Sneak Peak (February): My Love Month of Adventures

by lakwatserong tatay

It's been a while since i made my last post for my travels, coz' im really having a hard time to make all of this draft post, due to my work load, different weekly and monthly activities. So i decided to make another sneak preview post of my past activities for the month of love......^_^.

First stop: Advance Celebration of Valentines Day...

An overnight stay at Lancaster Suites at Mandaluyong together with my wife and two kids, Kuya Gian and Ate Gayle. Aside from staycation within the Metro, we had mall hopping within the vicinity and food trippin escapades.

Lancaster Hotel Manila

We stayed for overnight with free buffet breakfast for only.....(secret)...^_^. This would one of my most memorable advance valentines celebration trip, having splurging experience together with my kids and my wife and relax for few days within the Metro. (i'll be doing separate post for this splurging experience together my kids...)

me, my wife and two kids....

After we check-in, we decided to go to SM Megamall which very near to this hotel, we did mall hopping and food trippin. That time, there was new craze in town, "Tea Drinks"...one of the famous outlet serving tea in different ways is Happy Lemon....^_^

Ate Gayle with my wife..@ Happy Lemon (Megamall) ^_^

For our dinner that day, we select President Tea House Express, one of the famous chinese restaurant in Ongpin. We tried few of their dishes, we do really love it....^_^ (i'll be having a separate post for this food trippin experience....)

President Tea House Express @ SM Megamall

While strolling around, we found out that time, there was an expo on their activity center. One of the most famous games now a days, not only for adults but also for kids, like mine. An Angry Bird bazaar was actually on going that time and luckily for my kids, we had the chance to have some photo opportunities and tried their different activities for kids and even buy some angry bird shirts for my kids too.....^_^

Our photo opps with Angry Birds...

Next stop: My 1st Ever Organize Trek Trip @ Mt. Manalmon

My 1st ever organize group trek, happened last February 18...were 13 tripper/trekkers/spelunker...(who said that 13 is a bad luck number)...Even though i considered myself as a pro in trekking, i was still afraid that time organizing my first trip trek together with a couple persons, most of them were my friends and colleagues and some were invitees. But luckily it went good and all of the X-plorers that time were satisfied on what they have experience and i was really happy to hear that from them and will be doing it again with me if i ever organize again another trip....(nagorganize nga ulit ako...Mt. Pinatubo via Old Trail naman...just last March 24)...(i'll be having a separate post for our trek to Mt. Manalmon...)

The Manalmon X-plorers....^_^

One of our sidetrips after our trekking activity was the 2 hours spelunking in Bayukbok Cave.....according to our guide...this cave was part of our history during world war era were the Katipunero's have their meeting held on this cave...(i'll be sharing our spelunking experience in Bayukbok Cave..)

X-plorers @ Music Room....^_^

One of the activity, that you must not missed when your in Madlum River, is to cross this two stretch cables above the Madlum river, this is connected from both ends of the river and was not actually used as a tourist attraction but instead it was used for emergency purposes when the water in Madlum River got really higher, this cables will serves as their bridge to cross to the other end. Thru time this was called as the "Monkey Bridge Crossing Activity", became one of the challenging activity here in Mt. Manalmon and always been part for all of the visitors to cross this challenging cables,...(i'll be doing a separate post for this cable crossing activity...)

my self portrait shot.....^_^

So after all of those activities, we had the chance to chillax and swim at Madlum River. Swimming all the way and having few drinks by the river was way to end of Day of Activity in San Miguel, Bulacan....(watch out for my separate post about Madlum River...)

Swimming time @ Madlum River....

Last stop: My First Festival Experience and Food trippin @ Ongpin.....

It was Sunday (Feb.26), together with Ichan, will be attending our first ever festival experience just right here in the metro. The Caracol Festival, but due to lack of information about the festival, we met so early and found out that the festival will be happening @ 4pm that day. So, for us not to be bored that day, we decided to have food trippin experience at Ongpin, one of the food haven in Manila. Armed with daypacks and camera's we proceed......(watch out for our Ongpin Experience.....)

L.T. @ Ongpin St.....^_^

Sad to say, it was Sunday, and most of the known restaurant on Ongpin was close, but lucky for us to find this famous street dining in Ongpin, the LGA Fastfood chain, that serves different cuisines in a very reasonable price.....(ang sarap dito at sulit ang bayad....abangan nyo po ang food trip experience namin.....)

LGA Fastfood....

 Of course, we did not missed to visit one of the most famous hopia in town. Known for so many decades and had different branches....one of their signature hopia's is "Hopia with Tikoy"....This store is known as the "Eng Bee Tin"....(watch for this also....)

Ichan of Saananglakad...^_^

Sta. Cruz and Ongpin also holds two of the historic churches built during Spanish era here in our country. The Sta. Cruz Church....built wayback 17th century with its Patron Saint Nuetra Señora del Pilar, that is celebrated every 3rd Sunday of October. (i'll be sharing some information and pictures about this church)

It's me @ Sta.Cruz Church

The second church we visited was also built wayback 1640's, in honor of its the Patroness Nuestra Señora del Santo Rosario, this church was detroyed during British invasion and rebuilt by mix native and chinese mestizaje after British invasion. The church baroque look was rebuilt from World War II ruins and has re-dedicated to the first filipino Patron Saint, San Lorenzo Ruis. The church annual fiesta usually takes every last Sunday of October. (i'll be sharing its history and some pictures of this church...)

My photo opps @ Ongpin Church...^_^

After having a quick tour from the past and food trippin experience aty Ongpin. We go back to Makati's ground to see our first ever festival experience. "The Caracol Festival", serves as the official festival of Makati City, whose main purpose is to raise awareness on the importance of preserving of out Mother Nature and natural resources.

Students from various schools wears colorful costumes and danced along Ayala Avenue with dresses of lions, frogs, lizards, flowers, trees and fairies among others. This festival is one of the particular event where the youth of Makati, expresses their creativity and artistic sides while combining the importance of protecting our Mother Nature.

CARACOL 2012

It was such privilege to attend this kind of festival, seeing different people in colorful costumes makes me excited taking pictures of them while parading in the busy street of Ayala, Makati, and the chance to watch while they're performing different dances wearing their colorful costumes in Ayala Avenue. Here are some of my photos that i wanted to share and i'll be also doing a separate post for our 2012  Caracol Festival Experience...^_^ (i'll be also doing separate post for my 1st festival experience here in Metro Manila...)

Of course i wouldn't missed the chance to have a photo opps with this dwarfs that was part of 2012 Caracol Festival Parade....^_^

Me @ with the 3 Dwarfs...^_^

Hope to attend again this festival by next year and wishing to attend more festivals this year.

So this end my love month escapades with my family, kids, friend and colleagues......i do hope you will watch out for my separate entries behind this trips...^_^....so watch out for it....

Next stop.....My  March activities...dami parin pala....hehehe.....