NEXT DESTINATION

Guess. (photo grabbed from wikipedia.com)

HELP THE PEOPLE OF MANILA

Illustration by Anjo Aborlada

Manila and the National Capital Region were flooded this week due to heavy rains. Poor drainage systems and high tides combined with less care for the environment complicated the situation creating a deluge reminiscent of Typhoon Ondoy (international codenamed Ketsana) in 2009.

Please help them, help us in the Philippines.

The safest way to donate is via the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC). By saying the safest, I mean your donations will not be used by politicians and other entities for personal gains and will directly go to the recipients without fanfare.

For details on how to donate, please follow this link: DONATE.

Frank Lurzano captures Janela Arcos Lelis rescuing their school's flag during a flood
that hits  the town of Malinao in Albay province.

You can also find other means of how to help, especially if you are an alumni of Manila schools or if you belong to an organization, by reading the details of the activities being done by schools, universities, companies and other entities here. Please follow the link: Flood PH: How Can You Help?

Photo courtesy of CNN/Getty Images

CNN/Getty Images

I HAVE LANDED!

Photo by Leo Odtuhan

Travel is little beds and cramped bathrooms. It’s old television sets and slow Internet connections. Travel is extraordinary conversations with ordinary people. It’s waiters, gas station attendants, and housekeepers becoming the most interesting people in the world. It’s churches that are compelling enough to enter. It’s McDonald’s being a luxury. It’s the realization that you may have been born in the wrong country. Travel is a smile that leads to a conversation in broken English. It’s the epiphany that pretty girls smile the same way all over the world. Travel is tipping 10% and being embraced for it. Travel is the same white T-shirt again tomorrow. Travel is accented sex after good wine and too many unfiltered cigarettes. Travel is flowing in the back of a bus with giggly strangers. It’s a street full of bearded backpackers looking down at maps. Travel is wishing for one more bite of whatever that just was. It’s the rediscovery of walking somewhere. It’s sharing a bottle of liquor on an overnight train with a new friend. Travel is “Maybe I don’t have to do it that way when I get back home.” It’s nostalgia for studying abroad that one semester. Travel is realizing that “age thirty” should be shed of its goddamn stigma.

- Nick Miller, Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

Inspired by PHL360, today I decided to make my blog a TRAVEL BLOG and should now focus on the travels I've made and will be making. 

Keep me company.

Anda is Bohol's next destination

If you are in Bohol and you find Panglao Island getting noisier with the influx of tourists and resorts of every kind, there is another destination worth visiting- Anda. Still pristine in every way and with a few tourists around, Anda brags a natural beach with powdery white sands still  pollution-free and open to the public.

About a hundred kilometers from Tagbilaran (almost 3 hours by van for hire), Anda's distance may be a boon, a blessing, to that town. Although resorts have already began sprouting everywhere, still the town is very provincial, a place where people know each other and welcomes you if you are a visitor.

Last year, I made an article about Anda that won me a Lonely Planet Magazine. This was what I've written-

Off the beaten path, somewhere in Anda in the province of Bohol are remnants of a long forgotten history- hanging coffins. Not just your ordinary hanging coffins, I believe.

Several hematite paintings could be seen on the wall of the cave where the remnants are. Facing the Mindanao Sea, could they be ritual symbols for the long voyage? Or some gory acts the details we don't want to know?

Around these islets that is now connected with abundant tropical plants and mangroves good for the next Jurassic Park set, you can visit out of this world coves. A wide cave-like natural structure is now even used for council meetings of hilots and tambalans.

Shhhh, every year, unknown to many, a congregation of herbal doctors and their likes converge at this place in Anda. Go ask your guide about it and they would compare their rituals with that of Siquijor counterparts.

But the excitement starts right when you arrived at the place. You go up to a hilly village before you would be engulfed in a forest full of mangroves and got to taste local cuisine at a station.

Just lovely.

USEFUL INFO:

Bus and V-Hire for Anda are available at Integrated Bus Terminal in Tagbilaran City. Bus fare is 100 pesos while v-hire is 120 pesos. Please note that trip schedules are limited. However, you can take any bus/v-hire to  Ubay via eastern part of Bohol and drop at Guindulman Public Market where habal-habal, tricycles and mini buses are available until 5pm for Anda. Haggling is best advised.

Resorts offer room accommodations. Pension houses are also available in the town proper. Some resorts have Wi-Fi available but some parts of the town have limited access to mobile connection. Globe, Smart and Sun signals however, are strong in the town proper.

For more info, contact Anda Tourist Information Center at telephone (038) 510-8094 or mobile 0948-371-0836, 0999-581-3336, 0917-324-5917. Email them thru their mayor (sosyal!) at asimacio_lguanda@yahoo.com.

Anda's website is andabohol.gov.ph.

Related post: A Rare Experience to Try in Bohol

RIP DOLPHY (Rodolfo Vera Quizon Sr.), 83

Photo grabbed from The Entertainment Lifestyle Philippines

"Madaling tumakbo, paano kung manalo?"

Rodolfo Vera Quizon, Sr. popularly known in the Philippine cinema as Dolphy, passed away tonight at the age of 83. He was the greatest name in the Philippines. No one, I said not one, ever does not know him in the Philippines.

After countless rumors about his death, he succumbed due to complications of his lung ailment at the ICU of the Makati Medical Center in Manila. Dolphy has entertained and earned awards for his comic acting. He has been in the entertainment industry for more than six decades, I guess.

Bye, Philippine Idol (PIDOL). Finally, you have rested Dolphy. Thank you for all the laughters you shared with us. Go home now.


And here are some tweets from bloggers, journos, artists and famous people on Dolphy's death:

Patricia Ilagan: A comedian, yes. but realistic, simple, unassuming, w/out pretenses or affectations. A cut above the rest. Dolphy.

Fmr President Erap Estrada: Dolphy was a trailblazer in PH cinema whose brilliant legacy will shine forever.

Kevin Ray Chua: There will never be a person who can match Dolphy. He will always be the Philippines' King of Comedy.

Jove Francisco: ...we lost a National Treasure. Gift of strength for the rest of his clan.

Erin Tanada: He will be greatly missed. Nawa'y bitbitin pa rin natin ang sayang naibigay niya sa bawat Pilipino.

Cecilia Orena-Drilon: RIP Dolphy. We have lost a great artist. But now your pain and suffering are over. We will never forget you.

Regine Alcasid: Maraming salamat po mang Dolphy pahinga na po kayo.

Geneva Cruz: You're now with God. Your journey here on Earth has ended. But the things you've done will remain in our hearts.

Lea Salonga: RIP, Comedy King. You are sorely missed. Condolences to the Quizon Family, you are in our prayers.

Teddy Casino: Tonight let us mourn & shed tears for someone who always made us cry in laughter - Dolphy, perhaps the funniest Pinoy who ever lived.

Lino Cayetano: Mang Dolphy was an inspiration, a living icon when i was starting out in ABS, we all dreamed of working with him. He will be missed dearly.

Nina Corpuz: For someone known as King of Comedy, tito Dolphy was one of the most down to earth celebrities I've ever interviewed. Walang kayabang-yabang.

Eric Quizon: Heaven is now a happier place.