Category Archives: ACTIVITIES

Werribee Open Range Zoo (Werribee, Australia)

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Werribee Open Range Zoo

Our second whole day in Australia was to be spent on a half-day tour of the Werribee Open Range Zoo, about 32 kms. (20 mi.) southwest of Melbourne.  After brunch at our apartment, we walked towards the Melbourne Central Station where we took a one-hour train ride to Werribee Station. We arrived at the station by 11:20 AM and, from the station, we caught the Bus 439 Werribee South to the zoo.

Check out “Melbourne Central Station“

The 225-hectare (560-acre) Werribee Open Range Zoo, an African-themed zoo in Werribee, is ocated on the Werribee River in Werribee Park, adjacent to the Werribee Mansion.

Jandy, Kyle and Bryan at the Werribee Visitor Information Center

Gift shop

It is part of the Zoological Parks and Gardens Board or ‘Zoos Victoria’ which also includes Melbourne Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary.

Ticket Office

Meerkat Cafe

Cafe interior

Here’s the historical timeline of the zoo:

  • In 1975, the 120 hectares of land on which Werribee Open Range Zoo now sits was acquired to act as agistment for the surplus stock from Melbourne Zoo. The board aimed to use the property’s landscape to develop an open range zoo.
  • In 1983 Werribee Open Range Zoo was opened to the public and guests were offered a guided safari-like tour around the property. Species at the zoo were mostly ungulates including bison and deer along with ostrich and kangaroos. Whipsnade Zoo provided a pair of Southern White Rhinoceros.
  • For the next ten years, guests boarded a bus, paying an admission fee as they entered, from a shelter at the Werribee Park Mansion, across the road from the zoo.
  • In 1996, the zoo was completely relaunched with a bistro, shop, discovery center and walking trail opened to add to the experience.
  • The next year, the Volcanic Plains Trail, showing off the Western basalt plains which is an endangered grasslands ecosystem, was opened.
  • During 1999, four new rhinos from South Africa arrived at the zoo to begin a breeding program.
  • In 2002, the zoo’s first rhino calf was born and was named Ganini.
  • In 2004, the Lions on the Edge habitat was unveiled.
  • In September 2006, Kubu River Hippos, the zoo’s largest development ever, was opened.
  • In December 2008, an African wildlife habitat was unveiled.
  • In 2010, the zoo celebrated its 25th birthday.
  • Also in 2010, the Australian comedy duo Hamish and Andy, posing as gorillas playing with golf clubs and toy cars, appeared in the zoo’s under construction gorilla enclosure as part of filming for a TV show.
  • In 2011, a gorilla exhibit opened with three male western lowland gorillas (an adult silverback and his two sons) gained from Melbourne Zoo.
  • In 2014, a koala habitat was opened along with a bandicoot hideaway (a nocturnal house where people can discover critically endangered eastern barred bandicoots). Squirrel gliders, dunnarts, tawny frogmouths and striped legless lizards also live here.

The African-themed village

The zoo has a simulated African village whose educational and entertaining includes a mock scenario of an African ranger and his adventures tracking lions, and an interactive soundscape walk with simulated lion sounds surrounding the walker.

A Learning Center teaches more about the history and geography of animals in their environments. This very children-friendly zoo also has lots of animal-themed playgrounds (such as the monkey rope play) around the walking trail near the exhibits.

Children’s playground

Werribee Open Range Zoo also has an animal/adoption sponsorship program, which is used for gifts and other altruistic purposes.

We followed two independent trails with signs everywhere pointing us in different directions to each animal enclosure.

Meerkats

The Pula Reserve Walking Trail focuses on African animals, including a antelopes, rhinoceros, zebras, lions, hippopotamus  and meerkats at the picturesque grassy savanna.

The new Gorillas Calling, a 10,000 sq. m. (2.5-acre) island home sanctuary (one of the largest in the world), houses the 3 gorillas and features wide-open spaces, climbing structures and indoor facilities.

A pair of camels

Rhinoceros

This facility enabled Zoos Victoria to provide best-practice care for the bachelor gorillas and confirm the organization’s reputation as a world leader in gorilla management.

Hippopotamus

Kubu River Hippos, a 3-hectare (7.41 acre) hippo paradise, is Australia’s only drive through hippo river. It has a boardwalk that allows visitors to view the hippos from every angle while the Kubu Queen, a semi submerged barge, allows for a closer view.

The area also has an adventure trail, archaeological dig site, interpretive centers and a hippo water play area with 5 life size hippo sculptures.  It can also be experienced on the safari tour.

