Philippine Travel Notes

Isn’t this too wordy? Jusko naman, a warning sign is not a blog (like mine’s hehe). Try reading the whole thing. If you were the parent or yaya, your little dear may have already fallen off those stairs before you could even finish deciphering what the ‘warning’ is trying to tell you! Di ba? "hold and watch" - hawakan at titigan? "small kids" - meron bang medium? “falling downstairs” - bakit, meron “falling upstairs”? Ha?! Hehe! But I love visiting this dainty little place for the floats, shakes and everything ice cream. Yup, the 2nd floor of Tacloban Plaza Hotel. Note on the green-colored name at the bottom... there's nothing wrong with that cuz the name of the place is "Tops", I think. Something like "Tops of the world". A basta tapsilogan :) Oh well...

From Tanauan, I rode a jeep bound for Tacloban but got off at the highway intersection in Palo where the big cathedral is. As said earlier, I had no particular purpose. More of just roaming around to see whatever comes by! So, I did not even have any idea what I wanted to see or experience in each of these places I was visiting! All right, I have seen that big big Hispanic era house and I was diagonally across it from the intersection. It is huge and imposing in its olden appearance. From where I was, I could clearly read the sign that says “PIO & LUISA PEDROSA CULTURAL CENTER”. Whatever that is, I crossed the road to go near and see what’s inside. As I skirted the building, checking out on the two entrance doors, I discovered I was not lucky that time. It was/is closed! A tricycle driver told me that it has closed for some time now. So. I crossed to the Palo Cathedral. Standing outside and in front of it, the cathedral looks very big as the two bell towers on either side are thems...

Manila to Cebu via Ormoc: a side trip to Tanauan Out of the Mac Arthur Park, I rode a trisikad out to the rotunda so I could get a jeep ride going to Tanauan. It was a leisurely ride as I told the driver no need to go fast. Somewhere on that road, I dared exchange places with the trisikad driver. The thing starts heavy but cruises easily once it gets moving. Just the same, I still huffed and panted at what I was doing. The platoons of army recruits jogging in the area even cheered for me to go on. Many of them shouted “go go go, you can do it” and they were all clapping! Whew! On arrival at the corner fronting the BIR building, I stopped and asked how much. The reply was “six pesos”. I silently protested but did not say anything. Imagine that, if I were the trisikad driver, I would be exerting all my energies on the pedal only to be paid six pesos? But I knew that if I said anything to that effect, it could start them thinking to raise prices and the locals might not like it. Whew!...

Manila to Cebu via Ormoc: Palo Yep, I was just about to move out of the Mac Arthur memorial landing site when I heard a man singing. I instantly knew it was some beggar. When I looked, it really was so! However, he was about a meter or two from lovers sitting on the grass and looking out into the sea. They were all under the shade of a big tree and the scene looked interesting. I went near to ask the couple if I can take a picture of their backs since they looked quite a scene with the water in front of them. This never happened! I got distracted. And I like it still! When I got nearer, the beggar singing and strumming his guitar was blind and has no hands. I got curious and watched him play. Both limbs are cut above the wrist. The right arm is fitted with some bracelet like rubber where a pick is attached so he could strum the strings. Left arm is fitted with a drinking glass and that is what he uses to press the frets of the guitar. Amazing! I watched carefully how he would move the ...

Manila to Cebu via Ormoc: Palo Yep, I was slowly walking away from the Mac Arthur Park’s “eternal flame” when a little birdie caught my attention. Nope, it was not actually little since it was bigger than the usual maya. It had a dark color (black?) and its chirping attracted me. When I looked in its direction, my otherwise chinky little eyes grew wider than ever! The birdie was perched on a hole of not a tree nor branch but a metal (or is that steel) post! Am not sure if it is a lamp post or something else but just the same made into a lamp post! I even caught myself audibly saying “why are you there?” Golly! It looked to me like a woodpecker as it would at times knock on the metal with its beak. I went near, it flew across to the “eternal flame” and as if aware I was taking a video shot, it flew again this time to a real tree. Wow! Is this a bad sign of our times? Birds have adapted and can now live in the hollows of metal posts? There are many trees in that park! They don’t want tho...

