Trip to the Hundred Islands National Park!!

Cultural Exposure Experience

Trip to the Hundred Islands National Park!!

Haikal Qilbari September 09, 2019

Magandang hapon guys!!!

This post will be about my experience going to the Hundred Islands National Park in Alaminos, Pangasinan. It was such a wonderful experience! The place was so BEAUTIFUL I even still can’t believe that I went there LOL. So, without further ado, let’s go back in time.

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          On Friday evening, September 6th, we already expected that the next day we will be having some interesting things to do, because on the schedule of activities that shown on the Opening Ceremony a week ago, we will be having either cultural exposure or campus activities every Saturdays. So, we got very excited whenever it’s near to Saturday LOL

          In the evening of that day, we got some information that we will be going to the Hundred Islands on the next day. AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!! THAT’S AMAZING LOL. But then they said that we have to prepare our things on Friday night because we’ll be departing VERY early—4am in the morning—on Saturday. Pretty wild yeah? Haha.

          So, we did prepare our things. I brought some spare clothes because we might get wet there. I’ve read on the internet that the Hundred Islands National Park is one of the most famous tourism spot in the Philippines! And based on the pictures, it looked a lot like Raja Ampat in Papua, Indonesia, but I’m not really sure because I’ve never been to Raja Ampat before haha.

          On Saturday, we woke up SUPER early—like, 3am in the morning—and took turn taking a bath. The campus officials said that they will fetch the other students from other campuses like PSU Bayambang Campus and San Carlos Campus, before arriving in Lingayen and departing to Alaminos. We waited and waited. Earlier they said that we’ll be departing at 4am to avoid the traffic. But the bus arrived so late. At last, we finally departed to Alaminos at 5am or 6am (I forgot haha).

          On our way to the National Park, we stopped in the center of Alaminos City to buy some breakfast because we hadn’t eaten yet (they told us to prepare super early but the bus came late haha). I bought some food in McDonald’s there and change my USD to PHP because I was running out of Pesos LOL. Then we continued our trip for one hour—give or take a few minutes—then we arrived at the National Park! 

          Well, it wasn’t really the ‘park’—it was just a harbor for the boats going to the small islands. There were a lot of souvenir sellers there, it got super crowded near our bus and I got confused LOL. Some of the sellers even approached me, trying to bribe me with discounts but I said, “Sorry mam, maybe I’ll buy it after I came back from the boat trip.” Then they all went away with that, haha. 

          Then, we all gathered in one place to count how many we are. After that, we’ve been told that we have to pay about 130PHP each if we want to go to the small islands by boats. I mean, 130PHP sounded very cheap compared to the price they listed on the internet for the trip around the islands. So I said, “Why not? TAKE MY MONEY.” HAHAHAHAHA

          And guess what, it rains. Like, why on Earth is it always raining in the Philippines? Maybe it was the season, I had no idea LOL. But even though the rain was pouring, we were still going to the small islands. At first I was kinda afraid because... it’s raining and we’re going to cross a freaking ocean! I have a fear of a wide and deep body of water, that’s so blue that I cannot see the bottom. But bismillah, I hope we’ll be okay. 

          WE FREAKIN CROSSED THE OCEAN GUYS!!! It was me and 7 of my friends and 2 campus officials in a boat. The boat wasn’t very big, and we have like 3 big people there so we have to sit on the opposite side of each other to balance the boat. Kinda funny but scary at the same time haha. We all wore our life jackets—that assured me, a bit LOL.

          Because it was raining, we literally cannot see anything more than 5 meters in front of us (I’M JOKING IT’S NOT THAT BAD LOL). At first all we see was an open ocean. It was pretty calm, no big wave or anything. Just rain... a lot of rain. Then after several minutes of seeing nothing except water, we started seeing some islands! 

          AND BOY, SUCH BEAUTIFUL SCENERY!!! The islands are quite small with a lot of trees on top of them. The islands shape kinda reminded me of a mushroom—or an umbrella. Because the part of the islands that touched the sea water kinda eroded away because of the waves. SO COOL I JUST WOW-ED ALONG THE WAY HAHA.

