Globe Trekkker

Tuna Festival 2010

2010-10-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

Gensan’s Tuna Festival Experience (GTX) 2010 may or may not be the only tuna-themed festival in the world, but it certainly ranks way up there among the grandest and most glamorous of festivals.

Packing close to a hundred events in a single festival was no mean feat, let alone making a grand spectacle of GTX’s eight flagship showcases -- the fierce FishDance Competition, the awe-inspiring Gensan’s Pop Idol, the brave and empowering Ginang Bariles Pageant, the mind-blowing Mardi Gras Streetdancing Competition, the grand Float Parade Competition, the dynamic Cheer Dance Competition, the prestigious Miss Gensan Pageant, and the first ever Mr Gensan Pageant during the main festival week.

Adding grandeur to the monthlong citywide celebrations was the 1st Lawihan Streetdancing Competition at FishFest Sa Fish Port, a fun-packed daylong satellite carnival of the Tuna Festival right at the very hub of Gensan’s all-enduring tuna industry -- a unique sort of festival within a festival.

The ceremonial letting-go of sky lanterns -- 42 sky lanterns on opening night in commemoration of General Santos City’s 42nd charter anniversary, and 43 on closing night to usher in Gensan’s 43rd year in the making -- makes a debut this year, providing a serene community ritual at the festival’s opening, and a fitting curtain-raiser to the grand fireworks display at the festival’s close. Never before has Gensan seen a more meaningful showcase of lights -- symbol of the collective aspirations of a community bound by a single vision.

Tuna Festival 2010’s theme and the city’s battle-cry can never be truer or more urgent -- Go Global Gensan: We Are Ready For The World! General Santos cannot rest on its past accolades and the fame of its world-class citizens. All members of the community -- business sector, local government, the academe, the church, the minorities, media, and the masses -- should all work towards the uplift of competitiveness and quality as a way of life.

The pervading sensation at the sight and the sound of 12 streetdancing contingents performing their own routines in concert to the live rendition of Centerpoint Band’s Whoa Gensan! at the festival culmination’s Best of Gensan Show can only be described as hair-raising and heart-wrenching.

Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio hams it up with Gensan's future

This is the essence of a city that’s innately attuned to its needs and potentials -- always striving to excel in the boxing ring, centerstage, boardroom and marketplace. The Tuna Festival is simply our way of having one heck of a great time.

(View more photos in my TravBuddy blog.)

Bridge Boy in the Big Apple

2010-08-21T18:51:00.000-07:00

It must be the way bridges stand tall and sturdy, almost touching the sky, that mesmerizes me at the mere sight of them. Or the way they bring people and cities together, in and out, over and down, that fascinates me no end.

Brooklyn, Boy and Bridge

The Verrazano-Narrows, a double-decked suspension bridge that connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn, stands like a pair of gentle swans at The Narrows, the strait by which the Hudson River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. To me they seem like two reliable friends, one willing to help you find a way out, the other eager to take you in its arms.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Photographed from the Brooklyn Side

Brooklyn Bridge, one of the oldest steel-wire suspension bridges in the US, is probably New York's all-encompassing landmark. Walking its entire breadth is a most exhilarating experience, matched only the mounting anticipation leading to that very first step.

Brooklyn Bridge and Boy, Love Affair in Bloom

Trio of Bridges: Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Williamsburg Bridge

Queensboro Bridge, Queens, New York

I found Queensboro Bridge by accident. Following the direction of the Queens smokestacks featured in the film Julie & Julia (2009), I stumbled upon this cantilever bridge that hovers above Roosevelt Island, and connects Long Island and Manhattan. When the F train made an unscheduled stop before proceeding to Manhattan because of track repairs, I saw the tips of the famous smokestacks and decided to see it in full view. What I saw was more than I expected.

Manhattan Bridge, the Bridge Less Traveled

While it is true that most tourists prefer to walk Brooklyn Bridge than any other bridges on the East River, none of them can take a good photo of its entire span. I decided to walk the Manhattan Bridge to do just that, and in the process found that the bridge less traveled is perfect for solitary souls like myself. Walking it was like a dry-run in soul-searching -- you look at yourself through the things you see, and then feel your being come to focus the closer you get to the other side.

Manhattan Bridge and Me

Falling For Falls

2010-08-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

I got a thing for a lot of things, but whenever possible in my travels I'd seek out a waterfall. Granted, I haven't seen the Niagara during my trip to New York in 2009, much less the grander falls in South America the entire year I was in Mexico (both country and continent seem close, but definitely not in terms of mileage) in 1999 and the New Millennium. I did make it to Cola de Caballo in Monterrey and El Salto in Nuevo Leon, both in Mexico, where I stayed dry on both occasions.

Cola de Caballo in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, July 1999

El Salto in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, January 2000

Erawan Falls, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, January 2009

Immerse in Erawan Falls in Thailand I did, though my most intimate waterfall experience came nearly a decade later with the miniature falls (at 18 feet high and about 3 feet wide) called Bongolanon at the foothills of the Philippines' highest peak, Mt Apo, in Kidapawan. It was like having your own power shower, sans heater of course, some sort of hydro-massage going as cold as 10°C in fact!

Bongolanon Falls, Kidapawan, North Cotabato, Philippines, April 2009

In India I came face to face with Jog Falls in Karnataka on the way to Goa, where I immersed in Dudhsagar's refreshing waters, albeit in the lower cascades of the majestic falls.

Jog Falls, Karnataka, India, October 2009

Dudhsagar Falls, Karnataka, India, October 2009

Closer to home I visited the famed Seven Falls in Lake Sebu for the third time this year. Time and again it has proven soothing and nourishing for a city boy like myself, always looking to get away from the monotony of urban life, and wishing to simply watch the waters fall, fall, fall...

