Michi Photostory

1. UKL Ever Hotel – we’re lucky that our room accommodation has 2 complimentary breakfast. (sulit!) The only problem is we only have 4 choices; tapsilog, hotsilog, longsilog and tocilog. Our favorite is longsilog and tapsilog. Extra order is P80. 


Since we had an amazing race tour, we did not go out for dinner; we just ate at their restaurant. Our favorite is breaded porkchop P120 and fried chicken P120.


2. Café Uno – in Vigan.

We ordered pinakbet plain, pinakbet with bagnet, sinigang na baboy, grilled bangus, chicken inasal, plain rice and bagoong rice (rice, bagoong, kangkong, salted egg and tocino). They have big servings so we keep on ordering rice just to finish everything. We all love the food, I’m not fond of vegetables but I like their pinakbet. Price is affordable, for a group of 8 people, our bill is only P1k+.


3. Irene’s Vigan Empanada – they all ate empanada in Vigan except me, not a fan of empanada. P35 per piece.


4. BergBlick Restaurant in Pagudpud, can you believe that there’s a German restaurant in Pagudpud. We were supposed to eat at Evangeline Resort but they could not accommodate us because they are expecting 100 guests and we could no longer wait because it was past 1PM already so we ended up in BergBlick Restaurant. 

We ordered a fish platter, Ilocandia express, sinigang na fish (I can’t remember the name) and crème brulee for dessert. The price is a little bit expensive for a group of 8 people, our bill is P2k+. Our favorite is the fish platter.


5. Jollibee – in Laoag for snacks.

6. La Preciosa in Laoag, we ordered diningding, lengua estofado and mocha sansrival. Hubby and son enjoyed their diningding, he even said “sabaw pa lang ulam na”. I always love lengua estofado and La Preciosa did not fail me.

My son liked his mocha sansrival but La Preciosa best seller cake is carrot cake. I got to taste it because my sister’s friend gave me a slice. They have big servings and the price is also affordable, for a group of 3 people, our bill is only P500+


Like I said, La Preciosa carrot cake is their best seller and I even see some people at the airport who have boxes of La Preciosa cake but I still prefer mocha sansrival because I am not fond of carrots. I enjoy the cake but I have to remove the shredded carrots. 

pabaon from my sister's friend

7.     Street Foods


Food photos are not complete; blame it on our hungry stomachs.

At the entrance, you will see the small horse-drawn carriage called “tiburin”, the rides are free but of course “manongs” are expecting the tip. I know that it is free but my husband who’s not reading my itinerary asked manong if we can ride the “tiburin” and if it is free. Then manong whispered, tip lang po. 

I do give tips but I dislike when people are expecting them. Anyway, we rode the carriage and he brought us to the camel, took some pictures and he dropped us off at animal encounter shows.

After our lunch at Café Uno, we started our tour in Pagburnayan Jar Making. If you are going to Vigan do not miss this place, it’s really nice to see how they mold and shape the clay into jars, vases and pots. It looks so easy but I know that it’s difficult.

Last year, my sister decided not to have a birthday party for my nephew’s 7^th birthday instead they will just have a family out-of-town trip. So when I saw the PHP12 Cebu Pacific seat sale, I personally invited myself to join their family trip and informed her after I booked our flight (Ethan and I). Hehe!

Hubby was not interested to join but after our stressful week last December, he promised that he will join our Ilocos trip kahit magbus siya (babawi daw). But God is so good and I was able to get a seat sale ticket for my hubby last month.

A month before our trip I booked our hotel accommodation at UKL Ever Hotel and rented a van for 2 days tour. Actually, we can avail of the 3 days tour but 2 days tour is much cheaper and I can do Laoag tour on our own because we will be staying in Laoag Centro.

Fast forward, we started our tour as early as 7:30am, first stop is La Paz Sand Dunes, I thought this will be part of our second day, so I was not prepared, namuti tuloy ang black shoes ko. If you remember the “Temptation Island” movie, this is the location. As far as I know, you can also avail of sand boarding lesson, P2,500 for a group of four.

I can’t believe it’s already February, since Sunday we're so busy packing and unpacking stuff for my husband’s Baguio trip, Subic trip, and our upcoming trip. Very stressful week but finally we will be out again. 

