8 Things I Love About Pangulasian -- Palawan (Part 2)

[1] Canopy Villas

It was a blissful stay. We had our own villa on the treetops. Personally, I prefer this to the beach ones. We had the beach casita before, and I always had to make sure sand doesn't make its way to the bed or the bedroom floors. Haha. At least, with the canopy villas (treetop), your feet will dry off as you walk to the top.

There's the occasional monkey visit to our terrace, but I pretty much prefer that than reptile ones by the beach. Haha.

[2 & 3] View and Food by the Sea

Pardon the weird photo. I was testing our cheapo wide angle phone lens. But you get the idea. You dine by the beach with a roof on your head and you can hear the waves crashing.

One of our favorite menu item was this miso chicken pizza. It has the perfect hint of salt and sugar in it. Yum!

During breakfast, you can eat al fresco inside their dining hall with a fully loaded buffet that starts inside and overflows to the veranda.

You can have this view while you eat.

[4] The Lagoons

Lagoon visits are a must when you travel to El Nido. Pangulasian Island Resort gives complimentary tours to these wonderful places. I think my jaw dropped when I saw the lagoons of El Nido.

[5] The Arts and Crafts Scene

We were welcomed with palm leaf necklaces when we arrived. The crafter in me wanted to learn, so I asked the staff if I could.

One of them taught me. It was pretty easy and so fun!

I also learned how to make anklets using these beads.

See? The string we used was what fishermen use to make their nets. How awesome is that?


[6] The Staff

They are one of the friendliest people I've ever met. It's always a treat to talk with them about the resort, how they came to work there and maybe a little showbiz chismis on the side, but not too much.

[7] Sustainability

The resort gave us reusable water bottles, small canvas pouches and bayongs to store our stuff while trekking the island. It's one of their ways to promote waste reduction. They whole island has its own sewage treatment plant where they reuse the water to flush the toilets. Oh, and for those who asked about the canvas tote, that one is a gift from Pine Sol. I need to change the monogram though.

[8] The Company

Most of all, I love the company. I was with my best friend and my life partner during this visit. It was truly an amazing experience for us --  a much needed vacation away from the concrete jungle. And it was perfect.

Outdoor Fun this November

It's almost December, and the weather is cool. It's the perfect time to go outdoors and have fun. I recently heard about this place just a couple of hours outside Metro Manila where you can have your own outdoor adventure with your family and friends. You might have already heard of it -- Alviera SandBox.

This Christmas, they'll be having this amazing Christmas Jamboree where attendees can join arts and crafts workshops, watch live performances and participate in the games. These are all Christmas-themed so it's very timely. They can also opt to stay overnight and have a camping experience. Tents will be provided, and participants will have exclusive use of the SandBox the morning after.

If you're interested, book today and get 25% off! More details below.

  

---

Alviera offers 25% promo on premium Christmas Jamboree camping tickets until November 9

            Alviera has announced that premium "Christmas Camper" tickets are now selling at 25% off or P2,137.50 for adults and P1,313 for kids until November 9 only through online booking at travelfactor.org/jamboree. Christmas Jamboree is a one-of-a-kind holiday adventure on November 28-29 at the SandBox outdoor play park in Porac, Pampanga. 

The Christmas Camper package entitles participants to all-day arts and crafts workshops, live performances and holiday games, plus overnight campsite stay, access to campsite-exclusive activities, free use of Coleman tents, exclusive use of SandBox in the morning of the second day, a bonfire treat complete with a set grilled dinner and buffet breakfast on Sunday morning. 

The "Day Dasher package", at P1,900 for adults and P1,050 for children 4 feet below, includes roundtrip transportation from Manila to Alviera, free use of SandBox attractions and access to all Christmas Jamboree Day Workshops activities such as Christmas cookie- making and designing angel souvenirs and parols. Live entertainment begins at night with the “poi” or fire dancing and a Christmas carol serenade by some of the country’s top chorale groups. Guests can perform onstage during the Merry-oke open mic session, complete with a live brass band. After the Yuletide dinner, astronomy experts will lead constellation-tracking sessions. The “Starlight Cinema” opens from 9:00 p.m. until midnight to feature Christmas movie favorites.

Christmas Campers will enjoy the entire Day Dasher offering combined with premium camping activities such as a welcome bonfire with s’mores at the exclusive Coleman campsite and ukulele jam session while enjoying hot tsokolate served with biscochio. Campers can also learn to play the ukulele during the workshop. A Christmas breakfast buffet awaits them the next morning, as well as Christmas stockings filled with surprise holiday goodies.

