Travel Footprints

You don’t always find gold when you look for treasure . . .

We just came from a weekend getaway at Treasures of Bolinao in, well, Bolinao, Pangasinan. My friend blogged about this site so I thought why not give it a try. We were supposed to stay until today but opted to check out early because we were completely unsatisfied with this place.

Anyway, to be fair, let’s start with the few positives:

1.) The location is nice. The view is good. Sunset was definitely breathtaking. However, the beachfront of Treasures of Bolinao is not really a beach but rock formations. Good for sightseeing perhaps, but not for swimming. The picture shows here the nearby Patar Beach, which is a public beach area.

No need to check in at Treasures of Bolinao to enjoy the Patar Beach

Now, for the rest. Let me just outline some key things:

1.) After we have checked in, it looked like the room was poorly prepared. Never mind that our name was taped nicely by the doorway. There were no tissue/shampoo/soap in the bathroom, no towels, heck not even any pillow casing for the bed. And the room was pretty spartan. This would be fine if the rate was Php2,000 or so, but they called this room The Maharlika Suite, which was about Php7,000 to Php8,000/night.

2.) The bathroom lock was not working. They had to get someone to try and fix it while we were already checked in.

3.) The food takes forever to serve. At least 1 hour. Our mom was very frustrated when she ordered way ahead for dinner (like around 4pm pa lang) and still dinner get so delayed. So she ordered while in the pool and then went and showered, got dressed, rested a bit, hoping that when we got to the resto food would be ready. But lo and behold, we still had to wait for more than 1 hour. Same thing with breakfast. They asked us to inform the resto staff way ahead, but breakfast was served pretty late. And the food they offer is not even that great (over priced and under quality).

4.) Around 10pm or so, we heard loud bangings coming from the floor above. Like there was some ongoing repair and maintenance. At this ungodly hour. At first we let it pass, thinking it might be just a short while. But it went on and on for a couple of minutes, and not just with hammering but also with what sounded like furnitures being dragged across the floor. Wifey couldn’t take it anymore and asked me to check out what’s happening so I stormed the floor above. They were fixing a room, moving the beds, hammering the bed together etc. and the sound was being echoed completely along the hallway and to our room below. And again, this started at 10:00 in the evening.

5.) Unreliable running water. There’s a pail inside the Maharlika Suite. Guess what it’s for?

Again, at a price of Php2,000-3,000 maybe, we would let this pass. But we were paying for Php7,000++/night (+10% service charge), would you blame us if we expected a lot lot more? Goodness, if we shelled out an additional Php1-2,000, we could already have gotten a 2 bedroom suite at The Manor in Camp John Hay, Baguio or a villa in Sitio Remedios in Ilocos or a room in Nami Hotel in Boracay - where you get super pampered and with super excellent food to boot. Anyway, we thought it wasn’t worth our while to stay in this resort for another day, so opted to leave earlier than planned.

We weren’t the only group apparently. I think 2 or 3 more families were checking out early as well. Everyone as unsatisfied as we were. We know because we were able to talk to a family during breakfast and a lady was checking out (enumerating their group’s complaints) just as we were leaving the front desk.

Upon check out, they asked us to pay 30% of our bill for the second night. They tried to weasel in 10% service charge more for our penalty but Wifey was quick enough to point out that it should just be the room rate. Dapat nga daw full price pa since we reserved for 2 nights and “we are running a business here.” they said. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind paying in full if the place was really nice, but we were leaving early because we felt they didn’t hold their end of the bargain of this business deal.

Anyway, I wanted to leave that place immediately so we just paid up the 30% of their published room rate just to go. We just enjoyed the fact that, after our experience in Treasures of Bolinao, we were able to hear Sunday mass at the Our Lady of Manaoag (where we got our newly-acquired car blessed) and had a great meal at Isdaan Restaurant in Gerona, Tarlac.

So if you want to see the beaches of Bolinao, allow me to list down some of my alternative suggestions:

1.) Check out the other cheaper resorts in the area. I know we should have at least checked out the nearby resorts but we were just so pissed off with Treasures we really didn’t want to stay in the Bolinao area much longer.
2.) Treasures claims its the only resort in Patar Beach. True, but they don’t say that you still have to walk around 1km to get to the nice area of Patar Beach (harap nila puro bato, great if you want to go snorkeling and see the fishes, but if you want a long stretch of beach, you really have to walk far…)

Walking along Patar Beach to go back to Treasures of Bolinao, which is almost a speck on the horizon

3.) And walk across public beaches. So might as well check in to one of the resorts and drive to this public beach. Bring your cooler, umbrella, and head on to the most desolate part away from the videokes.