Though I’m a bit nervous because we (my son and I) have to commute to meet my hubby (who is coming from Subic) before going to the airport. Good luck to me and my son, it’s been four years already since I rode a bus (bus from our place) so I still asked my former officemate a.k.a busmate regarding bus schedules and bus stopover.  Good thing I’ve asked, iba na pala. 

This is one of the disadvantages of living outside metro manila, there is no taxi. This will be the start of my busy days, I love February month. Hoping for good weather. We left early because I do not want to miss the bus, so we rode the tricycle and jeep to reach the last bus stop over. Thank God, we did not miss the bus, buzzer beater nga lang. It took us only 1 hour to reach our meeting place but hubby wasn’t there yet, we waited for 1 hour and 30 minutes before hubby arrived.

When we reached the airport, the security guard said no more parking slot and he asked for our flight schedule. Naawa naman si manong and he said, “sundan niyo, try ko maghanap bandang dulo,” We only have less than two hours so we’re so scared to miss our flight. Thank God again because we’ve found one available slot.

We had a great time in Laoag, Vigan, and Pagudpud except for last Sunday. There are some mishaps that really stressed me.  

1. After our half-day tour, we really don’t know where to go to kill time, we went back to the hotel and stayed in the lobby but we were so bored so past 2PM, we decided to go to the airport already. We asked first the hotel receptionist if Laoag airport is already open and she said yes. 

Off we went to the airport and we were so disappointed because it was still closed and we were the first passengers there. For the second time around, early bird na naman kami. We experienced this in our Puerto Princesa trip, after check-out we went to the airport for our past 2PM flight and the airport was closed. We waited for almost an hour.

chichacorn, longganisa ilocos, bagnet, shirt, salt, garlic, onion, bangui windmill magnet, keychain and display

Yesterday, after church service we went to Soderno, I’ve been meaning to go here since last year but it is always crowded whenever we passed by maybe because it was Soderno nights. Sunday organic market is not crowded, it is almost empty and I only see few food stalls.







Before we left, I asked hubby to buy cake from megabox because I saw “buy 1 take 1 promo”” but he bought pastries, P40 each.  (napakamasunurin).  =). If you visit Soderno, don’t forget to try megabox, we love their brownies and revel bars and it is not expensive, too bad, hubby bought only 3 pieces.

it may not look good on the picture but it is really yummy.

Orlando, Florida is also known as “The City Beautiful” and there is no doubt about that because we all know that Orlando, Florida is indeed the beautiful and interesting place. It is the home of Walt Disney World Resort, SeaWorld Theme Park, Universal Orlando Resort, Gatorland, and Wet 'n Wild Water Park.

If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, you know that I’m not really into gadgets. I only buy those that I really need and I don’t care if I’m using an old model or not. 

The tablet is one of the popular gadgets today but I really have no plan on buying one because I think I don’t need it. I’m a full-time mom and if I need to be connected, I can use my laptop. One more thing, I’m scared to buy gadgets because I don’t want my son to be hooked with video games or online games and I feel that it’s too early for him to have gadgets.

But I’ve been reading blogs and I’ve seen other kids using tablet, I realized that tablet is also used as an educational tool so I search for different tablet for kids and I even included them in one of my post last year “Christmas Gift Ideas for Kids”. From that moment, I was really thinking if I will buy one for my son. Leappad learning tablet is P7,999.

We went to Pangasinan last weekend to attend the “Babang-Luksa” of my grandfather-in-law. Sort of family reunion though we’re not complete. One thing that I always look forward to every time there’s an event in Pangasinan is no other than my favorite lechon. It’s love at first taste, I don’t know how they marinade their lechon but I always enjoy this dish. I was busy eating lechon so I have no time to take some pictures so I just borrowed pictures from my cousin-in-law. =)

sorry pig!

Don't forget to bring your Tupperware!

When I was still in elementary one of my favorite subjects is HEKASI (Heograpiya, Kasaysayan, and Sibika) maybe because I enjoy knowing and learning about beautiful places in the Philippines. There is so much to see in the country but I still have no money to visit these places, so I promised myself that someday I will be able to go here.

So when I reach College, I open a savings account and start saving my allowances so I have money to spend on vacation. Little by little I was able to explore our country and when I graduated from college, that was the start of my travel adventure via plane.

I cannot consider myself a certified traveler but I’m still proud of myself because slowly I’m achieving my dream and for someone who is not rich, this is really an achievement. I want to be rich with knowledge, experience, and memories, things that I know I can treasure forever and no one could take it away from me.

