Philippine Travel Notes

We are not in the Meditteranean, okay? We are just in the province of Biliran, Philippines! But yes, this Almeria took its name from that Spanish 'original' hehe! This town is not far from Naval. I think it only took us about 5 minutes driving our motorbikes at leisurely speed. Beautiful tree-lined road exiting Naval, then some rice fields left and right, then a similarly lovely entrance to the town of Almeria! Are those called century trees? They look stoically beautiful lined on both sides of the highway. Not very clear in this picture, but that thing far down the road is a welcome arch to "Poblacion Almeria". That is their municipal hall. Cute. But I had a hard time taking photos as the sun was still harshly behind it. Ideal photo-ops time would probably be from noontime to afternoon, but I was there early at just a little past 8AM. I think (not sure) their church is even bigger than the municipal hall. And I think (almost sure) that both church and municipal h...

This was it! The real purpose why I was in Naval. Roam around the whole island! How did I plan to go about this? That was a challenge. With me alone, to hire a van or any 4-wheeled vehicle was out of the question. Expensive and I had no assurance it would have been practical (I heard roads on the east and northeast were not yet quite done). But taking it from my Camiguin experience, I toyed at the idea of renting a motorbike and hiring a motorbike riding guide! Hard to find but, thankfully made possible by one of the waiters cum room boy of Marvin's Seaside Inn itself! Where I was staying, yes! Therefore, closer to home! Maybe they had a hard time looking for what I wanted and they probably said 'let's just do it ourselves'! So off we went a roaming, the waiter in his own bike (as my guide) while I on a rented motorcycle (owned by his colleague, a cook?, am not sure now). I knew they are not experts as to places or things to see in the island (by the nature of thei...

I said I already had lunch at Marvin's so I asked the staff where might I go for dinner to see and experience more of Naval especially at night. They immediately started offering suggestions, but I did not seem to like the places just listening to their descriptions. So, I clarified saying I wanted to go where the common folks (children to grandparents) of Naval would go to for dinner. In fact I summarized that to "saan ba madaming kumakain pag gabi"! Their consensus was I should go visit a place with a name that sounded like "wilowisa"! So I took a trike and told the driver to bring me to "wilowisa". Voila, I arrived at the place to realize that its name is actually WELUISA. But yes, I discerned, how else would anyone pronounce it fast but "wilowisa", right?! WELUISA is not your new spanking fast food joint (there is none yet in Naval)! It is an eatery, a bakery and a store for almost everything about eating. See the sign? They also sell...

I don't have so many words to say here, so let me just show you images instead. But this was "the life"! I was sitting by a table at the water's edge deck of Marvin's Seaside Resort. Eating my bacon-and-egg sandwich plus coke, no music, just the little waves splashing and little black birds singing as they converged unto a single coconut tree (also inside the resort). Dreamy afternoon... Nice place to do nothing :) For a chronology of stories on this Biliran travel, please click the following: 01   02   03   04   05   06   07   08   09   10   11   12   13   14   15  16  17  18  19 ISSN 2512540.875-1858

Done with the church, municipal building, capitol and “provincial park”, I went for their public market. But even the way there on a tricycle was good enough a view to me, the visitor. I saw the imposing gate of NSU (Naval State University), the church again, and many old houses reminiscent of how this country was in the olden days! What was I to do at the public market? Nothing really. Just to see how things are, since you would not expect a tourist (that’s me!) to buy anything fish or meat or vegetable from there, right? And I know too that most markets are busier during mornings. So on this Saturday afternoon – almost sunset – I was already happy to see a few vendors still there. And first time for me to see (and poke at) that kind of red fish. Those are not cooked yet but, the vendors told me this is their natural color – orangy, pinkish, reddish! Am not even sure if their outer “skin” are also called scales since they’re real hard shells comparable to that of the janitor fish al...

Don’t think I went to another town from the last story folks! I was still in Naval. And this was the next areas I went to see after their town hall. The Capitol . That’s the next thing I naturally wanted to see in this capital town. I knew there should be a provincial capital center in this place since the island is now a province – new as it may be. This island was for a long time a sub-province of Leyte but was declared an entirely new province of Region 8  just in the early 1990s. So walking out of the municipal hall area, I asked another trike driver where I would find this capitol. He told me it was/is even further up the road so I hopped in to take a ride. Probably the same distance between the church and the munisipyo. Well, what do you know?! This is probably the cutest capitol building I have seen in the country. Not as aesthetically appealing like the capitol buildings in Catbalogan (Samar), Tacloban (Leyte), Cebu City (Cebu Province), or Bacolod (NegrosOcc) all built...