By: Jon
May 19, 2005 1:50 PM

I’m not trying to surpass what the motorcyle diaries have accomplished but this is my own version of it. Titled this journal as “Tricyle Diaries” because most of the time we were riding the damn thing. This is my journal for my adventure at the great beaches of Alaminos to Bolinao…

First stop, “The Hundred Islands", Alaminos, Pangasinan..

May 14, 2005 1:00 am

We were bound to Alaminos to go to the 100 islands. Checked the buses bound to go there and my best options were Victory and 5 Star bus lines. Apparently, only Victory Cubao have scheduled trips to Alaminos, and none at the Pasay terminal. 5 Star have Alaminos trips as well, and their terminal is at Pasay Edsa which is near my place. Hence, chose the 5 Star Bus Line to take us to Alaminos.  Their aircon bus is due by 12 am, but because of unavoidable circumstances we missed the trip, and so we rode the 1am bus, but it’s an ordinary bus and the next aircon bus is by 4am, which will be a waste of time to wait.  Good thing it’s night time and that it wasn’t so hot and humid. However, when the bus stops you can really feel the uncomfortableness of the ride.  The trip took us about 4 and a half hours till we reached Alaminos town proper.

We arrived about 5:30 in the morning and scouted restaurants to have breakfast. Apparently all of them are not open yet at that time. While waiting for Jollibee to open up, we
visited St. Joseph church and paid our homage and offered our own prayers. Church seems new coz of probably the new paint, but I was told that it’s an old church as well. After the church, we went to a nearby park and killed time there. Alaminos is really a growing city, at the town proper you can see a lot of establishments that a city would need. Such as a fire station, water company, hotels, banks, restaurants, recreational centers and a nearby market.. At the park, you can still witness a lot of old houses with capiz windows and all, but these houses has been turned into commercial spaces.  By 7:00 we went back to Jollibee to have breakfast. We still needed to wait for a friend who’s coming from Sagada to tag along in this adventure.  Frances arrived around 8:30 am. After taking her breakfast, we were off to the public market to buy seafood and veggies for our lunch.  All the while I thought that Alaminos spoke the Pangasinense dialect, little did I know that most of them spoke the Ilocano dialect. Being raised in Baguio, I am fluent in speaking the dialect.. So it somehow feels home at that place. Where I can converse well with the locals in the market. We bought fish and squid for our main dish, and green mangoes, talong, and tomatoes for our ensalada.  The public market have all the grilling needs, so we bought everything we need to prepare and cook our food. After getting all we need we were off to the 100 islands…

This is our 2nd ride in the tricycle. The 1st was from the bus stop going to Alaminos town proper.  In the public market you can talk to tryke drivers to bring you to the Lucap pier, we paid 50 bucks to go to the place. It’s a 20 mins drive and very near Alaminos town proper. At the Lucap pier, you need to pay for an entrance fee of 20 pesos per person, and if u have a car you’d need to pay for parking fees as well. At the information center, you can get an idea of how much you’d have to pay bangka ride for the island hopping trip or to an island you’d want to stay.  For an island hopping ride over the day, you’ll be charged of 800 pesos, and 600 pesos to just take you to an island. We chose to have an island hopping. What will be the essence of being there, if u do not island hop right? We visited the islands, like the Governor’s island where it has a nice scenic view, and a view deck that let’s you witness the islands from the top. Visited the developed islands such as Quezon and Children’s, but I was very disappointed with the Quezon island as it was really dirty and like a palengke. Seeing the Quezon island, it seems it is the best island there coz of the formation and what the island can offer.  That being the reason why probably a lot of people are comverging there. And because of that, the place became dirty and crowded. MOst especially worst is, it seems there were no maintenance people in the island during the day to keep the beauty of the place. I wonder if the other WOW Philippines sites are well taken cared off? I think they are doing a bad job with these wonderful islands. The bangkero told me that this national park will be turned over to Alaminos City custody. I hope they can do better than the Department of Tourism as it is now.  The bangka driver is a tour guide as well, he oriented us with the names of the islands, but most of the islands have no names yet.

After having enough of the tour and being excited for the water already, we decided to pick an island..

