Philippine Travel Notes

From that snooze at Luciana, I woke up at 1345H and was ready to roam the city again by 1400H. But where else was I to go? I have seen the three most important sights I wanted to view even before lunch! Aha! The Church! Oh the church called St. Jospeh Cathedral which is just a few paces away from Luciana is big as many other churches in the country. But alas, here I was again, ready to roam a church only to stumble upon a funeral service! Argh! And it looked like the dead was a military or police dude since the outside of the cathedral teemed with so many of them uniformed men and women. When I peeped into the last pews, yeah, it was dotted with uniformed men. So I decided not to start roaming this edifice at that time lest I be in trouble with those people in mourning. And most of them had their “ra-ta-ta-ta-tat” long or short by their sides as if ready to fire any moment. Ayaw ko hehehe! I slowly backed and decided instead look for the ‘ecclesiastical museum’ by asking a guard. The g...

After the heavy lunch at Weegools (or should I say “heavy dessert”), I was not anymore sure of my north-south-east-west! I just knew I was in Butuan City and was confident a tricycle can take me to my “hotels”. Let’s explain that. I booked (by accident) on two separate places for this Butuan City visit – one was done by me calling Luciana Inn and the other by a friend calling a friend to get me a booking at Hotel Karaga! At Luciana Inn, my reserved room was a double at P800/day since their single rooms (P600) were not available. At Karaga Hotel, I was booked for a double room at P800/day since their single rooms (P700) were also fully booked. When an empty tricycle approached, I hailed it and the manong driver (an elderly) was all smiles. I asked him which was farther from where I stood at Weegools, was it Hotel Karaga or Luciana Inn. He told me it was Luciana at city center but we could pass by Karaga since it was along the way. And we took off at what seemed to be another tour, this ...

From the museum I walked onwards instead of backtracking on that road I arrived-in, since, you guessed right, it was fairly desolate. I did not really know what to encounter but I moved forward seeing that there were more vehicles passing over at the intersection with a bigger road. There was a little building identified as a Barangay Daycare Center to my left as I walked on. I got curious on what else might be inside there since it had a nice sturdy fence. Voila! I did not at all expect this! The Butuan City Hall Oh so the city hall is not at the old town plaza! They have moved! Hey I don’t and won’t have much anything to say about this place. I was just in awe at the sight of this edifice. It is big and it sits alone in quite an expanse of lawn I don’t know what for hehe! AND, it is “heavily” fenced off by fortunately an appealing kind of modern steel and concrete type of fence. From where I was standing, I thought that was ridiculous to fence off a city hall that way. It seemed so u...

I have not even been half a day in Butuan City and I was already happy. The learning and realizations at the Balanghai Shrine courtesy of a tricycle driver was just already awesome! Everything was going fine from the time I got to NAIA 3. So far, so good! An accidental tour So I flagged a red-colored R4 multicab. I was a bit (just a bit) unhappy that there was already a passenger seated at the front-seat of my ride. Would have been best if I was the one there – a great vantage for viewing the city streets. But I contemplated that once the woman gets off, I’ll quickly run and transfer to that front seat. This ride was only half full (okay, half empty if you like) so it was fine to stretch my legs to the underside of the opposite seat and it was also fine to let my backpack sit beside me as I busied myself looking at where we passed. This was consolation at least, since at front seat I could not do any stretching! I asked the driver how much to the Regional Museum. The woman at front sea...

I have long wanted to be back in this city for I vaguely remember anything about it. I was first and last there when I was just 11 years old some eons ago. That was when my father agreed to take me along on one of his business trips. Thus, when I chanced upon a weekend with nowhere to go and nothing to do, I said to myself “Butuan, here I come”! Booked a flight, scanned the web and asked around on what to see and where to stay… in no time I was able to produce a very ambitious itinerary that included the environs of the city! Of course I knew I could not have done them all, but as I always do, better pepper my itineraries with more options than find out one day in a city with nothing else to do and nothing else to see. I was not as excited on this one, I must admit. What with all the news of heavy rains and floods. Plus the knowledge that there was neither a festival nor any kind of event to watch! Still I went for it and I now say, I cannot but thank me hehe! I loved the discoveries! ...