CamSur: The short video of our 1st day!

Hey There! I hope no one's full yet about this CamSur trip we did last month. Really, nothing beats the best companions. When you travel, if not alone, always make sure you are with people packed with positive energy just as the people we spent time with in this 4-day getaway. And to stop myself from the long litany I am about to do in a few if I don't introduce what this post is all about (see? Urghhhhh), here's a short video of our first day in Caramoan. It was shot and edited by Efren, the man with an exposed crown in the clip. Haha!

Watch in HD! Haha! 

Music in the background is entitled The Dance by Barbie Almalbis.


***highlights the calmness of the ocean. Uh-mey-Zing!***

There! Hihi. If not too much of this and our faces, hope yarrrrrr like it. :)

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Wandering Venus

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Moraville Hotel And Restaurant in Naga

Moraville
Dinaga St., Naga City
Tel #: (054) 473-1247 / (054) 473-1248
Fax #: (054) 811-1685
email: inquiry@moraville.com.ph

After our tiring but fun activity in CWC and not knowing where exactly the location of our hotel is, we decided to take our quick dinner at SM Naga's food court. Then we took a tricycle from there to our hotel. Fare is P8.00 per head and it’s about 5-10 minutes away. We were welcomed by a bunch of pretty Bicolanas. One asked for the deposit slip which served as our reservation for the family room. Below is a picture of their family room.

This is the most decent picture we have of the room so please excuse the sleepy heads especially the man without his top shirt on. HAHA

"Welcome Ramil!"

We got the room for P2250 (P375 per head). That's inclusive of an Eat-All-You-Can Breakfast!!! *.* Not bad! Our room is located at the 4^th floor. Please note that the hotel does not have an elevator. What a way to do cardio! Haha. The room is fairly clean. The air conditioning is not too cold though there's a wall fan - the hotel knowing their flaw! HAHA. Beddings and towels are clean and they smelled fresh (should be!). We were also provided with a small cable TV where we watched MYX to entertain ourselves - soooo high school! :)

Call time for breakfast was at 7:00 am because some guests reserved the function hall (the same venue where the other guests eat) for an event. It’s actually a minus point but not a big deal because we still enjoyed the breakfast. Well, I enjoyed the breakfast. I'm not sure though if my vacay mates felt the same way. 

As we were having breakfast. The sweetest way to wipe off a girl's amos! haha
Kim and Kashogi ♥

Breakfast served were: Garlic rice, Longganisa, Tapa, Scrambled egg, Salted egg, Tomatoes, Pasta, Puto, Pandesal, Arroz caldo, Fried Dilis, Daing, and Tocino. I like the fried dilis the most! Their tocino is good too, FYI.

In general, we had a good experience in Moraville. You get the value of what you pay for. Actually it’s more than what we paid for. Did I mention they also provide free shuttle service from Pili Airport to hotel and vice versa? If not, well yes, they do! Just for P375 per pax, we had the eat-all-you-can breakfast, a hassle free transfer from hotel to airport, and a comfortable and safe sleep.  You can still check other reviews of this hotel and weight things because we saw in tripadvisor that they don’t usually get a lot of good reviews. There! :)

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Wandering Venus

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Wakeboarding @ CWC

CWC: Camsur Watersports Complex

Provincial Capitol Complex
Cadlan, Pili, Camarines Sur
Contact Number: (054) 477 3344 / (054) 477 3349
Fax Number:+63(54) 477-3347
Mobile number: +(63) 917 8954156 or +(63) 999 8893697
E-mail: villadelreyreservation@gmail.com

Half of our 3^rd day in Bicol was spent in CWC to try wakeboarding. We were very excited since it’s a first for all of us. Before hopping onto the wakeboards and doing reality flunking (as expected and imagined), we opt to fill in our stomachs in their bar and restaurant. Menu is quite pricey so if you’re on a tight budget, you can eat in local eateries along the highway/ jump off before heading to CWC. Below are the food served to us prior to our wakeboarding.

