Philippines

Daytripping Taal Heritage Town in Batangas

December 31, 2012 by Bino 8 Comments

During the Christmas holidays, I took advantage of the relatively traffic-free streets to venture on a 2-hour or so drive out to Taal, Batangas after hearing a lot of positive feedback about this relatively unknown place. The word “Taal” by itself is quite well-known mainly because of its namesake volcano but it is also the name of a town nearby. There were two things at the top of my mind that I wanted to see, the first being the Basilica of St. Martin of Tours, said to be the largest church in Asia. The second was the Villavicencio House, one of Taal’s numerous ancestral mansions, and one which I discovered through an old issue of Cebu Pacific’s Smile Magazine.

welcome to taal!

The night before the trip, I scrambled to research more about the town, and to my surprise, there was actually a long list of sights to see there. There are no less than 8 historical-mansions-turned-museums in the quaint old town of Taal. There is of course the Basilica, and there are a couple of other religious sites which can easily take up a full day’s worth of sightseeing. I left my home in Metropolitan Manila at about 7 in the morning, and managed to arrive in Taal around two and a half hours later.

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Paradise on Earth: Malcapuya and Banana Islands

May 7, 2012 by Bino 15 Comments

Its diving reputation often takes precedence but Coron has quite a few idyllic outlying islands that are worth exploring for some tropical r&r. In between our excursions in the main town and Coron Island, we devoted an entire day to venture into a few beaches farther afield. These are Malcapuya and Banana Islands, Coron’s version of a beach paradise.

one word – WOW!

These outlying islands lie several miles off the main town, and are actually situated near the open sea. Some of those who have been there fondly call one of these islands as Boracay 2 due to its long stretch of fine white sand beach, sans the crowds. To get there, we had to take a 2-hours journey by hired boat from the main town of Coron, and we went past several other islands along the way.

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Coron, Palawan: Otherworldly Land & Seascapes

May 4, 2012 by Bino 14 Comments

Up until I first visited Palawan some two years ago, I was not exactly that fond of visiting beach destinations. ‘A beach here can be like a beach anywhere’ or ‘swimming can be done in the pool’ were the first two things that usually came to mind. But all it took to change this was that one trip. It’s been a few years but I still remember our small boat being anchored into one of the uninhabited islands in Honda Bay. Seeing the azure waters of the Sulu Sea on a fine summer morning, where the water clarity made the sea seem like a chlorine-free swimming pool that stretched for miles, really changed the perception. I had never seen anything like it up until that point. Of course, it also helped that the marine life was abundant and of great variety.

bird’s eye view of the town of coron

Due to this, perhaps it is no surprise that my summer trip this year again brought me to Palawan, the elongated Philippine province that stretches itself from Luzon in one end and to Borneo in another. I chose to go to Coron this time in the northern part of the province. Aside from the great water quality, I am also fascinated by limestone rock formations such as those found in Ha Long Bay and Guilin, and I heard Coron has lots of those.

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One Day in Cebu

January 22, 2012 by Bino 16 Comments

My trips lately seem to be getting shorter and my recent one in Cebu takes the cake! This stopover was actually spontaneous, as my SilkAir flight got delayed in Cebu by several hours. Rather than sulking at the airport, I decided to go out and see what this city had to offer – for 5 hours. To my surprise, I later found this to be a do-able timeframe for exploring this fine city.

fuerza de san pedro

Despite being the Philippines’ second city (after Manila), I had never been to Cebu previously. This is a shame as the city and its surrounds has so much to offer – from bustling and cosmopolitan urban vibe to near-transparent waters just 30 minutes from the city center.

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One Night in Davao

January 12, 2012 by Bino 3 Comments

I arrived in the southern city of Davao on an evening flight from Cagayan de Oro. It was just a short hop over the same island and barely took an hour. The bright lights from the landmass below greeted us on our plane’s final approach, indicating to me that Davao is a much larger city than I had previously thought.

welcome to davao city!

davao at night

My initial impression of the city as we headed to the hotel was one of relative cleanliness and general sense of order which I definitely couldn’t say for most of the Philippines’ large cities. It’s a lot denser than what I had expected but nevertheless, there exists only one true high rise in the city, the Marco Polo Hotel which is also the tallest building in Mindanao.

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Enchanting Hagimit Falls and the Mysterious Vanishing Sandbar in Samal Island

January 9, 2012 by Bino 10 Comments

The people of Davao City are blessed to have a resort island so close to the city. Currently dubbed as the “Island Garden City of Samal,” this elongated island is just a few kilometers away from Davao CBD and immediately transports visitors from the hustle and bustle of the city to turquoise-colored waters, enchanting waterfalls and other natural sights.

hagimit falls in samal island

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Asia’s Longest Dual Zipline, Pineapples and Alpine Scenery in Bukidnon

January 7, 2012 by Bino 3 Comments

Mindanao is not known as the bread basket of the country for no reason. All sorts of agricultural produce are grown here, and most notable are the bananas and pineapples which are exported all over the world. Most of the bananas and pineapples here in Singapore come from the Philippines, and I found the same to be the case in Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand. What really surprised me though, were the bananas from the Philippines I saw being sold in the roadside fruit stalls in Iran, of all places.

the mountanous terrain of the province offers some spectacular views

Most of the plantations are concentrated in the central and southern part of the island. I visited one of these sites recently, in the landlocked province of Bukidnon. Although very scenic, the province has remained mostly agricultural until only recently when the longest zipline in Asia was built along with a couple of mountainside hotels.

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Camiguin: the Island of Fire

January 1, 2012 by Bino 30 Comments

A recent 6-day trip to Mindanao took me to Camiguin, that small pea-shaped island just off Cagayan de Oro City. I had wanted to come here for the longest time, friends and acquaintances only have good things to say about the wide variety of activities that this small province (the Philippine’s second smallest) has to offer. Camiguin is also known as the “island of fire” due to the presence of not one, or two but seven volcanoes in just 230 square kilometers of land!

sunken cemetery in camiguin

There are two popular ways to get to Camiguin – both involve passing thru Cagayan de Oro, where there are frequent direct air connections to Manila, Cebu and Davao. The first and quickest option is to take a fast craft (2 hours; departs at 8:30AM daily) from Cagayan de Oro for roughly Php 500 but since departures only occur in the early mornings, the most used method is the second one which entails a one-hour slow ferry from Balingoan (a small town that is about 2 hours drive from CDO) for Php 170 which takes you to Benoni in Southeastern Camiguin. The departures here are more frequent, and average about every 45 minutes in the mornings and afternoons.

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