on leave again....

hopefully by the end of the month or october or the end of the year (hope not), you'll hear from me on a regular basis....

it has been one heck of a roller-coaster ride

damn....i'm a "freelancer" again....for the nth time....

see you guys soon...

would it?

Lyrics
Would That Make U Love Me

Robin Thicke

If I wasnt who I was

If I wasnt me

Would u stand next 2 me in the street

If I changed my hair

Would u then be proud

If I ran round town with a different crowd

Would u be my baby

If I had more money

Would that make u love me more

Would that make u love me more

If I practiced a different religion

If I spoke my words differently

If I changed my tune 2 your favorite song

Would u wrap your arms around me

If I dug down deep 2 the bottom

Would u love me unconditionally

If I sound like u and we laugh the same

Would u mind if I hang around

Would that make u love me more

Would that make u love me more

If I came 2 u from a different place

Would my message finally be heard

If its just me and u and theres no one else

Would u see how much were the same

Would u be my lover

If I’m a different color

Would u be my brother

Would that make u love me more

autobots, transform!

have you seen this? if you haven't i suggest you do....

i wasn't really a big fan of the cartoons but when my good friend rose and i finally saw it last saturday, wow! seeing how the cars/vehicles transform into robots was just....awesome! i wonder if director michael bay will be coming out with another "installment"? if so, when? :)

next week, i hope our schedules will allow us to see this....the 7th and final book is also due this month...whew!

the princess went to a party yesterday

independence day

happy 4th of july everyone !!!!

here are some pics of our 4th of july lunch @ burgoo :))

(l-r: what 4th of july celebration would be complete without a hotdog?; ian, chris, jen, carol and marlet (hidden) gettin' it on with lunch and, gilbert, cathy, joan and the big boss ....)

1-2-3 sleep....not!

it's 2:05 a.m. and i'm still at the office. got a cup of freshly-brewed coffee with me and i'm craving for mcdonald's plain muffins...hmmm

i'm not stranded by some super typhoon, just stranded with workload that requires "real-time consultation" a buzz phrase that me and my colleagues have been using a lot lately *LOL*

i heard that july 7, 2007 (7/7/7) is a lucky day to start a business, open up an account, get married, etc, etc...

wonder what i should do to counter all the negativity that i've been having?

so....what's keeping you up? :))

i hate this feeling...

of falling in a rut again....a friend of mine told me that a rut that started out like this usually lasts for three years. *sigh* it'll be like 3 or 4 months before the third year is over. i hope i counted right.

a rut as defined by one of my best web companions as:

a fixed or established mode

of procedure or course of life,

usually dull or unpromising

!@#&*%^?>!#@ *sigh* it seems as if i periodically fall into one. but what do you attempt to get yourself out of from first? the "work rut", the "heart rut", "the financial rut" or "the restless rut"?

what a bummer.... :(

ciao everyone...have a happy and "rut-less" weekend!

where to?

i've always been a late bloomer. unfortunately, i'm also a late bloomer when it comes to travelling. the philippines does have a lot of things to offer and so many places to see...i just hope that i'll live long enough (and save enough money) to uncover more places both locally and internationally (europe in 2010!!!).

there are more pictures of bohol and i hope you'll enjoy looking at the pictures in my online photo album

please be kind enough to leave a comment / comment(s) ....

until my next "travelogue"!

going home

after the hills, we dropped by a butterfly sanctuary, simply butterflies. we've been to a butterfly sanctuary in baguio (in CJH) so i knew what to expect. rose had a wonderful time capturing the butterflies on film. joy had quite a discussion with the "butterfly-keeper" and i just went around enjoying the beautiful butterflies, flowers and plants :) afterwards, we dropped by the hanging bridge.




(l-r: pretty butterflies, me and rose at the foot of the hanging bridge...)




