Clik here to view.
Quick update from Yangon
We finally arrived here in Yangon last night for what is surely shaping up to be a whirlwind trip of Myanmar. Right now we’re killing time at The Strand, one of the best hotels in the world apparently,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Practical Information on Travel in Myanmar (as of May 2013)
Chasing the sunrise in Bagan, Myanmar I stayed in Myanmar for only eight days, but I think that’s enough time for me to say with confidence that your copy of Lonely Planet is already outdated. That’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Around Ayutthaya on a Songthaew
Wat Phra Si Sanphet, inside the Grand Palace grounds of Ayutthaya The stones here speak to me, and I know their mute language. Also, they seem deeply to feel what I think…. But I am a ruin myself,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Day at the Elephant Nature Park
I’ve waxed poetic about Chiang Mai, but I haven’t told you yet about my favorite experience there: spending a day feeding, bathing, and mostly hanging around watching a herd of gentle giants at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Northern Ilocos Norte: Bangui, Burgos, and Pagudpud
Windmills on the coast of Bangui, Ilocos Norte It was only some twelve hours after I arrived home from Palawan, and I was already at the domestic terminal of NAIA for my next summer trip. It also meant...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Poetry Wednesdays: Fragment 31 of Sappho’s Poetry
After what’s probably the most eventful summer of my life — so eventful I haven’t had the time to blog everything! — I’m back doing work, preparing for the next school year. I’m reading some ancient...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Paoay, Kumakaway! Touring southern Ilocos Norte and Vigan
This is a long-overdue post — two months, overdue, in fact. We’d long wondered if it was possible to tour the southern part of Ilocos Norte and Vigan in one day. We found out that with a car, it was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A night at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon
On May 6, Joey, Vince, Andy and I arrived in Yangon from Bangkok toward sundown. We headed to our Father Land Hotel to drop off our bags, and quickly headed back out to go to the Shwedagon Paya, which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Poetry Wednesdays: Ode to a Secret Love by Pablo Neruda
This poem brings back memories of a secret that’s happily kept as one, even though everybody else is on it anyway. Ode to a Secret Love Pablo Neruda They’ve guessed our secret, you know. They see me,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What happens when the middle-class traveler goes back to work
What did he do during this journey? Of what was he thinking? As in the morning, he watched the trees, the thatched roofs, the tilled fields pass by, and the way in which the landscape, broken at every...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Downtown Yangon
Sule Pagoda It’s hard to believe Yangon till you’re in it. For me, it was like a small Philippine city, with its roads and pedestrians who cross said roads with quick fatalistic steps. However, its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My first sunrise in Bagan
The temples of Bagan at sunrise as seen from Shwesendaw Paya My whole Southeast Asia tour sort of expanded itself from one simple plan: to see the temple-strewn land of Bagan in Myanmar. I’d read all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
MassKara Festival 2013
Brgy. 16, winner of the MassKara Festival Streetdance – Barangay Category Competition I spent one weekend in Bacolod City gorging on chicken inasal, seeing the old houses in Talisay and Silay, and (of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Things to do in Bacolod City
Souvenirs from the Bacolod City plaza I was in Bacolod City for the MassKara weekend this year. It was just a couple of days — the teacher in me could not even bring myself to take a day off on a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Backpacker’s Guide: Five days in Surigao del Norte
The Boardwalk at Cloud 9 in Siargao Fellow teachers Edison, Angel, Czhar, Weng, DJ, and I took advantage of our school’s sembreak to set our students’ test papers aside — but just for five days — and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Surigao City and Mabua Pebble Beach
October 27, a quarter hour before ten in the morning, is memorable to me because it was the first time I experienced running across an airport terminal to catch our flight. My travel buddies and I did...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Island-hopping in Siargao
Guyam Island, near Siargao If we’d been running across the NAIA terminal 3 to catch our plane the day before, our hired jeepney was roaring at max speed across the Surigao countryside for us to make it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Surfing lessons in Siargao’s Cloud 9
The Boardwalk at Cloud 9 The day after was rainy, drenching our plans of taking an island tour of Siargao. We simply decided to spend the morning in downtown General Luna after a short early morning...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sohoton Cove in Bucas Grande Island
Sohoton Cove in Bucas Grande is…how to put it? Majestic. Enchanting. Quite unbelievable, really. It’s the true kind of beauty that cannot really be captured in photos or cameras; you’d have to see it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The brown Claver Bay, Bebie’s Barbecue in Surigao City, and the hunt for the...
It was disappointing to go back to mainland Surigao del Norte after Bucas Grande. We hadn’t even reached the shore when we felt that disappointment. Hayanggabon Port in Surigao del Norte. Those boats...
View Article