A pride of lions

Lions on the Edge, with its beautiful pride of lions, has many great interactive elements including an abandoned jeep, half in and half out of the exhibit, where you can sit face to face with a lion.

Smaller habitats for prowling cheetahs, a troop of 18 vervet monkeys  (the only one’s of their kind on display in Australia) at play, and serval are also available for viewing.

Kangaroos

The author

The Australian Journey Walk, through Victoria’s vulnerable basalt plains grasslands, focuses on free wandering Australian animals such as the brolga, koala, emu and kangaroo as well as the cassowary.

A pair of emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae)

An ostrich

Come 3:30 PM, we availed of a bus tour (included in the zoo admission price), which takes up to 140 people in a unique safari bus and normally lasts 35–40 minutes, multiple times a day.

The unique, open air tour bus

The tour takes us out into the 45-hectare open savanna section of the zoo where we could find animals such as the hippo as well as animals of the grassland, such as bison, zebra, waterbuck, giraffe, ostrich, eland, antelopes and rhinoceros, as well as the camel and the scimitar-horned oryx.

A small herd of zebras

Werribee Open Range Zoo: K Rd, Werribee South, Victoria, 3030 Australia. Open daily (except Christmas Day), 9 AM – 5 PM (entry closes 3:30 PM).  Tel: 1300 966 784. Admission: adult (38AUD), child (19AUD) on weekdays, free on weekends. Visitors can also book various ‘specialty’ tours, including the Off Road Safari, or close encounters where you can feed gorillas, stroke servals or giraffe. E-mail: contact@zoo.org.au. Website: www..zoo.org.au/werribee/.

 

Shilin Night Market (Taipei, Taiwan)

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Shilin Night Market

After our visit to Taipei 101 Mall, Vincent Chen, our Eagle Tour  guide, dropped us all off at the newly renovated Shilin Night Market where we were to have dinner and explore at our leisure.  Often considered to be the largest and most famous night market in Taiwan, it encompasses two distinct sections sharing a symbiotic relationship.

Check out “Taipei 101 Building” and “Taipei 101 Mall“

A section, formerly housed in the old Shilin Market building, contains mostly food vendors, small restaurants and surrounding businesses and shops selling other nonfood items.

The food court houses a long row of 539 fixed stalls while the second floor serves as a parking lot for 400 cars.  Taiwanese street food  or Xiao Tze (which means “small eats”) you can try here include bubble tea, fried buns, fried chicken fillet, fried siopao (NT$50), lemon aiyu jelly, oyster omelet, oyster vermicelli, peanut candy, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, wow frog eggs, grilled vegetable wrapped with pork (NT$10), misua soup (NT$30), Lamien noodles (NT$50), small sausage in a large sausage, stinky tofu (NT$50, served with pickled vegetables), and Taiwanese “tempura.”

Aside from the food court, the side streets and alleys are also lined with storefronts and roadside stands.  Also prevalent in the area are cinemas, video arcades and karaoke bars.

Here, you can also buy shoes, accessories, cheap and fashionable clothes ,Taiwanese candies, preserved fruits and toys; have your fortune told; shoot for money; play mahjong; have a massage that makes use of bamboo sticks (N$100) or knives (NT$100 for 10 minutes or NT$220 for 20 minutes)  or play an interesting game of catching shrimps.

Like most night markets in Taiwan, the local businesses and vendors begin opening around 4 PM. As students start returning home from school, crowds reach their peak between 8 PM and 11 PM, with businesses continuing operations well past midnight, closing around 1 AM or 2 AM. In recent years, due to the opening of the very efficient and clean Taipei Metro system, tourist traffic has increased.

Shilin Night  Market: No. 101號, Jihe Road, Shilin District, Taipei 111.

How to Get There: Shilin Night Market is accessible via the Tamsui–Xinyi line (Tamsui/Red Line) of the Taipei Metro at Jiantan Station (one station before Shilin). One-way fare would range from NT$20 to NT$40. The night market can be seen from the station platform. A number of bus routes also serve the area, with stops at Jiantan Station, nearby Ming Chuan University and Xiao Bei (Hsiao Pei) Street.

Dihua Street and Dadaocheng Walking Tour (Taipei, Taiwan)

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Dihua Street

After lunch at Jia Tian Xia, we again boarded our bus for the short drive to the old Dadaocheng area in Taipei City.  We all drop by the Dadaocheng Visitors, the start of Dihua Street. Here, some of the ladies in our entourage tried on traditional Chinese clothes for free and posed wearing these to spice up their Dihua visit.  After this, we started our walking and shopping tour of the district. 

