Blogs from Laguna, Philippines, Asia

I initially attempted to shoot star trails during a recent trip to Caramoan Island, Camarines Sur. Unfortunately, my camera settings were all wrong and I failed miserably and pathetically. So, when our photography mentor, Edwin Martinez, shared his knowledge and new learnings with star trail photography, my friends from CLXI and I wasted no time and immediately went to the Caliraya Lake in Cavinti, Laguna to practice what we’ve learned. Here’s my first ever star trail photo taken from 9:41pm to 10:41pm, a total of 101 shots. The night started out with really clear skies, but somewhere in the middle of the shoot, clouds started coming in and, oh well, messed up my photo. Still, this photo clearly shows, that yes, this time, my camera settings were correct. Click here to continue reading this entry: http:/ ... read more

Roadtripping using the Mount Banahaw Loop can be tricky. I say this because looking at the map is soooo not the same as driving around it. Mount Banahaw rests between the provinces of Quezon and Laguna south of Manila. Homeward bound from our week's holiday in the Bicol Region, we toyed with the idea of taking an alternative route. This time, we wanted to take a detour based on the Mount Banahaw loop. From the map, it looks easy and uncomplicated enough. What we failed to realize is how those roads from Lucban, Quezon winds around the mountain to cross to the next town which is Majayjay, Laguna. Before the drive though, we first set down our priorities. First off is our lunch. I remember this place in Tayabas, Quezon the last time I passed it ... read more

Another Trekker (referring to us): These people don’t have trekking standards. Rodger: Yeah, because the only standard we know is Programming standards ^_^ We had the trek "planned" a couple of months back, but I personally didn’t research about the area - all I know was that we were going to trek 4 waterfalls at Mt. Romelo at Siniloan, Laguna. We pretty much did not expect more than an hour trek and we thought a day trip would suffice; so on the day of the trek, Rodger, Janet, Yami, and I simply went with our flip flops and our usual everyday shorts/shirt, expecting a fairly easy hike. Since we missed the 06:00AM bus that morning, we arrived at the jump-off point in barangay Macatad a little late than scheduled and from there, an old lady helped ... read more

Siniloan is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. It lies between the plains of Sierra Madre Mountain and the Laguna de Bay, bounded on the North by the town of Famy, on the West by Mabitac, on the East by Pangil and on the South by Laguna Lake. It has a total land area of 6,442.88 hectares politically subdivided into 20 barangays. Siniloan was established as a town on the last Friday of August, 1583 with Guiling-Guiling as its first name born out of an anecdote when a group of Spaniards passed by a rice field where some women were grinding rice with the use of grindstone or "gilingang bato". In 2002, the Municipality launched "Gilingan Festival" to commemorate its foundation day highlighted by street dancing and a variety of cultural ... read more

All of us, no matter how old we are have an inner child within us that wants to go out and play. A kid in us that even for just a day wants to have fun and amuse ourselves. We do certain things to entertain ourselves. I’ve seen old people fool around, watch cartoons and even make fun of themselves. Others play sports, do pranks and crack jokes just to feel the laughter of a child again. For a child’s simple laugh is what we all envy for it is purely free from problems and dilemmas. Well, this time, it’s me and my friends turn to reconcile our childhood days all over again. We went to the most popular theme park which is Enchanted Kingdom found in Laguna, Philippines. It’s been a while since I ... read more