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Carron Dream Park is the biggest Amusement Theme Park of the North located in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija which is fortunately just an hour drive in Cabanatuan City. Yes, we also have it here in Nueva Ecija, you don’t have to travel to Pampanga or Tagaytay or Cavite if you want to take the kids to the Theme park. It’s like a smaller version of Enchanted Kingdom or Sky Ranch but it also offers a wide range of fun rides for children and adults as well.

The entrance fee is Php100 and Php350 if you want to avail the Ride all you can and opens daily at 4-9 PM (that was before when we go, I think they extended it from 3-10 pm afterward.)

We’ve been there on 13th December 2021, and it was fully packed. I never thought my toddler would truly enjoy the big real rides- we only used to take him to kids arcade here in BH and he would only ride the kiddie car/ horse/train or carousel. But in Carron, he even tried the Gondola Ferris Wheel and didn’t even feel a thing.

It’s actually rotating slow but having to be lifted up in the sky is a little bit scary for the toddlers but no, he is not!

He tried almost all of the rides (that are allowed for toddlers) in there and really enjoyed it- and he doesn’t want to go home, either! He may only look bored in the pictures (no reaction as always haha) but whenever we will take him out of the ride he will surely cry/shout in disapproval.

More so, there are so many food stalls to choose from in case you get hungry inside. From street food, to snacks, to sandwiches, all lined up in a row, and food tables to sit or wait for convenience.

Needless to say, he really cried for about an hour and it took quite some time to calm him down when we went back home in the evening.

What are you waiting for? Take your kids to Carron and they will surely have fun!

Is there any other better than spending your Christmas Holidays home with your core family?

Since, we stayed a little bit longer in the Philippines, from August- to December 2021, we had the chance to spend the holidays, once again with my family!

This is just one of the small advantages I got from extending my annual vacation turned- sick leaves 🙂

I know Christmases in our second home, Bahrain with our extended families would be as enjoyable as we are in the Philippines, but it’s still glad to be able to refresh yourself and have it celebrated here in my own native country where I was born and raised up.

These are just some of the photos taken on 24.12.2021. My son surely enjoyed the second time he spent Christmas in the Philippines- once in December of 2019 and 2021.

Longing for Nature?

Trying to find a place like a home away from home? Do you wanna relax and enjoy God’s beautiful creation and yet you don’t wanna endure the long traffic and leave far from Nueva Ecija, or to book so much ahead of time not to mention that you have a budget to look after and getting a hotel room/villa/resort in the other known vacation cities like Tagaytay/Baguio/La Union/Cebu/Palawan/and all- would be very costly?

If you do, then you have to start browsing and search for nice places to visit in Nueva Ecija! And yes, whatever you prefer, we all have it here in our Hometown, Nueva Ecija!

I know that there are a lot of beautiful places to go for a staycation/nature trip in Nueva Ecija but I had only visited a few as we always choose a place that is long drive from our city way back then.

This is the only vacation we had that we tried and explore our very own “Byaheng Nueva Ecija” for a change. We do not have to go that far to enjoy the same nature tripping I’ve always wanted to see since we live in the desert and enjoying the serenity of being close to nature is really heartwarming. This pandemic vacation made me travel near and enjoy the beauty that my hometown can offer, and yes, I do not regret it and I plan to visit more places nearby in the future.

We have tried checking a lot of resorts nearby as we planned an out of town get away from the City and as we found a lot of options, we decided to book in a place called Rea Bamboo Resort located in Gabaldon Nueva Ecija not only for the beauty of the place as seen on photos, but also, it has one thing different from the others- they offer pick and drop service for their guests which is very very much convenient for all of us.

Rea Bamboo Resort is set in a big garden overlooking the beautiful mountain of Sierra madre. Just nature. No other recreation but just to enjoy the nice crisp weather, go and sit outside and look at the stars (too bad it is a cloudy night that time as the rain just stopped in the afternoon) eat whatever you prefer and they will cook it for you and enjoy the night sleeping in these typical Filipino traditional houses called “Bahay Kubo” with no AC and only fresh air!

