General

What To Do (And See) In Bohol

By on Monday, August 11, 2008

There are quite a few things you can do in Bohol. Some of these are:

  • Beach, beach, beach
  • Blood Compact Monument
  • Baclayon Church – The oldest stone church in the Philippines
  • Tarsiers – Cute little critters. The reason why I ended up in Bohol :P
  • Loboc Children’s Choir
  • Loboc/Loay River Cruise – Cruise along the river while eating buffet lunch. Along the way you will see kids diving into the river as well as kids singing and dancing along the shore.
  • Man-made Forest
  • Chocolate Hills – Need I say more?
  • Giant Python (and Marimar)
  • Hanging Bridge (and The Buko King)
  • Butterfly Farm
  • Bohol Bee Farm
  • Hinagdanan Caves
  • Firefly Tour
  • Dolphin Watching at Pamilacan Island
  • Diving/Snorkeling at Balicasag Island

If you haven’t availed of packaged tours, you can contact Jessie Gumapac at +63928-307-9791. He does the countryside tour which covers most of the above. He can also arrange for a Pamilacan dolphin watching and Balicasag snorkeling tour.

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General

Amarela Resort (Or Where To Stay In Bohol)

By on Monday, August 11, 2008

Amarela is one of those boutique hotels that have mushroomed all over Bohol. It started off as a vacation home with a few rooms and has since become a hotel with a wing housing a lot more rooms. But because it started off as a vacation home, it has that homey feel to it. The staff is friendly, the restaurant serves good (in terms of quality and quantity) food, a cozy infinity pool (that unfortunately doesn’t appear to merge into the ocean), and facilities for beach activities (volleyball court, beach chairs, kayaks/bancas, snorkeling gear, etc). And if you really can’t leave work behind and just focus on your vacation, they have a business center with WiFi access.

There’s just one problem, the beach is not all that good. But then again, I’ve never been very impressed with the few Bohol beaches that I’ve been to. If you really want the beach maybe you can try the new Eskaya or time-tested Bohol Beach Club. Or for a lower budget you can try Alona Kew or Dumaluan Beach Resort. The last two are rated rather poorly in reviews but they should be fine if you’re not planning on staying in your room most of the time anyway.

Amarela is not cheap. But it’s rated quite highly in reviews. I myself would rate it higher if not for the rates (and the beach). But that’s just me.

Rating: 4/5

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General

SR20DE Transplant

By on Saturday, August 2, 2008

Got my car back the other day from Big Thumb where it had been undergoing an SR20DE transplant. After some road testing I observed the following:

  1. Vibrations. These become more apparent when turning to the right. The mechanic said he didn’t adjust the length of the driver-side axle so that could be the reason.
  2. No power when overtaking or going up basement parking ramp
  3. Timing is at 8 degrees only (normal is 15 degrees) and yet the distributor is set at maximum advance already.
  4. Hard shift shocks
  5. Sometimes doesn’t start at P or N
  6. Stiff shifter when switching between 1 and 2

Argh! The headaches never end. Guess it’s back to the shop.

UPDATE 1: Got the car back 8/6. The first issue was solved by shortening the drive-side axle. Second, third, and fourth issues were fixed by replacing a faulty distributor. The last two were solved by simply adjusting the transmission link to the shifter. Distributor is now centered. Throttle response is now good and power is apparent. Vibrations and shift-shocks are now normal.

UPDATE 2: I went to Servitek 8/11 and got the camber and toe adjusted since the process of modifying the axles screws up the alignment.

UPDATE 3: I went to M7 8/15 and had a solid rear engine mount installed. The old engine mount was too soft which caused the passenger-side engine mount to hit the bracket when the engine is torqued.

If you need or want an engine swap, you can check out Big Thumb. Owner is Noel Paroginog +63917-861-1963. They’ve done quite a few swaps and they know what they’re doing. They just need some improvement in their QA :P

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General

Requiem For A GA16DNE

By on Sunday, July 27, 2008

Today, my faithful GA16DNE died. It had been sputtering and consuming oil. A sign of an old engine. But it seemed it has also had been leaking coolant. I can only guess that this resulted in an overheat, which resulted in oil thickening and not circulating, which resulted in its head gasket breaking, which eventually resulted in its untimely demise. When I looked at the oil, it was the color of milk chocolate. Pretty much a death sentence.

In it’s over 10 years life, it has run over 125,000 kilometers. It had taken me through my daily commute. It had taken me to the occasional dives, surfs, and other out of towns. It had gone as far south as Batangas and as far north as Pagudpud. It had even kept up with a B16A (albeit driven by a nice girl driver). It definitely had served me pretty well. Too bad it had to die.

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General

Two Movies, Life, and Reality

By on Wednesday, July 23, 2008

As the supposed best man, I had to give a speech at Jem and Grace’s wedding. I was clueless at what to do and I asked Alex, who had been best man before, for help. He said that Dom, another friend, told him to watch Four Weddings And A Funeral and do what Hugh Grant did. It’s supposed to be like the ultimate best man speech or something like that. I was skeptical about the whole idea. Mainly because I couldn’t imagine pulling off a Hugh Grant :P This blog entry proved my skepticism and I ended up piecing together some sort of speech and delivered it my way.

Which brings me to another movie: A Bronx Tale and the infamous car door test. In the movie, a gangster was giving advice to a younger gangster about a girl. It’s supposed to go like this: Your car is locked. You unlock the passenger side door with your key and open the door for her. You then walk around to the other side. If she reaches across and unlocks the door for you, she’s cool. If not… well, she’s not cool :P

I know of two friends who were in a relationship and I’ve never observed the girl unlocking the door for the guy. So what then? The question is, is this still applicable in this modern age of remote keyless entry systems? Would such a thought even occur to a girl used, conditioned even, to automagically unlocking car doors? I don’t know the answer. But my friends? They eventually got married and are happily together. So much for that test.

But I think some of us do get caught up with patterning our behavior and actions from movies. We sometimes forget the fact that it is all scripted.

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