Albergo Hotel, Baguio City (Part 1 of 2)

I was able to attend the recent Grand Parade of the 17^th Baguio Flower Festival Celebration (a.k.a. Panagbenga) last February 26, 2012. Sef is supposed to be with me during the festival but due to unforeseen events, he wasn’t able to attend the festivities with me. Since I already booked a hotel room at Albergo (and the cancellation period already elapsed), I went to the festival alone.

I’ll tell you more about my experience of the Panagbenga celebration in the next few days. For now, let’s focus on the hotel I’ve stayed with – Albergo Hotel. It’s located at #1 Villamor Drive, Brgy. Lualhati, Baguio City (Zip Code is 2600 if you intend to send them a snail mail).

From Session Road in the heart of Baguio, you could go to Lower Mabini Street and ride a jeep en route to Mines View Park. Albergo Hotel is a few meters away from Wright Park and you’ll see it before you reach The Mansion.

I made the online reservation via www.booking.com and it offered the following prices and amenities:

Total room price: PHP 3,090.00 (Please note: additional supplements (e.g. extra bed) are not added to this total. 12% VAT is excluded. 1% city tax is excluded. You will pay the hotel in the local currency (PHP) according to the exchange rate on the day of payment.

Room 1, Superior Suite

Offers a microwave oven and a living are for 2 persons (strictly non-smoking)

I also communicated with Albergo Hotel directly and they gave me a bit more detailed amenities:

1 Superior Suite

• Two 48” beds
• Cabled flat TV
• T&B with hot & cold shower
• Double Occupancy (max. 4 occupancy) with TWO complimentary breakfast
• Table and Chairs for two
• Window seat

So ignore the microwave oven because it’s really not included in the package. I hope Albergo Hotel communicates with www.booking.com and remove it there since it’s misleading.

Other than this minor discrepancy, other things that I noticed in the Superior Suite (I got the room #911) are:

• No toothpaste and toothbrush.
• No pen or memo pads to write on but you can request for bond papers. It would be a very nice souvenir if they could provide something to write on with the name of the hotel on it.
• No wireless network detected in my room. Probably their wireless router is in camouflage mode or I’m very far from the wireless router.
• The flooring on the entire suite is ceramic tiles. It could have been better if the finish is wood or carpet. Ceramic tiles are very cold to the feet. I forgot to bring along my slippers.
• The room is not acoustically treated and you can hear the staff’s conversation outside of your room clearly.
• Massage service is being offered (from an outside source) at P600.00 per hour (Swedish, Shiatsu etc). I asked for a masseur before I went to sleep but there’s no available male masseur at that time.
• The room smells of fresh varnish when I checked in.

Other than these minor things, the Superior Suite is very cozy and comfortable. You won’t hear any noise from vehicles because it’s about 10 minutes away from the heart of Baguio.

I slept very deeply in my room. The staffs are very efficient, courteous and accommodating. The room itself is masculine and business-like in design. I would definitely go back to Albergo Hotel next year.

My final bill (including taxes) when I checked out of Albergo Hotel is P3,491.70. Check out the following pictures of the Superior Suite. I’ll post more pictures of Albergo Hotel tomorrow and discuss its other amenities.

For reservations, you may contact Albergo Hotel at:

Baguio Sales Office: (074) 424-2620, (074) 424-7175 to 76

Manila Sales Office: (02) 552-0331; Fax: (02) 552-0083

Email: egi.albergo@yahoo.com, albergohotel_baguio@yahoo.com,

Website: www.egialbergo.webs.com

BuzzNet Tags: Albergo Hotel,Baguio City,Superior Suite

Thank You Nuffnang!

Last night, Sef and I attended Nuffnang’s 5^th Birthday celebration held at (the mezzanine of) Borough, The Podium Mall (Ground Floor near BPI). I was one of the 50 bloggers who won the early bird promo of Nuffnang. As a prize, I was invited to the event and I was able to bring along Sef with me. As a bonus, I won in the raffle!

Sef is indeed my lucky charm because I don’t usually won in raffles. So I got a paper bag of goodies including a large notebook, a black shirt, and a large wallet!

We also enjoyed the photo booth by Pose & Print as well as the food and the cupcake. Check out the following pictures of the event.

