Archive for the ‘travel’ Category
Filed under food trip, human interest, travel
Okay, this is not really a food “trip,” but a list of foods that caught my fancy in this land far, far away.
The day after I came in, someone in class passed around a plate full of what I thought were red twisted candles. LOL. My newfound friend, Sarah (who has a palmtop that I envy, I kept looking at it), explained that it is strawberry-flavored licorice candy. I tried it, and I liked it. It’s really long, like a candle; I just twisted it to look like a loop, as you see in the photo.
I haven’t seen this candy in our candy stores. Or am I just not exposed enough to sweets?
And here’s an oddly-shaped squash (to me, anyway) that I saw in another friend’s house, where we ate dinner last night. I thought this was some kind of American vegetable unheard of in Asia, and then he told me it was squash. The only squash I’ve seen before are the pumpkin-like ones we have back home.
Here’s another kind of squash I found in his backyard. (The man grows vegetables in his backyard and makes his beer at home!)
He said it is yellow squash. I thought it was yellow eggplant.
Afterwards, we had a sumptous dinner of grilled vegetables (which included the yellow squash in the photo), grilled beans, grilled corn, spicy chicken, and rice (yipee!) out in his patio. The vegetables were cut into slices,wrapped in foil, and then grilled. You rub some kind of Japanese paste to the corn and then grill it. Yummy!
It was my first real meal since Friday. As much as I appreciate expensive airline food, and as much as I like burgers, nothing beats having rice for a meal. Thanks a lot, Santa! 
Filed under Photohunt, people, travel
It’s midnight where I am, and I can’t go back to sleep. I’m still on Philippine time, I guess. I thought I’d better do my PhotoHunt until sleep comes upon me.
I am featuring here some paintings made by children for the Art for Heart, an exhibit set up by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey for the children who lost loved ones at the 9/11 tragedy. It was intended as a therapy for the kids. Look what they’ve come up out of their loss, and notice the raw emotion in the artworks.
Click the photos to enlarge.
The exhibit, by the way, was put up at the site of the World Trade Center. I’m not sure if the paintings are still there today, though.
Filed under human interest, travel
It wasn’t even a wish, it was more like a passing thought. I wrote in my journal at the beginning of the year that I wanted to go back, and look, it is coming true!
I’m leaving later today for Hong Kong. From there I’ll be flying to Los Angeles, and then to Dallas, Texas, and then finally to Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington is the horse capital of the world, sometimes also called “Athens of the West.”
I was given an assignment that requires me to travel to the corporate headquarters, thanks to my fairy godmother who is always watching out for me. I’d probably be pulling all my hair out doing the work, but heck, it’s still a trip and it’s a rare opportunity. Actually, I am more excited about the trip rather than the work. LOL.
I am glad I am going because I didn’t get enough of the place when I was there last year. For one, I wasn’t able to get on a horse. The best I did was feed a mint to a horse before it ran in the racetracks. And I won a dime from the race, by the way. 
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Filed under Photohunt, human interest, travel
Do you see what I see?
I snapped these photo soon after taking off from the Legazpi Airport. It’s on the northern part of the Philippines, by the way, right where the world-famous cone-shaped Mayon Volcano is.
I thought the clouds looked like a bear hiding in the bushes.
Look, he is standing up and scratching his right cheek!
Filed under Photohunt, adventure, human interest, travel, trivia
This is the Delirium, a thrill ride at the Kings Island Amusement Park in Mason, Ohio. (Trivia: This park is the biggest in the Midwest. It was once featured on The Partridge Family and Brady Bunch.)
Riders are seated on a ring facing outward with their legs dangling in the air. A giant arm swings the ring back and forth as if it is swinging a slingshot, and riders are spun in a 240-degree arc 137 feet in the air, or roughly more than 13 stories. Hanging, indeed!
I didn’t ride the Delirium because I was already dizzy from the other thrill rides in the park, and besides, I didn’t have the guts to go up on it. Just looking at it from afar made my insides knot.
Filed under Photohunt, art, travel, trivia
Can anything be more apt than this?
This is Atlas carrying the world. In Greek mythology, he was punished by Zeus to bear the weight of the Earth on his back.
