We have a friend who treats his cars like his babies. They do not have kids and he loves cars so that explains why. They are always squeaky clean and smell fresh. He also loves installing car spoilers. I tell you, all his cars look great.

He treats them with love and extra care and if ever we will buy a second hand car, we will most probably buy his.

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We discovered that there is no better way to see Vigan than to have a tour while riding on one of their calesas. A calesa is a horse driven carriage and is the mode of transportation before engines made its way in the Philippines. Some of the places in the country still retain its calesa because of its charm and its rich history and culture.

So we rode on one to take us around. It first took us to the Bantay church to see its famous Bell Tower. This is where they shoot the famous movie Panday. It is partly made of bricks and surprisingly still on great shape. Since the bell tower raises high above the ground we decided to climb up and look at the view from the top.

We also went to old houses of famous people that had been converted to museums. We went to Sequoia Mansion, which is has some memorabilia of former president Elpidio Quirino. His wife is from Vigan. We also learned that she died during the Japanese occupation with some of her kids. So when president Quirino took his seat in Malacanang, one of his daughters had to take place as the first lady. That was what we’re told by the tour guide inside.

We also went to Crisologo museum but I didn’t have the chance to see it as B.boy already took his nap inside the calesa.

All in all it was a nice experience. I never enjoyed Vigan like I did during our last visit. The 150 bucks we paid is all worth it. And while you’re at it buy some empanada, ilocos longganisa and royal bibingka to complete the experience.

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Yesterday, we had the last of our freebie from using our Citibank credit card at Waltermart. We had 4 Nestea 500 ml iced tea bottles. Their promo ran for a month and we got an average of 4 each week. This is the reason why I love credit cards. So long as you use them wisely there are a lot of perks to enjoy.

Another tip on credit cards is to compare each one before applying. So for example, you are interested in Cash Back Credit cards, there is a site that lets you Compare Cash Back Credit Cards. That way, you get to have the best suitable to your needs.

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After lunch, we strolled at the historic and architecturally beautiful Calle Crisologo. My dad said that this used to be the area where the rich people live in the Spanish times. It is a whole long street filled with old houses that they call “bahay na bato”

There are also a lot of stalls selling souvenirs and native crafts. I bought some “abel” cloth to serve as our hand towels. These are hand-woven cloths very popular in the Ilocos region. We also bought this mini guitar for B.boy.

Trying to sell some Abel to some foreigners.  “Bili na kayo”

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When I first started blogging way back 2004, the terms seo specialist or seo expert doesn’t mean a thing to me. All I wanted is a venue to post my wedding preparations. However, everything changed when I became interested in monetizing my blog. Now, I know how an seo company can make a difference in one website.

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JennyL thought that this blog is a treasure so she’s giving me this award below:

Thank you so much Jen. I think this blog as a treasure too. It has been an outlet for most of my thoughts, i keep track of the major things happening in our lives in this blog too. I also earned a lot of friends and made some money on the side too. This blog is one of my treasures and I thank my good friend Amore for making this blog possible.

I pass this award to good friends like : Juliana, Peachy, Toni, Abie, Kelly, and Yen.

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Sometimes we need to get additional degree to boost our career. And what a better time to think about that before another year begins. Some are hesitant because of the busy schedules that they running. They reason out that there is simply no time to study.

This is where online education can help. There are a lot out there to choose from, one of them is Capella University. It was chosen as a finalist for a Minnesota Tekne Award in the “Technology User” category alongside Ecolab and Honeywell. It is an accredited fully online university based in Minneapolis. They offer online learning for 101 graduate and undergraduate specializations and 15 certificate programs.

This might be the thing you’re looking for to boost your career on 2008.

*This blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com

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We’re done at Baluarte by lunch time. We went back to Plaza Burgos to look for a place to eat. Vigan is also modernized because there are a lot of tourists around the area. You can find Max’s, Shakey’s, Mc Donald’s around the area. We didn’t want to try any of those as we would like to try something different. So we went to Café Leona.

It was named after an Ilocana poetess and playwrite. It is a charming place and there are quite a handful of foreigners dining in when we entered.

There’s a lot of Filipino food offered on their buffet table. We are tempted to try because it looks appetizing but Mama can cook that at home so we beg off. The choices we are left are Japanese and Italian stuff. We opted to go Japanese and we were so disappointed. It was worse than the Jap food from fastfood like Tokyo Tokyo.

I don’t know if their food really sucks because the diners at the other table seem to enjoy their thin crust pizza and pasta. Maybe we just ordered the wrong thing. I was really not happy with all of the food. 

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Almost all of us has loved ones residing abroad, be it family or friends. We would like to stay in touch most of the time by hearing their voice on the other line but we are sometimes put off by the expense. I found out that the cheapest way to call your loved ones abroad is to use international calling cards. What I specifically like is the ADC Asia prepaid phone card. This is best to use by someone who resides in the US temporarily. It provides great discounts and lowest rates currently available in the phone card industry.

This way, we don’t have to worry about expensive calls home.

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We woke up early and we were ready at around 9 am. We headed south to Vigan. It is an hour drive away from our place.

M0rn1ng and I have been there a couple of times already but we haven’t been to Singson’s Baluarte. We would like to take a peek as it has been featured in some of travel TV shows and it did not disappoint. There are a lot of animals in the place. There are even ostriches running freely in the main area. The first thing we did was to ride a calesa pulled by a pony. This took us around the main area where you cold see the man made waterfalls. After that we went to the butterfly garden. It was really fun to see lots of butterflies that you can touch and look closely. The little boy had fun in that area as it had little fountains.

It also has tigers, deers, snakes, birds, monkeys and turtles. The little boy had fun running all over the place and pretending to be driving their ATVs and golf carts.

Here are some of the pictures we took.

The place is still unfinished and they are still adding more attractions. Entrance and pony ride is free of charge.

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