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Climbing Mt. Pulag (with a prelude on Mt. Daraitan)
Let me reminisce a bit about my first climb, way back in August 2013. With some friends, I climbed a mountain in Daraitan, Tanay, Rizal. It has been called Mt. Daraitan, though upon registering, we...
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Things to do in Sagada (if you’re not adventurous)
View from Sagada Homestay “Humans are awesome,” I said, “for having invented…houses.” My travel buddies laughed at this statement of epiphany. It was midnight, I had less than ten hours of sleep for...
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Bohol and Panglao
When you’re a budding traveler and you’re thinking of traveling locally, Bohol is probably one of the first things you’d put in your bucket list. It’s in everyone’s radar, travel is relatively easy and...
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Bohol Island in a Day Tour
The temporary title of this blog post was, “How to take pictures of your Bohol day tour with a 50mm 1.8f manual focus lens,” because I may have destroyed my go-to 18-55mm zoom lens for good when I went...
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A Panglao Island Hopping and Land Tour (plus a bit of airport misadventure)
I hereby dub Panglao as Boracay lite, and in the best way. The powder-white sand of Alona Beach is perfect for barefoot walking in the day. In the evening, restaurants bring out chairs and tables, and...
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Dios Mamajes, Batanes!
Batanes had always been the dream. I’ve been to quite a few places here in the Philippines and around Asia, but Batanes always remained elusive — it’s either too expensive, and the only time when...
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A Tour of North Batan (Part 1)
Batan is considered to be the main island of the Batanes group. It has the most population, for it has the largest habitable and arable land area. The municipality of Basco is in north Batan. Our first...
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A Tour of North Batan (Part 2)
A little story: My fears about meeting an accident right before my wedding came to a head when, to the surprise of everyone except me and my close friends, I fell into the gutter of a crowded but...
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Sabtang Island, Part 1: The Sinakan stone houses
According to rumor (and the great thing about guesthouses is that everyone makes chika there), a famous Filipina actress who went to Batanes alone decided not to push through with her Sabtang tour...
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Sabtang Island, Part 2: On the way to the Chamantad-Tinyan Viewpoint
When you tour Sabtang Island, you actually only see the eastern side of the island, one that is near the coast. After visiting the Stone houses of Sinakan, we took a long road to our next destination....
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Sabtang Island, Part 3: Morong Beach, and more on the vakul
Perilous roads make for grand views. It’s true for the Cordilleras; it’s also true for Sabtang. Coast of Sabtang Island The southernmost part of Sabtang that we were able to reach during our tour was...
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A Tour of South Batan, Part 1: Mahatao
Unlike the previous two days, when the sky had been as blue as any Philippine summer sky could be, our third day in Batanes foreboded rain. Signal no. 2 had been forecast the day before as typhoon...
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A Tour of South Batan, Part 2: Uyugan
Brgy. Imnajbu (pronounced im-nah-boo) in the municipality of Uyugan has a very cool name and one of the smallest populations in the Philippines — just over 100 people! Its rugged landscape is...
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A Tour of South Batan, Part Three: Ivana
I just love how unique place names in Batanes are and how they make you pout your lips as they create sounds and stresses you never realized existed in a Filipino language: Kayvaluganan. Mahatao....
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Batanes after a storm, and some musings on traveling
It was three in the morning. Power was out, and the air inside our room was getting suffocating. I, however, dared not open the window. I’d been up awake for more than a couple of hours, watching the...
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Six Days of Seoul Searching: An Itinerary and Guide
My students were on semestral break, and so it was the perfect time for their teacher to go frolicking among the trees bursting with autumn foliage in South Korea. Fall foliage at Nami Island,...
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Half a Day in Gangnam
Day 2 Itinerary Notes Train from Anguk Sta. (Line 3), transfer at Seoul Natl Univ. of Education (Line 2) to Seolleung Sta., exit 8 walk for some five minutes along Seolleung-ro to the entrance to...
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You should visit a university when you’re in Seoul
…and by this, I don’t mean getting a brochure on course requirements or inquiring on enrollment for foreign nationals (although of course, you can totally do that). I mean, go to a university and...
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The Haneul Park: How to turn a landfill into a tourist spot
So — we had spent the morning in Gangnam and a couple of hours in Ewha Womans University, and in the later afternoon I was dragging my husband to our last stop for the day — the Seoul World Cup Park....
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An Autumn Morning on Nami Island
Notes on visiting Nami Island, Petite France, and the Garden of Morning Calm in one day from Seoul: Preparations Reserve your ITX-Cheongchun tickets here. Print out your reservation form. This is not...
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