When in Morocco, buy real leather!

Curtains of colorful leather footwear such as these are a common sight at patios of stores at Morocco's bustling souk or marketplaces. What catches the fancy of tourists to this traditional Moroccan shoes are the colors, as these come in vivid hues of deep red, bright tangerine, lemon or mustard yellow, or even brighter shades of aquamarine or sky blue. Fellow travelers I've met during my visit to Morocco in Summer of 2010 said Moroccans -- if not all desert-dwellers in North Africa and other Arab states -- are clad in bold-colored garbs in order to make them much more visible in the middle of the desert. A sea of Moroccans in their traditional clothing, even when not in the desert, indeed makes for a post card-perfect picture!

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A day at the museum



YOU READ IT RIGHT, the festive tarpaulins at the facade of the National Museum says entrance to the musuem is free but only for the month of October!

I'm not a museum person. At least that's what I thought when I started travelling. To think I only spend four days max in a city whenever I travel, going to museums takes much of my time, and sometimes a bit of cash that would have otherwise gone to souvenirs, a new shirt, or a better tourist attraction.

But this doesn't mean I haven't been to any. When I went to Vietnam in 2007, I've checked out the War Museum. It was kinda regrettable (who wants to see gory images of war when having some R&R?), but I don't think I wasted time there since it is just among the few things that you'll see in Saigon. I loved the Louvre in Paris (despite Mona Lisa's size), the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, the Vatican Museum at the Vatican City, and the Museum of Modern Art in Rome. It's time well-spent in these museums, but I think that's just it and I didn't bother going to the lesser known museums, much less spend a few euros on them (journalists like myself can get in for free in most museums around Europe).

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Postcard from Spain: Mezquita (mosque-cathedral) of Cordoba

A tourist sits by the wall of the Mezquita facing Calle de Torrijos, perhaps to ease sore feet or to find respite from the grueling rays of the summer sun.

Huge metallic doors like this one and arches reminiscent of structures in the Islamic world characterize this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Mezquita, inarguably the gem of Cordoba, is one landmark that shouldn’t be missed when you are in Andalucia in south of Spain.

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When in Prague, make a wish!

A tourist makes a heartfelt wish at St. John of Nepomuk's cross, right at the famous Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. Indeed, when in Prague, don't forget to 1.) check out the Charles Bridge; and 2.) make a wish at St. John of Nepomuk's cross.

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Postcard from Vietnam: The motorcycles of Ho Chi Minh

Motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

This picture is actually an understatement of how much motorcycles there are in Vietnam. If jeepneys are touted as the king of the road in the Philippines, Vietnam has its motorcycles. I really can't tell how notorious motorcycles are in Vietnam (or if they are notorious at all). I got hit by a motorcycle in 2006 while crossing the street in Manila, which made me uber cautious when I went to Vietnam in 2008. And yes, I was so afraid to cross the streets of Saigon, but thank God nothing bad happened to me.

On the contrary, motorcycles made my one-day stay in Vietnam a memorable one.

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Postcard from the Philippines: On the way to Baguio City

A view of Kennon Road, en route to Baguio City.

I would like to believe that more often than not, the journey becomes the destination itself. On my way to Baguio City this past week for an assignment via Kennon Road, the nature-lover in me feasted in what seemed to be unending views of mountains, rugged cliffs, streams and rock falls en route to the Philippines' summer capital, Baguio City, which is about a five-hour drive north of Manila. And with the way clouds/fog kiss mountain tops? One can easily feel closer to heaven.

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Rome's Colosseum: still moving after 2000 years

I came across a news article saying Rome's Colosseum or Colosseo, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, is sinking to one side. It wasn't a surprise, I thought, as I've read somewhere that the land that it stands on -- or the entire Roman soil, for that matter -- is soft in a sense that anything built on it tends to sink overtime. Thus the seemingly unending discoveries of ruins and evidences of Rome's glorious past underneath whenever they dig for constructions.

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Timeless beauty: The astronomical clock of Prague

Clocks have been a draw to a lot of places, making them not just mere landmarks for the locals but also icons that tourists tend to worship.

