My Orange Pen: Mayon Volcano

Following our 3D2N Stay in Legazpi let me now share with you the foodies that we shared! Because we did not roam that much, we really enjoyed the food.

First was when we had our Buffet Breakfast at the Ariport Hotel.
Airport Hotel was just a 5 minute ride from Neuhouse and plus the fact that Sweets really liked Buffet, we opt to take this one for our first meal in the city.

Since we were not from the Airport Hotel, we paid first before we took our dive to the foodies - Php199.00 per person! Quite a deal!

The breakfast was generally Filipino and you have the option to have rice, pasta, fruits or bread. We opted to take everything! Bwahaha!

Few more dishes as follows:

Then our lunch was care of Bigs Diner:

Then our dessert was from the famous..

We had, Pili Ice Cream and (of course) Sili Ice Cream (Level 1).

Then dinner was at Willkommen.

This was actually an accident -- it was almost 8pm and the malls were already closed. We were thinking to just buy some cup noodles from 7-11 but we were lucky to have passed by this wonder on our way home. It was also raining at that t

Photo from Tiip Advisor

The following day, we were off to our Island Hopping but before we head to Bacacay Port we went to Legazpi Boulevard first to witness the wonder.

A morning toast of taho!

Our brekky before we onboard our boat:

As you may have known from our Island Hopping our first stop was at Vanishing Island. In there we ate of course..

Pork BBQ in the middle of the sea!

Our morning snack was care of Love Boat Tours!

As well as our yummy lunch!

Grilled Pork Liempo, grilled squid, Tuna, Bicol Express and my favorite Laing!

Our afternoon snack was sandwich and juice.. no photo -- it was eaten while on the boat :)

Our dinner was with First Colonial as well! We wanted to make sure that we were able to have a taste of their very own dishes.

Kandingga -- their version of Bopis. Grabe sa sarap!
Baked Tahong -- always masarap
Malunggay Shake -- if you are not a vegetable lover then this is for you
Tinutong Shake -- very rich rice taste and a twist

The following day -- would you believe that we didn't have breakfast? We just had a quick sip of coffee and some bread. We were so excited to go to Cagsawa Ruins.

Our last meal for this trip was our lunch at Gumaca Quezon.
Again, this was an accident again but it was all worth finding!

Blue Marlin with Olive Oil
Pork Chicharon

Overall, our eating experience was always, always worth it.
Especially if you are eating with your best friend!

Xoxo

If you know us (me and sweets) so well, you will know that every May of each year we always celebrate our wedding anniversary out of town .. it may be as near as Mall of Asia or as far as Thailand. This is a special day for both of us so we make it a point to set aside certain days or two to celebrate this special occasion.

This year, we opted to do a loong drive to Legazpi.

We (well only sweets) drove from Taguig to Legazpi for close to 12 hours and our only help was both Waze and Google Map. I do not know how to drive so it was only sweets who did all the driving and it was I who did all the talking, singing and eating.

Our first and only stop was in Gumaca, Quezon - yes that was after 6 hours of driving .. Instead of taking Maharlika Highway straight, we took the exit in Lipa and bypassed several towns in Quezon, namely Tiaong, Candelaria, Sariaya. After the bypass road we went straight to Lucena.

We had our dinner at Chowking.

After eating and bio break for about 30 minutes, we went straight ahead to our destination.

It took us another six hours to reach our final destination.

Tip: If you are determined to drive this destination, the best bet is to do it overnight. It is very draining during the day plus you will have to go through a lot of traffic along the way. Anyways, if you will drive at night you can either have your stop over via an Inn in Gumaca or Lucena. After you passed Gumaca, I did not see any anymore Inns (maybe in Naga) . Or you may opt to follow what we did in just having a quick stop over in Gumaca and bio break for dinner and go back to driving. By the way, instead of passing through Naga, we went into another route (as indicated in the map above) .