On 18th December 2021, My family and I rented three kubos at the same time, we are total of 9 person and a baby plus our nanny and one house helper and then two other friends of the kids joined in. They picked us up at around 11am as agreed, and from there we drove at about an hour and half from Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija to Gabaldon.

We had the biggest kubo with private toilet and hot/cold shower, and the other two smaller kubos with common bathroom. It is not far anyways as the toilet is just in between of the two other kubos we rented.

I brought my child to stay here so he could enjoy nature before we travel back to the desert and from all of our travel adventures, I would say that this is one of the most memorable events as it made me feel closer to nature.

The place is well maintained and clean, they provided us a nice and clean complete beddings and towels. We asked for a nice lunch, and they offered us Sinigang pork (Pork in tamarind soup) and vegetable.

We rested for a while inside the kubo and prepared to go for a swim in a nearby resort but unfortunately, it rained. We went back to the kubo and used the steel pool instead and rest again (which I love the most) and prepared ourselves for a super heavy dinner of grilled liempo and fish as we requested.

We stayed outside after dinner for a while, had pictures in the garden set before we bound to bed- I super enjoy the “sleeping in the kubo” feel with just a fan and nature. I worried for a while my son wouldn’t sleep well without AC but to my surprise, he slept comfortably and soundly and so am I!

I woke up the next day with the sound of rain falling on the roof. It’s raining hard and that itself made me feel lazier I wanted to sleep more. I don’t want to get up and if I could extend for another night, probably I would.

We had a nice breakfast in one of the cottage-like kubo outside with fried dried fish, egg, sardines, and fried rice.

Then later we had pancit and pakbet for lunch before we pack our stuff to go home.

One night is not enough if you really want to rest but as the holidays are coming, we still have a lot more other preparations to do so an extension wouldn’t be beneficial, and some other guests for the same kubo we rented will also check-in.

I don’t have any other things to say for the resort as it fulfilled our expectations as what they informed us prior, the owners are very polite and approachable as well as the staff. Homely and comfy. But then, if they will have a real pool someday, it would be more relaxing!

So if you prefer a place to get away with just you, silence and the nature, in Nueva Ecija, I would highly recommend you to stay in Rhea Bamboo House.

Worth every peso.

Clark is a modern City in Pampanga. It is also known as Clark Freeport Zone.

Have been several times to Pampanga, different cities like San Fernando etc, and I could say that Clark is one of a kind, it’s a modern city and at the same time rich with natural resources- resorts, waterfalls, and others – but we had no chance to visit them as we were only there for a day.

Just a day visit to Clark will take you to a lot of places- a variety of fine restaurants to choose from, we tried the Pampanga’s best native local restaurant for a change, shopping hubs and recreations, supermarkets- Oh I love the Puregold Duty Free so much, I bought some imported items-kitchen stuff at a very reasonable price not to mention rows of hotels/staycations if you want to spend the night, you would actually see rows of them while driving around the vicinity.

We went to Clark recently (December 2021) not for travel and leisure but for some work-related purpose so we had not much time to roam around as we spent almost half the day for my errands.

We finished at almost lunchtime, while trying to find a place to eat, we passed by and stopped at several places I found good for photography and had some 🙂

We tried “Authentic Kapampangan Cuisine” restaurant named Matam-ih for a change- and had the usual, Chicharon Bulaklak and grilled chicken ass for starter, Crispy pata, Kare kare, inihaw na hito (grilled) for the main course. I like the way they served the steamed rice wrapped in banana leaf.

The food is good, a little bit expensive for those eating on a budget but quite reasonable for people who are food spenders – we paid around Php2k + less the two senior card discount for that sumptuous meal.

We didn’t stay for the night as I’m in a rush to go home to see my little one, – that’s it- a day in Clark.

Where to go when you are in Nueva Ecija?

