Aluel
Navarrete Joined: June 13th 2005
Logged in: February 4th 2012
Logged in: February 4th 2012
We would just like to add the newest member our family...our baby girl Nila. We have now settled in New Jeresy, USA, but is still adding blogs about the Philippines every time we get a chance to go home.
Ey People!
I'm Aluel, married to Valerie last December 2006. My beloved partner & I enjoy traveling the islands of the Philippines. We have separate interests though, I like the adventure activities & she goes for the relaxing activities, but everything goes under the sun. Sometimes, I would be able to convince her to try some new stuff like trekking a volcano’s crater at Mt. Taal, ride the Fly-fish ride (banana boat type ride that goes vertical at high speeds) at Boracay, ride a Katamaran (Sail boat) at the Lake of Taal volcano, try wake-boarding at Calatagan, Batangas at Lago de Oro & the like. She’s a medicine student & I’m a hotelier. With no proper training & exercise for the said events she survived( she suffered from some minor concussions though). So if she can do it, everybody can, hehehe. Her idea of a vacations is to read a book under an umbrella with her mango fruit shake, while I’d love to try new stuff I have never tried before. You would be surprised with the different adventures we have gone thru, & ofcourse the scolding I get from her for convincing her to do things I have mentioned above. I realized that it's not for everybody though. Have a sneak preview of the places we have visited around the Philippines, commentaries on accommodation from a hotelier, ehhem ., food review, a list of things to do & not to, from a Med student, Safety & Medical tips from my Doc Val. Be convinced yourself that trying new stuff in our beloved country is indeed an adventure. You don’t have to own everything to taste the good life. For foreigners this place is one of the best places to spend your money. You would be living like kings & queens. Normally exchange rate goes for 50 Pesos to a dollar imagine what you could buy. A can of soda cost P20($.50), you could get a buffet meal all you can eat for a whole day for around P800 ($15) in beach resort in San Juan, Batangas.Imagine what you could do. All it takes is careful planning & an organized budget. Know where to put your money best. Mabuhay ang Islas Filipinas!
Travel Blog Posts
Nearing Palawan
Coming back from the Philippines and returning to the US for work and endless chore, I almost forgot to blog about our trip to El Nido, Miniloc. But reading National Geographic Adventure October 2009, featuring El Nido as being the richest marine reserve the Coral Triangle. I can’t help but to agree. I have always dreamed of going to the paradise called Palawan. Wondered, mystified, amazed and now I can’t believe I am writing about it. My younger brother, Carlo together with his girlfriend Diana also went home from Dubai to explore this much desired destination. July 20, 2009, 6:30 AM, Papa dropped all of us at the Island Transvoyager Incorparated (ITI) chartered flights terminal for our 7:30AM flight. This is also the jump off point for Amanpulo resorts chartered flights. It was funny that all ... read more
Our apartment view
As I gaze at our window, the green trees have turned bright yellow. Six months have past since our departure from Manila. Time flies so quickly like now leaves are falling from the trees. I have took sneak peaks of four states of America in the past few months. New York, Virginia, and Washington DC and not to forget New Jersey, our state that I have not yet fully ventured but visited Belmar & Bradley Beach part of the Monmouth County , Newark (former Capital of NJ). The events rapidly took place leaving me no time to organize my thoughts. Only my pictures could help me put things in chronological order. I will try to reminisce my insights. June 25 - Tito Chito together with his daughter Katrina & friends came from their home in Edison, ... read more
Ocean Grove
Filipino’s Diaspora in America Two days after jubilant celebration of Philippine Independence Day last June 12, we bid farewell to our family, friends and native land. We packed our lives in boxes weighting not more than 50 kg each, and crossed the seas to a neighboring land in Taiwan, Taipei airport via Eva Air for a connecting flight. We saw Taipei airport was really advanced, organized, clean and modernized. We had fun at their duty free shops, got fascinated with the toy shops where Mazinger Z originated. I suddenly reminisced my “Made in Taiwan” toys, Voltron and Voltes V(ah). Made in Taiwan though was not the favored place of production due to its fragility. Before we go on dreaming of toyland and airport terminals leading to Hello kitty world we were called to our plane to ... read more