Chicken Inasal

Lechon Kawali

Grilled Tuna Belly

Pork BBQ

Spaghetti

Lasagna

Turon with Vanilla Ice Cream

Food tasted just ok, nothing exceptional, but we still enjoyed the food. Well, we always enjoy eating! 

We are in search of the sili ice cream but failed to find one so we just made our own sili ice cream by topping our vanilla ice cream with some chili powder. Bright idea right? Hahaha. Well you can try doing it too. It’s good… promise! Haha :p

The powerful Chili Powder that brought color to all our foods!
Thanks to Kim! HAHAHA

Turon with Vanilla Ice Cream sprinkled with Chili Powder! :)

After eating, we rested for a while then took time reading some of the do’s and dont's of wakeboarding posted on the wall of the registration counter. Our guys wanted to try the “pro” lake or the Skate Park, but the lady assisting us recommended that we try the Winch Park or the beginners’ lake first. I remembered her warning us that since we are all beginners, our  efforts might be put to waste if we bypass the Winch Park and go straight to Skate Park. We complied to her recommendation and headed to Winch Park for some beginner’s lesson with JOSE. He’s funny and nice you wouldn't mind making mistakes and stumbling several times. He's like the tropa you've had for the longest time. All of us managed to reach the other end without falling; of course that was after a lot of falling and drinking glassfuls of lake water. Hahaha. Good thing, we followed the lady! ***It's not always how it seems***

After an hour, we felt like it’s bitin especially the guys. They really wanted to try the Skater Park but as per our Itinerary, we have to check in to our hotel and rest. An hour in the Winch Park ended our little adventure in CWC. Oh well that’s it for the girls! The guys came back the next morning for a little bromance and bonding to experience the Skater Park. According to the two boys, Ram and Kashogs, only Efren got the chance to do a whole round (macho!) while they both are lucky to finish half round each . Still congrats to all you three! Hahaha

By the way, CWC offers a whole lot of adventure for the wandering and adventurous. You can check out their official website for more info. And because we haven’t tried all of the possible activities in CWC, we’ll surely go back there to experience caving, wall climbing, biking, cliff diving and many more!!!

Budget per pax:

Food: 250

Gear Rentals: 45

Winch Park Rate per hour: 165

Deposit: 500

Total Per Pax: 960

  

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Wandering Venus

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BICOL (Caramoan-Naga) : The first 2 Days at West Peninsula Villas

  
We opted for a land travel at night so we can spare ourselves from the agony of waiting to get to Bicol. At 6am the next day, our feet held the grounds of the province. As we went off the bus, I roamed my eyes around the neighborhood and i thought it was bland at 1st. Aside: "I feel like I didn't just come from a 12 hour ride. This is much like a Laguna (my province) ambiance, though it was a little more rural than where I grew up." Nevertheless, the scent of the salty ocean and burnt leaves in the morning, plus the cluck of chicken pets, old women with walis tingting as the thing's ends draw lines against the earth made the place quite distinctive from what I felt. Wait though till we get to those islands!

Agitated by the then weather in the metro, which was mostly raining and there's a typhoon pestering the North Eastern part of the Philippines, we thought of offering eggs to Sta. Clara thinking that by doing so, the weather would not jeopardize the trip. Luckily, we were welcomed by a weather reminiscent of summer. Yey!

We spent two days in Caramoan for a series of island hopping and lodged at West Peninsula Villas situated at San Andres, Solnopan, Caramoan, Camarines Sur. Since Caramoan once became a set of the international reality TV show franchised SURVIVOR, it was reported that the staff of the show's Filipino version was happily accommodated by West Pen. Hmmmmm... Feeling the Survivor vibe huh.

From L: Kashogi, Kim, Ram, Con, Mie, Pren

Our two day stay at the hotel was quite silent since it was only us and another three men that booked an accommodation that time. We were followed by about some 25 guests on the night of our 2nd day but they left early in the morning the following day. 

