better late than never

it's been nearly two months since our wedding, and a month after the honeymoon - so yes, this is quite a delayed post on our 2-week honeymoon. =)

DAYS 1-2: SUBIC BAY YACHT CLUB

the day after our wedding, we were off to subic with my clan. we got to the subic bay yacht club early in the afternoon, and after checking-in and getting settled in our rooms, we were off to ninong b's yacht for an afternoon cruise complete with your choice of alcohol in hand. (the yacht club's rooms were great by the way - each room had its own jacuzzi!). it had been at least 5 years since we were all complete, and that was the best thing about our wedding - an excuse for all the cousins to see each other again!





on a sad note though, we accidentally left my bridal bouquet on ninong b's boat. argh.

DAYS 3-6: PALAWAN (the place, not the ballroom LOL)

the next day, we went back to manila - and packed for our honeymoon in palawan! the next morning, we were at the soriano hangar by 8am. it's funny that one of the reminders/announcements before we boarded the 20-seater plane was to not panic at the sight of smoke coming from the aircon vents. LOL.

and yes, there was smoke, much like that from a fog machine... hehe but not to worry, it was just the good old aircon. LOL.

after landing at the el nido airstrip, we went on a small boat, to get to a big boat, that would take us to Lagen. (apparently, the small-boat-to-big-boat transfer process was going to be routinary for us in the next 4 days.)

Lagen was a beautiful honeymoon resort. service and food was great, plus we got the farthest water cottage that gave us a beautiful view of the sun setting.



the afternoon we got there, we went to 2 different caves in nearby islands - we even had to crawl thru a small hole to get into one!

on our second day, we went to the Big and Small Lagoons and kayaked our way around. next stop was lunch at pangalusian island where we also snorkelled a bit. it wasn't much of a sight though as it started raining.







when we got back to lagen, it was time for the intro dive included in our package. with an able dive master, we were taught the basics of diving, and were led to the coral wall, right beneath lagen's pier! it was so awesome that we decided to do it again the next day, on a different island!

that afternoon, we went fishing too.. and after getting a fishing lecture from aldo... i (sige na nga.. we) caught one!




the next day, we were off to miniloc for our 2nd intro dive. this time, it was even more beautiful because there were more fish and corals... although i must say, being surrounded by a hundred fish is a bit scary... and even scarier is the jack fish (or local talakitok) circling around you with its eye on you.





one more thing we were able to try at miniloc was windsurfing! hmm, i never realized how heavy that sail was til i had to carry it while standing on the board! but it was totally fun, especially since we were trying it out while it was raining! LOL.

on our last day, we kayaked our way to lagen's secluded beach with our 4-day guide Chito. he showed us where the Amazing Race teams rapelled and kayaked.. and even took our picture on the raft that they used. it had started raining when we got there so we had to wait a bit before heading out again. by this time the waves were getting a bit rough so chito decided to just call a speedboat because it might be too dangerous for us.

by 3pm, we had to go. the staff sang their goodbye harana and waved til we got on the big boat.



by 5pm, we were up on the air with the aircon vents smoking once more, with happy memories of palawan with us.



DAY 7: PENINSULA

we got back on a friday afternoon, and had to check-in at the peninsula by saturday. yes, our 3rd hotel by this time. LOL. it was our 7-day home - by that monday i had gone back to work to hand in my resignation so it was pretty convenient that all i had to do was cross ayala.

DAY 13: SAILING

a work week later, we were invited by aldo's lolo to go sailing with him during the manila yacht club's opening parade. aldo's long-time passion is on sailing and it was with much kilig that we went aboard Vivaldi, lolo d's beautiful 35 ft. sailboat. tacks, sails, and 90-degree winds later, we gave our salutes to the yacht club's commodore.







by Day 18 we were packed and ready to leave for the airport. now how's that for saying goodbye - albeit temporarily - to manila? =)