Dreaming in Everland

Ride all you can at 60, 000 Korean Won. One of the best places in South Korea! Everland Resort only spells fun, fun and fun. The theme changes every season, a flower festival during spring, winter wonderland for the snowy months, falling in fall and under the sea adventure during summer. Plus, around the world in one day... prepare for a very long one.

Negros Oriental

The first semester of AY 2012-2013 was bloody hell, so much I don't want to even think about it. My friends and I need to "de-stress" and do something exciting. So we decided to visit Negros Oriental since our college classmate is currently doing her law at Silliman University. Other than relieving the stress, the trip was actually more of catching up a good old friend and surprisingly it was in time for the yearly Buglasan Festival. We planned just a day before departure, sometimes not planning adds more adrenaline to the fun that lies ahead.
An so from the Cebu South Bus Terminal (Php 169.00) we head off for Liloan, Santander. We arrived at Liloan 11:45 AM just in time for the ferry (Php 60.00) bound for Sibulan, Negros by 12:00 noon. We crossed Tanyon Strait for about 15 minutes and the waves were plain torture. It might help to drink some meds for motion sickness. Another way (though this might take 15 min more of your time) is take a direct bus (Php 250.00) from the terminal, drop by Bato, Santander and take the RoRo straight to Dumaguete City.
By12:30 PM we were in Sibulan which is a 10 min jeepney ride (Php 11.00) to Dumaguete City. Kenny has been living in Dumaguete for 2 years now so she did all the recommendations, from food to the sidetrips and what not. We took our lunch at Sta. Theresa Resto, the food was affordable and delicious. When I say delicious, I mean it. So far of all the trips I've been, Dumaguete has the best food and my friends agree to that.

Dumaguete has a lot of foreigners, Asians, Europeans, Americans and locals alike so looking for a place to stay should not be bothersome. Just like food, hotels are also cheap. Ours was Php 1000 for 24 hours, we're four so we just spend Php 250.00 per person. We chose a strategic hotel located in the downtown area so it's easy to just go anywhere. After settling down we head off for a hot spring in Valencia, 40 min jeepney ride (Php 11.00) from Dumaguete, then we took a "habal-habal" to bring us to Pulangbato hot spring in Malabo. The place was very remote, a valley located in between ranges of a dormant volcano so when people go there they normal ask the "habal-habal" drivers to wait. From Valencia to Malabo plus the waiting period (2-4 hours), and the from Malabo to Dumaguete, the habal-habal cost Php. 150.00 per person. The name Pulangbato literally means red rock primarily caused by high concentrations of iron.

 After dipping ourselves to the 40 degree Celsius water, we were once again spoiling our gut to the sumptuous goodies of Dumaguete and head straight to Qyosko for dinner. We then spend the night strolling along the boulevard, enjoying the festivities of Buglasan and did a little of the booze in Hayahay.

The next day we went to Sans Rival, a must-go resto/bistro, and the highly acclaimed Silliman University. Sans Rival and Silliman are quiet big names in Dumaguete and I have only good memories for them so I will be scribbling a separate blog for these.(Silliman University, Sans Rival)

3 things to do in Jeju Island

So far, the travel experience to Jeju Island was my best. I can't believe reading the results of the new 7 wonders of the world. Somehow I felt proud to have gone to one of the 7. It's quite sad tough, the irony of life strikes hard. Been in the Philippines most of my life but never been to the underground river of Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Well, looking back, conditions had been more favorable for a Jeju adventure. It was winter and our university's training ship was off to Jeju for the maritime student's monthly drill. I was lucky to rode for free plus the meal which was more like of a naval taste.

To be biased about it, Jeju is one, if not the most, beautiful place in South Korea. I bet Koreans agree with me on this. In fact it is favorite among drama and movie directors alike. It has a very windy summer, array of flowers during spring, pronounced deep blue waters during autumn and a mixture of everything during winter. A complete Jeju experience could be best defined by three things.

Of all places in the country, Jeju-do (as Koreans call it) is relatively warmer during winter because it is positioned lowest. We took off at Seogwipo, the part of Jeju where the falls and large stone formations were. It had numerous displays of a statue called "hareubang" which means grandfather (to-do number 1). We only had a map, a good walking shoes and a camera to keep the memories. We were clueluess about the rest. We did not plan where to sleep, where to eat, in fact we did not know anything. We were asking questions all the time and that was the key for any carefree expidition.

After walking around, we decided to ride a bus off to Jeju City which is the center for most of the activities in the island. We were strolling in the biting winter until sunset. We decided to take a taxi and asked the driver to take us to any public bathhouse. Things like these are not dangerous to do in South Korea, especially in Jeju where people are generally friendly and crime rate is zero. Like most wandering Koreans, we warmed ourselves into the hot pools of the bathhouse and slept to regain energy for the next day's adventure. When we checked out early in the morning, we found snow scattered all over the streets and Halla-san (the highest mountain in the country excluding that of North Korea) was pure white. From Jeju City, we took a bus and visited some historical village at the foot of Hala Mountain. Unluckily, it was closed for renovation, which left us wandering again. We were walking for more than 2 hours until we decided to make a detour in a remote tangerine farm (this should be second on your list). Our pure intent were only to take pictures but to our surprise the owners handed two bags full of tangerine. We had too much tangerine on that day, believe it or not up to now I feel as if I had enough tangerine for the rest my life.

We were on our way back to Seogwipo, exhausted and cold as we finally head home. We got a second surprise. We found a horse ranch and the scene was simply irresistible. Lots and lots of horses and lots and lots of snow. The place was bright all over, we were so overwhelmed. The place was very quite, it was just us and the horses. We were busy making some snowman when suddenly we lost track of our tangerine. Just in the nick of time we saw notorious crows munching on our precious citrus. My friend ran as fast as he could to scare them away but the ground was so slippery with ice. He decided to take a handful of snow on the ground and throw right at the fiery birds. I followed him instantly but I was useless. I could not help myself from laughing out loud over our ill fated tangerine. Lucky day for us, those crows only managed to have a few and left us with still a half full bag of the seedless fruit. 

Later that day we found ourselves chasing the bus, hoping to catch up with the training ship. We can't afford to be left behind. Our 2 day ramble had mostly long hours of walking, very few gobbles with food and a whole sense of the unknown. Jeju is quite small and buses are available in an hourly bases. The population is not large, very few establishments and the rest is beauty. I will definitely go back, very soon.