Philippine Travel Notes

This was not really in my itinerary, although somewhere in the recesses of my brain was saying, I'd love to drop by, even for just a while. And it happened... Opportunity! Let's start from the very beginning... From the previous story , I hopped on a van at Gamay with Oras as my destination. It went well, with just one little caveat, that I would give up my Seats 1 & 2 at Arteche. Arteche Arrival Van stopped at the side of Arteche Covered Court ( Multi-Purpose Building ), to let off some of its Arteche-bound passengers. Here. This was the last pic in my earlier story . I learned, not all Arteche-bound passengers have-to or need-to alight here, although I saw people get-off or wait-for their rides here. The 3 ladies with 5 'big suitcases' did! Those of us not getting off, sat tight waiting (due to offloading of bags and boxes). Tricycles strategically wait for passengers also at this corner (babaan at sakayan nga naman ng vans & buses) , altho...

Exit time! Time to leave the Pacific towns of Northern Samar. I wish I had more days. In fact, I even wish I could live in this place, at least for a few months, years, or kahit forever! Anyway, leave I must ! Now, this was a trip full of learnings - I dedicate to you, fellow commuting roamers! Planned itinerary for this day was: 1] walk to the highway in Potong (~100 meters) ; 2] hop on a vacant 'anything' going to Lapinig town proper (~3kms) ; 3] roam around Lapinig town proper; 4] take a bus or van going to Oras (~65kms) ; 5] stay overnight. There were other alternatives I considered - like going via Catarman, then Calbayog, down to Catbalogan and finally Tacloban. But I remembered: avoid the ' holy roads '! Flying out of Catarman, Calbayog or even Borongan were also options, but I already had a ticket out of Tacloban. So, reversing how I came was the best option this time. However... (eto nanaman ako) things do change. What actually happen...

A wonderful encounter.., in one of my morning-walks, I found a beautiful new friend. Can you see her in this picture? Wheh, malayo pa lang I already noticed her alindog! At 6:26AM, I was walking to a sari-sari store (upper left corner of pic, beside red gate, sarado pa kasi ang sa Momoy), and there she was on a sidewalk, confidently seated. She knew I was there though she was busier looking at a cat by the opposite house. But I just said "Good Morning Mingming" once, and she immediately walked to me! First it was curious about my phone. Maybe she thought I was giving it to her as my hands were outstretched. When I said no, she sat by my feet. I said now what? hehe! Oh eh, di tumambay kami sa gitna ng kalsada. Baka magalit pag iniwan hahaha! At nag-usap kami. OMG kinausap ko! I talked, she wagged her tail or bunt my feet! My most important question was "mingming, bakit naman white ang eyeliner mo, 'di ba pwede violet or green man lang"? Hahaha, wal...

This is a beautiful beach, still a daily tableau of the "rural life-and-recreation"! Potong Beach , is not (yet) that much publicized, thus, not in the bucket-list of many a traveler, and I think I like it that way (greedy ba?) , but by-and-by, it is getting 'found'! If not yet widely-known, how did I know about this place? Ah eh, I have my ways, let me count the ways... hehehe! Honestly, I saw this last year, while at Sunrise Resort. By my guesstimate , Sunrise Resort will probably be somewhere at that yellow arrow, or probably even nearer. My green arrow points to Momoy and Sinulog resorts area. Learning about Momoy and Sinulog, I bucket-listed them. After a year, here na me ! Oy it looks like, and very similar to other beaches, like Binogawan for one. The sand here is just lighter in color. But another place, another experience - that's the essence! The essence of "travel pa more", di ba?! Oh, what I loved about this visit was the reali...

Here is one story that would probably be my first on the convergence of us Humans (our curiosities) , Nature (the unadulterated world around us) , and, AI (new technology) . As I walked on the beach at Mika's Beach Resort, fascinated, I took this picture... Right there, I uploaded it to my AI Chatbot and asked " What is this crab-art called? " The reply opened with "indeed it is crab art" parang tao rin, trying to pull my leg! And went on to tell me that it has many names depending on the speaker or the location. I learned anyway that those are called (any of the following):     ☺ sand balls     ☺ sand ball patterns     ☺ sand pellets     ☺ sand pellet patterns     ☺ feeding pellets     ☺ crab feeding pellets     ☺ sand wreaths     ☺ sand rosettes     ☺ crab tracings and many more, depending on who's talking! So, oo nga, the names are descriptions. And dependent ...