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. ;)

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)

philippine airlines and me

heehee how unbelievably cheesy. anyway....

as we all know, Philippine Airlines or PAL is the flag carrier of the Philippines and is "fondly" called Plane Always Late because of delays. sure i've had my share of delayed flights but more often than not, the flight arrived on time. and delays or no delays, PAL for me still stands for Philippine Airlines. no more, no less. i may be biased here because i have been flying PAL since i was a kid... okay, okay, my father worked in PAL (for 38 years as a flight purser until he retired in 2004), hence the reason why i always travel free, but always with the fear of getting bumped off a flight. that's the downside of getting free travel passes so the best time for my family to travel would be during the off-peak season which of course, is impossible most of the time. you wouldn't believe the heart-thumping moments we've had when the flight was full but we were hoping to still get on it. usually we barely got on the flight. it's a good thing that i can now pay for my own discounted ticket that will give me the assurance that i'd be able to get on the flight. and oh, if you have flown with PAL, don't you think the planes' landings are always smooth? i remember passengers clapping once the plane touched down the runway. oh yes, the adventures i've had while flying. there are too many to mention so i won't add much for now except for this one...

my older bro sent me an email last month that contains a lot of links to classic Philippine tv commercials. one link stood out which is the 1987 tvc of Philippine Airlines--shining through. *dreamy sigh* watching the commercial invoked a lot of good memories and even hopes that someday the Philippines will be able to shed its not-so-nice image abroad. the chorus which goes "the beauty of the Philippines (shining through)..." at the part where a kid was pouring seawater from a seashell just about hits the sweet spot. yes, the Philippines is certainly beautiful. hopefully we get to let the world to see that our country is more than what reaches them. really, commercials like PAL's "shining through" are rare these days.

oh-kay, here is the video of the tvc for some nostalgia-tripping, dreamy-sighing and what-have-you. =) sappy person that i am, this had me teary-eyed. ;-P