Here goes a chessy post... #PagbigyanNa

Happy, happy birthday, my Jasey ♥♥♥

I continue to praise God to have you not just as my husband but as a friend and leader. I am honored that I am able to be in the frontline with you as your life continue to unfold. It has been a pleasure and inspiring to be a witness of your obedience to the Lord. 

I pray for your good health and wisdom in decision making...more great blessings ahead. I he♡rt you to bits!!!

More about Boracay here.

So the other day I already mentioned the first in one of my personal projects which I was able to do during the long weekend and now here is the second one:

Create a Times of Refreshing Blog Photobook (magazine-style)

So I scored another voucher from Metrodeal for a Softcover 8x11" 40 pages for Photobook Philippines. But instead of starting out from scratch, I tried one of the travel templates found under their Ready Books category. With a little bit of tweaking to customize some of the pages in my own preference, I was able to finish up in 2 days and here is the finish product. Click on the link to show all the pages.

Post by Sasa Ramos-Yap.

I know it is a far cry from those done professionally but it is for personal use and for a non-artist such as myself, I am quite happy with the end result. I am done ordering and just waiting for delivery after 7 days. Don't worry, I will update this post with the actual photobook printout once I received it.

Last November was my birthday month and hubby gifted me with an overnight staycation at Bellevue Hotel Alabang - Main Tower through Deal Grocer voucher.

Located at Northgate, the hotel are among corporate buildings with night shift thus a few steps away you can conveniently find your go-to shops like Starbucks, 7-Eleven, Country Style's New Bistro, Jollibee and others. 

The highlight of the room is the king-size bed! Honestly, it really irks me when hubby would lie down at end of our own bed horizontally instead of vertically while watching TV kse I wouldn't be able to straighten out my leg kse nakaharang sya! Urrggh... But he was able do this at the hotel and it was all good.

A round of complimentary drink is available either at the cafe or the swimming pool. The pool is found at the 3rd floor together with the gym and even the Jing Monis Salon. However, there was ongoing building construction outside so there was not much of a view to look at. WIFI connection is also available with login credentials provided during check-in.

The next morning, we head out to the restaurant for the buffet breakfast. There are variety of food for the kids, the bread, the rice, the meat, the cheese lovers and others.

Of course, we would not check out without having our quirky photos taken right? Lakas lang maka-Gladys Reyes' Moments at Net 25 ang couch na ito sa lobby, frustrated talk show host ang peg.

Thank you Father for another year of experience and for loving protection all year round. Your grace and faithfulness is my stronghold. Belated Happy Birthday to Me!

In the previous post, I mentioned that the HK-Macau packages quotation of the different travel agencies are basically the same except for the hotel accommodation. So after reading hotel reviews in TripVisor, I decided to avail the package trip from GJM International which includes accommodation to The Emperor Hotel in Happy Valley Hong Kong.

Our 3-day trip is jampacked with activities, we basically reach the hotel every night by 12mn and wake up at 7am so other budget travelers might consider booking cheaper hostel but for us, we still prefer to go home to a nice-looking room at a reasonable price. So we are quite satisfied with the facilities in Emperor Hotel and here are some of the highlights of our experience:

• The location is 20 minutes away from Causeway Bay and 5 minutes walk to the tram station or terminal. This distance is quite acceptable except that when you are already tired from walking all-day the time could be longer.
• The bus and taxis are available in front of the hotel but we were not able to try out these one. Also, coming from Mong Kok you can ride Bus 117 but take note last trip is at 9:45 pm so if you are doing the Ladies Night Market you won't be able to ride it.
• There is a free hotel shuttle coach with routes going to Causeway Bay so check at the front desk for the times and reservation
• McDonalds and convenient stores such 7-11, K Circle, Market Place, Vingo are within 5-10 minute walk radius of the hotel
• The hotel staff are helpful but not too friendly compared to the hospitable Filipino hotel staff
• Allows guests to leave their baggage at the front desk during early check-in/out 
• Nearby landmarks are Happy Valley Racecourse or Jockey Club and from what we learned is that this is one of the most popular form of entertainment during Sunday where a lot of people come to watch and bet that allows them to earn billion of US Dollars
• Other landmarks are Hindu temple then our tour guide also jokingly pointed out the location of AIA Building (Insurance), the hospital and cemetery right beside each other.

