Fliptravels.com was invited by the Department of Tourism together with the selected group of media for its launching of the new campaign slogan. After last year’s Kay Ganda Hullabaloo, every body’s itching and excited to have a new banner and move on from the horrid past.
Few minutes after the launch, the hashtag #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines spread on the web faster than a herpes virus in a college dorm.
But as expected, a lot of nega stars made some scenes all over twitterdom and facebook universe. And I quote “It is just another resurrected …

A cultural practice, a religious symbol, a mark of a hero, a baptism of fire, and more have characterized the tattoos of the early days (actually, even up to now). Today, this practice has cut across cultures and is borne by different gender, ages, and nationality. Some got it in Miami while in the middle of their Florida Holidays and some got it from a traditional Sak Yant Monk tattooist in a monastery in Laos. As I spend time on the road, I have noticed a huge population of travelers sporting one, if not …

Who would have known that this September would be one of the most memorable months of our travel blogging experience. Years ago, we would never imagine getting within a hand-span distance from people who live and breathe travel. But the bug hit, and the rest of our not-so-boring, but still boring, lives are history.
First stop was the Solesister’s event “From Glampackers to Poorpackers” where I was invited to talk at the opening night. The topic: “Female Travel.” I know, I know… I felt a bit lost too, but I did try …

Traveling is not always an escape, at times it is a way to give yourself a chance to miss home. And in my case, it has been a year since the last time I set foot on my native home land.
(sniff sniff) Do I smell homesick? Not quite. As homesick is defined as a mood or sadness characterized with initial signs of depression and melancholy. And I may JUST be missing and craving for some things back home.
Home sick isn’t really in the vocabulary of wanderlusts, we can even live …

When people ask us why we travel together, our answer is plain and simple. We travel together because we complement each other in a lot of ways.
We tell stories in our own styles, we crave different adventures stretching wide across the id-anal continuum; one has a hunger for exotic food adventure while the other is contented with a quaint quiet time on the dinner table; one gravitates toward extreme activities and the other will fall silent in a cozy corner with a good book at hand. It is a good …

To give you an idea on how Caramoan appeals to the international market, watch this primer of Survivor Serbia in 2009.

We spent the first day hopping from one island to another, jumping shots after shots, it was a vacation like no other. That’s because this time around we were with two of the most fabulous guest travelers and good friends of ours. Jeff is a fashion b*tch and blogger from Vancouver Canada and Santi is a fashion designer and runner-up of Project Runway Philippines season 2–(READ: BAKLA).

The first day was …

Make me moan, Caramoan…
~Santi Obcena

Fresh from the trip to Ilo-Ilo a week before, Ron and I decided to bring Jeff to Caramoan Islands. Together with Santi, we huddled at terminal 3 an hour before departure. As always, Ron had to be late… We had to do unbelievable stunts to keep the counters open till Ron arrived. And he did, in the nick of time…
After a short plane ride to Naga Airport, we hit the road and immediately looked for a place to eat.

Kinunot, stewed shark and stingray meat.

Pinangat, taro leaves …

Fresh from the comatose-inducing overnight in Concepcion, we headed back straight to Iloilo City and looked for a place to eat late lunch. Mang Inasal is almost like herpes, they are everywhere. That’s why Jeff got too curious and I let him try its famous barbecue chicken, and it was so cheap it could possibly be fake chicken.
When Monette arrived in the city a day ahead of us she luckily stumbled-upon this new hostel in La Paz while looking for cheaper alternative. So we spared ourselves from exerting the same …

Filled with loathsome La Paz Batchoy soup, we decided to move along to get to our next destination, the Beach. Finally…
We hopped on a cab to take us to the bus terminal in Jaro and labored about 2 and a half hours of sweltering bus ride to the isolated town of Concepcion. We unfortunately planted ourselves beside the window so that when we went down the bus, the skin color of our left arms are nowhere near our right’s. We were dropped off at the wet market where our contact …

After the Pinatubo hike, that’s when we realized that it would really be the busiest month of 2010. After booking some more flights we ran around Manila like foreign tourists, minus the public transportation piece of it. We gave our guest from Vancouver an ultimate Manila experience–from the down and dirty foodie heaven of Estero to the glitz and glams of the Philippine fashion week.
After the fabulous holiday runway show of our friend Santi Obcena, I went straight to work, while Monette went home to prep-up for her 5 AM …