According to Wikipedia:
One of Heracles’s labors was to collect the apples of the Hesperides. Heracles went to Atlas and reasoned with him. Eventually, Atlas agreed to collect the apples, and Heracles was left to carry the weight. Atlas tried to leave Heracles there, but Heracles tricked him and Atlas was left to carry the heavens forever. In his epic Odyssey, Homer refers to this Atlas as “one who knows the depths of the whole sea, and keeps the tall pillars who hold heaven and earth asunder..”
This is why a book of maps is called Atlas. A book containing maps of the world is called World Atlas.
This statue is somewhere in Manhattan. Photo taken by my trusty digital camera.
Filed under beach, travel
I am supposed to be in Manila this weekend, but the business seminar I was planning to attend did not push through, reason why I wasn’t at the Pond’s Taste of Beauty blogger party last Friday, like I promised. 
But, as they say, when God closes a door, a window opens. When I got home from work last Friday, my housemate Cathleen announced that she was going home to Negros and wanted some company. Kaladkarin that I am, I jumped at the chance. We left on a whim Friday midnight, her literally dragging me out the door because I wanted to sleep first, while she wanted us to leave right there and then.
More kwento when I get back.
Sunburned and sick, I am. This is what I get for motorbiking around town in wet beach clothes for two days. If my mother had been there, she would have scolded me and insisted that I change into dry clothes. That’s why I’m glad I live away from home. 
I spent the weekend in La Libertad, Negros Oriental, a coastal town across Cebu. It’s visible from Cebu and vice-versa. From Cebu City, it takes about three hours to get to a town called Tangil, where you can get on a barge that would take you across the narrow sea separating Negros and Cebu. We docked in Guiholngan, where we got on a pedicab to La Libertad.
It being a coastal town, my friend and I spent most of the weekend in the water. I like it there because we didn’t have to spend or prepare a lot or plan a lot to get a dip. Everything was spontaneous. After we arrived early on Saturday, we dumped our bags, had breakfast, and headed out to a nearby beach in our tank tops and shorts. All we had was a motorbike. We didn’t pay for any entrace fee, we didn’t bring a change of clothes, and we didn’t even have to bring food.
Whenever we got hungry, we’d head home in our wet clothes, eat, and then head out to another beach on the trusty motorbike. It’s the perfect picture of freedom. People were looking at us, but we didn’t care. Ang lamig nga lang, especially when it began to rain on the second day. We were both shivering on the bike. Wet clothes on skin + cool breeze of a coastal town + the rain = pneumonia.
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Filed under Photohunt, art, human interest, travel, trivia
I’m late again for PhotoHunt, but what can I do? I am never home on weekends. I just got back from a weekend of beach and sand in Negros. Will post about it later.
My entry for this week is a shot I took last year of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.
It looks small, but it’s really huge when you go near it. It is in fact the world’s tallest stone structure and the world’s tallest obelisk. It is made of marble, sandstone, and granite.
It’s an imposing structure. You wouldn’t miss it. It’s among the first you can see when you go to Washington D.C.
Filed under Photohunt, art, human interest, travel, trivia
This is the Crown Fountain, a fountain of many colors in the Millennium Park of Chicago. The park boasts of one-of-a-kind art pieces, this fountain by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa among them.
The fountain changes colors every few seconds or so. Sometimes a face of a person or a collage of several faces appears on the LED screen. The structure is made of glass, built inside which are the lights that give it color. The sprinkles of water add to the bright effect. If I had brought a change of clothes, of if we had more time, I would have played under the fountain.
I’m the girl in a blue-and-white striped jacket in the third and fourth photos. Photos were taken by Robert Haggard.
This is my entry for this week’s PhotoHunt.
Filed under Photohunt, travel
When I found out this week’s theme for PhotoHunt, I immediately thought of its purest form—that which flows from a mountain. I couldn’t think of any mountain better than Mt. Banahaw.
Mt. Banahaw is a mystical mountain in Quezon province in the northern part of the Philippines. It is said to be one of the psychic centers of the world. It is said that only those who are ready to heed the call of the mountain can make it there.
Here’s an account of the Banahaw legend. And here’s a shot of one of the streams that flow from the mountain:
Photo taken by my Banahaw buddy, Jeconiah Placio.
I miss Banahaw already.
