La Vista Highlands Mountain Resort, Negros Occidental, Philippines

View From our La Vista Highlands Resort Room

One year late it may be, but La Vista Highlands Mountain Resort was one of the places I visited when I was in Philippines last year. I was quick in writing about our Sagada via Banaue adventure ( part 1, part 2, part 3) and Mambukal Mountain Resort, but, sadly, I did not get a chance to write about other places that I visited. Unlike in Sagada, Banaue and Mambukal where I explored with family, La Vista Highlands was my "me" time with my Bacolod bff's. It has been a tradition that each time I go home, we always go somewhere to just reconnect, and celebrate friendship that lasted so many years of our lives. 

With My Friends at La Vista Highlands Mountain Resort

The one who arranged everything in this trip was my friend, Ems. She asked me which one I wanted, Punta Bulata White Beach Resort in Sipalay, or La Vista Highlands Mountain Resort in Don Salvador Benedicto. Because we've been to Punta Bulata already, it was easy enough for me to decide. I wanted to try a new resort that we have in Negros Occidental. So, I chose this mountain resort, which is a nice cool escape from the lowland heat in Bacolod City. 

What Happens When Friends get together? Endless Photo Opps :)

The highlight of our stay here is ziplining. :) The zip line is about 750 meters in length with a height of about 40-60 meters. 

Ziplining with My Friends

I actually almost chickened out in the zipline. Somehow, my fear of heights got into me, that when I was zipped, I told my friend, "I can't do it!" And my friend was like wide eyed in surprise, all the while thinking I was the bravest with all my pictures at "Potato Chip Rock", and many jumping pictures! :) However, when I saw the look of concern in her eyes, I did not want her to worry about me being left off, so I said, "Okay, let's make it quick!" Haha! I AM GLAD I DID IT, it was actually super fun to be high like a bird, and looking down below. 

Ziplining Towers

There are many other extreme outdoor adventures offered at La Vista, however, sadly, my time was so limited, haha! Also, they all have to go back to work too. We really just took a one night, 2 days retreat at the mountains, to celebrate our togetherness again. 

The view from our room was very beautiful. I wanted to hike!

View from our Room

Sadly, when we asked for trails, we were told that there are no formal hiking trails in the area, we could however, do guided horse back riding. I am not so excited with horse back riding, since I would be too focused on the horse and not the scenery. I frankly, always, prefer to explore the mountains hiking. There was a swimming pool also, but we did not get a chance to use it. We instead played pool (billiards) in their little sports bar area. 

Our stay comes with free hot breakfast. But frankly, their breakfast was too small for me! Haha! I am such a big eater, that I had to ask for more garlic rice and more "bangus" or milk fish. So I ended up having "no free breakfast" because the free one was not enough for me. :)

"Calamansi-nade" - so refreshing and yum !!

Their lunch and dinner foods however were great because they serve "Ilonggo" dishes, which I love. We actually ordered mostly vegetables, but I saw to it that I ordered vegetables that are not very common in US. We also tried their "camote leaves" salad, or "yam leaves" , and loved how they made it, no greasy and creamy dressing like in the West, I could taste the goodness of vinegar, with "bago-ong" on the side! 

Our Philippines: Negros Occidental

Orchids from our Backyard in my Hometown, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines

The Salitype Society, where I am also a member of the site, is hosting " Our Philippines " meme, where we feature our beautiful country, the Philippines.

I am from the province of Negros Occidental, which is located in the Western Visayas Region. I was born, and raised in Bacolod City, 

the capital city of the province of Negros Occidental. 

My Hometown Sunset

In this post, let my memories bring my story to how I have grown to love the great outdoors!

Danjugan Island Marine Sanctuary and Reserve

Danjugan Island Marine Sanctuary and Reserve, Negros Occidental, Philippines

Danjugan Island Marine Sanctuary and Reserve is one of the peaceful and quiet escape to nature near my hometown, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. Negros is one of the bigger islands in the 7,107 islands in the Philippines. Though our country is very small in area, but we have that number of islands, so, probably, you can all call us "islanders", since we all live in different islands. Some islands are bigger than others, such as the mainlands of Luzon and Mindanao, some are tiny and uninhabited, like Danjugan. Since technically, we all live in an island, many of us have grown to have an affinity for the sea.  

Approaching Danjugan Island

Mambukal Mountain Resort, Negros Occidental

Boating Lagoon @ Mambucal Mountain Resort, Negros Occidental, Philippines

Mambukal Mountain Resort is one of my favorite nature escapes in my hometown, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines. As far as I could recall, this place awakened my love for hiking and nature exploring! Back when I was a child, I often heard stories from elder relatives how they would do rope bagging to explore the 7 falls in Mambukal. I knew that the 6 falls were near each other, but the 7th is a long way from all the other 6. When I was 13 years old, during one of our family outings there, instead of spending all our time swimming in the pool like most people would do, I talked to my two younger brothers about discovering the 7th Falls. It gave me confidence after that hike about the powers of my legs in exploring our wonderful world. My trip back to my hometown is always not complete without spending some time in this cool mountain oasis.

