My 25th Birthday Celebration || Just Let Go and Go with the Flow
September 17, 2016
It has been more than 2 months since I celebrated my 25th birthday, i'm now a quarter century old! I'm happy and blessed to have reached this age and looking forward to many more birthdays to come. So far, this has been my super relaxed and "self-pampering" unplanned birthday celebration.
I had few plans on how will I spend my 25th birthday. First I thought of spending it by doing charity works. With my 2 friends/workmates, we planned to have a lunch/party for the street children but due to lack of time preparing and looking for sponsors, it didn't go through. So my second plan was to spend my birthday by travelling to a place where I've never been before. I planned to go to Bicol but then again due to time management issues it didn't go through. My third plan was to just spend my birthday here in the city but should be somewhere comfy and something first-time so I bought a Dinner by the bay with Yacht Cruise at metrodeal. When I emailed them for reservation, I was told that the yacht is on dry-dock and that it will resume its service by August or September. (Read more about my frustrating experience with Legworks) Okay! Finally I gave up. Plans were not working plus work was really not doing good, lots of challenges to a point that I stopped thinking and planning about my birthday.
Three days before my birthday, the start of my 2 days off and 2 days leave at work ( so I had 4 days free time without any plans at all ), I was sad and upset because nothing was working, it was my birth month yet everything wasn't working the way I wanted them to be. Ivan noticed my not-in-the-mood look so he asked me to go to Baguio. I was kind of hesitant at first because I've been to Baguio quite few times already and it's not really a place where I want to celebrate my birthday but then since I have 4 days with nothing to do, I decided to go. So right there and then after we had our lunch we went home grab some clothes and went straight to the Bus terminal bound to Baguio. As always we took the Joy Bus (Genesis Bus) which is one of my fave Bus ride whenever I'm going to Baguio. Click here to know more on how to book a ride to Baguio online.
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| Our very comfy ride to and from Baguio |
We arrived in Baguio at around 10:00 PM. Since it was unplanned we had to look for a place to stay. Whenever we go to Baguio we always stay in a transient house coz it's way cheaper than the hotel but since it was my birth month and I want to have a self-pampering-me-day we decided to stay in the hotel. We stayed at Golden Pine Hotel, all other hotels that we checked first were fully booked and it was getting late plus it was super chilling outside so we decided to book the available room which is Double Delux Room. Looking for a place to stay in Baguio? Click here
We stayed for 2 days and 2 nights and the price was good enough. We paid Php3000 for the room with two double-size beds and a complimentary breakfast. The hotel itself looked old but everything in it was still functioning properly. We were in fact amazed of their elevator, pretty fast for an old one :). Font desk staffs were friendly and accommodating, they even offered us a discount! The room was big enough for us and the air conditioning worked very well, though the only thing that we didn't like is that we didn't have the AC's remote control, so we had to call the front desk every time we want to have the temperature adjusted. There was a 42-inch flat screen TV with basic cable channels but unlike other hotels, the reception is much clearer. The bathroom was big enough with hot and cold shower and a bath tub, though when I tried to use it the water won't drain so we had to call the maintenance to have it drained, it happened twice. One thing that I loved about the hotel was the complimentary breakfast. Since it's free, hotels would usually offer scrambled eggs and hotdogs but not in Golden Pine Hotel, they let us chose what breakfast we want from their menu which was amazing.
We really didn't have any plans on our first day so we just relaxed and stayed in our room the whole morning. We had our breakfast delivered in our room, we paid Php100 /person service fee. The service was incredibly fast! Our breakfast were delivered in less than 20 minutes after giving our orders. On our first morning we ordered Beef Tapa and Daing na Bangus with scrambled egg. It also comes with our choice of hot chocolate or hot coffee, so I chose the hot chocolate and Ivan chose the hot coffee and it also comes with two glasses of orange juice and two bottles of water! Amazing, right? Worth it for a complimentary breakfast. On our second day, we both ordered Vigan Longganisa with scrambled egg.
We got quite bored at the hotel on our first day, just lying on the bed watching TV, so we decided to go out and visit Choco-Latte de Batirol. It was around 1:30 PM when we got to the place via cab (whenever I'm in Baguio, cab is always my fave mode of transpo, haha). The place was super relaxing. Read more about my Choco-Latte de Batirol experience here.
After enjoying a serene and super relaxed moment at Choco-Latte de Batirol, we decided to visit the PMA grounds since I haven't been there before. I enjoyed taking pictures with the helicopters and warplanes which I was so amazed coz it was my first time seeing those in person. We roamed around the area and even took a picture with the Cadette. We spent some time by observing the cadettes as they march and go to their rooms and also by just appreciating the beauty of nature. We decided to go back to the hotel at around 4:00 PM and had some rest. We planned to have our dinner at Good Taste but since I was so tamad and nilalamig na, we ended up eating at Mang Inasal just right across the hotel :D .
On our second day, we just stayed at the hotel the whole morning up until we checked out. There was no hassle in checking out, we paid the Php400 service fee (for our breakfast in "bed") waited for a minute as they checked the room (in-case we stole or broke somthing, lol) and that's it.
We had our lunch at Cafe by the Ruins. We wanted to dine in here the last time we went to Baguio (that was last December when we celebrated the New Year) but it was closed that time due to holiday. We were very disappointed as far as customer service is concern, very disappointed. I will have a different post regarding our experience at Cafe by the Ruins and i'll tell you why we were so disappointed. After our lunch we really didn't want to go home that early, so we decided to just chillax at SM, haha as if walang SM dito sa Manila. We secured our ticket first going back to Manila before roaming around. As usual, we chose Joy Bus as our ride back home. We also killed some time by walking along Session Road, spotting on something to buy and just going with the flow of different people on the street. It was around 4:00 PM when we aboard at our super comfy bus and waited until 5:00 PM to depart from Baguio going back to Manila.
Indeed, it was one of my super relaxed birthday celebration. Though a lot of not-so-good things happened still I am very thankful to have reached this age and very blessed in so many ways. I was so busy planning for everything that I got upset because everything's not falling as it should be. One thing I realized is that, sometimes it's ok to just let go and go with the flow.
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| Two single-sized beds in our room |
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| Our flat screen TV with very clear reception :) |
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| You know what these are! |
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| Spacious bathroom sink with hair-dryer |
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| Kinda old hot/cold shower but still perfectly working |
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| The bath tub that doesn't drain with horsie :) |
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| First day breakfast :) Bon appetit |
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| Second day breakfast with my surprised birthday cake! :) |
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| Choco-latte de Batirol |
After enjoying a serene and super relaxed moment at Choco-Latte de Batirol, we decided to visit the PMA grounds since I haven't been there before. I enjoyed taking pictures with the helicopters and warplanes which I was so amazed coz it was my first time seeing those in person. We roamed around the area and even took a picture with the Cadette. We spent some time by observing the cadettes as they march and go to their rooms and also by just appreciating the beauty of nature. We decided to go back to the hotel at around 4:00 PM and had some rest. We planned to have our dinner at Good Taste but since I was so tamad and nilalamig na, we ended up eating at Mang Inasal just right across the hotel :D .
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| Sad we were not allowed to have a ride :) |
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| Cute plane |
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| Cool!!! |
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| Pwede na ba? haha |
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On our second day, we just stayed at the hotel the whole morning up until we checked out. There was no hassle in checking out, we paid the Php400 service fee (for our breakfast in "bed") waited for a minute as they checked the room (in-case we stole or broke somthing, lol) and that's it.
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| Suman with Mangga from Cafe by the Ruins. This was the only good thing that I experienced there. |
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