[ONLINE GAME] Playing Deceit the Second time around with our third and final member, full of noobness and stuff

So today we have our third member of our squad joining us with her IGN Adobongshomai, yep its the freaking food. Well anyway the squad is finally completed with our third Dick-Head on the party, we got on our discord and started our second episode of stupidity with the online-game in steam called Deceit.

Since we are all noobs we still are discovering rules and what actually needs to be done in the game. We can now form strategies and spot who is infected and who is not. Because NO ONE FREAKING WANTS TO TELL WHEN THEY ARE INFECTED even we are on the same party we just trip and play out our best bluffs with each other if we are indeed the infected or not. Turns out our little shitty friend is one of the infected on our 3rd game and devoured all of us that resulted on a mission failed.

By the why to hissatsu who never had a chance to be an infected, next bro there is always a next time and maybe we can pull in other people to play this to have a full party and total chaos over our discord channel.

Watch our video and have fun.

[ONLINE GAME] Playing Deceit in Steam for the first time

Hey guys! I haven't really made much of a new entry but here is something that I've been doing. I played with my friend a game called Deceit from Steam and it's free!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!

Deceit is a thriller game where in your group 1 or 2 will be randomly selected if you are going to be an "infected", and the rest would be the "innocent". Basically it's a game of tag where the infected have to kill all of the innocent and prevent them from surviving the whole stage. As for the innocent the team has to survive till the end of the stage or lay-out traps, identify and kill the infected among the group.

Watch our game play of Deceit as we scream like little girls trying to survive and finish the game!

There were supposed to be another friend that should be joining us in this session but apparently she's still at work or on her way home when we tried recording maybe next time then!

Basic Taipei

Every year, a bike expo is held in Taipei, catering to manufacturers, distributors, and bike enthusiasts. My brother (a bike shop owner) attended this year's expo. I grabbed the opportunity to join my brother in Taipei, together with my mom and her friend. 

Taiwan wasn't a top of mind destination for me but ever since Air Asia opened it's flights to Taiwan last year and entry became a lot easier, I became eager to go.

Worm's eyeview of the Taipei 101

Two weeks before our flight, we settled our visa-free application via the Embassy of Taiwan website.

If you own any of the following documents  issued by Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, any of the Schengen countries, the United Kingdom, or the United States,

1.   Valid resident or permanent resident card

2.   Valid entry visa (may be electronic visa)

3.   Resident card or visa that has expired less than 10 years prior to the date of arrival in Taiwan

then you are eligible to apply for a visa exemption, provided you also meet other requirements. For our case, we hold a valid Korea Visa. Applying for a visa exemption takes less than a minute! There's news now that Taiwan will be really visa-free for Filipinos, though.

With the availability of promo airfares, it's impossible to miss out Taiwan. We bought our tickets last January for only ₱3,840 - round trip. I know it can still go for as low as ₱1000 but the promo fares we got were already a good deal. The downside was that buying a promo fare ticket means getting either a super late night flight or a super early morning flight -- or both. We flew to Taipei on March 21 at 11:10PM. Touchdown in Taipei at 01:15AM. 

From the Taoyuan Airport, we went to the hotel located in Banqiao District via the pick up service of the hotel,. We stayed in Sleep Taipei Hostel and Hotel which I just saw via an online booking site. The room we booked was a bit small but can accommodate 4 people. The hostel is just 2 blocks away from the Fuzhong Station in the Bannan Line so it's really convenient. It's also situated in a commercial area near different boutiques and restaurants. 

Photo from website because I forgot to take a decent picture of our room (same as above) before we messed up the whole room. lol.

✔ HOTEL TIP: If you are on a budget (like us), you can consider staying in hostels because it's cheaper and still offers good services. You can check out where to stay via AirBNB and Hostel World because they have a wide range of selections from fancy guesthouses to hostels to dormitories. 

I'm a fan of countries with fast, convenient, and CLEAN transport system and Taiwan is one them because of their reliable train system called the Taipei Metro. Daily operation starts at 6:00AM and ends until midnight. 

