Heading off to a romantic getaway at Boracay this summer of 2010? Here’s a checklist that every dating couple should bring and tick off.

1. The ride - Cebu Pacific, PAL and SeAir offers flights ultimately leading to Boracay, but Cebu Pacific and PAL would land you in Kalibo where you’ll have to take a 2-hour bus and 20-minute boat ride to get to Boracay island. If you don’t have the luxury of time, get on a SeaAIR plane to take you directly to Caticlan.

If you want to have the luxury of choice, however, be sure to always check out any promo fares. Check out the Cebu Pacific website, Philippine Airlines and SeAIR website to compare prices. PAL also offers PALAKBAYAN tours, with packages with hotels and transfers.

2. The hotel - Station 1, 2, 3… it doens’t matter anymore. The competition has pushed Boracay hotels to max it in terms of service, quality and price. There will always be the topnotchers like Discovery shores or Boracay Regency, but many average hotels will give you the quality and privacy you deserve. I personally like Boracay Tropics – the place is newly-renovated and the food is divine. The food here is even more delicious than those you’d find in restaurants outside. I advice you get their buffet packages to maximize your stay.

Boracay Tropics brings quality with a reasonable price

3. The grub – You’ll find a lot of choices along the beach but don’t be tempted with the restaurants you’ll find in Manila anyway. This means you should stay away from the Boracay branches of Pancake house, Shakey’s, Starbucks, Bite Club… I’d lay down your bets on grub from Aria, Jonah’s shakes, Cyma, and other Boracay specialties.

Never leave Boracay with Jonah

4. The gear – Have you been dieting or working out for 2 months to prepare for this trip? Then show it off! swimsuits and board shorts are in season all year round in Boracay, just bring enough accessories for variety for the next days. Don’t forget loads of sunblock if you don’t want to look like a lobster to your date.

The best sunblock - Beach Hut spray-on

5. Advil - for the morning after you go partying along the sands of the bars in the area. Different drinks, mixes and shots will tickle your tastebuds but will eventually mess with your head. Don’t go all out if its just you and your date – you don’t want to be spewing your dinner on the sand in front of her/him.

• Bring enough money. Although there are different ATM stations along the beach, some go offline, and the lines can be ten minutes long.
• Almost every estalishment has free wifi, so be sure to ask the servers when you choose your spot.
• Also, compare prices for snorkeling, helmet diving, or banana boat riding. Bring a lot of people with you so you can negotiate for further discounts.
• Last tip, be sure to be open and friendly to everyone. You’ll find people of all nationalities on the beach, and it’s best to gain some friends from different parts of the world, even just for the fun of it. You’ll impress your date with your ambassador skills, and you gain network friends as well.

Wow, this is hard. If you’re on a backpackers budget, esentially you can survive for less than P1,000 a day with room and food – there are many boarding rooms in the area.

If yu’re on a date, however, ideally you’d want to splurge a little so you can enjoy and be lovey-dovey – P5,000 for flights, P2,500 a night for a hotel, and P1,000 a day for food and drinks should be enough for each of you. If you want to save, bring friends or a double date. It’s useful for conversation as well.

Boracay island
Panay group of Islands, Philippines

How to make your own choco banana peanut shake! This is an excellent shake that is more like a snack itself.

North Park at P. Guevarra corner Wilson, Greenhills is what I call old reliable. No matter how late it gets, it always welcome, pulling us in after a hard day’s work or a night out at Bella Bar.
The structure is actually friendly and it’s almost always full. Good thing it has a big parking space to accommodate guests – they know their location will almost always have a car.

The entrance – quite quaint and well… green

Orange insides of a Chinese Restaurant

The place is very orange, if I must warn you. But the good thing is that the guards and servers are very nice and friendly, greeting you with a smile.
As you all know, North Park menu is always on the placemat which I think is highly convenient – we don’t have to ask for it anymore from busy waiters.
We almost always get the same things when doing north park: Special Fried Rice with Sauce (the sauce acts as a second ulam!), crispy fried chicken, and mango tapioca. The food is enough for 2 hungry stomachs.

Free Soup… Can you complain?

Crispy Chicken thtat’s crispy on the outside, moist on the inside

Special Fried rice with sauce packs a punch!

The sauce of the fried rice contains fish, mushroom, veggies & tofu

Mango Tapioca! Yummy dessert – TRY IT!

Prepare P250-P300 each for a full dinner, including the mango tapioca. Don’t miss this great dessert – it tastes better than it sounds!

North Park Greenhills is certainly no date place for dinner, but if you find yourselves starving after a movie at 11 pm along Megamall or Greenhills, it will be the only decent food stop open.

North Park

P.Guevarra corner Wilson, Greenhills

San Juan

Chinese noodles by hand! *yum*

I used to take bowling as my college PE and I think I’m actually pretty decent with it. How about you? It’s your chance to show your stuff by going on a bowling! Seriously, it does a lot to take stress away, bond over knocking things over with a large ball and rent smelly shoes.

Okay, maybe not the last one. But now’s a great time because SM Bowling Centers all over the Metro gives you a chance to participate in SM Bowling’s Red Pin Strike Out; a nice contest where you can win instant prizes you can share with your date.

Just participate in one regular bowling game with a date and you automatically qualify for the SM Bowling Red Pin Strike Out.

Twenty pins are set up for each lane, with each one having a red pin in random positions. When the Red Pin is at the “one” position (at the head of the pyramid), it’s called a Red Pyramid. You or your date must be able to strike the red pyramid to advance and win a prize.

It gets slightly complicated though: there are two stages for the you to be eligible to pick a prize: the Red Pyramid and the Red Pyramid Strikeout. During the first stage, you and your date will need to topple the red pin in his or her lane.

