Top 5 Things To Do in Kabankalan City

Here is my list of the top 5 things to do in Kabankalan City (from a visitor's point of view):

1. Take part in the Sinulog Festival (held every third Sunday of January)
2. Swimming, hiking and a picnic at Mag-aso Falls
3. Public plaza
4. Public market (just so you see what the locals do)
5. Visit the new City Hall

More Mag-aso Falls Pictures

Long Weekends in 2009 (Philippines)

There a lot of long weekends in the Philippines in 2009. As you may all be eager to plan your weekends and vacations, here's a list of those 10 long weekends:

• April 4 - 6 (Araw ng Kagitingan on April 9 was moved to the nearest Monday, April 6)
• April 9 - 12 (Holy Week)
• May 1 - 3 (Labor Day weekend)
• June 12 - 14 (Independence Day)
• August 21 - 23 (Ninoy Aquino Day)
• August 29 - 31 (National Heroes Day)
• October 31 - November 2 (All Saints Day/All Souls Day)
• November 28 - 30 (Bonifacio Day)
• December 24 - 27 (Christmas holidays)
• December 30 - January 3, 2010 (Rizal Day & New Year)

When I heard this news, I had to sit down for an hour and mark my calendar on these dates. Also, the christmas holidays in 2009 will be a long one again, as only December 28 and 29 are not official holidays.

Also, Air Asia is giving away free seats. Yes, free! Check out the site now as a lot of people in Asia are interested in this too. But yes, their airport in the Philippines is at Clark.

We better start planning already!

Google Earth Underwater and Mag-aso Falls

As of this writing, Google just launched "Ocean Google Earth", or Google Earth underwater. Amazing, isn't it? At first, one might think that it would only be useful for those in the scientific and research community. But on second thought, the applications are only limited by our imaginations. In fact, it can be a sort of travel experience from home, straight from your desktop or laptop, specially with the sometimes high cost of travel, specially in this economy and, in some places, in these kinds of weather.

I've been waiting to post my pics of Mag-aso Falls for sometime now and I've finally done it. Mas-aso Falls has only been recently developed by Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental. The main falls is that pic on the left, and to get there, you have to go down some 100 steps or so (I stopped counting). The water is clear and there are not that many people, except when we went there, which was on January 1. I didn't know that it is a tradition to go to the beach or somewhere with water on New Year's Day. The people of Central and Southern Negros, though, take it up a notch. You see them all in fully loaded tricycles, pick-up trucks and hauler trucks.

So anyway, when you go back up the steps to the main falls, they have a swimming pool back at the top, and just a few steps near that are the small "falls" up the river. My cousin said that is one of the best places to bathe in because you're the first one to bathe in the water. :)


If you click on the picture, it will take you to my Flickr page where you'll find a few more pictures of Mag-aso Falls.

Bring No Luggage

Just wanted to share a little tip out there, although it's not exactly a tip as everyone is supposed to know about this already. Yes, bring no check-in luggage with you when you can.

When I traveled a few days ago, I didn't want to bring check-in luggage with me, so I brought only carry-on luggage. In the rush for the Christmas holidays, there were long lines at NAIA III and I was quite anxious to get through check-in, specially as I didn't get proper sleep the night before (another side-effect of traveling). Why do I have to fall in line with all the other passengers that have a month's worth of luggage with them, right? Good enough I talked to a friend a few steps behind me on the line, for I suddenly saw the Express Check-in Counter of Cebu Pacific. Whew! There was only one person there, whereas I was in a line with 6 people before me with several carts (yes, carts) of luggage with them. From the time I arrived at the airport, it only took me 20 minutes to get through to the security gates. More time to explore and find a spot in which to park myself. :)

Cebu Pacific Air can be reached through their website at www.cebupacificair.com

Cebu Pacific Sale

Just wanted to share something that I came across recently when I had nothing to do but surf the net looking for cheap airfare, hoping to get a good deal on an adventure trip one of these weekends. Cebu Pacific Air just recently released its promo fares which start at Php 1 (plus taxes and surcharges), including Php 288 all-in fares for domestic flights. I have been searching for good deals for the November 29 to December 1 weekend and found a Manila to Iloilo flight for Php 2800 (roundtrip). Good enough, considering how much it used to be and how much the other carriers charge for this. But then, in all my OC-ness and, uhm, frugality, I might end up staying home because I can't decide where to go. Whew.

If you want to go abroad or around Asia, the flight fares are also reasonable. You can go to Hong Kong (roundtrip) for Php8000+. But you need to research carefully and plan the timing so that you get good fares, and sometimes, the earlier you buy, the better. Yes, it's time. It's time to get those hands pitter-pattering on the keyboard and clicking on all kinds of flight combinations to get that deal. After all, a great bargain can make you feel like the queen of the world.

Little Walks

Next week, our bosses will be out traveling in the Hongkong/China area. Well, it's not exactly a case of when the cat is away the mouse can play. No bonita. That is a weird situation for all of us. Of course, in an interconnected world, people are just an email or a text message away.

Anyway, as it's a rainy night in Makati, this actually reminded me of the Promenade at the Tsim Sha Tsui side of Hong Kong. Sometime before in Tsim Sha Tsui, my uncle went to China very early in the morning so he can play golf with his buddies and he left me alone to fend for myself. He must have realized that I can find my way around by following the maps in all those folded papers and travel brochures. My friends call them "papel-papel". With the sole intention of seeing those old folks doing their tai chi early in the morning, I went out 7am -ish for a walk on the Promenade along the harbor. Well, nothing beats a walk along the harbor early in the morning. You have the Promenade all to yourself (well, okay, along with a few other joggers and walkers), see the HK Cultural Center, Clock Tower, the Avenue of the Stars and the HK Space Museum without the usual crowd.

