“Hey, look at this!” There she was, my friend Tonet, standing motionless before a gravestone; her eyes glued to the engraving. “It’s weird.” “What is?” I walked towards her. “Look.” Her finger led my eyes to two words in particular. Last seen. Usually, a gravestone has two lines written below the name of the departed — the date the person [...]
Coffins scare the hell out of me. I said it before and I’m saying it now — The Poor Traveler is not the Brave Traveler. There are so many things out there that terrify me. One of them is death. And most of the things related to it. The mere sight of a coffin is enough to make me shiver. [...]
“I don’t know.” That was my groundbreaking answer when my friends Dane and Ces asked me where we would be staying in Sagada. We were already on the way there. “Are you serious?” Unfortunately, I was. And it was a big problem. How could a group of yuppies travel to Sagada without any hostel reservation? The guest houses I called [...]
We missed the sunrise. Although the original plan was to witness the sunrise from the Kiltepan Viewpoint on our last morning in Sagada, we still hoped we could catch the dawn as soon as we arrived. We tried to dodge the idea of waking up really early on our last day. Unfortunately, the sun was already up when we reached [...]
“Let’s go to Sagada.” More than five years ago, just before our college graduation, my friend Tonet invited me to go to Sagada. Tonet and I had always wanted to visit Sagada for a number of reasons. “I don’t think that’s possible given that we’re too busy working on our theses. Perhaps after graduation?” I suggested. After graduating, while we [...]
First times. If there’s one thing that I am so grateful about this trip, it’s that it gave me a several first times. It was my first time to board a cruise ship. It was my first time to see a cruise ship, to be honest. My first time to set foot on Malaysia. My first time at a Temple [...]
“Hey, come inside! Look!” Normally, when somebody excitedly invites me over to show me something, I get thrilled. But at that particular moment, I was not. And with good reason. My blogger friend had just emerged from the restroom and excitedly grabbed my arm to show me “something.” “Where are we going?” I asked. “Stop asking questions! Just come with [...]
Quarter-life crisis. I guess it’s starting to kick in. Almost every night since my 25th birthday I would just lie in my bed at night and think about my childhood. When I close my eyes, I try to relive the days when I would just spread my arms wide open and pretend to fly. I try to remember the day [...]
Earlier that day, when our Tour Guide announced that we had entered the city of Kuala Lumpur, I quickly moved to a window seat and started searching the skies for an imposing structure — the Petronas Towers. When I looked at our itinerary before this trip, I was familiar with these twin towers only. Prior to this trip, I had [...]
The Kuala Lumpur Tower, or Menara Kuala Lumpur, has become one of the most iconic landmarks in Malaysia. Completed in 1995, the tower is 421 meters (1,381 feet) tall, making it one of the tallest free standing towers in the world. The KL Tower, as it is more popularly called, was built to improve the quality of telecommunications and broadcast [...]
Our tour bus stopped in front of what looks like a cricket field. “We gonna play?” I mumbled. The green field lie in front of Tudor-style buildings that somehow reminded me of Old England. Malaysia was under British rule before. It was only when I caught a glimpse of the flag pole in the southern end of the field that I [...]
