What I wore during our road trip to Bataan last April. 🙂
Fedora Hat – Promod
White Chiffon Top – Forever21
Inner Tank Top – Victoria’s Secret
Khaki Shorts – Cotton On
Belt – Dorothy Perkins
Gold Glitter Shoes – Toms
Bracelets – Mango and Reminder Bracelet
You can check out details of the road trip here : First Stop, Second Stop, Last Stop
Top Photo : Beach by the Pawikan Conservation Center
Bottom Photo (L-R) : Mt. Samat, Pawikan Conservation Center, Sisiman Bay
Summer. Living in a tropical country like the Philippines, it almost feels like summer for the whole 365 days of the year. 🙂
But since June is about to kick in, it officialy marks the end of our summer season. It has started to rain the past couple of days — but nonetheless, as soon as the rain stops, Mr. Sun will be back out shining oh-so-brightly. 🙂
The photo above is what made my Summer 2012 really special. A random road trip last April 28 to Bataan. Photo above is a collage of all the places we visited that day. 🙂 Please do visit my previous posts about this road trip (1st stop – Mt. Samat; 2nd stop – Pawikan Conservation Center; 3rd stop – Sisiman Bay).
I LOVE SUMMER!
See my past 5 Weekly Photo Challenge entries 
Weekly Photo Challenge : Hands
Weekly Photo Challenge : Unfocused
Weekly Photo Challenge : Together
Weekly Photo Challenge : Two Subjects
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At around 2:30pm, it was time for us to hit our last stop, The Lighthouse in Sisiman Bay 🙂 I was sooo excited!
Again, relying solely on our Garmin and iPad for maps, off we went to Sisiman Bay. After almost an hour of driving thru smooth and well-paved roads, we have finally reached our destination (Ok, we got lost a bit as there were no visible signs and we took a wrong turn, hehe!). Woohooo! My husband and I were so excited to take photos!
The townspeople informed us that we might not be able to bring down our car close to the bay because of the rocks. So a little trekking is needed — I was totally ok with that 🙂 My husband thought of checking it out first… while I took more photos, hahaha (what a cam-whore!) :p
We parked our car and trekked down the hill. IT. WAS. SOOOO. HOT!!! We trekked the whole stretch in search for a lighthouse. No lighthouse in sight. Hmmm… How can we miss such a big structure?
After a few minutes of trekking, taking photos and enjoying the view, my husband decided to ask some locals who were fishing by the bay. To our surprise, the lighthouse was destroyed last 2011 by typhoons which hit the country. So sad! 😦
See the rock formation? That is where the lighthouse used to stand 😦
You can view old photos of the lighthouse here. Sooo nice! I sure hope they rebuild it someday…
Since there was no lighthouse to take photos of, my husband and I just decided to just enjoy the bay. We put on our skele-toes and got our feet wet. It was soooo relaxing. Summer heat, cool water, splashing waves on rocks… it was PERFECT!
We wanted to wait for sunset as I’m sure it would be picture perfect but I didn’t want to get back to Manila really late as my husband has been driving the whole day. So at around 5pm, we decided to hit the road. We reached Pampanga at around 7:30pm, had dinner at Shakey’s (we wanted to try out a new restaurant while in Pampanga but we were soooo hungry to even look and explore!) and finally hit home by 9:30pm.
It was really a fun and memorable road trip. We’ll definitely do more in the coming months! 🙂
Read previous posts on this road trip here (First Stop, Second Stop)
Visiting the Pawikan Conservation Center (Pawikan is Filipino for Marine Turtles) was really a part of our itinerary. Although we were clueless as to where and how far it really is from Mt. Samat, we thought of putting our entire trust to our Garmin unit and my iPad for Google Earth for maps 🙂
So when we saw this sign as we got near to Mt. Samat, we knew that we have to just follow the road when we get back out 🙂
We left Mt. Samat at around 11:30am since the signages said “Pawikan Conservation Center, Straight Ahead”, we thought that it was going to be a short drive (and the security guard in Mt. Samat told us that it will just be a 30-45 minute drive).
To our surprise, after 45 minutes and 10-15 signages of “Pawikan Conservation Center, Straight Ahead” have passed, still no Pawikan Conservation Center in sight. Haha!
We obediently followed the signs and after an hour and half of enjoyable drive, we have finally reached our destination! Yahoo!!!
Inside, you’ll see a few pawikans which are swimming inside a pond and learn about the lifecycle of a pawikan (really interesting!). I don’t really like turtles (or any other reptile) but they were kinda cute 😉 They’re calm and really cute when they swim!
