Product: Active White Plus Bleaching Cream

Before this post misleads you, I am reviewing Active White Plus Bleaching Cream NOT as a facial product. Read on to find where I used it.

I haven't recovered from my Boracay fever so this post has still something to do with our honeymoon/wedding anniversary trip to the island. While I was searching for new swimwears to don at the beach, I was also faced with another concern. My body is not perfect and so is my skin. There are some parts that, let's just say, darker than the others. And if I were to wear bikinis, I'd risk revealing those "areas". Well, they are not really dark like gross-"ew!" dark. But the uneven color is noticeable especially since my thighs and hips are whiter than most parts of my body.

So I set out to find a solution. The first stop was Watson's Drugstore (Actually, it's the only place I had in mind). While my husband was buying the other toiletries, I was so absorbed in scanning all whitening products on display and in reading all those ingredients in fine prints until my eyes hurt. Anything with Paraben, I placed back into the shelf. I'm not really an organic buff, but I know that the Paraben is bad enough for major cosmetic industries to refrain from using it in their products. Although, the subject is debatable, I just want to be on the safe side.

Anyway, after more than an hour of reading, I finally settled on Active White Plus Bleaching Cream. The ingredients and the price looked reasonable and I assumed it's a facial product. I read somewhere that inguinal areas are as sensitive as our face so any harsh products might irritate and make them darker. So I zeroed in on products that are formulated specifically for facial use and deemed them safe and mild enough. But that's only my theory, nothing scientific nor medical, so don't quote me on that one .

Place: Hurom-Hurom Coldspring at Nabas, Aklan

The municipal town of Nabas is less than an hour away from the famed Boracay Island. But if ever you're in town and looking for something other than white beaches and night parties, you should try and visit Hurom-Hurom Coldspring Resort in Laserna, Nabas, Aklan.

Situated at the base of a mountain, the pools of Hurom-Hurom serve as large basins that collect cold and clear spring water. They even claimed that the water is clean and safe enough to drink. But I wasn't convinced.

The whole resort itself looked pristine and was able to maintain its natural charm despite the man-made pools and cottages. Entrance is only P20 per head, which I think will go to the preservation of the place and another P100 if you want to rent a bamboo table or P150 for umbrella cottages. I'm just not sure if they have provisions for overnight stays. But based on what I've seen, I think there is none. They have functional restrooms/changing rooms but don't expect much. There are also two sari-sari stores where you can buy basic toiletries and some snacks, if you forgot to bring some.

Movies-TV: GMA News TV

Looking forward to this. I am. Definitely.








Will ABS-CBN's ANC follow suit?

Update: I just learned that TV5 launched their Aksyon TV today, beating GMA News TV's kick off by a week. Although Luchi Cruz Valdez is one of my favorite journalists, I still think that TV5 has a lot of grounds to cover before they measure up to GMA's standard in news and documentary. I also wonder why ABS-CBN hasn't entered the ring yet? Network wars, as sickening as they are, always make Philippine Television a little more interesting, don't you think?

Product: Cocomo Swimwear

Less than a month before our Boracay trip, I realized that I only have one swimwear. I'm sure you'll agree with me that wearing the same bikini for 4 days would be unfashionable and um, unhygienic. I knew I need at least two more sets. I went to nearby shopping malls but I didn't find anything that I like. I also scanned Multiply sites hoping there's something that will catch my fancy. Those that did, however, were too expensive than what I'm prepared to spend.

Until I saw Beeconomic's deal of the day: for P649, one can purchase a Cocomo Swimwear coupon worth P1299. It's like a half-off deal. I took a peek at Cocomo Multiply site and thought that their products look nice. The colors and patterns were trendy and youthful. So before I gave myself a chance to think twice, I quickly purchased two coupons from Beeconomic and proceeded to Cocomo's website to place my orders.

Bondi Beach Bikini

Bondi Beach Reversible Bikini Set (Photo taken from Cocomo Swimwear)

Service: Niño and Activities in Boracay

Along with "Where to stay?" and "Where to eat?", another W-question that plagues most first-time visitors is "What to do in Boracay?"

This one was a little easy for me because I contacted a highly-recommended activity-guide in Boracay. None other than the famous, Niño and his partner Kuya Ron. They were refuted to offer the best (meaning cheapest) rates for activities in the island. At first, he was referred to as Mang Niño o Kuya Niño, so I expected he will be an older man who's seen Boracay rose from the sands. But when I finally met him, he doesn't look old, but not too young either so I started to call him just Niño. I never got to meet Kuya Ron though.

