Although January is about to end,  I would like to share with you my top 10 nooks and crannies for 2008 before starting on new adventures for this year. The year 2009 has started off with gloomy skies, strong winds and big waves. This has somehow curtailed my travel plans.

Since the sun seems to be back to his old jolly self, I will be off to a new adventure. I will also be in hiatus for a short while from the blogging world. For now, I give you my favorite destinations of the past year...

Here we go...

 

10. Hda. Isabel, La Castellana, Negros Occidental

It may indeed be one of the most popular cliches around but it's true: there is no place like home! This nook will always be an essential destination for me... To avoid the risk of being biased, it is with a heavy heart that this is only ranked 1oth. Haha!









9. Buagsong, Municipality of Cordova, Cebu

This fishing community is popular for its eel delicacies believed to be potent aphrodisiacs. But I like this place because of its fiery sunsets reflected in the shallow waters during low tide and its "sandbar" which turned out to be mounds of shells dug up by the locals living near the area.



 

8. Bagacay Point, Municipality of Liloan, Cebu

This cranny is popular for its century old lighthouse built during the early years of American occupation. In my last visit, heavens gifted me with a wonderful display of light transitions in the sky and a cow eager to be photographed!



 

7. Trancentral Highway, Taptap, Cebu City

The snaking highway offers picturesque panoramas on clear days. What made this specific trip special was my arduous walk on a foggy morning and a slight drizzle halfway to my intended destination. Since I always experience leg cramps and I am helpless without my muscle pain killers, this trip without cramps was an achievement! And the stop-over for sweet corns in Taptap is a must...



 

6. Kan-irag Nature Park, Ayala Heights, Cebu City

This place is for leisurely walks. The comforting serenity of walking its trail and its windy high spots invite reminiscences. I was glad that through this entry, some people actually checked out the place and agreed with my review.







5. Gawahon Eco-Park, Victorias City, Negros Occidental

It is not just always about the destination. The journey is as important. In spite of the seemingly poor maintenance, this place still has much to offer if one is contented with sight-seeing. The sceneries along the way are very relaxing.



 

4. Malubog Dam, Toledo City, Cebu

This man-made lake in General Climaco is very distinguishable from the airplanes that ply the Bacolod-Cebu route. After two cancellations, our trip to this intriguing place pushed through along with sumptuous food and a bypass inside the mining areas of Toledo City.



 

3. Mount Manunggal, Municipality of Balamban, Cebu

 The king of all mountains in Cebu! All trekkers and mountaineers in order to be accomplished peripatetics must conquer this summit and pay homage to the great life whose blood drenched its forest floor: Ramon Magsaysay. Below is the prominent monkey-face rock formation visible from the Balamban field office on the top of Mount Manunggal.



 

2. Penang, Malaysia

Visiting another country is always a unique experience. Although I was confined to Penang for the time I was in  Malaysia,  the stroll, the food and the opportunity of meeting new friends were well worth it. And the best part for a nature lover like me was the chance to visit the Penang Butterfly Farm - a lepidopteran haven. Aside from butterflies they also have other interesting collections from the Arthropods. The leaf insect for me is the most unique creature there.



 

1. Malapascua Island, Daanbantayan, Cebu

Malapascua is first and foremost for divers.  Being in the northern part of the province, this island offered me an unhurried and relaxed getaway from the city - no pollution, loud music, television and blasting car horns. For aspiring bird photographers, the diversity of its fauna is amazing with many different birds challenging the power of one’s lenses and stalking patience. Despite being quite inferior still to the sands of Boracay, all of these with the warm smiles of it’s local inhabitants, Malapascua brings the bar of tourism to a different level against the commercialism of Boracay.

Being a lover of lighthouses, featured below is the Malapascua lighthouse.



 

I am looking forward to visiting more nooks and crannies this 2009. I also bid you to explore the outdoors! There may be an economic crisis but ironic as it may seem, moving money around responsibly will help to alleviate its ill effects. As Mark Twain has said:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore… Dream… Discover...

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A great travel blog inspired me to have this post. Miss Beth Tamayo (does that sound familiar?) was my Chemistry professor when I was still a student in the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod. She made easy the 10 grueling units of the subject, handling both lecture and laboratory. Now she is married, had migrated to the United States and still continues to teach. While balancing chemical equations, rattling off esoteric elemental properties and deriving electronic configurations to her students, she has taken photography as a hobby just recently. Fast learner that she is, her pictures are now phenomenal. Photography complements the affliction that we share: travel itch. She is maintaining three travel blogs and California Today is one of them. Despite her busy schedule, she spares her time to comment on almost all my entries here. Presenting... her top 20 destinations in California Today...

 

 

National Cancer Awareness Week

From January 19 - 22, 2009, the Philippines will be having the highlights of its National Cancer Awareness Week. In my home province, Negros Occidental, the Forum Against Cancer Through Encouragement and Support (F.A.C.E.S. Foundation Inc.) in cooperation with the local government and the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology will be having an exhibit on cancer awareness.