Striking out or toppling all the pins at the second stage grants you one prize from SM Bowling and its sponsors.

Prices are pretty reasonable: P200 per game off-peak, P250-300 per game peak hours. Technically, you can play with as many people as possible per game.

Try to bring your own bowling shoes  so you look like you’re an expert – though chances are, if you have a pair, you already do bowl regularly. If not then at least bring your own socks – buying one will cost you at least P50. It would look good if you advise your date to bring one too.

SM Megamall at 633-7052
SM North EDSA at 441-1802
SM Cebu at (032) 232-0295
SM Fairview at 939-5025

Don’t know how to bowl? Try these lessons for yourself before showing the moves to your date.

The crowd in Tramway Timog

I first ate at Tramway when I was in 6th grade – it was at the first branch along Banawe, Quezon City. Being young, everything tasted good. But I distinctly remember my mom saying that it was cheap buffet, that’s why evrything didn’t taste so good. The buffet price was P125 then, and given that memory, I’ve found myself resisting going back to the place. I feared my ‘adult tastes’ would agree with my Mom.

My success in avoiding the place was fully defined when a recent baptism of a high school friend’s daughter brough us there (my goodness, they’re having daughters already!). Well, grub for free, right? Right. So I trudged t the Timog branch of Tramway, ready to give it a second chance.

Like most buffets, everything is laid out on one table in the middle. Just one table and 2 lanes which looked almost too small given the place was big and could easily fit a hundred. Maybe that’s why evryone looked like they were in a frenzy – going this way and that, trying to grab as much grub as possible before the food runs out. The refill takes a while to come.

The place is very much a family place, loud with chatter of hows-your-food and more. No need to dress up – get your loosest jeans and leave some room for Tramway Chinese food.

Menu

I didn’t ask if we could get one, I just looked at the food laid out at Tramway. Honestly I don’t know if they vary the menu from day to day, but that night it was pretty decent. They had steamed lapu lapu, dimsum, fried rice, scrambled eggs, some meat, chicken, century eggs, tofu, salad, and a dessert selection consisting of watermelon, mango, and halo-halo.

The buffet spread

Tofu at Tramway Timog

Sweet and Sour Fish

Salad at the buffet

Fried siomai and other dimsum are included

Before you raise your eyebrow, take note that the buffet costs around P200. That’s the price of an average Max’s meal for you, and here you can have your fill. Moreover, the food wasn’t half bad at all. In fact, the meat was tender and didn’t taste like MSG at all. In fact, I’d take this buffet any day over the Kamayan buffet (50 chewy meat dishes for P279 or so).

Next time my date and I are in the mood for some Chinese food stuffing, we’ll definitely head to Tramway Timog. I hope Tramway Banawe has the same fare.

So your total bill should come to around P250 (net of taxes), I don’t advise you to get a drink except water so you can have more room for food.

Parking can be a hassle, so come a 10 minutes before peak dinner time.

Tramway, Timog
No. 65 Timog Ave.
Quezon City, Metro Manila
(02) 415-2005

You don’t need to eat at a buffet for good dimsum, here is a recipe on how to make your own:

Hard-Knocking pewter at the Royal Selangor Pewter Museum was probably one of the best things in my Singapore trip. It is one of the oldest and best-known names in the pewter industry for its internationally-acclaimed innovative designs and fine craftsmanship. At the museum, we were toured around the ancient art of pewter-making that is part of Singapore’s few cultural heritage. Looking at ancient pewter things was actually a bit boring, but eventually things became more exciting at Royal Selangor *wink*.

A Royal Pewter Knocking awaits at Selangor

It’s a regular museum with a twist. Royal Selangor is a company, after all. At the back there’s the regular museum where you can find ancient pewter thingies and a couple of people making pewter live. It starts with making regular pewter shapes out of pewter mesh, and then turning it into the shapes and containers by molding and pounding.

Selangor Centre Once Upon a Time

Ancient Pewter Alligators

Singapore Lucky Money Tree

A man shaping a pewter can and hammering

At the front of the museum is a big store where you can find lots of pewter items to take home. Some were a bit heavy so I decided against it because I might exceed my luggage limit. I was planning to load it with clothes later on during a shopping spree

Pewter Chess Set

Singapore pewter souvenir

Anyway, here comes the exciting part – the school of hard knocks! You’ll be led to a room/workshop where you will be given an apron, hammers, a wooden block, a pewter disk and some letters to engrave on your disk.

School of Hard Knocks equipment

Letter engravement stones for your pewter bowl

You start with pounding the letters on the disk so you can write something. You just need to pound it once (with all your angst – just imagine your boss doing it). This is the best place to take your date to to loosen up some nerves and have the best stories to tell afterwards.

My pewter engravement - pretty decent for a first timer

Anyway, once you’re done pounding letters on your pewter disk, you get to pound it on a wooden block with round shapes, ultimately forming into a bowl.

The wooden clock to mold your bowl

Don’t worry, the workshop folk will assist you. I suggest you pound with all your might – your bowl will look better that way! Take this advice and you can even impress your date with your professionally-made pewter bowl.

People hard at work pounding

Me, ready to pound

The end product - you get to take this and the apron home!

The school of hard knocks charges $30 (SGD) per person – about Php900. The tour gallery and retail showroom is free.

Don’t miss the cafeteria – it looked like they were serving yummy food. Unfortunately didn’t get the chance to order but I advice you get some good-looking noodle soup.

Royal Selangor Pewter Centre, Singapore

9am-9pm, including public holidays

3A River Valley Road

#01-01, Clarke Quay

6268 9600

www.royalselangor.com

Here’s how to make your own pewter cast in case you have the equipment: