It took a comment from a reader to make me realize that I hadn’t posted this second part.  I forgot to post it here too when I put it up on my personal blog, heehee.  Anyway, on to business…

Day 2

Saturday, May 17, was Tintin’s birthday. I set the alarm for 5am so we could go sunrise-watching. Still no luck. It was raining hard when the alarm sounded. We woke up at around 8am. The rain had stopped, but there were still dark clouds overhead. After breakfast, we finally had the chance to spend some time at the ocean – not to swim and do usual things people do in beaches, but just to take pictures and look, walk and play around.  The waves were still huge and the water was still chocolate brown from the bad weather.  Every now and then, we had to run back inside since it would suddenly rain hard for a short while then stop again.  The rest of the day was spent exploring Takatuka and taking photos.  It was really fortunate that Takatuka was such a crazy, creative resort such that we never got bored and we never felt like our trip was a waste because of the bad weather.

Day 3

The sun shone for the first time!  Alas, the sunrise was behind the resort.  I really felt like screaming, “Come on, give us a break!” Haha!  The sun was up, but it was still a long way off from “beach weather”.  This is one beach trip wherein we never got to wear swimsuits and we went home with all our clothes dry.

We finally took the car service back to Bacolod City, and the trip took only 3 hours.  We left Sipalay at 10.30am and was at the Silay airport at 2pm, after some stops at in Bacolod to buy our favorite treats and pasalubong.  And then…

…our 5.20pm flight was able to take off at 8pm!!!  Our consolation was that at least the airport was nice.  Imagine being stuck that long in the old Bacolod airport!

Misadventures aside, it was still a good trip.  Out of the ordinary, if nothing else.  In fact, it seemed like every stage had a twist.  Loved it!

We took an alternate route back to Manila from Baguio last Sunday – the Magilas Trail in Pangasinan, which starts at Binalonan and ends at Rosales.  This bypasses some other towns and Urdaneta City, where traffic is usually heavy, and shaves off around 30 minutes from the travel time.  It is a nice, well-paved road lined with rice fields.  However, it is only open until 5.30pm, probably because it is not yet fully equipped for night travelers.

A tip:  If you really need to go to the bathroom and you see a right-hand corner (Manila-bound) with a Petron sign, turn immediately so you can use their bathroom.  The next decent bathroom is still miles and miles away – in Rosales already in fact, just as you exit Magilas Trail.

I love airports! I even wrote about it in one post. Bacolod got a brand-new airport this year, but it is not actually in Bacolod! It’s in Silay City, which is about 30-45 minutes away from the center of Bacolod City. The new airport is very nice, and it’s about time that Negros got one like it. The old airport was just so bad. The arrival area actually looks more like a hangar.

The new airport opened just a few months ago, so it’s still sparkling new. It even has that “new car (er, airport) smell”, hehe. It’s not open the entire day, unlike the airports in Manila. It closes after the last morning flight and reopens at 3pm. We arrived too early for our 5.20 flight and had to wait outside. It’s a good thing that they put a cafe (Fiorgelato) at the outside lobby so the early birds will have a place to hang out and eat.

The downside to the new airport is its location. It is located in Silay (which is also a city), but in an isolated area. Cheap public transportation is a problem. There are no metered taxis or jeepneys anywhere near the terminal. The only way for tourists and those without private cars to pick them up to get to Bacolod City or anywhere else in the province is through hired taxis/cars at a quite expensive fixed rate depending on the destination; or the shuttle to certain drop off points in Bacolod City for P100/head. The shuttle is good if you have minimal luggage and going anywhere in the vicinity of the city center. Otherwise, you really have no choice but to take a hired car.

What’s cheap is the terminal fee – P30. That’s cheap for a brand new airport, considering that here in Manila, we pay P200 for the ugly, old domestic terminal. It’s ok to pay that amount for the Centennial terminal, but the domestic one?! Rip-off!

All that said, I like the new airport except for the location.

Photos:

Facade:

Driveway:

One of the tubes:

Outside lobby:

Welcome to Negros:

Tarmac signage:

Moon: I’ve always wanted to take a photo of an airplane taking off or landing, and I thought that it was finally my chance to do so, since the departure lounge doubles as a view deck. Alas, a flight delay got in the way, and darkness fell without even a single plane arriving. This was the shot I got instead:

This is how the beach looked like when we arrived:

Shots of Langub Beach in stormy weather:

And here’s a little romance caught on camera:

And the castaways:

More images here.

