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Binagol, moron and other Leyte treats
2007-10-31 16:48:00 Day 7, my last day in Eastern Visayas... I stayed in the hotel the whole morning since it was raining cats and dogs. It was a pity since I wanted to explore Palo. Anyway, after lunch, my brod Gil passed by for me at the hotel and we stopped by an area along Zamora Street near the corner of Rizal Street where vendors sell binagol, moron and sagmani.Binagol is a mixture of talyan (a type of root crop similar to gabi), coconut milk and sugar placed in coconut shells or "bagol" and steamed inside. This is made in the town of Dagami. Chocolate moron is suman made of ground rice cooked in coconut milk flavored with cocoa. Sagmani is another suman made of cassava, gabi or sweet potatoes cooked with coconut cream, sugar and sometimes coconut meat.We also passed by the Leyte Capitol and the Sto. Nino Shrine. As much as I wanted to enter the shrine, the tickets cost P200 for the first five people. Talk about pricing! We should fry the PCGG for this!Anyway, my flight was still at 4:50 p.m. but...
By: Ivan About Town
More waterfalls in Biliran
2007-10-29 16:41:00 Biliran is an island province at the northern tip of Leyte. And just like Samar, it's connected by a bridge so there's no need for a boat ride.From Tacloban, I took a van to Naval which was about 3 hours away. I took some photos at the Biliran Bridge. They don't make infrastructure with character nowadays. If there's one thing I liked about Marcos, he made infrastructure grand such as the San Juanico Bridge, and not like the ugly, kitsch infrastructure our current DPWH churns outs.The next day, I took a habal-habal ride to Tinago Falls. The drivers charge so much here in Biliran, it's so difficult to get to these out-of-the-way places without creating a big hole in your pockets. The local government should enforce standard rates to get to these places to save tourists from the hard-bargain, especially since they are vigorously promoting their many attractions which are most definitely worth the visit.There are more waterfalls such as Casiawan Falls, Casabangan Falls, Bagongbong...
By: Ivan About Town
Chasing waterfalls in Samar
2007-10-28 16:05:00 Day 4 of my Eastern Visayas trip was around Calbayog, known as the City of Waterfalls. So it's a shame if I didn't visit at least one. After going around the city's historic core, I proceeded to the terminal to take the jeep to Allen. The jump off point in Brgy. Tinaplacan is an hour away, halfway between downtown Calbayog and the port town of Allen in Northern Samar. Looking at the map, Calbayog is almost twice as big as Biliran Province!I ended up in Brgy. Bugtong, a few meters from Tinaplacan. The waterfall is in the territory of Bugtong but you need to pass through Tinaplacan. It's 3 kilometers from the road. And the locals suggested I hire a habal-habal so I have a guide to the falls which turned out to be a good idea since the path was very muddy. The motorbike actually slipped and we fell off on the way there. Luckily, I escaped with minor scratches.To get to the main falls, you had to walk on several cascades. There were some slippery parts so I had to take off my shoes....
By: Ivan About Town
PGMA Strong Republic Nautical Highway
2007-10-27 17:39:00 Day 3 of my Eastern Visayas trip. My plan was to pass by Calbayog to check out one of its many waterfalls then try to get to Allen, Northern Samar to stay for the night. But that did not materialize due to a horrific experience on the PGMA Strong Republic Nautical Highway. I wanted to stress the full name to illustrate the wrong impression it gives. PGMA had announced this RORO thing years ago and one would expect that the highways in Samar, being part of the Pan-Philippine Highway, were at least in decent condition.Well, it was worse than last night. What would normally take two hours from Catbalogan to Calbayog (that's already bad given that the distance between both cities is just 70 kilometers), we did in nine hours. For close to seven hours, traffic in the only road that ran through Samar Province was at a complete stop. A truck was stuck in the mud in a one-lane section in Brgy. Balugo, Tarangnan and it took hours for them to pull it out of the way. Imagine the traffic snarl ...
By: Ivan About Town
From Guiuan to Catbalogan
2007-10-26 17:55:00 From Borongan, we drove to Guiuan which was an hour away. The church there is a national cultural treasure. Before visiting the church, we had lunch at Aling Celing's in the market. We had kind of shell called sambong among others.Entering the church outside Mass hours is not that easy since they are very protective after incidents of theft. But we got in thanks to some through channels. Aside from being relatively intact, what is unique about the church are the shell ornamentation in the transepts and the baptistry.If only I had more time, I would have wanted to visit Calico-an Island, the surfers' haven of Eastern Samar. But it looks like I'll have to save that for another day.After checking out the church, we proceeded to Balangiga to check out the church and monument. We've all heard about Balangiga Massacre and the quest to return the bells to the town. In Balangiga, I boarded a bus to Samar Province.My plan was to sleep in Catbalogan for the night which was a long way to ...
By: Ivan About Town
Transit in Tacloban
2007-10-25 16:33:00 This trip was in the works since I bought my P1 ticket on Cebu Pacific last February. But the funny thing was I had not planned at all for this trip! I simply rode the plane to Tacloban and played everything by ear.I had informed my brods that I was coming over. But I didn't want to hassle them. I was already seated in the waiting jeepney when I texted my brods informing them that I had arrived. What surprised me though was a reply from one of them for me to wait at the airport since he would pick me up. So I got off the jeep and happily waited. It really touched me since we had never met before.He took me to the MacArthur Landing Site in the neighboring town of Palo. Just a few days before, on October 20, they had celebrated the anniversary of Mac Arthur's landing. We then had breakfast at the nearby MacArthur Park and Beach Resort, one of those classy resorts built during the Marcos days to house the Miss Universe candidates in 1973. It's supposedly a class "A" resort but servi...
By: Ivan About Town
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