Travel Philippines!
13 Comments Written by dmeemai
on
January 15, 2008 – 7:19 am
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popping..
In a few, I will be visiting my homeland Philippines! I haven’t been back in four years and the anticipation is killing me!! I will be all over the place, but will be based mostly in my hometown- General Santos City ( the Tuna Capital of the Philippines) and Metro Manila (the country’s Capital)…
The horror, fun, stressful part begins at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport where it’s rated and reviewed among the most inconvenient if not worst airports in the world! You bet I’ll be giving my own view on the subject once I get settled there!
After this trip, I don’t know when I’ll be back again… Life happens to me here abroad too. How I wish I can travel often to the Philippines but there are tons of other places I want to see in my lifetime. It will just have to wait again.
For now I made a list of everything I want to try and do in the Philippines. These are things I loved then and know I still do!!
Things to do in Manila:
- EAT SINIGANG! need I say more?!
- Ride a jeepney (public transportation smaller than a bus)
- Commute in the Manila LRT (I lived in Manila for 7 years but never had the chance to ride the local train)
- Binge on the fishball and squidball from a sidewalk vendor
- Ditto for Mangga at Bagoong (Mango & Shrimp paste)
- and lest we forget- the “fear-factor”, gad-awful-disgusting looking yet uniquely tasty street food isaw (Barbecued pig’s intestines) and balot (unhatched duck egg)!
- Go to SM Megamall (I know, I know. Even my sis and nieces prefer Eastwood, Rockwell, and the new Ayala now… but I loved that mall!)
- Eat at all you can eat restos
- Dine in at Jollibee!! Chicken joy & rice with tons of gravy! Yay!
- Go to the beaches in Batangas and wherever else in Luzon!
- Try wakeboarding!! (calling Ivy! LoL)
- Babysit my nieces! I just adore and love them!
- Ahh, Sago at Gulaman (Agar agar and tapioca pearls)- a cold refreshment on a hot day, bring it on!!
- Malling, malling, malling
- Beach, beach, beach (Baguio is out! Been there almost all summers of my life while still living in the Philippines!)
- Maybe go to Laguna (hot springs), Subic and or Pampanga?!
Things to do in General Santos (Gensan)
- Have a lechon (roasted pig) party every week I’m there! Ok, maybe every other week! Haha
- Eat Durian til my tummy aches…
- Find “camachile“!! love this, love this, love this!
- Ride the tricycle! I miss this economical, ingenious, totally dangerous mini public transportation which can only be seen in subdivisions and small cities or towns in the Philippines.
- Go to the Gensan Fishport and buy fresh tuna for sashimi and sushi!
- Eat “panga” (grilled tuna jaw) to my heart’s content!
- Have a home-cooked, other “fear-factor” type of food “dinuguan” (pork’s blood), Kilawin (meat tripes and innards), Kare-Kare (beef stew like food in peanut sauce featuring beef tripes!) with bagoong (shrimp paste), Gulami (a spicy concoction of beef, noodles and veges in peanut sauce based soup!), Nilagpang (a chicken soup with a twist from western visayas), Batchoy (a distinct Filipino noodle soup) and Pancit Bijon (Noodle stir fry) - all of which are our cook’s specialty at TatayPepe’s. What can i tell you except that we have the best cooks in General Santos City!)
- Visit DAVAO city! the best city in the Philippines in my books!! I was born in Davao and lived there for 6 years!
- Eat some more sinigang!
- Have daing, tuyo, dilis and dried pusit (assorted dried fish and dried squid) and itlog na maalat (salted eggs) for breakfast
- Learn to play badminton!
- Drive!
- Eat guava, papaya, mango, pineapples, jackfruit, rambutan, lanzones, pomelo, mangosteen and saging na tundan! (assorted fresh tropical fruits)
- Binge on inihaw na saging (grilled bananas) and turon + banana cue (fried bananas) and kamote cue (fried sweet potato)
- Go to the beach every other day or perhaps I can rent out a cheap cottage and live by the beach for a week or two!