Here’s the tale of our trip to Langub Beach in Sipalay, Negros Occidental last May. We stayed at Takatuka Lodge, which is a very interesting place. A separate blog post is needed to give justice to the resort, so more on that later.

We wanted adventure on our Negros trip, and adventure poured – literally! Our beach trip was rained out, hence the quotation marks in the post title. But that wasn’t really the start of the adventure (and MISadventures!). Here’s a clue: in just half a day, we were able to ride a plane, a car, a bus, a tricycle and finally, a boat – in that particular order.

The plane ride. The night before, Tin found out that her friend’s flight to Dumaguete that day had been cancelled.  That was already one hint of bad weather.  But we had been planning this trip since the beginning of the year so there was no going back.  Our 4.40am Cebu Pacific flight took off as scheduled.  There was some turbulence as we neared Negros, and we were in the clouds for most of the flight. Another hint of bad weather.

The taxi ride. There are no regular metered taxis at the new Bacolod-Silay airport. Passengers have two options: hired taxis/cars at a fixed rate depending on the destination, or the shuttle to Bacolod City for P100/passenger. We took the taxi (P400 to the Ceres South Terminal in Bacolod City) since there were 3 of us anyway and we wanted to pass by McDonald’s to get breakfast first.

The bus trip. To get to Langub Beach, you should take the bus going to Hinoba-an and get off at the Sipalay bus terminal.  According to the information from Cebu Pacific’s in-flight magazine, where we found out about Takatuka and Langub Beach, the aircon bus service starts at 8am. It turned out that it actually starts at 2pm! We took the first flight in so we were already at Ceres South Bus Terminal at around 7.30am. We had no choice but to take the non-aircon bus. It was one long, bumpy, crowded bus ride with PLENTY of stops. It took a little over 5 hours to get to the Sipalay bus terminal. Judging by the distance, it would have taken only around 3 hours by private vehicle. We could have chosen to take a car service, but it was quite expensive and we wanted the adventure of a bus ride. Well, we certainly got more than we bargained for.

The bus left Bacolod at around 8.30am and arrived at the Sipalay terminal around 1.30pm. We walked down to the beach toward Driftwood City Restaurant, where Takatuka’s boat was supposed to pick us up. Well, there was no boat because the waves were high and so huge. I would still be afraid of going out into the ocean with those waves even in a SuperFerry!

The tricycle ride. After finding no one at the designated meeting place, we called Takatuka and they directed us to take a tricycle to Nauhang, several miles back down the highway and into the fields. There was a river there parallel to the sea, where we can get on a boat to the resort. It drizzled when we were on the tricycle and the portion of our bodies that were partially outside the tricycle (it was TINY tricycle) got a bit wet. At the end of the road, we crossed a broken foot bridge, which was repaired using four bamboo poles tied together, then had to do some sort of limbo rock to get under the railing and into the boat.  It’s good that some of the boatmen helped us by taking our backpacks and loading them on the boat then assisting us aboard.

The boat ride. We rode a tiny pump boat, about 2 1/2 persons wide. It was a nice river, lined with thick mangroves on both sides. I think it would have been prettier in the sunshine with green water (pretty much like the Loboc River in Bohol). Instead, it was a murky brown due to the rains. Anyway, the boat ride lasted for about 10-15 minutes. We docked at a residential area, climbed up and went down a mini-rock formation; then walked along the beach for 10 minutes to finally reach the resort. There was a Lonely Planet/Survivor feel in the air. We were the only people in that stretch of the beach, which was littered with driftwood, coconut husks and other storm debris.

We were finally at the doorstep of Takatuka Lodge at past 2pm. Whew! By then, we were so tired, hungry and thirsty – and a little damp from both sweat and the weather. We ate lunch-cum-merienda, which also turned out to be dinner. Once we were settled in our room, we no longer had the energy to venture out again. Plus, it was raining quite hard so we still couldn’t go out even if we wanted to. Rebs and Tin were asleep even before darkness set it. I stayed awake due to the coffee I drank with our meal. Rebs woke up after a couple of hours and we just chatted away until we fell asleep again. And that was Day One.

To be continued…

This was one of the first beaches I’ve ever visited. It’s in Roxas City, Capiz, about 5 minutes from the airport, and 20 minutes from our hometown, Pan-ay. The name ‘Baybay Beach’ is actually redundant since ‘Baybay’ also means beach in Ilonggo.