"Andito na kami sa tapat ng Yellow Cab." Meeting Niño for the first time.

Jovial, funny, animated guy, Niño was like a "kabarkada". He claimed to be honest when dealing with his guests, so when he said that the better Zorb is in Mt. Luho and the better zipline is in Fairways, we believed him. And he did offer the best rates, for parasailing at least.

Walking from Station 2 to Station 1, we passed by a number of guides offering us to do this and do that. From them we learned that the current market price for reef walking is P350/person, island hopping is P1200/boat (both the same with Niño) and parasailing is P1200/person (Niño's rate is P200 cheaper). Despite the almost similar rates, we decided to get all our activities through Niño because we feel secured and comfortable with him.

Place: Tans Guesthouse (Namaste) at Boracay, Aklan

There must be literally hundreds of reviews about Tans Guesthouse in Boracay, whether in blogs, forums and review sites. I guess, one more wouldn't hurt.

Photo taken from TripAdvisor

When you're looking for cheap Boracay accommodation, Tans Guesthouse would always be among the first recommended establishments. Previous guests rave about their rates, rooms and friendly staff. But initially, I wasn't so keen on booking with Tans. Our first visit to Boracay coincided with the Chinese New Year (Feb 3) and when I checked Tans website, I saw that the room rates around this season go as high as P2500 for a standard room. So I set my eyes on another cheap alternative, Island Nook.

But as fate would have it, one forum member posted that Tans quoted her P1,500/night for their stay on the second week of February. I wondered if I can get the same price given our booking dates are only a few days apart. It was then I decided to inquire.


Booking

There are three options to get in touch with Tans: via their email address, cellphone number and YM ID, all of which are posted on their website. I sent an email first, inquiring about room availability and rates. After a few days without a reply, I decided to send them an SMS. Someone responded right away. She asked for my email address where they can send the quotation. I received it a day later. And lo, I was also quoted a room on Feb 2-5 for P1,500/night.

I was already corresponding with someone from Island Nook and all I needed to do was deposit the 50% down-payment to finalize the booking. But I switched gears on the last minute and thought that Tans would be a better deal since it's closer to the beach and the quoted room rate was P200 cheaper. Island Nook then was giving me a room on the same dates for P1,700.

Included in the quotation email was the instruction on how to book a reservation (by deposting 50% of the quoted amount to the bank account, also given in the email, and sending the proof of the deposit via fax or email). I did that within the week--made the deposit, sent a photo of the deposit slip and informed them about it, both via email and SMS. Someone replied to me and said that my confirmation receipt will be sent soon. But it took days, and a couple of follow-ups before it was finally delivered to my inbox.

The room that was given to us was Room 2. Upon checking on their gallery, the room looks nice although I feel it's a bit cramped. So again, prompted by a forum post that said it's possible to ask for a room upgrade, I contacted Tans via chat this time and made my inquiries. Yes, room upgrade is possible and our room was instantly changed from Room 2 to Namaste F1 according to the person I was chatting with. I asked if it's possible to send a new confirmation as proof of the upgrade. I was told it will be sent in a few days, but it never came.

A few weeks before the trip, I chatted with the same person again and confirmed the upgrade. She said yes and that it was already logged in their system. Once more, I asked for the new confirmation letter and got the same answer. It will be sent, but I received none. So a few days before we left for Aklan, I decided to call to confirm again (di naman ako makulit no?). For the third time, they told me, yes we were transferred from Room 2 to Namaste. I didn't request to be sent a new confirmation letter anymore.

I was contemplating to extend our stay in Tans for one more night but they told me that they are fully-booked for the weekend. If we want to stay longer, we will have to transfer to another room. I wasn't really sure if we'll stay for one more night. It was just a thought, a 'what if' [we had a grand time and wanted to extend our time in beach] thought--a premonition perhaps of how I will feel about Boracay. So I figured I'll just settle it once we're there already.

Overall, I had a pleasant experience dealing with Tans reservation. I got a bit confused at first because the person I was sending SMS to was not the same person I was chatting with. But everything turned out well in the end. We got Namaste F2, which was like a twin of F1 and I was more than happy because they didn't charge us additional pay for the upgrade.


