" You can never visit the same place twice. Each time it's a different story. By the very act of coming back, you wipe what came before." - Maureen Johnson

One might be quick to assume that visiting the same place three different times will paint the same picture.

I daresay nope, not really.

I think each place we visit changes. It depends on who we are with, the season, the circumstances, the moods we are in and the experiences we have created.

Are you by any chance a foreigner married to a Filipino or Filipina and you are contemplating staying or living in the Philippines for a longer period?

For the first few years of erratic visits to the Philippines, Yohann and I have used the Balikbayan Visa that would allow him to stay in the country for 1 year.

All we needed to do is queue together and present ourselves to the officer at the Philippine Immigration Counter before entering the country along with our NSO Marriage Certificate. The assigned Immigration Officer has the right to approve or reject a Balikbayan Visa.

It's nothing extraordinary. It's merely a stamp on the foreign spouse's passport, but this would allow him to stay longer than the regular 30 days given to most Non-Filipino tourists. The drawback though, is he won't be able to get a Balikbayan Visa without me, if he exits and enters the country later.

13A Permanent Residence Visa...ah the sound of it already rings alarm bells of complex application process.  Fear not. Take a deep breath. 

When you live in the middle of a rice field, it's amazing to see the changes in the landscape daily. You'll have a water buffalo hanging out chewing grass during his break or a month old calf peeking through your glass window. Toads harmoniously chant their own operatic version of Don Giovanni while you have a pack of teenage dogs howling in front of your bedroom window after midnight. My husband and I kill gazillions of mosquitoes a day but the best part of living here, so far, are cozy rainy afternoons.

I am posting photos taken in different periods during our stay here:

Have you ever been to a rustic place where time slowed down a few notches? If it weren't for the lightbox signage of a 24-hour convenient store and modern cars that whip past the two-lane national road, you might as well assume you're in a province dated back several decades ago. Vigan and Taal Batangas seem to have that vibe. Yet there are many things about Argao that neither the two have. Can you guess?

Rental Car? Check.  Fuel?  Check.  Baby Car Seat?  Check.

We are on our second road trip to South of Cebu as I am typing this. A continuation of our journey. The first one was a 7- day road trip  a month ago.   On the fifth day of our expedition, I suffered a dental implant abscess. This cut our trip short as I needed to head back to Manila for an emergency drainage. (I know, too much information :))

On our first South Cebu Road Trip, we rented a car via Cebu Easy Rental for 9k a week and drove down from Cebu City for 2 and a half hours to stay in Argao, our first rest stop. 

Our destinations: Argao - Dalaguete - Oslob - Santander - Badian - Allegria - Moalboal - back to Argao

We are back on the road again. It has been 5 days since we bid goodbye to Manila. Excited to continue our journey, we made our way to beautiful Cebu with an agenda in mind, to begin writing our story and start building our lives here. The first step to doing this is to find a rental home. We are currently house hunting. Let's see where this takes us.  

One perfect bed weather morning, our family took the scooter around the island of Bantayan to keep our toddler from feeling bored. The light drizzle did not deter us. Fully equipped with packable raincoats in our small backpack, we drove along the main highway of Santa Fe.  Just before the Bantayan Town Welcome Arch, we  turned left towards a damp dirt road that leads to Marikaban.

Thank you so much for all of your mixed reactions from my previous post, both public and private feedback.   

In this blog post, I am answering questions that I have received after sharing our adventures on the island.

Living on the island is such a great opportunity to bask in the beauty of this paradise and to meet locals who are equally lovely.  Yet, I aspire to illustrate an honest view away from picture-perfect Instagram photos.  In reality, behind every smile and gorgeous landscape are factors that may pose as challenges. Please let me make it clear, we have so much to learn and it is our own responsibility to adapt.

To long time readers of the blog, it is without any doubt, a big contrast to our previous life. Friends who know me by heart might be perplexed with this big change.  Good Lord, I wasn't gifted nor had the passion to play "Survivor".  I was in fact deemed  fragile when I was in my teens to early 20s. My life abroad later toughened me up. I nod at the fact that we have come a long way from Dubai , France, Manila and now on this island.

"What is the biggest challenge of island living for you?"

My husband called this island, " paradise".  To see it is to believe it.  As I stood by the railing of an old ferry boat approaching the island, I made a mental note. "Yes. It is indeed, a paradise."

How to Get There?

"A volcano within a lake, in a volcano within a lake, on an island."

It was my youngest sister's birthday and aboard their minivan, our entire family happily spent the weekend on a road trip to hilly Tagaytay City, 70 km south of Manila. The home to the magnificent Taal Volcano, an active volcano, one of the most active in the Philippines.  

Taal Volcano was formed during one of the major eruptions in the middle of the lake. The last notable one was in 1977, however there were 33 more eruptions since then.  Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHILVOLCS) continuously monitors water temperatures and seismic activity there. They strongly prohibit people to live on the Volcano Island because it is a high risk area and it is marked as a permanent danger zone. 

Taal Lake is actually a crater of an inactive prehistoric super volcano.  In this lake, surrounding Taal Volcano, there were many other eruptions that formed other craters and micro-lakes. Tagaytay city is a ridge that sits on the rim of the caldera, meaning this will be the first to be hit if this super volcano comes to life. This was something that our Geology professor told us back in college. 

If adventure is right up your alley, there are boat trips with hiking trails to the volcanic crater from Talisay, Batangas. Check out advisories from Philvolcs first.

