Showing posts with label Leyte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leyte. Show all posts
It was my first time try out anything from Icebergs and the experience certainly did not disappoint. Thanks to mama for bankrolling this eating sesh.

Here are some of the treats that we sampled at Icebergs.

We shared this plate of Nachos. 
Nachos//Price: Php 218.00
We also had a plate of Country Fries (Price: Php 148.00) but I wasn't able to take a photo of it because I was already too busy devouring with my Halo Halo. Moreover, if there's fries on the table, it's almost immediately gone. Anyway, the fries weren't like thin sliced McDo or Jollibee fries but more like potato wedges with some spices and a tasty mayo dip.

This Godzilla is a bit pricey at Php 418.00 but it's a huge serving which can be shared by three to 4 people so it's ideal for family or for barkadas. I mean, that's a lot of ice cream. 
Godzilla//Price: Php 418.00
Club sandwich, y'all. It also has some fries.
Club Sandwich//Price: Php 218.00
Mama had this Caramel Flan and I was able to sample it too. I loved the mixture of fruits plus the caramel flan flavored ice cream. I particularly enjoyed those round, white stuff which is macapuno.
Caramel Flan//Price: Php 148.00
And here's my halo halo, the Halo Dozen, which I had a bit of a hard time trying to consume. Not because it wasn't good but because the serving was BIG! For Php 118.00 I think it's very sulit. Mama came to the rescue when I could no longer go on. That's what moms are for. :) 

Halo Dozen//Price: Php 118.00
Here are a few candid shots while we were waiting and eating. Thankfully the topic didn't revolve around 'who among mama's kids is adopted'. See now, I am struggling with my Halo Dozen. Celestine is still reeling over the fact that the strawberries taste sour. It was the first time that she tasted strawberries. 


I'll just end this by saying that this isn't the last time that I'll be seeing Icerbergs. :)

XOXO, 
Carissa

Icebergs is located at the 1L Robinsons Place Tacloban Extension
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On the first day of 2018, we went to the newly opened El Montaña Vista Resort. 
It's another local watering hole in my hometown Burauen. I've seen some photos of the location on Facebook and it doesn't disappoint in real life.
There are one too many picturesque parts in the resort. 
Growing up in Burauen, I never imagined that we would have anything as sophisticated as this place.

In truth, I could have taken better photos if the weather wasn't being such a b****. But here we are. I did the best I could with a camera that's not waterproof.


Team Rain or Shine
Tropical Depression Agaton was traversing the Visayas and Mindanao regions on the first day of the year. He brought with him a lot of rain. But I guess it would take more than some downpour to dampen the spirits of the swimming enthusiasts because the place was literally teeming with visitors despite the mad weather.
At the kiddie pool: me, with the two dolphins..errr my daughter and my hubby.
Kids don't need angles, they are cute no matter what.
Hey there! That's my mama and my brother.
Freezing, are we?
My darlings at the "waterfall".
 Here's the view from the top. 
Needless to say, we had a great time, especially my baby who was practically in the water the whole time. Honestly, I'm suffering from colds because of this little rainy adventure. 
See you next time El Montaña Vista. In the summer, maybe?


Happy New Year darlings!

XO,
Cassie

The El Montaña Vista is located at Bgy. Gamay, Burauen, Leyte.
It's kinda tucked away; Bgy Gamay is not exactly in the poblacion so it's best if you bring your own transport.
For non-Burawanons, this place might be hard to find so I hope the management of EMV would post some signage somewhere in the Bgy. Maghubas area, along the highway. 
But you can always ask the locals too. Burawanons are friendly and always ready to help.
If you have other queries though, here's the 
Official Facebook Page of El Montaña Vista.
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Hours of roaming around Robinsons Place Tacloban brought us to DAWG HOUSE. We were 3 PM hungry (our legs were tired too) and my brother said that he'd like to treat  us to a Monster Burger. :) Who would say no to a burger of a monster?
The brother, looking all smug with my beautiful mama.
This is Dawg House's kiosk and you can probably deduce from the photos that the space is quiet tight. If all the seats would be taken it would be hard to move round but luckily we were the only patrons at that time so we managed to feel comfortable.
At the counter.
The Menu
Here's a closer look at what they're serving. They're pretty affordable. Sorry if the prices are a bit blurred but they're mostly on two digits and some are on three digits so you probably get the idea.

 Lemonade and Iced Tea were our choice of drinks.
My sister and my mama, btw.
And the infamous Monster Burger took center stage. It's as wide as a medium sized pizza! It's good for 3 to 4 moderate eaters. 
The Monster Burger//Price: Php 299.00 (USD 5.95)
I could make use of a thicker patty but I'm cool with this one. Those fries were also on the layer, along with some cheese, tomatoes, onions and cabbage. I think the bun made such a huge difference. It's not just a regular generic bun; you can tell that it's been specially made. It's soft and flavorful and I would gladly eat just the bun if it came to that. It was a filling meal so we were really satisfied.

Dawg House says that it has "Mean Dawgs. Nice Buns". Well, I can attest to the niceness of the buns.