(l-r: joy at the foot of the bridge, in the middle and at the other side...)


after the hanging bridge, we hurried to the apropriana gift shop, a popular one-stop shop pasalubong haven for tourists. we bought a few things like the requisite peanut kisses :)) then, manong rudy brought us to pier 4 for our 2-hour ferry ride back to cebu.

we were tired so, on the ferry, we caught a few zzzzzzs. even if i was scared, i still managed a few minutes of sleep. upon arriving in cebu, we hailed a cab and joy dropped us off at CNT (because she had to go back to regency to retrieve the guitar plus she was on a different flight back to manila), a very popular restaurant that serves the infamous lechon cebu. rose and i were planning to bring home a couple of kilos. unfortunately, at 7:30 p.m., the place was already closed ... *sigh* and we thought we'd finally taste the lechon...oh well...

so, rose and i decided to just proceed to the airport. better to wait there than to be late for the flight. at the airport, another taxi pulled up behind us and lo and behold! it was joy :) we still parted ways; she proceeded to the check-in counter; we looked for a cafe so we could eat. we were famished! now, i don't know if this is really what happens but there were no cafes open inside the airport and it was just before 8 p.m.! it was really irritating because you're in an international airport, you're very hungry and there's no food...technically, there was a cafe that just served their last order and was just waiting for the last customers to finish their meal and leave. rose couldn't take it anymore so she asked the waitress what food could we order. after several "plea bargains", we finally got 3 orders of rice, chicken-pork adobo and sprite. why 3 orders?

it turns out that joy was booked a return flight to manila for may 30, 2007 and not april 30, 2007 :)) so, she cancelled her ticket and whaddaya know, she ended up on the same cebu pacific flight as rose and i. so the travelling trio go home together! :))

now, the cafe, as i said earlier, was closing but we still have to eat our food. with nowhere else to go, here's what we did:




we claimed a bench to ourselves. i sat on one end, balancing the styro boxes while joy and rose sat on the floor (airport floor) and used the bench as a table. only in the philippines my friends...

after dinner, we checked-in our bags and waited for the boarding announcement. after an hour, we were back in manila...

down the river and up the hills

after the loboc church & museum tour, it was time for lunch. across the street was the "docking area" for the famous loboc river cruise. you pay for lunch and then you're shown which floating restaurant you'll ride. before departure, there is a buffet lunch. once the guests are seated, the cruise begins.






(l-r: a view of the buffet table; the cruise begins!; the busay waterfalls at the end of the river)

the cruise lasts for approximately an hour. and if there's one word to describe it: green. the water is green, what you see on your left and right and in front (except for the end) is green! at the end, are the busay waterfalls. i must admit, it was very relaxing.

after the cruise, we check out the tarsiers. then en route to the chocolate hills, we pass through the man-made forest of biral. this 850-hectare forest has teak and mahogany and wow! it was beautiful! imagine a canopy like that!


(l-r: our little friends out on a limb, and two photos of the man-made forest)

of course, a trip to bohol is never complete without the chocolate hills...these hills are actually more "chocolate-y" after summer. nevertheless, i'm still amazed at how these 1,268 hills were formed! truly a sight to behold!






(l-r: the hills, joy as we reach the peak of the viewing area and me at the bottom of the 214-"step-staircase")

the grandeur of bohol

the next day, we had to be up early because our city tour would start at 8 a.m.. we were going to catch the 4 p.m. ferry trip back to cebu and fly back to manila at 10:40 p.m.

breakfast was included in the overnight package so we had a few minutes to see the beach in the morning. naturally, rose was up earlier than joy and me because she wanted to capture the sunrise...



(l-r: sunrise; sunrise view with a boat and the beach from where we were sitting in the cafe...)


by 8:30 a.m., we were on our way to our first stop, our lady of assumption shrine in dauis. now, there are a lot of old churches in bohol. and i began to notice and appreciate the beauty of old churches....there's a certain feel and look and you can't help but admire how churches looked like in the old days. now i did not know that joy had a thing for old churches, old houses. so seeing a church such as the assumption shrine was a real treat for her and there were more to come.



(l-r: the assumption shine, posing at the blood compact site)

after a photo-op at the blood compact, it was on to another old church, baclayon. baclayon also has a museum that showcases religious artifacts from so long ago that i don't know the date anymore! it was also there that i saw a book made from carabao skin; they used to write on big pieces of carabao skin. unfortunately, no cameras were allowed upstairs; sorry guys....


(l-r: dramatic shot of the baclayon altar, the altar from afar, sign before you enter the church)

after the baclayon church, it was almost time for lunch so, our tour guide, manong rudy, brought us to the loboc church. now loboc is famous for its world-renowned Loboc Children's Choir. we were fortunate enough to be there during practice and hear them sing. such beautiul voices indeed!







