Tagged batangas

My Top 20 Travel Moments of 2011 (Part 2)

It’s already February and here I am still counting down the best moments I had while traveling last year. Late, I know. But haaaaaay. When you got too much on your plate, you will learn to munch on them bit by bit so you wouldn’t die of overeating. So let’s continue. Here’s the second half…

Batangas: Rediscovering My Hometown

“You’re the weirdest Batangueno I have ever met!” declared my friend Andre after learning that I didn’t know how to swim. We were on the way home. “Wow, jumping to conclusions,” I objected. “Well, for starters, you don’t have the accent,” he explained. “Batangas is known for beaches and dive sites; you don’t even know how to swim. Batangas produces the best beef in the country; you dislike beef. Batangas is home to kapeng barako; you’re not a coffee fan. You haven’t even been to the Taal Volcano.” Hmmm. As hard as it was to admit, he was right. (Except…

Sometimes We Burn to Live

Whenever I meet people for the first time, it always happens. When they start their sentence with “I hope you don’t mind me asking but,” I know they are going to ask about what happened to my left arm. Most of my online friends are not aware that I have a huge third-degree burn covering…

The Road to Death

Our house in Batangas is along the national highway. It can get really busy. When I’m home, I always have to close the windows tight so the noise could not distract me from doing my usual activities comprised mainly of watching TV and err… watching TV. Open the window a little bit and your viewing experience is ruined. But the noise is not why I call this “The Road to Death.” The noise is tolerable. It’s been there before us so we have no right to complain. What’s relatively new is the long island in the middle of the road.…

Top 10 Unforgettable Places I Visited in 2009

Year 2009 has been the best year of my life so far. It was so good to almost every aspect of my life — family, friends, love. The only thing that let me down was my health. I often found myself unable to enjoy the day with several gastro-intestinal disorders and, well, as usual, asthma…

I Was Supposed to Get that “Coffeehouse Planner” But I Got Fat, Broke and Insomniac on the 10th Frappe

If you don’t understand why everyone is going ga-ga over that certain planner a certain coffeehouse is selling or giving away after you’ve turned fat, broke or insomniac, welcome to the club. Well, there’s nothing wrong with it actually. If you always buy coffee, then it makes perfect sense to avail of the planner in question. In fact, I admire the passion and determination of others to the point of skipping lunch or dinner or both just to grab their copy of that planner every year. (I even know a couple of kids who ask money from their parents and…

The Drowning in Batangas

Someone drowned in Matabungkay, Batangas last Sunday. But it seemed like that guy was not the only one that needed saving. My travel buddy and I spent the long weekend at a beach in my home province. We had grander plans actually — Palaui Island in Cagayan, Caramoan in Camarines Sur, Sagada in Mountain Province, Hundred Islands in Pangasinan — but our weird schedules made the long weekend completely pointless. So we were forced to choose a beach that was close to the city. Matabungkay in Lian, Batangas is indeed close to me. I’m not just talking about physical proximity…