Pangasinan Roadtrip - Hundred Islands and Bolinao Escapade

The itinerary for our Pangasinan weekend roadtrip is to go to Dagupan, Alaminos and Bolinao.

We left Manila by Friday night and arrived in Dagupan to get some rest in my friend’s place. Saturday morning, we traveled to Hundred Islands, Alaminos, Pangasinan.

Hundred Islands

I’ve read about Hundred Islands in my elementary textbooks, but I’ve never really had the chance to get there until last weekend. 

They said it was better to explore the islands during the morning since in the afternoon, there's already low tide and there are activities you won’t get to experience, like cliff diving. But we arrived around 11am so we really had no choice but to experience it during the afternoon under the scorching heat of the sun. If you’re arriving around the same time, it’s better to eat first (if you’re not bringing any food) since there’s really no food choices on these islands.

Arranging Your Hundred Islands Tour

To start your Hundred Islands tour, you would have to get to Lucap Wharf. If you’re traveling by car like we did, there’s a free parking lot. Once you’re there, go to the tourism office, talk to one of the officers, and you would need to fill out a form. You would be assisted by the officer.

Costs:

(1) Boat fee: It depends.

Determine how many you are and what kind of boat you need . There are small (1-5 persons), medium(6-10 persons) and large boats (11-15). Determine whether you’re renting the boat for a Day Tour, Overnight or you’re using it as a Service Boat. If you hire a Service Boat, your assigned tour guide will stay with you during your entire trip. Here are the rates:

Grabbed from keeping traces.blogspot.com

(2) 250 PhP per person for snorkeling

If you’re going snorkeling, you would have to pay 250 pesos for each person for the equipments.

(3) Insurance - 10 PhP per person

(4) Registraion/Envirnonmental Fee - 40 pesos per person

What to do in Hudred Islands

- There’s an activity in each of the major islands. In Governor’s Island, you can visit the PBB house and climb to the view deck to take a picture.

Among the other activities you can try are:

- Island Hopping
- Snorkeling
- Swimming
- Cliff Diving
- Zipline

Don’t worry. You can just ask your tour guides on what you can do in each of the island. You would have to pay additional fees for other activities like snorkeling and zipline. Cliff diving is for free, but make sure you have a vest. No vest, no cliff dive.

We didn’t get to experience the cliff diving since there was low tide, but we swam in the Imelda Cave which is the underground river -- also a bat cave -- where people do the cliff dive.


There are other islands/islets you can go to. In our case, after snorkeling, we just passed by these islands since we were already exhausted. We proceeded to Bolinao, Pangasinan.

Bolinao Pangasinan

We stayed in my friend’s cousin’s place in Bolinao. Ate Cute was the most gracious host anyone could ever ask for. She also accompanied us in Patar Beach and Bolinao Lighthouse. I like seeing lighthouses so that was really fun for me. 

In Patar Beach, cottages only cost 700 pesos.

To end our Pangasinan trip, we planned to go to Manaoag Church, but it was already late in the evening so we weren’t able to pass by.

Pangasinan is just a few hours from Manila. If you’re broke like us, you can definitely visit these places since for a small budget, there are plenty of activities you can do and plenty of places you can visit.

Day Trip in Minalungao National Park

I have a friend who has a great place in Nueva Ecija. She told us that we were always welcome to visit so when I saw a post in Looloo about Minalungao National Park, I immediately bookmarked it. Prior to reading that post, I never knew this place existed.

I went to Nueva Ecija with my law school friends. It was our Christmas break and we were broke (Hashtag Student Life) so we opted for Nueva Ecija for the second time. This time we planned to go to Minalungao.

From my friend’s place in Nueva Ecija, we traveled by car to Minalungao. Halfway our trip, we did ask ourselves if we were on the right track. It was a very remote place Only a few people were there when we arrived. The children around the area can be your tour guides. Just generously pay them after the tour.

What to do in Minalungao National Park?

We did some rock climbing (for lack of a better term). We really didn’t expect that we would so we were not wearing appropriate outfits. One of us is in a dress, one in a formal wear. My slippers were slippery. 

There is a cave, but it’s not much and it doesn’t look that safe to me.

Some of us did some swimming.

The fun part was rafting. We rented the raft for 600 pesos. It actually costs more, but we got it for a cheaper price because we only used it for a few minutes. It costs more (P800) but you would have it for the whole day.       

We didn’t experience the thousand steps since it was already reaching nighttime.

What made Minalungao fun for us?

We didn’t know what to expect so everything we did became so much more exciting. Being in unsuitable clothes, climbing rocks was definitely a challenge. We also enjoyed the rafting. The greatest part is that there were only a few people around so the place was really serene. 

Photo credit: Minalungao National Park Facebook Account

What you see in the picture, the color of the water, that is the actual color. The place really has this pristine quality. I can’t imagine this place being crowded. 