Bats @ Mambukal Mountain Resort

What The Sunrise Brings

SUNRISE FROM HOME

"Nothing is lost when all memories are kept in the heart."- This is what I told myself about 3 weeks ago in realizing that I deleted a set of pictures that I took during my Philippines vacation. I really thought those pictures were gone. I spent a lot of times learning how to retrieve files that were deleted from the recycle bin. I tried several rescue procedure, but nothing that I wanted to recover were found. Thankfully, the sunrise last weekend brought me a very pleasant surprise.

Sagada via Banaue, part 2: First Glimpse of Sagada and Hike to Pongas Falls

View of Sagada From our Room

We left Manila for Sagada last December 27 at about 9:30 pm. We had several stops along the way but our first major stop was Banaue Rice Terraces at about 8:00 am of December 28. About 11:00 am, we reached Sagada.

Sagada via Banaue Part 1: The Banaue Rice Terraces

The Banaue Rice Terraces

Back several decades ago, when I was much younger, my uncle would always test me what are the 7 wonders of the world. After reciting correctly the 7 ancient wonders, my uncle would surprise me, "and what is the 8th wonder?" To his satisfaction, I would proudly say, "The Banaue Rice Terraces of the Philippines!"

Exploring Home Sweet Philippines

I am still in blogging hiatus right now, exploring my home sweet Philippines. However, am taking a few minutes here in mobile blogger to greet you all Happy New Year and to share some cell phone pictures from my wandering in Philippines so far.

Will be back soon, this is just a simple post using mobile blogger.

Pictures from Home Sweet Philippines

The Simple Life

* re-posting my very first post in this blog- this was originally posted April 2009, in a few months, this blog will turn three years old :) 

I am here :) My new home. I hope I will like it here and will not be moving soon. I had been contemplating and had mentioned it to some friends about my plans of having a blog somewhere else other than Friendster where I get to have my own freedom. Freedom to write about what I wanted, and being able to be present with my feelings. Freedom to design my page the way I like it. For now, blogspot is my new home, and I hope some of my readers from my old blog will find me here, celebrating "The Joys of Simple Life".

For my opening post, let me share the lyrics of the song "The Simple Life" by Karl Kohlase. You can listen to it at http://www.k4communications.com/karl/downloads/simplelife.mp3

The Simple Life

Living life can be hard today, I have to say it so
But I have learned if I stop and pray
I get the grace to go.
              And I have found by slowing down
                 I have more time to live the simple life
The simple life. All free from strife.
So glad that I have found the simple life.                   

Living life in the passing lane, it’s near insane to me;
                      ‘Cause soon your life will be washed away
                      By the pouring rain to the sea.
                      But I have found by slowing down
                      I have more time to live the simple life            

The simple life. All free from strife.
                      So glad that I have found the simple life.       

The simple life is the way to go though the pace is slow for some,
                      But I’ll have peace in my heart to show
                      when the race of life is done.
                      For I have found by slowing down
                      I have more time to live the simple life

         The simple life. All free from strife.

                      So glad that I have found the simple life.  

Words and Music by Karl Kohlhase
                      © 2004 karl kohlhase

Brown Visits Pink

Brown visits Pink!

Brown Butterfly Visiting Pink Flower

As you may have observed, I can't update my blog as often anymore as I used to. Since I sort of shifted career ( not a 100% shift since I am still in teaching, but just at different level, from college to high school, and different subject, from Chemistry to Math) and had to manage between new responsibilities at work, and doing my own assignments for my teacher credentialing preparation classes, I had to choose which ones first. Of course, family, work and studies come first, relaxation comes next ( that is beach and hiking ) and blogging has taken a backseat.

However, as some of you may have known, I am a part of the small blogging group, The Salitype Society. As I have shared to you before in my post here, together with some of my friends, we worked together to come up with a blog, The Salitype Society, where our goal is to be able to send a child to school from our blogging earnings. Our blog has gone a long way and we are proud to say that we are very close now to realizing our dream of supporting a scholar from the Philippines. Like what Tes ( one of the members of The Salitype Society ) of The Craftista said, education is freedom, it is liberation from poverty! Unlike in US where there is a law on "No Child Left Behind", sadly, we are not yet at that level in our home country. There are still a lot of our young children not able to access education. It is our wish to empower some deprived kids and bring them to school.

And since this blog has been skipping a lot of earning opportunities, I decided to invite my friends at Salitype Society to be guest authors in this blog to write for some assignments that will help us generate more funds at Salitype. Whatever opportunity I can not write because I hardly have no time to write on weekdays, I will share to them. And Eng, one of the authors behind Salitype, started today to write for this blog. You can find her post about stem cell research here. Eng's favorite color is brown, my favorite color is pink, thus the title, "Brown Visits Pink".

Also, as most of you have known, another typhoon had hit our country, thankfully, it is not the same region that was heavily devastated by the last typhoon. Some of my Filipino blogging friends, like Cherie, Tes, Ebie and Cher, has dedicated several of their posts and also their time for the victims of the recent typhoon. I know there are a lot of areas in the Pacific devastated by natural calamities right now, and if you wish to help for the Philippines, you can visit the Philippine National Red Cross site, and for other countries, Cherie has the listings on how you may be able to help not only the Philippines but also the other countries that were recently devastated by natural calamities.

Again, I thank you for your time visiting my site, and I hope you won't be surprised if sometimes, you would see some posts here which are not written by me, but by some of my friends, who share my goal to give the gift of EDUCATION AND FREEDOM to the kids who need it most.