✔ GOING AROUND TIP: Plan your itinerary ahead of time! Download the Taipei Metro App from Google Play store to help you select your routes, find the station where to hop in/off, where to transfer, as well as the time and fares of each station. Very useful for Taipei-first-timers!

We were able to visit attractions which are mostly in the blue, green, and red line (see Taipei Metro map above). We first bought an All-Day Pass for NT$150 - for an unlimited use for the whole day. On the second day, I decided to purchase an Easy Card for NT$200 (NT$100 for the card + loaded it with NT$100). Easy Card is a reusable re-loadable smart card that can be used in the subway, bus, taxi, and even in shops. I re-loaded it twice during our stay in Taipei. I prefer the Easy Card because it can be used in other mode of transportation and the remaining balance can still be used or refunded unlike the All-day pass which expires in less than 24 hours.

I wanted the trip to be a relax and easy trip since I don't want mom to get tired and I opted for a Do-It-Yourself trip instead of booking a guided tour via an agency. So my goal was just to visit the main attractions of the city.

✔ GOING AROUND TIP: Don't forget to change your currencies to Taiwan Dollar especially if you will stay in Taiwan until the weekend! You can only exchange your money in the banks during weekdays. There are some authorized money changer in the malls but they only accept selected currencies such as US Dollar. You can also exchange your money in the airport, though. If you don't want to convert all your Peso to New Taiwan Dollar, then at least have some US Dollar with you. 😉

Click on the "day" to view the photo diary.

DAY 1

Our goal for the first day was to explore some of the main attractions of the city and search for Cherry Blossoms. 🌸

Photo taken in Chiang Kai Shek

1.     Longshan Temple

2.     Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

3.     Taipei 101

DAY 2 

We explored the northern side of Taipei on the second day and went on some souvenir shopping.

Mini stream taken in Xinbeitou

1.     Yangmingshan National Park

2.     Beitou

3.     Shilin Night Market

DAY 3

Went a bit south on the third day to see the pandas and different kinds of birds, and the whole Taipei via the Gondola.

Pretty in pink flamingos in Taipei Zoo

1.     Taipei Zoo

2.     Maokong Gondola

DAY 4

Bad weather on the fourth and last day so we just opted to check out malls within the stations (except Ximen). It's our last day and I did not have an actual plan for the fourth day. 😛

Shopping district in Taipei

1.     Banqiao Global Mall

2.     K Underground Mall

3.     Ximen

To give you an idea of how much to spend for your trip in Taipei, here is a summary of all my expenses prior the trip:

And during the trip: 

Since I applied for a visa exemption, I did not pay the ₱2,400 visa application, so all in all, in my honest-to-goodness calculations (lol) I spent around ₱18,000, inclusive of hotel, air fare, airport fees, souvenirs, and going around Taipei for four days. 😃 

Visit my blog to see the whole Taipei Photo Diary, click on the links below:

Basic Taipei
Day 1 - Longshan Temple, CKS Memorial Hall, Taipei 101

Day 2 - Yangmingshan National Park, Beitou / Xinbeitou, Shilin Night Market

Day 3 - Taipei Zoo, Maokong Gondola

Day 4 - Underground Malls and Ximen

I've also shared some tips on how to get to specific places. 😉

Mt. Tarak Ridge Travel Experience

Mt. Tarak Ridge

ISO 100 36mm f/5.6 1/100s

I was invited again by my high school friends to an overnight hike last July 30, 2016.

Car check up before the road trip

Off we go!

We started our journey around 4am and took a stop over besides Coastal Mall (Paranaque, Manila) because we need to pick-up Tadz and Monica.

From left to right

 (Michael , Kidlat, Tadz, Kuya Jof, and Ivan)

Took a break for a moment along side of the road of Bacolor, Pampanga.

 To Mariveles, Bataan!!

The Jump-Off Point

Breakfast Time!

We had reached the community of Mariveles, Bataan around 6am and fill up our tummies with a warm delicious breakfast on the local Carenderia (local eatery) there, immediately after we get off our ride.