The ladies (Jay, Lenlen, Joyce and Melissa) trying on traditional Taiwanese attire

The streets and alleys of this district presented us with a rich mix of East and West, history and the future, tradition and modernity.  At its heart is narrow Dihua Street which is lined with beautifully restored shophouses with southern Fujian, Baroque Revival, early Modernist and other Western architectural facades and elements, all  occupied by long-established businesses and recently opened cultural-creative enterprises.

Running south to north, parallel to the Tamsui River, Dihua Street is considered to be the oldest street in Taipei, with a few sections that date back to the period of Dutch rule in Taiwan (1624–1661), but mainly it was constructed from the 1850s. Originally called Central Street, its southern and northern sections were called South Street and North Street, respectively.

In the latter part of the 19th century, Dihua Street rose to prominence as a major commercial throughway in the bustling Dadaocheng river-port community (where one of its major industries was tea) and many businessmen made their fortunes here. By 1872, there were already five British trading firms plus a sizable Western population in Dadaocheng.

In the 1970s, the fortunes of Dihua Street and Dadaocheng, as a whole, started fading when Taipei’s commercial center shifted eastward. In 1988, in the face of heritage-preservation protests, a government plan to widen Dihua Street was shelved.

In 1996, however, the establishment of the Taipei Lunar New Year Festival’s traditional New Year goods market drew public attention back to the street.

In 1998, a heritage/renovation plan for Dadaocheng was finalized and soon cultural-creative entrepreneurs were reinventing the old buildings, using the unique structures in interesting ways. 

Though only about 800 m. long, the atmospheric Dihua Street’s many identities provides a whole day of exploration (and shopping). Its well-preserved or reconstructed buildings now house traditional shops selling dried goods and herbal medicines, chic cafés and mini art galleries.

The buildings, though narrow, are deep and often have a courtyard toward their middle that divides them into two sections. 

One of its early shophouses is a century-old building that once housed A.S. Watson and Co., Taiwan’s first Western-style drugstore built in 1917 by Lee Chun-chi as a franchise of the Hong Kong-based parent company. This building’s Modernist gray exterior has wood-frames windows with some Asian-style decorations also adorning the façade. It now houses a cute crafts and souvenir store, a bookstore and the ASW Tea House, an English-style teahouse, at the second floor, which preserved the original drugstore’s initials in its name.

A.S. Watson & Co. Building

It now serves classic Western culinary items using locally grown ingredients (dried pineapple in the scones, fruit juice in the pate de fruit, the black sesame in the madeleines, etc.), all washed down with local Taiwanese tea (except for the Ceylon BOP, which is a mixture of Sri Lankan and Taiwanese leaf). A couple of sandwich selections include an apple, cheese and olive oil creation featuring mullet roe sourced directly from Li Ly Sun, a long-established seafood and dried-goods store just down Dihua Street. 

Yongle Textile Market

Yongle Fabric Market, a Dihua Street institution dating to the Japanese colonial area, remains the largest fabric market in Taiwan. The first floor houses a small wet market while the second floor houses the actual fabric market.

The third floor is where people can take their fabric to be tailored. The 8th floor houses cultural exhibitions while Dadaocheng Theater can be found on the 9th floor. Inside, there are also several sushi bars, including one with a good range of craft beers.

Dihua Street, with new businesses constantly opening up in this area, is definitely a place that deserves multiple visits, given enough time.  Aside from the abovementioned, other places to visit along Dihua Street include:

  • Sin Hong Choon Tea Museum – in a building, built in 1934, featuring a mix of Taiwanese and Western design elements, it once housed the area’s largest tea-processing workshop and was the Wang family’s (the original owners who moved to Taiwan from mainland China in the 1910s) base for the export of tea to Southeast Asia. Its quaint interior, with terrazzo stairs and red-brick walls, was featured in La Grande Chaumière Violette, a 2016 Taiwanese TV period drama series  which told the story of the son of a wealthy tea merchant. The museum, providing a fascinating look into the tea trade of that time, is a place to learn more about Dadaocheng’s tea trade. Here visitors get to see old tea-processing machines as well as the family’s living quarters.
  • A Design & Life Project – a modern business in an old building, it is stocked to the brim with all sorts of antique knickknacks such as vintage American and industrial-style design items (cast-iron door handles, old-fashioned keys, gold-leaf lettering, etc.) plus new redesigns created by the store.
  • Earthing Way– a dose of local-flavor nostalgia, it features aramono (a Japanese term that refers to simple, austere tools and utensils most often made from natural materials, such as bamboo baskets, wooden spoons, and ceramic bowls) from local craftsmen.
  • Museum 207– housed in a relatively new structure built in 1962, has a faux-brick and somber, red wood facade. The exhibits, focused on Taiwanese traditions such as on the art of terrazzo flooring in the past and the current show on the complex art of Taiwanese gift-giving, displays items such as mirrors with auspicious messages and lucky red envelopes. At its roof, you can take in a stunning panorama of the neighborhood and beyond.
  • Ama Museum– Run by the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, it  was opened in December 2016 to tell the story of the estimated 2,000 Taiwanese “comfort women” (it has only been able to track down 59 but has worked closely with them since the early 1990s) forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.
  • Yehjinfa Rice Mill– still owned by the Yeh family (though at one point they stopped doing business for many years), it reopened in 2016 as a boutique rice/grocery/daily-use item shop.  Its sleek and non-intrusive interior features Minimalistic, free-standing wooden trusses and wooden boxes used as display shelves. The rice selection was expanded to 10 Taiwanese grains (including red sticky rice and black rice sourced directly from an indigenous village as well as the popular Taiken No. 9 Premium). To preserve freshness, the rice is sold in small packets. The other food items, all local and/or eco-friendly, or produced using unique methods, includes curry sauce (made with ingredients sourced from Hualien County), chili oil (from a 70-year-old shop) and dried mushrooms (grown using zero-waste methods). Kitchen items that revolve around rice include bowls, dishes and steamers.
  • URS329 – located toward the north end of Dihua Street, this restaurant serves a selection of culturally representative dishes that complement rice. Its grains are milled in-house with a miniature machine.
  • Taiwan Cooking 101 School 
  • Xia-Hai City God Temple 

Check out “Xia-Hai City God Temple“

 

Dadaocheng Visitor Center (URS44 Dadaocheng): No. 44, Sec. 1, Dihua St., Datong Dist., Taipei City 103.  Tel: +886-2-2559-6802.  Open daily (except Tuesdays), 9 AM – 5 PM.

Yongle Fabric Market: 1 Minle St., Datong District, Taipei City
Sin Hong Choon Tea Museum: Minsheng West Road, Datong District, Taipei City
A Design & Life Project: Nanjing West Road, Datong District, Taipei City
Museum 207: Dihua Street, Datong District, Taipei City

Jiufen Old Street (Taipei, Taiwan)

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The scenic mountain village of Jiufen

After our arrival in Taipei and a deliciously filling lunch at Chien-Yen Shabu Shabu, we all boarded our tourist bus for the nearly one-hour drive to Jiufen (also spelled Jioufen or Chiufen), a small village in the mountains, arriving there by 2:45 PM. The weather was overcast, with some light rain. The town of Jiufen is built into the side of the hills, slightly inland from the Pacific Ocean coastline.

Check out “Restaurant Review: Chien-Yen Shabu Shabu“

Panoramic view of the Pacific coastline

In 2001, the village has been made more popular largely due to its similarity to the downtown in Hayao Miyazaki’s popular, Oscar-winning Japanese anime movie Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli. Jiufen soon became a must visit place among Japanese tourists, with many Japanese travel magazines and guide books about Taiwan introduced Jiufen. However, Miyazaki himself denied that Jiufen was the model city of the movie

The author at the entrance of Shan Yu Hai B&B

The village can be explored in under 3 hours but, as we were pressed for time, Mr. Vincent Chen, our friendly Eagle Tours guide, allotted us just an hour to explore the village. From a viewpoint at the Taiyang parking lot, we had sweeping but hazy views of the mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Map of Jiufen Village

I, together with Joyce Ventura, explored all the way up to Fushan Temple while Jandy and most of the group explored the bustling, 24-hour, extremely touristy and crowded Jiufen Old Street, a narrow alleyway lined up with small food stalls, authentic tea houses, souvenir shops, and pottery stores.  They got there via Qiche Road, climbing up the long series of stairs that crosses over to the heart of Jiufan.

Check out “Fushan Temple”

The approach to Fushan Temple (top right)

Jiufen Old Street is actually composed of three parallel streets – Jishan Street (which runs along the ridge line), Cingbian Road and Qiche Road.  Jishan Street is the most densely populated with snacks and specialty shops.

Shuqi (or Shuchi) Road, perpendicular to the three, runs up and down the slope of the hill and comprises hundreds of stone steps with many teahouses.

