Since i was in first year college, i already told my parents that i’ll have my internship in manila, so i was looking forward for at this for years already and thank you Manila for giving me the best summer of my life.

I learned a lot of things and experience things that i don’t usually get to experience when i come here for a few days vacation.

Here’s the list:

- After 9 years, i get to ride again the bus and to be honest i had a little phobia because i was scared of having an accident along the way. It was also a bit of ironic that in order to get to my work, i have to ride the bus everyday, great. Along the way, i realized that the bus i rode on long travels was pretty much safer than the city buses here. I mean you’re still riding the bus and the bus starts to go already and it’s almost everyday i have to stand up during the ride because there are no vacant seats anymore. Eventually, i got used to it, so bring on the bus!

- I got to appreciate the Baguio traffic. I mean come on, before i used to complain about getting home for about 45 minutes. Well this summer i experienced travelling home for about 2 hours and frankly speaking, where i live is already near in manila to where i work.

- The dust. Oh dust, i hate you. I thought that my clothes were already dirty when i wash them in Baguio but apparently you were 3x worse. Look what you’ve done to my red bag, it’s already dark, haha that’s why i didn’t want to change my bag everyday because i’m afraid that the others will get dirty too. And to my shoes, thank God that i bought one that’s easy to clean so yeah, i wore this one everyday so that it would be easy to clean.

- I became a more responsible person. Oh yeah! I learned to depend on my self, wake up every morning and cook breakfast for myself, bring myself home tipsy safely, get to places alone, find places where i’m heading, do my laundry every other day, iron my clothes, take a walk alone, etc. In other words, take care of myself.

- I enjoyed sunday masses. When i came here, i had the choice whether or not go to church. Back home, i wasn’t really listening or even participating at the mass. (I’m sorry) But then i made a commitment with myself to go to mass every Sunday even if it’s already night time. I learned to appreciate the mass (I love you Greenbelt Chapel). The mass was great, the songs were great, the homily was great so yeah, next time my parents will be attending masses there, i would go volunteer myself to go too. 

- Learned to get along and live along with other people. My whole life, i’ve been living in my parents house so I never really experienced living with other people. So here, i learned and now know how.

- Money Matters. Not to brag about it but to be honest, i do know how to handle my money. And during my stay here it was quite a challenge because yeah my parents said that i’d just ask them if i don’t have anymore but i mean come on i still have to spend wisely and i did, haha. And now i know it does not matter how much money you have, but what matters is how you spend it. 

There are a lot more things i learned and these are just some of them. As i head home, i’m going to miss A LOT of things. 

- The tall buildings which never get old

- The vast area where i can go anywhere

- The freedom of not thinking anything but only yourself.

- The freedom of heading anywhere at anytime.

- The freedom of meeting my friends and having friday night dinners and saturday night outs.

- The freedom of choice.

- Saturday night outs.

- Window shopping galore. haha

- Wide choice of restaurants, bars and cafe’

- The journeys with my friends and schoolmates

- Getting exited meeting friends from home

- PARTY

- Morning coffee at the office

- Walking at makati and ayala avenue at night.

- Buying grocery for myself.

- and many many more.

things i won’t miss:

- Manila heat

- Big crowd of people at the mrt station

- Stuck in traffic

- No tv

- Commuting for hours

i guess that’s all.

An update on my bucketlist:

Before my journey i created a bucketlist on things i would like to fulfill during my stay here. From the original, along the way i added several others. I won’t mention all, others are private but for the person/s i was with at that time, well you already know those.

_x_ 1. Have your name in the list of guestlist at the republiq.

_x_ 2. Party at the Republiq

_x_ 3. Head to rue bourbon for some Caramel Beer

___ 4. Play beer pong at cable car (well we went there but didn’t play the game)

_x_ 5. Head to the mall with my friends (always)

_x_ 6. Spend dinners and drinks with my friends. (friday and saturday nights and sundays)

_x_ 7. Sit down and relax with someone and friends at a place with nice ambience.