Both Day Dasher and Christmas Camper packages come with travel insurance, Alviera Camp Bag, and a Christmas Passport that serves as an event journal that contains raffle stubs for exciting prizes.

The Alviera Christmas Jamboree is guaranteed to inspire lasting memories with families and friends. Christmas is a time for giving and for spending time with our loved ones, and this is what a merry Christmas adventure in Alviera is all about.

=====

Alviera celebrates the holiday season with “Christmas Jamboree,” a one-of-a-kind camping adventure that transforms SandBox into a Yuletide wonderland for families and merrymakers. John Estacio, Alviera General Manager, talks more about the activities at the event.

1.         What is “Christmas Jamboree”?

The Christmas Jamboree is a two-day Christmas-themed camp festival at the SandBox on November 28 and 29, Alviera’s outdoor version of celebrating this special season. This unique outdoor experience is filled with Christmas-themed activities that are guaranteed to make every member of the family smile, from little kids to the kids-at-heart. From arts and crafts workshops and holiday games to live performances and traditional camping treats, as well as access to the SandBox amenities. Guests can choose between the Day Dasher or Christmas Camper packages. 

2.         Why hold the Christmas Jamboree at Alviera?

Alviera is here not just to merely create an economic hub, we are also making sure that the natural beauty of Porac is preserved and highlighted. Our role as a developer is to simply enhance God’s gift to us and the best way for people to appreciate this would be to bring them closer to nature through camping.

The Alviera Christmas Jamboree gives you a glimpse of what to expect in Alviera in the future. Even at full development there will be open spaces for everyone to enjoy. More importantly, we want to provide opportunities where families can create moments they can share together.

3.         What are the activities during the Christmas Jamboree?

For day trippers, or “Day Dashers” as we call them, they will enjoy a slew of Christmas-themed activities all day until midnight. “Christmas Campers” on the other hand will enjoy Day Dasher activities as well as camping-exclusive activities that will extend until the next morning.

DAY ACTIVITIES

There will be FOUR fun tents to keep everyone thrilled and excited: CHRISTMAS COOKIE CORNER, MERRY ANGEL-MAKING, PAROL-MAKING SESSIONS, and QUIZ KRINGLE

•          Christmas Cookie Corner - customize Christmas cookies with some candy sprinkles and fondant ornaments, colorful icing, and other sweet stuff for you to decorate your own holiday treats to feast on–or to give to your loved ones

•          Merry Angel-Making- design your own traditional Filipino ornaments with a twist as you paint and decorate corn husk angels to hang on your Christmas trees and to adorn your house with your own designs

•          Parol-Making Sessions- add tails and paint your own Christmas lanterns that allow you to add your own personality to this Christmas tradition.

•          Quiz Kringle- test your Christmas knowledge and win instant treats and more raffle coupons in this fun holiday quiz bee for families and friends. The top-scoring groups get a chance to battle it out on-stage during the evening program, where they can win BIG prizes.

•          SandBox Facilities- guests can try exciting rides and facilities of SandBox all-day long such as our First Roller Coaster Zip Line in Asia, the hanging obstacle course of the Air Walk, or the tallest Giant Swing in the Philippines among others

NIGHT ACTIVITIES

 

When the night falls, get ready to take part in even MORE activities.

•          Prancing Poi- learn to dance and move with LED lights at the PRANCING POI booth, where our expert LED artists teach you the basics of poi, hoop, and other light toys.

•          Chorale Serenades- top chorale groups in the country will serenade guests in a one hour Chorale Concert

•          Merry-oke Sessions- sing along and rock the stage with your favorite Christmas songs complete with accompaniment of a live brass band

•          Twinkle Tracking- track the Christmas sky for the brightest stars with professional telescopes stationed along with astronomy experts to help you view the night sky like never before.

•          Saint Nick’s Wishing Corner- make a wish or simply take an epic selfie with Santa Claus

•          Starlight Cinema- wind down the night and celebrate the season with some beautiful, heartwarming Christmas movies where you are invited to lay down your mats on the grass, cuddle up with your family and friends right under the stars

CAMPER-EXCLUSIVE ACTIVITIES

•          Jamboree Jingle Night- sing around the campfire with ukuleles or learn the instrument with the ukulele workshop while sharing free hot tsokolate and biscochio

•          Santa’s Campfire Smores- enjoy free grilled set dinner and roast smores

•          Christmas Stocking Surprise- design your Christmas stockings, hang them on your tents, and let Santa fill it with holiday goodies

•          Merry Morning Buffet- breakfast favorites await you the following morning to keep the campers energized before they take the SandBox adventure

4.         How much are the packages and what are the inclusions?

Packages to the Alviera Christmas Jamboree come in Day Dasher and Christmas Camper variants.

