southern comfort: the viaje del sol experience

this post kicks off the series of the awesome road trip down south. 

whenever i think of laguna, the hot springs (los baños and pansol), jose rizal's house (calamba), uplb and mount makiling immediately come to mind. i've been to these places many times before, so i felt like there's nowhere else to visit in laguna that's exciting. i mean, yes, there's also paete, the lakes of san pablo, and liliw which i haven't visited yet, but aside from those... um, laguna? honestly i hardly consider going there an "official" out-of-town trip due to its very close proximity to metro manila, and the only thing there that gets me excited is a visit to the dairy at uplb where they sell carabao's milk (i LOVE the chocolate flavor) and kesong puti (fresh white cheese). hoh-kay, before throwing me in the boiling mud pits of mount makiling, please do read on. :)

that kind of ho-hum thinking changed drastically when some friends and i recently went on a road trip to san pablo city with side trips to liliw and tiaong, quezon. little did i know that it was going to be one big culture and food tour which i would be very proud to recommend to everyone. it is just the beginning of this series, but i'll say this right away: near, far, wherever you are... visit laguna!!! 

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we arrived at san pablo city 4 1/2 hours earlier than the designated check-in time at our hotel (2pm) and hotel policy being hotel policy, we opted to visit liliw first, a 40-minute drive from san pablo. on the way to liliw though we passed by the underground cemetery in nagcarlan so a short visit there is in order.

the nagcarlan underground cemetery was built by franciscan missionaries in 1845, and in 1896 the rebels of the revolution against the spaniards used this for their meetings. in 1973 the underground cemetery was declared a historical landmark. burials in this cemetery continued up until 1981. 

the gate to the underground cemetery. at the dead smack center of this photo is a small chapel where visitors sign their names on the logbook. the visitors are also given a short, interesting history lesson of the place.  

down once more to the dungeon... err, i mean to the underground cemetery.

just some of the niches above ground. they're very similar to that of paco park in manila.

the underground cemetery is really quite a small place, so the visit was a short one. based on photos i've seen of friends who have been there before, i thought it was big. it turns out that thirty minutes is a long enough visit unless you decide to have lots of photo ops. by the way, this last photo shows just a very tiny sliver of the grounds, but i can assure you with conviction that the whole place is very well-kept. :D

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everyone knows that marikina equals good quality footwear. but in laguna there is a town that is also synonymous to shoes, and that is liliw. liliw is a quaint town that is a shoe maven's haven; it has a whole street dedicated to all kinds of footwear, and one will go gaga over the different designs and colors. yours truly didn't buy a pair though. too lazy. heheh. 

just some of the numerous shoe stores. 

shoes, sandals, espadrilles, etc, etc.

bags!!! and of course slippers and sandals. 

it was a nice surprise to see that old houses still abound in liliw, which reminded me of taal town in batangas where a lot of the bahay-na-bato still stands proud and graceful. while some houses are solely for family use, a lot of the businesses in others are conducted on the ground floor of the house; the proprietors live on the second floor.

i call this the sans rival house. this is in front of arabela, the cafe where we had lunch. 

a beautifully maintained house. 

if only we had more time i would make all of us walk around town checking out more of the beautiful old houses. bwahahaha~!

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oh. here's a very useful tip when going on a road trip: if you are riding a car and you and your companions are not sure how to get to your destination, it is always best to ask the locals. don't be too proud to ask for directions shy. compared to most city folks, people in the provinces are generally friendlier and more helpful especially when giving directions to hapless travelers. amazingly, even if majority of the directions went like "derecho lang kayo" (just go straight) and "tapos kanan sa x na kanto" (then turn right at the x corner), we got to all our destinations with very little problem.

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thanks L for letting me use your photos (paco park-like niches, shoes and bags photos)

next up: our lodging, and a gastronomic tour of the south. what are they? stay tuned. ;)

then and now: a northern palawan travelogue

ten years ago, i had the opportunity to visit the calamian group of islands with my family. it was a glorious one week trip that left me with memories that still linger in my mind up to now: north cay, calauit, culion and malcapuya islands, kayangan and barracuda lakes, coron town (in busuanga island; not to be confused with coron island), maquinit hot springs, and the countless snorkeling sites we visited, from coral reefs to japanese ship wrecks.

having the chance to visit the place once again just recently left me really amazed at what ten years can do to places. although i've had a shorter trip this time, it was enough for me to make some observations at the changes that happened during the last ten years to the places i've visited again this time around: coron town, kayangan lake, and culion. aside from that, i'll be including some differences in my activities on both trips for the benefit of my memory. ;p

here is the list. take note that for the "before" part, i am referring to my experience 10 years ago. :)

modes of transportation to palawan and back to manila

before: my family and i rode the superferry 5 to coron town in busuanga island. it was a 12-hour trip, from 7pm-7am. when we went back to manila, we had a one hour dusty jeepney ride to busuanga airport before boarding a 16-seater plane which thrilled all of us to no end.

