Thursday, December 21, 2023

Viansa Sonoma

The first time I went to Napa Valley in 2021 was at the height of covid pandemic. Stores are mostly closed and the wine tasting packages or gatherings are  limited. I promised to myself to visit again the wineries in the area of Napa and Sonoma valley to enjoy what is it like when things go back to normal. A day tour in this region is a must when you visit California.



Viansa Sonoma is just an hour drive from California. When you are in their vineyard, you will feel relax and peaceful, much more if there are varieties of wine to taste test. I love rose, sangria and red wine.  They have the best wine tasting menus and fine delicacies.

Texas Cowboys

I was fortunate to be able to plan well my vacation in the US and visit my cousin living in Dallas, Texas. It's surreal to be able to fly with Southwest Airlines from Oakland to Dallas. Some memories of my college life were the business cases of no frills, cheap flight, and peanut snacks of Southwest. During my flight, peanuts were no longer served but i really enjoyed the simplicity of boarding and seat anywhere (like in boarding a bus).

Dallas is a beautiful clean city with a different vibe compared to California. The highways are wide and when you go farther to Grand Prairie, the wide landscape will welcome you. The weather in Dallas was hot that time, I felt i was in Philippines. The weather in Texas as what my cousin told me is either extreme hot or extreme cold. 

What i love the most during my sightseeing are the beautiful big houses "mansions" in Texas that i only see in movies/netflix. Most houses do not have gates and are open.

Sunday, March 19, 2023

El Zamba Villas, Liw-liwa Zambales

My sex and the city girlfriends (referring to my college close friends) are my constant companions whenever I wander. It became our pact  after graduation to travel yearly, have a get together frequent with annual summer getaway, and be more carefree and full of life in our 20s and 30s.

New travel experiences, i enjoyed  this more often with Katie and Rona. Flights, land and sea travel, i have vivid memories of how I enjoyed my youth with these pretty ladies. I became  more adventurous and risk taker but cautious as well in my travels also. Some of my best travel memories and  even nerve wracking memories, I experienced it with them, wheew.

  • Bantayan, Cebu - we braved the storm literally; weather turned bad and our ferry was dancing crazy on the big waves. The ferry passengers aside from us were so frighten because the 1 hr sea travel almost took more than 2 hrs, with the captain being cautious to maneuver the ferry well (major tsunami news just happened in the philippines at that time but we still pushed with our flight to cebu thinking that weather will turn better.)
  • Experiencing the best and hidden beaches of Calaguas and Coron, Palawan. During that time, it was not yet publicized in social media.
  • My very first trip abroad, in Kota Kinabalu Malaysia. Who would have thought that Malaysia will be my 1st country to visit and where on earth is Kota Kinabalu. Air asia is promoting this island with super low fares that time.  I even thought my passport even got lost in Clark, looking for  it for 15 minutes with the airport personnel/maintenance team because my travel friend unintentionally placed it in her bag thinking that it was her passport. Lol, very sweaty experience imagining myself that i did not make it my supposed to be 1st trip abroad....
  • Riding a small boat without lifevest because there were no available lifevest as the island is not well known to the tourists that time (remote so to speak). To get into the island and we have to transfer from a big boat to small boat as the big one could not dock in the shore. Im a beach girl but I don't know how to swim in deep open water. Like it's a nerve wracking experience since the boat is super small, we were only 6 in that boat and it almost overturned, my vivid memory is that the boatman balanced the boat with his feet. I think, i will never be that risk taker again....
This year, since my 2 girlfriends are already married, with one having a 4 yr old kid, our travels now are more cautious and we prefer to do land travels since we can come back to Manila easily. Now, we are plus 1 with a kid, another new experience for me as i get to bond with Maia (Rona's little one) being her adult tita haha! Again our trip to Zambales is memorable given that we were stopped by a traffic officer, we, somehow violated the intersection rule in Subic (which we are not at all aware off, kindly google search this intersection rule). Fortunately, we were able to explain our side and sincerely apologize that we do not know the traffic rules in Subic; the officer then politely let us go.... 

When we arrived at El Zamba Villas, it kind of reminds me of the Anawangin Cove because of the several Agoho trees without the need of riding a boat. It's a relaxing place and our AirBnB stay is unique since you can view the forest in your window.Roaming around the area, you will be enticed to have a remote work set up there since the rental places and AirBnBs have WIFIs. Its a developing area where you can also have opportunity to have a restau business also since Liw Liwa is being visited by surfers and beach lovers.

Sharing some nice photos from this trip. We mentioned to ourselves, we will continue to travel till we get old. XO XO. mai

Friday, March 10, 2023

My Resort Hopping

Year 2022 was my hiatus year of blogging but not in travelling. Although I did not have plane rides last year, I still have road trips and visited beaches as my sanctuary.

If there are people who are fond of restaurant hopping or bar hopping, mine is resort hopping😅. In the coast of Laiya Batangas, I have tried and put in my checklist all nearby beachfront resorts -  Acuaverde, Acuatico, La Luz, Palm Beach, Blue Coral Beach, Kabayan Beach and Sabangan Beach Resort. The remaining to dos in my google search lists for Laiya are Henry Laiya and Virgin Beach Resort.

For 2022, my quick summer getaway to satisfy my beach cravings is my Sabangan Beach Resort weekend vacation. What I loved about it? - the resort room  is clean, there are lots of huge old trees and i can feel exclusivity. Food is also ok and i love their kubo type beach chairs. The resort also has a pool so you can swim aside from the salty water of Laiya. Laiya is my favorite hub for summer vacations.











Sunday, March 14, 2021

Vacation in US (West Coast)

I am one of the travellers with cancelled flights in April 2020 due to the emergence of Covid. My planned vacation to US was postponed since I had to abide by the Philippine government rules on lockdown and community quarantine; international flights were barred last 2nd Q of 2020 due to the pandemic. The worst part was that I experienced solo quarantine in Metro Manila for 4 months and I could not even go home to our province in South Luzon due to the enhanced community quarantine rules. 

House quarantine brought out the domesticated version of me. Being a traveller at heart, cooking and watching travel videos during lockdown kept me sane. Luckily, I have friends in the residential unit and loveones who keeps on checking me virtually. Surely, I really missed travelling during this Covid situation.

When the internal travel guidelines were relaxed in 4th Q of 2020, I saw it as an opportunity to re-book my flight. By mid of December, I flew to San Franciso for a winter vacation. Maybe, it was God's way of saying that the delayed circumstance happened because he wants me to be more joyful and experience for the first time a snowy Christmas.

Here are my memorable vacation trips in the West Coast of America!

San Francisco – the Instagram worthy pic at the Golden Gate Bridge & the Fisherman’s Wharf.



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