Early Holy Week trip to Kamay ni Hesus Lucban Quezon (Part 1)

This happens about two months ago I was just too busy and too lazy to update and post our adventure at Lucban, Quezon. It’s just merely a 2 day trip to have but still a worthy of our time, physical exhaustion and rainy weather exploration. LOL!

It was Friday night when I and my friend talked about weekends. Just hang-out or something else and traveling out of town was the least I have been thinking neither she. But we ended up going to Lucban Quezon, she has been telling me about the place to go and it is one of the places on our travel list that we planned to go to. And finally after few hours of looking at net for briefing of the place and inviting few of our friends or I can say just one haha we settled down by the two of us. It is an unexpected trip, a last minute preparation and a last minute decision. Kamay ni Hesus Shrine here we come!

Day 1

We boarded the bus for the 8am trip (I think every hour there’s a trip to lucena) at Buendia terminal of JAC Liner. There are also other busses too like the JAM transit and DLBTBco but JAC Liner was the most accessible one and we have known it or maybe it was the Bus Terminal with a small banner of “Wi-Fi on Board” if we are passing by going to Lawton .

The travel takes around 3-4 hours and paid almost 200 pesos each for the fare. While we were on the road we were discussing about Where to stay? Where to eat? What “pasalubongs” to buy and the future place we were going to next. Yes were planning already were to go next after the Quezon trip. J By 11:30 we arrived at the Lucena Grand Central Terminal and there are jeepney’s bound to Lucban that will be an hour ride or more. Fare is less 50 pesos (sorry I forgot).

Kamay ni Hesus Shrine

The shrine is located on the highway so it was easy to look for or you can ask the conductors of the jeeps to get you at the Shrine. Thankfully we have arrived unscathed! Haha just kidding the people and the conductors are very polite and friendly. Finally were here! But it was raining too hard! As in not showers, not mild but raining hard as if there’s a storm coming. My friend already checked the weather condition the night before. She knew that sunny day was not most likely to be felt still we headed for it besides while we were still on the road the weather was fine and quite sunny. Anyways we have agreed to eat lunch first maybe the rain would stop. Inside the grounds of the shrine you will find of course the chapel, canteen and dormitory of the priests and nuns (im not sure), eateries and souvenir shops. There is also a big Noah's Arc Like and found out it was a lodging actually. Cool! :) We decided to eat first and think about later if were going to the shrine or not yet.

Lunch time! Meals were around 100 pesos and worthy of the price. After, we look around the souvenir shops. we have read about Quezon's Buri hats, bags and etc and it was all in low prices and beautiful unfortunately i haven't buy anything of Buri products and i was actually planning to buy at least one Buri Hat for the oncoming beach getaway for the summer. I have regretted it so much! Really! haha Back to the shrine we have decided not to go yet since it was really raining. We decided to look for Lodgings but in a small budget and have found Summer Capital Inn. It was located at the town proper of Lucban Quezon which is 15-20 minutes travel by Tricycle or better Jeeps. Summer Capital Inn was the most affordable lodging there its not that very classy and cozy like the other hotels but it was comfortable enough to stay at. We paid 400-500 pesos for the two us for one night only. No AC in our room only a fan but it's okay because it was really cold. I think we never use the fan anyways. Since we were tired from the trip we decided to take a nap first and woke up before dinner. We explored the little town of Lucban.

Church of Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse

Inside of the Old church, at the side a big statue of St. Louis

This Photo was taken from the small veranda of our room. Our Inn was at the back of the Church of Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse and the church was really old! :)

the busy street of Lucban.. :)

This Busy street in the morning was really relaxing to look at and since Quezon province was an eco-friendly place. People here uses "Bayongs" to carry their bought foods from the market rather than using plastic bags. Such a cutie to see haha

There are still old houses around and since i was very fond fond of old houses and antiques you can consider the exaggerated reaction of anime character's having their eyes shining brightly. That was me! :)

Plaza Rizal

Plaza Rizal. It's like the center of the town. not far from there is the old house of the photo taken, the small municipal hall, around it was drugstores, souvenir shops of different Buri products, Longganisa Lucban, The Buddys and all of biscuits favorites. :) There are also Cafe's, Restaurants, grills and very few Bars.

The Pink hotel beside the plaza was the Patio Hotel. I think It was a great place too. If you have enough budget you can choose it for your accommodation. Batis Aramin Resort and Hotel which is also a good place to stay is located in front of the Kamay ni Hesus shrine.

