Philippine Travel Notes

A nice day.., a wonderful day indeed! We just came off the interesting Canigao Island and driving our way up to Ormoc, to call it a day. Not yet returning all the way to Tacloban this time, as tomorrow's "work-related work" starts from Ormoc! We (I mean my driver) were rushing on the road as it was nearly sundown, and Matalom to Ormoc is around a hundred kilometers, and we have a protocol to abide by.., "sun-up to sun-down only trips"! But I observed, the views along the way were fantastic with the golden "about-to-set" sunlight on this western side of Leyte. So I made a deal with the driver.., no stops but I could request a slow-down at important or extremely wondrous sights (sites too) along the way! Ang problema: there are too many! First fantastic sighting, not really my choice.., not a site or sight but an "incident" (in Bato, Leyte)! My driver honked quickly and softly as he tried to overtake that trike running slow in the...

🎵 Time to say goodbye.., Paesi che non ho mai Veduto e vissuto con te Adesso sì li vivrò Con te partirò Su navi per mari Che, io lo so No, no, non esistono più It's time to say goodbye.., 🎵 Ayun.., kinanta na hahaha! So let's go! These were some of our boatmates all ready and waiting for the ride back to mainland.., Red arrow points to our boat approaching. Blue arrow points to me myself still trampling on the water! Another shot of our boat approaching.., and someone who couldn't get enough of the water hahaha! There is a story to this gentleman seemingly looking at the camera, so my driver told me. He was not looking at the camera. He was not also looking at the baby (he's the dad of that cute little darling). He was glancing at the drunken ladies ( previous topic ). They weren't just done with their drunk dramatics! Boarding time! One last look at the sand of Canigao. To me, it is actually colored 'pinkish-cream'.., Somewhat pinkish, di ...

We ended the last story with this remarkable picture at one corner of Canigao Island.., I cannot over-emphasize the fact, that this corner of the island, beautiful as it is, has very very strong current it's very dangerous to young and old swimmers alike. I did try to 'float' in this area - supervised. When I say supervised, there were no less than 3 boatmen watching me float on the rushing waters, With my yaya, chaperone, body guard (yung driver hehe) all eyes and following me from the shore! We just wanted to see how dangerously fast you could be dragged by the water current. Take note again, I was supervised, notwithstanding the fact that I was (almost) a university varsity swimmer (bench ba)! What I wanted to see/test was what boatmen were telling me (I also saw this on TV), that the 'whirl' of the sea will actually bring you to shore, if you just float and "go with the flow". However, most folks do panic and vigorously swim against the strong curr...

Now that we have rounded the periphery of Canigao Island, let us go "inside", to see and talk of things not usually mentioned by many visitors to the island - since they took only selfies or groupfies - haha! Let us start with this.., an example of the many cottages that dot the beachfront.., If you noticed, aside from the rental prices, each cottage bears the name of a fish or seafood - even translated or described in English! I liked it. Educational! Example: Talakitok = Longfin Trevally. Oh ha?! Here here.., a clearer view of the name of that cottage above. Sosyal da englis name of danggit ha?! Your chat could go like this: "What did you have for breakfast? Ah, just fried "white-spotted spinefoot"! Hey, I didn't know you just add P200 and the thing is yours overnight. I didn't know too, people actually sleep on those benches overnight! A boatman whispered to me "it is a practice all over this country". Ah the bad part, as everywher...