Travel by Sea

I often travel by airplane or  land if travelling in a distance of more than 100 miles. Well, plane is pretty much a faster way to get to your destination than anything else. But isn't also exciting to try something new? I got the chance to finally ride a ferry for the first time (excluding this on the list of boats and small ferries I have already tried). This time, from Manila going to Negros Occidental.

My boyfriend's a seaman, and I previously told him that I wanted to know how it feels to be in the middle of the ocean on a big boat for a day. He did not fail to let me experience it. We booked 3 weeks ahead of our planned date of leaving. I found out that Negros Navigation and Super ferry were now merged and formed the new name 2GO Travel. I think it's pretty good as the booking and services were improved. But 2 days before our scheduled date of departure, I received a text message from them informing me that our departure 10AM of Friday was moved to 10PM. Quiet disappointing for us as we have already laid out our itinerary and schedule from the expected time and day arrival at Bacolod.

Travel time is almost 24 hours. We stayed on the suite room. Our ship's name was Thomas Aquinas. (Wow! it was named after my Alma matter's patron saint) . According to one of the ship staff, it was previously a  Superferry ship and was just renovated this year. They only have 2 suite room, 2 six-bed cabin room and a hundred more public beds.

Thomas Aquinas - Suite Room

For Php3,000+, we enjoyed our private room, with full board meals good for 2. It was a pleasant voyage, and the weather was nice. I'm not a good swimmer, so if you're too or even if you can swim. , be sure to check the emergency exit signs and where the life vests are located in case of emergencies.

Some people tend to travel by sea rather than plane for the following reasons - always cheaper (unlike plane which you still need to wait for promo fares to get one), an instant 70kilos allowable luggage, for people who wants to mingle with strangers, they can definitely meet one in this ship, some to avoid their fear of heights on planes, or just try a different experience.

Just like plane, you can now pre-book your tickets online through credit card payment. Just go to http://travel.2go.com.ph/eTicket/search.asp  to check the schedule then book and buy. Be sure to call them 3-4 days before your expected date of departure to check if your schedule has changed.


Whether you're bored or you just lost the excitement in riding planes or cars, it will always be an adventure to try something new :) ...

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No bake blueberry cheesecake

I'm not good in cooking but I believe that everyone can learn everything as long as they wanted to. :) I love eating so I really really wanted to learn how to cook... and of course bake! But since we don't have an oven at home, I usually do refrigerated cakes. Well fiesta float is all I can do perfectly , so for the the first time I tried the no-cook blueberry cheesecake! (A very expensive cake to practice on).

Since it's my dad's birthday and I have a very special guests (my beloved bf), I was inspired to try this recipe. Here are the ingredients I bought:


Ingredients:

Crust:

1 pack Graham crackers (crushed)
1/2 cup Melted Butter (or bakers margarine)
1 tsp lemon rind (optional)
2 tbsps Sugar


Filling:

2 pkg Magnolia Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup Sugar
2 tbsp Unflavored gelatin dissolved in
4 tbsps Magnolia Fresh Mil
1 cup All purpose cream, chilled
1 can Blueberries in syrup


Procedure:

In making the crust, crushed the Graham crackers if you weren't able to buy a readily crashed cracker at store.

Mixed crashed graham with the sugar and melted butter. If crackers were still loose and dry, add more butter to bind it.

Press on a 9" pie plate or pan and chill for 30 minutes.

Now let's proceed in the steps on making the filling which is the most important of it all. The taste of the cheesecake will depend on the taste of the filling :) First stem is to beat the cream cheese and sugar until they
are well blended. *If you have a beater, much better. For me I don't have one so I just used a manual egg beater which is harder*, then set aside.

Meanwhile, dissolve unflavored gelatin in milk on a low heat. Don't heat too much as it will dry. Make sure it's still wet and hot then add to cream cheese. Continue beating to blend well.

In a separate bowl, whip the chilled cream until stiff and fold into cream cheese. 

Once mixed, pour above the created crust. Chill for another 30 mins to 1 hour.

Then top with blue berries in syrup. Chill for 4-6 hours. And it's ready to serve :)

Notes: Apparently, I failed to bind the crust. Well mostly because the amount of butter used is not enough to bind the crumbs. So if you are going to do this , use as many butter as you can and make sure the crush is moist enough. And another thing I learned, if you want to create a thicker filling, you should use a smaller pan.


Nevertheless, my family and visitors was able to enjoy the cake :) It's quiet delicious even if I failed to create the crust! Not bad for a starter! Try this recipe as well and let me know of the result :)

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Mt. Pulag, Birthday Climb

Tried climbing few mountains already, but this is the first time I dare myself to try a major climb! And I picked graciously with friends Mt. Pulag, the highest summit of Luzon :) and it's my birthday! I have  booked a flight to Ilocos but decided to celebrate it in a more adventurous way instead!

Huh! I don't know if it's the perfect time of the year to climb the grassy land of the said mountain , but definitely it was a perfect sunny day!

But beware! Sunny doesn't mean it's hot! Anyone who dares to climb the mountain should keep in mind that unpredictable events in weather might happen. It maybe sunny at first, but there's a large possibility that it would rain too. 

So what to prepare? Here's the list of what I brought, wore and did during the whole trip :)

To bring:

• A 35L Extreme Sandugo Backpack  (ideal for ladies)
• 2 Liters water (at least but if you can carry more, good for you :) )
• Trail Foods (jelly ace, cookies, energy bar , chocolates)
• Raincoat (should be light weight)
• Head Lamps 
• Waterproof bag for my gadgets
• Extra clothes 

To wear:

• Rubber shoes with a good grip (since I don't have a budget for a good trekking shoes yet)
• Light stretchable pants (but preferably a good trekking pants is better , mine was not the preferred type as the leaves of dwarf bamboos sticks in my pants whenever I sit down)
• Light comfortable shirt
• Windbreaker jacket
• Arm warmer 
• Cap and a bonnet
• gloves (both to protect you from plants and the cold temperature)
• Sunglasses (protection from the sun)

During the trek, what amazed me is the cold temperature both in the mossy forest and the grassy land. I was able to enjoy the view even if I'm walking for more than 6 hours already. 

Mt. Pulag, Ambangeg Trail

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