La Union: Life on Board

Surfing has always been in my bucket list... and I happen to cross it out this year. I am so happy and proud. Actually, not that proud of myself because I did not perfect the stance and my girlfriend did it better than me during our first time. It was all spontaneous. My girlfriend and I were just having a conversation on what to do on her birthday month. As adventurers, of course, we did not want the usual birthday party or inuman with friends. So the question should not be what but where. Where to go for October? I guess almost all of us are familiar with festivals happening in October. Masskara was our first option but it was too late to book a flight - very expensive. What's the next thing on your mind? Well, obviously, it is SOUL SURF 2014.

Soul Surf is a beach party festival with a combination of music, art and surfing. This usually happens in San Juan, La Union on the third weekend of October. The sponsors invite international artists, bands and DJ's who will rock the beach at night. So here is the line-up for Soul Surf 2014.

Picture taken from www.surfph.com

So what's great about this event? It is my girlfriend's birthday month so we got to celebrate it.... with lots of people! It is a festival! One good thing about festivals is that they have sponsors who set up their booths and give freebies and free booze! 

On the 25th of October...

We left Manila at around 4 in the morning. It was a 7-hour bus ride from Cubao. We arrived in San Juan around 12 noon - perfect timing for check-in. We have our "hotel" reserved a week before through e-mail. Actually, it is still cheap knowing that all rooms are booked and we happened to find one, Mona Liza. I think it is Php 1,100 a night and beach front just 5 minutes away from the event area. We also pre-ordered tickets for the event. It cost us Php 5,400 for 2 cool tickets.

Early bird price is Php 2,650 for cool ticket.

View outside our room at 12:30 in the afternoon.

Then, we ate lunch at fatwaves, a surf resort beside the event area. 

Lunch at fatwaves.

Around 4pm we went to the beach in front of our room to take a swim. Unfortunately, swimming was not possible due to the strong waves so we just took pictures instead.

Look at those waves! Not that huge though.

Enjoying the beach. We miss this life.

Sunset photo #candid

So after sunset, you know what's next! It's party time!!! It felt like Boracay but a mild one. We went home first and changed before going to the event. We went to different booths and got a lot of freebies - lightsaber, booze, handkerchief, cereals (lol), ziplock and many more. After eating dinner, we decided to buy a couple of drinks to start the night. 

Nothing compares to drinking by the beach

After having a couple of drinks (because there are no free drinks inside the event), we went in the party and met some of our friends. DJ Katsy Lee did a great job DJ-ing.

Partying with the Soul Surfers

Those lightsabers though.

Crowd's building up!

So tired we decided to sit again hahaha!

The next day, October 26...

We got up early around 8 in the morning so that we can maximize our time and we were to meet some friends as well. We ate breakfast in our room and proceeded to the beach in front of the San Juan Surf Resort. 

I met with my friend, Rob, who owns 3 surf boards. He is willing to lend us one and teach us how to surf. He taught me first then my girlfriend. I admit, I was a newbie. My girlfriend even surfs better than me or maybe the height is a factor. We surfed for 2 hours or more for FREE! Thanks again to my good friend, Rob. 

Waiting for my friend. Good thing Smart put up bean bags at their booth. Good job!

What a perfect day for surfing! Look who's excited!

But this girl surfs like a boss. I don't have a photo like this because I can hardly stand :(

Selfie with a friend we bumped into while trying to surf!

Surfing crew!

Feeling surfer dude. Haha!

Big ass board for my petite surfer girl. Size doesn't matter indeed!

After the tiring yet fun activity, it was time for lunch! We walked home first to change. Then we decided to try the famous Flotsam Jetsam of San Juan, La Union. What a chill place it is! We ordered seafood pasta and beef salpicao. They really have huge servings! We ended up so full and sleepy lazy. Good thing they have hammocks and bean bags, and of course, fruit juices to complement the fine weather.

Selfie in the streets. On our way to Mona Liza.

Yummy seafood pasta!

Too bad I haven't taken a picture of my beef salpicao :(

You want some? Go, Jetsam!

How I wish we could stay here forever. So chill!

Chillin' like a villain in Flotsam Jetsam.

Too bad a lot more people arrived and destroyed the chillness of the place so we decided to go home.

I woke up and saw this. Last sunset in La Union. I will miss this place...

We spend our last night in El Union Coffee. They are also famous in San Juan but we did not get to try their smores and other specialties because the one who makes them went to Manila. We got disappointed to we ordered their coffee instead and a Jack Daniels cupcake. We bumped into some friends again while finishing our cup of coffee and cake. 

Chill night for our last night. 

We all decided to go back to Flotsam Jetsam for a chill drinking night instead of going to the event for the music festival. Actually, I am not that familiar of the bands so I was not too excited for the event. Unfortunately, the event did end early because of the heavy rain. Good thing we were just in Flotsam drinking our cocktails and playing boardgames and catching up - the ideal chill night.

We called it a night around 2 in the morning and went home. 

The next morning, we got up early again to take some photos before we leave. We also ate pizza and pasta in fatwaves and bid our friends goodbye. It was a wonderful, fun-filled weekend for the both of us! We left for Manila around 12 noon.

La Union, we'll surely come back for 'ya! The food, the place, and most especially, the waves - everything is so perfectly relaxing. I will soon be a legit surfer!