The ‘caretakers’ (if that’s what you call them) were really nice and they were willing to answer any question you may have 🙂 My husband and I took our time (I think there were 2 groups who came and left and we were still there, haha!) in the center and asked all the questions we could think of, haha!
Some stuff we learned from this trip:
1. We know that pawikans are threatened for extinction — and the reason? Certain human activities which threatens the lives of these pawikans and other marine life like egg gathering, poaching, pollution, etc… Sad 😦
2. We learned that the entire Bagac and Morong coasts are known as nesting grounds of three (3) out of five (5) sea turtle species. This includes the Hawksbill, Olive Ridley and the Green Turtle. (Information confirmed via this site) — No wonder we saw some newly hatched baby turtles by the Subic beach shoreline when we were there a few years back (Subic is just 45 minutes away from the conservation center).
by the shoreline of the Pawikan Conservation Center
It is really nice that we have centers like these. They operate on donations from people as they only charge P20 for entrance fee (which I really don’t think is enough). KUDOS to these people!
After an hour of staring at the pawikans and missing lunch (2:00 pm), we decided that it was time to go and head to Sisiman Bay (God knows where that is!).
Ps. We decided to skip lunch and just eat whatever chips and snacks we brought along with us — as we don’t know where we can stop and eat, eeeps!
Get more information about Pawikans here.
Don’t forget to check out Road Trip, First Stop!
If you have been following my blog, I’m sure you already know that my husband and I love to travel — and that includes traveling and exploring the Philippines 🙂
Last April 28 (Saturday), we packed our bags and decided to go on a road trip to Bataan.
First stop, Mt. Samat!
Facts: Mount Samat is found in Pilar, Bataan. At the summit of the mountain, you’ll see Dambana ng Kagitingan (Shrine of Valour) which was built to honor and remember the gallantry of Filipino and American soldiers who fought during the WWII (read more via Wikipedia).
How long did it take us?
The trip from Manila to Mt. Samat took us around 2.5 hours (We left Manila at 6am, had 30 minute breakfast in San Fernando, Pampanga by 730am. Got to Mt. Samat main entrance by 9am). The roads were well maintained which made the trip really relaxing and hassle-free. 🙂
What to see?
When we got to the entrance of Mt. Samat, we paid a total of P60 (P20/pax for locals for museum entrance and P20 for parking — make sure you don’t lose the tickets for the museum!) to get in. We took our car straight to the foot of the cross (you can also choose to walk up via the museum) as it was scorching hot (temperature was at 36 degrees, if I’m not mistaken) last Saturday.
As soon as I stepped out of the car, I was in A-W-E at the sight of the cross. It was huuuuuge (insert duh-ness here!) According to the security guard we talked to, it has 36 floors and around 460+ steps to get up to the wing of the cross. You need not worry as you can take a smooth ride up using the elevator 😉
Warning tho on the trip up… the elevator is kinda small (it can only carry around 6pax at a time). So it may not be for someone who’s claustrophobic (I have minor claustrophobia but I surprisingly survived) or someone who’s afraid of heights.
We paid another P20 (P10/pax) for us to go up to the cross. Once you’re up on the wing of the cross, you’ll see a good view of nearby provinces (and they say, you can also see Metro Manila on a clear day). I definitely enjoyed the view and the cool breeze on top! Breathtaking and ahhhh-mazing! I couldn’t stop myself from taking lots and lots of photos (include day-off shots here, haha!)
After spending some time on top, we decided that it was time for us to visit the altar hall and the museum. You can either walk down from the foot of the cross or just take your car back down. For us, it was the latter 😉
Once you get down, you’ll see the altar hall with huuuuge granite walls and pillars which speaks of the Battle of Bataan. Everything looked so grand! I love the artwork on the ground and how well maintained the whole area was! Impressive!
Look how tiny I looked beside the giant pillars. Again, ahhhh-mazing!
Then don’t forget to visit the museum. The entrance is by a small door to your left when you’re facing the cross. No photos are allowed in there so take time to look at the photos and appreciate the war artifacts found inside. Once more, it’s ahhhh-mazing!
It’s always nice to learn and be reminded about your own country’s rich history. ❤ ❤ ❤
We ended our visit to Mt. Samat at around 11:30am. Next stop, Pawikan Conservation Center 😉
To read more about Mt. Samat and other details, you can visit VisitPinas.com 😉
I am a shopping enthusiast based in Manila. When I'm not busy doing wife duties, I research on what-to-buy in my next shopping trip, think of nice things I can surprise my husband,family and friends with or simply daydream of what outfit to wear the next day.
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