Day Dasher, at 1,900 per person, includes roundtrip transportation from Manila to Alviera, free use of SandBox attractions, access to all Christmas Jamboree Day Workshops, passes to the evening stage shows and entertainment and the Starlight Cinema.

Christmas Camper at P2,850 per person entitle participants to all Day Dasher inclusions, plus overnight campsite stay, access to campsite-exclusive activities, free use of Coleman tents, exclusive use of SandBox in the morning of day 2, a bonfire treat complete with grilled set dinner and a merry buffet breakfast on Sunday morning.

As a family event, Alviera introduces special rates for kids, at P1,050 for Day Dasher, and P1,750 for Christmas Camper for children 4 feet below. Both packages come with travel insurance, Alviera Camp Bag, and Christmas Passport for raffle prizes.

5.         Do you have the same capacity for your campsite?

For Alviera Christmas Jamboree, we like to be able to accommodate more participants especially the families so we increased the capacity of our campsite by 50% from 200 to 300. This is also as a result of the very positive reception of our guests during the Brightscape.

6.         Will comfort amenities be available for the Christmas Campers?

Yes, similar to Brightscape, there will be ample showers and toilet facilities for exclusive use at the camp. Sanitation, environmental care and of course, safety and security are all primary in Alviera.

7.         Will the event grounds be open all night for during the Jamboree?

No. The evening ends after the last movie to be shown in our Starlight Cinema. SandBox will resume operating early the next day at 7am for Christmas Campers to enjoy our attractions and facilities exclusively until 10:00 AM.

8.         Can we cook or bring our own food to the campsite?

No, participants are not allowed to bring meals or cook food. There will be ample food concessionaires during the event and we also added a free grilled set dinner as well as hot tsokolate and biscochio for those availing of our Christmas Camper package.

9.         Where can people go in case of emergency/injuries?

As part of our standard safety procedures in Alviera, there will be standby security, ambulance as well as medical team composed of doctor and nurses to assist participants in case of emergency or untoward incidents.

10.       How can guests go to SandBox in Alviera?

From the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), take the Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) Exit then get off at the Porac Exit. The Porac Exit is just a short drive from the SCTEX Exit. A minute or two after getting off the Porac Exit, you will see Alviera on your right where SandBox is located.

For the Christmas Jamboree, we will be offering packages that include roundtrip transfers from Manila.

11.       Who is your partner in designing the event?

We teamed up with adventure travel outfitter Travel Factor and Coleman as our camp provider. They were also our partners in the Brightscape Campfest.

12.       How can guests reserve their slots at the Christmas Jamboree?

For reservations and booking, guests can visit the Travel Factor website at http://travelfactor.org/.

# # #

Crafts/DIY: Giant Paper Roses Workshop

A couple of weeks back, I hosted a Giant Paper Roses workshop through @craftedlove. I super love this batch. They are so much fun, uber friendly and very talented. It was held at Vanilla Cupcake Bakery down in Bonifacio Global City, and that cafe is the epitome of cuteness. We used heavy crepe paper (yay!) in pastel colors, which really goes very well with the decor.

I will be having another workshop this coming March, and I hope you can join this time. Follow me at @craftedlove on Instagram to get first-hand news.

Paper Flowers Workshop

My paper flowers workshop in Metro Manila is just around the corner. You can choose to attend either of the two dates -- September 13 or September 20. They're both Saturdays, at 1pm to 4pm. The first workshop will be held at Gourdo's in Bonifcatio Global City, Taguig. The second one will be at World Market down in Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa. If you'd like to know more about it, send me an email at crafted_ph@yahoo.com or call Gourdo's 24-hour hotline at +632 812-3022.

I am super excited as this is my first collaboration with Gourdo's and my family knows how much I love that brand especially now that they have craft supplies in their stores.

I've been practicing and perfecting the art of getting color effects on my paper flowers, and yes, I will be teaching how to do those during the workshop and I will be giving a handful of these dyed and bleached paper sheets in the kits too. I tried using my dip-dyed and bleached paper sheets on peonies and camellias, and the result is kinda awesome. I am so in love with paper flowers that my workspace is covered in them.

