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Hidden Treasures of Catanduanes

Posted on May 5, 2009

The following article is an unedited version of a commissioned feature I wrote for this month’s issue of SMILE, the in-flight magazine of Cebu Pacific Air. You may browse the magazine online at http://www.cebusmile.com Sun and rain battled for undivided attention, as I looked out from the observatory tower of the PAG-ASA Weather Station—a structure that curiously looked like something out of The Jetsons—desolately perched above the rolling rainforest of the island’s foggy mountain range. In a matter of minutesRead More→

Higantes Festival (Angono, Rizal)

Posted on April 12, 2009

Religious revelry and local fanfare characterize most festivals in the Philippine islands. One such festive celebration occurs a stone’s throw away from Metro Manila. Every November 23, the lakeside town of Angono in Rizal province wakes up to a big and bright celebration in honor of the town’s patron, St. Clement. The “higante” tradition of Angono began last century, when the town was a Spanish hacienda. The hacienda owners concerned about costs prohibited all celebrations except for one annual fiesta.Read More→

Manila Chinatown: The World’s Oldest

Posted on February 8, 2009

It’s Chinese New Year. Ongpin Street–the main thoroughfare of Manila Chinatown– is a traffic jam of shoppers weighed downed by their bags of tikoy (rice cake), ube hopia (taro pastry), and ma chang (meat-filled sticky rice).  Despite their heavy load, they continue to jostle, crane their necks and chirpily browse the sidewalks of trinket hawkers bargaining jade amulets, bracelets, and good luck charms in Fookien-accented Tagalog. Goldsmiths, vegetable vendors and traditional medicine sellers soon chime in. Beneath all the hullabaloo, atRead More→

Zoobic Safari (Subic, Zambales)

Posted on December 10, 2008

Want to have a roaring good time? Perhaps the closest you can get to a ferocious feline in the Philippines is at the Zoobic Safari—the one and only tiger safari in the country. It is located at Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales province, a former US naval base. When the Americans left in 1993, the Philippine Government converted the area into a Freeport Zone that has now become an industrial estate with an international airport, shopping malls, hotels, techno parks,Read More→

The Labyrinth Called Manila

Posted on October 19, 2008

This article was first published in the premiere issue of ROAM, a Manila-based magazine for alternative travel and outdoor enthusiasts.  While the mere thought of skipping leisurely through Old Manila’s thoroughfares might seem daunting or perhaps even frightening to the uninitiated, such an experience provides an invaluable insight into the history, culture and culinary landscape of one of the most vibrant capitals in the world. (Well, the 69th in Lonely Planet’s The Cities Book. Still not bad, out of 200).   The grind ofRead More→

Khao San Road (Bangkok, Thailand):

Posted on August 29, 2008

At the busy neighborhood of Banglamphu north of the Grand Palace is the famous backpacker’s Mecca: Khao San Road. Chaos is constant in Khao San, a pulsating plethora of multicultural, gastronomical and commercial life… true to the images swirling in my head as I read Alex Garland’s cult-classic-turned-blockbuster about a secret paradise called “The Beach”:  “The first I heard of the beach was in Bangkok on Ko Sanh Road. The Ko Sanh Road was backpacker land. Almost all the buildingsRead More→