However, if you prefer appreciating the magnificent scenery from a distance, then a relaxing day trip to Tagaytay City will more than satisfy and delight your senses.

There are many ways to get to Tagaytay City. Above is a link showing how to get there. Like many travelers, we chose the SLEX (South Luzon Express Way)  Sta. Rosa exit where we had a quick stopover in Nuvali to enjoy the leisure park and feed the koi fish.

Tagaytay City is a memorable place for my family. When we were young, growing up in a Catholic School, we spent countless spiritual retreats here.  

This was where Yohann and I had our first out-of-town date together in 2001. We also spent days up in the hill near Taal Lake staying with my best friend and her family's mountain cottage in the middle of a forest Talisay, Batangas.

Garden Wedding in Tagaytay City in March 2006

Tagaytay City was also where we had our garden wedding in 2006   My sister (who was celebrating her birthday) got married here too in 2012.

History has it that People's Park was supposed to be a Palace in the Sky, a project that former first lady, Imelda Marcos initiated, to build a mansion on the land owned by the government possessing the best view of Tagaytay.  It was rapidly pushed to be completed for the intended visit of President Ronald Reagan back in 1983.  The presidential visit didn't take place and the mansion remained unfinished to this day.  It was later converted to an urban park. The view and cold breeze up on the summit is wonderful but a lot of maintenance and renovation work are still needed. Entrance to People's Park in the Sky is Php 30 (USD$ 0.65) per person. 

If you get the opportunity, do drop by Tagaytay Highlands next to the park. We were fortunate to visit this exclusive community after our wedding back in 2006.

After a short hike to the summit of People's Park,  tummies will definitely growl afterwards.

 Dencio's Bar & Grill  is a large restaurant chain offering Filipino cuisine. Filipino comfort food at its best, wonderfully shared with the family with this amazing view. Cost would be around Php800 (USD$ 17.37) for 2 people.

 I wrote about my first visit to Sonya's Garden here back in 2012. Click here for the article. It's a popular garden wedding venue. There's a Bed & Breakfast, Restaurant serving organic produce, an organic farm, landscaped gardens, greenhouse-looking function rooms, an apothecary and a bakery serving the yummiest Spanish bread that will make you forget your name and start speaking in Spanish. Just kidding. This is my Spanish-speaking brother's inside joke whenever his colleagues ask him how he became so fluent in Spanish. He always replies with, "I ate the Spanish bread from Sonya's Garden in Tagaytay."

Skyranch. We briefly stopped by Skyranch for a peek. The sun's blazing heat and large busy groups made us skip it. Perhaps next time.

We made a coffee addiction detour to Bag of Beans Coffee Shop, Restaurant & Bakery for coffee, drinks and dessert. Here, we ordered their famous blueberry cheesecake. 

Don't leave Tagaytay without trying this. Blueberry Cheesecake (Php 160 / USD 3.50 per slice) with a mug of House Blend Brewed Coffee for Php 120 (USD$ 2.60) regular / Php150 (USD$ 3.25) for bottomless. We bought a whole blueberry cheesecake and we shared it with everyone including my daughter who went hyper sugar-rush crazy after having several bites. It's not too sweet at all by the way.  It exceeded my expectations. It was smooth with the right amount of sweetness.

This is a popular destination in the south to do your plant and seedling shopping. Along Sta. Rosa Tagaytay Highway, there are fruit and vegetable stalls. You can purchase a chilli plant for Php 50 (USD$ 1.09) and a thyme seedling for the same price.  I also went crazy fruit and vegetable shopping. I got 4 fresh organic romaine lettuce for Php 100 (USD$ 2.17) and 3 pcs ripe avocados for Php100 (USD$ 2.17). I also got bananas and freshly harvested pineapples.

On the way home, a quick stop to buy buko (coconut) pie and other local sweet treats is a must for Filipino families. A popular one is Rowena's Cafe. Though we didn't try it due to the long parking and waiting queue along the main road which was causing traffic. 

Instead, we went to the Orient, The Original Buko Pie at the Caltex Station along Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Road. It's always sold out and they don't accept order reservations by phone. We waited for an hour (eating fish balls at the nearby food cart) for freshly baked buko (coconut) pies and I must say they were worth the wait, nothing fancy but there's a lot of coconut meat in it. 

Which activity in Tagaytay do you enjoy best?

A food trip with the view of the Taal Volcano no doubt. :)

Love & light,

Arni

In the last couple of months with soaring air fare prices going to Coron, Palawan during the peak season from November to May, it made us wonder how we can travel to Coron with limited budget. Airline prices to Coron/Busuanga Airport from Manila are at a sky high at Php 7500 (USD 162) return per person. I remember Coron residents previously mentioning their frequent travel to Manila by ship for administrative purposes to save on costs.

The archipelago of the Philippines is made up of 7,500 islands. 29 years ago in the absence of budget airlines, the most common mode of transport to get to other islands is through water. The thought of it at first was a frightful one due to a terrible sea incident crossing Batangas and Lubang many many years ago aboard a very small ferry.

Do you love herbs, gardening and nature?

While running errands processing documents in government agencies around Quezon City, we decided to pop by the Flower and Tropical Garden. There's an ongoing event called HortiKultura Extravaganza 2016, a horticulture show from 4th of February to 16th of February 2016 in Quezon Memorial Circle along Elliptical Road in Quezon City, Philippines.

It is organized by Philippine Horticultural Society, Inc. in partnership with the Quezon City Government, different garden clubs, Department of Tourism, Department of Agriculture, Villar Foundation,  Del Monte Philippines, and AANI Group.