Coming home never ceases to amaze me!

I grew up in Binan, Laguna but my parents and I migrated to Toronto, Canada in 1989. We weren’t getting the chance to come home to ‘Pinas often in the beginning, but fortunately our trips home have been frequent over the last 10 years!

During our last trip back (just got back to Toronto a 3 week stay in Manila), I had one of the best trips back! Here are some of the highlights:

We got to beach it up at the Blue Coral Resort in Batangas! The resort was soooo nice! Esthetically very pleasing and awesome amenities! The accommodations were pretty awesome (awesome night’s sleep after a long day at the beach)! The beach was a dream : ) Clear water and white sands – we spent our afternoons chasing fish in the water!

Changing Lives: Timbaland Shock Value II Tour in Manila – the good times had by all are beyond words! Great to see big stars like Jojo, Timbaland and (of course) Justin Timberlake! Very cool to see them live in Manila… Energy was fantastic, and the hype in waiting for Mr. JT was almost painful, but well worth it when he walked onto the stage!!! Couldn’t ask for a better night (and the finale performance of “Sexyback”?!? HELLO!?!?!??!)

Pagsanjan Falls.. Seriously, how many people can say they’ve gotten to go underneath a waterfall??? For those who think it’s small, I assure you that it is not small nor weak (especially when you’re riding a wooden raft and it’s slowing passing underneath the falls)! Aray!!! Even lost my anklet! Also got the opportunity to swim underneath (more so, near) the falls! Veryyyyyyy cool. The 45 mins kayak ride between the mountains to and from the falls was a bonus (especially for nature lovers).

Of course, hitting the local scenes like The Fort, MOA, Makati and Greenhills (a bargainer’s dream!) and the food! My god, the food! Filipino food CANNOT be beat! From yummy chichiria, delectable sweets, and to die for ulams… Greatest choice of fast food joints and restaurants anyone in the world, bar none! When it comes to food, pinoys know where it’s at!

Most of all, spending time with my wicked awesome cool family who I miss everyday! They put the “sweet” in HOME SWEET HOME : )

-Jen Mariano

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 7:48 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

One Response to “Coming home never ceases to amaze me!”

1. Mummy Jenkins says:

   November 2, 2010 at 8:16 pm

   Thoughtful and interesting, thank you. I grew up in the philipines but moved to america at such a young age I can hardly remember anything apart from the delicious food. I finally found some authentic Filipino recipes if you want to have a look, I thought I’d share it with you!