Blogs from Puerto Galera, Philippines, Asia - page 3

It's 10:23am, we're at White Beach. It's really nice here. The water is blue. It's deep however, so deep boats moor here, so swimming is not for the timid. I remember going in a few feet and finding myself up to my neck already. My friend and I took a tricycle to here from the port. It was 100 Pesos, haggled from 250. The trip took about 20 minutes and it was scenic. We had the ocean and palm trees to our right the whole time. I think we could have done things better. As soon as we got to town we started looking for a room. We should have checked our bags somewhere and tried not to look too anxious. We found this OK bungalow, with twin beds, a bathroom, and fan for 800 pesos. ... read more

Supposedly there's a Ponderosa here in Puerto Galera, like a restaurant or the TV show? It's 11:42am, New Year's Day. I spent the night in Sabang, and came back here as soon as I woke up. No big plans for today, just the way I like. This is exactly what I was looking for. I'm starting to get into the local groove here, living and speaking like the locals, it's great. Stefan and I hung out last night. For dinner we ate pizza at this fast food joint (still apprehensive about the local food). Afterwards we got some beer and watched the fireworks at the beach. That was fun. He set some off, including one that blew off right out of his fingers. I lost my hearing for awhile. Yes, lots of juvenile fun. The locals ... read more

Puerto Galera is in Mindoro, which is a contraction of Mina De Oro or "Gold Mine" in Spanish. As per the guide book, after 500 years they still haven't found any here. Had a restful night. I went out to eat around 6pm. It was already dark. My hostel was quiet. I went to another restaurant down the road, it was too dark and not festive looking, just some tourists eating. I went to the town center again. The whole way down there people on bikes kept asking me if I wanted a ride somewhere. I ended up at Bahay Pilipino, a restaurant/hostel which caters mostly to Europeans. It was bright and lively. I went in and had some food, lumpia shanghai and fried rice. Still too chicken to try out more exotic stuff. I met ... read more

My older brother Tristan, just arrived in the Philippines after working in a Royal Caribbean Luxury liner for 8 months. He just can’t wait to jump into Philippines’ beaches. With little time in my hands, I dug into my old travel files to head to a place with the beach, nightlife, & activities we needed for a quick getaway. I also wanted to explore a new destination. Since all of us have visited Puerto Galera already, I decided to put some twist by going farther into Oriental Mindoro’s Tamaraw falls & Ponderosa. My wife, Valerie, was kind enough to drop off the boys, Pen, Tristan & I to the closest bus station, Jam Liner at East avenue at Quezon City. We left there at 6AM. We arrived at the Batangas Pier at 9AM. While we were ... read more

April 29, 2006. Finally, I was able to go to Puerto Galera. It was a good trip, a good break from work. I went to PG over the long Labor Day weekend with few friends from office. Then Roy called me up telling me if I could join them in PG. It was all good, 2-in-1 na trip. We had a terrible trip going to PG. We were at Batangas Pier at around 10am, and we got a trip for 2pm. Our boat scheduled to leave at 2pm got delayed by 2 hrs, and it was almost Sundown Saturday when we got there. But what the heck, nothing can burst my bubble. The beach somewhat calms me down, even if there are a lot of people. We had our "lunch" at around 5pm, with Kebabs and ... read more