Silventure: Ren Faire 2025

 

    Let me start by thanking Cali for letting me drag them to Baguio and enduring my bad DIY travel planning. Love you, Cali!

    The 2025 Ren Faire was held in Baguio at the Igorot Stone Kingdom in February. This marked the second time the event has taken place. I missed the first one, so I was determined to attend this year. Huge thanks to Cali for letting me indulge in this experience!

    It was so electrifying to be there. We attended 2 of the 3 days of this event. Being able to see how people interact at this event was very different from other events I have been to. People felt nicer and a lot more approachable.  

Gowns, armour, swords, and amazing headdresses. The location is also great for photoshoots. I knew the outfits I had ready were very simple compared to the ones the other people had made for themselves. However, I felt welcomed, and everyone seemed more approachable. 

 Overall, I would like to go back. I need to experience all 3 days, even the night shows. The organizers have that there will be no Ren Faire in 2026. Which will be good, I guess, that way I will have more time to prepare for it. 

    

Silventure: Cebu 2025

 

    It has been a while since I have traveled "alone". The last one I talked about here was my trip to Bacolod in 2017.  This trip to Cebu was one grand vacation for me. I stayed for 7 days. Traveled from February 22-28. Also, not really alone, I was with the ladies of TravelAlleys‬.

    The flight was at 5pm and was in Cebu by 7pm. It was hard being alone in a new place, because Aya and Lime were at 7pm from Manila. So I booked Grab to get to the Condo I have booked for the stay. It felt weird to be alone, but it was fun. Getting to the room felt like it was getting home if I were living alone.

    I got to try new things in Cebu, being more open to new food, using sunblock, and trying my best not to just stay in the condo. The girls and I joined a city tour, and we got to hit up most of the places that are known tourist attractions. 

    For a week, I was alone and enjoying it. I didn't have to think about whether I would be asked to do anything coz I'm the eldest. I felt at peace for a bit. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough money to survive, but at least I was only thinking about myself at that time. 

    It was funny that I had a bike accident while I was there. Nothing major, just a big ass bruise on my left leg. It was fun traveling on the bike in an unfamiliar place. It gave me a sense of freedom. I would do it again if given the chance.

     What are my takeaways from this trip?   

• New experiences will not happen if you don't ask
• I like Lato
• I need to learn to take more useful videos for Vlogs
• Some things will never happen, no matter how much you want them to happen
• I would like to do this more often

If you want to see some videos, they are here: Youtube

Silventures: Bacolod

My boarding pass

After months of planing, actually years! I finally got to go to Bacolod! Thanks, to the crazy sale from Cebu Pacific last March! This is the biggest move I have ever done when it comes to vacations! After all, I went alone! Here are the photos:

so bright!

Do you see the good sign?

Bye Luzon!

Hello Visayas!

The flight took about an hour or so! We landed at Bacolod-Silay International Airport past 1pm! As soon as my friend picked me up, we when to Royal Am Rei, then we had dessert at Calea. It was surprisingly close to my hotel!

Touch down!

I love this door! Welcome to Calea! 

My tour guide AKA Wella has school, so after going to Calea, I went back to the hotel. Around 4pm, Wella picked me up again to go to The Ruins. Sadly, I did not get to see the golden hour everyone has been talking about! It was cloudy that day! It was still an awesome place to visit. Entrance fee is Php 100. Transportation is easy if you can't speak the local language! You can use Grab, in which I was told is still new in the province! We have dinner at Chicken House Restaurant! Legit Bacolod inasal!

The house that was build because of love

Dinner!

Look at the pretty hotel I'm staying at

Day 2 in Bacolod. I got up early for a trip to Mambukal! Took us about an hour to get there! It is resort within a forest! Entrance fee is Php 50, if I remembered correctly. There are a number of things you can do there! Like hiking to see waterfalls, taking photos of butterflies, enjoying the sulfur hot springs, getting a massage and seeing fox bats!

We were able to reach up to the 3rd falls only as the path to falls number 4 to 7 is being fixed. Then we spend about 2 hours at the Japanese Ofuro. It was amazing! I did not want to leave that place. The water was awesome and by back pain disappeared! When did try the massage at the Blade Spa too! That was super relaxing as well! I fell asleep! :)

Welcome to Mambukal Resort

This the starting point for the trekking

Klea at the Japanese Ofuro

This was one of the rooms inside the Blade Spa

You get free drinks after the massage too!

I spend dinner at Wella's place. Dinner was love! Thanks to her mom! It has been a while since I have seen their family! It was great! After, that we when to the New Government Center. It kinda looks like the White House of Bacolod!

NGC up close

New Goverment Center or NGC

Day 3: time to leave. My flight back to Manila was a scheduled at 9am, so I has to leave by 7am to catch it! Good thing there was a Bong Bong's close to my hotel too! That's about it! Thanks for reading!

Bye Visayas!

This vacation was shorter that I expected! So, I plan to do it again. Just need to save for it! Also, now that I have a GetGo card, I can have more perks!

I just realized after almost 10 years, I was able to fly of somewhere again. The last one was in 1996.

