Camarines Norte

The Quaint Town of Daet Tuesday, May 16, 2017

For few days I was a third wheel to my brother and his best friend. I'm a third wheel / picture taker for hire by the way. When I had this styling project in Cafe Plazuela of Avenue Plaza Hotel and my Styling Workshop at Cafe 91, both in Naga City, these two volunteered to be my PAs. They helped me with all my runarounds that include carrying my stuff and setting them up, dealing with all my crazy ideas of doing this and that and coming with me to this spontaneous beach trip in Daet.

Bagasbas Beach is one of my favorite beaches. I have quite a lot of favorite beaches huh. It's near the city yet so quiet and non commercialized compared to La Union. But don't get me wrong, I so love LU and all its commercial establishments. Bagasbas offers a different vibe - laid back, serene and charming. And to me that makes it special.

We agreed to extend another day to go surfing the next morning, so we stayed in this transient along Bagasbas Road that cost us 1000 pesos only for an air-conditioned room good for us 3. It was a room ideal for backpackers. I forgot the name of the place, but it's the one beside Kick Milk Tea & Coffee.

Kick Milk Tea & Coffee is the newest establishment along Bagasbas Road. They offer not just milk tea, but also savory sandwiches, belgian waffle and coffee. The price is also affordable. Their milk tea isn't bad at all, I actually liked it, to be honest, but what I noticed more is the packaging. It's cute and very refreshing to the mind.

We were having our merienda when we realized that it was already sunset. For a few brief moments, the sky is in a deep hue of violet and pink. Watching the sun setting across the world is just as awe-inspiring experience. The light illuminates the entire beach in a gorgeous spectrum of warm hues. It was beautiful.

The following morning, I had to wake up the boys to catch the sunrise. I mentioned this a lot of times but I'm actually a sunrise person and it's mandatory to always get up early especially whenever I am in the beach.

We went walking on the beach while watching the sunrise. Before the sun dominates the horizon, there were grey skies that started to host the light splashes of color. The streaks of pink, orange and yellow paint the sky so beautiful.

Walking through the long brown stretch of Bagasbas Beach, you come to appreciate the quality of beauty, gracefulness and deep yet happy feeling within. It feels so good to breathe in and out deeply the morning fresh air.

At the far end of Bagasbas Road was the old airport runway where some paragliding pilots offers paragliding and paramotoring around Bagasbas Beach. The girl they were with told me that it cost 3000 pesos to experience it. We decided to just stay on the side and watch the experts do their stunts. I can totally imagine how amazing it would be flying in the air so I promised myself to try it next time.

The two boys I was with were excited to go surfing so we went back to the beach. From a far, I watched them catch their waves. It wasn't easy that day, series of waves were coming in every split of the second. I can tell they were having so much fun though. I was satisfied sitting and taking picture on the beach for hours. I was content simply being stoked on their stoke.

I mentioned in an instagram post how much I encourage my brother to try surfing. Nowadays, teenagers are very reckless. I don't say it's a bad thing, I was reckless in my younger years too. One of my reasons why I wanted him to try it is because surfing personally taught me one lesson in life that sometimes I ignore, the value of being focus and being patient. To be out on the water, waiting for waves in the middle of the sea, creates a sense of focus and patience. Out in the ocean, your only focus is the moment.

PH & Beyond: Balagbag Island, Vinzons, Camarines Norte Saturday, April 19, 2014

Across the Halabang Baybay Beach is another amazing island called Balagbag Island. It has so many amazing landscape and seascape sceneries perfect for shooting. I was completely in awe watching the waves from the pacific ocean crashing into the coarse coral fragments of the island.

I found so much peace while I was there and would definitely soon come back. It’s beautiful, uncrowded and well-kept its natural state. It’s everything I could hope for my kind of summer escape.

No good travel photo album is complete without the token sunrise or sunset picture! I never been good at shooting the golden hour however this has to be, by far, my most favorite sunset (above) and sunrise photos.

PH & Beyond: Bagasbas Beach, Daet, Camarines Norte Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Daet, Camarines Norte is called as the gateway to Bicoladia and for some reasons it’s one of the provinces in my region that I haven’t got the chance to visit.

On our way to Paracaule to get to Calaguas island with my friends, we agreed to give Daet a short visit. One of them been have there multiple times, brought us to his must visit destination, the Bagasbas Beach known as Bicol’s surfing capital.

It’s not a white sand beach, but it was clean and the sand is fine. It’s a public beach and can get pretty crowded this summer season. There were lots of people that time actually. Everyone on the stretch of coastline seems to be a surfer or at least a surfing enthusiast. What I really love about Bagasbas, is it is open for everyone and well maintained by the locals.

I usually prefer to go on an adventure on my own pace at my own time, but because Google has less information how to get to this island, how to go on a DIY trip, for the first time, my friends and I all agreed to join a tour package to get there.

Unfortunately, we had a not-so-good service while in the island, but with the company of people I’ve known for quite a long time, all the hassle and stress along the way turned into a one memorable experience. This is not going to be a review about the tour package we availed so I had to stop now.

We traveled 9 long hours from Naga City to one of the Islands in Calaguas, Halabang Baybay. That includes all the bus and boat transfers. Halabang Baybay, Long beach in English was a pleasant surprise. It was such a paradise, with the ocean on one side of the island and a forest-like patch of green on the other.
We stayed overnight on its beautiful stretch of white sand with basic beach tent accommodation.