Anvaya Cove

When we received a call from our insurance handler (that what you call them) or better yet our family friend that we were invited to check out a newly develop high-end residential community out of town then we were the least excited family members to appreciate the invitation because not only did it meant loosing precious sleep especially if you came home at 3:00am and was about to leave at 6:00am but also feeling cranky and shitty first thing in the morning is not a good idea for a road trip.

Anyways it was a rainy Sunday morning when me and my family went to this place called Anvaya Cove, it was a three hour drive from Manila to Subic and it wasn't a very good morning for me anyways (try driving while you feel shitty for 3 straight hours)

Anvaya Cove is a seaside residential community that encompasses 320 hectares of land and they have their own beach (hooray!) anyways it's owned by Ayala Land and it's located further away from SBMA (Subic) almost in Morong Bataan.

Not only does it have a few residential lots but also condominium units and cluster like houses for living, these are for those who're looking for variety.

The Beach is pretty ordinary, it's supposed to be a man-made cove (or so I was told) and they have at least two or more man-made coves. It pretty much does the job as a beach getaway.

In the photo below you'll see me and my Family (my brother and father) on the background shown is the so so beach and the area contains a lot of lush greenery and almost a forest like environment since it's like super far away from Manila.

Anvaya has a recreational center that consists of the following facilities:

- An infinity pool

- Sports center (Tennis court, Basket ball court etc)

- Restaurant (for guests and members of the club)

- A club house (the view from the mezzanine is fantastic)

- Spa

- Bookstore

- Wifi cafe

- of course the beach and beach activities (they have lifeguards and stuff)

- etc

Pretty convenient place right? But it doesn't end with happiness and Glee because such a place is very high to maintain and owning a unit/house/cluster in this area is also very expensive, the prices vary form 7M, 10M to 20M and the point is that this is a property not located in an urbanize or well developed areas, it's very impractical and would only give you financial scars.

Plus membership to their club can only be obtained when a person is a unit owner. That for me is a bit unfair because the place is too far, maintenance will be very hard to find, it would've been easier for those uninterested with owning another house to have a club membership instead of an out of the way expensive house and lot.

Photo above shows the many guests invited to take a look at the newly develop resort/residential community, good thing they had WiFi to compensate for the ill-tasting pasta sauce I just consumed.

A view of the club house's ceiling, it's nice and high and also pretty.

Photo above shows a sample unit of the cluster like houses, I think this is how the house will look like if you bought one from them, this one is specifically around 14-16M I think.

More photos below;

Of course the interior decorations are your responsibility, sadly there is no mall near in the community or even a gas station it seems like a few kilometers away from one and even the entrance to Anvaya from this house is a few kilometers away the community is freaking huge!

All in all it would have been a very nice place to relax, unwind and socialize, but it is not for the average Filipino families nor even for those with highly capable budgets, I guess it's for those with a lot and I mean a lot of cash to spare.

Of course my dad has no intentions whatsoever in purchasing a house and lot in Anvaya unless they give us a huge discount as huge as the place haha!

Pagudpud 2nd day, Beach and Fun

Discover the Shores of Pagudpud nyahaha...

It's amazing on how clear the waters of this beach is, take a look it's absolutely fantastic

Ok so after we've rested and settled everything, it's time to explore the beach, there were lots of sights to see. It's breathtaking to see how clean and almost un-touched the beaches of Saud is.

Things to love about the place: (ok not everyone would love/like it but hey! It's my Blog!)

- Clean
- Windy (very)
- Waves (ouch)
- White Sand
- Few people
- Good for R&R
- Friendly locals
- Bagnet (hey it's Ilocos haha)
- Ummm almost everything haha!
- Small Fishies you could swallow one if you want to
- Hermit crabs (I killed a few tee-hee)
- No Jellyfishies yey Swim swim swiM all you want

Thing's I hate:

- Sea Weed... Their disgusting...
- Some sharp stones/coral/rocks underwater wear water shoes/socks (I wore none Ouch!)
- Mosquittos (Buy katol or use Off-lotion)
- Expensive restaurant prices ( if your being stingy)
- It's hard to find a tricycle
- Very Far

If you love photographing landscapes then this place is also a nice site to see the windmills although you can hardly see them in this photo. (Be sure to use yer tele-photo lenses, lenshood and polarizing/UV whatev filters to remove un-wanted glare and other stray light)

Pagudpud 1st day Food, Sand and Sun

Of course since we've just arrive at the beach we needed to eat breakfast and what better way to start the day by eating of course haha, hmmm the food was very savory, satisfying and filling plus it's affordable.

Above photo of Beef and Potatos steak like cut with mustard sauce concoction haha I forgot the name of this dish

Above photo of their version of Chicken Curry

Above photo of Laog Longanissa as a side order small yet so tasty

Above photo of the restaurant and below is the name of the restaurant

As I said in an earlier blog post, it was the off-peak season already so there weren't many people, there were tourist mostly koreans and caucasians and some Ilocanos perhaps from Laog taking a break from work or stuff. Basically it was a relaxing vacation with nothing else but the sun, sand and the breeze of fresh sea air, no party crowds no garbage at the shore and most of all no busy schedules haha!


We spent the day by walking along the shore and catching small hermit crabs, we didn't take a swim yet since we were tired from the journey.