Back Ride Diaries: To Laguna and back

I like to travel! Most of the time I’m with relatives and the farthest we have gone to is the Ilocos region. Traveling to Laguna is normal, especially during summer. It has been years since I went back to Laguna. This is the first time that I got to places in Laguna on a motorcycle. This by far is the farthest place I have reached as a back ride

We left Sm Bacoor around 6:34 a.m. and got to Victoria, Laguna after 2 hours and 37 minutes not breaks. So, yes kudos to my partner that drove and chatted with me the whole time. It was tiring but worth it. Hopefully, the next time we do this I have my own ride. I was a bit frisky and relentless at times.

The route is familiar to me. Maybe because it was the common route we use before, expect the Biñan part. I have a question, is the PNR station there still functioning?

Here, check out some of the photos:

Pala-pala intersection

I think this is a fountain in Carmona

the Expressway

Welcome to Biñan

Biñan PNR station

Welcome to Sta. Rosa

This is my first time to see Sm Sta Rosa

I was taking a photo of the fountain XD

The river, we (me and my cousins) always try look at it when we were kids

We stopped for a while in this area, as we thought we have already missed our destination

I think she is a deity in Thailand

Le Rider at Isdaan Floating Restaurant, Calauan 

Finally the arch of Victoria, Laguna

A park with ducks

You might be asking, what the heck are we doing in Victoria, Laguna? We visited one of our friends. His dad just passed away. We did some catching up as it has been a while since we got together. After lunch, we geared up and took off! It took us about 2 hours and 4 minutes to get back to Dasmariñas. It could have been quicker, but the traffic in General Trias was bumper to bumper.

Here is the travel map: 

From Sm Bacoor to Victoria, Laguna

From Victoria, Laguna to Dasmariñas, Cavite

Time for what have I learned from this trip

For long trips like this, make sure that you have a face mask. It will protect your face from all the dust and dirt. My face as dirty as heck. The wet tissue I used as black after rubbing my face.

You need to have gloves as well. This is to protect your hands from the dust and the sun. You don't want tanned hands do you now?

Make sure that you are focused on the road as well. You can affect the driver if your are not paying attention or if your body is going to another direction.

Breaks! Take at least a 10-minute, unless the rider can handle a no-break ride. It is also a good to bring food or take a break to buy food. 

I wonder if this will ever happen again?

How about your have you been a back ride in a long trip before?

The Great Gilmore Adventure

Aug 13 2010, I was given a HP Mini that I have loved so much. I even gave it a name, Friday the 13^th. Fri for short, Fri was given to me to help me with my studies, my online work and my need to surf and bother people online. Sadly Fri is has been admitted at SST Bacoor for total black out and just recently Fri started acting up again. So I had to borrow my boyfriend’s laptop since he does not use it to much. Thanks to him I was able to survive the holiday work load I have for my online work.

Here is Friday the 13th

Fri has been with me for three years, so it sad for me to just give her up. So I sent her for repair, but now I really have to buy a new tower for work and gaming. Now begins the hunt for the parts.

Me and my boyfriend asked around for the price of the specs I need at the mall, it ranges between 16-18 thousand pesos for a dual core processor with a 1tb hard drive and the proper video and graphics card I need for editing. The price is just for the tower/CPU alone, no monitor, mouse, keyboard or speakers included. I felt it was pretty expensive, so did my partner. He then asked the owner of a local computer shop, if he knows where we can have the tower built at a cheaper price. The shop owner told him he can help and the tower will three thousand less than the mall price.

By this time, I’m just waiting for my salary so I can place the down payment.

But one morning, after my salary got credited, I got a message from my partner asking if I can go out, to check the prices at Gilmore, Quezon City. Bored and I was free that day so the plan was set!

It was my first time to go there, so I was pretty excited, but once there I was just amazed at how many shops were there selling computer parts. I was just following where my partner was going after all I did not know much about the specs and the market price of the parts.

 LRT 2- Gilmore Station

My partner 

After I think two hours of canvassing, a Kuya approach us and told us to try their shop which will match the price of our canvass with the other shops (which by now is between 12 thousand and 18 thousand). Located away from the other shops it was called HQ Computers.

 HQ Computers 

Specs given by the People of HQ Computers

AMD A85600K

GIGABYTE F2A55M-DS2

2 PIECES KINGSTON HYPEX 4GB DDR3

HD6570 2GB DDR3 XFX

WD 1TB SATA

 PSU and 500W

All for 18,000

After deliberating, since all the other shop offered the same price for a dual core only. HQ Computer wins. XD

They did match up the price of the other shop with a better deal. It took a while for the tower to be built as the parts we bought were not in stock. Which we thought was good as the parts are always fresh for the warehouse. The prices were low as the part comes directly from the warehouse/factory, that was what Kuya  said.

While they were building the tower

I recommend this shop if you want to save with your new computer! You’ll have to be patient when you get there though the people there are pretty relaxed, but they do have good communication skills, you will not get an irate clerk.

This was a great day for me, 2014 is starting great! Are you having the same start?