One of the popular place to see these days in Gapan Nueva Ecija is Little Vigan. It is just less than an hour drive from our place in Cabanatuan City. It s best to visit the place in the evening so you can actually see the beauty of the place when all the lights are on.

The place is actually called Lumang Gapan- Nueva Ecija but they named it “ Little Vigan” as it almost the exact image of the Calle Crisologo in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.

Yeah, it actually reminds me of the Calle Crisologo with these old ancestral houses, cobblestone streets, ornate street lamps that are really fascinating at night, benches everywhere.

So if you are from Nueva Ecija and still not comfortable going out that far during this pandemic (2021) but still want to drive around and see other places to change your environment, this is the best and nearest place to go.

We haven’t rounded that much as I’m still not capable of long walks in this cobblestone street (due to my recent surgery) and the place is quite crowded at this time (Christmas season- 2021) but the residents nearby told us that there are also night market near the church if we will just walk a little bit more forward.

There are also restaurants/ cafeterias surrounding the vicinity in case you get hungry.

So, we just had a very quick dinner at the very first restaurant we passed by outside. It’s a small cute sizzling house just before the entrance and the ambiance is good, the place is tidy and it’s very cute to see that you get to sit on a wooden table and benches and the flooring is pure stones but unfortunately, the service is very bad, and the food is quite as bad as the service- which is totally in contrast with the very lovely atmosphere. But since we had no choice, and it was getting late, we waited for more than an hour for the food, and they served very cold rice, the binagoongan meal with just a bowl full of bagoong (a Filipino food- paste made of salted or fermented fish used as a condiment) on it and about 5 pieces of meat. The extra order takes another year to come, not to mention that if we didn’t follow up on the order, it will take probably another 5 years to come as the waitress forgot our order (they do not even carry a paper and pen for taking the orders and they only rely on their memory skills to remember all the orders).

I wont recommend this little restaurant as it is better for you to find somewhere more decent than their food but I do recommend the place itself for a little refreshing outdoor fun.

3 and a half-hour drive from my hometown in Cabanatuan City NE (private vehicle), we stopped by just to take a snap entering the town of Bayombong.

Welcome to Bayombong- Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines- Capital Town and Educational Center of Nueva Vizcaya.

2 weeks later after we arrived in the Philippines, we went to the province of Nueva Vizcaya to spend some time with my in-laws. A few days prior to my freak accident in NV, we had the chance to roam around and visit some nice and magnificent views of the province.

We had long scheduled to see the spectacular picture-perfect sea of clouds on top of the mountain located in Ambaguio, Dupax Nueva Vizcaya since the day we finalized our Phil trip.

From what I’ve heard, the sea of clouds is a rare sight that only appears after heavy rain-pour and appears only for a few hours early morning before sunrise or in the afternoon and there were also days that the tourists/visitors won’t even catch the glimpse of the clouds.

Ambaguio is about 1hour drive from my in-law’s place in Masoc. We started from home at around 4am just in time to reach there before sunrise.

We parked somewhere on the outskirts and started walking our way up to the mountain to get the perfect spot to see the clouds. The almost one-hour walk going up to the mountain is a bit tiring, set aside that we were not wearing proper hiking shoes. Tbh, I’m about to give up halfway the walk as going up the stony, wet, and hazy path is really energy consuming but glad I continued and made it to the top, I had the chance to see this magnificent God creation.

These are the photos I’ve taken during the visit. Glad that at least we caught the clouds right on time although it’s not full clouds but at least, just to stand there on top, breathe and feel the air, see this beautiful nature is worth the travel.

A little bit personal about my travel experience, 2021.

Never thought that the supposed to be “bakasyon grande” (grand vacation) would turn into a horrible tragic experience. I have read a lot similar experience from some other bloggers and articles but never thought we would experience the same.

And yeah, I’m still going through a rough and depressing time of my life and somehow it affects my rational reasoning, my emotional feelings, and mostly, my patience. It’s still at the beginning. I will still go through the lengthy process of healing, and that for sure is a test of faith.

