After three nights and four days living a slow and relaxing pace in Batanes, I’m back to reality. Well, sort of. My mind is still floating with Batanes’ rolling hills and breath-taking scenes. I still find it hard to believe that just yesterday, my husband Marc and I were having breakfast in Batanes with Nina, Melo, Eric, Karla and Dino.
View from Racuh A Payaman, Batan’s “Marlboro Hills”
I’m still shifting through my 3 gigabytes of photos and organizing them into collections, but here are some shots so you could understand why my head is still in the clouds :P
Up until now, I still marvel at the fact that such a place like this exists in the Philippines. Nature is simply beautiful, and untouched. And to think we only experienced a sunny day on our first day. There was an overcast turned to a storm on our second day, but the weather in Sabtang couldn’t hide the island’s beauty.
The local Ivatans, are wonderful too. Ask a question and you get an honest answer. You can leave your things lying about and return with all items untouched. They even have the Honesty Cafe, a store where you can get whatever you wanted and just leave your payment in a box. No store attendants. Try having that here in Manila—before the sun sets, it’s almost sure that your store will be stripped clean without a cent in the payment box :D
Cliff side road in Sabtang Island
The cliff side single-car road you see above is not for the faint-hearted (especially for those who are scared of heights). But going back to Basco in Batan Island from Sabtang is probably the most exciting for me. It was so unforgettable that I think a mere mention in a post won’t do it justice—I’m making another post entirely about it :D
Sunset at Batan Island
Many thanks to SEAIR for giving us the opportunity to experience such a beautiful province; Columbia Sports Wear for keeping us warm from the cold; and Sea to Summit for lending us Dry Packs that saved our expensive cameras from the waves and wind of South China Sea :)
I’ll be posting more about my Batanes adventure here and in my travel blog. But for now… Back to work :(
SEAIR flies from Manila to Batanes and vice versa every Tuesdays and Saturdays, and is now increasing its flights. Flights every Thursdays commence by October 9, 2008, Monday flights by October 20, 2008, and Friday flights by October 31, 2008. SEAIR will soon have flights from Manila to Batanes and v.v. every Saturdays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The flights from Manila to Batanes are from 0550 to 0725 and the flights from Batanes to Manila are from 0755 to 0930. One-way airfares start at P35++ (as low as 2895.20 one-way all-in fare).
Please call SEAIR Reservations at 8490100 to book for flights to Batanes or book online at www.flyseair.com. For packages to Batanes call SEAIR Leisure Escape Packages at 8437308 (For more info, visit the SEAIR website)
You don't need an online mba to raise kids—just a lot of patience.
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There are 4 comments to this entry:
[...] was in for a pleasant surprise when I got home from my Batanes trip last Tuesday (well, of course, other than Shantee welcoming me and my husband with lots and lots of [...]
wow… I love the place so much… I wish I could go there… parang ang sarap tumira dyan… :)
[...] Pako Saute for our dinner, Tita Remy – the house caretaker arrived with 3 kilos of Lobster that Gail and Eric ordered for their pasalubong. Since we were’t due to fly back home for 3 more days [...]
wow,i am so excited to visit Batanes next year!!!!!
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