One of the reason why i love being a mompreneur apart from being my own boss and owning my time, is the privilege of combining business with leisure. On some occasions that i needed to deliver my goods in a certain area, i always look forward to discovering new places or restaurants where i don't used to go. Basically, it's like hitting two birds with one stone. I earn from my small business and i gain new experiences through the places i visit.

Days and nights must be slipping so fast. Have you flipped your calendar yet? I just did it this morning and hello! It's February na pala! Welcome to the love month- the idyllic time of the year when flowers and chocolates are flooding! Women are giggling with glee, because finally, here's to a bunch of fresh red roses, a fluffy teddy bear or a sweet romantic escape! Kilig! 

Speaking of escape, me and my husband recently had our anniversary staycation (and an advance valentine celebration too, before he left for work) at one of the most romantic place in the region, Tagaytay. Why not? It's chilly, scenic and a perfect quick destination for a total rest and relaxation. Not to mention the long list of nice restos ideal for a table-for-two dinner date.

No doubt, summer will always be the most exciting time of the year to book for a beach house, dig in the closet for bathing suits, pump up those floaters, fill up the picnic baskets and go for a swim! But with the complex series of climate change, especially the El Niño phenomenon happening in our country today, summer can mean anytime of the year, like December or for people like me and my family who always had a longing for total R and R- any day and any season is just perfect to hit the road for a short fun away especially on weekends.

(Warning! Photo Overload)

Gone are the days when paintings, arts and museum tours are deemed as boring. I'm glad that paintings, just like movies, were now revamped to 3-dimensional work of art that is interactive and fun for everyone. I must say that i am one of those few people who appreciates arts, especially paintings. If given enough resources to splurge on an auction for a prestigious painting i would love to have one for my home.

The kind of question during my childhood years while i keep myself busy playing bahay-bahayan, luto-lutuan, and school-schoolan with my playmates.

I can still remember well, when me and my sister together with some playmates who were also our cousins will do role-playing activities during our younger days. My favorite role is becoming a teacher where i will get to hold a stick, wear a false eye glasses and stand in front of them as if i was really a teacher who was yelling at my students. Then i would shift to becoming a banker where i would sit on the chair of my mom's home office table and will start signing some old forms, get the calculator, do some computations and pull out some papers that i call "bills" and hand it over to my playmate like we were transacting something. Those were the days, simple yet very happy with the little things that we have. 

I've been wanting to visit City of Dreams Manila for the kids to experience Dreamplay and since it was a special non-working holiday in the province of Batangas that day, [commemorating the celebration of Mabini Day] and it was a nice Thursday, we pursue the long overdue plan. It was also timing that our Big Daddy is present for a 28 days vacation and so we drove all the way heading to the metro. The visit was originally scheduled for my son's 8th birthday coming August, but since its a holiday on a weekday, i believe it was the perfect time to visit, considering also that ticket rates are cheaper on weekdays rather than the weekends and i presumed that the crowd isn't too big which is in fact true that day.

Photo Source

Within the 5 hectare property overlooking the legendary Paoay Lake in Ilocos Norte lies the 2-storey mansion of the Marcoses which is famously known as the Malacanang of the North or Malacanang Ti Amianan as referred by the Ilocanos. It is the official residence of former President Ferdinand Marcos and his family. According to history the house was built as a gift of the former Fist Lady Imelda Marcos to her husband, then former President Marcos on his 60th birthday and has become a venue to welcome affluent personalities and dignitaries, both local and foreign.

I am fascinated with adventure trips and natural wonders and if given any chance and the luxury of time, there's no brainer that i would pack up for a backpacking adventure to climb mountains or cross the rivers just to feast my eyes on the wonderful creations of God and relive myself with overflowing memories when i'm old and gray.

While planning our trip to Ilocos, i had listed quite a few number of hotels and resorts where we could stay overnight, considering the budget, location and safety. Searching through the internet and reading some other blogs i came across this transient home in Saud Beach. I was actually wondering how nice it could be in reality, because it got a good rating from travelers- budget friendly and nice! I wrote it down on my list but honestly, its the least on my options.