Family Suite

Air conditioned, Hot and Cold Shower,

3 beds (which can be shared by 2 people per bed), Cable TV

(1)

(2)

The room was pleasant. Our wash room was spacious. We had enough room for our things/clothes with the help of the cabinets and hangers. Plus the outside of our room had a receiving area. 

Pool area inside West Pen

Lake Bar

    
          Open Dining Area with mini refreshment bar (ODA)

ODA 1

ODA 2

A quick tour around West Pen: 

In a capsule, West Pen's a recommended place to lodge in. Aside from its ambiance that is relaxing and the clean rooms, I think the service is fine. Not to mention they serve good food too. Their WIFI connection, that is available for the rest of the guests, is not bad too (probably because there's not much people using it). :) And if your vanity as a man can't stop you from working out to sport that arm out of your sleeves, they have a mini gym available at the back. 

The accommodation we paid for, by the way, is inclusive of the tour/island hopping for two days. You'll be provided with a West Pen owned boat and van for transfers from Bikal Port to West Pen and vice versa. Our tour guide, who was a former employee of the hotel, was very proactive and assisted us all the way through. I recommend you find him in case you want a good customer service.

Our tour guide, Mark Peter Breis. He uses Mac as nickname.
Wasn't able to get his number or FB acct. but you can ask for him at West Pen.

Gallery Here:

Sabang Port
1st & 3rd image: Man made bridge

Bikal Port

Lajos Island (LJ)

LJ 1

LJ 2

LJ 3

LJ 4

Matukad Island (MI)

MI 1
There's a Bukohan station in this island. A few men with a sack of
buko ready for the tourists. Buko at 25php apiece.

MI 2

MI 3

MI 4
The Rocky trail we had to go through just to see this legendary Bangus. It was believed that there was a pair of bangus in this lake until a fisherman caught the other bangus, cooked and ate it. After some time, the poor fisherman died. From then on, they left the other bangus alone in that lake and never bothered it. This has become a tourist attraction in this island.

MI 5
There's more that happened behind this image as they tried molding
a sexy body below my head. *Bloopers*

MI 6
The finer sand in this island. This would definitely compete with Bora's

Cagbanilad Island (CI)

CI 1

CI 2
This is not exactly at Cagbanilad Island. This is a snorkeling site near the island. We just opted to really swim during the last hours of our 1st island hopping day. Maycon got tired of the earlier activities so she was left at the boat with our bangkeros and took pictures instead.

Paniman (P)

P 1

P2
Definitely a treat after the whole day's agenda! I was asking for vinegar to match it with this BBQ but they've none. They offered me this Atsara as sauce. Oh boy, suka suddenly ranked at 2nd best!

P3
Note: This place is not really part of the island hopping adventure. It served as another port. Our service van fetched us here then went back to West Pen after relaxing for like an hour.

Shrine Of Our Lady Of The Most Holy Rosary (SOOLOTMHR)

SOOLOTMHR 1

SOOLOTMHR 2

SOOLOTMHR 3

SOOLOTMHR 4

Manlawe Island (ManI)
Where the sand bar is, which only shows up during low tide.
Luckily, we were able to catch it.

Manl 1

Manl 2

Manl 3

Manl 4
Maycon and The Kids

Cotivas Island (CI)

CI 1

CI 2
The skeleton type Nipa Huts

CI 3

CI 4

And this island, by the way, gave birth to this short, funny clip edited and directed by Efren Belen. See full video here: Lovers in Isla Biyak Naba to?

Sabitang Laya (SL)

SL 1

SL 2

Snorkeling (S)

S 1

S 2

S 3

The Old Town Church (OTC)

This is the oldest Church in Caramoan

OTC 1

  

OTC 2

OTC 3

That's all folks! Hope we didn't bore you with the pictures. We have way too many shots, it was really hard to choose which among them are worth posting. Meanwhile, above's the result of the hard time I had while discerning which images should come out here. hihi. ♥ 

See our next post to see what happened during the last 2 days of our adventure in Bicol.

By the way, if you need to see the IT we used and the breakdown of the expenses, we have an entry for that, which you can find here. :)

Chao!

   

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Wandering Venus

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