Blogs from Pampanga, Philippines, Asia - page 3

Day 19 Went for a walk in the morning around the streets near our Hotel. Noticed a nice hand-crafted outdoor setting in one the garden areas of the Hotel. Already early in the morning it was warm. While swimming in the pool, I witnessed the sunrise-interesting to watch the sun's rays lighting up the hills. Once light, I took this photograph of the view down to Subic Bay. We had breakfast in the Dining room-once again there was a large group, so the staff had to arrange the tables accordingly. Tim had Eggs Benedict (which looked very tasty). img=http://img246.... read more

Mt. Arayat, a trekking spot located at Brgy San Juan Bano, Arayat, Pampanga, rising to a height of 1026 m (3366 ft.) above ground level is also the legendary home of the beautiful fairy, Mariang Sinukuan. It's my third time to reach the peak of that dormant volcano and yet I got really fascinated over and over seeing the topview of Pampanga, Bulacan and other nearby provinces... Before hitting the planned activity me and my co-leaders in our federation got a really lesson experience..It was October 12, 2006 as the news reported that Bulacan area is one of the affected areas of a named typhoon. The rain pours so heavily that I consume most of my day texting and communicating with my members. We have planned a trek activity two months before the planned date October ... read more

It has been a long 24 hours, I had the worst seat on the plane leaving Adelaide and had a huge verbal stoush with the Chinese guy next to me, he was very aggressive which of course made me a little hostile, I think we would have come to blows if we werent on a plane. Anyway I arrived in Singapore at about 5pm then had to wait 3 hours for the flight to KL, annoying that as there isnt much to do in an airport for that long, but eventually I was on the way to KL only to circle above the airport for half an hour till we could land. Once on the ground there were more problems, the transit hotel was at one terminal my bag was on the other side of Immigration ... read more

raining solidly all day, earlier the rain was so heavy couldnt hear the radio... been raining every day for last couple of weeks, possibly even three.. usually in late afternoon/evening... plus some dramatic lightning storms in the evening. dont remember such a long rainy season in the philippines last year. the sky here can be beautiful though eletric blues and greys and the clouds wrapped around the mountains around mount pinatubo and the magestic mount arayat looming out of the flat pampanga countryside... really can be a beautiful place here. shame its so hard to get photos of the volcanoes from here. driving around the base (im renting a house here on clark ir base) its incredible how green and luch everything is, amazing how quickly nature takes control here, its a constant battle just to ... read more

Being the only Catholic nation in Asia, the Philippines observe the Lenten Season religiously. The eight-day celebration starting from Palm Sunday until Easter Sunday is filled with spiritual and religious rites commemorating the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Visita Iglesia Every Maundy Thursday, the Visita Iglesia is being practiced by devote catholics. The traditional Visita Iglesia is said to be the commemoration of Jesus Christ’s journey through the streets of Jerusalem to the hill of Golgotha. Supposedly, as there are 14 Stations of the Cross, 14 churches should be visited. But as far as I can remember, we only visit 7 churches. This year, we visited the churches along our place in Pampanga - our Parish in Mexico, Sto. Domingo, San Jose, Chancery, Dolores, San Agustin, and lastly in St. Jude. As we go ... read more