The island have no name yet, so we named it as “Jomaka” island. Based from our names joined together, so rastafari like. jomaka have a small stretch of white sand, good enough for the three of us. The sea is so peaceful there as it is surrounded by other islands and islets, making the big waves calm when it reaches its shore.  The island have a nice rock formation that became our shelter to protect us from the sun.. After putting our things in place, we prepared the seafood for grilling. I set-up the grill and fired up the charcoals.  While the girls prepared the seafood for grilling and the enchaladas for the appetizers.  We finished cooking the food by 2:00 pm and gourged on the food.. It was surprisingly delicious and be assured that the seafood are all fresh.

After the lunch, we enjoyed the sea and I had time to explore the top of the island. The place is surrounded by shallow water where you can actually swim to the other islands. But I decided to stay on our island and try out snorkeling.  The place is great for snorkeling, not much corals but there are a number of types of fish.  We fed them with bread, and it was really awesome to be close to them at arm’s length..  Spent the rest of the day swimming then had amazing and “sexy” stories with the gals. Hehe about 630 in the afternoon, the water is still calm and very nice for dipping, stories are becoming exciting and outrageous, and then sadly our bangka ride arrived to pick us up.. We didn’t have the intention to stay overnight as we wanted to check in at a resort at Bolinao. So we packed our things and cleaned up the place, we were off back to Lucap pier.. By 7pm, still riding the bangka, the sun is dawning. It was really an amazing sight to witness the dawn of the sea horizon. Colors were playing and good thing we were able to capture it. That ended our 100 islands fun, and now we are bound to go to Patar, Bolinao..

2nd Stop - “Patar - Bolinao,
Pangasinan”

This is the longest tricycle
ride I ever had… After our trip at the hundred islands, we were back at the
Lucap Pier. From there we were thinking of taking the jeepney to take us to
Bolinao town, but a lot of locals were telling us that there are very few or no
jeeps already going at that time. A lot of trikes will offer their services to
take you to Bolinao, or Patar for that matter and take you to a resort that you
like. According to them the regular charge to Bolinao by tricycle is 300 pesos.
That’s at Bolinao town proper only. I didn’t have a clue that Patar is still
far from Bolinao town. So we rode the trike, but made a deal that we will be
brought down at Bolinao town.. Along the way we decided that they help us scout
a resort as well at Patar, so the driver asked for another 150 pesos for the
charge. We tried to haggle for the price as we thought we were being
overcharged, so we agreed on an additional hundred for the ride.

Off to Patar, and suddenly
realizing that it’s still really far from Alaminos, as we were going to a long
road and even went up to a zig zag road till we reach Bolinao. The driver
brought along a friend as according to him it will be hard to return back to
Alaminos alone, with all the ghosts in the road according to him. We reached
Bolinao town after an hour and 30 mins. That’s still at the town proper, we
still needed to go to Patar. Took us about another 45 minutes to reach
Patar. There are a lot of resorts at
that place, but only a few caught our fancy. The Del Sol is really a nice
resort and complete with necessary facilities. We were supposed to check-in
there but it was fully booked already. It was already 10pm and we haven’t had our dinner yet, so we decided to
take our dinner first at del sol. Our driver and his friend looks so tired
already coz of the trip so we asked them to take dinner with us. Mark the
driver also loves to hike mountains so we talked a lot about mountains that
we’ve trekked and he also suggested some good beaches at Pangasinan, he seems
to had enough of beaches so his interest is more on the mountains. After taking dinner, we moved out at del sol
and checked in at the 2nd best resort we checked out. That was about 1130 in
the evening and I was really a bit tired, but my companions really wanted to do
bonding so we decided to have drinks first before going to sleep. I fixed our
bags and put them inside our room, and decide to take a shower first as we
didn’t have a decent bath since we were at the hundred islands. After taking a
shower, my mind still wanted to take those drinks but my body was telling me
otherwise coz of the long tiring drive and not having enough sleep since we
arrived Pangasinan. And so I decided to take a power nap and planned on waking
up after 30 minutes. But apparently I woke up the next day by 10 in the
morning. Hehe the girls tried waking me up but I was really in deep sleep and
didn’t even hear their noise and attempt to wake me up. When I was up, I
ordered coffee and took it at the beachfront. The resort’s beachfront was a
disappointment. So I thought of exploring Patar later and look for a none
commercialized beach.

