Her Thoughts - Subic, Zambales, Manila

So our much-awaited trip will be in 2 days. Subic - Zambales - Manila specifically. This trip can be blamed on me and my workmates' impulse-booking on one of those super-low airfare promos. And this marks the start of the continuous array of trips lined up for the upcoming months. We've already booked next year shut.

Zambales, a province in Luzon and our main stop, is apparently rising in ranks as one of the top tourist destinations due to their nice beaches. Local celebrities have had their pre-nup pictorials taken in some of the islands.

Luzon, being a large peninsula, has most of it's cities hours away from the sea. People would have to travel long hours for a weekend beach getaway. However, for us living in one of the many small islands in the Visayas, things are different. Beaches are a common sight. We can go out, have dinner and take a romantic stroll in one of the top resorts in the city, and still be able to go home and sleep comfortably in our beds.

For this trip, we'd have to drive 3 long hours to and from Manila! I'm not a beach bum. And I'm pretty much sure our beaches here would still come out winners. My enthusiasm levels at this point are not too high.

On the other hand, we'll also be spending time in Subic and Manila. Zambales, being a province, would mean peaceful, quiet evenings. Though I know we can always find something to do and explore, we decided on spending our nights in Subic. It's the nearest civilization that we know of. Subic would be fun, and so would Manila. There's a whole lot more we can do in these places. We've drafted plans, scheduled activities and made bookings. Everything's been set.

Now counting down the hours til Saturday.


P. S. Will post pictures when we get back.

The Philippines is an archipelago. It has 3 main groups of islands - Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Luzon and Mindanao each has a big chunk of land. Visayas however, have several small ones. Thus the beaches all over.

His Thoughts - Subic, Zambales, Manila trip

First on the list is our trip to Subic, Zambales and Manila this weekend, November 27 to December 1. I had been to all of these places before, except Zambales. This trip was planned by her officemates five months ago.

I learned that we'll be going to Zambales for the nice beaches and for island hopping. My first thought was why travel that far when we have a lot of nice beaches just nearby in Cebu and Negros Island. And I'm not that much of a beach person as well. We have to go with the group's plan, but recommended to include Subic and Manila as well on the itinerary.

While preparing for the trip, my girl casually mentioned that she haven't decided whether to bring a trolley or duffel bag. But i knew what she meant by that! She was in a way asking what bag I'd be more comfortable bringing, especially since I'd still be the one to bring them anyway. And when she travels, she's always the one who has the largest luggage among her travel companions.

Watch out for our blog entries after we get back from this trip!

Her Trip - From This Point On..

I love to travel. So does he. I believe it was what brought us together. It was the initial common denominator. We used to lose track of time talking about trips we dream of taking and places we've both been to. He has gone to more places than me. But I'll soon be catching up!

The hours we spent discussing future trips led to the creation of this blog. We'll be writing about our expectations, the preparations leading up to each trip, and the actual experiences after.

Some trips we go with a group, some as a couple. But from this point on here, "we", "us", would always refer to just me and my better half.

His Trip - Points of View

Me and my girl wanted to start our own travel blog when we came upon an article of the top travel blogs on the internet. I traveled a lot even before I met her but I don't get to blog nor write anything about my trips. I was glad when I met and knew her, and found out that she also loved to travel and had been to most of the countries I had been to as well. This blog would be for the trips we're planning on taking together soon.

We decided to name this blog as it is since we plan to write both our points of views of the trip we'll be taking. Yes, we'll be traveling together but we might have different opinions and observations on the people, foods and the experiences in these places.

We consider ourselves budget travelers. We wait for airline promos and book flights a year before the actual flights. We painstakingly scan the internet and book hotels online for the cheapest rates for a decent hotel. And we plan to share these promos and cheap rates here in this blog as well.