I have written articles that are in series that you might be interested to read. C’mon, these are one-of-a-kind adventures that I’m sure you’ll be green with envy! Great photography too.

Lakbay Norte

Last January 2010, I was invited by the North Philippines Visitors Bureau to join a media tour of travel writers and bloggers to experience North Luzon for seven days starting in Cagayan province all the way to Pampanga to sample the various local cuisines and experience the attractions offered by the various provinces along the route. This is such an unforgettable experience!

• Lakbay Norte: A journey around North Luzon
• Wide eyed at the Ilocos Norte Sand Dunes
• Northern Exposure article in Living Today
• Wild 4×4 fun at the Ilocos Norte Sand Dunes
• Sandboarding at the Ilocos Norte Sand Dunes
• Three short stops in Ilocos Norte
• Savoring Batac empanada
• Surfing in La Union, riding the waves
• The Hundred Islands in Pangasinan
• Bamboo + malagkit + gata = binungey
• Beautiful colonial architecture of Lingayen Capitol
• Ambuklao Dam, a beautiful monstrosity?
• Karting amidst stunning backdrop in Bokod
• Dining within spectacular mountain surroundings
• 9 churches, a Lakbay Norte visita iglesia
• Memories of a Pinacanauan River cruise
• I was dwarfed at the Callao Caves of Penablanca
• Thinking of travel? Do the Lakbay Norte loop

En route via Mindoro

Last 25 December 09, I traveled from Makati City to Cebu via land for the Holidays. 36 hours later and about P2,500 in expenses, I was finally back home. Not a comfortable trip, it’s a continuous ride from one point to another, experiencing a schedule foul-up, had a batchoy dish to remember and also passing through one of the best road network in the country.

• En route: Makati to Cebu via Mindoro, Part 1
• En route, part 2: Caticlan leg derailed my trip
• En route, Part 3: Batchoy almost left me broke
• En route, part 4: Negros’s highway of dreams
• En route, part 5: I’ll take your 100 peso bed, Miss

Interviews

From time to time, I will be interviewing travel bloggers and other personalities who can share their travel related experiences with readers of this blog and their favorite places which will usually take the form of a top 5 list.

I’m also interested in featuring local bloggers who can tell more about their own places as well as recommend not so common but interesting sites that a traveler will enjoy. Depending on the interviewee’s inclinations, his top 5 places to visit might focus on heritage, food, things to do, etc.

I’m also open for interview suggestions or offers.

• Interview: Arnold Carl Sancover, Cebu heritage blogger
• Arnold Carl’s 5 must visit Cebu heritage sites

Cebu-Sugbo Kini

Not your usual dried fish market in Taboan or the guitar shop in Mactan. No mangoes, Malapascua beaches or the false white sands of Shangri-la Mactan. And definitely, no Taoist Temple this time. It’s much more interesting than visiting another pilgrimage site built by Henry Sy or Ayala. It is historically rich, has unique food concoctions and places and spaces that only locals know. Get first hand information also from a Cebu based blogger as he tell you more about the heritage sites of his beloved province. This and more in this series.

• Cebu-Sugbo kini!
• Death in Stone: Relieves of old cemeteries in Cebu
• Cebu flower market for the undas/kalag-kalag
• At the Calamba Cemetery during the day
• Luminous night at the Talisay Cemetery
• The twin bridges connecting Cebu and Mactan
• Dusk, Evening in Cordova, Mactan Island
• Cordova pabuto
• Fast, cheap cruise, why didn’t I try this before?
  