The long, steep and narrow stairway leading to the center of the village

Shops here sell street food such as beef noodle soup, fish ball soup, ice cream peanut pancakes and Jiufen’s famous country snacks such as Ah Lan Glutinous Rice Cake, Taro Glutinous Rice Cake, Hongzao (Oxo Cubes) Meatball, cold or hot Ah Gan Taro Balls,  A-Zhu Peanut Ice Cream Roll, Taiwanese Sausages (Wu Di ‘Flower Lady’), Zhang Ji Traditional Fish Balls.  You can also buy locally produced ginger tea and plum wine.

Red lanterns were everywhere….

The century-old, richly decorated and picturesque, multi-storey A-Mei Teahouse, said to be the inspiration behind the Bath House in Spirited Away. Popularly known as the Grand Tea House, it is the most famous structure in all of Jiufen.  Perched on top of a hill, it is strategically located just a little off the main street. From its balcony, it has a picturesque view of Keelung Mountain to the right and northern shores of Taiwan on the left. You definitely need to book ahead if you want to have a tea here.

Souvenir store

Another noted teahouse is the City of Sadness Restaurant, an eatery overlooking the square, where A City of Sadness, another critically acclaimed movie (and the first film to touch on the February 28 Incident of 1947, in which thousands of people were massacred, then a taboo subject in Taiwan) by Hou Hsiao-hsien was filmed.  This film masterpiece bagged the  Golden Lion Award during the 1989 Venice Film Festival.

Railway tunnel

Jiufen was also known as a gold mining town.  In 1890, flakes of gold were discovered by workmen constructing the new Taipei-Keelung Railway and the resulting gold rush hastened the village’s development into a town.

Jandy beside a statue of a miner

During World War II, Kinkaseki, a POW camp for Allied soldiers captured in Singapore, was set up in the town and the POWs here were made to work in the nearby mines.

Mine entrance leading to the Taiwan Sweet Potato Teahouse

After the war, gold mining activities declined and the mine was shut down in 1971 for safety reasons.  A graffiti-filled mining tunnel, located right next to the A-Mei Teahouse, serves as a quaint entrance to Taiwan Sweet Potato Teahouse.

Teahouse at Taiyang parking lot

At Jiufen Gold Ore Museum, you can learn more about Jiufen’s history as a mining town.

Jiufen Police Station

Jiufen Old Street: Jishan Street, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224. Tel:  +886 2 2496 8978.

Eagle Tours: +886-910-130-180 (Mr. Vincent Chen) and +886-932-013-880 (Ms. Joyce Chen). 

How to Get There: Take the MRT blue line to Zhongxiao Fuxing Station Exit 1, then take bus 1062 to Jiufen Old Street Station. The town is served by buses that run from Keelung, Taipei, etc. The nearest train station is Rueifang Station of the TRA Yilan Line, which is 15 minutes away by bus.

Suguicay Island (Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro)

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Suguicay Island.  On the left and right side of the island, between mangroves, are white sand beaches

The last island we visited during our memorable island hopping tour was the oblong-shaped Suguicay Island, the most popular island in Bulalacao Bay.  The boat trip from Target to Suguicay Island was rather long and rough.

Cottages, picnic huts and stores lining the white sand beach

Running throughout the whole length of the island, including both at the southern and northern ends (where there is a small village) of the 500 m. long white sand beach, are clumps of healthy mangrove trees. With its different hues of aquamarine, turquoise and deep blue, the waters here are even more colorful than at Aslom Island and have abundant coral and marine life.

A Soguicay welcome

As approached the island, we espied rows of native huts (PhP300) and parked fishing boats along its white sand beach. A number of people were frolicking on the beach while offshore were a few huts on floating bamboo rafts (PhP500) that somehow adds to the character of the whole place.

The white sand beach

Between the white sand beach and the clump of mangrove trees was a narrow body of water that snaked inland. At the end of the island is a sandbar plus another 500 m. long white sand beach.

A floating picnic shed

This was the commercialized island we visited in Bulalacao and, telling from the number of visitors, it’s a go-to beach resort. Aside from the open cottages (some with videoke machines), this family-managed beach resort also has sari-sari stores selling snacks, liquor, bottled water, etc..

A clump of mangroves

A beach volleyball net was also set up in the middle. Here, we had lunch at one of the picnic cottages. Kayaks could also be rented here and unlike Aslom and Target Islands, rooms (PhP300 – 500) for overnight stays are available. Camping (PhP150) is also allowed.

