Glamping in the City: A Bonifacio High Street summer fun activity

Summer on the Street is this years theme of Bonifacio High Street as they celebrate summer. There are lots of activities lined up for shoppers to enjoy. The recent concluded event was the Glamping in the City which I and my family was able to join.

A single or accumulated receipts from April 1 to 25 from any of the BHS, one parkade and two parkade shops will allow you to join this activity. To register, you need to present your receipts and fill out a registration form from designated concierge with an amount of php7,000 to php9,999 will entitle you to a crawl in tent good for 3 persons and php10,000 for a glamping tent good for 4 persons inclusive of Boodle Fight dinner sponsored by Kabisera BGC and breakfast from Italianis Restaurant BGC. Sponsors also include Nescafe, Family Mart, JBL, Mind Museum, Coleman to name a few.

There were only 15 crawl in tents and 15 glamping tent slot, so it was crucial to register early to secure your slot for the event. I had 3 glamping tents secured upon registration. 1 for me, 1 for my sister-in-law’s family and 1 for my eldest daughter’s group. Mine was registered first and the rest was registered at the same time a few days after mine. We were all very excited for the day to come since we knew that our slots were secured before the slots run out.

Almost midnight 2 days before the event, we received an email confirmation of the activity and registration. However, the tent assigned to my group was a crawl in tent rather than a glamping tent. So, we won’t fit since we are 4 in our group. I emailed back raising my concern. It was a bit stressful on my part because I know we secured our slots early. Plus, my sister-in-law didn’t receive any email. I tried to fix things by emailing them. It was a bit frustrating because I didn’t get a prompt response. Sent them an email around past 2pm and I got 1 response late at night. To cut the story short, our tent was replaced with a glamping tent but Sister-in-law’s registration was never recovered. So, my eldest daughter gave way to her cousins, gave their group slot for the event so the younger kids can enjoy. We were assigned the team color BLUE and theirs with LIGHT BLUE based on the email.

Came the day of the big event! We headed to the camp as a big group, ready with our blue and light blue activity outfits. The kids were all so excited as well as the grown ups! Arrived at the registration to find out that we belong to a different team. Yellow for my team and Green for Sissy’s team. What happened to our assigned team color? That’s the same question most of the participants have since we all went into a fuss in preparing the needed clothing. Oh well, my beast mode temper mode was in standby but kept my cool on. I don’t wanna ruin the excitement.

We were assigned to Pretty Bernie as our Team Marshal. Assisted us in our tents and waivers and there started the real FUN.

The Event

Our team was composed of three tents. We were joined by young professionals, meaning me and my hubby were the oldest in the team. Hahaha! But, we are not really that old, just so you know. *wink*

All teams were asked to make a team chant and a team name. Called ourselves Yellow Rangers! C’mon that’s a well thought of name! Do you agree? We made a simple chant in a matter for 5 minutes. Yes, there’s that time pressure. Then, we headed back to the communal area where all our activities were held. Each group did their best to win the cheering contest. We didn’t win the first challenge. But, it was okay. Most games were relays. We won a place in each challenge, making us a very competitive team.

The last challenge was called the amazing race. The same concept of the amazing race that we see on TV. The game consisted of multiple challenges. A passport card was given to each team, each challenge the players completes earns a sticker on the passport card. The first one to complete wins. 4 members of each team were chosen to complete the task. My hubby John and my third daughter Zam was chosen to play and two more from our group. One thing that differs our team from the rest, we had a plan.

Shelter Challenge. One of the Amazing Race challenges that required the players to build a tent.

We won the first place in the amazing race earning ourselves with 50 more points. Which was a bit hard to beat. Thus, we were a little confident in getting the champ award.

Night Ender

After the winners for the Amazing Race was announced, the night was concluded with a movie night at the communal area. Everyone was allowed to watch movie, check out the shops or rest at the tents around 10:30pm.

Our group, including the rest of our family opted to rest and go back to our tents. We chatted and laughed while we were resting on a Coleman chair and feeling the cold breeze while under a Coleman open tent. It was favorable that it rained before we retreated for a rest, it made the breeze colder.

It was a long sleepless night for me. It was hot inside the closed tent. Though, we opened all the windows, it was still hot. So, I kept myself busy fanning Aeon and Zam so they can have a good sleep. Mommy duties of course.