I always do things on my own, and being dependent on anyone physically is super depressing. Everyone knows how OCD I am, and I love to organize things/ do a lot of house cleaning on a daily basis according to my way and that includes a lot of physical activity not to mention I have a toddler to take care of but since I got into this freak accident, I’m now immobile for the next few weeks after the surgery, and it’s really hard and frustrating.

So, just 19 days of our vacation, I accidentally tripped on the slope and broke my ankle while carrying my toddler in the mountain(my husband’s hometown).

We went to the mountain (Nueva Vizcaya) two weeks after we landed to the Philippines to go nature tripping. It’s evident how much I love traveling and sightseeing and mostly nature tripping, photography, and documenting the same. All are well planned. Everyone is excited. I have been looking forward to this Philippine vacation although it’s a little bit tight in the schedule as we have some other important tasks to do and the last thing you would wish when traveling overseas is an accident.

It was an exciting days ahead. We have been sightseeing in the province for the past 2 days, and even went on a terrain going to the top of the mountain to see the magnificent sea of clouds early morning, and it was super lovely! (details about this will be posted on my next update). We also went to see some of the nice places like the garden and the hanging bridge.

And that was it. Early morning the next day, we woke up early and planning to go to the sunflower garden until this freak accident happened. We were taking photos in my in laws front yard in Masoc, (which is actually built in the mountain, with a lot of fruit bearing trees and flowering plants), and tripped myself on the slight slope I didn’t notice. Yeah, it was just in the frontyard! The slope is not deep but the grass are wet at that time as it is always wet and foggy in the mountain particularly early morning and the impact on me was so severe, I broke my ankle. The next thing I knew is that I was rushed into the emergency by an ambulance.

I didn’t know how bad it was and I never expect it to be that bad since it’s not that deep but unfortunately it is, that the doctor advised me to have an ORIF surgery.

That’s the start of my now 2 weeks agony. The fall was so bad and very painful. We went back to my City and scheduled for a surgery.

I had it done on 6th September, which is just 3 days now, but the pain feels like forever now. Child birth is even more easier, I think. It’s very hard moving around the house, mostly going up and down our small staircase in the yard to our unit aside that my balance is very off I couldn’t even stand alone with the crutches. I feel like I have been disabled for a very long time. My patience to do at least small things/simple tasks are even more frustrating as I’m not used to depend on anybody. I’m just putting a toll on myself and everyone around me so I just decided to keep everything as it is, no physical work despite my heart is aching until I can do everything by myself again.

I’m glad that I have family around me who is now taking care of my child, bathing and feeding him, looking after him, washing him , and all the other things I’m supposed to do as a mother. We do not have a personal nanny, but we do have a helper whom I can ask to help around when needed.

One thing I learned about this accident is that we have to value our body and of course our health. We used to take it for granted but once you were into an accident, you would actually appreciate life more.

Needless to say, there were times that this accident gives me sadness, frustrations, and depressions. I know this would heal in time but it’s a lengthy process. I have to be on cast for one full month and then as the doctor said, I can put on a bootleg in a month’s time. Recovery is 4 t 6 weeks where I could slowly walk without so much weight but regaining the strength would be about 3 months. Just the thought of the wasted time, more money to spend for my recovery, and my inability to go back to work immediately (in case, I need more time which depends on my healing) plus the thoughts that our bills would pile up on top of the other is additional stress for me. Of course, not to mention that the money we spent for my surgery is not that small, it would rock our budget for the next few months or worse, even a year.

But to keep my sanity, I’m just looking forward to my speedy recovery, looking forward to the time where I would be able to carry my toddler again, to walk him in the park, to do my daily household chores again, and that is making me a little bit positive.

I’m also glad that nothing happened to our child, safe as he is, and for that, I’m truly grateful and thankful to God for not harming my child. Maybe, this happened for a reason, an eye-opener, or maybe this happened to spare me and my family to a worse one.

