Foot and Fire

TWO DAYS IN PUERTO PRINCESA We had a City Tour in Puerto Princesa and experienced the Firefly watching in Iwahig to cap the day. We started the tour in the Japanese-donated Crocodile Farming Institute, then headed to Rancho Zipline Adventure to inhale some farm air and have some pastoral view. From there, we headed to the Baker's Hill, a bakeshop popular for its Hopia. After grabbing some pasalubong, we had a quick round of the garden and had a good time there. After Baker's Hill, we went to two pasalubong centers. From there, we went to Plaza Cuartel located just across the Immaculate Conception Cathedral and had the chance to get inside despite it was dark already. Thanks to the kind caretaker who also explained the marker to us. Plaza Cuartel is the site where American prisoners-of-war during WWII was burned by the Japanese. One survivor, made a sculpture immortalizing the pain and sorrow of the war experience. After Plaza Cuartel, we went to...

     After my Palawan vacation together with my parents, cousin and friends, I decided that it is indeed the ultimate destination that represents our archipelagic riches, with her string of islands, fine white sand stretches of beaches, giant karsts, cool caves, different corals, colorful fishes, lush mangroves, and infinite series of blue waters. Added to that riches is our signature Filipino smile which can easily be found everywhere in Palawan, from the tour guides, the boatmen and often, the Visayan-speaking pedestrians. Our day started with a meeting at the airport. My cousin Cooky with her two friends Sharon and Marissa emerged in the airport fresh from their respective hectic nursing duty at St. Luke's Medical Center, and two more friends of hers, Jo and Jess, a mother and daughter tandem, came from Iloilo City while I and my parents and family friend Nida, came in the airport in travel lite mode. And the fun began! TWO DAYS IN CORON TOWN AND C...

We had an enjoyable two-days-and-one-night cruise via a junk ship along Ha Long Bay, a four-hour drive from Hanoi, North of Vietnam. In between cruising and passing by the two thousand karsts of Ha Long Bay, we were quite preoccupied with caving, kayaking, and swimming along with photographing the experience. These what they call as a junkships are no junk at all. :) It has a/c rooms with clean bathroom. The six ladies with their cameras. Behind is one of the karsts in Ha Long Bay.  Ha Long Bay cr uise is a highly recommended experience when one is in Hanoi. And if I can have it again, I want it to be a two-night experience as there is still a swimming time in the Monkey Island which we missed. Anyway, we were able to do a lot of things while having the Halong bay tour. The only thing we can clamor in this tour is not the food because we have great food, and not our company because we were together with three couples, and with us six girls with cameras, only t...

Posing before the Arzobispado Nueva Segovia Immediate to our memory is the Spanish period in our history given the more than 300 years of occupation of the Spaniards. I believe Filipinos should pay a visit to this place to at least get the feel of the oldness of the houses, the villages, the streets in order to aid oure remembrance of our history, good or bad it may be. Upon visit, Vigan, Ilocos Norte actually nests an admirable series of houses built during the Spanish era. Hence, it was named as UNESCO World Heritage site.   Vigan was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List of Sites and Monuments last December 2, 1999 which now includes 630 cultural and natural properties of exceptional universal value in entire the world and one of the only five heritage sites found in the Philippines. With its inclusion in said prestigious list of world heritage sites, Vigan has become a source of pride, and a national symbol of the Filipinos," as proudly declared in  Vigan web...