A blogging nurse from my home province (we actually live in neighboring villages and we have met here in the blogosphere), IFoundMe, requested some of her fellow bloggers (myself included) to support this noble cause. And so, this is a worthy deviation from my normal posts.

Having officemates and friends that are battling the big C, I have seen the primary human struggle against this affliction - the shock of the abrupt realization of one's certain mortality. Aside from the emotional struggle, cancer patients also endure physical pain as well as financial burden....

In most cases, the spotlight of the struggle is focused on the patient. The struggle of the patient's loved ones is sometimes obscured.

I would like to present another blogger who details her reasons why she connects to the blogging world. Her husband had suffered oral cancer. This is a short account of how she coped with cancer and how she took care of her loved one...

Friends, here is a dear lady - Balisha....

Addendum [19 Jan 2009]

I received an email from once of my contacts in World Vision and I have seen some keywords about cancer and searched for related sites through Google. Here is one very informative site:

CANCER PREVENTION COALITION

A Look-over from Gawahon

One's destination is never a place
but rather a new way of looking at things.
Henry Miller
US author (1891 - 1980)

Gawahon Eco-Park is a relatively new area for rest and recreation and preserved as a public property in Victorias City, Negros Occidental. Gawahon is a component of Barangay XI in the city that is notable for being the site of Victorias Milling Company (VMC). VMC is the Philippine's largest sugar refinery sitting on a 7,000 hectare compound, making it the world's largest integrated sugar mill. When Gawahon Eco-Park opened some three years ago, a friend (whose brother headed the development of the area) had invited me to visit the site. It was only last Dec. 29, 2008 that I was finally able to give in to her request.

It takes an hour to travel by bus from Bacolod City to Victorias City and another hour from the latter's city proper to Gawahon by motorcycle (locally called "habal-habal").

Gawahon is actually a Hiligaynon term which means "to look-over from a high area". In the olden days when houses were raised from the ground and were made of bamboo and nipa, "gawahon" would mean "to look-over from the window or door". Indeed the name aptly suits this park since it is situated in a strategic spot in the high hills of Barangay XI offering an overview of the lower plains and the city. The site also features 7 waterfalls which I was not able to visit. The first waterfall is about an hour hike from the main area of the park. My short stay there did not warrant such walk.

This is the entrance to the park.



The accommodation facilities are concentrated around a large pond. There are many duplex houses surrounding the pond and there are huts made of bamboo and cogon under the eucalyptus trees.



The most prominent among the facilities surrounding the pond is the viewing deck wherein one could see the plains with the small artificial lake in the foreground.



There are limes and some fern trees in the area.





This was what really attracted my curiosity. This inedible banana specie with red and "hairy" peels is cultivated for ornamental purposes. Unfortunately, I don't know its classification aside from knowing that it is from the genus Musa.



On top of the slope where the viewing deck is situated are two small adjacent swimming pools separated by a structure with rafters. There are some signs of ongoing construction in this area.

In this view facing southeast, one can see the mountains.



Moving to the opposite side and facing northwest, one can see the plains. This is my favorite shot.



Opportunities for Improvement

If Victorias City really wants to move the bar for its ecotourism program, then it should start with essential improvements for Gawahon. The concrete roads leading to its mountainous barangays are far from completion. The fee collection in the park is ambiguous: no receipts are being automatically issued. For visitors, I suggest that fees be made in the finance office in their city hall to ensure that the money goes to the rightful hands, otherwise insist for an official receipt.

The maintenance of the place is quite poor. Three years after it opened, some huts are already unusable. In spite of the brownish water of the pond, trashes are visible in its bottom. Some remnants of destroyed properties are just being left to rot.



These used to be swans, now they are ugly ducklings.



It would also be good if the activity areas would be immediately cleaned. It was December 29 when I went there yet I could still see the rubbish of the visitors who held their party in the viewing deck on December 20.

The pools were also verging on dark green due to "chlorophyllic" abundance. The views there were great but taking a bath is a different story.

Not Just the Destination

Sometimes the journey is just as important as the destination. For my trip to Gawahon, I opted to take the motorcycle ride. I find it convenient because I can always ask the driver to stop by the roadside for me to take pictures. And I did take pictures along the way despite of the impending storm that threatened our way in the return trip to the city proper.















I was fortunate that the driver (named Junjun) was very accommodating and he was as enthusiastic as I was with the sceneries. So for those who would like to have a road trip to Gawahon via habal-habal, you may contact him through his mobile phone: 09292214665.



With the not-so-good things I have seen, I still think that Gawahon and the road trip were well worth my time and resources. The verdures were very refreshing. And Gawahon is indeed true to its name: it provides a beautiful look-over.