          Then, we stopped at one small island called “The Governor Island”. Such a unique name, I don’t really know why they named the island like that. But the name made me wanna be the Governor of Alaminos (or Pangasinan, I don’t really know—my bad) so I can get one of the islands to myself LOL. After taking some pictures of the beach there, we went uphill because they said that the scenery is amazing up there—we can see the rest of the islands from the top. 

          It was tempting. But when I knew that there will be hundreds of stairs, I hesitated because this boy rarely does exercise HAHAHAHAHA. But I did go up with two of my Indonesian friends. And oh we all complaining when we’re going to the top—we kept saying that we’re about to die LOL. But thank God I didn’t die and we REACHED the top!! YEAY!! 

          “HOLY COW, THIS IS AMAZING!!!” I shouted when I saw the beautiful scenery at the top. We could see a lot of other islands from there. I spotted a statue, a statue of Jesus that looked very similar to the same statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But it was quite far away because it looked pretty small from where we stand. We took a lot of pictures there. And by the way, I forgot to tell you. It’s still raining so the pictures we took—we all super wet there HAHAHA.

          Then we continued or journey to another island. On our way, our boat and other boats kinda had a race LOL. It was fun, we were shouting at each other, laughing and pointing at each other haha. Then after several minutes, we arrived on an island called Woody Island. 

          The Woody Island is more crowded than any other islands because I saw quite a lot of people there. I mean, not A LOT—decent amount of people. Maybe because it’s raining, I don’t know. After registering and doing some official stuff (we didn’t do that, the campus officials done that), we went to the bungalows on top of a small hill on the island. There, we had a lunch. We ate Chicken Adobo, made by sir Mike—one of the campus officials and our field coordinator. It was very good! Even though I found the taste is quite salty—maybe a lot of sea water got into the Adobo haha. But really, it was super delicious.

          Did I tell you that I wasn’t feeling really well that day? Well, now you know LOL. After eating, we went down to the beach. But being in the rain all day made me feel dizzy and very cold. So I didn’t do much there—only sitting with my friend’s wet jacket (which wasn’t really helping with the cold at all) and trembling. It was still raining and the wind was super strong and super cold. But I don’t want it to destroy this once in a lifetime experience.

          We’re about to go to the island where the Jesus statue is, but it got cancelled because it was too much. The rain and wind really affected us so they decided it was enough. I kinda felt grateful because I couldn’t take it anymore, but sad that we couldn’t explore another island. Maybe this is a clue from the Universe that we might visit this place again in the future to complete the experience—when it’s not raining for sure LOL.

          After several minutes on the ocean, we arrived at the harbor. Then, we went to change our clothes. I took my time cleaning myself and changed into my dry clothes. Then, when waiting for my friends who were changing too, a couple of souvenir sellers came to me and it got wild.

          Did you remember the seller that bribed me with discounts when I first got to the harbor? I said that I’m going to buy her stuff after I got back from the islands. I was about to buy her stuff, but the other seller offer me a better deal, 200PHP for 3 packs of keychains and a pack of magnets. I was tempted to buy the other seller’s stuff because it was cheaper. Then they all argued in Filipino. It got pretty messy, but no fighting though—thank God. I was confused, whose stuff I’ll buy?

          I promised to buy this sellers stuff since the first time I got to the National Park. But the other seller offered me better deal. It’s confusing and I didn’t want to break anyone’s heart LOL. But then the seller that I promised offered 3 packs of keychains and a pack of magnets for 200PHP. The same as the other seller. I took that. Then they all argued—I didn’t understand what they’re saying! I felt like I didn’t want to be a part of this, then I slowly back away to the bus. Haha...

          After that, everyone got in the bus and we had an hour trip going back to our campuses. The first thing I did when we got back to our dorm is sleeping—duh. It was very tiring, and I still felt kinda dizzy, but it’s getting better. Then I drifted to sleep.

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THAT’S ALL, Y’ALL!!! Fun wasn’t it? LOL. I hope you can enjoy my experience going to the Hundred Islands National Park through this post—and even feel like you’re part of it. Haha. So, I’ll be writing more of my experiences in Pangasinan, Philippines. See you on the next posts!!!

Opening Ceremony at PSU Lingayen Campus!

Event Experience

Opening Ceremony at PSU Lingayen Campus!