There are actually many other "walks" to do in Tsim Sha Tsui. You can get lost in Kowloon Park and at the Knutsford Terrace/Knutsford Steps, as well as walk the length of Nathan Road and haggle with a vendor for those dried things that hold clams. Haggling is a lot of fun, then see their reaction when you walk away saying, "Ok. Thanks. I'll think about it first."

As in life, the little things count. So pay some attention to those brochures on those little stands in little corners. There are themed walks that can guide you around and they include maps and bits of descriptions about the attractions. I took one of each of the brochures available and those basically became my maps for going around. They are also posted online at the Discover Hong Kong website.

From those little walks, I discovered that walking around and getting lost (a lot) can actually help you know a place better. I hope to discover more interesting places soon. I hope you do too.

Like a Spark

Great travel ideas come to us like a spark. Usually, they're not a result of so much planning and careful thought. They appear out of nowhere, like a bright spark in the middle of a dark sky and suddenly spread out like fireworks - bright, colorful and exciting. They call you to just go, not next month or next year, but tomorrow. It's a call at the back of your head telling you to start packing now.

This reminds me of an English guy who said he doesn't normally think so much about his upcoming trips. He just packs his things and goes to wherever it is he needs, or wants, to go. His favorite website? You guessed it -- Lastminute.com it is. :)

This is not a call to all of you to leave your jobs and pack your bags, like, now na. It's reminder that we don't need to "engineer" our trips so much, and even the way we live our lives. That where to go will come to you when you least expect it. That sometimes, places off the beaten track can actually define a trip.

What's Your Driving Music?

What's a great driving song? I was just sitting here and listening to Yahoo Music when it played Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield.

Take me away: A secret place.
A sweet escape: Take me away.

Then I just thought that this song would be great when driving. It's not too slow to make you feel drowsy and it's upbeat enough to make you feel that yes, you're still alive. That's how I like the songs to go when I'm driving. Rock music makes me hyperactive, and that's not so good for soon I'll be going at it at 80 mph. If the music is too slow, it makes me feel sleepy and drowsy. The best types of driving music for me would probably be jazz, some kinds of R&B, a little alternative rock, erm country music, something in the mid-stream upbeat side.

There's this male friend who likes to listen to The Carpenters while driving. Oh boy, once we were on a ten-hour marathon road trip and when it was his turn to drive, he played the whole 2-disc Greatest Hits: The Carpenters album. Of course, we all fell asleep in no time. I woke up in the middle of the night and found him all-alive, energetic and singing along with Karen Carpenter at the top of his voice!

There are also some who like playing classical music when driving. Imagine that, driving along to the sounds of the Hallelujah Chorus. Or to the thumping sounds of The Great Gate of Kiev. Majestic... and amazing. I wonder where I'll end up if that were me.

We all have different preferences and I'm sure you will have your own driving music preference. What's your style? What's your favorite music for driving?

The sun is on my side. Take me for a ride. I smile up to the sky. I know I'll be all right.

When We Disappear, We're On Vacation

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of talk on people suddenly disappearing in the office. Most just need a break and go on vacation. No formal notice, no vacation leave forms. It's just a vacation for a few short days.

People notice only this. They go crazy when someone does not come to the office, despite the fact that the person has a high-end laptop, top of the line internal modem, wifi connectivity, remote collaboration software and, sometimes, a remote access connection token for connectivity to the office network. I see this again and again, I have even done this myself - the sudden disappearance act. But there seems to be a good explanation behind this.

We work in an intensive, client-driven industry. The customer is king and the deadline drives our life. Where I work, we have ten, sometimes more than ten, projects going on at the same time. Also, there is an unwritten rule that you cannot roll around for a week with no project going on. You always have to have something going on. Then, while you're doing that project, something's always beeing cooked up and new projects suddenly appear out of nowhere! With this kind of intensity going on, there is no way that a proper vacation can be had even if you plan for it months in advance. Of course, by proper vacation, I mean you blissfully relaxing somewhere and the whole office blissfully humming like the well-oiled machinery that it should be and not blasting at you on where you put that god-forsaken file.

I have a theory that the best time for the employees of a project-based firm to go on vacation is in between projects. That time when a project has just been finished so that you come back ready to take on a new project. I tried this once and it was great. Awesome. I came back to work ready to rock.

The American Institute of Stress estimates that burnout costs the United States $300 billion a year in medical expenses, absenteeism and associated costs. According to the National Geographic Society Traveler magazine, some studies have also shown that an annual vacation can cut the risk of heart attack in men by one-third and in women by one-half.

Whatever the reasons may be for employees suddenly going on vacation, it can be said that we cannot underestimate the importance of a vacation. There are some who say that when you're tired, work. But Richard Seltzer, a writer, also said that, "your vacation is a break with the ordinary work-a-day world, and also an expression of who you are, or at least the self you dream yourself to be." It's about you, and your dreams for yourself. The new generation of workers do not accept second-best anymore. Unless the modern-day workplace helps employees realize their dreams for themselves and see themselves in the workplace, these employees will one by one disappear.