'Grilled Burger for Sale' at Twinvilla Subd.

Burgers are becoming popular now in Batangas City (check this out). 

Now, if you're into cheap finds, you must try "Grilled Burger for Sale" at Argon corner Boron St., Twinvilla Village, Kumintang Ilaya, Batangas City. (Recommended by my friend Sani. Check her instagram here.).

Yes, it has no branding/name yet, but their burger (with pure beef patty!) tastes ohsogood already that it reached one company's ears and ordered 90 pieces!

Check the burger out for only Php 50!

What's inside: Grilled beef patty, cucumbers, cheese, onions, tomato, lettuce, mayo. (Mine's with extra mustard by request)

Photo by Sani. 

PS: You can order in advance by texting 0915-334-8442. They also have tables and chairs so you can 'dine in.' 


Have you tried their burger? Share your thoughts below! :)

Taal Heritage Town: Anniversary Date

Another Aniversario Especial! This is a long due post btw. XD 

Last year, we spent our anniversary at Cafeno (by my request) and we had a lovely date! 
For this year, we spent it in the nearer-in-Manila Vigan: Taal! 

Welcome to Taal - the balisong and barong capital of the Philippines!

BASILICA DE SAN MARTIN DE TOURS (TAAL)
Our first stop was the biggest church in Asia - Basilica de San Martin de Tours - aka Taal church.

J posing with the majestic church

It was grand outside. I applaud the management for not painting it with horrid colors (Basilica in Batangas looks horrid with the paint). Inside, I felt it was just like every other church in Batangas, but wider. THOUGH, you can really feel that it is managed better.

Inside

Back of the prayer room

The picture below is adjacent to the comfort rooms. Sad to say, it's smelly near it. Maybe they should put many sampaguitas around the CR or fix the pipes or whatever that is causing the stench. 

 

Look how huge this structure is!

Colored version

Antique-looking building adjacent the prayer room

The church is famous for weddings, of course. Perfect metaphor with that structure to say vows to.

Posing time again!

Photo of me and the church. Grand, it is.

Left side angle of the church. 

The magnificent church

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We also walked around near the area. 

Saw a not-so-maintained Jose Rizal statue. Please, if anyone with power in Taal is reading this, please please repaint this statue. Jose Rizal, being our national hero, should have a more dignified statue. It partially reflects on how we view our culture. 

Buntong-hininga. Going back... The town is filled with ancestral houses. 

Interesting old houses nearby

The common two-storey house type during the Spanish colonial period.

Mt. Batulao: Photoblog + Tips

You know where to best eat a halo-halo and packed lunch? At the mountains!

My high school friends and I chose Mt. Batulao for our day hike because as these sites (Action Asia, Pinoy Mountaineer, mountains and beyond) say, it's relatively easy to climb.

So on we went!

From Batangas City, we rented a van for Php 150+ each to get to the foot of the mountain.

On the way to the top! Surrounding houses have comfort rooms for rent

First landscape picture. It was gloomy.

It drizzled for about 15 minutes, so it was chilly. Good thing we had our jackets. But after that, jackets off! Sun's up!

Sun's up! 

We didn't hire a guide mainly because we were cheapskates. XD Also, because there were many co-hikers that time, we thought that we could just follow them. We did reach our destination even without a guide. (But for safety and security reasons, I think one should hire one. The fee is 400 pesos as of February 2014.

Up, up, up~!

First stop over!

It was an easy hike before the first peak. Plus, with the first look of that awesome, breathtakingly beautiful scenery, we have to not feel our tiredness first and look at it.

Hike hike hike!

First group pic! Taken by me, unfortunately.

Yeah! Group pic with me in it!

The good thing about Batulao hike is that it has at least 3 stopovers with FOOD! This is the first one: 

Stop over: Lugawan. 

Their lugaw is just for Php 10! Lumpia for Php 5. Coco juice straight from the coconuts (forgot how much, sorry). And they taste good, especially the lumpia. (Hadn't taken pictures of them because I was starving when we got there.)

These two cute little things fought over our coconut 'crumbs'.

View from the Lugawan.

After eating, hike hike hike we went again.

Master Jupiter! Our resident one true hiker.

The picture below was where we paid for the environmental fee (Php 20). This is also where the camping sites are.

After this part, hiking went harder for me.

Obligatory pic with the mountains.

Mountain's passage of life if you know what I mean XD

The hard part I was talking about. All fours we went.

Thorny plants on the beloved rocks. Watch out.

Just before lunch, we were caught in a hard rain. Good thing there's a stopover nearby.

This was the view where we were caught up in the rain. I won't forget this place.

We bought halo-halo (Php 35) and Mountain Dew (Php 25) at the stopover. We also had our wet lunch there. 

Then, on we went again. There are no picture after that because I went all scared and couldn't bring to hold my camera. The slope was steep and I could't stand straight. Had to crawl all the way up.

After so much crawling, behold the view of our last peak:

View from the peak after the mini rappel

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We got there at about 2pm so it was really hot. We had to wear our jackets again.

With J! First time to couple hike!

We descended at about 3pm. It took us 2 hours because most of us descended sitting. Including me, of course. :)
Didn't regret hiking though, because it's one of the most beautiful mountains I've seen.