My third birthday journal in Travelblog. I have about five drafted travel stories waiting to be finished, I had to oblige myself to finish this one. It's the second consecutive year that I have been spending birthdays in the province of Zambales, camping and trying to find that 'peace and quiet' that I'm always in search of. I spent the day in a beautiful Island called Magalawa, fifteen minutes boat ride from the Oslet Armada Fishdealer Compound in Brgy. Luan, Palauig Zambales. The first part of the journey was the four hours coach ride through the Iba Zambales route; we arrived at Iba Bus Terminal around three in the morning, an hour early than planned. We then had to wait for another hour for our transport to Brgy. Luan, which was another thirty minutes drive from ... read more

It took the bus four hours to get to San Antonio where we met our guide/boatman Kuya Mike. The last time we went to Pundaquit for camping, it only took us three hours by bus leaving at midnight – this time we missed the 04:00AM bus and had to wait until 05:00AM for the next one. Coming straight from work, I was groggy from having not slept and with the bus doing long stops, it wasn’t a very pleasant ride. It was a busy season seven months ago when we went camping at Anawangin so this time we were hoping that we’d have our ‘peace and quiet’ in another remote cove, Nagsasa. Unlike Anawangin which is just about 30 minutes boat ride from the Pundaquit beach, Nagsasa Cove is one and a half hours away. Though ... read more

... Meanwhile, we were back in Seoul by six in the evening after another walking day in Nami Island. We went back to Sunshine Guesthouse to get Martin and Dell’s stuff and had dinner at a restaurant nearby. We have told the guys about our disappointing discovery re our next hostel HEY backpackers and gave them options, if they want to spend the night there anyway or look for another place to stay at. They opted for the latter, so after dinner we went to Hongdae Area and looked around for hostels. We eventually found one with friendlier owners and tidier environment, but then it also meant that Janet and I have to make a story up – yeah, lying was a better option for us during the time *evil mode*. After the boys settled at ... read more

Being from the Leyte-Samar provinces, I am well aware of the annual url=http://www.tourisminthephilippines.com/city/Tacloban/leyte-landing-memorial/leyte-landing-memorial.phpLeyte Landing celebration which commemorates the return of Gen. Douglas McArthur to the Philippines. Who isn’t familiar with the line “I Shall Return”? He is probably one of the most loved expat in our history books, and our fascination to the American culture may as well be associated to him. Whilst the Spanish brought the Roman Catholic faith, Americans on the other hand brought chocolates, McDonalds, Pepsi, pizza, the American English language, and our fascination to ‘state side’. As it was a long weekend, we’ve decided to make a weekend trip to the Corregidor Island. I usually get seasick and the one hour ferry ride was the least of my favorite. Back on its glorious days, Corregidor was a... read more

"Do you remember passing through this trail?" I asked wondering why I don't remember walking through a wide rocky trail. 'I'm not sure' stare. We went on. "What are these cobwebs doing here? Are these mountain spiders really fast with making webs!?". I felt more cobwebs constantly on my face later on. "The soil feels unfamiliarly soft", Janet added. We went on. "This fallen tree doesn't look familiar, does this look familiar to you?" A shrug. We went on. "There are piled bamboo poles at the side of the trail ahead! I definitely don't remember those!", I exclaimed. That did it! We were lost. It was a long weekend so we decided to do a one-day climb up Mt. Pico de Loro and do camping at a beach somewhere the next day. We hired a taxi ... read more