There's the Big Ben in London (or is it already the Elizabeth Tower now?) and a handful of clock towers in Italy. And in my very own Manila, there's the clock tower of the Manila City Hall.

And there is the clock tower in what could be the most beautiful city in Europe, which is Prague. The capital city of Czech Republic, indeed, has the Astronomical Clock to boast of.

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Travel must-haves that can also be used during disasters

The recent flooding in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces in the Philippines has made me realize that there are a number of travel must-haves that can also be used in times of disasters. As a journalist, these are very useful especially when I am assigned to a disaster-hit area that requires me to quickly grab my backpack and bring whatever necessities that I can. And as a traveler, bringing these things can save me from unexpected expenses.

You may say, "these can only eat up luggage space." My answer: not really. If you're not yet convinced that you need these things, always say: YOU'LL NEVER KNOW so better be prepared.

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Postcard from Venice: The Bridge of Sighs

The Bridge of Sighs or Ponte dei Sospiri. Photo taken on June 2012. 

For something that looks so romantic, the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri in Italian) seems to be inappropriately named.

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Authentic Flamenco in Spain, anyone?

Fiery. Passionate. That's Flamenco for you. This dance marked by sharp, staccato movements with clapping and stomping, fierce guitar music, and soulful vocals has already become Spain's cultural trademark. By this, you haven't really been to Spain if you haven't seen a Flamenco performance.

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Love locks in Paris

Lovers have long claimed that Paris is theirs, branding the most visited city in Europe as the “City of Love.” I can't tell, really. I was on assignment the first two times I was there, and during my third and recent visit, I was with my mom. So I really don't know the romantic side of Paris, save for the fact that honeymooners are everywhere in the city.

Perhaps the most obvious, deliberate and assuming evidence of this city being a place for lovers can be seen at what Pont des Artes (Bridge of Arts) has become.

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My slice of Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is inarguably one of the most recognizable landmarks on the planet. Sure, I’ve seen small paper weights that looked like it even before I had my first taste of Italy. There was even a big picture of it on our Physics book way back in high school, which warranted a lengthy lecture on equilibrium featuring the poor tower that managed to stand in that angle over the centuries. And did Galileo Galilei really perform his experiment on top of the tower of Pisa, resulting in a universally accepted fact that objects regardless of their mass will fall at the same time? Big deal. The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Torre Pendente di Pisa in Italian) is pretty as it is storied.

And so during my latest sojourn to Europe, I chanced on a guided tour that took us to Lucca and Pisa. I wasn’t really interested on seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa. What's in there aside from the tower, I thought. But it was just less than two hour's bus ride from Florence, Italy, so I succumbed to the band wagon.

More than the scientific side of things, I’ve learned a number of interesting things about the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa:

1. Upon getting there, it’s obvious: The Leaning Tower of Pisa is not a standalone structure that imposes itself within Pisa. It is part of a grand masterplan that includes a church (duomo), a baptistery, a hospital (ospidale) and a cemetery (camposanto or cimiterio). The concept of the place is, according to our tour guide, is this: a human is borne to this world (in the hospital), then baptized in the baptistery (outside the church because they believed someone who isn’t baptized yet cannot enter the church), centers his life in the church, and then dies and is buried at the cemetery.

2. The tower is actually intended to be a freestanding campanile of the church!

3. The Leaning Tower of Pisa stands in a place called Piazza del Duomo, or more popularly known as Piazza dei Miracoli (not to be confused with Campo dei Miracoli, which is a fictional place mentioned in Pinocchio, according to Wikipedia). The piazza used to be a lagoon 1,000 years ago!

Piazza dei Miracolli, where the Leaning Tower of Pisa is.

4. The tower is made of marble!

The Leaning Tower of Pisa up close.

5. Construction of the tower commenced in 1173, making it the third oldest structure within the piazza. Aside from being constructed on a weak ground, the design was flawed right from the very start, that's why it started leaning during the construction of the second floor. Before the efforts to clean up the blackened walls and straighten the tower, the structure dips by about 1 millimeter a year!