For now, I have to be positive even during the painful nights, those times I’m losing my patience when I couldn’t be able to go to the toilet myself without the help of others, those nights when I don’t know where to put my body so I could sleep a little bit comfortably… But still I have to, I must.

This is the exact example of the vacation gone bad, just put a humor on it. The grand vacation- (as I called it) turned out to be a super staycation!

Lesson learned: we all have to be extra careful. Accidents happen at any time, anywhere, even right in front of your house, so we all have to be very cautious, always.

Safety first, always. At home or traveling.

So, my family and I traveled back to the Philippines after exactly a year and a half. If you are following my blog, you would have read how I documented our travel since from the airport, travel guidelines these days, and some helpful tips when traveling.

As I mentioned previously, we all have to go under a 10-day mandatory quarantine in the hotel designated to us. Fortunately, we have been assigned to a 5-star hotel in Grand Hyatt- Manila.

Grand Hyatt-Manila is a high-end (high-rise building for about 50+ floors I guess) cozy and elegant hotel set in a business district of Metro Manila. And believe me, as soon as we enter the hotel premises, I immediately fell in love with its structure.

And just as we checked inside the room, we were welcomed by this warm note from the monitor.

Our room is located on the 38th floor, (3808 to be exact). It has a floor to ceiling windows allowing us to see the City view right from where we are. We are also provided with free Wi-Fi and smart TV, so definitely we will never get bored while on quarantine.

Our hotel room– We were given a hotel room with a big bed facing the wall-to-wall glass window, beautiful wood panelled walls, with a separate vanity room with tub, a separate bathroom and toilet, a separate small closet with a sliding door, a small living room/ sitting room with a mini bar and a relaxing couch and dining area.

Who wouldn’t be relaxed to wake up on a comfy king bed in this elegant room every morning and look outside at the magnificent Metro Manila skyline?

We were also provided customary needs enough for the 10 day period such as big bottles of water, sachets of coffee and tea, toilet rolls & tissue boxes, laundry soap and dishwashing liquid, and the usual hotel toiletries and vanity kits.

We have our food delivered daily on our doorstep (knock and go) three times a day, breakfast at 7am, lunch at 12pm, and dinner at 7 pm. You can also order whatever you need from the hotel at extra cost but it is not allowed to order anything outside.

I was initially worried about our son getting bored for the long stay without going out, but to my surprise, he didn’t and so am I. We both actually adjusted immediately and even started to build our daily routine as always.

My son super loves the warm bath in the tub, probably because the water in BH is super hot especially in the summer that is very much different from the relaxing water in the Phil. I’m giving him a dip in the tub for about an hour in the morning and half an hour before bedtime and still, going out of the tub is a struggle for me, haha.

But overall, it was like a paid staycation for both of us, just eat, sleep and play and a lot of bonding without having to wake up early morning the next day to go to work as I’m working full time in BH and the only chance I have with my son full time is during weekends and holidays.

Oh well, I know it’s a bit exaggerating to say that I super enjoyed our staycation, but yes I did!

More so, this stay wouldn’t be that comfortable if we didn’t stay in a cozy hotel (thank you) like the Grand Hyatt- Manila, not to mention that the food are great, the staff is all well trained, approachable and with good customer service skills.

Needless to say, this is highly recommended and I definitely, would love to go back if I can.

Grand Hyatt- Manila 8th Avenue corner 35th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, Manila, Philippines, 1634
Tel: +63 2 8838 1234 | Fax: +63 2 8838 1235 | manila.grand@hyatt.com

Planning a long journey with a toddler? Oh, you better be prepared ahead of time as traveling with (a small human being) baggage will not only take a lot of your time but also a lot of space 😂

To be honest, I’m not a light traveler. Whenever I decide to fly, I already had a long list to bring with me listed on my mind before that. And that’s not including the things I have to purchase for my family. That was before the arrival of my son, I used to travel bringing everything I need up to the smallest detail, and in order.

How much more when you are traveling with a toddler?

This is not the first time I long travel with my baby, I brought him to BH when he was just 3 months old in early 2020, just the beginning of the pandemic. And believe me, packing was difficult!

