Philippine Travel Notes

Kaonan means eatery. Carayman is a barangay in Calbayog City. Kaonan Sa Karayman is OMG superb. It's a homely (native touches) restaurant that specializes in mostly Filipino foods like you see above. It is cozy and tidy everywhere, but you will see that undeniable mark of a frequented place. Its tables are abundantly scratched and faded on the sides, obviously because of constant frequent use. Then I said to my self 'this place must be popular'. They are! On some days, they cause barangay traffic jams! This is more of a lunch and dinner place for families or groups. Well, I saw twosomes in the past. What started as an eatery of 4 or 5 square tables has now grown into a restaurant with all rectangular tables for 6 or 8 - many are almost permanently joined together for the 'usual' big groups or families. Everybody loves their chili crabs and so do I. Awrrrr! But everything in the menu is delectable. It is on the pricey side of course - if you only compare pr...

I remember I already posted a similar article about the sunset at this beach, ah I remember too, I said I want to keep returning to it, so eto na... "I have returned no. 1" (because there might be many)! Yeay! By the way, I just realized, it's not "malahog" as I wrote in 2012 . It's "malajog" pronounced in the same way as "malahog". Now therefore, Mr. President, I stand erected hahaha! In fact, if you observe locals, the tricky difference isn't even in how the name is written, but on how it is pronounced by us visitors. It's a hard "O" in the last syllable. Not the "O" as in jog hog bog or nog. It is more like your "O" in hood or good or google, though a bit shorter. That is why some folks could/can/might write it as "malajug"! Anyway, I came just for the sunset and nothing else. Let me tell you, the way there is still "holy"! Holy, meaning there are so many holes on the r...

Because I was in Calbayog, and (unfortunately for me!) a friend knew about it, she requested that I go check-out this resort for her. It wasn't clear to me (I didn't ask much) if this resort was just opened or about to open or some parts refurbished. I just went in, looked for the contact person given - at 7AM! And I said "okay done" then sent those pictures above to her! For my comments, I said "good enough", the rooms are "basic" nothing fancy nor elegant, and they're dull concrete boxes viewed from outside. Oh this was also requested, so I added: the swimming pool is wide and looks great! I said I have to go! Unbeknownst to the requestor, I did not actually leave immediately! I stayed a while for a one-on-one interview and photo shoot with the only living thing I saw at the pool area! Remember, 7AM pa lang e! Can you see him? her? it? If you can't, focus on the first step of the stairs to the jacuzzi! Brown & Cute! ...

From Mondragon on the way to Tacloban, we entered Calbayog and navigated to their relatively new "old diversion road". This has been passable to "through-traffic" just months ago, but I say "old" because there is even a newer one farther away that bypasses not only Calbayog City proper but even Sta. Margarita - though am not sure if that is already passable, and I have no idea what they will call it! Anyway, purportedly to avoid traffic at city center, we cruised along the diversion road (this is the one that looks like an extension of Magsaysay Boulevard). But, I stumbled upon some curious new developments that, made our travel even longer haha - though I liked this, because I saw new things! Like this one... Wha! A "land" transport terminal... Whoa! I emphasized "land" above because at first I thought this was an "air" terminal hehe. I saw some signs and learned that this is their new integrated "land" transpo...

Not your usual "origin-and-destination" pair. Not even mine too. It just happened that I needed to do work-related matters in both towns, in succession (same day), that I had no choice but to quickly run from one place to the other. That is about 250 kilometers far! Well, the most important thing is, I enjoyed the ride! Here's the 'hectic day' story... I set out early morning from Tacloban for an activity in one of the barrio's of Basey - yeah some kilometers beyond the town proper, even already near the jump-off point to the Sohoton Cave and Natural Bridge Park - but I did not go there this time - trabaho muna! Thankfully the activity ended noontime, otherwise they would have to serve me lunch! I made my way to the town center of Basey to look for lunch - there's a default carinderia I usually go to in this town if lunchtime comes and I'm still around. That's at Kuya Tani's. OMG, I found out I did not have enough money in my wallet, ...