Hundred Islands, Pangasinan

On our way back to Manila from our recent Palawan trip and before the new year starts, we were off again for another adventure and this time to the northern part of Philippines -- the famous Hundred Islands, Pangasinan!

It was actually Mom who organized everything and this time, the whole family is included. Mom rented a house that could fit us all. She also managed to organize a full-day boat ride to go island hopping.

We decided to go on a road trip to Pangasinan and left very early morning to avoid traffic. Usually, it is a 4-hour or so drive from Manila straight to Pangasinan (without traffic of course) but we made a detour to Mom's land somewhere in Nueva Ecija first which adds up a couple more hours to drive from there to Pangasinan.

Bahay kubo

Vlad and Xioms trying to make friends with Mr. Cow

I don't know about you but province life seems to be boring yet relaxing and calming. The quietness is just so full of happiness within. Birds singing under the magnificent bright sun, wind blowing that helps trees dance, cows lazily munching some greens and so on -- all reminds us how simple life could be and they are all actually free! Carpe diem! Anyway, getting out of my zen now, we eventually went back to the road for Pangasinan.

We reached during nighttime, well, because we got a bit lost haha. Important thing is that we reached our final destination so we just relaxed, gulped some cold beers and snoozed for tomorrow's adventure.

Morning came and we are now off for island hopping! Yey! Few pics below.

Such an amazing view

with  my baby Xioms

shades of blue and green

I must agree that the view from the top is absolutely amazing but mind you, these islands are not the same as Boracay or El Nido that are actually accessible and easy for people to swim. There are some spots but it's either full-packed or quite dirty. I couldn't actually say that it was a spectacular experience and that we really really did enjoy the island hopping though the place is worth seeing. And oh, you cannot go see and hop on all those islands - they say it is "prohibited" to go to most of them. I wonder why? Anyhoo, that's it. Till my next adventure. Toodles!