#choosephils

[monterrific28-blog]

Traveling to Concepcion Iloilo #travel #choosephilippines #choosephils #concepcion #iloilo

[esnerazul]

A trip to boracay wouldn't be complete without watching the fierce boracay fire dancers. Read more about my trip to boracay on my blog www.wamboywanders.blogspot.com #boracay #boracayfiredancer #firedancer #fierce #travel #travelphotography #travelblog #choosephilippines #choosephils #piliinmoangpilipinas

[jojoscope]

We ended the day with a mad sprint to a town called Manjuyod (pronounced ma-noo-yod) via an open-air Ceres bus at around 3pm. The reason for the entire trip was a compelling sight: four cottages on stilts situated on a perfect white sandbar that disappears at high tide. With no contact numbers available on the net, I was going out on a limb: make it to a town some 50 kilometers away, find the tourist center before closing, make the booking for a cottage on the spot, and hire a friendly boatman to take us out to the open sea, all before sunset... with my three friends, who were as aware of the itinerary as a rubber ducky, set afloat on the Atlantic, knows its fate. Drinking with friends under a bright moon, the stars reflected on the phosphorescent ocean, the infinite in the room and the vast expanse outside... Who would not risk it?

Being the friendly bugger that I am, I sought my co-passengers' opinion about the Bais Sandbar. I was politely reproached by a Manjuyod woman who was on her way home from buying her supplies in Dumaguete for the weekend market. Two towns are claiming rights over the sandbar, and depending on who you ask, it's the Bais Sandbar or the Manjuyod Sandbar. While you can reserve the cottages at Bais, it will only be booking you with Manjuyod, which has legal jurisdiction over the sandbar and manages the cottages; ergo, this was where we were headed. 

The sandbar is part of the greater Tanon Strait Protected Landscape and Seascape because of its amazing marine biodiversity.

One of the other bus passengers overheard our friendly debate, and he turned around and told me that his aunt worked for the Manjuyod Tourism Office. I excitedly asked if I could get her number, but the guy did us one better and called her up instead.

Not all miracles are granted though. All the cottages were booked that night. But the guy, far beyond the call of duty and in a beautiful show of kababayan hospitality, took us back to his home where asked his parents where we could set up camp for the night. He finally settled us at an aunt's resort (apparently, everyone's related to everyone in Manjuyod), where we had the juiciest shrimp and scallops dinner for under 500 pesos, or some 10 USD, some pints of thick, fantastic-tasting, local ice cream for 50 pesos each, and an impromptu karaoke night.

Oh, the world is a beautiful place indeed. The sights may be pretty, but the warmth of the people living there make the pictures all the more spectacular.

[fourteengoingon]

Awesome shadow work that reminds me of the group Pilobulous

Also it's for the Philippines! Yay!

[jojoscope]

Dumaguete is a great jump-off point to several destinations. Four days would have been enough, but unfortunately, I only had three to make it happen.

The week before the trip, I searched online for a van to take my friends and me around. The transport service I talked with on the phone agreed to meet us at our ETA, and I even got confirmation before take-off. Wonder of wonders, no driver was to be found when we got out of the airport. Good thing I had an idea of the going rate, and was able to negotiate for the same amount when all the van-for-hires were quoting me double. I shooed them away and found a guide-driver for the day. I texted the first van not to worry about making it, and got a reply of “K”. God bless his soul.

Fresh-cut flowers for sale on every house stoop. Oranges lying on the roadside. Fog at high noon. Weather? Goldilocks. Such is the state of Valencia, a town quiet save for the random bursts of bird chirps and the rustle of feathers as a flock raids the fruit orchard across the street. As a Manila-born metro dweller who can find no patch of green bigger than a flowerpot over a 15-mile radius, I was in love with the thought of having a mountain retreat only 15 minutes away from the city.

A little walking and some very minor rock climbing are at hand for visitors of the Casaroro Falls in Valencia. Trundling over fallen boulders gives one the cachet of a certified adventurer. It was with no small pride that we came from the falls, city knees that used to be familiar only with forgiving pavement now toughened with cuts and scrapes.

On the way back, we bought some bottled water at a large nipa hut where five Dutch backpackers were splayed out in various positions of laze. Apparently, they had been at Valencia for a week already but had not made the trek to the Casaroro [just up the road], as they asked us if it was worth the hike. I sniffed the air experimentally but could not conclusively say whether they had been incapacitated by some wondrous highland vegetation. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and told them the falls were psychedelic. Their pupils dilated, their mouths became “O”s and they nodded their heads in agreement.

Like I always say, one must always speak the local language. 

[zicon]

Piliin Mo Ang Pilipinas feat. El Gamma Penumbra by choosephils

[jojoscope]

the intrepid

The tough stuff can put any good man down. It takes a different kind of animal to stand up after. 

This province down south has plenty of surprises for a long weekend-tourist: cackling near-sentient happies, gasp-inducing underwater forests, twisting ephemeral islands, geothermal-heated freshwater springs, bone-cracking waterfalls of all shapes and colors, sweeping, grand old homes, still-twitching, vibrant seafood, hushed, potent sorcery,  endless, endless sunsets. It was also the scene of a great storm just a year ago, the traces of which are still seen and felt in brutal swathes, all along the countryside. And yet, that its people could smile so givingly does not give a passerby even a hint at what they have seen, have experienced, and that life, while it may have changed, had gone on for them. When you see their smile, you bask in the resilience of the human spirit. 

There are fewer, more beautiful things in life.