Philippine Travel Notes

Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore the Midwest – Toledo City It was a similar entrance as the previous locality… Toledo’s local tour guides joined us at the very first barangay of the city. I call them the “yellow people” as they were wearing yellow t-shirts. As the male local guide did his piece, yellow ladies distributed “loot bags”! Now I was starting to feel like I would be going home tomorrow grander than an over-adorned Christmas tree! The bag contained a sun-visor made out of some part of the coconut tree; a foldable big map with the city’s information on the reverse side; a souvenir-invitation to four events happening in the city that day; and a brown paper bag containing two colors/flavors of the city’s famous “puto lancho”. Hey, every neck alighting from the bus was readily embellished with a necklace made of little seashells with no less than a mother-of-pearl pendant! I do not want to call it a “lei” or “garland” as indeed it beautifully looks like an outsized necklace. And, m

Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore the Midwest – Lamac Lamac is not a town. It is just one of the barangays of the town of Pinamungahan. So this side-trip to Lamac was actually still part of the Pinamungahan visit. It is far from the center of town and the main highway at 12 kilometers away. The trip going there was amidst farms and forests on hills and valleys. I thought that was far but certainly worth the trip. There was our bus again acting up at the various climbs. The road to Lamac is fine but less trodden. Vehicles on any direction are few in between that I thought it would not be wise going this part of town at night. Well, on this trip, aside from it was early afternoon, we were in a convoy of many vehicles. Again, I reassured myself that there were vans behind us should the lowly bus cease being a useful piece of whatever hehe! Why Lamac? Thanks to the mayor for bringing us there, as we realized it is a place to visit for so many reasons. Our very knowledgeable local tour guide

Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore the Midwest – Pinamungahan Still far from center of town, the local tour guide from Pinamungahan joined Tony at the microphone. As of this writing, am still busy deciphering my notes for her name. I know I wrote it somewhere! Like Susan and the rest of the Aloguinsan “local tour guides”, Pinamungahan’s also wore a distinct wear. However, it was not just a colored t-shirt but no less than a beautiful a Filipiniana Dress (of the Maria Clara genre). And she was totally made up! I thought that was exquisitely beautiful but to a fault – meaning not necessary for guiding a tour! Imagine the weight of that dress, the layers, the intricate beads and things attached to it, then you ask her to stand holding/talking to a microphone on a bus speeding on a highway?! I thought, “who were we anyway, we were just tourists, so you don’t have to dress that fancily for us”! Then again, on this tour, I have started to realize that each town really put its best foot forward

Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore the Midwest – At Aloguinsan Arrival at Aloguinsan This is pronounced as \a'-lO-gin-sa'n\ (note that the “a” is pronounced as in father, the “o” as in go, the “gin” as in Guinness and “san” as in son). Top this... people from this town are called Aloguinsanons! A tongue-twister for me but not to others hehe! Ah arriving at Aloguinsan was my first indicator that Suroy Suroy Sugbo is no simple commercial guided tour! As the bus slowed down to a halt, Tony announced we were entering the very first barangay of Aloguinsan and that a local tour guide would join us! I excitedly thought, OMG this is fantastic! The townsfolk made a beautiful bamboo arch to welcome us. Sigh, I wasn’t able to take a pic of that since I was in the middle of the bus. And OMG again, the place (a very rural and hilly part of the locality) was littered with bright little bannerettes. And OMG too, school children, barangay officials and residents lined both sides of the road wavin

Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore the Midwest – To Aloguinsan I was all too happy to have encountered ‘Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore The Midwest’ for I had no choice but to experience Aloguinsan, a town that was not even on my “radar”! AND, to say that “it was fine” will be a gross understatement. I was pleasantly surprised that this town is not on the usual tourist’s map. To prove a point… do you ever encounter a travel book that entices or makes mention of the town of Aloguinsan?! There must be just a few, if at all there is! I can’t (yet) even easily pronounce the town’s name but oh my goodness… it intrigued me I must be back there alone or with some friends. Anyway, I am supposed to be telling my Suroy Suroy Sugbo experience, so here I go! Our way to Aloguinsan As we forded the way, I heard from fellow tourists that there are other ways of going to Aloguinsan. Nevertheless, the Suroy way was to approach it from Carcar – which I thought was either a “marketing strategy” or the “best

As promised to many of you, here I go with an almost blow-by-blow account of my fantastic tour with the Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009. There were little kinks and there were things that I thought can be improved. However, the wonderful things definitely outweigh the sour ones! After asking my cab to pass via McDo drive-thru at Escario, there I was at the assigned meeting place at the back of the Cebu Provincial Capitol. At the meeting place It’s an open parking space with non-concrete grounds so the place retains much of the previous night’s coolness! People in charge of the tour were all over the guarded place so it was easy for me spotting them or should I say, easy for them to spot me. Oh hey, my registration officer at SM was there, he was the one who readily welcomed me and ushered me to my assigned bus. That parking area has no nearby trash bins though. After finishing my Sausage McMuffin and Hot Chocolate, I asked one of the drivers where I could throw my trash. Sensing there was none,

I paid P4,000++ joining this event to realize that I now owe Gwendolyn Garcia (yes, the governor) a hundredfold more than that amount! That serious!!! I know I don’t have the “hundredfold” and I know she won’t take cash anyway hehe! So let me just say that I owe her and her hardworking employees a hundredfold ways of “utang-na-loob” (debt-of-gratitude) for a wonderful experience in the just-concluded “Suroy Suroy Sugbo 2009: Explore the Midwest”. This one-of-a-kind tourism activity is not unfamiliar to my itchy feet. I have known and heard about this repeatedly for some years now. In fact, I wanted to join the Camotes version of the Suroy Suroy Sugbo last May, but a family activity got in the way! Thus, I did not let this midwest tour pass without me joining. However, I did not expect it to be that ultra-grand with everyone treating me as if I was truly My Royal Highness! How did I get to join the “Explore the Midwest” I was supposed to go Camotes alone (as usual) for the long 'ind

You usually get irked, become hot headed or even furious due to congestion on the road, right? Not this one in Lapu-lapu City Mactan Island! Honks and horns were blowing alright. Some were long and loud, some even a rapid succession. But the “obstruction” seemed oblivious of those humanistic protestations. And that made everyone laughing. Ah I could not even hold the camera still because I was really on a LOL mode. Mind you, I even almost forgot to take these two shots, because I was just enjoying the rare scene! There were 4 of them, three big and one small. Like all of us passengers in the multicab, and like all other humans in those vehicles, these animals were on the way to somewhere too! Where? Ah I don’t really know since I did not ask for I was sure I wouldn’t have understood any reply hahaha. Unfortunately for us impatient humans, them cattle wanted to use the road, so they did. Oh eh bakit, is there a sign here that says cattle not allowed? Size matters, yes I agree folks. Of