Dongon Falls, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, Philippines, April 2010

Globe-Napping

2010-07-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

I realized that in my travels the world over, those where I had found the time to rest while basking in the sun, even for a few minutes, were among the most memorable of all.

Napping by the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, France, Sep 2002

There’s something about communing with the place (apart from interacting with the local people) that enriches you — being one with the very ground you step (and sleep) on, feeling its breath and pulse inside your body, the sun and the sky benevolently looking down at you as if bestowing a blessing or a nod of approval.

Napping atop an abandoned bunker at Makapu'u Point in Oahu, Hawaii, Dec 2002

About to nap by the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, Aug 2004

It’s not something you can buy or take home in your luggage cart, not something you hold merely with your hands. The connection is unnoticeable, but you just know, for long after you have gone back home to the daily grind, to the realities and routines of every day, there’s a piece of each place inside you that you can feel and see and smell and taste, and no one else can take away.

A long way to nap time (but getting there) in Cologne, Germany, Aug 2004

Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia

2010-07-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Three lessons I learned from my most recent trip to Kota Kinabalu. (1) Mount Kinabalu is not a walk-in affair; you have to book your trek / guide / accommodations months in advance, and having done that, be at the mercy of changes in the weather on your chosen dates. (2) When a hotel ad says it's located in the city center, check the map if it really is in the city center. (3) When all else fails, head for the beach!

I so blatantly took this little detail for granted, and upon arriving in Kota Kinabalu just the night before my supposed climb, I faced the most inevitable prospect of not setting foot at Low's Peak after all. An alternative plan should be made. As it turned out, this was the easiest part, practically a walk on the beach. With Mount Kinabalu off the list for this trip (no big thanks to my oversight), what else could I do in the next three days?

After enjoying the scenery at the seafront promenade stretching from Anjung Samudera to Jesselton Point, I proceeded to the ferry terminal to take a boat to any of the four or five islands off the coast only minutes across Gaya Bay. Now, which of the 5 islands? Upon the recommendation of a friendly local, I chose Manukan Island -- beach, sports, treks, beach, food, sun beach, and more beach! On the way there however, I mistook the drop at Mamutik Island as my destination (I had to take another boat about an hour later) so I actually got on 2 isles for the price of one!

On the way back I checked out the City Mosque at Likas Bay before returning to the waterfront to witness the sunset on Maya Bay.

Next stops for the ensuing couple of days included Taman Negara Kinabalu (Kinabalu National Park), the country's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, at the base of the mountain I didn't conquer; Sabah State Mosque; Sabah Museum; and Heritage Village.

Sentosa Island in Singapore

2010-07-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

Sentosa Island in Singapore may never become, say, what Bondi Beach is to Sydney, but its proximity to the pulse of city life makes it an easy and convenient escape from the hustle and bustle of urban living.

Not that the island is completely detached from civilization by any means, the man-made islands and transplanted palm trees may even seem contrived (they are) -- but wind in your hair and sand beneath your feet make it all an altogether refreshing, renewing experience.

Sure, Singapore residents and extended stay visitors can fly to Bali or Boracay any extended weekend, but a few minutes getaway to some semblance of tropical paradise? Sentosa Island will most definitely do.

Sungei Buloh in Singapore

2010-07-08T04:23:00.000-07:00

This first visit to the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, a nature reserve located in the northwest region of Singapore, is a rich exercise in greening. Everywhere here is green, and wildlife -- the flying and crawling and climbing kind -- abound in the forest canopies, mangroves and rainforest grounds.

The first wetlands reserve to be gazetted in Singapore in 2002, its global importance as a stop-over point for migratory birds was also recognized by the Wetlands International's inclusion of the reserve into the East Asian Australasian Shorebird Site Network. The reserve has an area of over one square kilometers, plenty enough room to spend a whole day amidst nature in an otherwise glass-and-metal-and-concrete country.

Come Full Circle in Thailand

2010-07-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

This most recent excursion into Thailand over the long Chinese New Year weekend in 2009 offered a fresh insight to the Kingdom, one that I willingly relegated many times in the past in favor of the more carnal vestiges of its major attractions. Indeed, there is more to Thailand than beaches and bar strips, and the kind of shallow sub-culture that thrives within their confines—something that permeates such tourist destinations as Bangkok, Phuket and Patthaya.

Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining Buddha, the largest Buddha in Bangkok

This time around I revisited the temples Wat Pho and Wat Phra Kaew at the Grand Palace, and finally climbed Wat Arun by the Chao Praya river in Bangkok; in Ayutthaya I covered 10 more temples in varying degrees of use and ruin.

Atop one of the prangs at Wat Arun by the Chao Praya River

In Kanchanaburi I paid respects and homage to the tens of thousands who perished to build the Thai-Burmese railway—trekking the very site where human hands literally split open a rocky hill and the trail where prisoners-of-war toiled against all odds (and some to their deaths) to lay down the tracks and build bridges where gaps need spanning, including the Bridge on the River Kwai, immortalized in the novel/movie of a similar-sounding name.

Bridge on the River Kwai

Petting the sleepy Bengal tiger

Here I also communed with the tigers at Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, more popularly known as the Tiger Temple, feeling both exhilarated and helpless in the midst of all these tigers of Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan or mixed varieties.

Lastly, I trekked through five of the seven falls at Erawan, and settled on the third tier (actually fourth from the water source) for a cold (around 18°C) dip, several bomb jumps into the water and the dreaded encounter with hordes of doctorfish (trout/catfish look-alike, a few of the older ones 36 inches long, that nibble on the dry skin off your legs and feet) upon slipping into and getting out of the water.

All these are the Thai spectacles I should have enjoyed right from the beginning, but as the worn-out saying goes, better late than never!