I was invited to Laoag by the faculty of the Computer Science department of the Mariano Marcos State University to give a career talk to their IT Students at the start of this year. I had arrived the night before and my hosts booked me in a quaint little hotel called Casa Doña Emilia, Paoay which was located right around the square where the famous Paoay Church was located. During my first trip to Laoag around three years earlier, I was...

While I was in Leyte, between a short tour of Tacloban City and en route to the MacArthur Landing Memorial, my driver, Mang Pat suggested that I visit the Santo Niño Shrine. This was a totally unexpected and unplanned diversion as part of my Leyte Lakwatsa. I didn’t know much about the place. Pat didn’t say except him saying it was a museum by former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos. As such, I naturally assumed it was a museum on the...

One of the last stops before I flew back to Manila was the MacArthur Landing Memorial just south of Tacloban City in Palo, Leyte. While on the plane before landing at the Tacloban Airport, I did catch a glimpse of the memorial from my windows seat. It was definitely  very noticeable from the air. View MacArthur Landing Memorial in a larger map The memorial is located in Red Beach, Palo, Leyte. This spot marks where Douglas...

One of the many landmarks which I have always wanted to see is the San Juanico Bridge which links Samar in the north with Leyte in the south. On occasion, I have seen pictures of the bridge in magazines and more recently in blogs. While I was randomly trying to decide where to go for this weekend, I opened up Google Maps and decided to head to Tacloban City. In conjunction with browsing the PAL and Cebu Pacific websites, I found the right...

Intramuros. The famous 16th Century Spanish Fort, one of the many structures Manila is known for. (more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intramuros). I have been to the walled city a few times in the past, though it isn’t of those destinations I frequent. Or at least not something I bothered to really appreciate before. Together with some friends, I used to play night golf there. I also used to help out a retreat there...

(see day 1 here) HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! Bantayan Island has three municipalities. Santa Fe, Bantayan, and Madrilejos. Today, with the help of Johnny’s friend Paul, we were able to visit the enitre island… In just around 3 hours. I got up early, leaving a snoring Johnny to go off to take some sunrise pictures. After snapping several photos, I went up to make sure Johnny was awake. Before settling on a place to eat, we roamed around...