I’m very very paranoid when traveling especially with a baby. I always have so many what ifs going on in my mind like what If I ran out of this and that in the plane and I don’t have anywhere else to get it? What if something happened and I ran out of milk or diaper or water? So to relieve me from paranoia and stressful thinking, I always pack more than what I know he can consume on a normal day. Not only when traveling on a plane but also when we are just going out by car.

And these thoughts are just for the things I have to hand carry on the plane, I still have a lot to think like what to put in our luggage 😂. Have to fast forward my mind for the things he needs for the entire trip.

If you are a person like me, then maybe you can get some tips that could be helpful when traveling with a toddler.

1. Plan ahead- Weeks before traveling, I already purchased extra cans of milk, extra packs of diapers, medicines, and other baby essentials such as wet wipes, etc.

2. Packing- Better to pack the baby bag early in case you might forget something. Good to realize it early than travel and found out you are missing something important. However, you can pack baby clothes later or even a day before traveling.

3. Have a separate check-in luggage/bag only for your toddler things. In that way, arranging is easy and accurate just like arranging his drawer, you will always know what’s missing. Also, there is a minimal tendency to forget something as you would easily see what needs to be there.

4. What’s inside the hand-carry bag?

A. Milk- I always have his milk prepared in a milk container for easy dispensing. He couldn’t finish more than 3 bottles overnight but just to make sure I will not ran out of milk on the plane, in a 9 and a half straight flight, we brought 2 milk containers full that can fill up to 8 bottles.

B. Diapers- I brought 5 more extra diapers in the baby bag aside from the diapers in my hand-carry trolley.

C. Extra changing clothes- oh well every parent knows this when traveling. Don’t forget to bring a jacket and long pants as it might be cold at the airport.

D. Wet wipes, sanitizers, baby face mask, bib, biscuits.

Note: These are what’s inside the baby bag, I still have a hand-carry full of his extra belongings, even a full can of milk just in case.

5. Baby Luggage- this is the harder part as I have to think in advance about all the things he usually needs on a regular day.

A. Food- Cans of milk, baby biscuits, cereals, ready-to-eat cereals.

B. Vitamins, medicines like paracetamol and flu meds. I brought this specifically because these are the only meds that can make him feel better, 100%. I also pack the thermometer, the baby nail cutter, the saline, and the bulb in case he gets the flu. (I just hope this change of environment and weather will not make him sick, praying)

C. So many extra diapers, (I’ve always trusted pampers premium and pampers premium night. A little handful expensive than the other brand but this won’t even wake him up overnight as it can carry all his wee wee’s without irritating his bottom for the full night, I do not have to change every after few hours) powder, diaper rash cream, cologne.

D. Of course, I have to bring my Bebe toiletries with us. I bought these travel sizes to be compact but in reality, I always get the bigger ones, cheaper than the small ones and for long usage.

E. And things can’t live without. The ever-useful bottle rack ( yes, I have to tag it all along with us, the easiest way to dry the bottles not to have any water residue on it), the bottle cleaner & brush (not in the photo), and his food bowl.

What else?

F. Clothes, shoes, and slippers. I brought a lot of extra baby clothes and clothes that would get along in every kind of weather.

G. Baby book/vaccination card- in case you need to see a pediatrician while on vacation, you have the vaccination record with you.

These are “what is inside our bag” lists.

Make sure to make your own list before traveling so you will not rush out afterward. I know it’s kinda heavy but better to be prepared than to run out of things.

Oh, and don’t forget the stroller! It will be easy for you to walk around inside the airport with a baby in the stroller so you wouldn’t exhaust yourself too much running after the baby or carry him up throughout the waiting period.

You can’t light travel when you have a baby with you. So, as much as possible it is not advisable to travel overseas particularly these days of covid not unless there is really an important thing to do that can’t wait and you can’t leave the baby that long to anyone. If there is not other choice, better to plan accordingly.

Hope this all helps, mommies! ❤️💙