Balanga Archives - Lakas ng Trip

Church of Balanga, Bataan

October 13, 2012 by Josiah Leave a Comment

The Church of Balanga was the first on our list of places to visit in the province of Bataan. When the bus from Cubao arrived at Balanga (6:57AM, 2 hours and 1 minute travel time) we were asking around for 3 things – where is the Church of Balanga, how do we get to Mount Samat and our most important question, where to eat. We were hungry!

On the Bataan Transit bus to Balanga

The staff at the Bataan Transit Station were happy to answer all our questions and they told us that we could ride a tricycle for 10 Pesos/person going to the Church of Balanga. Unfortunately, we only had 1,000 Pesos as our budget for our overnight trip around Bataan, so we had to walk.

And after 9 minutes of walking, 15 minutes of eating spicy sinigang and another 16 minutes of walking we were finally across the street in front of the Church of Balanga.

Jose Rizal statue across the street at the front of the Church of Balanga, Bataan

Jose Rizal statue across the street at the front of the Church of Balanga. One of the best statues of Jose Rizal I’ve seen around the country.

After a few minutes taking pictures across the street people started going out of the church. A mass had already finished. A window of opportunity as I could go in the church and take a few photos without disturbing the congregation.

The front of the Church of Balanga

We crossed the street, went into the gates and finally THERE WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE INSIDE!!! Plan failed! At least I could take a picture just from the door not to disturb anyone.

How much did I spend on our overnight trip to Bataan

June 13, 2012 by Josiah 24 Comments

I was looking for a quick overnight trip to the beach and was asking friends on where I could go, but here’s the catch, I only had 1,000 Pesos for my budget inclusive of transportation, food and lodging. I asked the fun and bubbly Maui of The Travelure about my dilemma and she was challenged. So I formally challenged her to join me on my 1,000 Peso overnight challenge which she valiantly accepted.

Maui of TheTravelure.com at the beach in Bagac, Bataan

The problem now was where to go. When I was planning for the January leg of my 12 for 2012 Travel Project, I moved the location from Bataan to Bolinao and Alaminos, Pangasinan because I found Bataan too expensive. With my dilemma I went back at my Bataan notes and tried to roughly plan again, removing the expensive must-see places in Bataan. It was then conclusive that it was possible to do an overnight backpacking trip to Bataan for a thousand Pesos.

On the early morning of June 10, 2012 we embarked on a journey that I called Bataan 1,000 Peso 2-Day Challenge. See below the list of what we did and how much our expenses were on the trip.