It's Fall, Y'all!

I had a lot of social plans for this weekend but because it was a draining week at work and I had the place to myself for the weekend, I punted all plans in favor of being a homebody. I needed to recharge my batteries, restore my balance and experiment so I...

Behind the Scenes in Ilag

The backyard of the Casera house in Ilag was the most interesting place. That is where the animals live, the fruit grows and most of the cooking and cleaning take place. The room that mom and I slept in was on the backside of the house so our room was often filled with wonderful aromas and smoke. It made it feel that much more like camping out to me.

Perlita cooking up something good, I'm sure!

Animal Bite Clinic

One of the first things that stood out to me when we were traveling around by van in PI is the number of Animal Bite Clinics in every province. I was pretty sure that I was going to get to visit one of those clinics because of the many cats and dogs that I befriended while in Laguna, Ilag, Caohagan, Bohol...

Filipino Food Porn

On my list of things to try while in PI were sisig, balut (if the opportune opportunity arose, and it did) and pancit (because I needed to be shown proper techniques). I ate many, many other Filipino foods. Pictures of some of the food I ate while in PI below in no particular order.

 

Breakfast in Ilag

Fried bananas, rice, eggplant and 3 types of longanisa...

Have You Tried the Balut?

On the way back to the resort, our driver pulled over to a roadside stand selling balut.

Chocolate Hills of Bohol

We almost missed this, the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Chocolate Hills (Mga Tsokolateng Burol, or Mga Burol na Tsokolate) because we were too tired from exploring Bohol. Wah! We decided last minute to go for it and I am so glad we did. We made it there in time to trek the 214 steps to enjoy the panoramic views.

The Chocolate Hills are a geological formation in the Philippine province of Bohol made up of over 1,200 cone-shaped karst hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometers (20 sq mi). They are covered in green grass that turns a chocolate-brown during the dry season, making them look like chocolate hills. They are recognized as the Philippines’ 3rd National Geological Monument featured on the PHP200 bill.

Loboc River Lunch Cruise

After seeing the sweet sleepy tarsiers, we decided to grab some lunch, but not any ordinary lunch. We decided to take a river boat cruise lunch. 

Da boat

PTF

 Hey there, little guy...

She Sells Sanctuary

The fire in your eyes

Keeps me alive

And the fire in your eyes

Keeps me alive

I'm sure in her you'll find

The sanctuary

I'm sure in her you'll find

The sanctuary

My beautiful cousins!

Duero

This morning while having coffee, my mom told me that her mom was born and raised in Duero, a town an hour away from where we are currently staying on Bohol. Of course we decided to make visiting that place a priority. Our driver, Leo, made it happen.

“this is ours”

The name of our resort on the Bohol Sea, Amun Ini, means “this is ours” in the Ilonggo Dialect…

  

These jackfruit are mine!

RORO to Bohol

Today we drove from Ilag to Hilongos, then hopped on a roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ship to Bohol.

View from a RORO

Late in the Evening (Last night in Ilag)

Visiting with family at the Ilag house on our last night.

  

Robert, Uncle Winnie and 2nd cousins

Cock of the Walk

Partway through the Casera Reunion, a couple of my cousins wanted us to join them at a cockfight. Yeah, cockfighting is right up there with basketball here. So we excused ourselves from the reunion, which was just getting into high gear, it seemed. We passed another cousin bringing another karaoke machine.

Cockfighting is not permitted in Ilag although every house seems to have at least 1 or 2 roosters, so we had to travel over to another barangay where cockfighting is legal.

Casera Reunion at Molopolo Beach

My cousin Maricel's husband Edgar secured a few cottages at Molopolo Beach in Southern Leyte. I heard it referenced as "white beach". We weren't sure what to expect or who to expect, so there were a lot of confused expressions.

Ilag House

 

 

Fiesta Day 2 in Ilag

On the second day of Fiesta, my sister, her husband and I went walking through the neighborhood to try to find more family. We were walking towards the red roofed house (which we were told was my Auntie Anita's house) when we heard "Gabe!" as we passed by two guys outside karaoking. Just happened to be my cousin Robert.

Robert and Gabe reuniting from the night before...

Ilag Family

We walked around Ilag a little after visiting the coconut plantation. I think my mom knew this woman from ages ago.

Lechon

The first lechon was at the Casera House in Ilag. 75 lb pig raised by my cousins Arvie and Maricel. Delicious!

Coco for Coconuts

We walked through the creeks and marshy areas until we got to where the ripe coconuts were located. My mom says that they harvest the coconuts every 3 months. In this area there were a lot of dragonflies.

House in the Hills

My cousins came by to take us to the Casera coconut plantation and to see my cousin's house under construction. We traveled by trike from my mom's backyard.