Haikal Qilbari September 02, 2019

Magandang hapon! 

Today I'm going to tell you about the SEA Teacher and SEA TVET Opening Ceremony at PSU Lingayen campus. Without any further ado, let's go back to the 2nd of September!!

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          It was Monday. We've been told that we're going to have an Opening Ceremony for all of the SEA Teacher and SEA TVET a day before. The campus official also told us that we have to wear our own national costume. When they told us that, I was like “Oh so that’s why they asked us to bring our costume long time ago.”

          Of course I did bring my costume. It was a traditional Sasak male outfit. It consists of a black colored top that kinda looks like a suit—but certainly not a suit. The front flap of the top is longer than the back. It actually kinda reminded me of the suit that an orchestra conductor worn during the performance. But theirs has a longer back flap—the opposite of Sasak male top. I wore a black trouser with a Sasak traditional songket wrapped around the waist. I tied the songket with another piece of long-woven-cloth on the waist so it doesn’t move around. Also, I wore a sapuq on my head. It’s a sort of headband that tied around the head of a Sasak men. It looks similar as the Balinese headband (pssstt... we share the same culture you know)

          By the way, I wish I had a full-body picture of my then OOTD, LOL. We were very tight on time so we have to do everything fast. This is how a traditional Sasak male outfit supposed to look like:

You see, that guy in the picture is obviously not me LOL. I found this picture on the internet—to give you a real ‘picture’ of how the outfit supposed to look like.

          And this is how I look with the outfit on. I KNOW, only an upper body picture because we’re already seated and the Ceremony was about to begin. You get the idea haha. I am the one in the middle. Tell me I looked cute in that LOL hahaha.

Me and my other Indonesian friends at the Opening Ceremony: Mada (left), Katon (right) and obviously me in the middle

          Then, the Ceremony began. They played quite a lot of songs actually, compared to events that I attended back in my country. They played the ASEAN song, which was VERY new to me. That was the first time I heard that song, and I was like “Wait, they have a song?” LOL. Thank God that they displayed the lyrics on the screen so I could follow along the song.

          After that they played a series of Philippines song. I forgot the order LOL but they played the Philippines National Anthem “Lupang Hinirang” and the Province of Pangasinan Hymn which titled “Luyag ko tan Yaman”. Both of the songs reeeally stucked in my head LOL, even though it was hard for me to memorize the lyrics, but I got the melodies haha.

          Then they played the “Indonesia Raya”, the National Anthem of Indonesia. ALL of us Indonesian students sang the song. The conference hall was loud—grumbling with our spirits. It was such a great moment. I legit got goosebumps, and I bet the others in the hall got that too. After that, they played the Thai National Anthem. I am sorry to my two Thai friends I don’t know the title of the anthem because I can’t read Thai LOL. But the anthem is not less cool than the first two. In my personal opinion, the Thai Anthem sounds very...Thai. I mean, of course it was a Thai song but for me, it sounds very authentic—kinda traditional also. That’s very cool to me. Same with the previous ones, I don’t know the lyrics but I’ve memorized the melody haha.

NOTE:
While writing this post, I read it as a whole then thought “is this post going to be all about the songs that played at the Ceremony?” Haha just hang on okay... The songs are the things that stuck the most on my brain LOL

          Then, they played the hymn of Pangasinan State University (PSU). That was the moment I’ve been waiting for—because even before I got to the Philippines, I’ve heard the hymn of PSU on Youtube and it was AWESOME LOL. Apparently every SEA Teacher and SEA TVET students knew the song so they sang along. It was soo cool!


By the way if you’re curious about the hymn, this is the link of the hymn on Youtube >> https://youtu.be/E9FJJHYzQ5c

          After all the songs and hymns had been played, the MC asked us to stand to read the PSU Quality Policy together. It was very new to me because we didn’t do that in Indonesia (or at least my university). Then, there were several speechs by the PSU officials, and we were given snacks!!!

