Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Baby's up and running!

In the Sugarbowl, our little baby, is now on the intarwebs! We're working hard to get in some more great content. To find out what's In the Sugarbowl, just click this and listen up! Thanks, in advance, for listening! Mwah!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Palawan, Day 2: Pure Shores

Take me to my beach
I can hear it, calling you
I'm coming, not drowning
Swimming closer to you

The sights Day Two in Palawan offered were eyegasmic! The majestic cliffs jutting out from the crystal clear blue waters were breathtaking to say the least. The scenery seemed to come right out of The Beach, that movie a young Leonardo Dicaprio starred in back in 2000. In fact, I've heard that the author of the novel The Beach, Alex Garland, was actually inspired by the beauty of Palawan when he wrote the novel. However, the location used in his book and in the movie was Thailand, particularly a beach called Koh Phi Phi. I guess it mostly had something to do with the backpacking culture, which wasn't as big in the Philippines then as it was in Thailand. Ok, I digress. Sorry, hehe.

So Day Two was spent mostly in the water and on the bangka as we island-hopped our way around Coron. If I remember correctly, there were seven stops all in all (but for the life of me, I can only recall six): Siete Pecados, Kayangan Lake, Barracuda Lake, Twin Lakes, Banol Beach and Banana Island where we spent the night.

The lakes were beautiful! I could spend a whole afternoon in any of those lakes. The best part is when all the other tourists leave and you and you're friends are alone. Automatically, you feel the lake transforming into your very own secret cove, a secret hideaway only a chosen few are privy to, just like in The Beach.

With my team in Kayangan Lake


Banol beach was also picturesque with its pristine waters and soft white sand. Again, another location I wouldn't mind spending a whole afternoon in. I can imagine just lounging by the beach front, the cool water lapping at my toes while getting a nice golden tan. Now couple this breathtaking scenery with great conversation with friends over a few drinks and life couldn't get any better.

Idyllic Banol Beach



By day's end we headed for Banana Island where we spent the night. We arrived on Banana Island just in time for the magic hour. I was able to watch a beautiful sunset with my girls and was reassured that all is well and that life is beautiful.






The only drawback from this otherwise perfect paradise vacation was that it felt rushed. We went to seven beyond-beautiful locations but only spent around 30 minutes to an hour in each. Not enough time to soak in all the beauty. Notice how I kept saying 'I could spend the whole afternoon' in this or that place. In the beginning, during the planning stage of our vacation, we chose this tour because we had wanted to cover as much ground as we could in the three days we had. This, as it turned out, worked against us. I really had wanted to just chill and fully enjoy the beach, the ocean, and the coves without being timed and called on when we had to leave for another location.

So if you're more of a quality-over-quantity type of person like me and you don't want to be bound by a schedule while on vacation, I suggest to just choose around two or three places to visit and allow yourself to forget time and get lost in the moment. Don't worry that you weren't able to go to all the places, just consider that all more reason to go back!

(In hindsight, though, because we went to all the must-see places, I now know which beaches/coves I want to spend time in the next time I visit Coron. Oh yes, there WILL be a next time!)


Tuesday, August 9, 2011

In The Sugar Bowl

A colleague and I are embarking on this new side project called In The Sugar Bowl. It'll be a podcast of sorts but I'm not at the liberty yet to say what it'll be about. We're in the process of finalizing the show and we'll be launching the pilot episode soon! We'd love it if you can be a part of this "birth" by following us on Tumblr: In The Sugar Bowl

Follow us now! We'd love that and we'd totally appreciate it, but if in the course of the next few weeks you finds us boring THEN you can choose to unfollow. LOL. But of course, we're hoping you don't. :p

We promise you great content and substance!