In the morning, we ready ourselves looking forward to another eventful morning. Started out our day with a heavy breakfast. Fitness First Philippines sponsored our intense morning exercise and gave us a good sweat with their free style group training which most of us know as circuit training.

Right after the morning boost, we were given time to change from out sweaty clothes, freshen up, pack up and rest a bit at our tents. It was also a good time for us to take pictures and more pictures together. Call us picture addicts! Lol!

We were called to return to the communal area at 9:30am for the awarding ceremony. We were all excited. There were prizes up for grabs from the sponsors. Teams who won were Team Light Blue, Team Red, and guess who got the Champ award? Our calculations were right, we won. Team Yellow Rangers was announced as Champion!

Talking about FOOD!

Before we had our final amazing race game, it was an awesome addition to the camping experience when a boodle fight for dinner was served by Kabisera Restaurant at the camp mess hall as our dinner sponsor.

Kabisera Restaurant in BGC is known to serve delicious filipino food. The spread consists of different entrees in their menu. Bbq, Liempo, Fish, Veggies in coconut milk, Pork adobo and unli-rice to name a few were served on a banana leaf. I had a hard time finishing the food in front of me, so I had a lot of left overs. If you are a fan of rice, this will definitely please your appetite.

Excited to dig in!

My family did enjoy the boodle fight eating using only their hands with plastic gloves especially that it was raining that time. So, the rain added to the feel. Of course we needed the gloves to protect our food from the dirt we got from playing. My children and nephews where all stuffed for the night before the final game began.

In the morning, our breakfast was served by Italianis Restaurant. There were two kinds of menu, one was the Longanisa, Scrambled Egg and fried rice. The other one was the same except that it was Corned Beef instead of Longanisa. John and me shared our food so we were able to taste both. We were also served cold dalandan juice which Aeon and I liked, I’m just not sure if it was fresh or something ready to drink. A hot Nescafe coffee was also served to start our 2nd day at the camp.

Talking about the event, there were things that I didn’t like and things that I loved during the course of the event.

Things we didn’t like about the event.

1. The registration at the concierge was swift. But,  the confirmation of the participants was not organized. They could have also sent a text blast aside from the email they sent since we also provided our mobile numbers on the form that we submitted.

2. Got myself booked for glamping tent but initially got a crawl in tent which was of lower value requirement for receipts. Email person said that I didn’t make it for the bigger tent because of the first come first serve basis rule though I was registered 3rd on the list. (They changed it to glamping tent after a couple of exchange emails, stressful.)

3. Registration of Sis-in-law went MIA (missing in action), when it was registered the same time as my daughter’s group. The registration was never recovered.

4. We were assigned with a team color in the email they sent. We prepared our clothing according to the color assigned to us. But, we were given a different team color when we arrived at the venue.

5. We were not provided with a hard copy of the program flow just to be informed of what’s going to happen next.

6. There were empty crawl in tents! Not sure if they were really filled or the participants didn’t arrive. Sayang, there should be others who could have enjoyed too.

What I love about glamping in the city event?

1. Though there were a lot of bumps before the start of the event. We surely loved our tents. Though, it may lack the concept of glamour in glamping, I was happy that my kids specially Aeon were able to experience camping.

2. The foods were great! We didn’t expect to have such great spread. Though, it required receipts to join. Everything at the camp was FREE!

3. We enjoyed the program even if we were not proactively informed of what’s going to happen.

4. I personally like the mats on the floor at the communal area where we can sit and chill.

5. I love the final game which gave each player the intensity play.

6. I love that there were safe lockers where you can leave your valuables for safe keeping.

7. I love that security was around the clock.

Me and my family would like to extend our heartfelt thanks and congratulations to Bonifacio High Street and its partner Sponsors for an awesome Glamping in the City experience. It was Aeon’s first camping experience and you made it super fun for everyone. We are looking forward to join more exciting events in the future.

Camp Map

To Team Yellow Rangers, you all rock! Me and my family are thankful to have you as our team mates. We would have lost without your wits and energetic chants! Hahaha! We love you guys! Keep in touch!

Team Yellow Rangers, CHAMPION!

I know all teams had fun like we did! Until next time! 😄😄😄