After lunch and some time for exploration, it was now time to make our way back to the mainland.

Boarding our boat for the trip back to the mainland

After a 30-min. boat ride, we docked at a 300 m. long wood and bamboo pier jutting out from the mangrove beach of Bangkal, a sitio in Brgy. San Juan, just to the northeast of the town center of Bulalacao.

Getting ready to dock at the wood and bamboo pier at Sitio Bangkal

The wooden pier is actually the jump-off point for boats going to Suguicay Island, the first of the two northern islands in town.

The author

Soguicay Island: Brgy. San Juan, Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro.

Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office: Provincial Capitol Complex, Calapan City 5200.  Tel: (043) 286-7046 and (043) 441-0306. Website: www.ormindoro.gov.ph.

Target Island (Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro)

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One of the white sand beaches of Alibatan Island (Target Island)

From Aslom Island, the privately owned Alibatan Island, frequently referred to as Target Island, was to be our next destination. Since this island was located way out in the open sea, the waves we encountered going there were really rough. Before making landfall on the island, we went around it to admire its scenic coastline.We landed at a beautiful cove on the southern part of the island.

The beautiful cove at the southern part of the island

Located southeast of Bulalacao and approximately 3 kms northeast of Sitio Bacungan, Brgy. Milagrosa, Alibatan was also called Target Island because, in 1946, Americans staying in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro used the island for aerial bombing practice. Exploring the island, you’d see bomb sites and jagged rocks broken into pieces.

This approximately 5-hectare, stingray-shaped island, noted for its white sand beaches, has a mountainous southern part (a seemingly weather-beaten resthouse, reached by concrete steps, is located on the highest point), with big rocks present throughout.

The rundown resthouse at the top of a limestone outcrop

A concrete pathway follows the coastline of the island, looping around its limestone cliffs, and towards an approximately half hectare lake at the center of the island.

The concrete pathway that goes around the island

Said to be a result of the American bombing, the lake teems with mangroves and serves as a breeding and hatching area for seagulls and sea turtles.

The lake at the center of the island

From atop its limestone cliffs, you’d see panoramic views of the lake, the island itself and its beaches. The waters around the area abound with the different species of fish, corals and oysters. Because of its proximity to the channel going to San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, whales can also be sighted here.

Fascinating head-like rock formation

Target Island: Brgy. Milagrosa, Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro.  Open 6 AM – 6PM. Admission is free. Visitors are not allowed to stay overnight on the island.

Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office: Provincial Capitol Complex, Calapan City 5200.  Tel: (043) 286-7046 and (043) 441-0306. Website: www.ormindoro.gov.ph.

Aslom Island (Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro)

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Aslom Island

A 45-min. motorized outrigger boat ride, from Bulalacao Fish Port, brough us to the 12-hectare Aslom Island, the first of three (the others are Target Island and Soguicay Island) islands we were to visit in our day-long island hopping tour. While the island is privately owned (said to owned by a member of the Lhuillier family from Cebu), tourists can visit the place for free but staying overnight is not allowed.

Making landfall at the sandbar at the northern end of the island

One of the major destinations of any island hopping activity in Bulalacao, the island’s name is derived from the Cebuano word aslom, meaning “sour,” because of the abundance of tamarind (sampaloc) trees bearing the sour fruit.   Half of the island is planted with coconut trees.  A good place for ships to anchor during storms, the island is located about 1.5 kms. south of Brgy. Milagrosa.

Frolicking at the sandbar

This private island has three white sand beaches with coarse to corally white sand and all interconnected through roads inland.   It would probably take 1-2 hours to explore the island. At the southeastern part of the island is a big cave.

The author on Aslom Island

The first two other beaches stretch about 200 meters and 800 meters respectively.  We made landfall, during high tide, at its beautiful, crescent-shaped white sandbar that stretches for about 500 meters at the northern end of the island.

At the southern end of the sandbar is a nearly finished resthouse and a tennis court. The island has no other establishments or restaurants. Caretakers were the only people around.

The curving sandbar forms a small lagoon 2-3 m. from the shore with a sudden drop off, with very clear waters, clumps of big soft corals and schools of small fishes, making it an ideal area for snorkeling. At the shore, local fishermen catch crablets by digging deep inside the small holes made by the small crabs in the sand. These crablets are cooked in coconut milk.

Aslom Island: Brgy. Milagrosa, Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro. Visiting hours: 6 AM – 6PM.

Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office: Provincial Capitol Complex, Calapan City 5200.  Tel: (043) 286-7046 and (043) 441-0306. Website: www.ormindoro.gov.ph.

