Philippine Travel Notes

Nice little twist in that otherwise boringly common 'thank you sign'. This one you’ll see as you leave the San Vicente Wharf, entering city proper of Bogo. Ah yes, the creative ways of communicating in these our times!

This was ‘goodbye Bogo City day’ and onwards north I moved. Thought of just hopping unto Medellin on my way back from further north so I headed straight for the town of Daanbantayan. This town was reason I embarked on this northern tour in the first place! To watch the Haladaya festival 2009. Daanbantayan, the name Why such a name? I did surf and asked around why such a name for the town when there is another named just “Bantayan”. It gets a bit confusing as both Daanbantayan and Bantayan are northern towns of Cebu province. Both are resort towns too! It even get’s all the more confusing when both towns grab top honors on a festival like the Pasigarbo Sa Sugbo. Here goes… “Bantayan” is a Visayan word meaning “lookout”. This particularly applied to the lifestyle of yesteryears when each town or enclave of the Spaniards needed to have a watch for oncoming pirates. Due to the presence of such a lookout in the coastal area, the place was commonly referred to as “bantayan” until it bec...

Reaching Nagano from my San Remigio sojourn, Winjie gave me my room key as he told me that it would be Room 45 this time and that my things were already there. I requested that a bottle of coke be delivered to my room. He added “plus ashtray sir, right?”. I winked in agreement and proceeded to climb the stairs. Room 45 looks generally like room 36, only different in orientation. Hmm, 31, 41, 36, 45… four rooms have played around my life at Nagano in two days! Ah there was no need to adjust or re-acclimatize hehe, after finishing a stick and the bottle of coke, I snoozed the rest of the afternoon off! CNN woke me up at a few minutes past 7PM and I lazily went to the bathroom. Still a bit sleepy, I reached for a cigarette and slumped on the waterless tub almost drifting to snooze again. Good that I accidentally toed the shower knob and the sudden splash really got me moving! Whaah hehehe! 8PM, I asked Winjie down at front desk where should I go for a nice quiet dinner other than Ya...

Done with roaming the San Remigio Beach Club, I started my way back to Bogo. At just about 2PM, I thought I was early going back so I would probably make a pass at the town of Medellin. Outside of the beach club was a sole habal-habal driver waiting for passengers. Hmm, were there any folks inside that beach club who would be prospect passengers?! It was virtually empty that day except for the Koreans on a day tour! Anyway, I hopped unto his motorbike for a ride back to main road so I could catch a bus to at least the highway intersection going Medellin. Hmm again… this habal-habal driver was probably on to something. As we rode back to the highway, he kept convincing me that I should stay overnight at the beach club. He said he will make sure I had a wonderful night. Huh, whether he was into some kinky plans or just being too courteous, staying the night in this place was never in my plans for the day. I did not quite make out if he was a pimp or otherwise. I kindly said no to all i...

This was not part of what I wanted to see. But my curiosity led me there. As I was watching the fisherfolk tending to their boats and nets amidst the placid sea water in the morning calm, I happened to have seen something that looked like a wharf on the other end of the city. I surmised that should probably be near my hotel. On my way out of the public market I casually asked a woman what it was. The reply was a crisp “San Vicente Wharf” (in English ha), not “pantalan” nor “pier” but San Vicente Wharf! So, when I emerged out on the main road, I hopped unto a tricycle and said my crisp “San Vicente Wharf”. And he zoomed through. This was a sea-side road of the city as I could see snippets of the sea in between houses. As we forded along, the places we were passing through started to look familiar. Have I been here? Ah yes, yesterday I happened to have been on this part of town. Then there was the heritage square. Whoa! Heritage Square to our left, when driver started to veer right...

Slept well at Nagano and I woke up still wanting to roam more of Bogo City. So I headed out early at 7AM. I heard they have a new bus terminal so I took a tricycle to go and see it. I would be looking for it later anyway when I head out to other towns. Hmm, the terminal is expansive and clean by the sea and j ust behind the equally clean public market. The views out into the east (the sea) should have been splendid if those structures beyond the sea wall were not there. What are those anyway? I guess squatters since they’re built already on the water. Even saw a family huddled by the seawall eating their breakfast on the ground. They looked like scavengers. Hmm again, if not controlled, I don’t want to imagine what will become of this place some years more. Eager to get a closer look of the placid waters, I looked for and inched forward to a side where there are none of the roofed structures to and that’s to the left as I faced the bay. Lovely, some fisherfolk were already busy ten...

After some needed rest and snooze, it was already dark when I got up to find dinner. Determined not to eat at Yanie’s (so I could see the rest of the city), I started roaming again. The idea was to just walk around until I get hungry and there arounds probably find a suitable place for dinner. Voila! It was not very far… and the Pizza Pub was it! The Restaurant The pizza pub is a restaurant right across the city plaza/park and arguably the best place to have pizza – if there is another such place anyway. Oh it occupies the ground floor of a house that is part of the heritage square! Even on a Friday evening, it is not bustling with diners. Many folks do come and go to get ‘to go’ food. Just a glance at the interiors of this restaurant will immediately reveal that it is not owned by a Filipino. My guess, a German dude with a Pinay wife hehe! On entry the cheerful waitresses and equally cheerfully gay waiter sprang up to meet and greet me at the door. I immediately saw that there were...