Archive for the ‘travel’ Category
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.
Filed under travel, work
I got what I went there for, except the Donsol part. We were told that we needed at least a day to see Donsol, and the boss would have none of it. If it was up to me, I would have gone seeing places first before doing fieldwork. (I am just kidding, future employers. I am a model employee, cross my fingers.)
I also learned that butanding season is from November to May, so I guess we were there at a wrong time. I wasn’t sad at all because the boss said we’re going back there some other time. I’m pinning my hopes on that. Maybe then I’ll get to play with butandings (ha!), and maybe I could go wakeboarding in Camarines Sur (as if, you can’t even swim without a lifejacket).
Jester, I tried the authentic Bicol express, minus the San Mig Light. I took a picture in case you doubt my honesty:
I didn’t even need the pitcher of cold water that I prepared. I’m a brave girl. Tehee.
I’m told the dish in the photo has less sili than the usual. Whatever. Man, that dish was prepared in Sorsogon. It must have the right amount of sili, right? Right.
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