Not new but this durian infused coffee told me that I indeed am back in Davao City

I needed a jolt, a caffeine kick that will really convince me that I’m indeed back in Davao City. Not just any kind of drink but one that is spiked and infused with, some say, a malodorant that is sure to assault the olfactory senses. I just have to give in and surrender.

Blugre’s Durian Gatchpuccino espresso (P140) is hot and the atypical coffee aroma made interesting with hints of durian is something that I miss. Six years. Six long years since I’ve last tasted this and there was nothing else in my mind but to head to the nearest branch straight from the airport.

Nothing seems to have changed. Bajada Ave. is still as is. Victoria Plaza is still dilapidated and on an early Sunday morning, all is unhurried. Except for a Robinsons mall construction and the occasional Kadayawan banners that were still left hanging, I just remembered Davao City as I left it. Kind of strange and kind of wonderful but I’m sure its only skin deep.

I got my cup. A dollop of cream tops it with real bits of durian pulp and cinnamon. I smelled it and just savored the durian aroma then the coffee and the combination of both. I’m indeed back and I’m sure that it will be a sojourn down memory lane.

This trip was made possible with my win in the Wandering Juan Travel Blog Awards, Culture and Heritage Category. Visit the official site.

A Dane riding atop the jeepney from the Saddle at Batad enroute to Banaue. Travels to remote and off-the-beaten path destinations coming soon.

I’ve checked my travel history and guess what!? I need to tick off Basilan off my list of provinces that I haven’t visited yet. And that includes eight others before I can complete all provinces visited in the Philippines. Will strike all off the list before the year ends.

And the NINE:

• Apayao (Luzon)
• Quirino (Luzon)
• Mindoro Occidental (Luzon)
• Antique (Visayas)
• Guimaras (Visayas)
• Biliran (Visayas)
• Siquijor (Visayas)
• Zamboanga Sibugay (Mindanao)
• Basilan (Mindanao)

These are all interesting places that are off the beaten path and I intend to visit seven on September and October.

4x4 adventure at the Ilocos Norte Sand Dunes

A trip around North Luzon is a sojourn that is best described as AWESOME! From the central plains of Pampanga, the rugged Cordilleras, the beaches of Ilocos and important heritage, culture and adventure spots that can be found in many areas proves to be a very interesting trip for whoever is brave enough to embark on this multi day journey.

Last January 2010, I was invited by the North Philippines Visitors Bureau to join a media tour of travel writers and bloggers to experience North Luzon for seven days starting in Cagayan province all the way to Pampanga to sample the various local cuisines and experience the attractions offered by the various provinces along the route. Ilocandia is just too irresistible with its sand dunes and the exhilarating sports of sandboarding and 4×4 vehicle adventure. Other than that, there are also places worth a visit that is far from the maddening crowds like Paoay Lake and Maira-ira Cove.

Wanting a wet adrenaline rush? La Union’s surf camps are a must. Surf celebrity Luke Landrigan will be there to give tips on form and execution and the place is good for beginners too.

Baguio City still has it charms but the pull is outside its environs, at the nearby municipality of Bokod in Benguet. Go karting, which i tried for the first time and it was fun, or just admire the beautiful monstrosity that is Ambuklao Dam. This area has exciting adventure potentials and possibilities.

Pangasinan also teems with stunning islands, over a hundred of them scattered off the coast of Alaminos with interesting wildlife and formations and cave systems. If you wan’t to explore each one, give it a few days.

Heritage and culture? North Luzon has ancient churches rich in history. There are colonial architectural gems that would just make any Pinoys proud while gazing at Paoay Church or the neoclassic Pangasinan Capitol.

Craving for something delicious? There are lot and lots of food specialties and experience that it has to offer of which, two stood out for this trip: the timeless and always satiating Batac emapanada that is bound to make the visitor not just eat one, but two or more. And of course, a bit of a curiousity, binungey, that sticky rice dish that is cooked inside bamboo. If you want to dine amidst stunning montane sceneries, then Bokod should be it.

Go to the bowels of the earth and explore the caverns of Callao Cave. If you’re done, you can contemplate or reminisce on the riverine landscape while cruising the Pinacanauan River in Cagayan Province. I did it and be ready to be humbled.

These are just some of the places that can be experienced and visited. But be ready for my LAKBAY NORTE REDUX soon.

Yep, Langyaw.com won again! CLICK TO ENLARGE

The awards had three categories that also included adventure/sports and leisure with best travel blog photography and best green travel blog. In the category that I won, I submitted my piece on my home province’s watchtowers: Cebu’s lonely sentinels of the sea which was part of my Cebu/Sugbo series.