Anyhow, The superior room is at 230 square feet which already includes the bathroom area. According to our tour guide the average unit for a family in HK is only 50-60 sqm and the price is not about the size but the location. Thus, there is no complaining to the hotel room size. On Day 1, I was disappointed to enter to 2 single beds in the room that I immediately called the front desk and informed that I booked for a double room. They explained that it was not noted during the booking however no need for us to change room number and they will  just change the bed during housekeeping the next day. True enough, we finally came home to a double bed in our Day 2. By the way, since the travel agency processed our booking, I actually sent an email directly to the hotel a week before our arrival to verify our reservations just to make sure.

Hope this review will be helpful to those looking for accommodation in the HK Island side near Causeway Bay. Also, several Filipino families were staying at the same hotel as well and here are some of the pictures of our room located at the 17th floor.

Gold kung gold ang mga fixtures 

Inside the room you will find the following: 

Choice of Double or Twin 

Private bathroom 

Electronic card keys 

in-room safe 

Individually controlled air conditioning 

Mini-bar 

Coffee & tea making facilities 

Cable TV with 39 channels and 2 radio channels 

Writing desk 

IDD telephone system 

Wireless broadband internet access 

Hair dryer  

Alarm clock

Hubby said the pictures from our last island getaway is not yet ready so let me skipped over for now and go straight to our second day at the Coco Beach Resort, they offered a free boat ride to Haligi Island. But there is nothing much to see there although small boats (habal-habal) are waiting to bring the guests to snorkeling spot nearby. The standard rate for the first activity cost Php 300/pax then succeeding activity is additional Php 200/pax. But there is no harm in trying to haggle. We opted for snorkeling to see the corals and the giant clam. Our boatman was nice enough to throw in some fish feeds into the water so the fishes started swimming right in front of us.

I just kept on shooting underwater and was actually to surprise to see the clear pictures and the array of corals I was able to caught with my GE DV1 Camera.

La Sirenetta Restaurant

Coron Palawan Philippines

Photo Set by YAPtography

Owned by once Survivor Celebrity Castaway, Mika Batchelor. We were able to say hi to her but was not able to take pictures since she was on her way out.

Seaside Restaurant (Day 2 Dinner)

After a full day out in the sea (naks, feeling explorer and adventurer lang), we had our dinner at Seaside Restaurant. We were almost at the entrance of the small pathway when suddenly the electricity went out. This is not unusual in Coron as they have rotating brownout. Shortly, the lightbulbs in the eskinita lit up giving us enough light to have our way to the restaurant. We made a few stops asking for directions as we were not sure if we were in the right track. There was another restaurant right before the bridge but we were instructed to cross the bridge to get to the Seaside Restaurant.

When we set foot to their steps and saw their menu -- Sigh! Finally this is what we expected. Their menu is quite big having a variety and the prices is from  Php 250 up. Nice ambiance showcasing woodwork and furnitures. The chair is quite heavy so I assumed purong kahoy talaga. The surrounding was pitched black because of the brownout so we really didn't get to see the view of the sea that night.

We ordered quite a number of dish and suprisingly served in big plates. We took a few bites and just had our leftovers for takeout (we had it over breakfast the next day).

But had to say that we were unsatisfied with the service even though there were a number of servers that night. Our waitress seems to be in a hurry wanting to leave our table immediately everytime she approached our table. Gusto ko ng sabihin "May lakad ka, teh? Nagmamadali???" So sorry we did not leave any tip for them.