Philippine Travel Notes

I almost forgot where I came from when I saw this man and beast tandem. I just emerged from the 7-kilometer road to the Dambana Ng Kaigitingan in Pilar, Bataan when I chanced upon this. Ah yes, this is the main highway (the intersection in fact) that traverses Bataan from Balanga to Bagac. I wonder, how fast a carabao can run?! Can it go to, say, 70kph? Well, in this ‘scene’, carabao seemed to be having a leisurely, if hurried, stroll. And the trike was not moving that fast. There’s a rope children, you might just not see it clearly, but there is a rope. Its tied to that tricycle and the driver keeps hollering “huu huuu”! In one of my rare sightings, happy to note that, at least, the rope was not tied to the animal’s nose (as usual all over this country) but to the base of its horn. So I think there was no danger of the Carabao ‘disintegrating’ alive hehehe! Golly, what will I see next? A farmer in a speedboat herding his ducks to enter a fence? Not impossible, it seems?! Oh w...

Do they go together? Well, I don’t know. The thing is, it did not hurt me nor any of my companions! We were strolling along the busy market area after dinner. Just to make the stomach a bit lighter again… for some to find coffee, others beer and others just about anything else to eat or do before we call it a day. Then we stumbled upon this place called Le St. Michel Creperie, and most in the group wanted to try some. So we chimed in. Some ordered coffee to go with their crepes. But I wanted a bottle of beer. So I said, why not try it and just stop the crepe if it did not “sound” well in my stomach. So I got a bottle of Red Horse from the store across (just a few feet away on this crowded narrow alley), ate my crepe and guzzled my beer. Nothing happened in le stomach! So on with the beer and the crepe. I somehow loved the after taste – chocolate syrup and fruits erasing any hint of the strong beer hehe! Nice one. Oh, am not a fan of crepes. I just eat when I feel like there’s nothing e...

I do not mean the opposite of fake coffee! Real Coffee is a place, a cafe of some sort. And ever since we chanced upon this place years ago, we (individually or as a group) always make it a point to have at least one breakfast there. Its cozy nice dainty little place that keeps getting hard to find every time we return to Boracay! Why? Because every inch of this island is being planted to a myriad of business and ’whatever’ establishments. We even joke that next time we come around, we may have to clamber over fences or railings just to be back at Real Coffee! Why do I / we go gaga over this tiny little hut anyway? Hmm, come to think of it, for varied reasons! Some friends say it is definitely the calamansi muffin - for which the place is supposed to be famous for. Others say the ultimate muffin made of so many things including walnut smells and tastes better. I say they are all the same but I like the cookies and brownies! Another friend says he likes the coffee. Am not a pure-coffee ...

Because we could not find a better deal, that’s why! But it was such a discovery I have started referring many friends to this cute little luxury on the beach. Not that there were literally no other choices. There were a lot – even if this was Ati-atihan season. But the combination for the kind of accommodation, location and price that we were looking for was already hard to come by since we booked quite late. And we said we must get a good one to compensate for the double decks in Kalibo hehe! Let’s describe Chalet Y… Its half a whole big house that looks wooden from a distance but actually is all concrete when you see it up close. Half? Yes half, because the other half is Chalet Tirol! Nope, this is not even a duplex house. It probably was one grand big vacation home in the past that the owners thought of dividing into two so they could rent out portions of it at most times since they don’t live on the island and not always around anyway. The owners of Chalet Y and Chalet Tirol come ...

Do you ever get to catch Boracay on an early morning? Or are you always too wasted the night before for this? Well, let me tell you that, what I (still) like about the island - even now that it is already too urbanized for comfort - is its early morning scene . Not that rural anymore, but the cool-breezy-beach that we all yearn for, without the thousands of tourists crisscrossing your every view, is still there after all! That is a reason why howsoever 'wasted' I was at last night’s ' til the wee hours party ', I make it a point to stroll or even just silently sit by the beach on very early Boracay mornings. It's a wonderful feeling! Here is a fact: sometimes, when I've been up too late with friends, I even prolong that sleepless night way into "just before sunrise", only to savor another soothing early morning breeze on Boracay Island! You don't literally catch real sun rays at any of Stations 1, 2 or 3. The entire white beach area is...

With the girls (oops women) in our group looking too flamboyantly excited, we just dropped our things at Chalet Y and walked the beach. Target destination: the fruit shakes at Jonah’s. We did tell the Chalet Y crews that we may have some meals in the house the next day. But for now, it was roam time. Of course we walked. I am not an avid fan of the shakes, I prefer SML hehe, but what the… majority craved for the shakes so to the shakes we went and I liked my avocado. There is one other thing that makes me not a good fan of Jonah’s. Flies! Yes, langaw and bangaw of the plus-size kind! I still don’t know how and why is that, but them pesky insects seem to really have made Jonah’s their fave hangout! Reason why you see those candles on each table. And reason why they are lighted even in the mornings or at high noon. Nope, the owners and crews are not religious. They’re also not fond of scented surroundings like in a spa. They light those candles to drive them pesky flies away! Am not sure...