Of course for our dinner we tried their famous Pancit HabHab which is very, very delicious! To see our Food trip at Lucban. You can visit my Friend's Food Blog http://munchersandnibblers.blogspot.com you can see all the food we have eaten there and the pasalubongs too! :)

Day 2 to be continued...

:)

Some Photos courtesy of my friend and travel buudy. :)

Thanks!

Santa..

Few days ago me and my mom were walking back home when I spotted two street children maybe around 8-9 years old, one wearing yellow shirt and the other boy is brown, sorting a plastic bag with old toys and other old things on one side of a store. When we were almost near them since we were going to pass them by, I saw the boy wearing the yellow shirt found something a small blue thing from the plastic bag and he stared at it and not thinking twice to say…

“Santa…”

His voice was still lingering on my mind even if it is past few days already. His voice was soft as in saying hello to the small blue Santa Claus. His voice was like a whisper to me and like almost a song too. I don’t know, it’s not the kind of voice saying or murmuring in ordinary way but there is something deep.

Maybe it is because his word has emotion, has something else, something that he believes on him. That he still believed on him after everything else. I can see on him or rather I can feel on his voice the feeling of being a kid. Being a kid that sometime before you have the urge and belief that Santa Claus is real and he will gave you your wishful gift. I felt it with him. I felt the hope, his innocent wishful stare and belief to him. I cannot even explain the real thing but it touches my heart so much.

As we passed by them I saw the other boy, the one wearing brown’s, shake the boys hand and the Santa Claus thing flew from his hands. I am not sure what happened after. If he will get it back or just let it be sorted as a trash.

I have never expected to feel that way at that time. It was really surprising for me because I thought I would never experience such a warming situation. It makes me thought of being a kid once more and believing that Santa Claus gave me hope, gave me the feeling to believe that wishes do come true and on one way to another I felt everything is light again no worries. Everything is at peace again.

I am not sure if this feeling I felt is just because of the ambience wailing from the Christmas season. Reminding me to see love, to see hope, to feel happiness even in simplest ways and to make me realize after all the problem occurred and still occurring. Christmas is the season of love, giving and happiness.

I still remember the boy in yellow shirt and the little blue sparkling Santa Claus in his hands.

> Credits to the owner of the image of Santa Claus. :)

simple turns great

The day was planned to go to school to finish up things about our thesis with a problem that we were late requesting for the reagents needed for next semester and to go visit our friend after.

I asked my friend Juse to come with us to our friend's house (Che) but have to do some things first at school and she was okay with it. It was quite sunny when we met up and really hot when we got to school. we met our friend and my partner in thesis, Ivyn. We just done some few things for thesis like printing it out, gone to our friends and classmate's Dormitory to borrow few notes for the finals then photocopied it and went to our dean for the thesis. We already knew we have a problem about the requests for the reagents needed for our experimentation next semester. When we got there our dean told us to make a cover letter for it. So we go back at times st. again (computer shops, photo copiers and canteens were located there) to eat lunch, pick up the photocopied notes and to print out a letter again. Whew! It was noon and the sun was quite blazing up on us hahaha. Me and Juse actually ate up one and a half rice for lunch. i thought from all the walking's we've done with few upstairs and downstairs hehe i think we already lose hundred of calories to eat so much. Then after we printed out the letter we went back to 5th floor HT Building to let our dean signed our request. But it is still lunch break so we stopped by to our friend who's a professor (Bianca) now at the same course (Ivyn's Prof. actually hehe) Juse was close to her mostly and they haven't seen each other for a long time maybe 2 years or so.. We relax for a while had few chit chats and reminiscing the video we (me, bianca and juse and other friend's of ours) made for a project years ago for a subject. We actually watched it again since Ivyn has a copy of it. It's such full laughter around and Bianca let her students watched it too haha. We spent the few minutes laughing and goofing around and it's about 1:15pm we bid good bye to Bianca and go upstairs again. We waited for a while though since it's still locked (the door, means lunch break). Finally, our letter was signed on but our dean told us to go at the campus 3rd floor of IHM building and look for Ms. Gem to give the letter. And again, another exercise again haha (HT Building to IHM Building is a 15 minute walk haha) from there we look for Ms. gem I was actually nervous that she might not accept the last request by the way the said request was filed by other students last month. Last month and we didn't know! Fine our fault we never ask! haha back to her it was like my heart was pounding hard and fast but then she accepted it whew! Those chemical reagents were lots and if we were going to provide it that will costs us thousands plus the Laboratory apparatus so another thousand for it..Whew! Such a relief she accepted it! :) And another 15 minutes again to go outside the campus and were done! We go right ahead to our friends house it's 2pm.. I have classes by 6 pm so i should go back to school again by the evening.