I'm so looking forward to trying a dawg next time; maybe that Chili Cheese Dog or a Sloppy Joe perhaps.

XO,
Carissa
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But who could forget? I still get chills when I think about November 8, 2013.

Four years after Yolanda and here I am, hundreds of miles away from where it happened. But somehow, memories of her still have a way of unnerving me.

If I were in Burauen right now, no doubt, my family and I would be reminiscing about so many memories, good and bad, from November 8, 2013.

We'll be talking about wondering why November 7, 2013 was declared as a non-working day, in preparation of Yolanda's arrival. Who prepares for a typhoon? Aren't we Warays kind of used to that stuff already? 

We'll talk about the fried chicken that we cooked on night of the 7th, in preparation for our breakfast the following day. We also had a loaf of bread ready. Surely those would be enough to get us through  the 8th. Surely we can easily buy food afterwards. We know the drill; we've encountered enough typhoons in the past. 

We'll talk about huddling in our parent's bedroom at 5 am of the 8th, knowing that Yolanda has arrived,  winds not too strong yet. To quote my youngest brother "Asya ini it super typhoon?", seemingly unimpressed that it's not as strong as he expected. My sister decided that she will sleep through it.

We'll talk about standing by the gate at 6 am, still enjoying the view of the dancing trees and the "freshness" of the wind. 

Until it stopped being enjoyable.

The huge branches of the two mango trees in  front of our house started to give way. Our roof took a hit. Something broke. Rain water was everywhere.

We all moved to the safest part of the house: the kitchen. My sister decided she that she won't sleep through Yolanda. My brothers held on to the kitchen door, it seemed that Yolanda wanted to open it too. In the intervals that our door cracked open, we got a glimpse of our main house getting brighter: we've lost half of our roofing.

Random things seemed to fly out of nowhere. Getting hit by a stone flying at 200 kms, no matter how small would have been fatal. Celestine might have been feeling the tension too. She just clung tightly too me, underneath those blankets.

We didn't count the hours. It seemed like it would never it. The walls and the ground trembled.

And then everything went still. No winds. No rain. The eye of the storm. I've always known from lessons in school that the eye of the storm is mighty calm. It is.

It gives you the chance to see the wreckage. It gives you the chance to hear your neighbor's screams and cries. It gives you the chance to see how the street and neighborhood that you've known all your life is unrecognizable at first glance.

For how long? Just a few minutes.

The booming wind could be heard coming back from the opposite direction. We didn't go back to the kitchen; we knew that this time it would be the least safe place in the house. We stayed at the front porch; we opened our gate to 30 or more people who couldn't move forward when the winds came back. Suddenly we didn't feel so alone. We waited for the storm to die down.

It was past noon when the skies cleared up. We forgot about the fried chicken that we cooked. We all had a distracted look on our face. Our adrenaline was still quiet high though. I have a good memory of seeing my sister lift a huge galvanized iron sheet that fell into our room. You wanted to do so many things and yet you didn't know where to begin.

And then you had to think about tonight and tomorrow. Because things didn't end when the storm died. There was a different situation at hand.

 Oh, but here we are. Four years after we can look back on the lessons we learned.

By God's grace, we're still here.



No doubt, my family, we would all be talking about these things if we are together right now. 

And whenever some tough things come up, we always have a reference: "Kinaya ta ngani an Yolanda. Asay pa ini."
We love to say. And it's quiet true.

XO,
Carissa
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...is not a novel thing to do. Camp Kawayan Resort has been around for quiet a while now and I know that as a Burawanon I should have been able to try it a long time ago. Circumstances. :) Well, it's good that I finally got the chance to do it with mi familia on the September 1st holiday. And boy did we have a blast, especially my Celestine who even quipped that "Camp Kawayan is amazing!" 

Take note though that the place is also open during the day so if you wanna come while the sun is high in the sky or when it's about to go down, it's totes up to you.
Since our home is located like 5 minutes away from this place, we can come anytime. We came at sunset and look ma, no need for shades and SPFs. 


It's located at Brgy. Balorinay, Burauen, Leyte. I honestly don't remember how this looked like before it was turned into a resort.  I have a pretty good guess that it was a forest. :) Under the auspices of the current proprietor, who happens to be my mama's former student in high school, this place has been greatly transformed. But it still feels close to nature with all those trees, bamboos and foliage. Plus an irrigation system is located right next to it so there's a sound of running water. You can hear cicadas at night and the air is just so cooold.

Camp Kawayan? So, asan po si Coach Bamboo? 😁 Wala po. Puro kawayan lang.
This bridge goes over a fast-flowing irrigation system. 
Where the catfish at? Yep, there are huge catfishes inside that pond, the size of my baby's arms or even bigger.


We brought in some food and rented out a cottage. There's an entrance fee too, btw, but trust me it's really affordable. 

The cottages - also made of, guess what. :)
So obviously, the main attraction in this resort are the pools. There's a huge one for adults which is about 6 feet deep at the center and maybe 4 or 5 feet deep at the sides. Thank God, or I'll drown because I'm not much of a swimmer. I perused the slides several times, taking chlorinated water inside my nostrils each time. Oh well. Happy naman. 
There are also two pools for the kiddies. One is 2 feet deep and the other one is just over a foot deep. There's a barrier between each of the pools for safety. 