I don’t know the name of the food but it was damn good LOL

          The main event of this ceremony was the announcement of our schedule of activities for a month in PSU. Starting from September 3rd until 5th, we will be having our class observation. Then, on September 7th there will be some campus activities. I was kinda confused about what are we going to do for the campus activities. Then someone told me, we will be joining the students in their campus activities such as sports and stuff. Fun, I think LOL

          When they showed the next slide, everyone got veeeeryy excited LOL. It was said on the next slide, we will be having a cultural exposure (aka vacation LOL) on September 14th. We will be going to either Vigan or Baguio. We got super excited and the girls started screaming in joy LOL (including me even though I’m a boy because I’m excited LOL). They said, Vigan is an old city which has a lot of historical sites. I bet we can get a lot of cool vintage photos there haha. On the other hand, Baguio is a highland. They said that it’s cold there so we have to bring warm clothes. That’s also cool in my opinion because it’s been a long time since I went to highland place like that LOL.

          Then, on the next slide, it’s said that WE WILL BE HAVING ANOTHER CULTURAL EXPOSURE on September 21st to Bolinao! The hall went super loud again LOL. Based on the picture on the slide, Bolinao seems to have beautiful beaches. EXCITING!!!

          On September 25th will be the submission day for our evaluation form, report, and stuff. There was no cheering when they showed this slide LOL. And on 27th, we will be having our Closing Program. It’s not even near 27th but we kinda felt sad because we’ll be here only for a month. We wish that we could be here longer.

          Then there are a couple instructions about what we’re going to do on the next day. After that we danced. It was cool and funny, but I kinda felt embarrassed because I don’t like dancing in front of people LOL

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And that’s basically it! That was my experience in the Opening Ceremony of SEA Teacher and SEA TVET in PSU main campus at Lingayen. I’ll be writing more about the rest of my experiences in Pangasinan.

First Flight Ever!

Experience

First Flight Ever!

Haikal Qilbari September 01, 2019

Magandang hapon po!!

Are you afraid to get on a plane? Does your head always play the worst scenario about flying with an airplane? Well, you’re not alone I felt like that before. (Soon you’ll know why I use a past verb felt instead of feel)

I’ve told you on my previous posts that I’m currently in Philippines right now (if you just know that now, you should probably read this first hehe).

Before landing my feet on the land of Philippines, I have to get on a plane to Kuala Lumpur first. This might be shocking but I have NEVER got on an airplane before. So, this is the story of my first flight ever

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🔴 6:35am — Aug 31st 2019 @ LIA, Indonesia

This will be my first to get on an airplane! I feel a lot of things, but mainly afraid because 1) I've never got on a plane before, and 2) I’m going ALONE to a place where the people speak different language!
The second one is the one that scared me the most. That is because I think I need someone to guide me or something because I literally don't know anything about flying and stuff. You know, like what should I do when I first arrive at the airport, where should I go, and so on.
So earlier today, my mom, dad, and little brother accompanied me to the airport. We went by two motorcycles because we don't have any car 😂. We went to the airport at 5 in the morning because my flight is at 7. And oh boy it was so freaking cold! I'm freezing—I can't feel anything on my skin and I can hear my teeth crackling LOL. But thank God 30 minutes later we arrived at the airport.

My mom was going to accompany me going inside the airport to tell me what to do. But the airport security said that she can't. And then I went alone 😣
I expected the airport would be crowded with people, but it wasn't really a lot of people there at that moment. So I went with the procedure and stuff, checking in and weighing my baggage. It wasn't that complicated or hard or anything 😂
When I was waiting for my flight, I found out that my flight got delayed because August 31^st is Malaysia's Independence Day!
Even though I literally don't know anyone in Malaysia, I want to congratulate Malaysians.

Happy Independence Day, Malaysia!! 🇲🇾✨


🔴 7:49am — Aug 31st 2019 @ flight from LOP to KUL

Y'ALL I'M LITERALLY IN THE AIR RIGHT NOW!! 🤩🤩😂
Flying isn't that bad actually. It is quite an experience, feeling your plane taking off. IT WAS SO COOL!
We're now above the sea, I think. Might write later because my ears feel funny right now LOL 😂


🔴 8:06am — Aug 31st 2019 @ flight from LOP to KUL
I GOT FOOD Y'ALL. It says "pre-book meal, not for sale" so I think it's free, I don’t know… 😂
It says "Uncle Chin's Chicken Rice." Smells good by the way but I feel weird eating it because people beside me don't get any food 😣 Should I eat later when I land on KUL?


