floating with the market

i remember when i was a kid, at home we had a book called Circling the Globe and i would constantly browse through it as well as other reference books. one of the countries that i always took a longer time looking at is Thailand, and its floating market would always be featured in entries for the country. it was and still is my dream to go to the places i was so fascinated by on pictures back then. while for the many their childhood fantasy might have been to go to Disneyland, just one of mine was going to The Floating Market. i was such a geek. hehe.

amazed by Thailand

i have always been in awe with how able Thailand is to maintain their huge love and pride for their culture. the fact that they're the only country in Southeast Asia that's never conquered by any other country, this is not quite a surprise. however, i know that the country is in the third world like ours and before i went there, i was expecting that Bangkok would look just exactly like Manila and the hustle and bustle there wouldn't be unfamiliar to me.

falling for Tinago Falls

one of the few times i've fallen madly in love was when i got to see Iligan City's Tinago Falls. it was like my first love at first sight, and the "few times" there applies to places and human beings alike, by the way. haha.

my Siamese self-portraits

at long last, a dream a come true. of all the countries in Asia, i have been always attracted the most with Thailand and you could just imagine how excited i was and still am about being able to explore it.

i guess i'll have multiple entries here about this trip and i hope i can finish them soon. but here's a sneak peek. lol.

the inevitable struggle of flying solo. nyahaha.

bringing high school to the Grand Mosque

one of the things i was looking forward to with coming home is the Grand Mosque. in a way, it put my hometown(Cotabato City) back to the map. so i was intrigued with how grand it actually is. exactly a week after i came here, friend Agnes invited me to go there with our other friends and ecstatic as i was, i couldn't decline. off we went!

my little homage to the hero

i never was a fan of Rizal and i guess that was caused by one of my grade school teachers mocking him that the only thing he did was just write and that's not as huge as what the likes of Bonifacio did when they actually fought in the battlefields back then. she really got me convinced that the latter should have been the national hero, instead and this was what i believed in until just recently when i got to visit the ever-famous Intramuros last March. having a glimpse on some parts of the life of Rizal was like a revelation to me. i sound blonde here but just a disclaimer, though i aced history back then, i just hated the subject. chos.

rated PG (Puerto Galera)

if you're working at a call center in Manila, it's certainly going to happen that you will visit Puerto Galera with your workmates. so even if i am not that interested in going there because it's such a cliche, it felt like i had no choice. i was with my friends and i knew i'd have a lot of fun even so.

ten amusing things about Sagada

having been able to stay in a regular Sagadan home, i got to immerse myself quite a bit in their lifestyle there. because of that, aside from the tourist spots which undeniably were amazing, there were a number of things about Sagada's people and its way of life(the contemporary one) that i found very amusing. here they are.

1. happy children - in the residential house that we stayed in, there's a little girl named Shantal (i'm disgusted i didn't have a photo of her taken). she was always smiling even with her front teeth missing. her giggle was very infectious i can't help but smile every time i heard it and she'd talk to her mom with so much energy. i guess this is what you get when you rear your child in a simple yet ample environment. Sagada is rural but it's definitely not poor. in fact, i felt like every family had the same economic status with the others, and i find that really great because every one feels they belong and children would grow without insecurities in that kind of setup. hence, not just Shantal, but the other kids as well were cheerful and their laughter is one of the few loud sounds you'd hear there.

hike all you can - making the most out of Sagada

i owe it to my legs having survived my Sagada trip. the normal tours already have a lot of legwork required but we(with my colleagues Jon and Nicole) went beyond that and tired ourselves with walking distances that we could have traveled easily with a vehicle.

March mission accomplished

as a birthday treat for myself, i decided to make it a month-long celebration by doing one of the things that really make me happy-- exploring. the mission was to set foot in four different places that i'd never been to. and there you go. achieved! i know Intramuros was a little out of place here. it should have been Ilocos but my trip had to be cancelled for some reason. at least, i finally got the chance to get inside the Walled City after almost two years being here in Metro Manila.

"the world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page." -St. Augustine

at 24, the reading shall continue and i just look forward to more meaningful and adventurous years to come.

journey to the womb of lahar

just to be different, i want to start this post with something historic and geographic. lol. Mt. Pinatubo is an active volcano which last erupted in 1991. four years after that, its crater was opened as a tourist destination with Capas, Tarlac as the main entry point. the Pinatubo crater is shared by three provinces, one is Tarlac and Pampanga and Zambales are the other two. 

"what a journey it has been," Riz describes our jaunt to the Mt. Pinatubo crater. indeed! God really made an effort to place the beautiful things He created somewhere where humans can't easily reach and destroy them. so before we got to the crater, we had to go through some tremendous amount of exhaustion and hunger (no breakfast and no baon to mumble). 

self-proclaimed Cebuano

you'll always go back to the things that are dear to you, just like home.

i stayed in Cebu for almost two years and it's when i had my first job. being employed was a totally different world for me as it was the start of really standing on my own two feet. hence, it was a time that's full of  memories about first-times and revelations. haha. there was some sad stuff but it was VERY fun, overall. that's why i consider Cebu as my second home and i'd always go back to it.

in the middle of last year when i had some funds to book a flight, i was torn between going home to Cotabato for the year-end or visit Cebu for Sinulog. but whether i go to either of the places, i knew i would have the same homey feeling so i just chose where it's going to be more eventful. hehe.

Pit Senyor!!!

up and down

randomly, i just mused at the idea that i'd already seen the best sunrise(left photo) and sunset(right). and it's only in the Philippines. really, it's more fun here!