Fun w/ “Similiar” Places, Part1

Done with our extensive list of town / city names that are exactly the same, let’s dip our brains into something else equally confusing for the traveler – these are the names that sound alike, or read just about the same or whose meanings are generally the same. Something “similiar” y’know?! Ahehe, yep, ‘similiar’ means things that sound, look or feel ‘similar’ and/or ‘familiar’, according to my English vocabulary!

Here we go…

Abra.
There is the province of Abra up in the Cordilleras, while there is the town of “Abra De Ilog” in Mindoro Occidental. Both are commonly called just Abra! Aww!

Baco, Bacon, Bacong
Those are three different towns that start with the same first four letters (and 5th). Remember how syllables are pronounced in the Philippines… “ba” as in ‘buh’, “co” as in ‘ko’. Cute with these three town names is that the stress in pronunciation is similar. You just add the other letters. Now careful with Baco as there is also a town named Basco! Gosh! And Bacon is not pronounced as in your breakfast food, okay?!

Bacoor, Bacolor
Just a single letter made the difference here! Especially that these two names are pronounced in almost the same way… ba-ko-or and ba-ko-lor.

Bagulin, Bakulin
Again, just like above, these two names differ in just a letter. But both are pronounced in very similar fashion.

Bago, Bogo
The letter “a” is all that matters hehe! Muddle these up with the name of Baco as described above and you might get delirious! At least they sound far from Baguio and even farther from Basco.

Balabag
There is the town of Balabag. But add in another syllable and you have another town named Balabagan. Change one letter and there is another town named Bagabag! Uh!

Bala---
Oftentimes during conversations, these towns that start with ‘Bala’ gets confusing as there are many. Examples are Balaoan, Balasan, Balatan, Balayan. You can even muddle those up with Balagtas, Balamban, Balanga, Balangiga, Balangkayan end even Balbalan. Note on that last name, there is no “ka” at the start of the word, otherwise it would have been just “nonsense” (kabalbalan) hehe.

Bamban
Its supposed to be nothing weird of a name right? However, there is also a town named Bambang. You just add that last letter and you already jumped from Tarlac to Nueva Vizcaya! Whoah! They're near each other therefore!

Bang---
Oh “bang” is the nickname of a good old friend hehe. As we said in the same-names series, there are two towns with the name Banga but note that there is another town called Bangar. Awk! Yea, just the letter r at the end!

Bani---
There is a town named Bani. But adding more letters there is another town named Banisilan and yet another town named Banisalan. Look at the two last towns again and ogle at the subtle difference. There is even Basilan to add a 4th mind-boggler!

Ampatuan
Yes, the infamous family that resorted to mass murders just to stay on top of every local post they can think of (at least just in their province, yet). They have renamed so many places with that surname – differing only in the first names. Whoever is the legislator representing said areas now should aptly rename those places into something else – maybe the names of the journalists they murdered.

Bantay
There is a town named Bantay. Add in two letters at the end, you have the famous Bantayan which is the name of a town and the island that contains the town hehe. Any questions?! Well yes, on mainland a few kilometers away from said island is the town of DaanBantayan. If you want to protest, go to congress hehehe!

Banton
There is only one town named such, though I’ve heard a few times where it got confused with Boston. Well yes, there is a town named Boston! Now now… Banton sounds way far from Bantay, but it gets confused many times with Port Barton when people start dropping the “port” during conversations. To make it easier, you can say San Vicente (the town where Port Barton is). Then again, there are five towns named San Vicente! Argh! Ang saya!

Barili, …’lili
There is just one town named Barili and good that there is no town named “balili” cuz there is one named Balilihan. So why is this part of the topic? Sorry kung Pinoy ka hehe, these two towns are for my K and J readers na nahihirapan bumigkas ng Marlboro! Klaro? Ay hindi kraro daw hehe!

Barotac
Ah this is much easier, there is Barotac Nuevo and Barotac Viejo. The Ilonggos do keep the first word during conversations. Maybe you should drop it the way some friends have dropped “nueva” in Ecija and Vizcaya – just for conversation purposes, k?!

Basay
There is just one town named Basay. And there is also just one town named Basey. The cute little issue is that, both are pronounced by locals in the very same way, “ba-sigh”. Oh sigh, what can you say? hehe!

Bata---
Many places in this country start with these four letters for a name. There are the towns of Batac, Batad, Batan and even the provinces of Batanes, Batangas and Bataan PLUS another town called “New Bataan”! Ahhhh!

Let’s cut it here and continue on my next entry, okay?! Note, most of the above start with the letters “A” and “B”, so there probably is more hehe!

Previous

Next