Dagupan

The whole city is covered by the faces of these politicians

From Alaminos, our next destination is Manaoag church. To get there, we need to ride a van to Dagupan first then from there we could ride a van or a jeepney.

Last time we were in Dagupan’s Bangus festival was three years ago. It was also election time. I remember political billboards in front of what I think is a mall. Now it is election time again and I know there are new restrictions on the size of the political posters and shit. I have been to places and so far Dagupan is the most untidy place I have seen with regards to political shit we can see on the streets. It was Bangus festival so there are supposed to be a lot of these campaign materials everywhere. 

From where I am from, posters of small sizes are still widely used but in this city, they have a different norm.  So the political rivalry is between Lims and Fernandezes I suppose with the big posters of different candidates for several local positions with common surname. What sucked big time is how they position the rubbish on the streets. Imagine an establishment with a panaflex signage up front like "Ben’s TV Repair Shop". What these fuckers do is place a big billboard I suppose is the size limit approved by COMELEC on top of the panaflex signage. The political billboard has almost the same height as the original panaflex signage. In effect, what I see is just the face of the politician and the prominent surname and not the name of the establishment and both running parties do it. What sucks more is that almost every establishment has one. It feels like every establishment is owned by either one of them.

Bolinao

Watching Lakbay TV and other travel channels when I was younger  made me want to visit Bolinao especially that lighthouse. So from Alaminos we rode a van with fare of 50 pesos to Bolinao town. The trip does not last an hour but waiting for the van to be fully filled took a while. We alighted in the town market where the driver told us a tricycle would take us to the lighthouse and the beach for 200 pesos one way. There is supposed to be another destination which we would love to go to also, Tara waterfalls. The tricycle driver demanded 800 pesos to bring us to all that. We found another guy who said he would take us there for 500 pesos only. I did not know that the waterfalls was out of the deal because it is off another route. We should have taken the first offer. We also have to see this first beach first because we chose him instead of the first tricycle.

I forgot the name of this place

This was our ride

There is no beach. Just rocks

Anyways, we bought us some packed lunch in the gotohan near the Five Star bus station then headed our way to the first beach. We took some photos then to the Enchanted cave. This place has an entrance fee, 90 pesos if you just want to enter, 110 if you want to swim. We only want to see what the fuzz is about. We went in then my group decided they want to swim as well. So we ate our lunch there then swam. Inside the cave there's this pool. There are lights and a cooling system consisting of a heavy duty fan.

 

 

We did swim in there

Next to the itinerary is to see the lighthouse.

The guy selling ice cream took this photo.

After that is Patar white beach. I remember also paying 200 pesos for the cottage we used there(nothing is free anymore). 

from the cottage that we rented

It was almost 5PM when we finished so going to the waterfalls is not an option anymore. Good thing though because we were able to catch the last bus from Bolinao to Manila which would also bring us back to Alaminos.

Alaminos

Spirit of 1896 statue

We were supposed to see Bangus Festival this year but my officemates’ schedules and shit won’t allow it. We could have been in Pangasinan for four or five days. Anyways, there’s another group going so I went with them. I was just a guest on this trip so I just go with their plans and itinerary. We went on a 4AM Victory Liner trip lasting 5hours to Alaminos. When we arrived there, there’s this mob of tricycle drivers asking where the people alighting the bus are going. I kinda expected this, I asked Chast to text the others on how much is the fare going to Islandia Hotel but they are not replying; they were all sleeping. Anyway we paid fifty pesos, we learned that others only paid forty therefore the notion that tricycle drivers in Alaminos are scammers. I felt kinda helpless because we utilize this kind of transportation all the time and yet I don’t know if we were paying too much.
Islandia is located in Marcos Ave. what I noticed in this towns and others nearby is the abundance of rural banks. Of course there’s a Land Bank and BDO but there are others. I found this list showing establishments in Alaminos and banks are plenty. It just shows people there knows how to save money. Kudos!

A few steps from Islandia is 3J’s Kambingan. Here is where we have our first breakfast. The papaitan and kilawin that we ordered were delicious. 160 pesos for everything. For the next days, we ate at the hotel’s complimentary breakfast. Longganisang Alaminos tastes good too.

The plan for the first day is to see the hundred islands. We got a tricycle that fits the five of us then head to Lucap. When we got there we hired a boat, snorkels and aqua shoes, everything for 2500. Again, I don’t know if we got a good deal with that. The boat was big for the five of us. The deal with the snorkels and life vests could be reduced because vests are already available in the boat. Every boat must be equipped with that. Its just now that I read stuff about Alaminos and I see experiences of opportunists as well. Too bad I was just a last minute guest on this trip. I could have do some research and shit before the trip.  There were a few transient houses there so it could have been a better place to stay instead of Islandia, budget-wise. 

It was almost lunchtime so we get ourselves packed lunch we would eat on any one of the islands.

Governor's Island

Governor's Island View Deck

Our first stop is the Governor’s island. Our boatmen showed us the PBB house, a house built by ABS-CBN on the island on in effect bastardizing the place. 

Marcos Island

Marcos island is where there’s Imelda cave, a bat cave where there’s water underneath. People go there to jump into the water. We did that too. I could have jumped twice but there’s this fat guy holding on to the rope which would took us up on the ledge again. Instead, we have to go outside through the ocean then around the beach. When we reached the beach we just go our way into Quezon Island for lunch. We paid 200 pesos for using a table. After that we snorkel a bit then swim a little in Children’s island and took photos inside Cuenco cave.

Inside Cuenco tunnel