6. If the tower is not leaning, it’s gonna be curved, anyway. The engineers who built the upper floors tried to compensate for the tilt by building walls with one side longer than the other.

7. The arches of the tower are made in Gothic and Romanesque fashion. Like the Colosseo in Rome, the schools of design differed from one floor to another as the construction of the upper floors came centuries after.

8. The tower is tilted by 3.9 degrees after it was straightened from more than 5 degrees of tilt. After some efforts – diggings, counterweights, cables, the works – engineers declared that the tower will be in its position as it is right now for at least 200 years, according to Wikipedia.

9. The tower took two centuries to be completed. Sometime in the 1300s, when it was still unfinished, Pisanos turned it into a clock tower. Currently, the campanile is not used as it is intended to be as vibrations of bells might affect the stability of the structure.

10. Efforts to straighten the tower were deliberately half-baked as keeping it to its tilted position is crucial in maintaining the tourism industry in Pisa. Yeah, I think they’ve succeeded in that aspect.

While there, it is advised to check out the duomo, known as the Santa Maria Assunta (Mary of the Assumption).

Facade of the duomo of Santa Maria Assunta.

A lot can be said about this magnificent cathedral, but these should suffice:

· The cathedral is heavily influenced by Muslim art as evident in the striped arches in the interior, which are made up of two colors of marble. This is very reminiscent of the Mezquita in Córdoba, Spain!

The striped arches inside the duomo of Sana Maria Assunta, Pisa.

Inside the Mezquita of Córdoba, Spain. Photo taken on June 2010.

· There is an upper level, which was originally meant for women church-goers. Men worship downstairs (yes, I think that’s the way they were back in the Medieval age).

· The ceiling is not the original as a fire sometime in the 1500s destroyed most of the church, including the artworks!

The ceiling of the duomo.

Inside the duomo.

The main altar.

· Currently there are 19 Baroque paintings in the church by important painters of Central Italy.

The painting at the dome!

· The best important work inside the duomo is the priests’ stand.

     o It features an eagle, which represents St. John the Evangelist (the saint is an important     icon in Italian art).

o Designed by Giovanni Pisano and fashioned out of marble, it took 350 people and 10 years to finish the construction of this structure!

o The lions on the side represent the strength of Catholicism.

o The three women in this structure represent faith, hope and charity. The man kneeling is Gionvanni Pisano himself.

That's Pisano right there in the middle!

I couldn't comment anything intelligent about the baptistery, except that it is marvelous and that it looks like a huge cupcake.

The Baptistery up close. Look at those details!

Now the question: SHOULD YOU GO THERE? I normally would want to visit the same places that I’ve been to again and again, except for this one. Yes, Pisa is beautiful, and I do not regret coming over (as you can see from my pictures, it is obvious that I enjoyed photographing!). But I would like to quote what Lonely Planet Western Europe had to say about Pisa: “ Tower aside, Pisa is an unassuming university town that while pleasant enough, won’t claim your attention long.”

Money Talk

· Aside from the 58 euro tour, entrance to the baptistery, cathedral and the cemetery costs 10 euros.

· Entrance to the tower is about 17 euros, and there are no lifts that would take you to the top. Be ready to climb more than 200 steps! Only 30 persons are allowed to climb at a given time. It is advised to book ahead.

· If you opt for the guided tour, the tour groups are right outside the Santa Maria Novella station (Florence main train station). Book a tour a day ahead. The whole guided tour to Lucca and Pisa costs 58 euros per person, excluding the lunch and the entrance to the tower itself. But I think you can do this trip on your own, even without the guides.

· Trains leave from Florence almost every hour, and the one-and-a-half hour trip costs about $9, depending on the season.

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Roma in a picture

Is it possible to summarize Rome in a picture? With its history dating back more than two thousand years, a civilization that rocked the world, and now the destination to millions of tourists yearly, perhaps it's impossible to tell the essence of Rome in just one click. But I think this picture is an attempt at that -- well, at least what one can expect as soon as he steps out of Termini (train station): ruins, churches, and pastel-colored buildings. This is one of the views at the Jewish ghetto, one of the less touristy but charming places in Rome.

