Blogs from Iloilo, Philippines, Asia
The never ending boat trip and Iloilo
Published: September 24th 2011Asia » Philippines » Iloilo » Iloilo City
September 13th 2011
My boat to Iloilo didn't leave until 3pm so I got up and headed for the shops in search of trousers seems my skirt, my one pair of shorts and my one pair of trousers all had permanent egg stains on them. Two pairs and six dollars later I was happy so went to book my boat ticket. On the schedule it didn't tell you when the boat arrived but need not worry I figured it would probably arrive some time the next day late arvo. In actual fact after 17hrs on the boat I thought it would be a good idea to find out when it would be arriving. The following day, early morning I told. Opps my bad two nights on the boat! And it was so hot in economy, there were about ... read more
Bacolod + Iloilo + Guimaras = Adventure of a Lifetime
Published: August 2nd 2011Asia » Philippines » Iloilo
August 2nd 2011
My Visayas Trip was definitely one of the best adventure trips I ever had. I can really say that this is one for the books. I went there with my two classmates from DLSU, Phibbie and Shiela. It was definitely a spontaneous trip since we just booked our trip in the middle of a class. We were just looking for a cheap flight in the Philippines. We did not even know what was in Bacolod. We booked our trip and just paid a 1000 Pesos or 20USD. On our first Day we went to Bacolod and toured around the city. We went to The Ruins which is definitely a must see historical place. The ruins before was a Spanish house built by the colonizers. Our ancestors were alarmed so they burned the house so that Bacolod ... read more
March 1st 2011
After the exhilaration of swimming with whale sharks in Donsol we had some island hopping ahead of us! Our travelling over the next couple of days was actually quite difficult - we had planned to cross over a couple of islands in one day but once we realised that some of these islands only had one ferry in the morning our plans were sunk!! It became even more difficult as Tina was suffering from a stinking cold - perhaps a goodbye souvenir from the whale sharks! Our first ‘hop’ was to the island of Masbate where we then took a jam-packed local bus to the ferry port of Mindaon - this was when it started to dawn on us our travelling plans had been a bit ambitious. We booked into a lodging resort for the night ... read more
Eat Pray & fall in Love in Iloilo
Published: January 12th 2011Asia » Philippines » Iloilo » Iloilo City
January 7th 2011
Inspired by the movie Eat Pray Love, relating to the character of Liz, considering the sudden change in my life right now-hitting rock bottom at 28. I decided to go soul-searching and self-reflecting. I do not have any money to spend for an out of the country tour like Liz but I was fortunate to have gifted by friends last Christmas a plane ticket to Iloilo Province here in the Philippines. I think Iloilo is a great place to explore the three planes of self:Physical, Emotional and Spiritual in the way Liz did in Italy, India and Indonesia and me doing the local version. I have been to Iloilo before, this trip will be my third visit but it seems like there is always something new to experience and this is the Best ever. EAT I ... read more
A Traveller's Sweet Escape (The Mango Capital Of The Philippines)
Published: September 29th 2010Asia » Philippines » Iloilo
September 27th 2010
Guimaras is popularly known as the place where you can taste the sweetest mangoes in the World, where even other countries order in advance just to have a bite of the pride mangoes of the Philippines and that there is even a law to protect the mangoes of Guimaras by prohibiting the importation of mangoes from other places inside Guimaras. However, Guimaras has a lot of diverse activities to offer besides its popular mouth-watering mangoes. It has its popular tourist sites waiting to be discovered like the Guisi Old Lighthouse and Beach, Trappist Monastery (The only Monk Monastery in the Philippines), Macopo Falls, Sadsad Falls, Mango Plantation Farms, Mountain Adventure Park (Horseback Riding, Camping, Firing Range, Paintballs and Slide & Rapelling), Alubihod Beach, Lawi “Pawikan” Sanctuary, Ave Maria Island and my favorite of them all, ... read more
July 21st 2010
Rex and I were not definite if we would continue our trip to Iloilo until we were being bumped off from our return flight going back to Manila. Actually, we really planned to go to Iloilo after Boracay but because of the incident we considered to proceed what we had planned. On our way to Kalibo, we were still hesitant if we are going to Iloilo or take our return flight from Kalibo. As we were approaching Kalibo, we were now decided to go straight to Iloilo and enjoy the rest of the ride. After a 3-hour long bus ride, we finally arrived in Dingle, Iloilo. By the way, Dingle is Rex's hometown, so we headed up to their home and spent there a peaceful night. In the morning of the next, we prepared our ... read more
May 4th 2010
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there were one set of footprints. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints. So I said to the Lord, “You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there have only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?” The ... read more
November 13th 2009
"Keep your sense of proportion by regularly, preferably daily, visiting the natural world." - Catlin Matthews I think our universe is so vast that it is difficult to pin point a single person who has traveled each and every corner of the earth. But what a joy it would bring to discover and do a little time travel not to the future, but back to where different civilizations and cultures emerged from. I want to start with the mystical and ever humble country of Peru. If other countries today are modernized and probably darkened with the suffocating gases of pollution, you could always find tranquil in Peru. Other places are filled with skyscrapers that seem to cover the blue shade of the sky, in Peru it is almost as if you can have those soft ... read more
January 27th 2009
Hello Everyone, Well NZ is only a distant memory now as I have spent a few days in Singapore visiting some of the sites inc Chinatown and Little India with Aaron. On Thursday 22nd Aaron and I jumped on a flight to the Philippines and went to the island of Panay, the home of Aaron’s family, and where the weekend’s famous Dingayang festival is held. Aaron’s family business sponsored a tribe participating in the main event, this meant they had to enter a team for the Kasadyahan (Merry Making) parade on the Saturday for schools and sponsors. Thursday evening we introduced ourselves to the tribe and saw them rehearsing - as well as providing all 153 of them the snacks we helped prepare earlier. On Friday we went into the office as Aaron is still trying ... read more
January 19th 2009
So we made it to Tita Cyn and Tito Pete's in one piece. The live in the Provence which is like our country side. The roads there are a combination of dirt and cement. Take every pothole in the city of Chicago and put them on one street- thats how it felt driving through some of the provinces. We have potholes because of the snow plows - they have potholes because of all the rain. Apparently typhoon season in the Visayas can get bad. Tita Cyn & Tito Pete have farmland where they grow rice. They harvested it last week so I didn't get the chance to see them harvest it. hehe. They live in Dingle (pronounced Ding-li not like Dingle Berry). They built their house in 2000 and it's so nice. There's coconut trees, papaya ... read more
