Exploring Philippines: Visiting the Island Province of Guimaras

The main purpose of visiting the Province of Guimaras is the site visit of the newly installed Wind Farm.

We started off, by taking a pumpboat from Iloilo to Jordan Ferry Terminal. Since, we’re a group of 11 and with no time to wait for other passengers to fill-in the ferry, the bosses (because there were 5 managers with us) decided to pay the single trip with only the 11 of us on board at P500.00. 

Ten to Fifteen minutes later we arrived at Guimaras Island.

7-Eleven Now in Cagayan de Oro

Three weeks after the grand opening on June 5, 2015, I finally got to visit the 7-Eleven this morning. Located at Georgetown Cyber Mall, RN Pelaez Boulevard fronting Liceo de Cagayan University is way out of the way from my usual route to the office. 

I purposely passed by the area, to take a look at the new store, which I assumed to be like any other 7-Eleven in the country. 

 

 

Considering it is right across Liceo University, the store has been so crowded since the opening especially with college students. On a Saturday morning, 7-Eleven is surely peaceful with only few people taking their meals at the side table. I enjoyedscanning from one stand to another looking for something to be brought in the office.

And here’s what I got. These unhealthy snacks will surely energize me the whole day of overtime work.

Exploring Philippines: Eight Things I Did in Iloilo

On June 15, 2015 on board Cebu Pacific 16:40 flight, my boss and I flew to Iloilo City from Laguindingan Airport to attend a work related meeting. We arrived at the Iloilo Airport 30 minutes ahead of schedule, but had to stay about an hour waiting for the service vehicle assigned to fetch us who unfortunately was stuck in the traffic. We arrived at the booked hotel at 7:30PM, had our dinner and called it a day.

The following day, it was all about work. One whole day of meeting and discussions,after all, that’s the very reason why we are in the city. But the good part was, we still had a chance to explore places and eat interesting foods while in the city.

So here’s the summary of what I did (sometimes with companions) in the city;

1. Stayed at Diversion 21 Hotel

We were booked in one of the best hotels in town located at the Diversion Road, Mandurriao Iloilo City just a walking distance from SM City. The hotel offers the best amenities so far, I occupied an air-conditioned matrimonial room with 40” LCD Cable TV, free internet (which I haven’t used because of my mobile data), hot & shower, private phone, fridge and a safety deposit box. Because it was an all-expenses paid by the company, I did not bother about the price. You can check it out at their FB page, if you want to.

2015 Summer Fun @ Midway White Beach Resort

Friends are truly friends, even with the distance. As much as possible, we wanted to bond when time allows us, and that’s what had happened on April 10 & 11, 2015. One of our friends who’s currently working in Cebu City came home for his son’s college graduation, and because of his one week vacation in Iligan City, we managed to set-up a get together after many years of no summer outing. The rest of the gang together with their families and us the whole family (coming from Cagayan de Oro) met halfway at Midway White Beach Resort at Initao, Misamis Oriental.

We arrived at the Resort on Friday around 7:30-8:00 in the evening. Each one of us has commitments at the early time of the day and those commitments should be done before the much awaited vacation, for us to fully enjoy our time minus all the work and worries for the time being. It was a simple gathering, for the whole barkada but sadly, the three of them, which we hoped to join us, had other commitments. 

By the time we arrived the food was already set-up, the roasted pig “lechon baboy” that never miss the list was already waiting for us to devour. At 3k budget, Nyc was able to get about 20kg whole lechon for us, an ideal size with enough leftovers for the lechon paksiw the following day. 

Sweet Mango Overnight Oats

Summer in the Philippines is not only fun, but sweet as well because of the sweet fruits that are also abundant during this season like mangoes. It seems like every corner of the city is full of sweet yellow mangoes.

Yesterday, I bought 2 kilograms of ripe mangoes to a street vendor in front of our office. I kept on thinking what better recipe to do with mangoes, then, I remembered the Mango Overnight Oats that I have read before at Peachy’s Kitchen.