Lucban beckons. Really.
There were so many things to discover that I never thought of. I tell you, it is worth the trip for those who plan to have me time (3 hour trip so a lot of me time), those who likes to reflect and meditate, burn calories and take in calories as well :). Will tell you why later.
First thing first, this trip was a super late post but I think this is timely since holy week is next week. Lucban is a good place to visit this holy week because of Kamay ni Hesus. My family and I went to Lucban to visit the Kamay ni Hesus Shrine and this was requested by my son because my father told him that it is a healing church. It is a 3 hour drive from Manila and we just followed the directions that I saw in the internet. It was a day trip.
The whole trip was a mixture of reflection and prayer and food trip (so many local food they have ) so make sure if you're going there have an extra money for pasalubong because there are a lot of stuff to buy.
We had lunch first at Kamayan sa Palaisdaan. A lot of people are eating here since this is near the shrine but I saw another one too on the other side. The place is huge but unfortunately the foodie experience was not at all pleasant. It missed a lot of opportunities pertaining to service which relates to the qualityof food as well. I don't want to go further on this but what I am sure of is that there is always room for improvement and they can still maximize the opportunities they have :). On the other hand, it's a nice place to take pictures. They also have a mini zoo and souvenir shop.
A little tour perhaps.
We waited for more than an hour for our food but glad that somebody was selling pilipit. Super sarap! A must try.
We ordered Pansit Lucban as part of our lunch.
After lunch we proceeded to Kamay ni Hesus. It was a huge place and you have to take more than 300 plus steps to be able to reach the top. We did not reach the top but we tried and since my son is with me ( who has asthma) after a couple of steps we just prayed and went down.
We also visited the church, walked along the Garden of Eden and took pictures of the statues of the saints and Mama Mary.
and here is the Garden of Eden:
Noah's Ark
We didn't get the chance to hear mass because it was past the mass schedule. We just lit candles for prayers and intentions after going down from the shrine and afterwards visited their pasalubing shops. This is the part of the trip where you get to butn calories with all the walking and going up happening. But of course, as soon as the journey ends, you will get hungry and getting something to eat is not a problem in Lucban. A lot of food for sale in their pasalubong shops.
Bought this as this is perfect for breakfast
And of course, going to Lucban won't be complete without buying this... A lot of people are buying this famous yema cake and at the time of the visit they have the caramel cake already.
Love this yema cake together with coffee :)
We went home around 4pm and got ourselves more pasalubong along the way:
This bibingka was freshly cooked and they're selling for Php 100 for 3 pieces (medium size and comes with a mini basket)
It was nice day trip and when we went home we took the other way instead of the usual way unintentionally. The way we took was in Rizal going to Antipolo then to Quezon City. The better way is not the one we took but the one that exits in SLEX so better to check the signs carefully.
There goes my traveller's hat :)