Foot and Fire

 After the Tinagong Dagat trek, 2009 This is how I looked after traversing the Bacolod to Talisay route using the trail via Tinagong Dagat.  No hiking experience, fresh from 8-5 desk job, no gears (not even a raincoat), I ended up like a Vietnamese finding refuge anywhere in the Mekong River paddies. If you can picture that, you know what I meant. Meanwhile, the expert hikers have raincoats, as pictured below. In short, my first travel tip is: Be prepared to look ridiculous!

The Karsts lining the Campomanes Bay is verdant unlike the ones I saw in Halong Bay, Vietnam and Coron and El Nido, Palawan... One can't appreciate the karsts immediately because they appear to be a forest except for a few bald area as photographed above... Of course, this is a good news because greens still grow in the rocky mountain... We left our home base temporarily for a boat tour. We went to Obong Cave in Hinobaan first which took us 45 minutes by small boat. We passed by many areas, including the "Pulo" which is the first stop for most boat tours. The photo below is the pulo and the next two photos  are the shots of an opening from end to end. I observed that there is still a live portion of the rock in the "cave." One tourist touched it, a no-no action because it has the tendency to die after being in contact with human sweat, skin and human bacteria. There should be a warning of sort. Tour-guiding is not yet a commodity here. Lastly, I should neve...

     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...

I ate Tamilok, also known as shipworm, but technically, this is not a worm. It is an elongated mollusk that grows inside the dead trunks of mangrove trees. *** Meditated on top of a Karst in Matinloc Shrine in El Nido! *** I zorbed! I crawled inside a water-filled big ball and allowed myself to be rolled down the hill together with the ball. The experience was actually exciting and fun but also anxiety-filled because one can actually land in the hole as one rolls up and down together with the rolling big ball. *** I ate lato and liked it! This grape-like shaped seaweed has some bumpy crunch in the mouth that goes well with vinegar. A great and instant appetizer as it will just be washed with fresh water and then serve immediately. ***  I flirted with Chao Long but the love affair didn't work out. The Chao Long I tasted must not be an enough representative of the popular Vietnamese-inspired noodle soup in Puerto Princesa City. The sto...

We stopped for breakfast at Linapacan Island, an 8th class municipality according to Benjie, our boatman who carried us from Coron to Diknay en route to El Nido... Above is the open boat which ferried us from Coron to Diknay, a 45-minute ride to El Nido. It took us 5 hours all in all to travel by this boat as the waters is so calm and very friendly to us. We stopped by the Linapacan Island for an hour, so we had 6 hours travel time, instead of the 8 hours published estimated time of travel from Coron to El Nido. The cubicle for the human necessities. It baffles us why it is going straight to the high seas...  This may be harming the waters eventually... *** The San Miguel Church of the barangay of same name in Linapacan Island. *** The blooming fire tree on our way to the restaurant for breaky. *** Squids being sun dried in the foot walk... *** *** *** *** I passed by some houses which utilizes ...