Baybay has grayish black sand that is as powdery as Boracay’s but much easier to brush off from the body. The shoreline is littered with seashells and if you’re lucky, you may also find big Capiz shells. Baybay is also not your typical beach destination like Boracay, Cebu, Bohol or Batangas. It is more like a local, neighborhood beach mostly visited by young families. Every now and then, occasional tourists pop up.

The beach is perfect for a quiet, relaxing time. There is really not much to do but swim and walk the length of the shore. You can’t go island hopping or snorkeling since there are no corals anywhere in the vicinity. There is a tiny, uninhabited island nearby, but there’s really nothing to see or do there. When we were there, Tin and I chanced upon kids playing on the shoreline and we enjoyed watching them and taking pictures.

There are not too many resorts and hotels as compared to the mainstream beaches, and most of them are not located on the beachfront, but along the highway, across the beach. Instead, the beachfront is lined with cottages that can be rented for the day since most locals rarely stay overnight. An average-sized cottage can be rented for P150, while the larger ones can go for as much as P500. Cottages are good if you’re not too squeamish about bathrooms. There are clean, pay public bathrooms. What we usually do is just rinse off and maybe shampoo and soap a little then just take a full-scale bath when we get home. If you’re really very particular, then it’s better to get a room at the more upscale resorts on the highway. Room rates range from P700-P2000. Food is also a lot cheaper but just as or even more delicious (in the case of seafood) than mainstream beach destinations. Your P500 can already go a long way. If you’re staying with relatives or locals, it’s even better to just buy fresh seafood from the market, have it cooked, and bring them with you.

For our Black Saturday outing, Tin and myself shelled out just P500 each, which covered everything – cottage and food for 5 people! My cousin bought fresh crabs, shrimp, squid and fish from the market, cooked it in her house, and brought it to the beach.

On some of my previous sunset visits to Baybay Beach, I usually see fishermen hauling in huge nets containing the last catch of the day. It’s a nice, bucolic scene that I enjoy since I rarely get to see such things, being a city-dweller.

Baybay Beach is great for people looking for an authentic ocean experience, and not the glamorous party, sun-sand-and-surf concept most commonly associated with beaches nowadays.

Pictures! (see more photos in ‘Images from Capiz’, three posts below)

My week in Capiz was spent reconnecting with the place and with relatives, as well as seeing it through the eyes of a first-time visitor.  The last one was a first for me since I have always been the one who knows the littlest about the place, never having lived there.  It was the first time that I brought a visitor with me, and I thoroughly enjoyed showing her around and sharing our clan’s Holy Week traditions with her.

I was very happy when it turned out that two other cousins, Dondon and Lala, also planed in from Manila.  In fact, we were on the same flight as Dondon’s fiancee.  However, we haven’t met before, so we couldn’t pick her out of the crowd.  We only got to talk to her when we finally landed at Roxas City.

Upon arriving at our house, we had a late lunch of shrimp and crab, a very yummy ‘welcome home’ tradition.  Afterwards, we attended Mass at the Sta. Monica Church.  Later in the evening, Tintin and I went on a Visita Iglesia with my cousins Dondon, Lala, Ritchelle, their friend JR (who’s studying to become a priest) and Me-Ann, Dondon’s fiancee.  It’s been a long while since I did my last Visita Iglesia.  Actually, the last one was also in Capiz when I was still in college, but that covered even farther places in the province.  Anyway, we went to these 8 churches in the following towns/barangays, respectively: Pontevedra; Bailan; Panitan; Luktugan, Roxas City; Carmelite Monastery in Lawa-an, Roxas City; Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Roxas City (the former seat of the Bishop); Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Roxas City; and finally back to Sta. Monica Church in Pan-ay.

On Good Friday, we joined the procession, again my first time in so many years.  Unlike in our Parish here, the procession there starts right after the Adoration of the Cross, at around 5pm.  The main difference of the procession in Pan-ay is the Considerad, which leads the procession.  Little boys hold up decorated poles with items related to Jesus’ passion and death hanging from the top.  Some of the items are nails, a rooster (only a drawing of course), sponge, and crown of thorns.  The boys shout out the significance of the items in Spanish and Ilonggo throughout the procession.  Apparently it’s some sort of a rite of passage for a lot of young boys in our town.  My own dad and most other male relatives are alumni of the Considerad.

Black Saturday was spent on the beach, but more on that in another post.