• Cebu’s beloved Child, God and King
• Candles, icons, prayers anyone?
• Hail to the Child King! Viva! Pit Señor Santo Niño!
• The Sinulog Mardi Gras: lost in translation
• 18 Km, 1 hour: a bus ride of exasperation
• South Cebu Semana Santa
• 7 interesting churches in Cebu, a visita iglesia
• Cebu Ocho, around the island province in 2 days
• Rugged but beautiful South Cebu
• An enjoyable ride around north Cebu
• Partial solar eclipse in Cebu
• 7 foodstops in Cebu: Talisay City & Bogo | part 1
• 7 foodstops in Cebu: Catmon/Borbon & Argao | part 2
• 7 foodstops in Cebu: Bantayan Island | part 3
• 7 foodstops in Cebu: Liloan | part 4
• Pelota, pelotari, cesta: Jai alai is still alive in Cebu
• 7 foodstops in Cebu: Carcar | part 5
• Puso: Cebu’s heart of rice
• Is it worth the effort to see Marmol Cliff?
• Cebu jeepneys: Of flying pigs and bold hues
• Cebu’s lonely sentinels of the sea
• Man-made structures mars Kawasan Falls
• Interview: Arnold Carl Sancover, Cebu heritage blogger
• Arnold Carl’s 5 must visit Cebu heritage sites

Fortress of Empire

Crumbling watchtowers, ruined forts and walls of once fortified settlements standing as mute witnesses to the Philippine’s dark and hidden past. These Spanish colonial era structures have defended the towns and islands for more than a century of Muslim slave raiding and piratical activities. Unfortunately, utter neglect and indifference to these heritage icons are in danger of becoming lost forever.

• Tea + Sulu = Miag-ao Church
• The Impressive fortress-church of Cuyo
• Endangered Agutaya fortress-church
• Culion’s remodelled fortress-church

The Cuyo Loop

Cuyo? Agutaya? The former leper colony of Culion? What? Where? Yep, I went to the remote islands of Cuyo, those sprinkle of terra firma between the islands of Panay and northern Palawan and also passed by Negros, Iloilo and Coron. Discover these beautiful places and know its dark past…

• The Cuyo Loop
• A short detour in Negros
• Backyard cockfight in Valladolid
• Some Negros and Iloilo old churches
• Creepy? 5 cemeteries in Negros and Iloilo
• Around Cuyo
• Early fishing in Cuyo
• An idle afternoon in Magsaysay, Cuyo
• A few hours in Agutaya town
• MV Catalyn D, 8 months before her sinking
• Waking up to spectacular rock formations in Coron
• A stop in Culion
• Is Culion still the Island of the Living Dead?
• The impressive fortress-church of Cuyo
• Endangered Agutaya Fortress-Church
• Culion’s remodeled fortress-church
• End of the Cuyo Loop

The Luzon – Visayas – Luzon Loop

Madness? A masochist’s trip? Almost. But its an adventure that I have been wanting to do for years until I finally decided to take the plunge. Journey with me as I start my trip right at Philtranco’s Pasay terminal then spend the next 30 hours passing Bicol, the sunka highway of Samar, then Leyte and reaching my home in Cebu. After the holidays, I went back to Makati but this time, by bus via Western Visayas and Mindoro. Sound fantastic? You bet it is!

• Doing the Luzon-Visayas Loop: a Masochist’s trip
• The Philtranco bus terminal in Pasay
• From wet Legazpi to catching the ferry in Matnog
• The roro in Matnog, Sorsogon
• The historic San Bernardino Strait
• Across the National Sunka Highway
• Nearing home, Ormoc at last!
• Brief stop in San Carlos, Negros
• Along the north Negros highway
• SM City Bacolod
• Deco’s Special Batchoy with prewar pandesal*
• Impressive: Cabatuan and Sta. Barbara churches
• Pre Ati-atihan revelry in Kalibo
• An accidental foray in Boracay
• Boracay is no paradise
• End of the Luzon-Visayas-Luzon loop

Semana Santa

Rituals and age old practices across the Philippines that sometimes bewilders, awes or makes one contemplate on the significance and holiness of Lent. These include pre-hispanic rites that has been incorporated into Catholicism or cherished lenten traditions that have become a Philippine way of life and faith.

• Where to travel for the visita iglesia
• Lucban’s Santo Señor Sepulcro
• Semana Santa in Lucban, Quezon
• Semana Santa slideshow at pinoycentric.com
• The hooded flagellants of Infanta, Quezon
• Senakulo in Makati City
• Paete’s rite of the dead
• South Cebu Semana Santa
• 7 interesting churches in Cebu, a visita iglesia
• A ritual of faith
• Visita Iglesia in Cebu and Manila free guides
• Paete’s other pagsusuob ritual