Manila to Cebu via Ormoc: sidetrip to Palo Ah this was a trip like no other! There was no purpose. I just could not get a cheap flight from Manila to Cebu, so I decided to get one to Tacloban and take a bus going Ormoc then cross the sea via the fast crafts. Hmm, I found that exciting and there was no hurry for I had nothing urgent to do. Yeah! Upon arrival at the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport of Tacloban, I walked out going left to the farthest end of the parking lot to catch a jeep. Yep, the spidercab driver I hired on a previous trip called out to me if I wanted to ride his cab again. I courteously said no and proceeded to find a regular/ordinary passenger jeep. Fare: seven pesos. Destination: the big rotunda where there is a Coke/Sprite/Royal plant so that instead of going to the Tacloban city proper, I would catch a bus and head for Ormoc. Change of Plans Impatience changed my planned Ormoc route! For some reason, while waiting on roadside, I couldn’t find a bus or van that I...

Ah let us not bother about that "S" in "foods". Hindi sya ang topic. KJ lang sya! But, surely we know the owners meant “bought” not “bRought”, right?! The pesky letter "R" just inserted itself there for the limelight hahaha! Ayaw patalo ke "S". This is at a bakery cum eatery cum dry goods store just near (across) the public market in Tanauan, Leyte. Oh well, typo error, the careless fingers of our times hehehe! Ooops, maybe I just meant "finger", sumali lang yan si S na yan! Whaahehehe!

Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore the Midwest You’d think that with all my superlatives in the previous stories, the “Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore the Midwest” was not without hitches, right? Well, let me assure you there was none that I encountered during the event itself... EXCEPT weeks after where the Provincial IT (yep, information technology) Office almost ruined my good memories of the Suroy Suroy: Midwest. Here I go: During the tour, our guide told us that after a week or so, we could drop by the Cebu Provincial IT Office if we wanted to get copies of the pictures taken by the province’s “official photographers”. We just need to bring a blank CD. This info was repeated many times. True enough, during the tour we saw “official photographers” who kept clicking at various stages of the tour often times even blocking our vantage or ruining our shots since they were there up front without regard if they just stepped in front of anyone attempting to shoot. We left them to it since th...

Who goes to the Sto Nino Shrine without glancing at the People’s Center beside it? Well, during this “revisit”, I did not only want to glance at it, I wanted to roam the place once again. Alright folks, for those not familiar with it, google will help a lot as there too are a lot of descriptions and images of it. The People’s Center actually simultaneously sprouted with the Sto Nino Shrine beside it. They were the twin attractions of the city during their heydays until the Marcoses were ousted from Malacanang – but that’s another topic that I might in the near future write about. I am not here to discuss that it is another extravagant thing commissioned by Imelda. That topic is already way too worn out. My visit was more for the what it was and what it is now! The People’s Center and Library looks like a building inspired with ancient greek architecture. Ah that one will probably be hard to change even in oblivion hehe! Its original color was white, now it is dirty white. Hey, I do n...

Went to see how this shrine is these days. Been there during my younger years but I think I did not care much about it. Aw, before I proceed, for those who are not very much aware on what it is, try googling it. There are a lot of information, descriptions and even photos of the place in all of webdom! My story here is about the state of that place today, as I see it. Specifically, if it is still really worth the tourist’s time. From the highway, looking at the building, nothing much has changed. It still looks commanding and seems worth a peek. Well, even if it did not look so, I was determined on going forth as indeed I wanted to see the whole of it! The front lawn is still maintained even if less meticulously than before. The circular thing where the image of the child Jesus stands on a replica of the island of Leyte is still the same sans the water. The big brown jars that line and adore the front of the building are still there though I saw one has already crumbled into pieces. En...

I wanted to see both the Pintados–Kasadyaan and the Sangyaw but I had to attend to some matters in Manila that I only caught up with the latter. Well yes, I did not expect much from both. Many folks (that includes me) are starting to be disinterested in seeing these two festivals due to the crazy politics that clouds them. Why the two festivals? Ah that’s politics at its ugliest. And people in Tacloban will readily tell you amusing stories that surround them. Oh no, locals there do not actually mind anymore. They just shrug at such ugly reality and laugh at how childish their leaders could be! Pintados Festival, if I remember correctly, started some 20 or more years ago. I knew it was usually staged during the Tacloban City Fiesta. I was young then and marveled at the uniqueness of the performers whose bodies were painted – for that is how people there were referred to by Spaniards as Pintados since their bodies were tattooed all over. In the early years of this festival, people everyw...