Category: Philippines

  • The year that was 2008

    The past 365 days has really been something else. My unspoken resolution for 2008 was to make it a better year, and to my surprise, it was better than I ever expected. After spending half of 2007 out of the country, I made it a point to see more of the Philippines this year. I…

  • Boracay then and now

    The first time I went to Boracay was in March 2005. It was also the first time my friends and I went on a long holiday together, and the first time I flew with Seair. That trip was easily one of the most memorable trips I ever had. The first views of the island from…

  • Travel Expenses: Boracay 2008

    I just got back from a fun, relaxing weekend at Boracay with my favorite travel buddies, Gail, Marc, Eric and Melo. We were all set to go to Romblon, when we found out that we ran out of tickets and we got re-routed to Boracay. Hey, we’re not complaining! This isn’t our first time to…

  • Bowing to the weather in Batanes

    As soon as we drove off in the jeep from the Ivana port, the thunderstorm that the weather websites were predicting finally arrived. The weather effectively killed off any plans for more sightseeing around Batan island. That and the queasy feeling we got from riding the boat from Sabtang. The weather in Batanes is pretty…

  • Sabtang Adventure

    We woke up early the following day for our trip to Sabtang. Tita Remy has arranged for the jeep to pick us up at Novita house at 5:30 am, for the ride to the Ivana port, where we would ride a faluwa to Sabtang. At 5:20am, the jeep was waiting outside the gate. Because there…

  • Exploring Batan Island

    We made our way out of the Dornier 328, eager to set foot in Basco. We marveled at the fine weather, a stark contrast to the thunderstorms CNN.com has forecasted. The sun was shining brightly and the sky a beautiful shade of blue, dotted with white fluffy clouds. We went through the small terminal building,…

  • Flying in to Batanes

    The flight out of Manila was scheduled for 5:50am. I still had work Friday night, so I was hurriedly finishing work-related things online. To my surprise, most of my travel buddies are also online on Plurk, which of course, made it hard for me to concentrate on my writing! Flying at 5:50 am, meant having…

  • Travel Expenses: Batanes 2008

    Hola! I’m back from Batanes. I’ve yet to finish working on my photos for posting, so I’ll start off with our travel budget. Predictably, the most expensive part of Batanes travel is the airfare. Good thing Seair helped us out in that one! It also helped that we were traveling as a group — big…

  • Why I want to go to Batanes

    Batanes isn’t really one of the top tourist destinations in the Philippines. So why would I want to go there? It’s too far up north, that it’s closer to Taiwan than it is to Manila. Getting there is not easy, and from what I hear, getting out of there is harder still. I’ve heard of…