I made some crepe paper peonies using three different types of technique: plain, dip dyed, bleached. I used plain luxe crepe paper for the cream-colored peony. For the pink peony on the right, I got some plain pink crepe paper that was bleached and then dip dyed. The white, dip dyed in pink, peony on the top left is probably the most "favorited"of the three in my other social media accounts.

For these tissue paper camellias (I think that's what they look like), I used plain tissue paper (purple) and bleached tissue paper.

Crafts/DIY: Orange Jasmine a.k.a. Kamuning Paper Flowers

I tried my hand on dyeing my own tissue paper for my paper flowers and this is the first time that I used a Philippine flower as inspiration. We have a lot of kamuning plants (or orange jasmine) on the front of our house. I love it when they're in bloom because they really smell good.

A few weeks back, I dyed some tissue paper to give them a little blush. I decided to use this to make my paper kamuning. I know, I know, kamuning flowers are white, but I wanted some pink in it too.

I tried it out on a few flowers first. They turned out cute so I kept going.

Here's a bunch of them.

Now, with leaves.

Small flowers like these are actually a bit more difficult to make than medium-sized ones because of their size, but seeing them all together just makes it worth it. 

Happy Monday!

Crafts/DIY: Paper Flowers Workshop with Gourdo's

My workshops have been scarce and far between because of work and travel. But this coming September, there will a couple coming up. Both will be about paper flowers. This time, it will be held in the south of Metro Manila -- woohoo!

There will be new materials to use. I know you've been waiting for this folks. This is the first time we'll be using premium crepe paper so come and join us okay?

Here are some of the flowers we can make using the new materials.

Inspired yet?

Here are the deets.

* September 13 (Saturday) | 1-4pm | Gourdo's Fort
* September 20 (Saturday) | 1-4pm | World Market Alabang Town Center

For sign-ups and registration, please call Gourdo's 24-hour hotline at 812-3022.

Crafts/DIY: Upcycling Binder Clips

One of my nieces had a birthday party, and I helped out with creating dish names for the buffet table, as well as the thank you tags for the party favors. I used my trusty old Nikko G nib, McCaffery's black ink and some Avery two-side printable clean cut business card paper. The paper was great for calligraphy. The ink didn't bleed, and I didn't have to worry about fibers being stuck to my nib.

The Avery paper was the perfect size for the favor gift tags and the dish names. I added some blush pink border to the dish names below to make it prettier. I also played around with my new stock of Italian crepe paper to make the paper flowers below.

I asked my sister-in-law if she had any place card holders on hand. It was the most adorable gold chair place card holder, and she only had one. Bummer.

I came up with using binder clips. But we know how binder clips come in the most plain, boring colors right? The party was very pink and we had to transform these clips into pretty colors quickly. My other niece has a collection of Duck Tape (yep, that is the brand name, so you know I'm not just barok. I am, most of the time. Haha!) that's printed. We covered the binder clips with it and they looked nicer in just minutes. By the way, washi tape will definitely work too.

There you go. Instant place card holders.

It Was a Sige Sabado Kind of Saturday

Allie and I love doing arts and crafts, so when I got a package, imagine my excitement when I saw what was inside. It was a Sige Sabado playbox from Breeze Philippines. There were all sorts of materials for various craft activities:

1. Tie dye kit 

2. Harlequin mask 

3. Raise a monggo plant 

4. Dinosaur egg bath soaps 

5. Popsicle names and pen holder 

6. Slime 

7. Animal balloon papier mache 

8. Chocolate drawing

I asked Allie what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to make the pen holder. I guess she was attracted to the colorful popsicle sticks and the stickers that came with it.

I started showing her how to do it by making a square base first, then stacking the sticks two at a time. She helped out by handling me the sticks I needed. Halfway through the project, she was the one putting the sticks together while I applied the glue.

When we finished the basic container, I gave her the stickers so she can decorate the pen holder. Well, if you can’t tell yet, stickers are her favorite so I let her go decorate the pen holder like crazy.

Don’t you think she did an awesome job? We can’t wait to do the next project. Maybe we’ll plant some monggo seeds next or maybe do the tie dye project. It will surely keep us busy before school starts. We love the Sige Sabado playbox. It really gave us more ways to spend some time together. Thanks Breeze Philippines!