Boarding Gate 101

The Philippine government just announced the dates of public non-working holidays in the Philippines for 2014. Plan your trips accordingly. A. Regular Holidays New Year’s Day         01 January (Wednesday) Araw ng Kagitingan      09 April (Wednesday) Maundy Thursday        17 April Good Friday          18 April Labor Day           01 May (Thursday)   Independence Day       12 June (Thursday) National Heroes Day    25 August (Last Monday of August) Bonifacio Day         30 November (Sunday) Christmas Day         25 December (Thursday) Rizal Day               30 December (Tuesday) B. Special (Non-Working) Days Chinese New Year 31 January (Friday) Black Saturday 19 April Ninoy Aquino Day       ...

I was a bit skeptical at first when I was told by a friend that one of the sights not to miss when visiting Baler is the Millennium Tree. From the name itself I thought that it's just another old tree which the locals named using hyperbole. My interest got piqued a bit when I read that visitors can actually climbed on it. So I said, OK, I'd try that, since it's been long since I've climbed a tree myself. I suggested it to my friends, James, Aroma, Sigrid and Randy when we arrived in Baler. We set out to it right after we visited the Mother Falls in Dimutabo . It was almost sunset when we, on two tricycles that we hired, arrived at the Balete Park, in Maria Aurora, a town adjacent to surfing town of Baler . The ride almost took more than thirty minutes, and I was even feeling a bit tired while on the way.  A guide snapping a photo I did not expect the enormous size of the tree when we finally saw it.  The tree, we were told, was about 200 feet high, a...

The ride from Baler going to Ditumabo, a small village of San Luis, Aurora, was not easy. The road was rough and unpaved, with small boulders seemingly strewn over it, testing the suspension system of the two tricycle cabs that we (the same people whom I went surfing in Baler with) hired to take us to the village.  Much of the four-kilometer trip was also uphill, making the engines cry out as our drivers, Anthony and Carlo, struggled to stabilize the vehicles as we trudge along. Our destination was a waterfall called Ditumabo Falls, also known as Mother Falls. One of the two tricycles that we hired After arriving at the village we set out to  "twenty-minute" hike, crossing several footbridges made of bamboo and driftwood, across streams and through footpaths carved on hills. The 20-minute hike easily went to almost an hour. Randy, Aroma and Sigrid crossing the footbridge The clear, cool waters of the stream that we forged gave hints of what were in ...

Normally my go-to place for surfing is San Juan, La Union , a town about six hours north of Manila, but I wish I had discovered Baler, Aurora a long time ago as an alternate surfing spot. I immediately fell for the place as soon as we arrived in our beachfront hotel early in the morning, just off from a 5-hour bus ride from Manila. Sunrise in the Pacific Ocean Baler is located northeast of Manila, facing the Philippine Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is basically on the opposite of San Juan, which faces the West Philippine Sea, although the surfing season for both is similar, from September to February.  Baler became a popular destination for surfers recently, after which it was voted as a top beach destination and surf spot in various publications. The obligatory surfboard on the beach    I went to Baler with my friends from the university - Sigrid, Randy, Aroma and James - the same group that I usually go with in weekend jaunts and adventure, like i...