(l-r: upon entering the loboc museum, the Loboc Children's Choir practicing, awesome wall paintings)



next post: lunch on the river and the rest of the bohol tour...

i've already gone mad!

i'm interrupting my regular posts on my trip to give way to much more important news:

how am i going to get my hands on one of these???

interesting sights

i've been to a couple of beaches. a few in batangas, cebu, la union, cavite and of course, my fave, boracay. but i must say the beach in bohol is by far the most interesting. interesting in terms of what you can actually see on the shore.



the sand...i've seen gray sand, brown sand and of course, powder-like white sand (boracay, where else?) but bohol has what i've heard rose and joy say, "cream sand". it's also fine, white in some spots and grayish in other parts and it was a bit slippery. slippery enough to entice some of the kids to bring out flat wooden sleds and glide on the shoreline. they were what i called "sandboarding" :))








(l-r: look at the creamy sand!, a starfish in the grass, that's my foot; i'm behind enemy lines!!!)

aside from the sand and probably the fact that it was low tide, we came across so many starfish, a couple of sea urchins, "mini-islands" that become visible during low tide and a lot of my enemies, squid! everytime joy stumbled upon a "stranded" starfish, she'd throw it back into the water. we walked for several meters, maybe half a kilometer down the beach just taking pictures of the beach, of whatever life-form we saw and of each other. we also got the chance to use rose's tripod so that we'd have pictures of the three of us. now, we didn't know that there were some kids following us probably intrigued by the contraption that we lugged around the beach. (it was also hilarious how we'd try to take a picture of us three: two would pose in the frame and the third person would have to hit the self-timer then run back to the spot HAHAHAHAHA) at one point, i guess they couldn't satisfy their curiousity so they really came in for a closer look .... that's when we decided to have our picture taken with them....

(l-r: joy with the kids, me and joy with them, the young 'uns and the young once...)

afterwards, we went back to the resort for dinner and several rounds of photos. rose still hadn't seen what her camera could really do so joy and i were "models" for her that night. she'd go through all the modes then she'd say, "oh, pose na kayo bilis..." then, we also tried several rounds of the modes with the tripod...sabi siguro ng ibang taga-dun, "parang mga sira-ulo itong mga ito....magpopose tapos tatakbo at titingin sa camera..." HAHAHAHAHAHA

(l-r: pang-friendster?; 1-2-3, pose!; one of our last shots for that night and one of the best if i may say so...)

god's little paradise

that's what's on bohol's website and it IS a paradise. as i mentioned earlier, my father is from bohol, antequera to be exact (dad, i hope i'm right :)) and it's such a shame that the family hasn't been there yet. i can only imagine how fun it would be if we were all there.

so, after an early buffet breakfast at the regency, we packed our bags and went to pier 4 for the super ferry ride to tagbilaran. we were supposed to catch the 9 a.m. (or was it 9:20?) trip alas, we didn't make it. so, it was the 12:30 trip. i must tell you that all pictures from when we left cebu to our arrival in tagbilaran were taken by rose or joy. you know how much i dread travelling by water :(( so during the 2-hour wait until boarding the ferry, i had to calm down and psych myself that everything's going to be alright. joy and rose were with me so, i could relax. i also told them that no matter what, i stay in the middle!

the ferry was okay, it's a super cat so, it's really okay. we wanted seats with legroom so we sat on the first row in the back section. while i was so nervous, joy and rose wanted to go around the boat and even wanted to go up on the top deck (which they did of course...). so when they left me (waaahhhh!!!) i just concentrated on the movie (in pursuit of happyness) AND i borrowed rose's iPod...



(pictures of joy and rose on the top deck...)



(l-r: me sandwiched by rose and joy, another pic while i was eating chippy, finally..."land ho!")

after the grueling two-hour ride, my feet were safely on the ground, the next thing we had to do was find a resort. we went to bohol without any reservations and luckily, the resorts weren't full. (talk about going with the flow! :) ) rose's sister, recommended the dumaluan beach resort so we met our bohol guide, manong rudy and off we went to dumaluan!

it was approximately 30 minutes (or was it longer? i couldn't tell because i was so engrossed with seeing bohol for the very first time...) until we got to dumaluan. lucky for us, there was a "cottage" available. so we checked-in, then, made arrangements with manong rudy for tomorrow's city tour. after that, it was time to go to the beach!