Adventure of a Lifetime!
It’s time to get lost! And the best place to get lost is in BALER.
We planned our trip two weeks ahead because Baler is on its
peak season due to larger waves (which is the best season for surfers!) brought
by Hanging Amihan so almost all the hotels are fully booked. Luckily, we found
one available budget friendly room at Bay’s Inn and to add up the excitement
burning in ourselves, Bay’s Inn is just located at the front of the beach! :D
My first trip to Baler is a do-it-yourself one. My two friends
have been there last year and so this is their second time. They advice me that
it is more efficient to just plan the tour by ourselves. And it turned out to
be one of my most memorable escapes. ;)
I’ll post here our
itinerary just to give you guys some advice if ever you have plans on going to Baler.
We’ve departed from
Cubao via van to Baler by 10:45PM (November 21, 2014 Friday) since we’ve
inquired at Genesis Bus Five days ahead our trip if they have reservations and
they said they don’t so we planned to take our trip by 11PM. When we got at the
bus station we talked to their staff and she said that the next trip to Baler
which is 11PM to 4PM are already full and the only way we can go there is by
being a chance passenger. We honestly don’t want to waste our time waiting for
unsure things and Thank God there are a lot of alternative ways of going to
Baler. The Guard at Genesis Bus Terminal asked us if we want to just take a van
instead and we grabbed it! Though it is pricier than riding the bus, it only
took us 5 hours to get to our destination. We were in Bay’s Inn Saturday
morning (4AM) and we just rest at our room to prepare ourselves for the tour.
First Day: (Nov. 22, 2014)
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- (8AM) We ate our breakfast at Bay’s inn.
They
offer a buffet breakfast for 180 pesos per head. They also serve a la carte if
you’re not a big eater. Haha but guys the price of their breakfast buffet is
worth it!
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| Breakfast Buffet @ Bay's Inn for Php180 only! :) |
- (9AM) Time to explore Baler!
First thing to do
is look for a tricycle or a van to tour you around!
Since its a do-it-yourself tour, we decided
to just take a tricycle instead. You will not find it hard looking for
tricycles around Baler cause there are plenty of them that can tour you around.
You can also coordinate with the hotels staffs cause sometimes they can get a
tricycle for you.
Tricycle drivers have their itinerary and
you could ask them which place to go. One good thing about them is
that they will also become your instant tourist guide!
Then on to our First Stop!
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- (9.30AM) Dicasalarin beach, cove and Light
house.
When we got there the driver said that we
can walk up to the beach, the light house and to the cove for one hour since
the mountain is too steep for the tricycle to carry us there. We agreed so we
started walking. 30 mins passed by and were not halfway yet and we’re too tired
because the mountain is literally steep! We walked for about an hour and a half
because we were not advised that it’s actually two mountains that we were
climbing just to get on to our destination.
Almost 6KM away from where we started walking,
the view in the place is breathtakingly beautiful! I mean, all the tiredness were
gone when we saw the beach alone! The cove is nice, I just swim there for a
while before we started climbing into the Light House. We decided to pay for a
ride on habal-habal back to our the tricycle is parked because we can’t seem to
walk anymore Hahaha
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Dicasalarin Beach
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| Dicasalarin Cove |
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| We're up on climbing the Light House |
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| Habal-Habal is more fun in the Philippines! | |
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- (11AM)
Aniao Islet
Since the next destinations near to one
another, we first went to the farthest which is Dicasalarin Beach then on our
way back is the Aniao Islet which is known for its rock formations.
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| Nice shot manong driver! |
- - (11.15AM)
Diguisit Falls
Small waterfall in the middle of the road. You have to carefully
climb up the rocks cause its steep and slippery.
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| Nice pose ladies! |
- -
(11:45AM) Ermita Hill
Famous for its structure of family holding
their hands together and climbing the hill with a large wave coming up for
them. There is actually a story behind it which our tricycle driver had told us
and I’ll post it on my next blog. You can climb up the hill and thankfully, the
tricycle can carry us up there lol "no more long walks" said Kuya Art (our
tricycle driver). Up at the hill, you can see the beauty of baler in its bird’s
eye view from left to right, everything is beautiful.
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| Tromba Marino |
- - (12PM)
Dona Aurora Quezon House
Back to the city! Haha the well preserved
house will bring you back in time. I loved the house it reminds me of our house
in our province.
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| Well preserved house |
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- (12.15PM) BALER SIGN
Stopped there to take pictures Haha
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| Promoting Baler! :) |
- - (12.45PM) Thelma’s Kichenette
Lunch Break! Since the famous Gerry Shan
resto is jam packed we look for another one and we found Thelma’s. The foods
are good they also offered us free banana Haha and they were very friendly to
their guests. Love the foods here!
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| The Menu. |
- - (1.15PM) Back to the hotel
Getting ready to surf.
- -
(4PM) GONE SURFING!
We really planned our surfing lessons by
that time since its high tide and the bigger the waves the more exciting it is
to surf!
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| Surf all the way! |
- - (8PM) Yellow Fin Resto
Dinner time! We tried out some foods just
at the back of the hotel. Their foods are good for 2 servings and
its inihaw!
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| Hungry Surfers! LOL |
2ND day!
- - (5AM) Sunrise by the sea
Wonderful experience.
- - (8AM) Breakfast Buffet again
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(9AM) Millennium Tree
It’s amazing to see a tree in the
middle of nowhere and its humongous! Balete is a 500 plus years old tree. When we got there
someone assists us in taking pictures around the tree and He’s a pro! He knew
where your angle is at its best and he also tour us around the tree. He is very
kind and sayang! We did not ask for his name tho. Lol our mistake ><
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- (10AM) Ditumabo Mother Falls
Trekking plus the cold water coming from the
falls is absolutely relaxing.
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| I Love this place! |
- (11AM)
Baler Museum
Just to discover more of Baler
we are able to get a glimpse of its past.
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(12PM) Goodbye Baler
Rode a Genesis bus going back to
Manila.
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Well that was a worthwhile experience of going
to a place where no one knows you at all. Away from all the pressures and
pollutions in life Hahahaha That is indeed a one of a kind experience from
trekking to never ending walking to climbing to swimming to eating and to
surfing! it’s really hard for me to leave
Baler but nothing can hinder me from coming back! I now loved being Lost! <3
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