Accommodation

We arrived in Boracay at 10 a.m. of February 2. I was given an instruction through SMS on how to find Tans Guesthouse. It was simple and easy to follow:

Alight in D'Mall. Walk towards the beach front. Facing the beach, go towards the left and look for Shenna's Resort. Beside Shenna's Resort is E.S. Pascual store. Enter the alley beside the store.

Tans Guesthouse is second to the last building in that alley. I saw Ms. Jeanette on the reception booth and made my introductions. I asked if an early check-in is possible (check-in time is 2:00 p.m.). It would have been ok if only our room was already vacant. So we just deposited our luggage to them and decided to have lunch and stroll along the beach until our room is ready.

We went back a few minutes after 2:00 p.m., our feet and legs spent and tired from walking. Ms. Jeanette asked someone to accompany us to our room. She said it was at the beachfront and I wondered which alley would take us there. But when the staff led us to what seemed like a narrow, dingy space between Island Souvenir and another building (it was Sea World I think), I was a bit apprehensive. It turned out our room was behind the Island Souvenir store. And honestly, the way to get there wasn't appealing.

But when the staff opened the door, we were welcomed by a pleasant surprise. Namaste F2 is spacious, with 1 queen-sized bed and 1 single bed on the left side. Opposite the beds are the closet (with enough cloth hangers inside) and a cable TV. On the right side of the door is where you'll find a small dining table, sink, a personal ref and the bathroom. The bathroom is spacious, too with a hot and cold shower, bath tub, toilet and vanity area. The walls looked like they were newly painted and the whole room looked and smelled clean as well. For P1,500/night, on what other hotels deemed to be a super-peak season (because of the Chinese New Year), it was truly a great deal.

However, (won't it be nicer if everything was perfect?) I wasn't able to connect to their Wi-Fi. They gave me two passwords but none worked. But I wondered if it was their Wi-Fi or my laptop that's having a problem because when I got home and tried to connect to our Wi-Fi, I was also getting errors.


Breakfast Buffet

Included in the room amenities is a free breakfast buffet for 2 guests. Breakfast is served from 7 a.m to 10 a.m. at the rooftop of the Tans Guesthouse. We were given a green stub that will serve as our meal ticket during our stay. I didn't know what to do with it when we first came for breakfast, and since Ms. Jeanette was there, I thought it's ok to start filling our plates with food. Then a group came in and I saw one of them showed the green stub to one of the servers. Nobody checked ours anyway, so we proceeded to eat our breakfast. But the next day, I did what I saw and showed the green stub.

We had 3 breakfast meals in Tans. We usually come at around 7 a.m. so the chaffing dishes were still full. Among the dishes that were served in the buffet were tocino, longganisa, cocktail hotdog, fried egg, crispy daing, daing na bangus, ginisang ampalaya and beef tapa. The food was ok, it wasn't stellar but it wasn't bad either. I actually like the tocino, longganisa and the crispy daing. They also have coffee sachets but we're not coffee drinkers so we just brought bottled juices or iced tea drinks everytime.


Verdict

Many claimed that Tans Guesthouse is one of the cheapest yet decent places to stay in Boracay. And I agree. Except for the not-so-appealing entrance to our room, I have nothing but good words to say about this budget accommodation. The location was great, the room was nice, the staff were friendly and best of all, the price was reasonable. In a highly-commercialized paradise such as Boracay, those things are hard to come by. I was just too glad that I chose to stay with them.

Place: Affordable Places to Eat in Boracay

As mentioned in the previous post, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary in Boracay and Nabas, Aklan. We were there for 8 days and the plan was to spend our first four days in Boracay and thereafter, we'll stay at my husband's relatives in Nabas. So we can't splurge everything in Boracay because we have another four days to make the most out of our Aklan trip.

That's why once I got our activities arranged, I started researching for affordable places to eat in Boracay. Based on my computation, if we don't spend more than 200 for every meal, we'd have enough budget to try one of the more expensive restaurants. So my criteria for what's affordable include menu items that don't go beyond 200 and restaurants that are local to Boracay and cannot be found in Manila. That makes Yellow Cab, Andok's, Mang Inasal, Pancake House and the likes already disqualified from my options.

After Google and a few blogs, this was the list that I came up with:

1. Paluto at D'Talipapa
2. Jammer's
3. Big Mama's
4. Smoke
5. Dalisay Paradise Nest
6. Hawaiian BBQ
7. Crafty's Rooftop Bar
8. Blue Berry Restaurant
9. Bite Club Grilled Burgers
10. Island Nook

Actually, we only got to try a few. And here are my reviews for those that we were able to have the pleasure of eating at:

Clueless About Cars

We've been wanting to buy a family car for the longest time. I remember my dad intending to buy twice, and each time, whenever he already has enough money to make the purchase, something always came up. And he would end up spending the money on these emergency expenses instead and put our dream of buying a car on hold.

