Living Under Imagination

I apologize for the incredibly long delay. But without further ado, the conclusion…

After our mini food-trip around Laoag, we were now back in Balay de Blas. Some of us chose to rest, while playing Monster Hunter, and some of us wanted to…uhm…relieve ourselves. I had gone first, and partly due to the poor ventilation of the CR, partly due to the intensity of my power, it took Rhoy, who was next in line, a few minutes before he could acquire an immunity to it. It was very unfortunate to Rommel, the third person in line though.

After our little rest, we went out to find a great place to cap off our whole trip. And we went to one of the best places there is in Laoag. We had sinanglao, some insrabasab, and a few more dishes that I can’t now remember. For dessert, our resident cheesecake aficionado, Leon, decided he wanted to treat us all for cakes. He bought three kinds for us to share. The carrot cake was delicious. Sadly, it was the blueberry cheesecake that fell to last place. It’s not that it wasn’t good, but it was just mediocre.

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So it’s been two weeks since we came back from our trip, and this post on the last leg of our Northern Exposure trip has just now been written and posted. Man, it’s really different when you’re out there, without a care in the world blogging at night as you wind down your day of swimming, travelling, taking pictures, and having fun, and the only reason you need to get up early is because you want to catch the sunrise or you have a bus trip to the next exciting destination!

Now who wouldn’t want a life like that?!
(If you want that life, contact me and let’s figure out how to get there)

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This one took a bit of time to write. Actually, it’s starting to write that was the hardest.

We had so many places to see, so many things to do, so many laps to swim, and so many food to eat that I just found myself happily exhausted.

We arrived in Pagudpud, the third leg of our Northern Exposure trip, two days ago. We left Vigan at around 9:00am on a bus to Laoag, then transferred to a St. Joseph bus to Pagudpud. At 1:30pm, we got off the town plaza of Pagudpud, surprised by the number of people that had gathered.

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Jeff: Walking away quietly... Tiger: Pretending I don't notice...

Been quite busy having a vacation. Just a quick post on the tigers in Baluarte and the old belltower in Vigan yesterday.

We’re in Pagudpud right now in Hannah’s Beach Resort (miss you, Hannah) enjoying the breathtaking scenery.

So, in the meantime, here are some more pics from our great adventure.

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Right now, we’re having lunch (some of us, me included, halo-halo) at Mang’s again. A while ago, we were at Baluarte. We had empanada again, and I had papaitan as well. Ever since we got to Vigan, the second destination of our trip, we have been almost nothing but eating. Then we’d take a break and see some sights, then we’ll eat again. Such a yummy place.

We woke up really early yesterday at about 4 in the morning; our tricycle drivers were gonna pick us up from Kylah Transient House at 5:30 so we could get on the 6 o’ clock Victory Liner bus to Dagupan (P61). While we were waiting for the tricycles, a bread man went by and we called him. He sold pan de sal, the nostalgic kind where you can still taste its freshly baked goodness. We arrived at Dagupan after about an hour and a half where we stayed for a few minutes so that Rhoy could recover from motion sickness. From Dagupan, we changed buses to go to Agoo (P47) which took us another hour. The Agoo basilica was just about a block away from where we got off.

From there, we waved down a bus that was going to Vigan. The bus was terribly slow, with frequent stops waiting for passengers. I estimate that the trip from Agoo to Vigan is around 4-6 hrs. It took us 7.

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We’re currently in Alaminos, the first stop in our trip. The bus ride (P352 incl. insurance) was shorter than expected. We left the Cubao terminal of Victory Liner at 9:00PM. By 1:30AM, we were already at the Alaminos terminal. I’m not sure if it was because it was the middle of the night, or if we heard incorrectly, but the tricycle drivers initially asked for P100 head! We got it down to P80/tricycle. There were six of us so we had to take 2 tricycles. It should’ve been just a 10 minute ride to Lucap, but we couldn’t find the Kylah Transient Inn. Someone was actually waiting, and flagged down our tricycles, but he said “MK”, the former name of KTI so we went past. A few more minutes riding in the biting cold morning and we met 2 guys on a motorcycle who offered to lead us to our place.

After having Alaminos longganisa (around P65 with rice) for breakfast at the market, the first island we went to was Governor’s Island.

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Tripod curls using a heavy-duty tripod

As I mentioned last time, in a few days me and my buddies are off to our Northern Exposure trip. Since we’ll be travelling by bus, we’re going to be foregoing the luxury of trunk space and instead we’ll have to rely on our backs to carry all our luggage.

It’s important nowadays for photographer’s to stay in shape. This isn’t only for outdoor photographers to keep up with the rigors of on-location work, but also for studio photographer’s who might find it easy to just kick back and relax in the comfort of your studio. Fortunately, you can do these exercises without having to go to the gym and using equipment you might already have.

Disclaimer: I am a photographer, not a trainer. Do these exercises after consulting with your doctor or trainer.

Read on to start getting in shape.

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Next week, I’ll be heading off with some of my ACTION Batch6 buddies up North. Right now, we’re all so excited we can barely keep our shirts on. It’s gonna be a week-long journey up through the whole North Luzon coastline passing along beaches, churches, and other wonderful sights of the countryside.

Our first stop’s gonna be at the Hundred Islands; the last time I’ve been there was when I was still a kid. After that, we’ll be moving to Vigan and indulge in our old Spanish heritage. We’re then off to the beaches at Pagudpud, not to mention the wind farm in Bangui, then we’ll stay for a night in Laoag before heading back to Manila.

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It’s been two weeks since Ondoy’s (Ketsana) onslaught and a week since Pepeng (Parma) gave us a scare. And we’re just about returning to normal life. While we’re thankful that the flood didn’t reach the 2nd floor and that none of us were harmed, the flood nonetheless was devasting to our house.

Flood At the Gate

It was about lunch time when I got up from working on the computer. My brother went out early to go to school, and our maid, also in college, spent the night out finishing their thesis. I went down to feed our 2 shih tzus when my mom called me outside. She asked me to relocate the cars because surprisingly the flood had just touched the line of our gate in our driveway! Normally, when there were heavy rains, the flood usually only reached the bottom of our drive. So I moved my Astra and my mom’s city about two houses uphill. Problem solved. (more…)

Hope Of The Future

Yesterday, August 5, was declared as a non-working holiday. I had it all planned out: meet with Mrs. Harvey of Adphoto in the morning, meet with some business associates in the afternoon, shop for some office clothes in the evening, and then exercise a bit at my brother’s condo before going home.

And yet, it’s probably the thing that I had NOT planned that was the most rewarding. It was the day that President Cory Aquino, one of the greatest hero’s of Philippine democracy, was to be put to her final resting place. After my meeting with Harvey at about 11:30, I went to Osmena highway to take a peek, parked my car, and stepped out onto the streets. There weren’t that many people there yet at the time. (more…)