view from the superferry @ sunrise

now: my friends and i bought round trip plane tickets. the jeepney ride is now an airconditioned van ride. the highway leading to coron town is now cemented, which cut the trip by almost half, depending on the speed of the van. and yes, the plane is now bigger (sits about 70 people), and both flights were definitely smooth.

one the propellers from the 70-seater plane. as you can see in the background, it's a clear day. it was a really smooth flight.

itinerary

before: the itinerary was prepared by my aunt and a distant uncle. it went like this:

superferry: anything goes. oldies slept early; cool people stayed up late in the ship's disco, just dancing.

north cay: 3 days 2 nights, including snorkelling around the island and a day trip to calauit island on our second day.
culion: officially 2 days, 2 nights, because we left early on the third day. sentimental journey on the first half of our second day (see account below), snorkelling around malcapuya island on the second half. we didn't go on the island.

kayangan and barracuda lakes: day trip, then go back to coron town. stayed at seadive resort. barracuda lake and surrounding coral reefs: second to the last day.

malcapuya island from the distance, year 2000

now: my friends and i got a tour package for 3 days, 2 nights. included in the package is a culion historic tour, and a buffet lunch at malcapuya island. click here for the website. anyhow, the whole itinerary went like this:

first day: banol beach, skeleton wrecks, twin lagoons, kayangan lake, siete pecados. snorkelling galore.

second day: culion historic tour-slash-sentimental journey (at least, for me), buffet lunch at malcapuya, siete pecados. come evening we had our own trip to maquinit hot springs which isn't included in our tour package. at any rate, soaking in the hot springs was a great help in eradicating my muscle pain altogether.

third day: early morning hike to mt. tapyas cross. it's a 719-step climb which took us 45 minutes. our descent however took us... tan-tananannnn... 13 minutes! ;p the rest of the morning we spent on breakfast and souvenir-hunting.

stepping on the powdery sands of malcapuya island, 2010. <3>

coron
before: the town's population was quite small. the area where seadive resort is had only a few structures on stilts. it seemed easier to move around town then.

now: coron town is a more bustling place ten years after. new houses, resorts, restaurants and shops have sprouted in the course of the past ten years. there is even a reclaimed area on the left side of the coron public market where there is a tourism center, a hotel and a park. i couldn't help but notice that the guards at the tourism center weren't able to answer our questions about good places to eat in though.

the reclaimed area.

sentimental journey

before: it was a sentimental trip we made in culion because it's where my lola on my father's side spent her childhood years when my great-grandfather was one of the physicians in the culion leprosarium in the 1920's. anyway, my aunt (pa's sister) was able to locate the sister of former classmate of my lola and was able to talk to her. then we took a walk around town to see where lola went to elementary school, where she lived (the house is still standing). of course we also went to the former leprosarium which was transformed into a museum. there's a list of everyone who worked in the leprosarium, from priests, nuns, physicians, dentists, etc. saw and took a picture of my great-grandfather's name under the list of physicians. extra un-sentimental thing: was able to watch charmed with my cousins wherein the episode was when phoebe travelled back in time to 1924.

photo taken from the last standing bastion at fort culion, 30 may 2000

now: only i among my family made another sentimental journey to culion. this time i was with my friends. we only went to the church and the culion sanitarium museum and archives. took my own photo of my great-grandfather's name on the list. the sister of my lola's classmate is still alive, but i wasn't able to talk to her. and now you know where 1924 came from. ;p

photo taken from the same spot. 11 september 2010

kayangan lake

below are the now photos of kayangan lake.

ten years ago, the wooden and bamboo walkways that line up one side of the lake were not there. i remember there was a huge fallen tree trunk which we used to put our things as well as our point of plunging in the lake. it's not there now.

we simply left our stuff on the rocks and on the protruding branches from the trees, and if we just want to lounge around, we used the rocks on the shallow part to sit on. now visitors can simply just dip their feet into the water when they don't feel like swimming, and their stuff can be left on the walkways.

cell phone signal

before: there was no signal anywhere among the islands. period. the only way to contact manila was though phone in the calling centers in coron and culion.

now: at this day and age, even a paradise like northern palawan now has cell phone signal. depending on your subscription, of course. ;p there are still some spots wherein the signal is weak, but for the most part one can text or call even while on a boat. heck, even update your facebook status. ;p and of course if there's signal, there should also be wifi. seadive and other lodgings and restaurants are wifi hotspots.

