Friday, October 2, 2015

Camotes

Camotes Our stay at the house was my first using AirBnB: I think it was a perfect choice! It gave my girlfriend and I an experience we will always remember. The owners of the house were away that weekend so we had the place to ourselves. We also had the help of a friendly Filipino family that look after the estate. They picked us up at the port (holding a sign with our name on it) and brought us to the house. The Filipino family also went above and beyond finding us a motorbike rental (which was delivered to the house). Even a manicurist and massage therapist came to the house. The guest area layout is very nice with two separate bedrooms which have queen size comfortable mattresses and one big bathroom with a shower. The kitchen was full of dishes and utensils, and they had plenty of towels and bed sheets to last. It would be nice if they would have had a hair dryer and wifi service at the house. But these are little inconveniences. In addition, there’s no TV at the guesthouse but that was an unnoticed absence for my girlfriend and I because we brought laptop computers. The Camotes island are beautiful and away from the tourist hot spot of Lapu Lapu on Mactan Island. The drive from our house near Santiago Bay to the closest town San Francisco was through a gorgeous tall palm tree forest. Santiago Bay beach has crystal clear water and soft texture white sand. There is a downside of vacationing in an exotic location that we discovered and that is the food options were very limited and the food we did eat wasn't very delicious. The atmosphere at the restaurant at Santiago Bay Resort is gorgeous overlooking Santiago Bay beach but I wouldn’t recommend eating at the resort restaurant. They serve breakfast with instant coffee and badly blended smoothie shakes. We did find a few nice dishes at Pito's Sutukil restaurant down on the beach of Santiago Bay. We really liked the fish in sashimi dishes and tilapia soup. Also the mango shakes were delicious. But try to stay away from the pork dishes Pito’s. Since there isn't a big tourist industry on the Camotes there just isn't many restaurants to choose from in the area. It appears most of the local residents always eat at home. So it would be recommended to use your cooking skill at the house and go shopping at the food market in San Francisco. For our trip, staying there only two nights we didn't have enough time to build a well stocked refrigerator and cook ourselves. One other thing to mention about the boat ride to the Camotes is to make sure to be on time for the boat departure. We missed our scheduled boat and had to wait around in Danoa for the next boat to come several hours later. It was an interesting experience riding around in a bicycle taxi and finding a small water park for local kids. But entertainment and food is very limited in Danao. Overall, the experience was fantastic. The house is amazing and the people running it are very nice and accommodating. I highly recommend it.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

LG HBS800 Bluetooth Headphones

Reading other reviews of this made me want to focus on the functionality of this product for others to make a decision on buying this item or not. Most of the reviews of this product focus on performance, with long descriptions of how well the headphones stay connected through bluetooth from long distances. But as I've been using this device for a long time I'm hardly ever separated from my music device (which is my smart phone) especially when I'm listening to music. So it's not really an issue.
    These headphones are priced as an introduction into bluetooth headphones generally speaking. So reviewing these headphones should mostly be compared to alternatives to bluetooth headphones instead of the highest quality headphones money can buy.  The alternative to bluetooth headphones are headphones with a cord attached to your music device.  And between these two there’s hardly a comparison. Bluetooth headphones are functionally far superior to corded headphones. I can't count the number of times a cord attached to my music device was yanked out of my ear by overextending my body when I'm shuffling around my bag or pedaling on a bicycle. Plus a cord hanging down from my ears to my pocket is unsightly and somewhat dangerous because it's likely to get hooked to things that you brush up against. Sometimes this even causes your music device to get pulled out of your pocket and slam on the floor. The first time I tried on these LG Bluetooth Headphones it felt like complete freedom to be listening to music with so much ease. I could even take photos as I'm listening to music now. #selfiemoment
If I were to buy the headphones again I would have purchased a different color like black. White stands out too much like you're wearing a pooka shell necklace. Also the noise cancelation mode doesn't really do anything when it's turned on plus when the switch is turned on the battery is drained. Turning off the headphones doesn't actaully turn them off when the noise cancelation switch is on.