_x_ 8. Hookahs with friends. (at Bollywood)

___ 9. Head to the comedy bar and be called.

_x_ 10. Walk at the streets of ayala (Well i don’t get to experience them when go for a vacation in manila)

_?_ 11. Party till sunrise. (well it was just an hour and a half before the sunrise so i guess it’s half a check)

___ 12. See Ian Somerhalder in person (i was too late for that).

well, that’s pretty much it i must say. 

Thank you Lord for giving me all the opportunity and helping me fulfill things.

Thank you parents for all the kinds of support given to me.

Thank you friends for being a part of my journey and help things be possible.

Thank you tita and tito for the job opportunity.

Thank you for the employees of the company for taking good care of my at the office and helping me out.

Thank you for my housemates who took care of me and helped me.

This is Tanisha signing off, thank you Manila and see you soon!

fashionsociety:

(via: fashionsociety)

4am waking up was so hard due to the fact that we’re still sleepy, tired and exhausted and that we have to leave and face reality again. 

5:15 am, we left the hotel and rode the tricycle going to the boat station, and upon crossing the island heading towards aklan, i saw this beautiful sunrise.

beautiful. 

Upon arriving at the terminal, we the sleepy family waited for our shuttle for Kalibo, during the ride, i was praying for the ride to be an hour long so that i could sleep. But it put me into a dilemma because at the same time, i would like to see the view  but oh well, i fell asleep beside my mom. After an hour and a half long journey towards the airport, upon arriving we were supposed to check in our luggage but here’s what stopped us:

oh look! everybody was ahead of the people at the check in counter. Seriously, it was our first time to wait in line because the people behind the counter were not even there. To think that the airport is an international airport, the place was so small and every airline available is crowding inside and as you can see, the check in counter is behind the glass, meaning there are no convayor belts so they have to carry each luggage manually. We were there 7 am and the ground stewardesses went there 8 am. To add to the headache of the people, the line was already long and there were 3 counters. A man went to the middle one to check-in his luggage but the girl behind the counter said that the counter was only for people with no luggage to check-in. I mean come on, there was no label placed in her counter that says check-in counter for no luggage, which then made the man so furious. Oooh, the only thing interesting. Yeah, the man scolded at her till he left the counter, and that was about approximately 7 minutes and the girl just said thank you. 

So there we were waiting for our flight, and AGAIN, as usual it got delayed for 20 minutes due to traffic congestion, now NAIA really really needs to extend their runway. We arrived by 11 am and they dropped me off at my house. See you friday  (which is today) my parents. 

Woke up 9:45 am, and if you think i got enough rest, well not really. I was still feeling tired and exhausted. But i was exited with the activities planned for us that day and it was our last day to enjoy the whole day. After we ate breakfast near the shore, we headed the beach for our parasailing and supposed-to-be banana boat activity. 

Look at my dad’s shoulder, haha!

in order to go to the activity area, we have to ride a boat going there. 

upon reaching the area, we had to transfer to another boat for our parasailing activity, and it was just the best!

after parasailing, we rode the flying fish. It was so much fun but it tested every muscle in my body. haha! and i fell (photos coming soon). Afterwards, we went to d*talipapa for some freshly caught seafood from the market and went to the paluto restaurant where they cooked it. Quite expensive. To be honest, i’m not a fan of seafoods so i did not enjoy much. But to all the seafood lovers out there, it’s worth every penny. 

We finished eating by around 4:30 pm and we were supposed to go for an atv ride, apparently, time was our enemy. So we went walking around the talipapa and waited for the sun to go down. Around 5:30 pm, we headed to the beach to go swimming. We went back to our hotel room by 6:30 pm to get ready for dinner at the same place but only the other restaurant. 

Not much happend so after, we went for dessert at lemon cafe, where i got to taste the most sour lemon tart through my parents. And it was good. We went home by 11 because we had to wake up 4 am the next day.

enochliew:

Andel’s Hotel Lodz by Jestico & Whiles

One of the largest Victorian textile factories converted into a contemporary hotel, with lightwells punching through the full height of the building.