When the girls woke up, we
wanted to have our lunch. We agreed on preparing our food, so we were off
waiting for another tricycle to take us to the market. Trikes at Patar are
always full and are not that plenty. Good thing though, a tricycle with his
family went on our way and stopped to take us. His wife was selling mangoes,
and Man! I’ll tell you, it was a long time already since I appreciated mangoes!
Those were the sweetest and freshest mangoes I’ve ever tasted since probably 10
years! And best part is its only 25 bucks per kilo. The girls bought 4 kilos of
mangoes I think and I was just eating the free ones. as I don’t think I can
sustain the freshness when it reaches my condo back in makati.. So I was just
eating them while we were there. The driver took us to the market and the wife
stayed at the resort to sell the remaining mangoes. At the market, we bought
some fish, veggies and rice for our lunch. Sadly the stores didn’t have stock
of charcoal, and I gave away the left charcoals at Alaminos, so I worried on
how we will be able to cook the food. Good thing I speak Ilocano and the lady
vendor was charmed enough to give her charcoals to us. We went back to the
resort and paid the trike driver and luckily all their mangoes were sold. Again
I prepared to fire up the charcoals and the girls prepared the food to be
cooked. We finished cooking and lunch by 2:00 pm..

After our lunch, we looked
for another tricycle to help us explore the place. We met Mario and we rented
his tricycle to bring us to places. We were told about the caves in that place,
so we decided to try them out. Mario took us to the Enchanted Cave, I thought
though that it was an untouched cave but the locals made it a commercialized
cave already. Nevertheless, the cave was a sight worth seeing. It’s just a
small cave but there’s a “batis” inside it. Plus since it was really hot at that time, the water in the cave was
really great to cool down your body. The water’s temperature was just perfect
enough to take away the heat of your body and the weather. You can taste the
minerals of the water and can see the stalactites and stalagmites inside the
cave. We were alone in the cave for a few minutes, and then suddenly people
came pouring in. When a lot of peeps were already swimming in the cave and
since it was getting late already, we decided to leave the place and look for a
beach. Before leaving, we ordered for halo-halo, unfortunately we can’t seem to
avoid overhearing an old lady’s angst about her family and workers, which
caused irritancy to us. So we ate fast, took some pics and then rode the
tricycle again..

I asked Mario to take us to
a near beach, but the nearest one was private though it was still barren, and
we didn’t want to risk trespassing. So I let Mario decide to take us to a good
beach. We rode farther Patar, it’s quite far from the resorts and the caves but
Surprise! It was worth the wait and worth the effort!

It wasn’t a good beach but a
"great" beach to correct it! I didn’t expect anything grand at that
time as it was too late already and there wasn’t enough time anymore. But I was
proven otherwise, it was one of the best beach I’ve seen so far! It has a long
stretch of white sand. Seems there is no one owning the place yet, which is
good coz you don’t have to worry about entrance fees if there were resorts. The
sand was filled with dried leaves coz no one is taking care of it yet. But Mario
told me that some commercials were shot there. I guess it’s true coz there were
still some trash scattered at some area. Which is quite disappointing. There
are a lot of shells as well with crustaceans inside it, quite cute actually.
Patar boast of great beaches and Mario told me that there are still a lot more
beach locations that are great to explore. Sadly, that was our last day so
didn’t have more chance to do that. But anyhow, we were content with the place
and most of our cam shoots were done at that place. The weather wasn’t that
sunny, but the effect of the sun and the clouds we’re immaculate enough to
enthrall us. The girls spent some time swimming and I walked the shoreline of
the beach to see the place. Imaginations are running wild and I actually
thought of buying an area there, for a small beach house or something like a
resort. 

After enjoying the place,
rain fell and we decided to leave the place. Mario brought us back to our
resort and asked him to come back to pick us up by 8:00pm for our trip back to
Manila. Fixed our things, took our bath and waited for the tricycle. Mario
arrived and took us to bolinao town proper, but we decided to take our dinner
first before leaving pangasinan. Went to a carinderia and ordered some dishes
and then went to 5 Star bus lines for the trip to Manila. That ended our
adventure Then we were off back to manila. Bummer..

Anyway, it was a great trip
I definitely recommend you to visit the place. It’s a sure wonderful way to
unwind and escape the busy life of the city..

"MARINDUQUE"

Whoa!! Finally had the chance to explore Marinduque.  Thanks to labor day coz it made the weekend longer, but had to extend my vacation for another day coz 4 days is a really short time.  Anyhow,  For you peeps who want to visit the clean, green and full of surprises place of Marinduque, here are some ways to get there:

From Manila, take the Tritran Bus going to Lucena City, and then proceed to Dalahican Port. Bus terminals are located at Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue (Buendia) near corner Taft Avenue, and at the Liwasang Bonifacio Station (Lawton). From Dalahican in Quezon Province, take a fast craft ferry plying the Sta. Cruz, Buyabod and Balanacan, Mogpog ports, an approximately two-hour ride; ro-ro boats take 3 hours. Public utility jeepneys and tricycles are available at the Sta. Cruz and Balancan ports to take passengers to various towns of Marinduque.   