The travel blog winners, L to R: yours truly, Blanca, Marcos and Angel. Ada did not make it.

Complementary hotel stay in Cebu

Am I happy? Of course! Despite the fiasco I experienced with the airline a few months ago, that was already history. And besides, with the free tickets, I need not worry of bungled online ticket booking payments, again. No headaches and no sleepless nights.

The winners? Marcos of ambot-ah won for Leisure and Relaxation. Angel of Lakwatsero won the Adventure and Sports category. Ada, Adaphobic, the Best Travel Blog Photography while Blanca, Random Thoughts by Blanca, the Best Travel with a Cause blog. Congrats to you all!

A very impressive cavern with stunning rock formations. The chapel inside adds to its charm

Visitors dwarfed by the massiveness of the cave. CLICK TO ENLARGE

I was but a tiny entity, a speck, in the caverns of Callao Cave in Peñablanca, Cagayan province, 24 kilometers from the capital Tuguegarao City, as I was dwarfed amidst the stunning stalactites and stalagmites as among unusual rock formations that made me oohed and aahed.

Last January 2010, I was invited by the North Philippines Visitors Bureau to join a media tour of travel writers and bloggers to experience North Luzon for seven days starting in Cagayan province all the way to Pampanga to sample the various local cuisines and experience the attractions offered by the various provinces along the route. It was my second time to visit this place, the first, almost a decade ago that ended with a cruise along the Pinacanauan River. This geological formation, part of several in the area, has been developed affording better facilities to the tourists with knowledgeable guides. In this visit, I got to explore it closer and appreciated more its wonders.

It was a steep climb over a flight of cement stairs, 184 steps to be exact, from the starting point to the mouth of the Callao Caves. Exhausting but kind of refreshing also as one goes under a canopy of vegetation that renders the path cooler. As the way is almost tunnel like with the trees and bushes, a breeze of air rushes. At one point, a panoramic view of the area unfolds.

The cave’s mouth is just stunning. A white limestone cliff with vegetation growing on top or clinging vertically, precariously. Moss has also made its home while swiftlets flying overhead and suddenly homes in on a nest camouflaged on the rocky face or some crevices.

Izah rappels down a short vertical face near the entrance

Its a long way up through a series of cement steps, 184 to be exact. CLICK TO ENLARGE

The seven chambered Callao Cave complex is just one of about 300 in the area. Much remains to be explored but there are still quite pristine ones like Sierra Cave, Odessa-Tumbali Cave System, to cite a few. These not so visited ones are quite interesting as visitors sometimes need to crawl, to be submerged and come out muddied and wet. Of course, entering is limited only to a few persons to lessen the impact but you are witness to cave building that has been ongoing for millenia.

Callo Cave is making headlines right now, especially in the scientific community. Just lately, it has dislodged the Tabon Cave complex in Palawan as the site of the earliest Filipino ancestor by as much as 17,000 years. This 67,000 hominid (it’s still not sure what humanoid species) attests to the importance of this area in the peopling of the country.

The familiar sight of a chapel near the entrance doesn’t enthrall anymore. It has been seen in countless photos and have been written in countless pages. It also symbolizes the encroachment of man into nature, imposing his will and sometimes destroying it. Beyond this, however, the natural appeal of the cave through its rock formations still amazes.

Callao Cave is said to be dead. Graffiti has marred its walls, disturbed. But perhaps, it is also the best place to educate tourists about what we are doing to our natural environment. It is also a geological showcase that will introduce visitors to the subterranean world.

A driver speeding down a curve at Bilar, Bohol's man made forest

• Manila: La Loma, Chinese and North Cemeteries
• Cebu: round of the southern end, cockfight
• Bohol: tour of tourist traps and heritage sites
• La Union: San Fernando and Luna
• and many other places

For the past few weeks, it’s all been a blur. Shuttling to and fro, here and there either for work or for leisure but mostly on the former. Got an assignment for a magazine, around three articles in one issue. I got invited to a resort up north where for the next two days I pigged out and enjoyed the local sceneries and spots.

My friend from Spain came and spent five days in Cebu and Bohol on the road visiting churches and old houses and being, most of the time, in a rented car, and just being a tourist in these rather familiar places. Yeah, a tourist going to the usual haunts and traps and staying in airconditioned hotels. Of filling out all my camera’s CF cards every other day trying to capture memories and sceneries for this blog and for posterities sake.

