Frannywanny

"Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan." (He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination) - Dr. Jose P. Rizal, Filipino National Hero Today is the birthday of our country's national hero and if I must say, one of my personal favorite heroes in history too. I still remember reading the entire book on his life when I was in university much too quickly that I finished the entire book even before the semester began. It was such a joy learning about Rizal's life and his works. His death was pretty dramatic too. He was shot by firing squad at Bagumbayan (now known as Rizal Park / Luneta) at the young age of 35. That's exactly how old I am this year and for him, he has traveled the world, wrote a lot of captivating novels (I love Noli Me Tangere) and has tried his best to fight the government for the freedom of the Filipinos. Not a lot of 35 year old individuals can say that they...

When Paul and I flew to Cebu for a short but sweet R&R, we also agreed to have our post Christmas / early New Year's dinner date there as well. You see, since we don't get to go home to Manila that often, all our schedules are always so jam-packed we're home. Yes, we're physically together as we do our personal errands and when we meet up with friends but we rarely get to have our own quiet time with just the two of us. So, we finally saw Cebu as a great opportunity to unwind and to simply enjoy each other's company. For our first night, I suggested that we head over to Crossroads Banilad which has been my favorite dining spot in Cebu. It consists of a number of establishments including my favorite dessert place La Marea and what's said to be the best Mexican restaurant in Cebu called Maya .

On our last day in Cebu , the team wanted to spend a few hours in the beach. Since our flight was schedule late in the afternoon, they all woke up early and asked our driver to take them to Maribago Bluewater Resort to avail of their day pass. All of them went..all of them except me and ML. I guess the reason why ML and I get along pretty well is because we both would prefer to stay longer in bed, lazily wake up to have breakfast (I availed of the complimentary buffet breakfast while she ate all sorts of chocolate-covered crackers and cookies that she bought earlier in the room) and to just shop around for more pasalubong. Honestly, I’m not the type who enjoys staying under the sun longer than 5 minutes and I would rather do some laps at the pool than to fight the current and drink a lot of salty water at the beach. Well, that’s me the forever city girl. Driver R had to do some errands so by the time he was able to pick us up it was always past 12 noon, just in time for lunch. Af...

It's April and summer is finally here! With the fast rising temperature outside, more and more city folks are heading out to the beach! Speaking of beach getaways -- I was pretty blessed to be able to go to the coolest summer destination in the country last year -- this is the beautiful island of BORACAY . Not only was I able to visit it once for my honeymoon, I returned for a brief stay a few days before we bit 2010 goodbye. The vibe and weather was different when I first went there in July and returned in December. For one thing, the island was more quiet during July with windbreakers lining up the shoreline. It somehow ruins the beauty of the island. I also noticed that there were a lot of algae during my first visit which I do not like the sight and feel of whereas none was seen last December. However, it was way more crowded and harder to grab a table last December as it seems like half of the Metro Manila population all decided to spend their holiday in Boracay too. Eac...

From our amazing 8-hours stay in Bacolod , my sister and I took the ferry to hop over to Iloilo . Growing up, we've been hearing a lot of great stories about life in Iloilo from my sister's long-time yaya . She's an Ilongga and her stories about life in this province and the freshest seafood that you can find stayed in our minds for years. Truly, food is truly a great motivator for us to keep on traveling. So off we went to this province in the Panay Island in the Visayas region one weekend. Prior to our trip, we did our research and initially booked ourselves at the Sarabia Manor Hotel which is a popular hotel in the city. It is very big and usually the choice for business meetings and workshops as well. The hotel is also located along a very busy main road making it very easy should there be a need for you to hail a taxi to go around. However, we both found our room a bit old. The smell was not very fresh, the aircon quite noisy and some of the toilet fixtures are ...