Here are some Major attractions of Marinduque(got this from the net *wink* *wink*):

Bathala Caves, Sta, Cruz - A complex network of 7 caves but only four of these caves have so far been explored. Simbahan is the biggest, Kay Coke cave is occasionally guarded by a python, third cave has an underground river and in the fourth cave are human bones believed to be the remains of WWII soldiers

Elephant Island, Buenavista - One of the small islets dotting the seas of Marinduque is almost surrounded by sheer cliffs with a half-kilometer beach of white sand and crushed corals.

Malbog Spring, Buenavista - Therapeutic waters found at the base of Mt. Malinding. Two swimming pools of warm though slightly sulfuric waters offer relaxing baths to visitors.

Mt. Malindig - Bordering the towns of Buenavista and Torrijos. An inactive volcano rising 3,167 feet above the sea.

Paadjao Falls - Series of gently cascading falls (100 feet) that settles into a 15-foot fall. Hunt for nature-formed bathtubs downstream and enjoy jacuzzi-like effects.

Polo, Maniwaya and Mongpong Islets, Sta. Cruz - Major islets found on the northeastern coast of Marinduque. Ideal for swimming and snorkeling is the stretch of white-sand.

Tres Reyes Islands
Serving as favorite haunts, delightful picnic grounds, and dive spots in Marinduque are the islets named Gaspar, Melchor, and Baltazar, collectively known as Tres Reyes Islands.

Moriones Festival
Annually, during the observance of Holy Week, a biblical character in the person of the Roman centurion, Longinus, comes alive as the towns of Boac, Mogpog, and Gasan celebrate the Moriones Festival. It is a religious festival, which links the story of Longinus with Christ’s Passion and Death.

"TRES REYES - THE MAGNIFICENT GASPAR ISLAND"

After our gimik night at Lucena Grand Terminal (Segue: There’s a nice park near Lucena grand terminal where you can have drinks, yeah alcohol, and its a nice place to go "tambay", surprisingly the people who frequent that place is not bad either.. ) we went to Dalahican Port to ride the 4am trip going to Marinduque… Sunrise while in the boat is breathtaking.  The sea at that time is very peaceful and serene.. Though we havent had enough sleep we were still captivated by the sight when we arrived the Balanacan port at Marinduque.  Not knowing where to go, we rode a Boac FX to take us to Boac town proper, but when we reached the town, it seems not suitable for adventure and nature trip.. and so we went on going to Gasan and Buenavista.. When we arrived Gasan i decided to stop and go down the FX without knowing where to go.. Marianne, Archie and I were at Gasan town and then called for a Tricycle, with Marianne’s whistling skill the Trike driver wouldn’t be able to resist us .. We asked for the nearest resort at Gasan and we were shown some but it did not catch our fancy. I’ve known about Club Marinduque in the net, so we decided to check it out.. Fortunately "Club Marinduque" is near Gasan where we left off..  Club Marinduque was hospitable enough to accommodate us, and the place is small but nice, decent and well maintained… the Club will charge for a single bed for 1,080 damage plus additional 260 per head, max in the room is 4… the 2 beds is priced at 1,800 pesos… not bad for a good place and good food… And so we took our rest in the morning, slept to gain our energies back..  Afternoon came and we were of to "Tres Reyes" Islands, Tres Reyes is near the Club as well… so i think "fate" really brought us to Club Marinduque to experience the Tres Reyes Islands..