During this trip, I realized that Capiz is becoming more and more like home to me.  It’s slowly transitioning from simply being a vacation place to a second home.  And that ‘can’t-wait-to-go-back-home-to-Manila’ feeling only hit me on the last day.  It has also become easier to come up to my relatives and join in the chatter even though I understand and speak very little of the dialect.   And of course, I never really had complaints about the food from the very beginning.

First vacation of the year.  I was so happy to finally get sand on my toes once more.  I had fun taking pictures at Baybay Beach in Roxas City, and was very lucky to come across children playing in the shoreline.  They were definitely not camera-shy and just let me take their photos til kingdom come.

We went to the third day of the hot air balloon fest at Clark Air Field in Pampanga last February. Here’s an account of our day, including some photos that I shot (using a point-and-shoot digicam). IBM, where Tin works, organized the trip and she invited us to sign up since it wasn’t exclusive to IBM employees. The bus left Eastwood at around 4.30 a.m. and we were already at Clark at past 6 in the morning. We arrived in time to catch the beautiful sunrise and the flag ceremony, in which a skydiver jumped bearing the Philippine flag as the national anthem was being played. What a sight to behold.

The Balloons

What balloons? Unfortunately, beginners’ luck wasn’t with us at our first-ever hot air balloon fest. The wind was so strong and gusty that the balloons weren’t even able to inflate, let alone take off. They tried to do cold air inflation, but still to no avail. The cold winds made me feel like we were more in Tagaytay than in Clark. All of my previous visits to Clark and other places in Central Luzon were just marked by heat that it really felt strange to feel chilly that morning.

They tried inflating the balloons again in the evening, but the weather just wasn’t cooperating. It was as gusty as it was in the morning. Two balloons were able to inflate successfully, but they weren’t able to sustain it, deflating again after only a few minutes. Needless to say that not a single hot air balloon took flight that day. Oh well, better luck next year, since we definitely plan to be back…and this time with DSLRs in hand, hehe.

What we were left with, especially in the evening, was some sort of torch show, instead of the usual night glow of the hot air balloons. They just made an exhibition out of lighting the hot air balloon torches. Here are my other favorite shots of the day:

Paraglider at sunrise

Twin Fires

Kite season

Peace

Malaysian paraglider

The Air Show

Not as visually spectacular as the hot air balloons would have been, but the aerobatics show was still amazing! I actually felt my heartbeats quicken as the pilots brought their planes so high up in the sky in a vertical position and then do a loop, usually staying upside down for several seconds. Oh dear, I would both love and hate in equal measures to be related or married to those pilots.

Vertical

Upside down

Other images from the hot air balloon fiesta:

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport. General opinion makes out that we live in a world of hatred and greed. I don’t see that. Seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy but it’s always there. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, none of the phone calls from people on board were messages of hate or revenge, they were all messages of love. lf you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.“
– from the movie ‘Love Actually’

Aah, one of my favorite, favorite movies. That opening scene at the airport, with the voice of Hugh Grant saying the lines above, got me right away. This movie begins and ends at the airport. I just love airports. There’s a saying that the journey is as important as the destination. When traveling, airports play a crucial role in defining what kind of journey we have. It’s not so much the structure, but what takes place inside an airport. More importantly, what takes place among the people. Big or small, modern or Fokker-age, all airports are the same to me in the sense that the human behaviors and emotions present are universal.

I like getting to the airport early for departures, and I hate rushing out during arrivals. I love to take lots of time to explore and observe everything. Airports are melting pots and crossroads. Just look at the myriad of expressions and emotions of the people. It’s fascinating to look at their faces and body language. It’s getting a glimpse of lives and personalities without being intrusive. There’s the wide-eyed first-time traveler, the rowdy family or group of friends on vacation, the chic traveler, the backpackers, the weary businesspeople, the tearful immigrants, and even the occasional kids traveling alone. People somewhat let their emotional guards down at airports. Maybe it has something to do with an airport’s aura of anonymity and transience.

There is also the romance of the structure. Not necessarily to the materials or the design, but the feelings and thoughts that they evoke. There’s the exhilaration of going to strange, new lands or the anticipation of coming home, or the glamorous jet-setter feeling. Superficial or exaggerated these feelings may be, they still exist.

Then there are the people outside the terminals. The ones sadly left behind, and the ones eagerly waiting for the new arrival. We seldom see people parting in anger or meeting each other with indifference. An airport is one of the few places in the world where hatred is rare. Love is all around indeed.