As much as i wanted to finish my Ilocandia series in one sitting, but sorry i cannot, due to an overload of priorities and the bedly stormy weather seems to be so inviting for such laziness. Anyway, here's the next installment for my Ilocos Travel Diary and pardon me if this is gonna be a flooding of photographs. This beauty of Saud Beach in the northern tip of Pagudpud need not be described word after word because the photos will speak for itself. And these photographs will not lie, because my first hand experiences with this place just took my breath away...

Standing majestically at the coast of Burgos, Ilocos Norte, fronting the Bangui Bay is the stunning Kapurpurawan Rock Formations. So far, it is the most fascinating natural wonder in this part of the country that I've ever seen and it left me breathless. 

Seeing a lighthouse, whether a picture, an illustration or a concrete one, usually gives me random thoughts. The one in horror movies made me think that lighthouses are such creepy places where ghosts and other outside of the world activities can take place any time of the day. On the lighter side, when i see one on photos seated on calm waters, it give me feelings of hope and dreams, sending me a message of beauty, joy, peace and the need to be still. Truly, lighthouses are a favorite scenic spots and those I've mentioned were just some of the facile declaration of my fondness for such edifice.

If ever you'll be travelling to Vigan on a summer or maybe on a weekend, make sure you book your hotel atleast a week or days before you plan to go. I just made a terrible mistake of not booking our room ahead of time, thinking that its a Tuesday so most probably, the hotels are available though it was a peak summer season. We left Batangas on a Sunday night and headed straight to Ilocos Norte, targeting Pagudpud on our first day. While i enjoyed so much of the places in the North, and we got a nice stay at Saud Beach which i just booked that same day when we arrived, I thought i can do the same thing at Vigan. But that was a major epic fail!

Our Vigan Home Stay

I've mentioned on my recent post about our Vigan tour that i'll be sharing more of Baluarte in another blog, and so this is it! Honestly, i'm not in the perfect mood to write another installment for this Ilocos Travel Diary so please forgive me if this is gonna be some sort of photo overload, words are hiding at this very moment. Lol!

Vigan has always  been a dream destination for me and my habitual liking for heritage and cultural places caused me to long for this place all the more. With its scaling appeal to the tourism industry, both foreign and Filipino alike are going nuts about visiting this UNESCO heritage site. And so because its summer and the family is complete, together with some friends we decided to pursue this long overdue trip to Ilocos, finally! God has been so good!

While planning our trip to Ilocos, I've kept myself busy for a week reading blogs, searching for hotels and listing down top grossing places to visit in a stretch of 4 days including the travel time which is more than 10 hours from Batangas to Manila, then to Laoag, and a few more hours till we hit Pagudpud (one way).

My kids grew up with Barney. I'm sure a lot of parents knew him, as well as Thomas the Tank Engine. I remembered during my kids' younger years, when I used to collect DVDs which showcases all of Barney's sing and dance episodes and my son loves watching it over and over again. So when I heard about The Little Big Club which is home to Barney and Friends, I said maybe we should try to visit it too, after booking Hello Kitty! 

They were in the same building with Hello Kitty on the first floor and Barney on the second floor, so I guess it's practical to visit both since we were already there considering that its not a usual place that we can visit from home (i don't think we'll be flying back again to Malaysia from the Philippines just for that alone).

After the sweat-drenching wanderlust at Legoland we took a short taxi ride going to Sanrio Hello Kitty Town. We were lucky to get a red teksi (budget taxi) after waiting for a minute in Mall of Medini. We left Legoland some time after lunch and reached Puteri Harbour after an 8-10 minutes drive for RM10. 

Sanrio Hello Kitty Town is located in Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park inside the Little Red Cube - another shopping destination in Nusajaya, Johor. Unlike Legoland which is an open theme park, Hello Kitty Town is an indoor amusement park. It is the first Sanrio Hello Kitty attraction outside Japan. The place is at the first floor of the building together with The Little Big Club on the second and third floors which I will be discussing in another blog.