A day in the Premier Province of the North... PANGASINAN!

It's summer! But no, summer's almost over and we haven't done any summer related activity except eat halo-halo! Gone were the days when my friends and I still have time to go to different beaches, now we don't even have time to plan a quick get away. Gotta think fast!

One lazy afternoon, 2 of my friends and I were trying to chill in this scorching hot weather when a bright idea came to mind. A really quick basking in the sun sun sun of San Fabian, Pangasinan! That was the idea. The plan? A limited budget quick getaway. 

A cousin of mine from Canada is visiting their hometown in Pangasinan, since I was going there to pick him up my best friend decided to come along and yep the plan was to have a quick stop in the fine sand beach of Pangasinan.

We were only going to be there overnight so we decided to dedicate the first day to just have an r&r in the beach. And so we did!

Traveled for about 4 hours and we finally made it!

Fine beautiful weather, the heat of the sun is just about right, brown sand is fine but the beach itself was just way too crowded. What to do? Luckily there were boats for rent just in front of the resort, the boat men will take you on a tour of the ocean. Well, there's not much to see in this area so just ride the boat and then maybe go for a  swim in the open sea. That is not an option so we went to a beach which is just a bit far from where we were, still no good, there were jelly fishes swimming.

The Lazy A.. Just before going for a boat ride.

San Fabian...

We have to live up to our title. Selfie capital of the world! Selfie selfie selfie!

The boat men suggested we go to this part of the beach called Sobol. And so we did and boy were we happy. This part of the beach looks like a pool on the beach it has like an opening coming in from the open sea and in there the water is clear and just a few feet deep. Since it was super hot by that time, it was as if we were in a jacuzzi. So we stayed there for a few minutes, we would've brought lunch if we knew the place would be this nice, peace and quiet. Just what we needed.

This pool only appears during low tide and disappears during high tide...

Sobol beach

Okay, basking in the sun. Check! Now it's time for lunch. We went back to the Lazy A Resort where we had to pay a fee of P100, which was not at all bad. You can use the pool and other amenities with the entrance fee. For lunch we ordered some food of course. We had crispy calamari from the resort and crabs from the locals. Problem solved!

Rested for a bit, then we enjoyed the pool for some afternoon swim. By this time, it suddenly became cloudy with signs of heavy rain about to fall. And yup, it started to rain and I mean heavy, heavy rain! We stayed in the pool for a few more minutes, we were hoping to go back to the beach but the weather just got really bad. Done with the pool, showered and ordered some halo-halo while waiting for the rain to stop.

From bright and sunny to dark and gloomy.

After about an hour or two of non-stop heavy rain it finally came to a halt. Thank God!

Played a bit by the sunset...

Went back to the hotel, we stayed at Hotel Trish in Mangaldan. It's a new hotel, very nice, comfy, clean and all the staff are friendly. So we left our things and went to my cousin's house for some seafood overload dinner. Which I cannot put in words how, how, how delicious the food were. Simple yet scrumptious.

What we had, the famous Dagupan boneless bangus not in pic.

It was around 8:00 PM, everyone sleeps early in the province, this is a known fact. So we went back to the hotel, then poof!

A new day has dawn, we had breakfast at the hotel. I had Bangsilog while Maries had Tapsilog. I forgot to take a snap. Darn it! Anyway, the food tasted yummy as it looked.

We still had a few hours before check out so we went to Mangaldan market, rode their most common mode of transpo the pedicab. At the market we bought the famous puto Calasiao, green mangoes, bagoong alamang, bagoong isda and some vegetables. Also went to Romana's to buy some peanut brittle and malunggay polvoron.

Okay, so we checked out, had lunch at my cousin's house then back on the road again. But before we hit the highway, we just had to say a little prayer in Manaoag church. Lit candles and had a bit of a tour in their museum.

On the way to Manila, the ac suddenly broke down and it was scorching hot outside. At least the sound trip helped a little, but sun burnt, sweaty and all made us stop at Starbucks in Hacienda Luisita to chill for a bit. Then back on the road again.

The trip was well worth it, short but definitely sweet, better to have some sun and tan on the beach than none. 

Till our next trip!

P.S.

Cost of the trip? Below are the details:

If you take the bus, take Dagupan bus in Cubao. Get off at Mangaldan, if you see the second BDO near the Sto. Tomas Church, Hotel Trish is right behind BDO.

Bus - P340 (one way)

Car - P3000 back and forth, this is okay too if you are with a group of friends.

Hotel - P1,100 for 2 persons

Pocket money - P3000 (depends on how you spend)

San Fabian has tons of resort in the beach front, they have affordable rooms that cost from P1,000 up.

Fun on the Run

So why write about this particular event? Cause it was a fun and share worthy experience. Fun runs seem to be a big hit in the Philippines, it has been around for quite a few years now. And most of them are for a good cause. Early this year my friends and I were lucky enough to be a part of a benefit fun run, portion of the fee went to super typhoon yolanda survivors.

A lot of my friends are now on a healthy diet, and are running. Running is a way of life now, as funny as it may sound but it's true. A lot of Filipinos have changed their lifestyle, and I think fun runs has a lot to do with it the more organizations organize a run, more people join and more people are encouraged to live a healthy life. Take this particular run as an example, 5K Color Dash organized by CCAP, my team mates and I joined not only because it was going to be fun but we are also on a race to having a fit and healthy lifestyle.

"Healthy living huh?" ;) LOL! Here are some photos.

                         
We arrived in BGC @ 5:30 A.M. we were all psyched and ready to run. 5K here we come! LOL!

Selfie before the run!


Seriously sweating it out...

                                                     

Taking a break, walking and posing. Honestly, most of the participants of this run were walking and just taking pictures. We are a bit guilty for all the selfies and pics we've taken, but we couldn't help it. Peace! 

 And I thought the paint was going to be sprayed for every kilometer you finish. But no, you have to put it on yourself which was kind of gross. The paint kinda looked like fertilizer only with color and it stinks too and it was inside a sack of rice. Oh well, what can I do? Color Dash nga eh, I wouldn't want to finish the run without any color on my shirt while everyone else looked like a face with smeared make up on. Hehe!

Oh so refreshing! Yes, I made it. We all made it!

Tryna be funny! Kasi fun run!

 

After party! I imagine zombies coming out of that thick smoke. LOL!

My victory jump. ^_^

And yes, I just have to make that jump! I think I only ran 3K out of the 5K, the other 2K were spent walking and picture taking.

This was definitely a fun and exhilarating experience. I would join another event like this, can't wait for the zombie run this November. I would surely win that if it were a race. LOL! Two thumbs up for this. It was all goooood!