Philippine Travel Notes

I was back there today, to accompany a friend who comes from afar and also a devout believer of the “miracles” that the Mama Mary image in this monastery is supposed to ‘offer’. Chance for me to see if at all there may have been changes! It’s Monday, so thankfully, there was no long arduous line to toe! Whohoa! So we went straight up. Well there was a line of sorts but just within the building area. No grueling it out under the sun! Uh-huh, that new ‘palacial’ wing under construction seems to have seen a bit of ‘development’ compared to my visit 2 months ago . New signages within the building were also evident this time. Oh, since there was no long line this time (I am very patient y’know), I went with the friend all the way to the “halok” (kiss Mama Mary). Here are the views going up there. Where is “up there”? Exactly behind her image in the altar that faces the chapel. So you would see the rebulto’s back? Yes, as in exactly this picture below. But I learned it is not the one

We were out of Simala ( previous stories ) and out at the corner of the road and the national highway, we had to cross so we could hail a bus going back to Cebu City. Fine, you can’t cross at that busy intersection with so many habal-habal drivers running in every direction to get prospect passengers. So we had to walk further. Besides, public vehicles usually stop meters away from that corner, so we walked a bit to the right where we saw across it, the Cebu-bound buses would stop. But my inquisitive eyes darted a little bit up. And I read this signage. I exclaimed “oh really?” and the friend said “what again?”! And I said, we are now in the town of Argao, wow! We just looked at each other, simultaneously checked the time (his wristwatch, my cellphone), and stood there, not crossing, smiling! Off to Argao we were going, final! Whahoo! Not even a minute passed and there came a Sunrays bus bound for Samboan. Sakay dayon! When conductor asked where we were going, we simultaneously r

The friend looked at me shaking his head as if to tell me "it's all because you wanted breakfast". I apologetically nodded to acknowledge hehe! At 9:02AM of Sunday, January 31, 2010, there was already a very long line of people. I asked what that line was for and I was told "to kiss Mama Mary". My estimate... probably about 200 meters from where we were (see picture) all the way to the statue of Mama Mary up on the 2nd floor of the edifice, passing via a winding route along the grounds! This may have irked the friend, but I noticed that other people who were not there to do the "halok" (kiss Mama Mary's statue) were free to walk and go everywhere else in this expansive facility. So I left him at that hapless position, (under the now blistering hot sun, in that very long queue) and proceeded to see more of the place. Okay okay, I said sorry for the breakfast that caused the delay therefore his veery far spot in veeery the long line hehehe! May

I heard many things about this monastery, the latest wasn't that good at all. You probably also heard of that news where a priest was expelled from the convent and said priest was telling of untoward things, and so on. Never got interested in seeing the place for myself (am not that religious) until a friend asked me this morning if I wanted to tag along as he was going there for his monthly "devotional visit". I said yes of course and off to Simala we went! How did we go there? I was already on the phone with a taxi company arranging for one of their cabs to fetch us from where we were, bring us to Simala and back to the city. But the friend cut me and said "never mind the taxi, let's just commute like everyone else does". Oh okay, so we still took a taxi but just to Cebu's South Bus Terminal where we took a non-air-conditioned bus to Sibonga. My friend did not even say Sibonga to the conductor. He just said "Simala"! It's that well-know