Instagram Facebook Youtube Twitter
Uncategorized
by Erica Poyauan

Welcoming my Japanese friends at Villa Jhoana Resort in Angono

In Uncategorized
April 26, 2018
8
Share

For some reason, most of my Japanese friends like to stay in Angono for a few days. So, in the middle of April this year, during their recent visit, I and my hometown friends took them to a fine hotel in town—Villa Jhoana Resort. 

Villa Jhoana Resort in Angono, Rizal

To appreciate this resort, you have to actually stay in the Villa—preferably with friends or loved ones—and try as many facilities as you can. 

In addition, keep a good relationship with the hotel staff, particularly with the front office. Politely talking with the staff when making requests or discussing concerns can encourage them to provide excellent service. It can also prompt them to attend to your needs at once. Whether you need a can opener, a cable channel fix or a coffee refill, just dial the FO number in your room telephone and they’ll gladly accommodate. 

When I was there, I needed to receive money from a friend. I phoned the front desk officer and asked if they could receive the money instead because I’d be out that time. They agreed. I left details about the person to drop in, and when I came back, I got the money. 

Customer service in the resort is good, the food and drinks are better! 

You can order a meal for as low as 90 pesos. Drinks in buckets are only for 230 pesos. You can see their menu HERE. 

Swimming pool and Karaoke

The pool is big enough to accommodate all the guests in the resort. There is a pool for kids. There is another one for the kids at heart.

The slide didn’t disappoint. It is high enough to be thrilling and at the same time not to be scared or worried about safety.

The Karaoke is another story. Well, you need to be lucky haha A lot of people want to use the machine. There weren’t a lot in the resort I think. So, just be patient. The wait is worth it!

Rates and packages

You can stay at the villa and enjoy amenities like bathtub or the pool for an overnight rate Php 3,800 for 4 people. Very affordable room cost if you are staying over with friends or family.

Photo from Villa Jhoana Resort FB Page

The resort is also an ideal venue for events like wedding or birthday celebration. You can check out their rates and packages here.

Photo from Villa Jhoana Resort FB Page
Photo from Villa Jhoana Resort FB Page


Our humble room
me with the tv
coffee and mini fridge and electric kettle
look at that tub
for ethan hehe
the grand hall
view from the balcony
the door to our room
another cute decor
my bed
towels
cute lamp
closet

Parting Words


Honestly, I enjoyed my stay in Villa Jhoana especially the afternoons I could freely pamper myself in the hot tub. In the mornings I get invigorated by the cold water in the swimming pool. The slides are high enough to make me and my friends go for more. In the evening, the Aqua Bar provided us with the KARAOKE, and, well, I need not say how fun that was! 

[Book awesome room deals and packages here]


Did you like this post? Don’t forget to share! Also, let me know what you think about this resort! Thank you so much!

Author

Erica Poyauan

Erica is a former PR pro turned entrepreneur. Her greatest joys are family, blogging, music, skin care and social justice. As a Muay Thai enthusiast, Erica prides herself on working with increased focus, humility and diligence. She believes in living a fit life doing everything with a flair of creativity and love! Stalk her social channels @thegirlwiththemujihat

View all posts | Website

Related Posts

Love Lessons From Pad Thai

In Uncategorized
February 26, 2017
0


Truth be told, it was my first time to try Pad Thai at a bloggers event in BKK Express, Uptown Mall, BGC. 



BKK Express, the latest addition to the
growing chains of Cabalen Group of
Restaurants, serves authentic, affordable Thai dishes on the go. It imports
ingredients from Bangkok and has its own Thai Chef to do the cooking.

About Pad Thai

Among BKK Express menu selection is the Pad Thai, Thailand’s national dish that’s
made with rice noodles, stir-fried with eggs and tofu, and flavored
with tamarind, fish sauce, dried shrimp, garlic, chili
pepper, palm sugar and peanuts. It is said to be made popular by Prime
Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram to cultivate
national identity.

For many years, I had stereotyped Pad Thai as overly spicy, unexciting dish, hence, the utter
disregard. But Pad Thai is different from what I thought. It is a harmonious
blend of spicy, salty, sweet and sour ingredients. The flavor is well-balanced;
it is equally satisfying to the eye, nose and palate. It’s not dull as it has variants—with
crab meat, tofu, chicken, pork, vegetable, mussel, prawn, etc…

BKK Express’ Pad Thai definitely got me hooked. A few
days later, I was eager to have more in Phuket. Thankfully, the ones I tried in
Thailand and the Pad Thai in BKK Express are on a par!

Prawn Pad Thai servings for 60 Baht each

What we could
learn from Pad Thai

My misconception of Thai food deprived me of the world’s 5th most delicious food
for 29 years. If I relate this to love, I’d say stereotyping hinders us
from getting to know a wonderful individual or ruins the “chance” of a good
relationship before it even starts. Perhaps we can be more aware of our own stereotypes and move beyond to a better “judgment”?

Parting Words

I’m leaving you with this final thought: Whether it’s Pad
Thai or a relationship–the key is balance. For food or love to serve a useful
purpose, the components should not be missing nor should they be lopsided.
Don’t put too little; don’t put too much. Maintain balance!