This is a very delayed post, as more and more great finds were discovered, my Visayas Invasion entries were pushed further and further back. It was when fellow blogger Jane asked me about my Bacolod trip that I remembered that I still have a lot of stories waiting to unfold. This was a spur-of-the-moment trip with my sister as we took the weekend off to hop around three different provinces in just three days! Our itinerary was to fly in to Bacolod and explore the city in just a day, take the boat out to Iloilo to spend our first night there, speed off to Guimaras for a fun full day under the sun and fly back to Manila via Iloilo. This was our dream itinerary and we were so happy that we have fulfilled all of the things that we've both wanted to do in this trip. Let me start this series with my Bacolod story. We literally just had 8 hours to spare in Bacolod to make it to the ferry boat that will take us to Iloilo. Here are Five Amazing Things that you can do in Bacolod...

I can't believe it has been 3 longs years since I last set foot on these powdery white sand... Boracay '07 I feel so fortunate to be able to join the launch of Astoria's newest property in my favorite summer island -- Boracay . Set to open this April, Astoria Boracay is a 3,000 square-meter property that's located right along the shoreline of Station 1 and is just one hop away from the party central Station 2 . I can still remember the time when we would have to take a long long walk from our resort located at the far end of Station 1 just to have breakfast at D'Mall which is located at Station 2. In fact, we didn't even bothered to explore Station 3 because we just got so tired of walking. There are more than 39 lovely rooms but what I'm so excited to see are their dramatic honeymoon suites. There's also a complete line of amenities to suit each visitor's needs, there's a lap pool, a kiddie pool, a coffee shop and more. While chatting with As...

I got a feeling that next year's gonna be a good good year!!! I can't believe that 2009 is finally coming to a close. This has been a year where we have witness major natural disasters, a number of great losses and a couple more sad news. However, trying to stay positive, there are also a lot of things that I am personally thankful for this year and I'd like to share these with you: 1) Travel Nothing relaxes me more than planning for an exciting trip! 2009 found me in four amazing spots namely: China , Hong Kong , Singapore and the Visayas region ! Next year will be another big traveling year that includes that much-awaited two weeks honeymoon to certain countries in Asia. Boy, I can't wait! 2) Frannywanny.com This blog has been my pride and joy for the past 2 years. Here I eagerly share with everyone my latest food finds, my travel notes and a lot more. Before starting on this entry, I even had to go through every single blog post that I've made this year to remin...

It's no secret how much I love to travel...and to eat. This actually goes hand in hand as my travel itinerary is normally filled up with new places to try and local delicacies that I make sure I bring home for my family to enjoy as well. In fact, one of the best birthday gifts that I've ever received was a handy travel journal given to me by my best friend. At present, I have already filled up around 10 journal pages documenting my adventures in China , Hong Kong , Iloilo, Bacolod and more! Soon, I will be adding a new entry as I embark on another fun trip this time to my favorite Asian destination -- Singapor e . There are times when I would find myself craving for a local food item that can not be found here in Metro Manila. Despite my efforts in searching high and low, the only answer to my craving is a plane ticket back to the province where the object of my gastronomic affection can be found. Thankfully, most of the key cities here in the Philippines have a couple of entre...

Hi I'm Frannywanny and I am a Chicken Inasal addict. Eversince I came home from my 3-day weekend trip to the Visayas, I have been scouting around the metro for the best place to have Chicken Inasal. Finally, after consulting a fellow blogger who knows Bacolod inside and out , he recommended that I go to JT's Manukan Grille along Granada street in Quezon City (near N. Domingo) to satisfy my Inasal cravings. It was a rainy Friday evening and after picking me up from the office, Paul was game enough to drive further pass Greenhills and towards JT's Manukan Grille . Ordering was a breeze since their menu was pretty simple: First, choose your preferred chicken part. Luckily, there's an English translation beside each entry for non-Tagalog speaking diners. Our favorite part is the Paa (thigh/leg portion) (Php. 85) and so we got one each. Second, do you want rice with your chicken? I highly recommend that you get a cup of garlic rice (Php. 25) to go with your meat to com...