Bolinao + Hundred Islands, Pangasinan Weekend Trip

At first I was hesitant to go with this trip because (1) My family is yet to celebrate my mother’s birthday last Mar 27, (2) I have my monthly period, (3) I am sick – “tamaditis”, and (4) I am choosing mind over heart. But when I got home last Friday, I thought that I miss my friends and I’ve never been to Pangasinan before. It outweighs the 4 reasons I mentioned before. I thought that it’s good to go out and see other places so I pack my things in a rush and get ready to a weekend getaway with them.

They were supposed to meet me in Meycauayan at 5:30 am but someone got late (thanks Ronald! Haha) So they arrived in our town around 8 am. 

We have no plans on where to stay and where to go but we headed to Pangasinan with only Harvey’s directions stored in his camera. When we reached Alaminos, Pangasinan, 

Mark’s tire got flat so we went to a vulcanizing shop to fix the damage. Afterwards, Mark’s aircon just exploded because it’s been running in full level for around 6 hours. So we opened the window and smell the fresh air of Pangasinan. Unfortunately, it’s very hot that time so we were like getting toasted inside the van and we need to go through a 15 mins rough road to Bolinao. It was very hot that we all want to just jump into the water when we see the beach. Luckily, we arrived safely to Bolinao Beaches. So, because we have no reservations and it’s a long weekend, we had a hard time looking for a convenient place to stay. We searched the whole beach resorts in Bolinao. In the end, we are torn between Garden Paradise and AMS Beach Resort. 

For the Garden Paradise, the only available for 9 persons is the non-airconditioned 3 bedrooms + 3 fans + 1 CR for Php 2,500 per night. For the latter, its Php 7,500/night for 3 airconditioned rooms with TV, Ref, Sala, and 2 very clean CR. In the end, only one factor made us decide which resort to choose from – the hospitality of the sraff in the resort. We chose Garden Paradise over AMS. The staff who welcomed us in AMS is not polite and so “hambog”. We even tagged him as “unggoy” haha! So we decided to stay in Garden Paradise Beach Resort because eventhough the rooms are not airconditioned, people there are hospitable and friendly.

It’s almost 4pm when we had our super duper late lunch so no talking policy while eating haha! After the uber busog lunch c/o packed lunch of Ronald litsong kawali and adobong baboy, we changed outfit to go swimming! But before that, since the sunset is so beautiful, we abused it by taking many pictures with it. Jump shot kung Jump shot! 

Maybe it’s around 5:30 when we go for the swimming but we didn’t last the water because we felt like some living things are biting us because it’s itchy and the water is not that clean as there are many buried seaweeds haha! 

So we just stayed along the shore, just enjoying the cool breeze of the water flowing. Of course, we took too many jump shots again.

Come dinner time, we went to the other side of our resort. Aside from the litsong kawali and adobo leftovers from our lunch, we ordered additional fried chicken and sinigang na baboy. After eating, we had another photo sessions with the resort. 

Around 10 maybe when we settle in our “kubo” and drink few glasses of bailey’s and red horse while we play cards – pekwa, unggoy unggoy, tong its. Maybe it’s around 1:30am when we decided to pack up and sleep because we have another day coming. Because there is no aircon, we settle with the electric fan and fortunately there are no flying insects inside our room – just some small bugs.

I’m the first person to woke up around 5:30 and I can say that I had a very good sleep eventhough I had a  mild cramps in my legs because of our sleeping position but it’s tolerable. Since I’m the only one awake, I headed towards the beach alone along with my tripod to take pictures. Unfortunately sunrise is not on our beach side but I found this Nipa Hut in the water to take pictures on. 

It’s a very beautiful scenario because it’s low tide and you can walk near the Nipa Hut. So I set up the tripod and did my thing – picture! Picture! Haha!

Maybe it’s around 7 when I headed back the room and took a shower. Others are still sleeping but by around 9am we are all settled. We pack our things, took our last pictures in the beach and say bye bye to people of Garden Paradise Beach Resort. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t got the chance to go to the Bolinao Lighthouse and the Enchanted Cave because our way went the opposite direction. So we just decided to go to Hundred Islands since it is really the main agenda of trip. It’s around 11am when we had our brunch in Nepo Mart in Alaminos. Ronald, Harvey, and I chose Cindy’s Restaurant over Chowking since we want to try something new. 

But Harvey and I also ate Halo-Halo in Chowking afterwards. It rained so stayed a little longer inside chowking. Others think it’s Donna’s fault because she bought a new shades against the sun but it jinx and it rained haha! When the rain becomes mild, we then took off to Hundred Islands.

Around 2:30 when we arrived in Hundred Islands and we had Island hopping. Our first stop is the Governor’s Island where we need to go to the top to see the nice view of some islands. Funny story here is that Ronald, Harvey and I were lost upon going down because there are three ways and we didn’t see the right way at first. We lost their company and we just waited in the boat where we were supposed to be at. 

They were late because they went to Big Brother House. Our next stop is the Children’s Island where there is nothing much just another Island for the kids. We took pictures and headed back to the boat for the next island which is the Manuel Island. Here, Ronald go for swimming and while we are waiting for 5:30 (the end of the tour), we search for something nice in the island and we found the Manuel Quezon statue which we abused for picture taking. So our tour is finished and we upon returning the shore, we bought some pasalubongs like shells, T-shirts, and key chains. I changed my T-shirt and had a very solid facial wash to freshen up. Time to go home by 6pm. For Dinner, we ate in KFC somewhere in Tarlac. Mark dropped me by Meycauayan Exit around 11pm and it’s time to say goodbye to my friends.

Overall, I had a very fun trip with my friends which outweighs all the hassles we had. It is still full of wonderful memories and now I can mark out Pangasinan from my lists of next destinations since I have already visited it. Next stop – Pagudpud, Ilocos.