There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet. ~William Butler Yeats At no time did this saying feel truer in my life than when I traveled solo for nearly two months. Back then, I met strangers who accepted me as part of their family or as a friend. There were also strangers…
Our plane was about to land. I looked out the window, expecting to see city lights. Siem Reap was, after all, a city. Instead, I only saw blackness dotted with occasional yellows and whites. I later found out that the blackness was one of Siem Reap’s vast lakes. A tuktuk driver picked me and my…
“Come on, let’s walk barefoot.” I don’t remember who among my travel companions said it, but he/she said it as though we were going for a walk in the park, and not down a hill to a waterfall. On a muddy trail. And in rainy weather. I took off my trekking sandals. Our guide, still…
It was quiet, very quiet. All around me dark mahogany trees rose to the sky. I basked in the silence as I walked around and admired thick trunks and roots flowing like tiny rivers. The occasional patches of sunlight breaking through the canopy made the silent forest all the more magical. It was so beautiful…
Hot springs are love and therapy for the body, but aesthetically, sometimes they look all the same to me, especially when they are enclosed in swimming pools. Which is why I was in for a pleasant surprise when I made my way up Siraan Hot Spring in Anini-y, Antique. Siraan Hot Spring is on top…
Iloilo is a heritage haven of churches, with the Miag-ao Church rightfully recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but it is Iloilo’s oysters that I will always remember, and which I actually came back for on my second visit, during my 7-week Visayas backpacking trip. As soon as I sank my teeth into the…
For more than 50 years, Rizal Elementary School in Gubat, Sorsogon had no library. Students had to content themselves with their textbooks, many of them borrowed. Alumna Emelyn Balabat said she first stepped into a library during her college years at a state university. All that changed last Friday, when alumni and parents, led by…
It was my first official day of traveling solo in my 7-week backpacking adventure. Feeling excited and just a little scared, I bade goodbye to my friends bound for Manila while I headed to the port in Ubay, Bohol, with boat trips to Hilongos, Leyte. From Hilongos I would be taking a van to Tacloban…
Danjugan Island is the perfect playground for kids and kids at heart. With its beaches, plentiful and colorful marine life, mangroves, caves, sea eagles and other birds, what more could a kid ask for? A few months ago, on one of Danjugan’s marine and wildlife camps, I was lucky to see kids smile and laugh…
For travelers who want an experience of paradise while supporting a worthy cause, Danjugan Island is my top recommendation. Danjugan is not just a wild, unspoiled paradise – it is a paradise consciously and painstakingly maintained by a group of committed environmentalists, the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, Inc. (PRRCFI), and volunteers. During my…
Traveling Light 