This is my list when I was a kid. 

If you still remember last year, I went to the hospital for three consecutive weeks but my doctor was on Holiday leave so I just went back today, after Holiday. Thank God, she’s back and because she was away for several weeks, there were so many patients. While waiting for my turn, I’m checking my record and I was shocked when I saw my weight.



Last January 2011, my weight is only 86lbs and after one year, I’m now 100lbs, so 14lbs gained in 12 months. This is really shocking to me because for 28 years, I never had any problem with my weight. In fact, I always research on how to gain weight because even I eat plenty of foods I’m not gaining weight but last year, things changed and now I do not know why I’m gaining weight.

Last summer I started to buy clothes because my clothes won’t fit me anymore, from size XS to S and now Medium and from size 25 to size 26 and now size 27. So imagine my dilemma every time I wear my clothes and pants and it no longer fits me. 

I need to buy new clothes just to have something to wear if I’m going out. Good thing that I am a full time mom and I do not need to change my whole wardrobe. I’m happy with my weight now, I just want to maintain it and stop gaining more pounds because I have no more budget to buy new stuff again.

I was searching the internet a while ago, looking for reasons why I’m gaining weight and here’s what I’ve found.  

I’m not a big fan of garlic pasta because it’s too bland for my taste but with the help of parmesan cheese, I enjoyed my garlic pasta. Sicilian chops are also good; the meat is tender and juicy.


My son enjoyed Chicken Parmigiana of my husband and he only ate the vanilla ice cream of his crepe.



Hubby and I love the banana nutella crepe and one crepe is not enough, if we’re not in a hurry, we will order more crepe.

I woke up late last Friday so when I saw the PHP1 Sale of Cebu Pacific I knew that I have a slim chance of getting a seat sale but it did not stop me from trying. So I checked the possible dates that we can travel, it is not easy to book because I have to consider my hubby’s vacation leave and my son’s school activities.

I was having a hard time checking the available date for Piso Sale because of the slow connection and slow Cebu Pacific site. It seems that the whole Philippines are trying to book their own flight so I stopped trying.

After dinner, I tried again and book Manila to Macau but I was getting an error via credit card payment so I chose BDO payment but I was shocked when I read this.

"You have until tonight, 23:59H PH Time to pay for your booking through various payment centers."

It’s past 8PM so all BDO branches are already closed so how can I pay? I’ve sent FB message to my sister-in-law informing her that she needs to pay their booking within the day, not within 24hrs. I have no idea when Cebu Pacific changed the procedure but last year I chose BDO payment too and they gave me 24hrs to pay my due. Before 12AM, I checked my message and my sister-in-law replied that my brother was able to pay through BDO Online Payment.


I thought I need to enroll Cebu Pacific first before I can pay it online. I texted and called my brother but no answer so I searched the net for some information. Finally, I was able to get some answer but it was past 12AM, my booking is still on hold status, I called Cebu Pacific if I can still pay my booking even it is past 23:59H but the customer service rep told me that my booking is already forfeited.

I was really sad because our Manila to Macau flight is only PHP1548 for 3 pax so it is really a steal. Anyway, at least I learned something new, just in case my credit card failed me again. If you have no credit card, you can still book a flight using other options and one of these options is internet banking.

Banco De Oro - www.mybdo.com.ph
China Bank - www.chinabank.ph
East West Bank - www.eastwestbanker.com
RCBC - www.rcbc.com
Security Bank - www.securitybank.com

How to Pay Cebu Pacific Ticket via BDO Online Payment 

1. Log-in to your account and follow the steps for payment.
2. Fill out the form.

Subscriber’s No. = 14-digit confirmation number.
Subscriber’s Name = name of one of the guests.
Enter the EXACT amount.

3. You need to wait for 24 to 48hrs before they will send your itinerary.

February - We celebrated our wedding anniversary in Boracay 
May - Nuvali and Ethan's Summer Class
November - Family trip in Baguio
December - Christmas and New Year Celebration

I was having a hard time thinking which gift I will buy for my son, Christmas had passed and we still have no gift. Good thing that my son was not asking for gift yet. 

But it’s better to be late than never so finally we bought our gift, “Thomas Climbing Set” and additional character Stanley.





My son loves Thomas and Friends so we’re not surprised if he likes this gift, all out ang smile. The only disadvantage of this toy is I need lots of batteries and to save me from buying batteries, I bought rechargeable one.