[This article was originally posted on Travel Plus Magazine Philippines for its January 2017 Issue]


Do you like Pad Thai? What do you think is the key to a strong and lasting relationship? Let me hear your thoughts below! 

5 ways to give your blog an improved look

In Airports, Uncategorized
April 3, 2021
0

It’s a brand new season and another month! If you’ve been procrastinating on your plans to revamp your blog, this is your sign! If you have no idea where to start, I got you! In this post, I will share 5 easy ways to improve your website. 

Now, if you don’t wanna tweak your blog, I still recommend you browse through as you may find some tips you may pass along, otherwise, let the points below guide you (1) to give your readers the best possible UX and (2) to give you that (sense of fulfillment and) pride to share your thoughtfully-designed blog on your socials.

So, let get to it one by one. 

5 ways to give your blog a new look

1. Change your web design template

If you know the basics of HTML and you are using Blogger platform for your website, changing your blog template can be a piece of cake! 

There are many resources online, from paid ones to free licenses. Sora Templates and Envato may come in handy if you are on the look. If you are just starting and experimenting on the designs, use Sora Templates. 

What I like the most about Sora Templates is its vast arsenal of template categories. Whatever your niche may be, you will find a template that suits your preference. 

The templates can be installed for free too. But if you want lifetime technical support and also own the license, you may purchase the theme. It is affordable for just less than 10 bucks or around Php500 one time payment!

If you need help on template installation, you may contact me. You can hire me to change your template if you are using any of these platforms: Blogger, WordPress, Wix or Joomla, you can do that too. Just get in touch!

2. Apply a nice color scheme to your blog

After you have chosen a new theme for your blog (or even if you wanna use your current template), you can customize the CSS to give it a facelift. 

What I used to do is to first check out some sites that I liked the palettes then inspect the particular element and then find that color code and check Colorhexa to create a palette for my design. It’s a bit of a work!

The easiest way to do this however is through Canva. I am telling you, it can be done after a few clicks and also, if like me, you are subscribed to Canva Pro, you use any photo and automatically get a scheme suggestion from it. 

For example, I created a few palettes from spring photos I got from Canva’s premium stock photos. If you find a palette you like, you may freely use it!

There are so many other things you can do with Canva Pro, but let me discuss that in another blog post. 

Going back, after you picked a palette, apply the color codes to your CSS or directly edit your HTML.

Always remember to consider the visual feels the colors would exude and NOT make anything straining to look at. Think of what is comfortable for you when you read a blog or check a website. You want to feel the personality of the site but at the same time you don’t want it to be an eyesore like to have very bright, overwhelming colors, or difficult to read contrast. You get the idea. 

3.  Declutter your home navigation and sidebars

I just did this because MY BLOG IS TEEMING WITH ADS that are underperforming and widgets that hurt instead of making my site work. 

Check your mobile and desktop view. If there are annoying pop up ads or responsive ads that you think is not strategically placed (look at your GOOGLE ADSENSE AD UNITS AND CHECK EACH UNIT’S PERFORMANCE), better to remove them. One of the things that users dislike about sites they visit is being bombarded with ads. 

Of course, I cannot tell you how many ads should your page have but I think it is ideal to have them placed neatly across your page utilizing the header, sidebar, and footer sections.

Check their sizes too. If they are on the sidebar, it won’t look good if they resize to 728 x 90 megapixel, and not redundant. Imagine if you have ads on your sidebar like three consecutive widgets are just ADSENSE ad units, I don’t think any user will be attracted to clicking all of them. Most likely, the saturation would put the user off. 

Just remember the more ads you have, the less focus those ads have with your content.

4. Update your post widgets

This will not only give your blog a new look, if done correctly, will drive more traffic especially to articles you want people to check out. 

That said, I recommend you use blog templates that have label widgets that appear on the home page. My template I got from Theme Forest has this feature and so I can just change the “tags” or “labels” I use to showcase some posts. 

This thumbnail posts can be changed to showcase posts and also to give my blog a new look
  • [message]
    • Pro Tip:
      • As you do this, make sure to also pin the article to Pinterest. This SEO platform is non-discriminating, awesome venue to drive users to your blog through attractive PINS. If you wanna learn more about this, check out this post.

5. Bring old posts back to life

Speaking of showcasing previously published articles, make sure to also update them. 

For example, during this pandemic, a lot has changed especially when it comes to traveling. Check out the old posts you have (start with the ones that receive the highest traffic), update the posts. In my case, I updated my airport and bus fare guide accordingly. I also called the tourism office to update fees and travel requirements. Only by doing this can you make bringing old post back to life work for your site!

Parting Words

While how your site looks shouldn’t be entirely your focus, updating your theme and organizing your contents improves your readers’ user experience and thus improving your influence and blog rank on search engines. If tweaking your blog HTML seems like too much work for you, hit me up and let me help you. Nonetheless, I hope you got something useful from this post. And if you do, make sure to pass it along to others who may need it!

Thank you for checking out my post! Let me know your thoughts! Your feedback always helps me to improve and provide better contents. If you have questions, I always try my best to get back through email or below in the comment section, SO YEAH, JUST leave a comment! 

8 Comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Adipiscing elit curabitur condimentum mi id volutpat mattis, enim arcu tris tique accumsan
Facebook Twitter Vk Instagram