of beautiful places here. Try the most accessible places first.

2.       Research

Read articles on the internet about the place so you will not miss any attraction and activities that you can do for the trip.

3.       Cut the expense, Invite people

The more the merrier and truly way cheaper J it is really ideal for organizing a trip since you have a great number of participants, more people will split the expenses. You can always create an event in Facebook to have a wide discussion for the trip.

4.       Give timeframe, choose a date

Once you already have the list of participants choose a possible dates for the outing and make them vote which date is the most ideal for all. Make sure that you will give them time to prepare financially, give consideration for the pay day J

5.       Call and book.

This is the most challenging part, you really have to exert effort to find a decent place to stay, but remember, you will not go to that place to spend all of your time in the hotel, most of the time, you will be out to enjoy the place, the only use of the hotel is for sleeping so don’t look for the most expensive hotel, try to minimize the expenses. Consider the proximity as well.

6.       Get the final list.

When you already found a decent place to stay that can accommodate all of the tentative participants before depositing down payment get the final list first and;

7.       Collect and secure

After getting the price of hotel and other transportation such as van, boat, bus, and all other things that has fixed price, sum it up and divide it equally, post it on the Facebook event you created. And to secure the money give them options to deposit their share, you can always give them a bank account number, remittance center or if possible they can give it in cash. Make an agreement that it is non-refundable to eliminate the stress that last minute back out people will give you. On this set up, once they gave the money they will be more hesitant to back out.

8.       Update

Always inform them about the reservation and any other changes and issues that will occur after that, you are all good to go J

 

Have a happy trip J