Travel Chronicles

Conquered the famed Mt. Pulag this weekend! Now I understand why people go out of their way to hike 3 hours so early in a very cold morning (could go under 6°C) – the sunrise over the sea of clouds is breathtaking! From the 15 people in our group (not including myself), I only know Tristan who organized the trip and Jhonathan. I wouldn’t survive 2018 without these two! The rest were Tristan’s colleagues from Novare (yup, my company (Amihan)’s competitor. haha). Great opportunity to make new friends! Our vans left Manila at 11PM Thursday then arrived in Baguio at…

On my first solo travel outside Philippines, I stayed at EZ Lodgings, a small colorful place in #Gadong #Brunei I found through #AirBnB. Owned and run by Dina, a very accommodating Bruneian interior designer. Some rooms are for dailys and some are for monthly tenants. I made friends with 4 of the monthly tenants who apparently just knew each other quite recently. They accompanied me for the two places I wanted to visit and the rest of the trip I spent hanging out with them: chilling at cafes, eating takeout pizzas, and hanging out at each others’ rooms.  The room…

The La Union trip was one of the spontaneous trips I really enjoyed. It was an out of town trip with an itinerary I didn’t know. I went swimming in waterfalls without bringing clothes. Luckily, I was accompanied by a friend whom I convinced to join me an hour before departure. One for the books!

Illonggo people are the sweetest especially when they speak. On my first trip there, together with my companion JP Sibug of Microsoft Philippines, our agenda was to meet with the tech community. Since DevCon has a chapter in Iloilo, our team organized and gathered the folks in partnership with Dojo 8 Coworking Space. Its quite a small world as many of the people there I met in previous tech gatherings in the Philippines. Im very happy with turnout of the meetup as people starting sharing potential partnership opportunities. The main message of the meetup was to encourage collaboration among local…

When in Iloilo, we stayed at Injap Tower Hotel as recommended by my colleague’s friend. It didn’t disappoint! I managed to take few snaps. I thought its worth featuring. I learned the owner is the same group who founded the notorious Mang Inasal foodchain. It was the first time for me to stay in a hotel with a microwave inside! What i truly like about this hotel is definitely the location. It is just across SM Iloilo and beside that mall are wonderful European vibes restaurants. Its relatively affordable and also near the airport. The staff were very accommodating.

When you’re in a long stretch of pristine white shores and no cellular signal, all you want to do is become an ultimate beach bum! Oh, the joy of no laptops, no phones (except for photos) and just good times with friends.