Last year, he started perusing car sales websites again and my mom has hinted that he is serious about buying this time. And if things turn out well, we would finally have our much-awaited family car before the year ends. I'm crossing my fingers.

The thought of having our own car excites me but at the same time, it reminds me of how clueless I am about cars. As in I know nothing--nada, zip, zero--about cars. But I trust that my dad knows enough to make a good choice. I remember him being a car mechanic of my grandfather's old Ford Piera.

As for me, I fancy about taking driving lessons and educating myself about cars. I stumbled upon this Houston auto repair website and found it to be very useful. Things like water pump, transmissions, timing belt, etc are still quite alien to me. But I appreciate the car reviews and ratings, and the ability to choose you car's make and model and find out what people are saying about it and what problems are they having with it. I also like the Auto Repair Encyclopedia--really helpful for someone who is as clueless as I am.

So which car will it be? That would depend on my dad's budget. But based on the pictures that I caught him looking at, I think he prefers the 4x4 type, the quintessential family car. If money is not an issue, I'd definitely want to buy a ford expedition. Why? It's Ford and it looks just awesome and the reviews are not bad either. But it's really up to him.

Hopefully, when we finally have one, I know enough about cars to make a decent review about it :) Hopefully.

Place: Boracay Island

My husband and I were Boracay virgins until we decided to celebrate our one-year-delayed-honeymoon-slash-1st-wedding-anniversary in this island last February 2 to 5. And to say that we were excited was an understatement. We were exhilarated.

The days leading to our first Boracay trip were spent scouring shopping malls and buying the things that we will need: traveling bag, swimwear, toiletries, pasalubong (for my husband's relatives whom we will visit in the nearby town of Nabas, Aklan), accessories, etc. I also did a thorough research on the internet for the most practical accommodations, places to eat and water activities to make sure that we'll have a blast without burning deep holes in our pockets. (I will review these 'finds' in the succeeding posts.)

When everything looked set and covered, I braced myself for this:

Arriving at Boracay, I was surprised to find that it pretty much resembles some cities in Metro Manila. Except maybe for the terrain, the locals speaking in their native dialect and the density of foreigners, everything feels the same: sprawling establishments, busy crowd, honking vehicles, etc. I remember thinking, maybe it's because we're not yet at the beach area. So I waited for that moment.

Our tricycle dropped us at the entrance of the infamous D'mall. D'mall also turned out to be a surprise because I was expecting it to be like the "usual" souvenir shops area, with meager stalls displaying their goods. But no, it is a mini shopping mall (except that it's open-spaced) where both high-end brands and local wares can be found. The ground is paved on most parts and the whole area looks like a posh market plaza.

When we emerged from D'mall to the beach front, I was no longer surprise to see that the whole stretch is littered with different sorts of business establishments. Boracay is like someone having an identity crisis who has, so far, successfully managed to stay sane. The white, powdery sand and clear blue water will remind you that you're far from the pollution of the city, but the shops and restaurants that lined up the beach will make you feel that Boracay is a city in itself and you're right smack in the middle of it. Rest and relaxation meets comfort and convenience. The best of both worlds, as they say.

I only have one complain though. For people like us who were traveling on a budget, I find the foods in Boracay horrendously expensive. And this is despite the fact that I've listed all the supposedly affordable but still decent restaurants and we've exerted efforts to locate them. I found a few but still, at the end of every meal, I find myself trying to justify the amount we paid for the food that we just ate. Cheap by Boracay standards, but not necessarily cheap by mine.

Expect for this however, everything is perfect. The place, the people and the atmosphere. Different kinds of people from all walks of life will find something that they will enjoy in Boracay. It may be the beautiful beach, the laid-back ambiance, or the engaging vibe, the great parties, or the many things that one can do in the island. Boracay will be happy to cater to everyone.

Surely, Boracay had me smitten and it had planted a longing in my heart--a longing to go back. I'm sure it's not the most beautiful beach in the Philippines and it is no longer the pristine island that some people hoped it to be. But it has a different charm that makes people come back to it again and again. And I am one of those people. Yes, I have resolved to go back there again.

Till then, Boracay.