🔴 9:06am — Aug 31st 2019 @ flight from LOP to KUL
IT WASN'T MY FOOD, LMAO 😂🤣 It was for a woman on my left. I think the stewardess mixed our name or boarding pass or something. Thank God I didn't open it yet 😂 It was super embarrassing!


🔴 2:06pm — Aug 31st 2019 @ KLIA2

Just landed about several hours ago (yep, I forgot to write) in KLIA2. The airport is so big. I expected that it'll be difficult to know directions & stuff but actually no 😂 I found out that several of my Indonesian friends also transiting at KLIA2. We tried to meet up but our flight schedule didn’t match. So here I am, sitting alone waiting for my next flight in 4 hours.
I want to explore this airport y'know, but I'm kinda scared because I'm all alone

🔴 5:24pm — Aug 31st 2019 @ KLIA2

Finally I have a courage to go around the airport LOL. There were a lot of expensive stores like branded bags, liquor, branded perfumes, expensive foods, etc. I just want to have a bottle of water but I couldn't find it anywhere (or maybe I just don't know where to look LOL)
But thank God I found a free drink stand and did drink at it with a paper cup provided. I think making a cup made out of paper is good for the environment, and that's cool. Even though the cup starts to get wet after the first drink 😂


🔴 8:20pm — Aug 31st 2019 @ KUL to MNL

 The last flight for today. FINALY! 😭 I'm tired as hell. I only ate two slices of bread at KLIA2. Now I'm on board to Manila. I was very hungry so I ordered 2 bottles of water (yep I'm that thirsty) and Nasi Lemak. This is actually my first time eating Nasi Lemak. I only know Nasi Lemak from the cartoon Upin & Ipin so now I finally get to taste one haha.

It was so good! It tasted just like ordinary Indonesian food, just like opor ayam in my opinion. The rice isn't just like the ordinary rice that Indonesian people used to eat. It says "coconut rice" so I think they put coconut milk instead of regular when they cook the rice. Also the chicken thing that I think tasted like opor ayam is "chicken rendang". Well that's what opor ayam is 😂 It also had "spicy onion gravy", which isn't spicy at all in my opinion. But I think it was the best thing in the meal after the "chicken rendang". It also contains a slice of hard-boiled egg, anchovies, and fried peanuts.

It was such a nice meal! Because I was expecting that airplane food would be plain and tasteless, but this is very good. I am very satisfied. And full 🤣 I feel bloated LMAO

Oh yeah, almost forgot. All the passengers are given this small form paper. Apparently they were issued by Philippines Bureau of Immigration. I don't know when are we supposed to fill them, and submit them. Because my pens are in my bag, they all in the cabin right now. I don't want to disturb the man sleeping on my right 😣

UPDATE: the forms was for the custom officers in NAIA, Manila. I did fill them and submitted them, yeay!

🔴 12:31am — Sept 1st 2019 @ AAM Transient House

OH. MY. GOD. It really was quite a journey. The flight from KUL – MNL is actually longer than the one from LOP – KUL.
When I arrived at NAIA, the first thing that come to my mind is that "WOW this city is amazing" it looked so cool at night from above. It was just like looking at stars in the night sky.

At first, I planned to stay at the airport. But I felt very very tired and I want to take a bath. I found out that one of my Indonesian friend, Satriya, had booked a room for 2—even though he’s alone. So I went to his place. He paid about 600PHP for a night, we discussed and we agreed to split the bill equally. Then I went to take a bath and slept.

🔴 6:21am — Sept 1st 2019 @ AAM Transient House
Just woke up. Also I just found out that we can turn the air conditioner on. Silly, if I had known earlier, we wouldn't have to sleep in this room with like burning temperature LOL.
After Subuh prayer we went to 7Eleven to buy water and food. We were very cautious on what food we ate; in case it has pork in it because eating pork is forbidden in Islam. So, I bought a strawberry sandwich and Satriya bought Oreo 😆
We talked and talked. Then, sir Mike told us that we're going to be fetched around 9am in AAM Transient, so we don't have to go to the Terminals. That's good.

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So I think that’s all for this post. For the next post, I’ll tell you how we get to Pangasinan.

See you!!