I could tell you the place is an absolute beauty, the sand is white, the waves were strong and the wind is so pleasant so perfect you'd have to wish that everyday was like this.

so the day went by, and dinner time was shortly coming our way, and decided to take pictures of the sunset, though I'm not a big fan of sunsets so anyways I took some shots and I must say by looking at the cloud formation you'd have to wonder whatever happened to Feria that stupid storm.


Nightfall started and the beach lights were all turned on, we took our seats at the restaurant and ordered other dishes which I fail to photograph, uuuuhmmm mmmmm I love that Bagnet Rice thing (Bagnet, crispy deep fried pork belly, high in cholesterol) it was superb and mouth watering specially with the bagoong which I fail to realise I'm allergic from good thing I have Benadryl.

I've got lots of stories tah share and memories to store in this blog so I have to post the rest of the stories/pictures some other time haha, I need to go for the mean time.

On the road again a journey to Pagudpud

Our journey started a week ago, last Friday to be exact and while were at it we continued to travel even though there was a storm on going. Harhar!

I don't know if you could call that bravery or stupidity but I was really excited and no storm could stop us from going to Pagudpud in Ilocos, and to be honest there was no bad weather on the way up north! Yeah!

We took a bus going to Pagudpud, Florida Bus, their terminal is located at Sampaloc in Manila and it goes straight to Pagudpud.

Be warned though as the bus seats are quite un-comfortable their made of synthetic or faux leather ugh it's irritating your ass will heat up on that stupid material plus that bus company would often stop at their designated check points meaning they have a lot of stop overs, it took like 13 hours to get us to Pagudpud.

we left Manila at 7:30pm Friday night and arrived at Pagudpud 8:30am the next day, the only convenience the bus offers was a built-in comfort room, but alas it was slightly useless since Florida bus lines often stop at their checkpoints which usually are gas stations with cafeterias and CRs since I think they often change drivers on the way up north.

Ahh finally we arrived at Pagudpud and at the resorts Saud beach area to be exact, to go from one place to another the primary transportation used in the provinces is a tricycle (one manned motorcycle with a side-car) the drivers are quite friendly and helpful considering the weight of our bags and the weight of my friends tee-hee, the price or fee is just $1 to go to the beaches and be sure to give them a tip/extra just to say thanks at the least.

They also offer sight seeing tours it's like $15 or less depends on how good you haggle and they'll take you around the different tourist spots in Pagudpud however we weren't able to try it out.

Finally we were able to rest for a few minutes and unload all our stuff in our posh little suite, we got a discount since it's already off-peak season like we got the room/jr suite $125 for three days and two nights stay not bad at all considering that this room would cost like $100 for a night on the peak seasons woah like WOAH! haha good deal right. Of course there were cheaper rates because there were a lot of resort and mini hotels but we opted to choose luxury over the cheaper rates.

The above photo is a view of the pool just outside our room, by the way the name of the Hotel we stayed in is Apo Idon (click it to view the website)

Cheap Electronic Surprise!

As I've mentioned earlier I've planned a trip to Ilocos/Pagudpud up north of the country and like all vacations there's gonna be swimming, and when there's swimming there'll be fun and to capture such memories I'll need a camera! I do own ummm 3 cameras, A Nikon D50 DSLR which is already an antique in the Digital electronics market, a Panasonic Lumix LX3 which is fairly new in the market and quite advance if I may say and of course my trusty P&S a Sony Cybershot T300 which I use most of the time to capture fun vivid memories of drunken friends ummmm most of the time me being drunk, anyways, I don't wanna use one of em in the water/beach because they might broke, so...

TaDahh!!!
I bought this cheap fixed focused camera at a local Kodak/Island Photo developing centre and whadda you know it works like a gem, it's roughly around $40 hahaha so cheap and it has a 5megapixel sensor actually it gets the job done.

I also bought a digicap case? or some might simply call it a plastic wrap for water protection on your mobile gadgets.

It's so functional just perfect for the trip that's soon to come so watch out peeps!


Hmmm.. I did an initial testing and yup it does the job, it has the same quality photos of a Nokia N73 hahaha I'll post some samples now...

This is a photo of my office reception area I did some resizing and cropping but the overall quality is ok, just right to be used under the sun, under the ocean and all that beach activity shizz...

Beach time again

Finally I got a clear signal from my boss/dad about my planned trip to Ilocos. If you ask me what I'll do there? duh! it's as clear as a bottle of champagne I'm gonna enjoy the sun! Hahaha! That's if it doesn't rain up north it's the freakin rainy season already and it's the only time of the year I'll be able to enjoy the beach, the sand and the waves cause I'm quite busy lately. I'm just hoping the waves would not enjoy torturing me as i've heard that the waves up north is quite unforgiving haha, making it one of the hottest surf spots in the country. Ohh yeah by the way I'm not just talking about the trip to Ilocos but also a trip to Pagudpud.

I've inquired rates at a certain resort Saud beach resort hmmm, the rates are ok naman, but the main point of my travel is to check out if it does meet my expectations as many would say that Saud in Pagudpud, as well as Maira ira beach is the Boracay of the north.

I've never been to Boracay or in fact I've never been to any of the hottest destinations/beaches in general here in the Philippines! And I call myself a Filipino, damn! Yeah and another of my concern are Jelly fishes I hope there's none out there!


so anyways i can't post pictures just yet, I'll do that the moment I get home from the trip yah!