You have to ride a "bangka" to go to Tres Reyes.. Mang Mentiong, our
bangka driver took us around the Gaspar Island to witness the place. , you’ll need at least 4 hours bangka ride to visit the 3 islands.. we did not have enough time, so after going around Gaspar island we decided to hit it’s white beach already.  Nearing the island, excitement was befalling us.. while the "bangka" is looming towards the island you can see how gorgeous the place is… The effect of the crushed corals is making the shore white, good opportunity for "kodakan" moments…  We waited for the sunset, and as always it’s hypnotizing effect calms your soul and pacifies your mind… and that concluded our stay at the Gaspar island…

"TRES REYES KIDS"

While exploring the island of Gaspar, can’t help but notice the kids that are flocking and making the shoreline as their play ground.. Grabbed the digicam immediately and took shots of these kids.. at first they were hesitant about the pictures being taken, but when they’ve seen the pics they were excited for more…  They came closer and were obligingly posing for the camera… It was really fun to take their pictures, but most importantly it was awe-inspiring to have captured the innocence of these kids… It was amusing to watch them play around and not a care in the world… satisfied and content for the life they have for the moment.. Humbling to witness the simple life they have and less complications at that… Nevertheless, I am sure their parents would want to have something better for the kids and for their families.

The Gaspar island have a small community, and i’d assume that fishing is one of their means of survival…  We had a chance to meet and talk to the son of the owner of Club Marinduque, and apparently there were plans of buying the island from the locals of Gaspar island to make it an airport and a commercial resort .. These businessmen comprises americans, swiss and surprisingly filipino nationals.. However, the locals of Gaspar fought for their rights even with a tempting amount of sum.. They warned those businessmen that if they force them to vacate the island they will suffer the wrath of their vengeance.. Hail Hail!! hehe… I was so proud of them that they did not give up their island, as they may not realize it, but they have a treasure in their hands.  No amount of money can substitute the gift of  nature and environment they have right now…

The exuberance i felt from this island will certainly be remembered.. I wouldn’t think twice if someone invites me to go back to that place.. But for all intents and purposes, I hope our government can have protective laws and regulations for these communities, and that there will be efforts to improve the lives of these people…

“Elephant Island”

Another captivating island of Marinduque. It’s the islet located below the island of Marinduque. Its shoreline is composed of white sand and crushed corals as well.  The view is really fascinating as the beach is fronting Mt. Malindig. The water is clean and clear, also great for snorkeling and diving.

Since we’ve stayed at Club Marinduque at Gasan, we contracted Mang Mentiong again to take us to this island, took about an hour and 45 minutes bangka ride going there. But there is another way to go there. If u have a car or a ride, you can take the route going directly to Buenavista till Mt. Malindig but expect some rough roads going to the community near Malindig. Then take a bangka ride going to Elephant island. More or Less it will take you probably an hour to go there by car and bangka.

Elephant island is an abandoned resort. It was previously owned by some Japanese businessmen and bought by Koreans after them. I’ve no idea who owns the place now but I was told that the Koreans got bankrupt but they still own the island. We were told that the view at the top of Elephant island is Magnificent, and they have a hotel, golf course and all. However, since it was closed down and protected, the “bantays” didn’t allow us to go up and explore the top of the island. We were just allowed to stay and swim at the shoreline.  Anyhow, the beach was worthwhile and fun even if we weren’t able to explore it fully. 

Just sad to know that some beautiful places or an island at that are being owned by foreigners and not Filipinos.  How can a gorgeous island in Phillippine territory be owned by another nationality? Frustrating to realize that we have such nature’s gifts for the Philippines but not be able to embrace and fully own it. That we Filipinos have such a Gem that we can be proud of the world but realizing that it was already bought by businessmen from other countries.  I just hope that there was no community in that island before and that they were paid to vacate the place like the attempt in Tres Reyes island. Or worse, that they were forced to leave the place and be relocated without having an idea how to re-build their community again.  I’ve heard cases like these in other parts of our country, especially in Palawan, Aklan and Zambales.  Where most of the resorts now are being owned by foreigners.  In my opinion, commercialized resorts will help our country improve our situation as it attracts a lot of tourists and will make the Philippines be known of these great places.  However, I hope majority of the benefits from these improvements and tourism will be given to Filipinos. Had a chance to go to Boracay and try out some bars and restaurants being owned by foreigners. Guess what some of these establishments are not giving Official Receipts.  What does that tell you? I bet these establishments are not paying the right taxes! So where does the share for the Philippines go?  This has been a concern of mine coz I’ve been working for a Project for the Buruea of Internal Revenue to improve their collection drive. Luckily I was with some BIR officers and we bravely checked the ORs of these establishments. Some known bars and restaurants at Bora can’t even show us some decent docs.  Again, I hope that our government can do something about this. Not just exploit our beaches but most importantly Protect our lands and improve the lives of the communities from these great islands…

Anyway, peeps remember this always, the shoreline is “Public” property. You have every right to enjoy the Beach!!!

Pizawt!!