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) , alth...

As mentioned in my previous story , we were looking for lunch but didn't find what we liked in Lapinig . So back to Arteche we went, since we earlier saw a new "snack house" across the side of the church! This is it, though I wasn't really sure if "Save" is the name or just a teaser ad. Is it? So okay, it is hehe! New, tidy clean and orderly.., plus I earlier saw that they have "silog" - I can live with that forever! There goes Mana "Ku-an" (am not sure if she is an owner or manager) pointing to us their bestsellers. And there goes what my driver likes.., hmm kaninang umaga ko pa napansin etong si driver ko. Hmm! Yeah yeah, he likes burgers, hotdogs and pancit canton very much - he said that! I said "estoryahee"! But I like the open and airy concept of this eatery. It has a high ceiling, bright on all corners, and does not even need electric fan. Hope this won't be a favorite "tambayan" of flies. None as of...

Hello Arteche! I said that loudly as we were welcomed by this signage in Brgy. Buenavista. My first time to this town in the northern coastal tip of the province of Eastern Samar. And I was more than happy to note (as I did not expect this) that the road is good new concrete all the way from Oras! Also happy to note that, far-flung and remote as this town is, newly built infrastructure abound. School gates, school fences, barangay halls, multi-purpose covered courts, etc. are either newly built or newly repaired. I think these all came about after the big typhoons (yes plural, as there were more that came after Yolanda), where help really poured in. And/Or because it is "election year". Alams na! Just two kilometers from Buena Vista, we reached this big barrio called Brgy. Carapdapan.., I noticed many parts of this highway sport this kind of sashaying balu-baluktot style. Ano ito, pa-uso? Hey look here, this certainly looks like a town's plaza, right? That's jus...