Third week of January, I was advised by my boss that we have a deployment somewhere up north on February. That we will be conducting BlackBerry training for two of our company's reseller in Dagupan City.
Fast forward on Feb 01 2012.
I arrived in our head office in Pasig City, where I was advised to go straight from home, at 10AM. I woke up late so I didn't have time to have breakfast at home so I had breakfast at Adobo Republic near our office. It was my first time to eat at that place so I was having difficulty what to order. lol. Most of their food are Adobo, but of course! lol.
I had Adobo Diablo. Diablo because it's spiceeehh!! lol. I like it. It's so perfect with the salted egg and tomato. And yeah, I ordered an extra rice. lol.
By 3pm we went to Cubao to take a bus to Dagupan City. It was supposed to be a 4hrs travel but due to traffice congestion in Tarlac (road widening) it took us 6hrs. You wont believe how traffic it was. lol. I had a butt cramps when I got off the bus. Seriously! lol.
We were met by an ex-employee of Microwarehouse. His name is Russell. He brought us to Dagupan Garden and Village Hotel. It was a nice place. It sort of reminds me a neo-classical architecture. It has a lot of columns and domes and everything was painted in white.
When we got to the reception there are no more standard rooms available, they're almost full and we need to have a separate room of course. lol. But since Russell is known to the place because his family is good friends with the hotel owner, the receptionist made some exception. We were billed Php900 for each room and I thought it's just gonna be a simple room with plain bed and bath but when we got upstairs I was shocked to see the room coz it's more than what I have expected.
Or probably the price given was just for a standard room but we were given a deluxe. lol. I don't know but I can't complain ofcourse.. Why would I?! lol.
Even the bathroom is so big and it has a bathtub. lol.
I'm a bathtub maniac, so I was really ecstatic when I saw the tub! lol.
I would like to believe that this is a deluxe room. The TV is small but it has cable so it's fine. lol.
They got some couch in the room where you can sit and relax while you can chat with your companion over coffee or tea. lol.
At 11pm we went out to have a late dinner. We went to this bar and restaurant just downtown, the name is Quattro. I dont think it is the same Quattro we used to go with my friends back in Manila, somewhere in Timog, Quezon City.
They got live band that plays anything from OPM to RNB or Alternative. I like their keyboardist, he sounds like Jay Durias of South Border. Where the hell is the South Border band anyway? I missed them.
We had some grilled stuff. It was good. I didnt get to take pictures coz I was too hungry. lol. And we had like 3 rounds of beer to catch up with Russell's life in province. lol.
We got back to the hotel around 2AM but to my room because boss and I still need to discuss some other topics for the training. By 3AM my boss had to go back to his own room to rest. Yeah, it was a very busy day. Our call time that morning was 7am I slept at around 4am. I was missing my <3. lol.
So I got up at 6:30AM, had a quick bath. lol coz I was rushing late already. My boss BBM'd me already that he's up and ready. lol.
We headed to the cafe where we had our complimentary breakfast. I had MalingSiLog and orange juice.
The ambiance of their cafe is like a victorian classic. Lots of chandeliers and splendid fabric match. I like the color they used.. Pink! lol.
So at 8:30AM we headed to QSL Electronics to conduct training. I was nervous at first. lol. Good thing the attendees are jokers so I didn't have difficulty connecting with them. lol.
We started at 9AM and we're done by 12PM. It was just a quick training coz as requested by the owner they can only give 2-3hours of their time so the supposedly 2 days training have been consolidated. lol.
Sir Xavier, the Account Key Manager for North Luzon, I heard his sales up north are really doing good. Nice! lol.
We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant just across the QSL Electronics. I had Pork Katsudon and some Maki.
After lunch we headed to a mall to train the front liners of Wow Mobile. The owner of the mall is also the owner of Wow Mobile. lol. The training was from 2pm to 6pm. After that my boss and I where hungry we craved for some dimsum. Russell suggested the dim sum of Gloria Maris. I forgot the name of the dim sums we had but I love the hakao and japanese siomai.
Russell waiting for the dim sums. lol
But wait! theres more.. lol. those dim sums are just appetizers.. Then russell suggested that we try the famous Pigar-Pigar of Dagupan. I was curious with the name so I was excited. On our way to the location I kept asking him what Pigar-Pigar is. lol
Pigar-Pigar
Pigar-pigar - Located on the busy street of Galvan, at daylight one can never imagine that by night time this place could turn to be like a street food capital of Luzon. Dining tables and chairs would just pop out and you'll see stalls with fresh meat being hung in front of it, the meat can be beef or carabao. When you order, you'll be asked how much lard would you like, it will be sauteed together with generous amount of white onions or you can ask the to also add some whatever vegetables they got (Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli). Sometimes one can also add liver.
The dish is very simple but tasty. Thanks to the onions that complemented very well with meat. I can imagine this as a "pulutan" (finger food) when you and your friends are having a drinking session. lol.
Puto calasio or the "white gold"
Uhhmmm.. If your in Dagupan do not forget to drop by Calasiao, Pangasinan and have a taste of the famous "white gold" or Puto Calasiao. They called it white gold because of the great income it gave to their municipality. It is a bite-size, soft rice cake made from semi-glutinous rice fermented in earthen jars. Ugh! I just love it! It comes in different flavors (cheese, buko pandan, ube etc) even the plain one is great! Perfect with Dinuguan (blood stew)
What's great is that you can have a free taste. You can taste every flavors they have. I bought a kilo of it as pasalubong to my officemates. lol.
So after that we had to go back to Manila now, we waited for like 45mins before we can ride a bus back home. The travel time going back was just 4hrs. I got home at 3AM.
It was a nice experience, meeting new people and trying out their food. It was awesome! I'm thankful and glad that my boss entrusted me on this job. Now he said there are more to come. Laoag, Ilocos, etc. And for that, I just can't wait boss!! lol.
