Philippine Travel Notes

Moving on from Burauen on this our Leyte Livelihood Tour, we decided to hit the City of Baybay for a layover, so that we’d be near our next appointment tomorrow. Look at the map , this is the green-colored segment of our tour. We went from Burauen to Dulag, Mayorga, MacArthur, part of Abuyog, part of Mahaplag, then down to Baybay City. Unfortunately I have no pictures, but oh my gee, this is not a road to take for the uninitiated on an evening drive. Most of the mountain portions are new concrete alright, but its twisting and turning amidst very steep climbs and descents. The expression “be careful” would be an understatement for one who is going to drive via this one fine (and new) road. Proof? Ah, almost every bend are prominently installed those big and wide reminders from the DPWH to “Check Brakes”. At first we were having fun counting them “Check Brkaes” signage. They look something like this pic (though that is not one of them - I just grabbed this one from the tripwow of Wanderl

Wheh?! Let me quote the whole article: " No need to print plane tickets: DOJ says e-tickets will do by Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News Posted at 09/11/2013 2:50 PM | Updated as of 09/12/2013 10:26 AM MANILA, Philippines - There's no need to print your plane tickets anymore. Passengers at all international ports of entry and exit in the country may present their electronic tickets using their smartphones and tablets. In a statement, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima said that the advisory from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and its attached agency, the Bureau of Immigration (BI), is effective immediately. "This is another step to improve access to basic government services. We shall continue to work with all stakeholders to inject common sense and process logic into our systems," De Lima said. The new policy is by virtue of Operations Order No. SBM-2013-003, entitled "Removing the Requirement of Presentation of the Printed Hard Copy of Return and/or Onward Passage

I have been to this park twice or thrice before. It’s a wonderful place to be with/in nature amid the urbanities everywhere. This morning, I was there early to set up some of my team building activities for a group of lovely youngsters. And this is what I stumbled upon… At 07:33AM, I could not see anyone attempting to clean up all the mess – most of these were yucky stinking food left-overs. So I went up to the guard just to ask if at all this was going to be attended to, since there were already a lot of people, some of them whole families jogging, exercising, playing. Guard said ‘there should be’ and told me he will call the attention of personnel in charge of this park. He did! And the massive clean-up of this vast place was started. We even had to delay some of the activities so those folks can finish tidying up the grounds and the cottages. While waiting, we could not help but talk about the mess and the responsibility of cleaning up after an event. We all do, right? Except probab

We were finally herded by a lady (member of their livelihood association) to the house of their ex-barangay captain Cheeryl Ducentes (I spelled that name correctly hehe) who is now municipal councilor care of the just concluded national elections. She is Business Manager of the Arado Sweet Delicacies Producers’ Association . Note from the pic we were still some 3kms to center of Burauen. We were to meet her to learn and see the hows/whys of this thing called bukayo (bukhayo in their products). Alas, she was not there (since the original schedule set by DTI was Friday, and today was only Wednesday). Where was she anyway? Well, out in the city (Tacloban and environs) to do a scheduled delivery of their products to various places including stores at the airport. Quite a dedicated woman to her craft! Anyway, it was not as if we didn’t learn anything on this sudden visit of Barangay Arado. Some of the women in the association including the councilor’s mother did regale us with their product

Burauen finally, and we could not really pinpoint where we were going hahaha! But we did find Barangay Arado as it is along the highway. I was the first to holler we were there when I saw an elementary school named Arado Elementary School so we started asking around. The first guy we asked was over-eager to make a sale. He did not listen well when our driver asked for the name Cheeryl, he just got really interested with the word “bukhayo” and asked us how many did we want to buy hehe. But the DTI officer got off and asked a lady who told us we were past the house, though she knew Cheeryl was not yet there. Learning about our purpose, she told us she might as well show us around one of the neighborhoods where a recent delicacy production was in progress, though not really bukayo, telling us Cheeryl might already arrive by the time we’re done here. We excitedly went for it, of course, so we followed her through the sides of some 5 or 6 houses to reach an open yard – backyard of one, fron

That is pronounced “Boo-ruh-wen”. It’s a town in the heart of Leyte Island. I say heart, because it is somewhere in the middle! Yep, a non-coastal town (there are just a few) some 40+ kilometers from Palo. This was one of our destinations on/for Friday’s itinerary. But the friend and her companions decided to omit some of the other livelihood destinations within Tacloban City and other nearby areas, especially those that had nothing to do with the wonder tree – coconut! So, we decided we might as well go for this town after Palo, then proceed to spend the night in Baybay City. Whoa, adventure! It was my first to visit this town known in the province as ‘where many delicacies are produced’. And our purpose: to see and learn from live production of this delectable thing thy call “bukhayo” or “bukayo”. The trip from Palo was wonderful, even as the sun have started playing hide-and-seek with us through the lush forest thickets in many areas. Good roads, and we only slowed down at one p

We’re still on the Tuba topic, and from Vino De Coco compound, we proceeded to this little house in Palo where many reputed personalities in the region buy their tuba by ‘containerfuls’ when they have celebrations or just about anything in their lives that require them to drink and serve tuba – which is actually ‘just about anytime, right?! But even the way going there was exciting enough for me. Look at the map and zoom it , this is the government center area with touristic sights. We passed by the Philippine Science High School (Eastern Visayas Campus), veering left amidst national government offices, on to the famous MacArthur Park and turned right towards The Oriental Hotel (previously The MacArthur Park Beach Resort). Then… we asked around as to where is Barangay San Fernando, only to be told were were already in it hehe. But we easily found EF Winery as they are very well-known in this neighborhood. They were also expecting us! Yep, the DTI has previously arranged all our visits.

Here goes the start of our exciting ‘Livelihood Tour’! First drop was at this winery in Marasbaras, Tacloban, not far from Robinson’s Place actually – right side of the Maharlika Highway if you were going towards Palo. But let me qualify this ‘Livelihood Tour’ for those who might be getting interested. This was not just a so-so field trip. It was organized by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) just for my friend, her son and 2 of her trusted officers. How? She previously talked to DTI seeking help about learning those various livelihood opportunities – especially the many by-products of the coconut tree. All were pre-arranged by DTI with matching itinerary schedules per day (in a total of 3 days), descriptions of the products, a DTI officer and the persons to see! Whew! Am not sure what they call this activity since I did not look in those sheets of paper they had, so in my mind, I decided to call this a ‘Livelihood Tour’. Anyway and so… Enter us at the Vino De Coco compound. T