Monica with the gang

Barangay Hall of Alasasin, Mariveles, Bataan

Kidlat putting our names on the log book

We visited the Barangay Hall of Alasasin to log our names there as the usual routine before we start the hike.

On The Spot Meal Planning

Shop on the nearby Palengke (public market) to stock up some veggies and meat....

Kuya Jof with a big plastic bottle of water and Tadz with 3 bottles of.....

Also some drinks as well like water and errr..... Brandy??

We are all packed up

Go! Go! Go!

Trees & Humans

ISO 1600 18mm f/5.6 1/320s

We started the hike with haste, my friends told me that it will be a long hike since Mt. Tarak Ridge was categorized as a major climb mountain.

Tarpaulin display of mountaineering groups who conquered Mt. Tarak Ridge

Aling Cording enjoying her hot coffee with some hikers

A couple of minutes had passed, we had reached Aling Cording's house which also an outpost and we rest there for a while.

And the hike goes on...

Monica and Michael with Filipino actor Christian Vazquez with his group

While we were hiking the trail of Mt. Tarak Ridge we come across with a familiar face and we were all star-struck of course.

View point from a higher ground along the trail of Mt. Tarak Ridge

A bit tired but still need to go on

Since I'm a first timer at Mt. Tarak Ridge (my first major climb also), I asked my friends where we gonna set our camping tents and they told me beside a river called Papaya River.

Papaya River Stream Part 1

ISO 100 29mm f/5.6 1/5s

Papaya River Stream Part 2

ISO 100 18mm f/14 5s

Camping tents are all set

Kuya Jof with Kidlat preparing the ingredients of Chicken Tinola for our lunch

Group picture while waiting for the Chicken Tinola to be cook

Happy Lunch

After 3 hours of hiking from the jump-off point, we had reached the Papaya River. As soon as we got ourselves into the place, we set up our camping tents and prepare the food ingredients for our lunch. All goes well while we were enjoying the stay beside the river until something inevitable happened..... It rained.

Remember those bottles of brandy on the recent photo above?

Heavy rain fallen up on us while staying beside the river. So we ended up to the decision that we spend our night on the Papaya River and continue the climb tomorrow morning instead. 

Morning Hike

Good Morning!!

After we woke up in the morning, we pack ourselves lightly to hike once again Mt. Tarak Ridge but this time Kidlat wasn't with us, he stays on our camp instead.

Almost there...

There it is!!

And we are here but we got a long trail to hike

Tadz and Michael doing a "Buwis-Buhay" (Life-Threatening) Shot

ISO 100 20mm f/5.6 1/100s

Monica doing also a "Buwis-Buhay" Shot

ISO 100 55mm f/5.6 1/100s

With Mr. Christian Vazquez

Yet again we come across with the familiar face we meet along the trail on the top. I take it as a chance to take a photo with him and when we were going to try to hike more up to far summit we are greeted again by Mother Nature's Gift.... rain.

Strong wind with heavy rain on the top

Sadly we didn't continue to climb up to the summit and go back to our camp instead.

Experiencing the waters of Papaya River (yeah that's me with my notable swimming trunks)

Monica enjoying the cold waters of Papaya River

"If Jesus walked on the water, I sat on it." - Kidlat

Lunch after a quick bath on the river

We came back at our camp like a "basang sisiw" (sopping wet). I decided to take a dip on the river even it was freaking cold (cold like water on the fridge) and the others came to join me in also. We ate our brunch (because we didn't eat anything after we woke up when we hike to the top) after we take a bath on the river and packed are things including our garbages as we go back from where we came from. (Always remember that be a responsible human when you want to climb/hike a mountain, don't leave any garbages)

Supposedly I was going to keep on taking photos along our way back to the outpost but then again the rain keeps on falling as we go back. My camera wasn't that tough to endure the rain so I kept it inside in my bag instead to prevent any malfunctions on it. (It was really a good decision because I got 7 strikes in my butt because the trail became slippery)

And that was it... thank you.