Philippine Travels

A great blog and Facebook page that has amassed a good collection of stories and posts on the history of the Philippines. I have enjoyed following him and his posts over the years and I hope you do too. As he says :"A collector of vintage postcards, cigarette labels, pop culture materials, coins and paper money, who wants to share his passion." link to : Pinoykollektor.blogspot.com   Link to : Pinoy-Kollektor Facebook page

Japan under our skin Toshinao Urabe, ambassador of Japan, led us through a delicate dinner at his residence recently, which made me realize that the Japanese really eat with their eyes. An elaborate dinner service, fine lacquerware and creative plating of each dish delighted our senses before the food was actually tasted and consumed. This was cultural diplomacy at its best. As they say, one of the best ways into people’s hearts is through the belly. Ambassador Urabe is no stranger to the Philippines. He has been here as a child, enrolled in Jose Abad Santos Memorial School. As a child he met Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit; and he has a black and white photo to prove it. While enjoying the meal, I remembered that Philippine-Japanese relations form a long and complex history that predates the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1946. It predates the horrors of the World War II, where Japanese soldiers were our enemies. When I was looking at old maps in the context of our territ

Social media shark tracking program aims to foster better understanding among humans For the first time, people can follow the travels of satellite-tagged sharks with names such as Rachael, Harriett and Lil’ Fella as they make their way up and down the coast on public tracking website wheresmyshark.com. Researchers have tracked some of the ocean’s top predators travelling thousands of kilometres just off the Queensland coast. But rather than scare people with the thought of giant sharks lurking just off our coastline, the program is designed to engender a bit of ­affection for them. There are even plans for people to be able to “adopt” their own shark, such as Rachael, a four-year-old great white about 3m long. Since being tagged as a juvenile off the Gold Coast three years ago, Rachael has travelled as far south as Victoria before returning to warmer waters. Then there’s Harriett, a 3.5m dusky whaler that covered a “phenomenal” 3200km in 12 months. Shark scientist Jonathan We

Taking the boat from Iloilo to Guimaras Island was an easy task. At Ortiz Wharf we bought tickets from a ticketing booth nearby, the standard boat ride cost us PHP 30 each, travel time was only 15 minutes to Jordan Port, Guimaras. I gathered that the first boat trip is always at 6:00Am; thereafter, boats leave every 15 minutes. To organize the transport From Jordan out to Alubihod and Raymen’s beach area was a very pleasant drive. If you want to save some money, you can wait for the public muliticab to fill with passengers (a small truck with bench seats in back). But it’s best to hire it yourself and as we where the only ones in it we got to spread out and not feel the bumps in the road too much. It pays to grab the driver’s phone number for the return trip as will take you to the beach and pick you up at a specified time. There’s a tourism office at the Jordan dock which can help with transportation arrangements.  Understanding that there is not much to choose from on thi

Well its been a while since I have been back to this blog and done updates, and so there are a few people I need to acknowledge who have got stories within this blog. As in any writing that is not done by oneself, you have to follow the code and give all credit to those sites and people that put in the effort. With that being said and as I have a bit of time on my hands, I will head back over the next few weeks and pop in some of the updated travel stories of this amazing place we like to visit. To remind myself and others a good link and advice to follow. How-Not-to-Steal-People-s-Content-on-the-Web