Where to Stay in White Beach, Puerto Galera

When we went to White Beach, Puerto Galera last weekend, (April 12-13, 2013), we decided to take a risk by not booking a room online. Rooms we found online rated from 3500 – 4800 pesos for 6 persons and would not fit our budget allocation of 500 pesos per person at the most per person.

You may also want to read: Puerto Galera Detailed Guide.

White Beach Puerto Galera

When we reached the white beach shore, we were already approached by people offering us accommodations. We immediately told us our budget was 2000 pesos only. ;-). One woman told us that we would get a room that was 3-5 minute walk from the shore for that amout. She took us to two locations, first was an alley a little far from the shore, the air-conditioned room has 2 beds, for 2500 pesos. 

Mama Ching Lodge, located in a small alley about 3 minutes away from the shore, 2500 pesos for 6 persons

The second location was almost on beach front; room was a bit smaller than the previous one but also had 2 queen size bed and a bathroom. We took the second one primarily because it was beach front, even if it is more expensive. It was beside Mindorinne Oriental Beach Resort

Mindoro Korea

Mindoro Korea, beach front, beside mindorinne oriental beach resort

not sure if this was working

Things I did not like about our room:

1.        Aircon was kind of faulty

2.        Few outlets. Only three, so there was a shortage when it came to charging our gadgets

3.        The CR was not that pleasant, plus there was a screened window with no cover/curtain, enough to freak us out.

4.        Nevertheless, the room was okay for us considering it was on beach front and we got it for a bit lower price.

Our room included: 2 queen size bed, extra mattress, TV, 1 bathroom with hot shower, and electric fan to compensate for the not-so-cold Aircon.

When you plan to go to Puerto Galera, it’s your choice if you want to do the reservation online or just do walk-in. You can still find rooms much more affordable even if its peak season, except Holy Week I think. I took some pictures of available rooms posted at the time we were there.

Vacant Rooms in Puerto Galera

Available Rooms in Puerto Galera

Also Read:

On the Spot Puerto Galera, a Detailed Guide to White Beach PG

Activities in White Beach Puerto Galera

Fire In Makati Area January 17, 2013

A residential place somewhere in Makati is currently on fire.

This picture was taken a while ago from a building along Ayala Makati. According to news, the residential area was in Poblacion, Makati.

 Hoping everyone is fine out there.

Cebu Pacific Now flies to Dubai, Offering Seat Sale for 888 Pesos

Cebu Pacific, the country’s number 1 airline in providing affordable fares and tons of seat sales for “every Juan” is now offering its first ever long haul flight to Filipinos. Today, January 17, Cebu Pacific has announced that direct flights to Manila to Dubai have been added to their list of international destinations. Flights will be daily and will start on October 2013.

To celebrate the announcement, the budget carrier has launched seat sale offering a base fare of 888 pesos one way. There are about 2,500 seats to offer on this sale, going from Manila to Dubai and vice versa.

I have tried to avail the promo and booked myself to visit my sister in Dubai and I have quoted around ten thousand pesos for a round trip flight. This was including the base fare (888 pesos one way), the web admin fee, tax, the fuel surcharge and the baggage allowance fee. Not bad if you would compare it to other carriers which offered about thirty thousand pesos one way, the lowest price I could find.

Emirates Airlines, the only airline to offer direct flights to Dubai before Cebu Pacific’s launch, has added an additional flight daily to Dubai this January 2013.

The flight to Dubai will be 9-hour long and will be once a day. Cebu Pacific Airline will use aircrafts called Airbus 330-300. The said aircraft can handle up to 13-hour flight which means the biggest Budget carrier in the Philippines may also offer flights to other parts of the world in the future. Stay tune as CebuPac told that they will announce more international destinations this 2013. 

The Two New Most Highly In Demand Professions in the Philippines

Looks like Nursing is not the most in-demand job in the Philippines anymore. Two fields are now emerging as the most highly in-demand careers in the Philippines according to the NSCB or the National Statistical Coordination Board.

Accounting and Engineering are currently the two fields with high job opportunities for the past couple of months according to reports. NSCB Secretary General Jose Ramon Albert told in the latest report called “Beyond the Numbers,” these two occupations have high job vacancies but are very hard to fill in.

The is because companies in need of Accountants and Engineers usually require applicants to pass one if not a series of exams first before considering the application. In other cases, applicants who have enough skills and experience expect high salary offer.

The top ten highly in demand Professions in the Philippines are the following:

1. Accountant, Auditor
2.  ECE (Electronics and Communications Engineer)
3.  System Designer and Analyst
4.   Electrical Engineer
5.   Mechanical Engineer
6.   Industrial Engineer
7.  MedTech (Medical Technologist)
8.  Pharmacist
9. Teacher for disabled or handicapped students
10.  Chemical Engineer

The country has produced an oversupply of Nurses or Nursing graduates for the past years and vast measures are being done to control this including closing down some schools and enforcing new programs.

