Roy and I: Our 10th

10^th if our relationship is here, what would you expect, love that is never-ending, endless, forever, time to celebrate and to express our meaningful time together, heheeh kinda sweet , yes, but it is, Roy gave me a wonderful trip at the North.

To start with our trip:

1^st stop.: Capaz,Tarlac Bus Station- need to have our break for a long drive to the North, there are 4 stopovers that we need to take, Were a bit hungry that time so we decided to eat.

Balot- boiled duck or goose egg

Arrozcaldo- Rice porridge with chicken and egg.

2nd stop: Sison Pangasinan Bus Stop- it's been 5 hours of drive and we have to have a break for the 2nd time. it's kinda tiring for us to do it, but what do we have to expect, long journey with a goal on it's end. we ate hotdogs and candied Kundol.

Kundol- White gourd

3rd stop: San Fernando La Union- Yosi Break, 10 minutes of break, Roy hip 2 sticks of his favorite delicacy. hahahaahahah

4th stop: Abra- is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bangued, and it borders Ilocos Norte and Apayao on the north a, Ilocos Sur anf Mountain Province on the south, Ilocos Norte on the West, and Kalinga and Apayao on the east.

We visit Mamy Elymar Bernardez in Bangued, she knows better than we are regarding locations that Roy plan to soar.

We arrived around 11:30pm, kinda tiring because it's a 10 hour drive from Manila, but still we enjoy mamy's warm hospitality, she served us pork barbecue and grilled chicken, bought it around 10 o'clock from FoodCourt™ she said.

Tunnel Gateway to Abra Province

Pork Barbecue

5th stop- Junction in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur: There is no Bus directly coming from Abra to Laoag City, so what we can do is to ride Partas Bus route to Baguio and wait for another Partas bus that will pass Narvacan junction going to Laoag City. It took us 1 hour and a half waiting for that bus, whew! we had Ice cream while waiting heheeh. Roy took the picture.

Me and mamy Elymar

Mamy and Roy

Roy's Ice Cream

Want some?

6th stop- Batac, Ilocos Norte: is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. The town is located in the northwest corner of the island of Luzon, about 11.2 km from the eastern shores of the South China Sea. The municipalities of Banna, Currimao, Paoay, Pinili and San Nicolas form its boundaries.

According to the latest census, it has a population of 50,675 in 9,882 households.

Batac is known as the "Home of Great Leaders", as it is the hometown of many significant figures in the history of the Philippines. Among them is the former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos. It is also the birthplace of Gregorio Aglipay, the founder of the Philippine Independent Church, better known as the Aglipayan Church, and Gen. Artemio Ricarte, the "Father of the Philippine Army".

Batac is well-known for being the home of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU), a high-degree granting university that has several branches throughout the province.

Hometown of the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Family.

Mamy wants us to see the place, alright, no problem, another experience for us, hehehe.

House of Marcos Family

3 govt. personalities

7th stop- Laoag City, Ilocos Norte: We ride a jeepney going to Laoag City for 25 pesos each, around 15 minutes drive from Batac, we met Darwin (tour package of Php 5,500- mobile #: 09176023540, max of 10 pax using Hyundai Starex van- updated price as of Feb 2012), the driver of the passenger jeep who take us to La Elliana Hotel and committed to be our guide for our trip for the next day.

Family Room- good for 3-4 person for 900 pesos overnight stay

Dinner at La Preciosa

however, bad luck always comes to those who did not expect it, what I mean is bad experience is always there to disappoint you, we ordered "Tanguigue Sinigang", Roy loves sinigang so much so we decided to take a pick on it, when i tasted it, felt something itchy on my touch and gums, OH my!!! the fish used was already rotten, maybe kept in a fridge for a long time, the fish meat is already black in color and we thought that it's just an indication that the fish is cooked, but were wrong, whew!!! so itchy and even Roy felt bad on his stomach, we had a complain on the waiter that served it, and he courteously removed it. hahaha what an experience,