What's in Oslob's Town Plaza / Park?

Aside from the Immaculate Conception Parish Church, ruins and cuartel, Oslob's park also offers a great view of the sea.

As it was summer when we went there, the fire trees were abloom.

I love this shot of kids riding their bike.

I also chanced on this pigeon.

The place looked really clean and well-maintained.  No wonder most locals take pride of it and suggest that tourists take the time to visit their park.

Mt. Bandilaan National Park

After seeing Lugnason Falls, we headed to Mt. Bandilaan National Park.  This man-made forest has a shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Way of the Cross, five natural springs, caves, a butterfly sanctuary and is home to endemic flora and fauna.

Yen and I originally planned to go trekking here but she sprained her foot and I myself was not feeling particularly up to it as my legs were throbbing from all the walking the day before and so we did not go trekking but just drove by the park.

Still, there were areas where the road going down was too slippery as it just rained or the one going up was so inclined that we had no choice but to go down the tricycle and walk to where Noel was waiting for us.  It was an interesting walk, though as the trees and flowers by the road coupled with the many bird songs we heard were quite interesting.

The longer we trekked to where Noel and his tricycle waited for us, the tiring we got as the way up or down was quite steep.  But the view was also getting more interesting.

I actually even saw a Kalaw but it flew away just when I was about to take its photo.  Sigh.

Before leaving Mt. Bandilaan, I took one last photo of this old tree.

Too bad a photo cannot give justice to how old it really looked to us but I was thinking that if such an old tree is at the roadside, how much older are the trees way up Mt. Bandilaan?

Capilay's Spring Park

Our first stop was at Capilay's Spring Park.  This is located in the Siquijor town of San Juan.

Prior to being here, I thought its name was San Juan de Capilay Lake as gleaned from my research on the web but its signage simply says Capilay's Spring Park.

This attraction actually reminded me of Baguio's Wright Park except that this is not man-made as the water does come from a spring.  The locals just built sheds thus making it into a park where they could go for picnics and cool off from the stifling heat of the sun.  

According to Noel, the water from Capilay's Spring Park comes from a spring.  He took us to a tree on the far right end of the pool and showed us the bubbling surface which he said meant that the water constantly flows from the spring source to the pool.

The Spring Park is also divided into three parts.  The first portion is where the natural spring sits and where locals would take a dip in.  One man was actually swimming when we arrived but left when we started taking pictures.

The second portion is that part with the blue roof by the bridge. 

We were unable to go near it though.

The last portion is the laundry pool, which runs by the road, closer to the beachfront.

It's really such a wonder seeing the clean natural lake made into a pool and the lush trees that surrounded it and I was glad I had seen these for myself.

Sentosa's Songs of the Sea

The first attraction that we went to when we were in Sentosa Singapore was the Songs of the Sea. Unfortunately, this show is only available during the night. It features a live cast and dramatic pyrotechnic effects, water jets, lasers, computer imaging, music and flame bursts.

Still, I had a great time meeting Oscar. Isn't he cute?

Despite the show being shown only at night, an Oscar and Co. souvenir shop was open.

The merchandise being sold there was so expensive though that even when I fell in love with an Oscar shirt, I decided to just not buy it. Hurrah for the rational me stopping the compulsive me from buying anything I want. Ha ha! :P

Finally, we're in Sentosa Singapore!

Thirty minutes after leaving Suntec City, we finally arrived in our destination - Sentosa Singapore, which is one of the said country's premier tourist destinations.

Upon arrival, we were met with these flags.

We then toured the entire park on board its color-coded buses that I found interesting because of their chairs that are opposite each other.

Just a simple tip here. If you are going to take any bus in Sentosa, be very careful as each color-coded bus has a specific route. Riding the wrong bus will thus take you to the wrong destination.

These are the various walkways of Sentosa taken while we were roaming in the island either on the bus or on foot.

As we went around Sentosa, we were also able to pass by and see some of its attractions that include Songs of the Sea, Siloso Beach, a replica of the Merlion, Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom, Imbiah Lookout, Images of Singapore, Merlion Walk, and Sentosa 4D Magix and Cine Blast.

Of course I did not content myself with just seeing these attractions as experiencing them was the reason we went there in the first place. So watch out for my future posts that will detail the fun I had in Sentosa Singapore!

We got free tickets to Sentosa Singapore!

One of the best parts of our Singapore trip was getting free tickets to Sentosa Singapore compliments of the organizer of the event that we attended. Jid and I were particularly ecstatic since we set apart some personal money for the said tour and to get it for free was such a pleasant surprise. A rare treat indeed. Whoever said there is no such thing as free lunch these days was gravely mistaken. He he!

As the trip would not start until 2:00 PM, after our lunch in one of Suntec City's food court, we headed back to Carlton Singapore to freshen up and change into comfortable, tour-appropriate clothes as prior to that, we wore strictly business attire for the registration.

Below is a picture of my Sentosa kit, which includes a map, brochures, entrance tickets and a wristband.

Whee! I am so excited! Till my next blogs, which will focus on us getting to Sentosa and the fun and adventure we had there.

Wright Park

The Wright Park in Baguio is located just across The Mansion, which features a long rectangular man-made pool of water as pictured above. It is also known as a "Pool of Pines" and named after architect Luke Edward Wright who was appointed Vice-Governor of the Philippines in 1901 and later, in 1904, became its Governor General.

When I was there, there were a lot of tourists and locals who were selling souvenirs and Baguio products like strawberries.

There's this shed too where I spent some time resting as I got tired of walking.

Mine's View Park

Now this is the place that I often see in movies and pictures that I so looked forward to seeing it. Then I discovered that it's too tourist-y and a tad overrated.

There’s this pretty “lobby” (I don’t know what to call it as it’s in the entrance of the place so I will just call it the “lobby” as hotel entrances are called) where one could even put on a traditional costume and have his pictures taken. I donned the headgear and held the wooden staff and got my picture taken but as I always say, I won’t be posting any personal pictures here. He he! After the picture-taking, the guest would then have to give a “donation.”

This life-size wood carving also caught my attention. Nice.

The park was teeming with tourists that taking pictures was kind of annoying as before I had a certain spot to myself, I had to wait eons.

In the view deck, there’s the view of the mountains. And rows and rows of colorful houses, some with rusty rooftops that destroyed what could have been a breathtaking view of a vast expanse of greenery. Too bad. My friend said the place used to be really very pretty but when people came flocking to Baguio in droves, the place became crowded and densely populated.

My favorite shot is of this pine tree. I just love how the dark green of its leaves beautifully complemented the blue skies.