Yey we had finally arrived at Che's house by 2:30pm i guess and we are all quite tired. Few minutes after we all had received a group text message from our friends Allan and Ice (9 years couple :) ) inviting us to see them or have a get together. Since we are all in Che's house we agreed to meet them since it’s been quite a while that we didn't go out as a group. (They are busy from work and us to school haha) then Elysse came (Che's boyfriend and a friend too) so it is like a big get together after all. Because of that i have decided not to attend my hour class at 6pm. Fortunately, I have asked a classmate from there that nothing much was discussed and there just very few who attended. An hour after the couple texted us and they were just waiting us outside. We were all happy to see each other again and began to go at Ceralicious to eat. Allan and Ice brought two whole pizzas and a whole cake for us. So by there we ate it all and few siomai's, 4 of us ordered few at Cerealicious. We had eaten lots, taken pictures, chit chats and seen the pics from our Sagada trip (Me, ivyn, che and elysse went to it) and more haha. We go back to Che's Apartment with the cake :) and just loitered around hehe watch a travel documentary while the two boys have their few drinks.

By 6 pm Ice told us that she has a game (Sports fest like from her work) that was like the venue was near from the apartment. We ended up going with her and cheer her up. With her borrowed pants and shoes from che and the shoes after the first set broke and had to borrow my shoes and full force cheer for their team haha. We’re like so loud there and really hyper. Sadly Ice's team loses but had a great game. It was really a nice game. When we were there I actually missed the times that we were all together with our other friends having great time, cheering out loud for our team every time there's the university week way back. awwwww..... I just missed it because it was really fun to be hyper and all with your friends and laughing out loud. awww.....

After the game we went back again to Che's apartment and since it was quite raining and we don’t have all umbrellas we're quite soaked through and tricycles passing us by were occupied so we patiently wait. Then voila one tricycle came up and we’re 7! How can we fit there? The other option is to wait for another tricycle for the other three but decided we just stick together. The driver said that the gate was just near so it is okay if we all get on it. So the 7 of us fits in there and we were all just laughing at what we have gone through. This is repeated for the next tricycle again. Thank God Che's Apartment was not far from the gate! Whew!!!

8:45pm were back at che's apartment. We just fixed ourselves and ate the cake haha (triple chocolate cake from Red ribbon). Sscreaming like hell, soaked from the rain and ate the cake and drank cold water I wonder why my voice today didn't got lost haha. I thought I’m going to have sore throat either haha

9: 15pm we decided to go home. We thanked Ice and allan for the food and to Che too and for letting us to stay at her apartment. Since it's quite raining me, ivyn and juse is wishing that rain would not be heavy for a while. It's really a hassle to travel raining hard but it did eventually when were almost at the terminal! Men! As in it rains hard! Thankfully we rode easily at the jeepneys from our endpoint haha. It was such a bad fate but good on the other hand because I’ve seen my former crush haha. He was also there waiting for a mini bus to come. He was on a different route too. hahaha

10pm and officially me and Juse were going home (Molino). Ivyn was on the other way (imus) that's why she wasn't with us. I'm tired and sleepy but had so much fun..

10:30 pm, house! Wow the day was such a blast! I had a great time with my friends and had so much fun totally as in. I missed spending time with them. I wish that someday we'll be complete to see each other again to have a great get together!

Wow!

Just wow!

:)

Love it!

The Sagada Trip: Day 3

Day 3

last day at Sagada… :(

Our vacation ended.. we woke up to pack things and ready ourselves to travel again back to Manila. I woke up early again 4:30 am. I packed my things, bought cinnamon roll at Navales Bakeshop. ang sarap lang big enough for 19pesos. :) and try to memorize the place as i walk. Mami-miss ko talaga ang Sagada.. Hindi pa kami nakaka-alis pero gusto ko ulit bumalik. Sooner haha

Breakfast first at Lemon Pie house sayang di nakapagpa-reserve ng maaga for the lemon pie’s or egg pie’s.. ang yummy pa naman nila..

then 10am bus trip going to Baguio..Then from Baguio to Manila.. total time 12 hours again.. (6 hours each)

our lodging house

sunrise at sagada (lodging house view) maulap kasi rainy season pa..

going to miss Sagada so much

the cold weather and calming place of Sagada

No good bye’s Sagada but see you again or till the next trip haha :)

but i would likely to go back there besides may hindi pa kami napuntahan :)

It’s been few days after at di pa rin ako nakaka-recover sa adventurous trip na yun.. parang lumulutang pa rin ang utak ko at hinahanap ulit ng katawan ko yung matinding paglalakad na yun :)

I had a great adventurous, fun trip ever!