- SPEAK the visayan dialect! (I’m proud to say that I am fluent in Visayan as I am in Tagalog!)
- Go to the wet market and just enjoy the craziness and the stinky smell (no such thing as that where I am)!
If you read through the list, you’d know how much I miss eating Filipino Food! While I can have some of the dishes mentioned here in the US- it is not the same… Anybody got some suggestions on places to see and other food to try while I’m visiting the Philippines?!
Well Philippines, ready or not- here I come! © 2007
so you’re going home!! uban ko!!! hey, i sent u a xmas card. it got returned to sender AGAIN! 2 yrs in a row, huh! r u always moving? ingat and miss you.
Got here thru BlogRush and I like what I saw. Was in RP last summer and ate and ate too. There’s really no place like homw! Have a safe, memorable trip.
u may want to visit catanduanes too. i’ll show u around and we’ll play badminton
Whoa! Have I been gone that long??? Your site looks way too cool. Inggit ako. LOL…… I tried moving to WP when I moved to another server pero ang hirap pala so I’m stuck with blogger hehe……. I’ve updated your URL on my site BTW…..
Can’t wait to finally meet you in the flesh Mae. Kudos to you and your new and ultra fab site
Bess! Gabasa diay ka sa akong blog?! hehe do you need anything? naa nako diri sa CA. Basi naa kay ipadala when I get back and I can just mail it to you when I’m back OR maybe Inah and I could visit you again in Fresno?! What do you think? that is, if i still have “money” left after sa Phil trip!! harhar. email me! salamat sa pag-agi!
Hello po Ma’am Princess! Thank you for finding me in Blogrush- it does work, huh!
Yun lang talga ang plano ko doon, kumain ng kumain at pumunta sa beaches…
ei joyjoy! thanks for stopping by! is that a serious offer?! I’m up for anything. I already checked out where Catanduanes is! hehe. Nasa Bicol, 12 hours from Manila. I don’t mind driving over for a couple of days. I’m used to long distance driving. Be warned! I have a big extended family…
http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_beach/catanduanes.html
would you mind checking on this site and kung saan kayo malapit and san kami pwede mag stay (yung mura lang ha at hindi po kami ma-aarte!! hehe). that way we could just meet around there! See how serious I am? I really want to go to places I’ve never been and though I’ve been to Bicol before- daan lang yun when we experienced driving from Gensan to Manila!! Took us 3 days to get to Manila.
I’m not going to promise anything but if you could suggest the area na pwede naming puntahan and you could tour us. I can work out the logistics! And of course depende sa availability mo!
email me please at: thepostcardcollector[at]gmail[dot]com
thanks! here from you soon!
Ivy!! thank you and thank you sa praises sa new blog ko! hindi pa nga ako satisfied eh. might change my template pag kagaling ko ng pinas! hehe.
You don’t have to be inggit! Go find a wordpress template you like and tuturuan kita! I’ll set it up for you when we meet and teach you all I know with wordpress. Madali lang kasi we don’t need to change the URL kasi meron ka ng domain name.
That’s your assignment! Let’s dress up your blog. Marami ka pa namang “fans” all over the world- kasali na ako doon!
I’ll see you very soon! can’t wait.
I’m getting a sim card there. please email me your cell so we could text/call!
hmm.. gen san and davao.. they are both on my list to visit..
yup! even though i grew up in gensan, davao is best in my books..!
thanks for dropping by…
by the time you read this comment, i bet you’re no longer so many miles away - andito ko na rin siguro sa pinas. So welcome back, balikbayan!
i hope you’ve had a check mark on most of those items in the list now..enjoy the rest of your stay! its a beautiful country no matter what they say..
Hello. Come back again soon … there’s still a lot of places to explore in the Philippines.:-)What about palawan? I know you’re dying to go there.hahaha. see you soon my bestfriend. Nagbabasa po ako ng sinigang mo aw.