Disneyland was my childhood dream. But because my parents couldn’t afford to take us to Micky Mouse’s little world, I promised myself that I would fly to this place someday. Someday had finally come. It was the day we had all been waiting for. It was the reason my niece and nephew were with us on this trip. We wanted [...]

Traveling is hard. Traveling with kids? That’s a different story. Kids can only do so much walking and they can get exhausted easily. That’s exactly what happened to us. My niece and nephew got physically tired after just 5 hours walking around so we had to go back to our hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui to rest. Instead of staying [...]

Our trip to Hong Kong was filled with first times. For starters, it was my family’s first trip abroad. It was also my first time in Hong Kong. It was their first time to ride the plane and first time to stay at an airport. Imagine the excitement of my mom, sister, niece and nephew. That’s why even though our [...]

Puerto Princesa City may look vibrant today but like many cities in the Philippines, it also has a dark history. This is most evident in a small park in Barangay Liwanag called Plaza Cuartel. Plaza Cuartel looks like your ordinary city park with concrete pavements, towering trees and benches. The ruins of an old garrison and tunnels are proof of [...]

We started the Day 3 of our Puerto Princesa City Tour with a date with butterflies and crocodiles. After a stop at the Palawan Butterfly Garden and the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center, we still had four more stops to go to. Bear in mind that we traveled around on a tricycle with Kuya Ding leading us (P300 per [...]

Our flight back to Manila was scheduled at 2pm so we still had the entire morning to explore Puerto Princesa City. Again, our original plan was to take the City Tour by Casa Linda, which cost P600 per person. That would allow us to explore the city on an air-conditioned van. But if there’s one thing we learned by then, [...]

The Baclayon Church, formally known as the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Baclayon, is one of the oldest churches in the country. It is usually the second stop in the Bohol Countryside Tour. (The first stop from the airport is usually the Sandugo Monument.) We initially wanted to follow the usual itinerary and visit this immediately [...]

We stayed for over an hour at the Chocolate Hills and drank as much buko juice as we could. At this point, the whole countryside tour had gotten tiring as much as it was exciting. Sitting in the van for hours was more exhausting than we expected. Haha. Our next stop was the Simply Butterflies Conservation Center which houses a [...]

Shaky, slippery and scary. These were the first words that entered my head while I was crossing the Tigbao Hanging Bridge. Its railings made of steel and flooring of bamboo, this bridge isn’t really the most calming or the safest bridge in the world. But it was fun. Suspended some 25 meters above the Loboc River, the Tigbao Hanging Bridge [...]

Right after our “big gutom” was quenched by our big buffet lunch, we hopped back into our service van. As soon as we were comfortable, our driver announced that we would be heading towards Carmen, Bohol to see the Chocolate Hills, which made everyone cheer up. (Mind you, the buffet lunch was a lot sleep-inducing, there’s a really good chance [...]

After visiting Prony the Python and the cute tarsiers, the Poor Traveler’s group decided that it was time for lunch as we all felt a little hungry already. We waited a good 20 minutes for our turn to ride the raft. But it was alright; it gave enough time for us to shop around. There were several souvenir shops around [...]

Even before boarding the plane, the Poor Traveler and his friends were already excited to explore Bohol. When we landed at Tagbilaran Airport, we were pleased that the driver from Bagobo Beach Resort was already there to pick us up. Straight from Tagbilaran Airport, our first stop was the Sandugo Site. For my non-Pinoy readers, “sandugo” literally means “one blood.” [...]

The Poor Traveler and his friends only had one destination in our itinerary for the third day of our Ilocos Tour — Vigan! We actually had spent some time in this beautiful city on our first day but we had very limited time to see much of it. Because we had to be back in Manila by 7pm, we only [...]

Next in the Poor Traveler’s itinerary was the Patapat Viaduct. This another destination we knew nothing about prior to this trip. But like all destinations in Ilocos we have visited, it was worth our time! Viewed 10803 times by 3544 viewers

The Bangui Windmills — the Poor Traveler had been longing to see these enormous electric fans since the news broke that there were plans of harnessing wind energy in the Philippines. I had never seen windmills before (not counting those in kiddie cartoons I used to watch). That’s why standing before these giant fans was such a personal milestone. Viewed [...]