Christmas Decor Shopping in Paskuhan Farmers Cubao

Last week, I finally got the time to shop for a lantern and some Christmas lights for this Christmas season.
I am always looking for the cheapest tiangge possible where I can buy affordable but quality Christmas decors or decorations or ornaments or whatever you call them.
For years now, when it came to Christmas decors, the PASKUHAN TIANGGE in Farmers Cubao have been my haven. This Tiangge for Christmas ornaments opens every night only during the Christmas season. I have been to Divisoria a couple of times this season and the price there was relatively higher compared to Paskuhan Tiangge.

Paskuhan Tiangge in Farmers, Cubao, Quezon City

 The place is located just beside Farmers Market and accessible through EDSA. Finding the tiangge is very easy because the area is very bright because of the various Chrismtas lights being sold. The luminous place will surely grab your attention.

I was able to buy two sets of LED drop lights or rain lights for 350 pesos each. Drop lights are very much in as a Christmas decor this season. The price of this set (8 pieces of stick per set) in Divisoria ranges from 500 - 650 pesos. But here in Paskuhan Tiangge in Farmers, the price for this same set ranges from 350 - 450 only! I was able to haggle the price to 350 pesos.

Drop lights/Rain lights 350 pesos per set (8 pieces per set)

I also bought a big lantern made of capiz and light bulbs about 2 - 3 feet in diameter. The original price was 1,800 pesos but I was able to get it for 1,650 considering I also bought the drop lights on the same store. They also accept lantern repair so I would not have to worry reusing the lantern I bought for the next Christmas season.

Huge Lantern for 1,650 pesos

Connecticut Elementary School Massacre: 27 dead including 20 children

A shocking headline made the December 14, 2012 news about a massacre that happened in an Elementary School in Connecticut, USA when 20 year old young man had shot 27 people including 20 children. A separate dead body was found in a nearby house bringing it a total of 28 casualties once police found  this related to the case.

The shooting started at around 9:30 in the morning according to the police. Victims were mostly children around 5 to 10 years of age. Seven of the victims were adults including the principal and the killer himself. It's  yet to be identified whether the suspect was killed by himself or the police. Another dead body found in a nearby house was allegedly the killers mother. Only one person suffered an injury but survived.

The killer, Adam Lanza, was 20 year old young man who was allegedly a former student in Sandy Hool Elementary School. He was first mistakenly identified as his older brother because of the identification card he was carrying with him when he went to the School. According to investigation, Lanza allegedly shot his mother in their house before driving to his former school.

According to former classmates and friends of the suspect, Lanza was a nerdy shcool boy back in High School. He wore rather more formal clothes than normal kids his age and had a few friends. Adam Lanza was a shy but intelligent and polite young boy so investigators had to dig further on how this young man had committed such heinous crime.

Other sources told that as a kid, Adam was forced by his mother to study harder. His parents were divorced, his mother was known to be a gun enthusiast and had a collection of firearms. She even brought her children to gun shooting sometimes. Investigators found that the gunman was very accurate at his shootings.

President Barrack Obama had already expressed his condolences in the massacre, even ordered to lower the US flag to half mast.

3 ways I know to watch Pacquiao Marquez 4 live

Everybody is already excited about the upcoming fight of Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez this coming December 9 (December 8 in Las Vegas, USA). I'm sure most of you can't wait to watch it live as much as possible and are looking for sites online that would provide you with a channel or a live stream video.

I have listed 3 ways I have tried and tested (except for no. 3) that would surely provide live action on your screen.

1. SopCast - This is what I use mostly and needs a bit of effort. SopCast is a downloadable software where users online can publish their videos for other users to watch. Its definitely free and needs no registration.
Just download the software on their website here.
The next step is to look for available SopCast channel that broadcast the fight. This is a bit hard and needs a bit of patience because most of this videos are illegally broadcasted and are being controlled and shut down by online admin.

I have listed some of theSopCast channels I have used previously for the Pacquiao and Bradley fight. Hopefully it will still run for the Pacquiao Marquez 4.

sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/93289
sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/69756
sop://broker1.sopcast.com:3912/6002
sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/51813
sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/24267

sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/29629

sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/24267
sop://broker1.sopcast.com:3912/65154

sop://broker1.sopcast.com:3912/85856

sop://broker1.sopcast.com:3912/85856
sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/7524

2. Subscribe to Cignal Pay per View (PPV) - This is a legitimate way to watch the fight and needs no effort at all. You only to need to pay 550 pesos on top of your regular monthly subscription fee to be able to watch it live and commercial free. Of course one prerequisite is to have existing Cignal account.

Check out their site here for more info. 

3. The third one is what I will be using right now to watch Pacquaio Marquez 4. I have subscribed to PPV of Destiny Cable (Global Destiny CATV which was newly acquired by Sky Cable). This is much more expensive than Cignal TV because you have to pay for one time installation of digital box worth 2000 pesos plus the PPV fee of 1000 pesos. 

Call their hotline for more information 418-0000.