airport

before: the airport was then simply called busuanga airport. i really don't remember what the it exactly looked like ten years ago, but from what i can rake from memory, it was just a small one storey building with one check-in counter and a weighing scale for our bags and us. because the plane we rode was very small, it's important to get the weight of everything that boards the plane.

now: busuanga airport is now called the francisco b. reyes airport. it is now a more functional structure, still one storey, with definite areas for departure and arrival areas which are divided by glass walls. the check-in counters are more check-in-counter-looking, with the weighing scales beside each only for check-in luggages. the comfort rooms are clean and well-lit. there is also a cafe and a souvenir shop.

whether having stayed in palawan paradise for one week or 3 days, with family or with friends, the most important thing is that i have thoroughly enjoyed both trips. each has a unique experience which did not just make my journals, but in my heart as well.

i know i still have a pending post on taal but i'd like to put this one on palawan up first, especially since it's still fresh in my mind. (and yea, i know it's been a long time since my last post... i lost my mojo. snif, snif)

taal trippin'

ancestral houses, ancient churches and native foodtripping make up for an exciting cultural trip to taal town in batangas. so one long weekend found me and a group of friends driving over to taal just for that. but after filling up the car's gas tank over at petron slex, the car suddenly refused to start. a diagnosis by the mechanic revealed that there was a problem with the alternator. to cut the long story short, we got stuck at petron slex for three and a half hours, but not without enjoying the time at the customer's lounge (which is simply a small area with glass doors and walls, but airconditioned and equipped with a television set). there we watched several tv shows and eventually had our lunch there as well. i have to commend the guys at petron slex for being so nice and gracious to us, giving us extra seats (we were 7 in all and there were only two seats inside the lounge at first) and were even apologetic as it took them about an hour to get the necessary car part back in muntinlupa before finally fixing the car. cheers, guys!

we left the gas station at 1.30pm and on we drove to taal. thank goodness there wasn't any traffic at all, so we made it to taal by 3pm. although the ancestral houses that are open to the public are only open until 4pm, we were able to maximize our time in each. we even had enough time to explore the taal basilica, but i'm getting ahead of myself. i'll start with the first house we visited: the agoncillo residence.

the exterior of the agoncillo residence. this is the place where marcela mariño grew up. upon her marriage to don felipe agoncillo, she moved to manila.

ventana y ventanillas (ventana is spanish for window. a ventanilla is a smaller window below the larger one and is usually screened with balusters (like the one above) or wrought iron grills (like the ones in my lola's house). the ventanilla is an important feature of a bahay na bato as it helps with the house's ventilation especially on a hot day.

while the family was in exile in hong kong at the start of the revolution, marcela agoncillo sewed the first philippine flag upon the orders of general emilio aguinaldo. her oldest daughter lorenza and delfina herbosa natividad helped in making the flag. it was then personally delivered to gen. aguinaldo by don felipe in hong kong and on 12 june 1898, gen. aguinaldo proudly waved the flag at the declaration of philippine independence in kawit, cavite.

just a small part of the large sala (living room)

portraits of the agoncillo family. not one of don felipe and marcela's five daughters ever married as they chose their respective careers over marriage.

some of the books owned by the agoncillos

stained glass windows at the library

entryway to the house. (shot from the library)

the side of the house

statue of marcela m. agoncillo

historical sources here, here and here

architectural source here

coming soon: don leon apacible museum and galeria taal (dela rosa-ilagan residence)

mt. pinatubo adventure pt. 2

date: 21 novembre 2009
who: h peeps and friends (14 people grand total)
battle plan:
2am: meet @ mcdonald's el pueblo; wait for the van that will pick us up.
3am: leave for capas, tarlac
5.30am: arrive in capas.
7-ish: get on those 4x4s and start the ride!

...

i have already lost track of time from the time we all boarded those 4x4s until the end of the trip. ;-)

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you must have watched the vids in my previous posts already, so here i introduce us four ladies making all that racket. ;-) the three guys up in front (driver, tour guide and another friend R) were silent for the most part. haha. and yes, we were fortunate enough to be in the lead 4x4 (there were three in all to accommodate 14 people) so dust wasn't really a problem for us. thanks to friend S who took this pic.

the ideal 4x4! we were sitting at first but i noticed the tarp can be moved, so we asked the driver if we could stop and take the tarp off so we could stand. so from that time on, the four of us were standing the whole time. :)

noisy girls at the back! quiet guys in front!

