Sampaloc Lake, San Pablo City Laguna (Budget Date :))

San Pablo City, Laguna is well known for its 7 beautiful Lakes. I have been to all 7 seven lakes once, and it was a tiring but exciting and enjoying experience. The most popular of these lakes is the Sampaloc Lake, I think because of its location. It lies on the center of the city proper which made it more accessible to the public. When we were in College, I and Jimbo (My dearest bf of 6 years as of the posting date :)) used to date here. Since we are both still students and did not have much to spend for dating or eating out. You will find almost all street foods there and I love them! I actually enjoy them more than fine dine. My personal fave are adidas (chicken feet), kwek-kwek (breaded quail eggs), there's hot dog, isaw (chicken/pork intestines) and many more. haha! There are also cafes and restaurants around if you can't take street foods so you won't go wrong. We still go there once in a while and I am so missing it now. :(

The last time we went there. We ate a lot. There are now boat rides which is cute :)

Affordable Shoes? Go to Liliw Laguna!!

It's my youngest sister's High school graduation, and she needed a pair of black shoes to wear on the special day. The problem is, her shoe size is too small (size 4 1/2) and we're having a really hard time looking for decent shoes that she can use. She needs one she can also use in College so she prefers a wedge. Someone told us, we can try going to Liliw Laguna.

Liliw is known for those affordable and durable shoes/footwear and with small and half sizes. So two weeks before graduation, we decided to visit the Municipality and look for shoes not only for her but for all of us. We have to make the most of it. It's still a 2 hour drive and we won't always be there.

Mama and Papa on our drive to Liliw. Too many zigzags.

When we arrived, I was amazed with the shoe stores just next to each other, so many colors, so many designs to choose from! Is this heaven?? lol!

Here's a sample of what we saw there. Almost all stores are this full of footwear and it made it really hard to choose.  .

My sister excited to buy her new pair of wedges.

Me posing with hundreds of shoes. I haven't really decided what to buy.

The Giant Slippers :)

After spending almost half of our day going to and fro searching for the best deals and prices... here are what we bought. A decent pair of black shoes for my graduating youngest sister, yellow wedges for my younger sis, black wedge sandals for myself, nude wedges for mama, 2 pairs of leather slippers from Badong (A famous shoe store in Liliw) for papa, Black Open toe slip on for Inay (lola) and wedge sandals for my tita's Birthday. We also bought a couple of floral slippers for pasalubong :)

The footwear we bought I'd say are really affordable. The price of the wedges, (which clearly is a favorite in the family, haha!) ranges from 150.00 PHP - 400.00 PHP, Similar shoes here in San Pablo would cost almost double, plus they have a lot of sizes :). The Leather Slippers I think is around 200 PHP. And the floral slippers cost 3 for 100 PHP. I would recommend it to anyone. It is truly a shoe shopping haven! We enjoyed our trip to Liliw, and we are planning to go back there for our Christmas shoes.

Kamay ni Hesus, Lucban Quezon Surprise Getaway!! (All Saints Day 2012)

(Disclaimer: This is a photo loaded entry :D)

A long weekend is like a dream come true to me. Having been in the BPO industry for as long as I can remember (lol! Since graduation), I really seldom experience long weekends. And when the admin announced we'll be off for 2 days for All Saints Day and All Souls Day (Wednesday and Thursday) I immediately filed a leave for Friday and then my usual day off is weekend so that makes it a very long weekend. It's the first time I had 5 days off since I started working if I remember it right and I've got to make the most of it! :) My 5 days was spent bonding with the most valued people in my life: My family. We went to malls, we of course visited lolo and lola at the cemetery, I even made a flower arrangement myself. from flowers picked from the garden and Baby's Breath, which I think is the only cheap flower you can buy during the Halloween season (I'm not even sure they're flowers XD) Here's a photo. I'm really not good at flower arrangements, but I tried my best :)

OFF TOPIC: I just wanted to post it din. harhar!

Now the main topic. It was an enjoying weekend indeed! To complete the experience, it would be great if we can travel somehow. It was Friday when Papa told us his friend invited him to join them go to Kamay ni Hesus in Lucban Quezon on Saturday. We're like, that's tomorrow!! And we cannot decide if we will go or not. Well before the end of the day, we decided to go anyways :). Kamay ni Hesus is known for it's peaceful environment best for pilgrimage. Tourists go here to attend mass and enjoy the view.

THE CHALLENGE: Go to Kamay ni Hesus with a super limited budget. haha! We agreed that no one will buy anything. We are going there for the Mass and yes, for the view. This is our first time and we're all excited!

That morning of Saturday, we prepared and packed our supposedly breakfast so we won't have to buy food there. It's a 2 hour drive from San Pablo Laguna, and we arrived there just on time for a walk/climb on their famous Stations of the Cross while it's still cold. Here are our photos.

Me and my youngest sister at the entrance of Garden of Eden

Adam and Eve

There's this cute pond up there

Yes! you have to climb this, Good Luck! :)

That's me on top, I made it!!

Papa and Mama and NOAH's ARK this is my favorite

Noah's Ark isn't complete without the animals.

Us, after Mass. Well, we bought ice cream naman.

All in all, we really enjoyed the trip! Trips not planned are even more exciting :). We managed to not spend much, just the gas and the ice creams and we went home happy and contented. You really do not have to spend much on this kind of trip, the view alone, the relaxing environment and the people with with me is enough to enjoy. I look forward to going here again.

Oh and by the way, here's a map to Kamay ni Hesus! Map To Kamay ni Hesus