Philippine Travel Notes

My first comment as the bus entered Oroquieta City was “ang OA naman”! I said ‘OA’ of course to mean ‘over-acting’ as we commonly use it in this country. And I was referring to the city’s welcome arc. I would have been content with that “Welcome to Oroquieta, City of Good Life”, even if that “good life” is of course very debatable depending on whose point of view – the old resident folks, the resident youth or the young and adult visitors, right? But what made me say ‘OA’ are those writings on top and on both sides of the ‘welcome’ in equally big fonts! Ah just look at the picture and read hehe! Hello, what do they have for a Mayor? Bro. Mike? Bro. Eddie? The Archbishop? Reading those, I silently laughed and said to myself, “ah yun mayor nila kaka-member lang ng prayer group, kaya fired up pa ang pag-bubunganga tungkol sa salita ng Diyos”… followed by “sa salita lang naman like most politicians” hehe! And pasensya mga taga-Oroquieta that was/is my first impression of your leader/s. Act

What comes to mind when you hear about a city and capital of a province at that? Traffic? Bustling business activities here and there? Hectic life? Noisy vehicles? Towering buildings and sprawling malls? Beggars? If you say yes to any or all of those, then Oroquiea is not a city! And mind you, it has been a city just 3 months short of 4 decades as of my visit! Why did I go to Oroquieta anyway? Well, for lack of anything more to do in Ozamiz, that is. But choosing to go and see Oroquieta was not a random thing. I did some little if quick thinking during breakfast hehe. I was in Misamis Occidental and its capital is the city of Oroquieta, so I would naturally want to at least peep, right? If I considered Ozamiz City a bustling hive of various activities, I would probably want to see how the capital is, right? Here’s one thing more I saw on the web… it has for once been declared the capital of this country by Manuel Quezon and Sergio Osmena, Sr. – o alam nyo yan?! So I had enough reason t

Oro-what?! That’s what headquarters (a.k.a. my home) ‘aghastedly’ exclaimed when I called to tell them that I was heading for Oroquieta City! So I repeated that slowly “O-ro-kye-tuh”! Told them I thought I had enough of roaming Ozamiz City yesterday, so I decided to head northwards and see what might be worth my time there! The next question I heard was “where is that?”, and the best answer I could muster was “don’t worry, I heard that’s still part of the country, the Philippines, y’know?!” That reply was both meant to tell them “I don’t actually know for sure” and “I think it is a safe place, so calm down you all”! Ah families, we all have our own unique languages, right?! Well, WE have! Okay, my plan (which materialized just over breakfast at Royal Garden’s free wi-fi Veranda Restaurant) was: head north of Ozamiz City up until Oroquieta City ONLY. Reason: at least it is a city and from what I’ve read on the web, there is ample transportation to get back to Ozamiz if and when needed.