I survived Sagada! :)

Till next time! :)

The Sagada Trip: Day 2

Day 2.

I slept early i think 9:30pm nakatulog na ako sobrang antok dahil puyat sa biyahe at sa pagod. And dahil malamig tinawag agad ako ng Bathroom para umihi at early 2:30am at di na ako nakatulog. Tssss… May curfew sa Sagada 9pm - 4 am so maaga magsara at maaga rin naman magbukas. province life talaga. Tahimik lang ang lugar, fresh ang hangin, malamig na climate and all. Nasasabi ko tuloy lagi ” Gusto ko na dito” :)

8:30 start na ng tour ulit.

First destination: Mt. Ampacao

Fresh from the Cave connection experience and muscle pains tuloy pa rin kami at sa maulang klima.. Si Sir Mal-Ek ang tour guide namin ngayon since may first aid training daw sila Sir Andrew that day. Going Up Up Up!

dahil maulan maputik ang daan at medyo madulas..wait till we go to the other side of trail mas matindi doon..

almost at the top ito ang view… usually 30 minutes ang walking trail uphill pero umabot ata kami ng 1 hour haha

few minutes after were on the top!

ito ang nakita namin hahaha

puro fog lang haha due to the weather condition super fog, malakas na hangin at malamig na rain showers ito yun! haha

Sabi ni Sir Mal-Ek from there makikita raw ang border ng Ilocos at ng Tirad Pass. awwww…hindi namin nakita.. mukhang ang ganda pa sana mag-stay kung sunny day parang nasa cartoons na Heidi o kaya sa movie na The Sound of Music haha

Bumaba na lang agad kami…

Second destination: Lake Danom (2 hours trail time)

wala na kaming gaanong pictures dahil wala ng time para gawin yun dahil sa lamig, sa pagod at sa madudulas na pababa at katakut-takot na cliff na dadaanan na medyo madulas. Winner na winner ako sa pagdulas. I fell down 5 times! winner talaga ako grabe lang! haha Sobrang haba ng nilakad na may mga tulay pa na gawa sa trunk ng tree , tapos matinik at nakakahiwang mga talahib at maputik na daanan.. Ito na ang Adventure! :)

At last Lake Danom is here! :)

ito na lang kami.. tired, hungry and dirty haha muddy kasi…haha at puro scratches ang paa at mga kamay.. parang mga paper cuts. Ouch! ang hapdi kaya!

We ate lunch na lang after then go to Bokong Falls.. But before that Dumaan muna kami sa Pottery. Cool lang… :) Then eat lunch! :)

Third Destination : Bokong Falls

malapit lang yun almost 30 minutes mula sa municipal Hall.. Maliit lang yung Bokong Falls pero maganda.. may natural pool yun…as in pabilog talaga na pool 20 ft deep daw.. ayun nakaka-engganyo mag -dive and ang sarap ng tubig. Ang lakas ng current pero okay may harang naman dahil sa pool na yun.. natural yun ha at hindi sinimento or something.. medyo madulas din..malamig sobra ang tubig pero after parang numb ka na sa lamig haha

nice jump haha

i tried for the first time to dive as in! nakaka-inggit kasi sila.. Hindi ako pala-talon sa tubig kahit sa mga swimming poools takot kasi ako pero ayun.. na-overcome ko naman na.. :)

Then back to Canaway..daan sa Church nila na Anglican..

then yung way papuntang Echo Valley.. Di na kami nakapunta kasi madulas din daw ang daan at kulang na sa oras.. not far from there football field din..sa tapat nun not far ang Canaway Resthouse

That’s Che! :)

actually at that time sumigaw si Ian dahil tinawag niya si Che na nauna nang umuwi.. Rinig na rinig at nag-echo pa na late haha so what more pa sa Echo Valley? hmmm… nakaka-excite marating.. :)

All in all nakakapagod na araw ulit..pagod pero nakakalungkot kasi the next day uuwi na kami.. That night kumain kami sa yoghurt house. ang yummy lang at ang dami na naman servings haha

4 of us ordered Banana, Granola, strawberry yoghurt

while Elysse ordered plain yoghurt and i ordered banana, granola yoghurt..

ang yummy! :)

after they ate at george’s restaurant for dinner.. (nauna yung dessert hahaha)

then kwentuhan ulit sa kwarto at tulog na..