The new Site
Valentines is Valerie's day. Valentines day or Val’s day for short. My wife, Valerie Navarrete and I celebrated it at White Beach, Puerto Galera. This coincided with IBM Daksh, my new company’s outing the next day. I took a leave a day earlier than the team building activity to celebrate with my wife. We arrived at White Beach at around 2:30PM after a 2hour bus ride from Manila to the Batangas Pier and an hour ferry ride to Puerto Galera. We stayed at Mendelluke’s Suite - this has become my favorite due to its reasonable room rate and excellent location. A beachfront room, near Coco Aroma on the left side of the beach (facing the sea). The nicer beachfront resorts and more upscale restaurants are here. We had a casual dinner beside the beach, it was ... read more
T-House
My baby’s back! She was away for 2 months and I have missed our travels together. In the process though, I discovered a lot from my suburban home at Quezon City. I will be blogging about this on my next journal. Going back to our Tagaytay trip, Maan H (H for Hilvano), as we fondly call Val’s best friend, celebrated her birthday at Tagaytay with us and her boyfriend Jaqui. Featured sites include the newly discovered T-House, a more affordable alternative but not as fancy as the Boutique, The Taj, a restaurant which is uniquely India in its spices and finally, The Cliff house with a lot of restaurants to choose from in one stop such as Buon Giorno!, Platito, Domicillo, Fruits in ice cream. P.S. Don’t be afraid of the P100 parking fee at the ... read more
The Boutique Tree
My parents' Bobby and Neiza Navarrete's 31st Anniversary Celebration in Tagaytay. After leaving Manila in the morning, we all had lunch at The Boutique for their famous Hawaiian baby back ribs. After a leisurely lunch, we proceeded to Talisay to rent a boat for Taal Lake. It was really great because all of us could make it, Mama, Papa, and my brothers Tristan, Carlo and Robbu. ... read more
Nurture Spa welcome bouquet
After more than 3 years of working in the hotel industry, I decided to call it quits. Val & I are ready for a new life adventure. Val's going to the USA to apply for her residency, while I join the nearby IBM call center. As soon I resigned, I had a month vacation before joining my new company. Val & I spent quality time at our favorite nearby vacation destination - Tagaytay. We first had lunch on our favorite super-size back rib restaurant ... the Boutique. After lunch, we checked in at Nurture Spa wherein we stayed in one of their cottages which has its own massage area, bathtub but no tv! TNurture Spa also have nipa huts available but I don't encourage staying there because you have to go down the ladder of the ... read more
Aluel in Manos
Aisde from staying at the Boutique, we decided to try out the different restaurants of Tagaytay. Thursday lunch in Manos Greek Tavern (the baklava was too sweet, the moussaka was delicious), dinner at Hawaiian babyback ribs at The Boutique (mouth-watering and enough of a reason to come back again and again), breakfast in bed courtesy of The Boutique and Friday lunch at Gourmet's cafe (salads are their expertise and they have their own farm and produce store) ending with buco tarts to bring home from Amira's. ... read more
Pondering in the tub overlooking Taal lake
We stayed at the Boutique Bed & Breakfast on May 30 and left on June 1, 2007. It seemed like we stayed for a month. It felt timeless. Just the right vacation we needed on a rainy end of May. I just took my paternity leave from The Ascott Hotel (formerly Oakwood Makati). It was unfortunate that last month, Val & I lost our 3 month old baby. Val & I are still finding ourselves back to this beautiful world we have. Accept things we cannot change and I guess try again as most of our friends would say. Inspired with this, we had to add flavor to our relationship, remove the pressure of fatherhood, let's think of Blessed Sex! Baby, I lust for you!!! The Boutique has just provided us the right atmosphere. This place ... read more
Spidey!
One fine day, Val & I decided to go to SM Mall of Asia. This is supposed to be the biggest mall in Asia. We spent almost an entire day there and we still haven't seen every part of it. It was that big!... read more
