Iloilo + Roxas

For this year's summer escapade, my family and I boarded a plane and visited the smallest of the 3 islands here in the Philippines, which is Visayas! 

My sister and I sat next to each other and in spite of the uber dirty and bird poop stained windows, she got her groove on and started taking pictures of the pretty fluffy clouds. She's been really immersing herself in spontaneous photography lately as in she takes photos during her walks around the bustling streets of Makati and I just love that. It makes me giddy that she can see the beauty while enclosed by looming towering buildings because it's something that I find really hard to do hehe. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that most of the photos here were taken by her since a) she really has an eye for nice things b) she whips out her itouch so quickly she could be a paparazzi and c) my laptop is crumbling and it can't read memory cards so it can't read the barely used slr's card (which doesn't have much in it since I got too lazy lugging around a huge chunky camera while out and about). 

One of my favorite photos!!

We got to the airport and we were just brimming with excitement and...autism. We jumped around and did synchronized jumping and counting and everything HAHA. 

Ate Stef looking oh so Ati-atihan chic

Kunwari new hairstyle......

The reason why we stopped by Iloilo before we went to Roxas, my dad's hometown, was because my dad's   good old friend wanted us to see Iloilo and so from the airport, tito Edmarc and his family (his uber nice wife and their super adorable baby Mel) picked us up and became our tour guides for the roadtrip.

Our first stop was at Ted's, the famous batchoy place. I remember the days when we'd go malling as a family and we'd eat the food court and pops would ALWAYS order from Ted's! It was so cool finally eating at a legit restaurant and not just ordering from a kiosk at a food court where the smell and the faint popping sounds from the staple sizzling place wouldn't tempt us hehe. After breakfast, we were ushered to our hotel which was located in the heart of Smallville which is...well...a small vill....age? It was a plaza with a ton of clustered establishments that mostly come alive at night naks. 

After resting for a bit, we got picked up and I graced the beach with my Indian princess-y presence chos. We ate at a restaurant by the beach and my sister played around with baby Mel and we ate and we drove for a long time and reached our host's house which was oh so peaceful and then we drove for yet another long time and got to Estancia! We ate an early dinner at another beach side restaurant and droooooooooove for a very looooooong time. By the time we got back to our hotel it was already past 9 in the evening!!!

After resting for a while, we headed out and checked out the local scene. We ended up at Pirates since it had a huge ass pirate ship sticking out and wala lang hahahaha. To cut the long story short, I ended up singing on stage for 2 songs before they ended their first set. It really sucked since they didn't have much songs to choose from and so I settled with a karaoke veteran, Dancing Queen hehehe. 

The next morning we got up bright and early to swim before we left for Roxas City. We already knew our hotel had a touch of Egyptian thingies but the El Dorado Resort which was somehow connected to our hotel (not really sure how), shocked us. It had native Mexican stuff all over and it even had an elephant in the pool! How awesome is that!!!!

I dub the huge guy on top Omac

From Iloilo, we rode a bus to Roxas City. It felt like it was the longest bus ride I have ever been to and riding buses is my means of transportation whenever I commute. The aircon was so bipolar, I'd sleep soundly all dry and wake up with my neck more moist than a chocolate cake :( But alas!!!!! We foinally arrived at Roxas and we got to ride a tricycle just like the old times and it was so fun cruising around town hanging on for dear life hehe. 

We hurriedly satisfied our tummy tums at our grandma's place and then went on to my uncle's fabulous dress shop, Vestes! The shop was so suave and sleek and oh so sophisticated with its black curtains, very chill aura and resourcefully recycled black hangers all over the shop. It was so mataray!

The rest of our trip passed by in a sunny and happy blur. We spent our early mornings by the pool just soaking up the sun, our lunch times with our family and the evenings were spent exploring the local hotspots. Our vacation was definitely one for the books! It took me such a long time to make a post about it because I really couldn't and still cannot put into words how good it felt to bask in the sun all day everyday hehehe and to be surrounded by the people you love the most hihi hay nakakabakla sa feelings.

I don't remember much what we did exactly during our stay but the important ones are A) we bonded a lot with my dad's side of the family :D B) we ate like we we'd be executed the next day C) we got so dark D) on a whim, my mum, my sister and I finally took swimming lessons hehehe since the resort we were staying at had ongoing lessons woop E) I developed an allergy to wearing clothes with sleeves hihi.

Hehe hay lovelovelove