It was one of those waking moments when I thought I was still trapped in la-la land because the text message that woke me up read something like, “we are being invited to guest on a TV show. Get your ass online.” So I staggered in the middle of the night and checked our email. Lo and behold, it was true. But then as I scanned the message, the taping dates fell on the dates Ron and I will celebrate his birthday in God-knows-where. I contacted the researcher and our chance of making ourselves …

I arrived in Shanghai at noon with a sunshine attenuated by the freezing air and overpowered by the bustling crowd of platform 11. I was carrying my 60 L backpack and my day pack, plus big boxes of Aunt Xi Ling–whom by the way, I met in the preceding 14 hour train ride. Together with Max and Lene, we dumped the duct tape cocooned packages in the trunk of the cab for our motherly train seat mate. Aunt Xi Ling gave me a hug and uttered something in mandarin before …

When I was in college, all I could think of when hearing the name Sri Lanka was the place where Ravana took Sita after abducting her away from Rama and Lakshman. In my professor’s version of Ramayana, Ravana took a big leap from India to get to Lanka. In other versions, Ravana shoved Sita inside his Pushpaka vimana, man-handled a giant peacock, and used it to fly back to his kingdom. What is regarded as a discovery of something which was not sought but was nevertheless found is perhaps what makes …

 
There is no LCC direct flight from Manila to Colombo, the only and cheapest possible way is to scour the web for seat sale that will fit our flight connection puzzle and compete with other people booking online deals for their last minute holidays. It wasn’t easy, it took us a dusk to dawn skype session to connect the dots and come up with a transit plan that is perfect for the budget.
Manila-Singapore, 3 1/2 hours
Singapore Layover, 8 hours
Monette, arrived mid day in Changi Airport while I was still at work absorbing …

Previously, on Fliptravels:
We were both drifting fast to La-la land when I asked Monette…
Ron: We booked a round trip ticket right?
Monette: Yeah…
Ron: Is it (the return ticket) with you?
Monette: No…
Both: HOH CRAP!!!
And so we endured half of the five-hour trip to Mui Ne with shooting BPs as we don’t know how we can get hold of our return tickets. At the pit stop, I quickly took my caffeine fix; and with closed eyes, called our hotel that booked us the tour (Ron also had to call them to make sure …

… Another stretch of walking was followed with more walking, the setting sun and cramped limbs reminded us that we have a cultural event to attend at 6:30 PM. Oh yes boys and girls, your folks here are no “all beer, no humanity” celebrities (celebrities?!). In fact, we always make it to a point to indulge in a traditional and/or artsy event whenever we are on the road. Remember our Apsara night in Siem Reap? the Hutong courtyard in Beijing? The Wayang Kulit in Yogya? and the Pingpong show in …

I stepped out of Bandaranaike International Airport with all the soot and grime of Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and of course, Sri Lanka. Four airports, three plane rides, damning heat of the summer sun, one 1-hour bus ride, and one 4-hour bus ride in 24 hours should be enough to drive me to pick an axe and decapitate Ron, or anybody who crosses my way. But since that was our first out-of-South East Asia trip together, I restrained myself lest be banned from going out of the country.

The bittersweet journey started …

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 …