Done with the Ati-atihan and done with Sampaguita Gardens, it was time for us to move to Boracay. And quite easily! Why? Because our home for the past two days and two nights in Kalibo, the La Esperanza Hotel, sits just a few steps  away from either the bus or the van stations going Caticlan or anywhere else for that matter! Once you emerge out of the hotel to the Landbank ATMs, just a few steps to the right is the Ceres Bus Terminal or a few steps to the left are all others! I went to check-out Ceres and a companion went to check the vans while others in the pack were still at the showers. During breakfast, we compared notes to wit: we have already missed the airconditioned Ceres bus and will have to wait more than 2 hours more for the next (that was my report hehe); the vans don’t leave until full but many can be hired anytime for a special trip with only the 6 of us on board. Done! We knew our best option! At the van terminal, we were a bit mobbed by the drivers and dispatchers ...

Its an OMG wonderful house inside the Sampaguita Gardens Resort. Even just from the outside, it already looks like a house from a fairy tale book. But this one is a real house, its just that its not a real home for a family, but home to thousands of Precious Moments dolls, figurines and the likes, that are either for sale or just for display for us to see and marvel about. Your heart will jump at the sight of so many interesting pieces, and you will agree with the owners… its Christmas everyday in this Christmas-colored house! But something else took my interest. The how and the why of this place. Thankfully, even for that, the staff are knowledgeable and can readily offer any information they know or are allowed to – which is quite a lot in the first place – so all the more that I got interested in asking so many questions! Let’s see what I can recall from these conversations… Who is Jojo? He is the Jojo Sonillo, president and of the resort and a friend of Samuel Butcher. He is the co...

You must have at least heard about this place, right? Its a wonderful real and fantasy land located in what you might consider a very unlikely place. And, if you get to hear the story of how Sampaguita Gardens came to be, the more that it will endear you. Call it a tourism and retirement industry reality. This is one proof that we never get to appreciate our very own backyards enough, than other people would. How did I know about this place anyway? I called up the governor’s office of the province of Aklan, to ask what else can I see in and around Kalibo since we were about to go watch the Ati-atihan before heading to Boracay. I was gladly told of many things, and Sampaguita Gardens was one of them. So I told my group we should check that out. And, there we went! Easy and wonderful trike trip from Kalibo to the town of New Washington. Just about 20 minutes away on mostly breezy beach and seascapes along the way. There are even resort-like restaurants by the roadside, though some were o...

So I watched the Ati-atihan this year. And yes, there were many things different if I compare it to what I saw or witnessed some 3 years ago. Still both are even radically different from what I saw many years ago. So it is evolving – to having some things I like and to some things I love. Just like any other festival actually. But what makes this Ati-atihan different from the others? Let me recount the ways… Foremost, it is widely recognized the the first such of many festivals in the country to have drawn attention from both local and foreign visitors alike. Long before, as in even many years ago, before the Sinulog of Cebu even materialized. If we are looking for just a difference per se, there you have it – you can actually say it was the original. Whatever! But there are more, and you can’t help but compare the Ati-atihan to other festivals and even to itself, if I may call it that way. Its a sooting festival! Read the word again… “soot”, yes! As before, and until now, aside from t...

Yeah, there we were on our way to the Ati-atihan 2006! And I said, Kalibo, here I come again! This btw, was the first festival I have seen outside of Metro Manila some years ago with my parents. It is probably the longest running tourist-drawing street spectacle in the country. I think this should be what everyone must watch first, before peeping into the other newer (and even) grander festivals. Both to get a feel of how it was and how it is now. Not that the Ati-atihan does not get to add some changes or spectacles to make it grander. It does, and by the year too. However, there is just a kind of “different feel” to this one as compared to other festivals. Anyway… Uneventful check-in, but as usual, we had to queue up a long line entering the Manila Domestic Airport. But at such an early morning, all heads are still sleepy cool and we even enjoyed the banter along the way. It was not a full flight – surprisingly – so we told the check-in agent to give us seats at the back, preferably ...

So how did we go about this? Here I go… On a Tuesday lunchtime at the office, I casually mentioned that I was thinking of hitting Kalibo for the weekend to see the Ati-atihan. It elicited a chorus of mixed reactions generally on the disbelief side that it was already less than a week to the festival and I was still on the “contemplating” stage! I said “where there’s a will…there’s a way” and the rest is history! History what? Well, phone calls and emails flew everywhere in the office and by mid-afternoon, there were something like 27 of us interested souls! I knew that was horribly impossible, but I told everyone we will plan only for everyone who has a confirmed booking by Wednesday evening! See?! When that Wednesday evening came, there were only 6 of us able to grab flights! And call it unfortunate or fortunate, all were on Asian Spirit’s early morning run to Kalibo – on the 14th! Hah! So I firmed up my earlier call to La Esperanza Hotel, the only available accommodation in Kalibo as...