Would I recommend Minalungao National Park?

It depends. If you intend to go there from a farther place, let’s say Manila, don’t expect a lot. What you see in the pictures is practically the entire thing. It's a small place. But still, you would definitely enjoy it too if you just want to relax, rent a raft, chill and swim for the day. If you’re coming from a much nearer place like Nueva Ecija, you should definitely go and support and love your own. It's a must for you if you're from Nueva Ecija since it's your very own hidden treasure.

Sagada Weekend Experience

This is my first attempt to blog about my traveling experience. A lot of blog sites helped me set up itineraries for our travels so I thought I would blog about my adventures too, hopefully, to give others information they’re seeking before they begin their trips.


Bus to Sagada

We left Manila, by car, around 10pm Friday and arrived in Baguio around 3am. We left the car in Baguio to travel to Sagada by bus.

According to my researches, buses to Sagada leave at 4am or 4:30am so we went to GL Lizardo Bus Station around that time and queued, but the first bus arrived at the bus station around 5am. By that time, there were already so many people. There was a few commotion since so many people waited and queued for how many minutes, almost an hour, and there was no proper assistance on who should board first so people went a little kru kru. I think only 1/5 was able to ride that first bus to Sagada. We were among the few. My friend literally had to fight for our spots because we were the first ones there. I don’t know the schedule of the next trip. The GL Bus Station is not yet properly equipped to handle so many tourists, especially during the weekends.

Lodging - Ligaya’s House and Cottages

We wanted to reserve one of the cottages but it was fully booked. We got one of the houses for 300 pesos per head. Ligaya’s is a little far from the town proper, but we didn’t mind. They provided transportation for a cost. Since there were a lot of us, we were splitting costs so it was very minimal. Here’s their more responsive contact number: 0920-784-9633 

Sagada Saturday

When you arrive in Sagada, you would have to go to the Tourism Office and pay an environmental fee. They will also give you a piece of paper outlining the places to go and at what cost. We received our copy from our hosts from Ligaya’s. It’s the same for everyone. 

From Saturday lunch to afternoon, we visited the Echo Valley, Hanging Coffins, Lumiang Burial Caves and Sumaguing Cave. Spelunking at Sumaguing Cave is a must. You have to experience it for yourselves. It’s a lot of fun especially when you’re with friends (or maybe significant others). It may be a little tough for children.

Sagada Dinner

For our dinner in Sagada, we had some trouble looking for a place. There were so many people in all the famous places. We walked down the entire strip. We ended up having our dinner in Sagada Brew. That was probably one of the worst dining experiences I had. We waited for more than an hour for our food. I think the next table waited for 2 hours because we were already eating while they were still waiting. It was horrible. The food didn’t even taste that good. They should do something about their terrible service.

Mt. Kiltepan Experience

Before we arrived in Sagada, there were already a lot of news articles about how tourists ruined Mt. Kiltepan and Sagada in general. I was ready to be disappointed, but I wasn’t. It was around 5am when we left Ligaya’s House to go to Kiltepan via van. There were numerous cars lined up to get to the peak. It was like Manila traffic all over again. Did that disappoint me? Not entirely. From the way I see it, it’s a great thing. Tourists of Sagada waking up early in the morning chasing the sun. It was quite an experience.

What is horrible, however, are the noisy tourists. I didn’t mind that we were cramped up, but what annoyed me is the noise. Can they just take a selfie and SHUT THE FUCK UP? I don’t understand it. You traveled so far to witness this sunrise and all you’re seeing are your faces on your phone.

Good thing I am used to shutting down the world to focus. And I can clearly remember those few minutes when the sun started peaking through the mountain, when the first non-violent rays hit my face, and when the sun finally showed its entirety. That glorious circle. You can look at it directly for the first few minutes without hurting your eyes. 

It was a magnificent sunrise above a glorious sea of clouds. That. That cannot be taken away by any noise.

Sagada Breakfast - Misty Lodge

Misty Lodge breakfast redeemed Sagada dining experience for us. There were very few people when we had our breakfast there. There were just two groups, including ours. No horrible long waiting and the food was great.

Departure

We were planning to go to Bomod-ok Falls -- but blame it on our tiring lives maybe -- but we decided to go home earlier. By the way, there are no buses leaving past 2pm they said. We shopped before leaving. It was another 6-hour ride to Baguio.

Cost:

I spent around 3,000 pesos for the whole trip. That already includes:
- Gas (Manila-Baguio and back)
- Bus fare from Baguio to Sagada and back (220 pesos per ride)
- Meals (around 200 pesos each meal for famous places) you can go cheaper
- 300 pesos for lodging (2D1N)
- Tour prices and Guide fees (it will depend on your itinerary)