May Day in Ilag (Day 1)

In the house, there is no central A/C or hot water. The upstairs common area is open air, not unlike being in a tree house. The 3 upstairs bedrooms had beautiful, wonderful A/C units. I hate that I am so weak, because I do LOVE the heat, but I was not used to breathing in such wet air. Mom and I shared a room while my siblings each had the other 2 rooms with their spouses. The normal occupants of the rooms - my cousin and his son - slept on a mat in the open air part of the upstairs or in an extra bed in my aunt's master bedroom where there was also A/C.

Ormoc to Ilag (van ride)

We got our luggage from the boat and made it to my cousin in the van. 3 very nice Filipino men loaded and reloaded our luggage until it was just right, tetrised in perfectly. Once we were settled into the van, my cousin passed around some small wrapped treats for us to eat after our long ferry ride. I failed to catch the name of the treat because the natives were speaking in their native tongue and very rapidly, but I thought I heard the word "chocolate".  I did not taste chocolate, it was more of a savory taste, and then I thought What if this is the blood dish that Anthony Bourdain ate before he died?

 

Slow Boat to Ormoc

Today we took the SuperCat (3.5 hour cruise) from Cebu to Ormoc on the island of Leyte.

Here we are waiting for the ship to Come in...

Cebu, Day 4 (Love you, bye Costabella)

Last Sunrise with Coffee

 

Cebu, Day 3 Vegging Out

We were worn out from the day of island hopping so we took a day to veg out at the resort.

 

Cebu, Day 2 (Island Hopping)

Good Morning!

Cebu, Day 1

We had a 3:30am flight to Cebu so we left in a van from Laguna around midnight. We were tired but really stoked to go to Cebu.

Tagaytay

We drove to Tagaytay after the wet market. Tagaytay has a total land area of 26 sq mi which represents about 4.63% of the total area of the province of Cavite. It lies within 120°56' longitude and 14°6' latitude and overlooks Manila Bay to the north, Taal Volcano and Taal Lake to the south, and Laguna de Bay to the east.

This was one of our picturesque views from Mr. Kimchi restaurant... 

Wet Market

Today we hit the wet market to see our beloved lumpia wrappers being made and to see other Filipino goodies. 

Late Night Snacking in Laguna

 Later that evening, we were feeling a little peckish and weren't sure about how to get food. It was dark and late and we weren't sure that it was safe for us to walk around to find food. We were very interested in trying out Jollibee, the fast food place that my cousins rave about in the US. We put together some pesos and an order as best as we could and my cousin rode his motorbike to Jollibee (and Domino's Pizza) and brought us back a little smorgasbord.

While I was grateful for the food, I was not as moved as I'd hoped to be by finally ingesting some Jollibee goodies. Especially the famous Jolly Spaghetti with the sweet tomato sauce with garlic, onions, ground beef and sliced hotdogs.  The Tuna pies were pretty good, but not a substitute for the Angus Burger that was missing. ;.( 

And also missing was the ube pie - they were out. The mango pie was good. And Domino's delivered on the pizza. 

Exploring Laguna

The goals for the day were to get USD converted to Philippine peso (PHP), get some good buko pie and to check out a cool floating restaurant. We also wanted to sample the ube ice cream we got as part of our "staples" at Solid Gold.

Batangas

My brother and his wife like to SCUBA dive so the first morning in Calamba, we drove a few hours away to Batangas, to find a place for them to experience diving in the Philippines. It was a challenge driving in a big van through winding roads looking for a dive resort with availability, but my cousin in law handled the drive like a pro. 

Along the way, we saw many (too many, IMO) posters and signs for the upcoming election. We also saw quite a bit of men pausing from their roadside work to urinate outside. It seemed to be no biggie. The driving was a bit like "anything goes" and was like watching a school of fish ballet. The horn is used to announce that "I am here and I am going so watch out". When making a left turn, you don't wait for traffic to clear, you put your nose out there and other drivers slow down or go around, respectfully. 

 

Villa Milagros

It was an hour drive from the Manila airport to my mom's resort house in Calamba, and we were super tired, so we all pretty much crashed out when we got there. The next morning, I was awakened by construction noise next door. And roosters. I was warned about the roosters and I even brought ear plugs, but I got up to check out the house in daylight.

Calamba city is a component city in the province of Laguna, Philippines and is known as the "Spring Resort Capital of the Philippines" because of its numerous hot spring resorts. Calamba lies on the northern slopes of Mount Makiling, a dormant volcano. 

 

Philippines, Here We Come!

We seemed so refreshed at the beginning. LOL! 

Happy Easter

I'm getting ready to leave the country for 3 weeks, but I wanted to overcommit myself by hosting Easter dinner. It worked out though.