Day 2 Ends

The Sagada Trip : Day 1

Months din bago namin na finalize na Sagada ang destination. Im not sure if it was my friend Che who thought of it or me but it was one of the places on my wish list to go and i never imagined i will go there someday haha. Sa huli 6 kaming confirmed na pupunta. :)

Quezon city ang first destination to take the bus ride from Manila to Bontoc which is 12 hours travel. feeling pa namin nung una nasa Amazing race kami its 15 minutes before 8:30 di pa namin nakikita yung terminal (lumipat kasi yung station) when we knew where it is we were like running to get there with our bags and voila were there! nakahabol pa kami pero two of my friends were still not there kinakabahan kami baka di na sila antayin but 3 mins before 8:30 nakahabol pa sila in their scrub suits or uniform haha. whew ang haba ng biyahe nakakapagod pero worth it naman kahit gabi ang biyahe may nakikita ka naman kahit paano lalo na pag pa-umaga na.(cliff, terraces, small falls and mountains and fog hahaha) Maulan pa nung pumunta kami sa sagada so we were really wishing na please make it sunny for a while napagbigyan naman kami kahit paano. :)

Nasa Mt. province na kami niyan at ito ang dinadaan..cliff na sa side.. haha

it’s like were on the other side of the mountain and after were on the other cool! :) Foggy pa yung place and super cold! :)

around 8am nasa Bontoc na kami and we passed by a parade im not sure what festival they are having.

when we were in sagada our tour guide told us that the rice plantation rituals already started so i thought that maybe its the festival they were celebrating.. i’m not really sure :)

From Bontoc, 45 minutes ride will take us to the town proper of Sagada. all over from cordillera to sagada plant terraces were really visible.

Here we are at Sagada! :)

Sa wakas nandito na rin kami! sa jeep terminal nandun na lahat.. bus terminals, municipal hall, hospital and church and the tourist information center. we register first sa tourist information center nila at nagbayad ng environmental fee(mura lang naman) then to our loding house.

DAY 1

after checking in at Canaway House diretso kain muna sa Salt and Pepper. we ate breakfast there or we can say brunch. the food was great and the servings were almost good for two nabigla nga kami eh pero naubos pa rin namin besides it’s a good thing because we never know what exhaustion we’ll get after haha.

we met our tour guide Sir Andrew of Saggas and two more Sir dennis and sir Jason who helps us a lot. as in a lot!!

First destination : Cave Conncetion

Sabi ni Sir Andrew sa cave connection more on adventure yung mga rock formations kasi nasa kabilang side sa Sumaging Cave.

entrance: lumiang burial cave

The adventures begin! :) Entrance pa lang struggling na kami haha it was my first or lahat kami first time mag-spelunking. Entrance pa lang kami medyo difficult na ang dinadaanan at nilulusutan pero along the way you are going to appreciate what you are doing. the adventure, the excitement to see the rock formations deep inside the cave and the thrill to go outside and finish the course. also the fun for 4 hours crawling, sliding, balancing, walking, swimming? haha etc

since we are still in the tail end of the rainy season ma-tubig pa sa loob. ang lakas ng falls at sobrang lamig ng tubig at ang linaw ha.. :)

here are few rock formations we saw inside.. ang daming pics pag nilagay ko lahat haha nasa sumaging na kami! :)

nakalimutan ko kung ano ito para kasing half part ng rice grain haha

asawa daw ng sirena.. ang syokoy! :)

si lolong the buwaya hehe

the terraces

the curtains

la lang…mga batu-bato along the way. ang smooth niyan at hindi madulas..

may part din dun na sa cave wall may mga fossilized na shells. They said na according to the geologist thousand of years ago sagada was underneath water at umangat lang because of volcanic eruption! Cool! ang taas-taas ng sagada feeling mo nasa langit ka na tapos noon nasa ilalim siya ng tubig? Super Cool!

ang nice lang sa loob sa haba ng nilakad, sa mga gasgas, pasa at sugat na nakuha at sa pagkasira ng aking leggings worth it naman lahat! haha

Yey! on our way out! 150 steps daw haha sobrang pagod na talaga kami niyan as in define PAGOD! we started around 1:30 and we finished it around 5:30 whew!

FUN FUN FUN!

after sa lodge bagsak lahat sa kama at super daming kinain ulit as in super dami haha then after tulog na agad. haha

Thanks to Sir Andrew, Sir Dennis and Sir Jason who help us inside as in totally help and guide us inside.

Day 1 ends