It was my first time to visit Fort San Pedro in Cebu considering that I’m a true blue Cebuano. I actually enjoyed my Loboc River cruise. The visita iglesia and fortification visits in Bohol was so exciting that I consider it my highlight in that island.

In La Union, I got to visit the Pindangan Ruins as well as the lone watchtower in Luna which I’ve wanted to do for a few months but didn’t get to until now. I was able to capture a very interesting beetle while touring the botanical garden in San Fernando.

In Manila, I was actually wide eyed at the heritage treasures and architecture found in Hidalgo St. and the old cemeteries in this once glorious city that I’ve been thinking of doing some personal projects related to these treasures. Nevermind if me and my companion were accosted by overzealous security guards alarmed at us taking pictures of old tombs. Bummer.

Tiring? Yes? Very. But it was all fun and eye opening and I won’t mind doing it again.

Cruising the Pinacanauan River is one of those things I like doing in Cagayan province. It's rather short, however, but scenic.

Locals fishing the river. CLICK TO ENLARGE

The Pinacanauan River is no tongue twister and it is one of those bodies of water that I would not mind cruising often. Stunning vistas, ancient cave complexes, a natural dusk flight attraction as well as spectacular limestone walls make this route memorable.

Last January 2010, I was invited by the North Philippines Visitors Bureau to join a media tour of travel writers and bloggers to experience North Luzon for seven days starting in Cagayan province all the way to Pampanga to sample the various local cuisines and experience the attractions offered by the various provinces along the route. It was more than six years ago that I first visited Peñablanca, Cagayan Province, lured by images of a simple chapel inside a massive cavern that is Callao Cave. I was then based in Mindanao as a telecoms engineer and the call to adventure has always been strong even when I was still a child.

The distance was never a problem since for me, the farther it is, the better. There’s always this desire of extending my reach of places, discovering new things and a natural curiosity of the world around me. I always wanted to conquer my own terras incognita thus, unexplored lands, uncommon people, strange smells and tastes and unusual sceneries has that visceral pull and appeal.

Long motorized pumpboats load people, animals and produce as these are brought to the inner communities along the Pinacanauan River

Out of curiosity, I just boarded one of the long pumpboats, longer and wider than the dragon boats found at the waters off the CCP grounds in Manila, waiting for passengers at the banks of this beautiful and clean river. I was tired and sweating then from the brief visit at the Callao Cave. I fondly remember that when I sat down on the wooden planks, right infront of me was the behind of a horse. But luckily, it was calm. In other boats, pigs were loaded too but people aren’t complaining. When it finally started its motor, I was thrilled. Thrilled with the discoveries that I will then make and expecting to be surprised.

What lay ahead? It was my first trip to the northeastern part of Luzon and everything was just new to me: the people, the natural surroundings and even the strange tongue which I learned later to be Ilocano.

There were shallow parts that the bangkero, or boat handler, will have to go down and lead the boat to some deeper portions or adroitly evade rocky outcrops that can be devastating if it crashes on these. There were sections where the surface can mirror the sky with its stillness that from time to time, is rythmically broken with ripples. Or areas where the river can surge, frothing and roaring.

View of the mountains opposite the river bank. Spectacular vistas!

Rock faces along the banks reflected in the river's surface

When the Pinacanauan River is mentioned, it is not the impressive Callao Caves that come to mind nor the daily bat flights at dusk emanating from a cave high up one of the cliffs. Both are attractions in their own right. It is the image of a boy sitting at the front end of the boat, his long bamboo pole used in navigating deeper parts, balanced and resting horizontally on his lap. His frail and dark body contrasting with a massive limestone wall rising from a bend. A calm posture, almost zen like, meditative. A study of contrasts.

Then this mental picture moves on to that cliff as my gaze is transfixed to its massiveness. The high rise formation is overwhelming. Its rough but bright surface contrasting with the darker water and blue sky. But the view was fleeting. For a few minutes I was in awe, humbled by its monumentality. As the boat navigated downriver, it came up to a rush of water and within a few more minutes, that wall disappeared as it rounded a bend.

That is my memory of Pinacanauan River. Unforgettable.

The beautiful stone church of Masinloc in Zambales

While it was a few months ahead of the semana santa, we did a visita iglesia during our North Luzon tour visiting nine churches of which 6 are colonial era while two are contemporary churches.

