Ahh yes, a new year means new travel goals. After not completing last year’s travel goals, I was a bit disheartened about making a new list (don’t even get me started on my “10 places to visit in the next two years post“). I realize in hindsight that the list was made on a whim, without much thought put into it. Okay fine, I’m just making excuses for my failure. Still, I managed to tick off a couple of destinations from the list, and go to places that wasn’t in the list, so it wasn’t all bad.

Seeing as how my quickly travel plans are made and changed last year, I hesitate putting destination into writing, as I know things can change in the last minute. But hey, it doesn’t hurt to dream and plan right?
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When people ask me for hotel recommendations in Boracay, I couldn’t name any hotel because the first time I went there, I stayed at a friend’s house. This time however, I already have one hotel I wholeheartedly recommend: The Taj Guesthouse.

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The past 365 days has really been something else. My unspoken resolution for 2008 was to make it a better year, and to my surprise, it was better than I ever expected. After spending half of 2007 out of the country, I made it a point to see more of the Philippines this year. I had a list of places I wanted to visit, and though I wasn’t able to visit all of them, I was able to go to places I haven’t been to before.

Polaroids are fun. Thank you Rotch for the film and the camera, thank you Kaoko for the scan!

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The first time I went to Boracay was in March 2005. It was also the first time my friends and I went on a long holiday together, and the first time I flew with Seair. That trip was easily one of the most memorable trips I ever had. The first views of the island from the air, the balmy sea air and the bright sunshine that welcomed us in Caticlan, the chori burgers, the D’Mall palengke, the Tekken tournaments, the steak night, the long walks from Station 1 to Station 3, the Holy Week parties, the aftermath of the Holy Week parties, the firedancers and the copious amounts of alcohol.

Boracay White Beach March 2005

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It’s December 25th, and as Manila sleeps, I sleepily slog through the last three hour stretch before my shift ends. But I can’t sleep without announcing the winners of my Best Travel Photo contest first!

HG and Mr. Snowman-made-of-sand wishes you a Merry Christmas!

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I just got back from a fun, relaxing weekend at Boracay with my favorite travel buddies, Gail, Marc, Eric and Melo. We were all set to go to Romblon, when we found out that we ran out of tickets and we got re-routed to Boracay. Hey, we’re not complaining!

This isn’t our first time to go to this gorgeous Philippine beach, so we skipped the island hopping and other water sports, and just settled on exploring Bulabog beach, walking up and down the long beach road and gorging ourselves silly. This is the life.
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As soon as we drove off in the jeep from the Ivana port, the thunderstorm that the weather websites were predicting finally arrived. The weather effectively killed off any plans for more sightseeing around Batan island. That and the queasy feeling we got from riding the boat from Sabtang.

The weather in Batanes is pretty hard to predict, owing largely to its remote location. It can be raining pretty heavily in Manila, but it’d be bright and sunny in Batanes. The typhoon that was ravaging the rest of the country that weekend was already on its way out when it entered the Philippine area of responsibility for the second time. It was too far to affect Batanes with heavy rains, but it still made an impact with the strong winds that blew through the town.
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Hey guys and girls! I just want to remind you that the Justwandering.org Best Travel Photo Contest is ending this Friday, December 19, 2008!

Post your favorite travel photos (taken by you, of course!), and get a chance to win autographed copies of Robert Alejandro’s The Sketching Backpacker: Backpack Southeast Asia and some parts of China and Jetro Rafael’s Backpack Photos postcard book AND and one-year Flickr PRO account!

Looking forward to seeing your photos!

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We woke up early the following day for our trip to Sabtang. Tita Remy has arranged for the jeep to pick us up at Novita house at 5:30 am, for the ride to the Ivana port, where we would ride a faluwa to Sabtang. At 5:20am, the jeep was waiting outside the gate. Because there aren’t that many people in Batanes, public transport aren’t as regular as it is in Manila, so we either take this jeep to Ivana, or wait until several hours later for the next one.

The streets of Batan island were dark, specially in areas where there aren’t any houses. Road improvement were ongoing, and the roadworks were marked by lanterns strewn along the cordons that line the pavement. Soon we were rewarded with a gorgeous pink sky that marks the start of a new day. This beautiful sunrise raised our spirits, taking it as a sign that we’re going to have another sunny day in Batanes.
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