 I adore these little water fountains that sprout everywhere. 

 Here are more photos of our fun time at Camp Kawayan Resort. :)


The look of excitement!
So inviting. Camp Kawayan Resort.
The slide at the kid's pool.

***
When we were kids, me and my younger brother, our parents used to take us to the Daguitan or Marabong river during Sundays. Somehow, it stopped being cool doing so. Maybe we just grew up but we hear that it's not as clean as it used to be or that the rivers have changed their course. Then we flocked to the beaches of Dulag or Tolosa. 
I'm glad that right now, we don't have to go far because different resorts have sprung in Burauen, pun intended. There's the Pines Farm Mountain Resort in Barangay Aboyogon or the Cansiboy Cold Springs, which I hope I can visit soon. It's really something to be proud of.

 Right now, I'd like to say 'kudos' to the people behind Camp Kawayan Resort and we hope to see you again soon.

XO,
Carissa
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We're in the year 2016 - that's three years after Yolanda ravaged the Philippines. We all know about how much of a deluge it was. So many lives lost. Too much destruction. I remember when the storm died down and I and my family went out of our home (what's left of it) and saw for the first time the unspeakable damage that Yolanda brought. "How do we rise up from something like this?", I thought. And we didn't even have the worst brunt. The Taclobanons and the residents other coastal towns in Leyte and Samar had it worse.

My home at San Diego, Burauen, Leyte a few hours after Yolanda left.
Flashback
On November 7, 2013, a day before Yolanda happened, the weather was gloomy but it wasn't even raining hard yet. Work and classes were canceled because according to the news, a very strong typhoon was coming and we all needed to prepare. The thing was, we Warays are kind of used to the idea of having typhoons every year, so some of us were easy to brush it off as "just another typhoon". Some of us actually prepared but since we have no idea of how strong a super typhoon could be, the preparations just fell short. Some of us were like me: was Facebooking all day. I've read on my timeline that said that the incoming typhoon's strength could lift a bulldozer. I thought it could also raise an eyebrow - mine. Apparently, there were so many others like me who didn't heed the warning.

It turned out that the warnings were true. Yolanda was unlike anything that we have seen in our entire lives. It was a nightmare and I prayed that nothing of its magnitude would ever happen again in our country. But there has been a juggernaut that entered our country every year thereafter; I've experienced Ruby in 2014 and Nona in 2015 and for this year alone, we've had at least 2 or 3 strong ones. And the year isn't over yet.

On Yolanda's third anniversary, I'm sharing some photos which were taken with our trusty digital camera, which luckily didn't get drenched or wasn't easily battery drained. I wish I'd taken a photo of my sister carrying those damaged GI sheets, just so we have an evidence of her strength when she is under adrenaline rush. But, here we are. :)

Lamp and electrical posts were down. A few weeks later, my sister and I took the time to touch the tops of the posts. Hey, it's a bragging right, being able to touch the top of the post, albeit a fallen one. ;)
Spot the big white clouds at the end of the road. There's going to be a great weather tomorrow. But how do we get to tomorrow with all of these? And how we dreaded the coming of the night. Photo taken on the afternoon of November 8, 2013.
My energetic grandma surveys the destruction. My brother may just be thinking about what we will be having for dinner. Wait, what?! We actually forgot about breakfast and lunch.
My high school, the Burauen Comprehensive National High School.
The Burauen Comprehensive National High School, days after Yolanda.
The Burauen North Central School, days after Yolanda.
Must have been taken by my father, somewhere in the Palo area.
My momma's school, the Burauen National High School.
The Burauen National High School,  days after Yolanda.
"We's havin'  a great weather", that's why my kid and my younger brother were relaxing on the floor. But remember....
...we still had no roofing.
We had our roof fixed about four weeks after Yolanda, just in time for the Burauen Town Fiesta. We wished we had a faster way to get things fixed but construction materials went scarce for a time., and well, it was just chaotic. After which, we took the baby steps towards the "pagbangon" or "pagtindog" process. We did whatever we could to have a nice Christmas and New Year, not without stories about Yolanda to keep us on our toes. We knew we would be talking about her for years and years to come. No matter how badly things went, Yolanda still brought out the best in us. There will be stories of bravery and courage, along with those that bring tears to our eyes. And that particular night when just about everyone I knew (and thousands more that I didn't) evacuated to higher ground for fear of a tsunami; that one was dangerous. But admit it, it was also funny from one perspective. 

We've come a long way from November 2013. We've risen up from the ashes. But I think we still have a long way to go. There is the issue of Climate Change and how it mainly affects us. 

This is in remembrance to all of those whose lives were lost. This is also in gratitude to those  who made great sacrifices to help their fellowmen.

XO,
Carissa
Tin adds the finishing touch to our tree. December 2013
P.S. 
I wish I'd found a way to  keep my post-Yolanda weight. (!,!)
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