Sweets was so determined to finish this loong drive in one go and I am very happy that he did it successfully. According to the receptionist, we arrived at exactly 3:37am (Saturday, May 21, 2016).

It was 4am when we were able to sleep - then we woke up at 7am to prepare for the day.

I want to show you our home for 2 nights.

Neuhouse Inne, it was very near Legazpi Airport and we had our own garage.
The good thing about this place is that it doesn't operate like a hotel that the check in time is strictly at 2pm and the check out is strictly at 11am.

Their Check-Ins and Outs is per 24 hour basis, so when you check in at 3:37am, your check out is also at 3:37am the following day. For additional hours, you can pay Php150 per hour.

Our first stop was ofcourse to energize our day! Buffet breakfast at the Airport Hotel of Legazpi. Our Inn was just 5 minutes away from the Airport Hotel and it was so convenient for us.

The buffet meal was Php199 / person.
From the amount, the food and ambiance was worth it.

After the buffet, we went straight ahead to our first destination.
At Lignon Hill. For everyone's knowledge, this was our Mayon on Day 1.
We were advised that the best time to see Mayon not being shy at 6am.

Aside from the beautiful view of Mayon, in another area of Lignon Hill, you can see the entire Legazpi which was also a nice view.

We also bought a lot of souvenirs while in Lignon Hill and then we did some roaming around to see what else we can enjoy the place and it was so nice because it was windy.

After our stint in Lignon Hill, we went to Embarcadero.

Embarcadero is just a few kilometers away from Lignon Hill and that is where we had our lunch.

This is Mayon's view at Embarcadero ... clouds are still covering her but her perfect shape was already very visible.

I believe Embarcadero was built in 2012 but I was not that happy with what I saw. We were not able to roam around the mall because I saw that not so many shops were open at that time. The rides were closed but the train was running. In any case, it was still a pleasant experience by the port because of the beautiful view of Mayon and the wind. The port does not smell bad either.

This chapel of Padre Pio by the bay has a nice feel and solemn ambiance because of Mayon's view while you are praying and meditating.

Before completely heading home, we went back to Lignon Hill.
Tip: The ticket (Php20 / person) can be utilized within the day.

Remember, we already went there in the morning, we returned in the afternoon. With the hopes that Mayon will show herself, but we still failed.

The following day is our Island Hopping day and our call time was at 7:30 am and Bacacay Port. Since we were informed that the best time to have a great view of Mayon is at 6am, we have decided to go first to Legazpi Boulevard at 5:14 am.

Good enough! Rumors were true - there was Mayon and she is magnificent!
Jaw dropping as it is because of it's great perfect shape!

The word "Legazpi" from the boulevard was an addition to the beauty.

Here is a quick preview of our Island Hopping c / o Love Boat Tours.
I will do a separate blog post on this one!

As mentioned earlier, our meeting place was and Bacacay Port, even if we were travelling to Bacacay Port, Mayon was still very visible. You can clearly see the smoke coming from her mouth.

Bacacay Port was a 40 minute travel time from Neuhouse.
From the Bacacay port, Mayon was still beautifully visible and it's view is always breathtaking.

We were managed by Love Boat Tours c/o Ms Ana Banadero (0916 293 8743). Before we depart, we hade a pre-departure orientation. Where we will go and what we need to do to take care of the islands that we will be going. We took the package with meals (am/pm snack and lunch).

This is the famous Vanishing Island . From the name itself, this island is at the middle of the sea, a sandbar, when it is low tide, the island appears, then high tide, the island vanishes. If you look closely at my back - there Mayon is being covered by a lot of clouds.

Trivia: This was used to be calle Wara-Wara Beach but it didn't have much kick or recall especially with foreign nationals and thus Ms Ana called it "Vanishing Island" -- it was then became very appealing to tourists.

You will see a number of starfish and the Vanishing Island and you can take photo opps with them (for few seconds). Just make sure that you bring them back to the water immediately as they easily gets stressed.