Again, thank you Nuffnang for the invitation!

 

The picture of the cupcake was shot by Sef.

BuzzNet Tags: Nuffnang,Jack TV,Sef,Borough

View From The Balcony

Sef saw these pictures when we watched the movie “The Vow”. He likes these pictures telling me that these shots were “nice”. Coming from someone who’s taking pictures using a DSLR camera for the past 4 years, I take it as a compliment.

I wish I knew how to enhance these pictures using Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to. Anyway, I hope you guys like these shots.

 

BuzzNet Tags: Sef,View From The Balcony

Happy 5th Birthday, Nuffnang!

I am very thankful to be associated with such a great name in the online advertising industry!

Happy 5th Birthday, Nuffnang! I sure hope to have more projects with you. Have a Nuffnang-bulous Birthday Celebration. Cheers!

To celebrate Nuffnang’s 5th Birthday, they're having a party on February 27, 2012, 8PM – 12MN at the Borough (The Podium Mall, 12 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City).

I sure hope to be invited to such prestigious event. BTW, this event is sponsored by:

 

BuzzNet Tags: Nuffnang,Happy 5th Birthday Nuffnang

SM City Annex & Sky Garden

The last time I was at SM City Annex was around 2004. I was surprised on how it looks like today. It’s very different from the last time I visited.

This is also the first time I walk through the Sky Garden of SM City North EDSA. I’m surprised to find out that there’s a Padi’s Point on it. I wish I have walked through The Block. Anyways, that’s for another day to explore. For now, here are some of the pictures of SM Annex and the Sky Garden.

 

BuzzNet Tags: SM City Annex,Sky Garden,SM North EDSA

Basic Photography with Ricky Ladia

Last Saturday, I attended an event organized by Epson. It’s a basic photography seminar with photographer Ricky Ladia.

Ricky Ladia explained the basic things about DSLR photography, from the parts of a typical DSLR camera, features, file types, essentials, types of lens, post process (using software like Adobe Photoshop to enhance a picture), etc.

Ricky Ladia is a Nikon enthusiast but I appreciate that he’s also familiar with the basic controls of a Canon DSLR. His slideshow are mostly based on the functions and features of a Nikon DSLR but Canon enthusiasts (like us) can still relate to the Power Point presentation.

What I like about this basic photography seminar is the lecture on composing the picture and post process. Here are some of his tips on how to take pictures:

1. Keep it simple – use 2 colors on your pictures
2. Lines, texture and direction – try to look for these things in your subject
3. Symmetrical – don’t be afraid to take pictures of the subject in a symmetrical way
4. Rule of thirds – the famous rule in photography
5. Colors – hot colors (red, orange, yellow) is first perceive by the eye. So focus on hot colors first before the cool colors (blue, green)
6. Background and foreground – it’s not always about the subject.
7. Try different angles – like Worm’s eye view
8. Use the whole frame – avoid cropping the picture during post production. As much as possible, use the whole resolution when taking your pictures
9. Sharpness and focus
10. Avoid camera shake (he taught us how to hold the camera properly)
11. Get the right focus – when taking portraits, focus on the nearer eye
12. Use higher shutter speed
13. Use tripod cable release timer

Other tips that I got from him is The Workflow. It’s a series of step to perform during post process:

1. Take photo / capture image
2. Download to your computer – being a photographer means having a computer
3. Backup the file before conversion
4. Post Process (conversion) – from RAW to JPEG
5. Backup the file again after making some changes using Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, Picasa or other software
6. Upload or print (using Epson printers of course)

During Uploading and Printing, the processes involve are:

1. Resizing the picture
2. Sharpening the picture – preferably during Post Production and not on the camera itself
3. Saturation – to avoid “Disney colors” (too much color)
4. Adjusting levels and curves
5. Calibrating the monitor – it’s important to calibrate the colors of the monitor so that you don’t get surprise once the pictures are printed

I sure hope I could apply what I learn to my future shots. Here are the pictures of the event by the way. I’ll post the pictures of SM Annex and the famous “garden” of SM City North EDSA tomorrow.

BuzzNet Tags: Ricky Ladia,Epson,Basic Photography