as i've mentioned in my previous post, our group chose the newer option of taking the skyway, which took us on a longer 4x4 ride to the jump-off point which is about an hour or so depending on how many stops we made for foto ops. here are some pics i took of the amazing views along the 4x4 route:

blue, blue sky. the perfect weather for travelling.

the two other 4x4s

amazing lahar walls carved by the elements.

the hills are aliiiiive... again! it's amazing to see that almost two decades after the devastation wrought by the mt. pinatubo eruption in 1991, lots and lots of green have sprouted again.

even the aetas have come back to the place they have called their home for years.

sulfur and shadow.

the trek to the crater took all of us roughly 30 minutes, what with more foto ops and all. for someone without exercise for the longest time, except in preparation for this trip, this crazy traveler made it to the crater on two somewhat unsteady legs instead of all fours as she thought. all wheeziness was gone, btw, as she took in the magnificent view after the trek.

igneous rocks of different shapes, colours and sizes

large volcanic rock

tranquilité

...dot.com. ;-)

during the trek, in my concentration to balance and not slip on the stones, i almost forgot to take a vid until the last part. good thing i remembered to take out my phone to take this last video amidst the hazy vision and lack of oxygen. hey, that's a joke, ha? haha.

all righty peeps, just hit play!

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the whole package cost us P2,250 which included a roundtrip van transfers, 4x4, a local tour guide, travel insurance, conservation and skyway toll fees, and even an id with a lanyard. we didn't get the snack option offered; instead, all of us feasted on M's scrumptious pork and chicken adobo with egg. yumyumyum! :D

another nice thing about this trip is the fact that it's during the off-peak season. the place is much calmer.

if you're planning to visit mt. pinatubo, swing by travel factor's website.

subic road trip pt. 2

13 june 2009

the road trip back to manila was just as adventurous as it was the previous day. the only difference is that it didn't rain on our way back.

42 kms. more to... somewhere

so sunny!

as we drove along sctex once more, i could not help but notice that everything is greener than last january was. just compare the following photos i took last january and on june 13.

1 january 2009 (also posted in one of my january entries). look at that hill on the right.


13 june 2009. as you can see, the rice fields have been already harvested. this is also approximately the same spot i took a picture of last january judging from the trees.

same hill taken from another spot. that particular hill is more lush than it was 6 months ago.


so. what happened to our humongous pizza-and-burger dinner the night before?

they became breakfast, of course.

we headed back to manila at around 8am and stopped by the first pit stop after leaving sctex. there we had our pizza nuked in the microwave as the remaining slices could not fit into the store's lone oven toaster (the attendant was nice enough to microwave the pizza for us btw). as for the burger, it still tasted great even when cold.

9 remaining pizza slices for breakfast

one of the two remaining hamburger slices

i guess it's obvious by now that i love to shoot photos while on the road (refer to my roxas/boracay and first subic trips). and why would i not want to take pictures? everywhere i look, there is an interesting sight to be seen. cruisin' down nlex this time, it was all about trees, baby!

the lush trees on each side of the expressway remind me of a particular highway i passed which leads to upstate new york, coming from the jersey side of george washington bridge (turnpike, is it called?). there are also lots of trees on either side, almost exactly like nlex.

here

and here. certainly any passenger (and driver, i dare say) would be relaxed and refreshed just by looking at the sceneries around. great job, whatever company you are that's responsible for the expressway's renovation and maintenance. mntc, that's the company, right? oh yeah. i also hope that in ten years' time the expressway would have finally reached baguio, and in another five years the ilocos and cagayan regions. woot! lol :D

want weird? take a look this one:

what is wrong with this truck? and is this even allowed? with sights such as this, i promise never to sleep again while on the road. lol!

and oh. there was even a huling hirit (last hurrah) as we left nlex. all of us got distracted by this certain billboard with a dazzling model. is it aiko melendez? pia arcangel? ohh, no. when we realized that it was hilda koronel on the billboard modeling for some boutique (or is it for a make-up company? i forget.), we completely missed the off-ramp leading to edsa and had to go straight on to a. bonifacio avenue and into traffic. talaga nga naman si hilda koronel, o! hehe! but really, she's simply stunning in that billboard.

i must say that this trip is rated a million A's. what with the spontaneity of the moment, the series of adventures and misadventures that followed, and the most important of all---the fun, fun company. there wasn't any dull moment at all; us ladies seemed to laugh in every situation we found ourselves in, even when we were already getting tired--especially when we were looking for a place to stay. conversation never lagged, and we got to know just a little bit more about each other's lives. oh-kay i'm getting all sappy here, but hey, it's true. :)

oh, yes. this adventure of ours certainly made our bond stronger.


on to ze next adventure!