Philippine Travel Notes

Quite a unique way of announcing to the public that their store is to open soon. Catchy. And makes you smile! The owners sure know how to put an ad anywhere. And I don’t need to predict if they have sense of humor! Hope this one store stay for as long as they want it to. Ah, this was at SM MOA, just before you enter the Science Discovery area. Well yes, the “funtastic” signs of our times!

Boarding was called; passengers were bussed to the aircraft docked at Gate 115. I opted to board last to avoid the scrimmage. Why passengers (usually Filipinos) run for it, I still don’t understand! We all have our seats numbers anyway, so why run to be first at the aircraft? Duh! While purposely waiting for “me, myself and I” to be the last passenger, I observed that each gate has a pair of gate-readers – which obviously were installed by the airport authorities and not the airlines. Unfortunately, no one (yet) can use them! I just know, really! What is a gate-reader? Oh, I’ll explain that in anther story! The bus was half empty, no one was entering anymore and the ground staff told me I was the last passenger they were waiting for! So I climbed up after taking a shot of the bus, the blue sky and the moon – yes the moon was still visible and bright! All aboard and it was taking time for our flight to close doors and finally depart. I already knew from past experiences that there was s

After the breezy check-in, I saw on my phone that it was just 5:03AM and I thought “here I go again… a long and useless wait” which I was later to know was even more hehe. So I killed time walking around the big expanse of the check-in area, looking at the various fixtures and everything else that caught my attention. There was the time I tried sitting on those many lounge seats niftily scattered all over the place. I thought they were comfy aside from being lovely to look at. Even visited a comfort room… clean so far. Climbed up to some kind of mezzanine or loft and there was a coffee shops even fastfood stalls. Walked the entirety of the terminal fee counters and I was amused why they have different names!! For Domestic flights, your P200 is a Terminal Fee and these are the counters (right side) that block your way going inside and unto the waiting lounges/areas. For international side (left and contiguously beside the “terminal fee counters” these are called “Airport User’s Charge”

My Cebu Pacific flight was scheduled at 7:10AM so I had to be at NAIA 3 just around 5AM. Good that my brods were going to the Tagaytay-Batangas areas a very early dawn departure so I hitched along and had a breezing ride over C5 to terminal 3. Left the house at 4:28AM and was at the airport at 4:52AM! Seeing that there was no big crowd (I was too early, I thought) I stayed at the curbside and puffed my first cigarette of the day. I noticed that there were two entrances in use, and that there were queues of just about 3 or four passengers deep. It was almost a crowd to me, but not quite yet, really. As I craned my neck for a clearer view of the entrance crowd, a uniformed man passed by where I was standing, herding some four or five other passengers to a 3rd entrance. I thought that was a nice move – opening all entrances for the passengers’ convenience. And I followed that group. Easy entrance – even if as usual we had to remove footwear and place them in plastic trays together with ce

Another day of roaming around Butuan and its surroundings was over and I was ready to reward myself with dinner. I planned to take dinner at any of the better, more upscale places, if any. And omegosh it was just a few steps away from my inn. So, dinner was at Almont Hotel! Oops, that is not Almont Inland Resort. Am referring to the Almont Hotel right in the middle of the city just beside my dear old Luciana Inn. Yep, all three places are owned by the same family. First, I asked if Almont Hotel and Luciana shared the same kitchen since they’re just beside each other. The reply was no, thus, I proceeded. Almont Hotel’s spacious lobby actually doubles as some kind of a coffee shop. Half of it is dotted with tables for fine dining. The whole area has minimalist look sanz flowery frills or intricate designs. Even the furniture is simple and elegant without so many curves or out-of-this-world designs. And, the place is tastefully illuminated with subdued yellow lights via dimmer switches. A

For lack of a better word, I call this an accidental tour. My visit was Butuan, I did a side trip to Magallanes, learned that Cabadbaran City was just nearby so I roamed there. With nothing else to see at mid-day (since I do not venture out into the mountains, waterfalls or lakes alone), I hopped on a bus to Surigao City! Okay, this place is famous as jump-off point towards Siargao – the country’s surfing capital. But that’s for another round of roaming! As for now, it’s just an afternoon tour of Surigao City Center. Bus ride from Cabadbaran Uneventful and the ride was along beautiful countryside sceneries. I wish I had the videocam! Oh, my bus was not even half full. I noticed that all passengers (about 15 of us) each had a window seat and interestingly, more than half of the passengers were foreigners! Green ricefields… brown ricefields… yellow rice fields… quite refreshing sights! Of course you know that if the field is green, the plants are still growing, yellow when the fruits are

Many of you may not have heard about this place yet. I just wanted to pass by this locality as I was curious as to how could it have been a city! I breezed by this town once, some years ago and I wonder what mega-improvements or economic miracles have been done to make it become a city. The trike ride from Magallanes was uneventful and I was at Cabadbaran in just a short countryside ride! Well, the road from Magallanes was good, so I thought I was in for a grand go-see of a never heard but beautiful city! Entering the city proper by a road intersection, I saw an old house but renovated with new paint. Beautiful! But I knew I would just create issues if I asked to enter and see the insides of that residence hehe. So I stayed on the trike until we reached the end point of the trip – which is the “mercado”. With no prior detailed information about this place (hard to get one), I approached a cop, yes a policeman in that blue uniform and a handgun on his side! I asked where the city center

Do you ever even know where that is? No its not that swanky place at the intersection of EDSA and South Super Highway! This Magallanes is a town next to Butuan City (going northeast to the sea) and at the mouth of the big river. What made me go there? Just to see what the town has since it claims to have been the site of the very first Catholic Mass in Mindanao. Plus, it is the location of the purported oldest tree standing in the country. Going there I already knew from www that the best way to go to Magallanes was by boat, so I asked around where I could find those boats. Lucky me, from my rolling tour yesterday, I learned that the Philippine Ports Authority area which is where the boats depart from is just near Luciana Inn. It’s an easy trike ride away but I opted to walk the distance (just about 600 meters) along the side of the river. It is not really a “port” or even a “wharf” as you would see in most places. It is more of a park by the bank of a river! There is no bustling human

After some rest after roaming around the city and a little reflecting of what I have just seen and encountered, I was again ready to go, this time to find dinner and whatever night entertainment I could chance upon. Another lesson: be very courteous or try to develop an easy topic before you ask hotel staff a direct question such as “where can I eat good food around here” or anything similar. When I asked that question at the Luciana Inn front staff, his face obviously turned sour and said “why sir, don’t you like the food in our hotel” – and I quoted that word-for-word in English! To appease him, I said “oh no no, I don’t mean that, I just want to eat in a restaurant where the locals usually hang out”. Another lesson learned: “where the locals usually hang-out” would mostly illicit a response pointing you to the nearest Jollibee, McDonalds or Chowking – in that order hehehe! But after some small talk, the hotel staff did pepper me with a barrage of names and places, many of which actu