You know the feeling when you look at a certain picture of a place, say a crowded beach or a busy market, it looks so colorful and vivid that you can almost hear the buzz of the crowd and experience the hustle and bustle of activities? Well, that’s how I feel whenever I take a glimpse of our photos in the totally chaotic Floating Market of Thailand.

We’re lucky to have had pleasant and memorable experience of the place considering we only had the weekend to spare in this trip to Thailand. What better way to start off our weekend than to visit the scene where a classic James Bond chase was filmed 30 years ago. 

Totally chaotic and exciting floating market of Thailand

Mr. Rono and I trooped to the tourist attraction situated 110 kms west of Bangkok with some friends to the Damnoem Saduak, more popularly known as the Floating Market. A flurry of activities met us as soon as we got off our rented van. Clearly, it was going to be an exciting day at the market.

The scene surrounding us in the floating market was vibrant with colors, noisy with chatters of hawkers and bargaining customers, definitely touristy and great fun.

We hopped onto one of the flat boats by the short landing place next to the eateries. A young man skillfully navigated our way through the small ‘khlongs’ or canals of the market. Never mind that he can barely speak a word of English to us, we were able to communicate non-verbally through hand signals and facial expressions if we want to go check out some goodies in some of the shops by the side of the canal. 

Bargaining onboard our flat boat happens frequently as lots of goodies on display prove irresistable to tourists

It was very interesting to see a range of products being sold not just in the shops by the side but also of peddlers in boats. There are wide array of products sold – vegetables, fruits, souvenirs, household items – just like in any other market except you can get them ‘floating’ about the canals. In case you get hungry, you can even buy noodle soup while being navigated around as your boat and the vendor will skillfully match pace until you get to finish your hot bowl of soup.

Not just noodle soup, you can also get a refreshing cold drink from this lady on a boat here

Be mindful of how you look though because paparazzis, believe it or not, are everywhere. After going round the market, lo and behold, you would probably see your smiling face in a souvenir plate that says “Floating Market” (hence, the paparazzis). It was severely overpriced and they never gave in to my bargaining powers. no matter how hard. We finally bought one souvenir plate (out of the 3 available) for posterity.

Eventually, this souvenir plate was accidentally broken while on display at the house which gave away a trade secret: the photos were simply pasted on to the plate (very skillyfully I must say!) and not really lasered or something. Oh well. At least we get to keep the photo sans the display plate.

We mentioned in our previous post that we recently got married. It’s kinda hard NOT to relive the joys of our wedding preparations so i hope you bear with us. The prenup photoshoot was something we didn’t really plan. As it turned out, it was one of the best decisions we’ve made in the wedding planning process. Especially when you have the fantastic view of North Luzon as a prenup backdrop.

Part of a very very hectic, albeit extremely exciting, trip around North Luzon with a group tour organized by PinoyNomads, I still could not believe we were able to squeeze in Callao Caves, Pinacanauan River and Calvary Hills in Cagayan; Pagudpud Beach, Cape Bojreador, Bangui Bay Windmills and Paoay Church in Ilocos. All in three days!

Chapel inside the Callao Cave of Cagayan

You see, every little effort from us and the photographers is just sooo worth it in the end! We were basking in the limelight as the subject of an on-site photography session by Michelle Morelos to a group of about 12 photographers. Piece of cake? NOT! Models and photographers everywhere earned a new kind of respect from Hubby and i after this North Luzon prenup weekend. Something totally new to us, we were stiff as hell at the start but eventually got the hang of the photoshoot. Take a peek at some sample photos taken by Michelle:

At the Bangui Windmills

The breath-taking scenery made up for a fantastic prenup photos  –

By the bay of Bangui, Ilocos Norte

Peeking by the steps of Cape Boreador in Burgos, Ilocos Norte

Age-old structure of the Cape Bojreador Lighthouse in Burgos, Ilocos Norte

Hubby and i with our wonderful photographer-friends!

This unique experience shall forever be part of the fond memories of our wedding preparations!