5am, we had to wake up because we had an appointment by 6am to go island hopping. The problem was, it was raining so we had to ask the friends of my tita if it was still on. And they said we’ll still go even if it is raining. 

by 6am, we went to the beach to ride the boat and the rain stopped and it was just drizzling. We rode the boat and did not catch the sunrise because it was cloudy. But later on, the rain stopped. We saw turtle island (‘cuz it was shaped like a turtle), crocodile island (shaped like a crocodile), crystal cove (private owned one that looked where it looked like you are on the set of Indiana Jones), magic island (in low tide, you can see the beach, during high tide, there’s no beach), carabao island (i don’t know why it is called carabao island), then we went for a stopover at puka beach, where there are a lot of puka shells.

From there we went to have some breakfast at a restaurant at puka beach and enjoyed the sand and grabbed some rocks for souvenir. After the stop over at Puka  beach, our journey continued by going around the island, where we got the opportunity to see the private beach of the famous boxer Manny Pacquiao. Upon going back to where we started, we saw this place where the people were packed. We shall see what’s the happening. So after the island hopping journey, we walked to where the crowd was, and it was an activity day for GMA and their stars, so yeah saw a few artists and some, well i don’t know their names and we watched a round of their game. Then we went and walked for about a mile long going back to the hotel because my mom did not leave us any money for our fare, nor we don’t also have our phones for us to call. We got home by lunch and i was so tired that i fell asleep for a while while waiting for our lunch. After, we prepared ourselves for the wedding (the main highlight of our trip) because the shuttle will pick us up by 3 pm. So, there we were, heading to Shangrila Hotel and Resort Boracay (the venue of the wedding) and along the way, we saw these group of foreign tourists on a buggy, which kept us in traffic for a while. 

Then we arrived, finally and yeah, it was more than paradise! look at the stunning view and design of the resort, it was just beyond awesome!

There are more photos but i do not have the tablet and camera with me. 

Moving on, we were directed to go to the garden, where we were given good quality fans available in five colors and i got the purple one. While waiting for the entourage and because it was too hot down the beach, we were offered with some cocktails and juices to refreshen up ourselves while waiting. At last the entourage came with their beautiful black and white dresses personally designed by the famous filipino designer Jun Escario, and then the groom came with his wonderful silver tuxedo and in his havaianas slipper, it was about time to start the wedding. So we went down to the beach, where the ceremony will be held

patiently waiting for the ceremony to start under the extreme heat, which did not really matter. The ceremony started 

The entourage started to march, and lastly came the bride, (i’m sorry the photo of the bride was in our camera), who looked very stunning in her simple ivory gown with a black lace also designed by Jun Escario and in her flip flops. The ceremony was shorter than the usual because it was a christian ceremony. They said their vows, the scripture was read, exchange of rings, signing of contract and then the announcement of the newly weds, ooh, don’t forget the “you may kiss the bride” part. 

after the ceremony and photoshoot, everybody was called to the cocktail lounge for some drinks and finger foods before the dinner. 

when it was already dark and the bride and groom were ready, we were called to the beach for some seaside dinner, salads, cold cuts, soup, three kinds of pasta, fish, beef, pork, lamb, fruits and pastries with the overflowing wine and champagne, mmm, indulging while having a photo slideshow of the couple.

After the dinner buffet, emotional speeches were held and the cake cutting was held (the cake looked so nice and simple). After that, a preview of the wedding was shown (whew, they were so fast in editing), then the Fire Dancers entertained us for a few minutes, then thank you speeches by the newlyweds. Finally, fireworks! i wish i could have that kind of wedding one day :) So yeah we went home by around 11pm because we had plans for the next day and besides, we were all tired and some even got drunk. haha! 

So congratulations and best wishes to the newlyweds Mr and Mrs. Martinez

It’s day 1 and our flight from manila to caticlan was supposed to be 11:30 am but it got delayed due to traffic congestion so the plane took off by 12 am.

(my momma was too tired sleeping)

It was our first time to ride the propeller type because the runway was too short so only the propeller types could get there. So yeah, we arrived 1:05 pm and we were hungry.

(Caticlan Airport)

But before we could reach the hotel we had to ride a tricycle from the airport going to the boat terminal, which was about 800 meters away.

When we got to the boat terminal, we were like robbed because you have to pay a lot off fees before riding the boat going to boracay island.

