Zoey at Zoobic

Long weekend. Subic with my folks, Zoe and Bok. Grande Island for a day. Watched a bit of the Subic Frisbee Tourney when we got back to the mainland. Bok went to party while I watched over Zoe. Haha. =p

Also visited Zoobic Safari.

Zoe's Zoobic Subic Trip

Long weekend.

We took the spanking new SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway) to Subic, and travel was a breeze! It took us around 3 hours to get to Subic from Cubao. We had stopovers to eat, pick up the folks, and look for some supplies, and Bok always drove within the speed limit! (100 kph). So...potentially travel from Manila to Subic could even be faster! :)



The Return to Grande Island
Bok and I visited Grande Island two years ago as part of his company outing. This weekend, the place was still packed with people going on company outings. I think there were around 2 different companies having day trip activities, while another famous accounting company even spent the night there. Well, Grande Island is conducive for company team building activities. They have a pool, an okay beach, clear waters, dining/ballroom/sleeping facilities -- plus you get to feel you're so far away because you have to board a 15-minute ferry to get there. Hehe.

Zoe Pole Dancing on the Grande Island Ferry

Rough cost: They have aircon hotel rooms that cost a little over 2K and can fit 4 people. (2 double beds). Buffet breakfast is included in the hotel rate. Other meals aren't. But their restaurant does serve delicious food in generous servings. Rough range would be 200-300 per small dish good for 3-4 people. Merienda is a bit expensive -- pasta would cost almost 300 pesos, and a small bottle of mineral water costs 30 pesos. If possible, bring your own drinking water and snacks.

For information on Grande Island, rates, and how to get there, visit their website.

Zoe's verdict: Happy Baby

Zoobic Safari
Zoobic Safari bills itself as the only tiger safari in the Philippines. Like a regular zoo, it has different animals like snakes, goats, deer, rodents, birds, crocs, etc. But the highlight really is the tiger safari -- where you get to ride in an enclosed jeep through the "open" area where they keep their tigers. The catch? When we rode through the 'safari', we spent only about 15 minutes and viewed only 3 tigers. Well, according to the tour guide, only tigers less than a certain age (I think it's 3 years old) are kept in the open safari area....when they get older, they get too wild, and are kept in cages in their "Close Encounters" section.

Hooters

There are areas where animals like ducks, chickens, pigs and goats roam free, so there are petting opportunities for little kids.

Some notes: Not really handicap friendly. Lots of walking, and getting on and off jeeps or vehicles. And notice...there are no lions. Yet. According to our tour guide, the owner wanted to really just concentrate on the tigers...but since people keep on asking where the lions are, eventually the owner just might give in to crowd pressure....

Rough cost: 395 pesos for the tiger and croc package.

For more information, visit Zoobic Safari's website.

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Other areas of interest in Subic:

• Ocean Adventure
• JEST camp
• and a lot of other areas of interest
  

Everything is Still Relative....

Well, I wanted to write a post about the inefficiencies at NSO. For the past few days/weeks/months, I've been a regular customer/victim of government agencies -- from renewing passports, getting National Statistic Office (NSO) certified documents, etc.

To make a long story short, I just recently discovered I have an inconsistency with my birth certificate, and that I might probably have 2 copies of birth certificates, both registered under my name. I went to the NSO office on East Avenue, and I wanted to blog about my experience there. Except...except I remembered SSS also owed me an SSS ID that I applied for last August 2007. So I googled other people's stories and experiences....and it turns out NSO was even heaven compared to SSS. Mukhang 10 years din bago ko makukuha ang SSS ID ko. Hmmm.

So...wala lang. Everything's relative.

On another note, madalas kong ireklamo ang inefficiencies din ng MRT. Tulad ng:

• Bakit hindi damihan ang tren pag rush hour?
• Bakit hindi dalasan ang biyahe, para naman hindi kami parang sardinas tuwing uuwi o papasok sa opisina?
• Dapat ang manager ng MRT sumasakay ng MRT araw araw, para malaman nila gano kahirap bumiyahe pag rush hour na talaga!

Well recently napansin ko na bago na yung mga hawakan ng MRT (yung hinahawakan mo na leather-type thing pag standing room kayo). So...kahit maliit na bagay lang ito...kudos na rin nga. :) (Hindi na ako magko-comment tungkol sa mga bagong recordings pagdating sa bawat station)

Tama na! Next time, puro travelogues na lang nga.... :)