Last January 2010, I was invited by the North Philippines Visitors Bureau to join a media tour of travel writers and bloggers to experience North Luzon for seven days starting in Cagayan province all the way to Pampanga to sample the various local cuisines and experience the attractions offered by the various provinces along the route. The bulk of our visita iglesia was spent in Cagayan province with seven churches: Tuguegarao Cathedral, Iguig, Alcala, Piat, Camalaniugan, Lal-lo and Pamplona. We visited also the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Paoay, Ilocos Norte and the beautiful stone church, pictured above, of Masinloc in Zambales.

For more details and photos of these religious structures, check my religious architecture blog, Simbahan.net.

The chef is ready. CLICK TO ENLARGE

Imagine, having lunch or early dinner outdoors with your special someone. But not just an ordinary open air venue but one where you’re surrounded by spectacular mountains, crisp and cool air, with a waiter dressed in tux decanting wine while a chef in toque and all, whipping up your dish. An intimate activity sure to make it a memorable day. This in the great Cordilleras of Benguet.

Last January 2010, I was invited by the North Philippines Visitors Bureau to join a media tour of travel writers and bloggers to experience North Luzon for seven days starting in Cagayan province all the way to Pampanga to sample the various local cuisines and experience the attractions offered by the various provinces along the route.

Wine sir? CLICK TO ENLARGE

This is the premise and promise of what the Baguio Conventions and Visitors Bureau (BCVB) is whipping up to bring tourists back to the City of Pines and surrounding areas by introducing adventure packages and other activities. Ambuklao Dam tour, go karting and now, dining al fresco in the great Cordilleras are just some of these attractions.

Dining in spectacular natural surroundings is a novel and interesting idea, a unique offering that I’m sure will appeal to a specific group of people. Of course, like the karting I’ve blogged prior to this post, I also have some reservations.

The place that we were brought to doesn’t appeal so much or isn’t a romantic place in the beginning. Maybe, it was their way of showing us how it will be but it just doesn’t cut it. It was near a pebbly and rocky river and below the highway. If I would recommend, a high promontory giving the diners spectacular views of valleys, mountain ranges and mist covered pine forests would be great. There are lots of it along the road network in Benguet. Even the highest point in the Philippine road system gives a sweeping vista that’s just arresting.

Also, if they will eventually pursue this one, they should have well trained personnel able to handle the special demands of the place and activity. It is not enough to have a good idea but logistically, well stocked from the furnitures and other fixtures, to the food.

Be prepared to be in awe as you are surrounded by these beautiful mountains, a perfect background while enjoying one's food and company.

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Me at the driver's seat of the go kart. It's an enjoyable ride amidst stunning backdrops of mountains

Ida enjoyed driving the go kart. CLICK TO ENLARGE

Away from the standard karting circuit, Bokod in Benguet provides a worthwhile diversion for the karting aficionado while riding on a rough road amidst stunning mountain backdrops.

Last January 2010, I was invited by the North Philippines Visitors Bureau to join a media tour of travel writers and bloggers to experience North Luzon for seven days starting in Cagayan province all the way to Pampanga to sample the various local cuisines and experience the attractions offered by the various provinces along the route. It was my first time to drive a go kart, those almost miniature like vehicles that, with my tall frame, my knees were already jutting out, seat space all but taken up but still comfortably ensconced. The whir of the motor engine signaled that I was ready. I revved up, pushed on the accelerator and off I went on the straight rough road. Plumes of white dirt and the engine’s smoke followed while I was karting but I didn’t mind. The experience was just exhilarating. Wheee…

Karting is being planned to be introduced in this area, a few kilometers down Ambuklao Dam in Bokod, Benguet. The place is beautiful with stunning mountain backdrops where stands of native pine trees, Pinus benguetanus, pepper the almost denuded and brown earth providing a beautiful contrast. The dirt road is challenging too since its rough with a few rocks and some portions are difficult to drive, all the more providing a sense of adventure. It’s like you’re driving a miniature 4×4.

Will this work? While I have my doubts, it does have potential. First and foremost, I guess, go karts might be cute but aren’t ATVs (all terrain vehicles) better? I’m not just sure if the former can take the stress of off road rides but the latter would provide better handling in this kind of terrain. If they will eventually have the budget, they should switch.

Another thing, what will they do when the rainy season come? The area  where we were taken is ideal during summer but once the monsoons come, the river will eventually flood the area. Using the existing road system is also dangerous due to landslides, traffic as well as located in slopes and most of the time, steep drops.

Once they can address these or just provide it seasonally, then it will eventually attract thrill seekers.