One we arrived to the island, we still have to ride another tricycle going to the hotel which was about 2.5 kilomters, or 3. So we arrived, checked in and looked for a place to eat because we were starving. We ate at a carinderia because the restaurants were faraway, well that’s what we thought of. Then back to the hotel to rest and relax because we had a dinner appointment by 8 pm. So my sister and i went to the pool to just soak our feet there and just relax, btw, we saw big turtles by the pond! haha.

By 8 pm we had dinner at a chinese restaurant down the hotel with the family and friends of the bride and groom. 

Then we went up by 11pm to rest because we’ll be waking up early the next day.

Since i was a kid, i started watching those travel shows on one of my favorite channels which is the travel channel. There, i saw a water activity which they call parasailing. Parasailing is a water activity where you get to wear a harness and sit down and watch as the balloon lifts you high into the air. Well who wouldn’t like that?

Given the opportunity to go to Boracay, of course the number one thing i would like to do is to go parasailing there, so yeah, wish granted. i was with my sister when we went up to the sky, about a hundred feet or more i guess up into the air. And while we were up there, the view was breathtaking and the vibe was relaxing. The sound of relaxing silence and the sound of the speedboat from above was in harmony with one another that it was a priceless experience to be up there. Even though we were only given 15 minutes to be lifted up to the sky, that 1000 peso ride was very much worth it!. 

here are some photos of our parasailing:

It was a Saturday night, me, my friends and batchmates from collage who are living and having our intern here in manila decided to watch the Avengers, too bad that in order to watch a movie in the cinemas of ayala, you have to reserve your slot or else fall in line with everybody else with about only 2 - 5 seats available per cinema and movie schedule and you get to have also the priviledge to seat apart and have strangers beside you. 

So sherica and i decided to have our seats reserved for about 12 people and yeah, that’s a lot! unfortunately, we were not able to access the site properly and reserve enough seats. So we all met with each other at Glorrietta, had dinner at SM food court then headed to the cinema after dinner. What we saw was expected, a long line of people waiting, no more slots available and it was starting to get frustrating. 

So what we did was a toss coin on whether to watch the movie and take our chances or head to Rue Bourbon to try on their famous caramel beer, with pretty much obvious results, the group decided to try the beer. But first, we (the girls) went to the Ramp and Landmark at Glorrietta to go window shopping while the boys went to Vans at greenbelt to also do their thing. It was past 9 and in a while, the store will close, so yeah we went to Greenbelt and waited for a taxi and headed towards HV Dela Costa. 

Upon arrival, it was a good thing that there was not much crowd in there, well that’s because Manila people party during the Fridays and we do it Saturdays because we (i mean i) have work during Saturday. 

So yeah, we got a nice table that was enough to fit all of us (12) and the waiter started to come and ask for our orders. Us girls, we already knew what we wanted, CARAMEL BEER, the Big Ass ones! The boys at first were pretty much hesistant because they were thinking (i guess) that is was a Ladies’ drink, but apparently, when the drinks arrived, it was served on big ass mugs (contains a liter of beer with caramel on it), we were all astonished so they decided to order the same thing too. The drink was a bit expensive which is 225 and yeah, you just add a few pesos and you already have a bucket of beer in your table. But it’s worth it, very much worth it, to my friend who is hard up in finishing a bottle of beer, finished the whole mug, and that’s just how good it is. 

So anyway, my 2 other guy friends, yeah guys ordered mango shake and we were all laughing. But that’s okay. 

Patrick, our other batchmate, also treated us a platter of nachos, which were damn good and a bit spicy, Thank you for that.

We ended up enjoying the night all together.

After we all finished, Sherica headed home and as for me, i was with them, we walked, and walked and this was the time i get to appreciate walking around makati without the intense heat of the sun and just the cool temperature, so yeah we got to enjoy the view around. Upon reaching ayala triangle, we all rode a taxi towards Cypress towers in Taguig and it was my first time to see their place. It was pretty nice. But then we were all tired and exhausted but did not sleep immidiately of course, but i can already feel the bed drawing me to the sheets. So yeah, i slept after a while and it was good.