Blogs from Luzon, Philippines, Asia - page 4

Geo: 14.6007, 120.982Having seen most of the sites of Manila a couple of years ago, we are just planning on using the city as a hub to connect to parts of the country we hadn't yet seen. Unfortunately we've now dropped one of those destinations, Palawan, because apparently there's a lengthy waiting list to see it's big claim to fame: the mile long Puerto Princesa Underground River (since it recently made that cheesy list of Top 7 Natural Wonders of the World, tick-in-the-box tourists have been flooding in). The earliest date we could get was toward the end of April and although it's highly likely that we could just show up and find a spot- the other issues created by the List are much higher prices and an almost comical shortening of the boat ride down ... read more

For the second week of the Spring Festival break, I've headed to the Philippines with some friends. Before heading to Boracay to laze on a beach and drink too many margaritas, we headed out of Manila to trek Mount Pinatubo and see the crater lake that formed after it's eruption in 1991. It was a long day to get to the crater. We woke at 4:30 a.m. to drive 2.5 hours out of Manila, to then take a 1 hour jeep ride (an extremely bumpy, bruise-inducing, thank-god I took anti-nausea medicine jeep ride), and a 2 hour trek across the mountain. We then arrived at the crater, enjoyed it for a while, and then repeated the trip in reverse (but add in pouring rain for parts of each leg). Was it worth the 10+ hour journey, ... read more

Zambales, Philippines -- Punta de Uian (yu-yan or u-yan) Resort. Punta is a spanish term for "a point of land extending into a body of water" and Uian is a local term for "cradle." The resort is located near Capones Island and Anawangin Cove and about 4-hour drive from Manila. The resort was nice being located at one of the most beautiful coastlines in the Philippines. There are also swimming pools and sports and water activities such as lawn bowling, beach volleyball, banana boat rides, kayak, scuba diving, jetski and many others. Although some parts of the resort are still under construction. They also offer boat ride to Capones Island and Anawangin Cove and other nearby islands. There is also a part of the beach where people are not allowed because the sea had taken much ... read more

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

Well after two days essentially confined to bed, we're off an on the road today. Today we're going to Tagaytay near the Taal lake, site of the world's smallest volcano. The thing about it is though, it's actually a volcano that has formed in a crater lake of an older volcano. I recall going here last time (2000), but it was a brief visit, basically for lunch. Today we're going there for a traditional Filipino Christmas with Squish family ( well part of it anyway ). Some personal observations on Filipino local so far.. . . . . It's probably a little cliched to talk about how friendly polite and courteous they all seem to be. As you would expect, hotel, restaurant and retail staff especially so. My observation is that the notable exception to this ... read more