Philippine Travel Notes

Alright folks, here I go again... one of the few things I post that are "before the fact" which I gladly oblige owing to the many of you who keep asking. So below is the fresh list of activities for the Sinulog 2011 Festival. Why the capitalized 'ANNOTATED' on the title of this post? Well, again for you, who (like me) do not have a month nor a week to spend for the festival, so you can pick your dates. Yes yes, like many of you, I also hate those festivals listed at the wow philippines whatever website, giving date ranges where the (would be) first-time visitor is not given a clear idea on WHICH is the highlight day or the "D-Day" or the "real" festival date! For Sinulog 2011 , it is January 16, 2011 (the 3rd Sunday of January as usual). So mark your calendars. And don't be bothered or confused with the following schedule of activities ( blue font ) that starts as early as December 1, 2010 until February 10, 2011. Like hello?! That is why the ...

Its been there for a long time, I have lived in the metropolis for also a long time, and I have never actually seen this street where the lechon houses are lined up! Well I went there and OMG, lechon there are and salivate you will! If all the ‘whole’ cooked lechon I saw could have been gathered together, they’d easily be a platoon! Well, if I include those whole pigs waiting to be cooked, those that were already packed for delivery and those that were already being chopped in the many lechon stores… all the lechon I saw could probably be a battalion hehe. Yeah am exaggerating… But this was the first time I got to see so many whole cooked and uncooked lechon. Wow. Where is it? At the famous La Loma district of Quezon City. Or is it Manila? Or both? I think it’s the border of the two cities, whatever! Driver just asked around and voila we were there! The district though is more famous for something else far from lechon hehe. It is where the La Loma Cemetery (north cemetery?) is located ...

They’re cute and there are quite a lot of them everyday! I happened to be at Robinson’s Mall near Cebu’s Fuente Osmena yesterday for another errand and had to get out of the building for a quick puff of cigarette. Then I saw some cute little thingys being sold by vendors just under the stairs of the pedestrian skywalk. Yes, that portion of the building just below Jollibee. Cute little puppies! So I went near and noticed that there were many of them vendors there all showing their pups off to two young ladies who were ‘would be’ buyers. Oh wow, the number of pups being sold were probably 5X the number of vendors! I stayed awhile and watched those vendors try to convince the ladies for this and that puppy. The going rate, I could easily hear them was from P2,500 to P4,000. Am not keen on these animals, so I don’t know if that was expensive or cheap. Again, I have never had a dog nor do I want one, so I also don’t know what breed or kind or type were those pups. I just find them cute to l...

As you could see from the picture, I of course do not mean an orchestra or band conductor hehe. It’s a profession in some poor countries like ours where the “conductor” collects fares of commuters. I was standing on the side of a road at Ayala Cebu and saw that the driver of a multicab in front of me was making funny faces to someone just front of his vehicle. First I thought that was ridiculous for a driver to be making such funny faces, but when I looked, he was teasing this boy. Yes the conductor of the vehicle in front. I got curious and hopped into the vacant front-seat of the multicab. I knew there was going to be more of their making faces at each other. So I rode, not even knowing where these jeeps were going. Hah, I asked my driver and learned that his route was from Lahug to SM. I asked where the kid’s jeep was going and he told me it was the same route as both his and that kid’s jeeps are ‘04L’ – yep, if you don’t know just yet, jeeps in Cebu use those codes to signify their...

For many years, we referred to it as “that tall unfinished building beside SM Cebu”. We can drop that description now, as for about 3 weeks already, that building has a name. It opened its doors on the last Monday of September, and is now called no less than the “Radisson Blu Cebu Hotel”. Yep, their first in south or eastern Asia. And yes too, it already has guests though its grand opening is purported to be set still come 2nd week November 2010 to be graced by a big name from the metropolis! So, what? Well, I went there recently, don’t you want to hear what I have to say?! Here I go… Went there for two things - to book some family who would be coming to visit and witness the Sinulog 2011 and check their function areas as probable training or event venues. The hotel has no discounts nor special packages (yet) for 2011, so all they could tell me were ‘rack rates’ until end December 2010. Anyway, I know that wouldn’t be too much of a difference, I think. But as a training / semina...

It came and its gone... and may never come this way again in the next few years. So am happy I went to see it. Have you?! Well, sorry if you didn’t. You might have just missed a chance of a lifetime – and that is the look and feel of the ship that brought Magellan into these islands, which led to our dear country being named Philippines. But there are so many stories on the web from those like me who went to see it. So you’ll never really have a dearth of info about it. Then again, aren’t you envious you did not step into the galleon? Are you not?! Hehe! Its not that big! Most RORO vessels that ply around the islands would even be bigger. Only the tall masts and sails make the Andalucia look like it was humungous. In fact, I initially thought, “wouldn’t those very tall masts and sails make this boat so top heavy as to easily topple or roll on its side?” Apparently not, since it was able to reach our shores, from Spain no less. Plus, ROROs are made of steel while Magellan’s ‘galeon’ ...

Done with the garden and the cages, Osman led us to a what looked like a concrete bodega. When he opened the metal door, voila, it revealed the “art” side in this sanctuary! Specifically, this is a showcase of the artist in Julian N. Jumalon! Fronting the door were some literature, awards, trophies that the late professor has earned. There are some sculptures too and it was explained to us that Julian Jumalon was also into this kind of art. But the showcase of the gallery that is the entire wall of this circular concrete hut are those framed artworks of the late Julian Jumalon. Thats two rows or levels all over the circular wall. Wow. Sadly, there is big signage that taking pictures is absolutely not allowed, so I heeded. When we rounded the paintings, Osman would tell us the circumstances about each work. Our eyes widened to the max when in front of what looked like duplicate paintings it was explained to us that one was in watercolor while the other was a mosaic made of butterfly win...

Aside from the open-air and free-to-all-butterflies garden, the Jumalon Sanctuary does have cages after all. And lucky I got to step or reach into all of them! Thanks to Osman. He told us that they would not normally allow tour groups to enter those cages for the ‘safety and security’ of the different butterfly stages that are always in progress somewhere in the garden. Fact is, 10 people in the cage, I would consider already too many. What more if there were busloads of youngsters hehe! So I was indeed lucky I planned to see the sanctuary at its most unvisited day and time. Osman led us to enter a cage in the middle of the garden and started showing and naming the many colorful butterflies in there. We asked why the cage while outside there were also butterflies. He said that some of these butterflies were being reared in a controlled area (the cage) to maximize breeding as they are either rare or can’t breed easily. In fact he says, they even have to remove and transfer some of the c...