Island Hopping in Bulalacao (Oriental Mindoro)

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Now leaving Bulalacao Fish Port for our island hopping tour. L-R: Mr. Jeshe Kassenberg, Mr. Julius L. Santiago-Aquino, Mr. Ian Soriano (DOT), Mr. Ely Aldea (DOT), Ms. Joyce A. Rocamora, Mr. Sherwin A. Cuasay (Senior Tourism Operations Officer), Ms. Jay de Guzman (DOT-MIMAROPA), Ms. Karen Lacsamana (DOT) and the author

Day Two of our Oriental Mindoro Media Familiarization Tour in Bulalacao was to be spent island hopping.  The town has 11offshore islands –  the 12-hectare Aslom Island, the 206-hectare Buyayao Island, Libago Island,  the 90-hectare Maasim Island, Nagubat Island, Opao Island, Pocanil Island, the 2.5-hectare Sibalat Island, Silad Island, the 160-hectare Tambaron Island and the 5-hectare Target Island (also called Alibatan Island).   Aslom, Soguicay and Target Islands have white sand beaches and we were to explore these three islands.  Though these islands are privately owned, they charge no admission fee to visit.

Ms. Jay with the author at Bulalacao Fish Port

After breakfast at the restaurant of Bulalacao South Drive Grill and Homestay, we boarded our respective vans for the short drive to the town’s fish port, in Kabangkalan, Poblacion, where our motorized outrigger boat awaited us.  The fish port is located just beside the town’s RO-RO port where Roll-On/Roll-Off ships and fast craft bring tourists from the town to Brgy. Caticlan (gateway to Boracay) in Aklan in about two hours.

Dutch-Nepali divemaster Jeshe Kassenberg

At the fish port, we met up with Mr. Jeshe Kassenberg, a Dutch-Nepalese dive master who moved to Bulalacao with his Welsh wife and newly born daughter, from Pattaya (Thailand), to set up a dive shop (which he will call Payapa or “peace” in the local vernacular).   He is bullish about the dive potential of the town and will accompany us to explore some new dive sites.

Fast Cat at nearby Bulalacao Port

Also joining us was Mr. Sherwin William A. Cuasay, Senior Tourism Operations Office from the Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office based in Calapan City and Ms. Cherry Jean Sanchez from the Provincial Government.  The first island we would visit is Aslom Island, followed by Target Island and finally Soguicay Island where we were to have our lunch.

A number of islands seen off Bulalacao Fish Port

Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office: Provincial Capitol Complex, Calapan City 5200.  Tel: (043) 286-7046 and (043) 441-0306. Website: www.ormindoro.gov.ph.

Sisiman Lighhouse and San Miguel Peak (Mariveles, Bataan)

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Sisiman Beach with rows of cottages along its coast. On the left is the foot of San Miguel Peak while at center is Sisiman Lighthouse

It was now our second day in Bataan and, come late afternoon at The Oriental Bataan, Maricar, Norman, Jandy and I embarked on our first outdoor adventure as we boarded my Toyota Revo for the 20 min. (4.6 km) drive, via the Baseco-Sisiman Highway/Mariveles Diversion Rd., to Sisiman Beach along picturesque Sisiman Bay.

Check out “Hotel and Inn Review: The Oriental Bataan“

Sisiman Lighthouse

Upon arrival, we parked the Revo beside the roofless shell of a building and then walked down for about 20 mins.along a rocky trail that lead to the new functioning fenced lighthouse.

The flight of stairs leading up to the top of the lighthouse

This is a relatively new lighthouse as the old, original lighthouse on the site was destroyed by 194 km/hr. (121 mph) winds of Typhoon Pedring (International name: Nesat) which struck Luzon last September 27, 2011.

Rocky and pebbly Sisiman Beach as seen from the top of the lighthouse

At the southernmost tip, the area is filled with cliffs which provide you an overlooking view of the ocean.

The lens of Sisiman Lighthouse. In the background is the summit of San Miguel Peak

The lighthouse was a picture-perfect spot, with the beautiful, 213 m. (700 ft.) high, San Miguel Peak, a seafront rock mountain  noted for its rock formations, at its rear and the pebbly and rocky Sisiman Beach at its front. The mountain’s profile reminded me of the famous Matterhorn of Switzerland.

Jandy, the author and Norman at the top of the lighthouse.  In the background is the Aboitiz Power Plant

As the lighthouse gate was open, we made our way up the narrow cantilevered concrete steps to the top of the lighthouse and its lens.

