Yep, Langyaw.com won again! CLICK TO ENLARGE

The awards had three categories that also included adventure/sports and leisure with best travel blog photography and best green travel blog. In the category that I won, I submitted my piece on my home province’s watchtowers: Cebu’s lonely sentinels of the sea which was part of my Cebu/Sugbo series.

The travel blog winners, L to R: yours truly, Blanca, Marcos and Angel. Ada did not make it.

Complementary hotel stay in Cebu

Am I happy? Of course! Despite the fiasco I experienced with the airline a few months ago, that was already history. And besides, with the free tickets, I need not worry of bungled online ticket booking payments, again. No headaches and no sleepless nights.

The winners? Marcos of ambot-ah won for Leisure and Relaxation. Angel of Lakwatsero won the Adventure and Sports category. Ada, Adaphobic, the Best Travel Blog Photography while Blanca, Random Thoughts by Blanca, the Best Travel with a Cause blog. Congrats to you all!

you’re the person I’m looking for!

A clearing in the forest intended for slash and burn farming

My Busuanga aerials that I featured before will be in a unique exhibition. Entitled Earth & Art, this is Net 25′s Tribe offering for the environment.

A fusion of Earth, Art and Technology. Tribe, Net 25′s premiere infotainment program, captures the essence of caring for the environment in its second year of launching Earth and Art themed: ECO-Life through VideOmage – a transmedia exploration.

The medium is the message. Through 25 flat screen televisions, videos on the environment and artists with an advocacy will surely engage and compel th viewers to do their part in saving the planet.

I’m one of the featured artist/photographer and I will be showing my black and white series Busuanga: From Forests to Farmlands that surveys the topography of one of the country’s remote islands where deforestation is ongoing. Check estancabigas.com for a background on this work.

The event will be hosted by Christopher Sommereux and will be held at the SM North Cyberzone at the 4 Floor, 23 – 24 February 2010 (starting today). Exhibition is open 10 AM – 9 PM.

Call Feamor Tiosen for more information at 995 1325 loc 4482.

Claiming the bookends, the Philippines captured the weekends of January 22-24 and December 24-26 for the Boracay International Funboard Cup and world’s longest Christmas celebration, respectively. CNNGo.com contributor Estan Cabigas of the travel blog http://langyaw.com featured the two attractions.

My profile in CNNGo.com.

The Boracay Funboard Cup article that I wrote for CNNGo.com. CLICK to visit the actual site.

Finally, my article for CNNGo.com, part of CNN Lifestyle and Travel, is up!

Part of the 52 Weekends feature series in the CNN Go website, it showcases events and activities on all weekends in 2010 happening around Asia.

From the 52 Weekends page where all feature articles are listed:

January 22 – 24: Boracay International Funboard Competition

Travel blog Langyaw’s author Estan Cabigas provides the perfect weekend: The International Funboard Competition in Boracay. It is one of the largest annual windsurfing races in Asia, attracting hundreds of surfers and kiters from around the world. There’s ocean fun for everyone: Pros compete for titles, while amateurs take lessons from the region’s best surfers. When the sun sets on the island, the revelry kicks up and rages until the next morning.

Estan Cabigas is a traveller, photographer and creator of the travel blog Langyaw.

Check also the bottom of the page for the Manila feature.

For the Philippines, I was contacted last month to write two weekend feature articles:

• the Boracay International Funboard Cup, 22-24 January
• the Manila Christmas festivities, 24-26 December (will be online a week before this date)

The assignment was quite challenging at first since the sample writing style given to me is different to what I am accustomed to. In fact, in the travel posts I do for this blog, I must have first hand experience and don’t provide much details like contact numbers and costs since it is more of a personal insight. But here, as long as all information is available, it’s enough. Really, its quite simple. No need to be physically there. A dose of humor is also required.

What I like about this project is that it not only focuses on the main event but also on possible places to visit near the venue as well as activities to do. All these written by local contributors. That’s why you’re assured of the un-tourist trap variety.

I’m really thankful for this opportunity and for the first article on Boracay, I would like to give my gratitude to Nenette Graf, organizer of the Boracay International Funboard Cup who entertained my questions. The internet was also quite handy in making this article but just so much time done researching and sifting through many unimportant data.

And the best part? I get to have my own profile page, ahem, with some personal links included.