San Miguel Peak – I’ll dub this as the “Matterhorn” of the Philippines”

The actual Matterhorn (photo: Wikipedia, www.Camptocamp.org)

Lighting for the lens seems to partially or fully provided by solar panels attached nearby. Here, we had a good view of Sisiman Beach below and San Miguel Peak behind us.

A lone tree precariously clinging to rocks along the side of the mountain

We next made our way along the trail that leads up San Miguel Peak. Along the way we could see, from the distance, the Aboitiz Power Plant.

The Aboitiz Power Plant

With my osteoarthristis, I decided against climbing the peak but I allowed Jandy to join Maricar and Norman, both seasoned mountaineers, as they made the 20 to 30-min. hike, past knee-high cogon (spear) grass,  to the summit.

Norman and Jandy make their way up the mountain

At the summit, they had a more breathtaking view of Bataan, Corregidor Island, La Monja Island and Gordo’s Peak as well as a view of a breathtaking sunset.

View of Corregidor and La Monja Islands halfway up the peak

San Miguel Peak, a favorite for climbing and rappelling, is frequently visited by mountain climbers from Metro Manila and other areas in Luzon.

Beginners start rappelling at a height of 130 m., but veteran climbers rappel from the peak. No admission fee is collected but mountain climbers, for a minimal fee, can make use of local guides and instructors.

Norman and Maricar making their way down the mountain

Along the public beach are many huts available for rent from PHP150 without videoke, to PHP500 to PHP1,000 with free use of videoke.

Jandy, the author, Maricar and Norman with San Miguel Peak in the background

Dusk at Sisiman Beach

Sisiman Beach and Lighthouse: Sisiman-Agwawan Beach Rd, Brgy. Sisiman, Mariveles 2105, Bataan.  Admission is free.

Subic Bay Sunset Cruise (SBMA, Zambales)

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Subic Bay sunset cruise on board the Selma Star C! Calibre

After lunch at Shabu Shabu and checking in at Le Charme Suites Subic, we proceeded to the nearby Subic Bay Yacht Club (SBYC) where we were to be treated to an hour-long sunset cruise on board the SBYC-based Selma Star C! Calibre, a yacht owned and skippered by Lighthouse Marina Resort president Jesus “Jun” Avecilla, Jr.

Check out “Hotel and Inn Review: Le Charme Suites Subic,” “Resort Review: Subic Bay Yacht Club Resort,” and “Hotel and Inn Review: Lighthouse Marina Resort“

Subic Bay Yacht Club

This 36.7-footer Beneteau cruiser racer yacht, helmed by Jun and co-captained by former Subic Bay Yacht Club commodore Ricky Sandoval, is a five-time winner of the Borneo International Yachting Challenge in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, regarded as a top sailing event organized by the Malaysian Yachting Association which promotes Borneo as a global watersports mecca.

Boarding the Selma Star C! Calibre

It won its first crown in 2007 and then posted an unprecedented fifth straight overall championship in the 8th Borneo International Yachting Challenge held recently in the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah.

The author and media friends on board the Selma Star C

Bucking unpredictable sailing conditions and time handicaps as defending champion, the team topped the grueling 168-nautical mile race from Miri to Kota Kinabalu.

Cabin area of the Selma Star C

It was also the grand prize winner in the Singapore Straits Regatta in 2006 and the Manila-Boracay race in 2006 and 2008.

The Subic Bay shoreline

Though a sailing yacht, we left port with sails furled, using the yacht’s Volvo 29 HP diesel engine to get out at sea.  Then, midway through the cruise, the sails were then unfurled.

Sunset over Subic Bay

We cruised past a variety of watercraft, from local wooden motorized outrigger boats, luxury yachts, sailboats, speedboats, dinghies, Philippine (BRP Gregorio del Pilar) and U.S (USNS Pecos, a Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oiler ) Navy ships and larger oceangoing vessels.

USNS Pecos

BRP Gregorio Del Pilar

Of course, the piece de resistance of our cruise was the beautiful fiery sunset over the mountains of Zambales.

Lighthouse Marina Resort

Le Charme Suites Subic: 2/F La Terraza Bldg. 1131 Palm St., Subic Bay Gateway District, Subic Bay Freeport Zone 2222, Zambales.  Tel:  (047) 250 3333. Mobile number: +63 915 933 8113.  Website: www.lecharmehotels.com.  E-mail: salesandmarketing@lecharmehotels.comand frontoffice@lecharmehotels.com.