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Postcard from Amsterdam

AS A BICYCLE COUNTRY, bikes are tied in every side street, including the front of this typical Amsterdam building. Amsterdam is a compact city and it can be seen by just walking around. But why walk if you can feel like a local by seeing the best of the city by biking around?

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Malacca: Something East, Something West

View from the top: courtyard of a traditional Babba Nyonya house in Malacca, Malaysia

Malacca is easily one of my favorite places so far.

Sure, I've been to beautiful places around Europe and if one does, the tendency is to be snobbish towards Asia. But I've been to Malacca a year before I set foot on European soil and until now, looking back at my pictures, I still have this itch to go back to Malacca -- or Melaka in Malay -- and check out the places I've been to again and those I've failed to see in my two-day stroll across this Malaysian town some four years ago.

What makes this place interesting is its culture -- a mix of Portuguese, Dutch, British, Malay and Chinese owing to its strategic location which made it an important trade outpost sometime in the 1500-1800s, resulting in a menage of interesting colors and tastes.

Please watch out for my full post on guides on how to roam about the place.

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Postscript: View from the Bangkok-bound train

Somewhere between Aranyaprathet and Bangkok, Thailand, the view from the train shows carabaos crossing rice paddies as the sun sets. Pretty much like the Philippines, Thailand's vast countryside is filled with rice fields like this one which could be a delight to Westerners. Had I chosen to take the plane from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok, I wouldn't have seen this. But taking the plane wasn't really an option since I am traveling on a tight budget. ;-)

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Remembering the heroes

Dambana ng Kagitingan or Shrine of Valour in Bataan, Philippines.

Looking from afar, that huge cross on top of Mount Samat in Pilar, Bataan appears to be a religious monument to the uninitiated. Made more dramatic by the rays of the sun especially on midday, this place could easily pass as a Holy Week destination. But the Dambana ng Kagitingan (Shrine of Valour), in fact, is a historical shrine.
A word of caution, though: from the perspective of a tourist, there's nothing much to see in this monument. It's a seven-kilometer hike from the foot of Mount Samat, and when you reach the monument itself, it's nothing but a large marble edifice that would seem like a huge mausoleum. Further atop on the way to where the gigantic cross sits, there's nothing else than the, well, the cross and it's base with the names of the thousands of Filipinos who were part of the bloody Death March 70 years ago.
The first time I went here was in 2002. I was with my family back then. I didn't really get to appreciate this place at the time, and I was just thinking that the cool breeze and the breath-taking views from the mountain was actually the treat if you're up to see this place.
But just last Monday, I was sent to this place to cover the President at the Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valour) celebrations.
It was only when I brushed up on my Philippine history that I got to appreciate this place. Scrambling for mobile phone signal (which is a difficulty at this place), I tried to look up on Google what's the celebration for since I know I'm gonna go live on national TV in a few minutes and have that risk of being quizzed -- on air -- what the occasion is for.
Just to explain briefly, here's what I've found on the Internet:
At exactly April 9, 1942, the Americans surrendered Bataan to the Japanese. It was the second world war, and the Americans and the Japanese were fighting over the Philippines. To make the long story short, this was followed by the Death March, wherein some 76,000 Filipino, Filipino-Chinese and American prisoners of war were forced to walk 140 kilometers going to Camp O'Donnell in Capas, Tarlace (imagine walking from Manila to Subic in Pampanga) wherein along the way, thousands of prisoners died of hunger and diseases. Others, however, managed to escape.
And the monuments now made sense to me. I remember going to the crater of Mount Pinatubo in 2008 where we passed by this historical monument in Capas, Tarlac. That was it!

The historical monument in Capas, Tarlac. Taken in 2008.

Well, cheesy as it may sound, but 70 years hence, what's in it for us? I have my own answers. And for sure, students are being asked to write lengthy essays on that. I do hope every Filipino has an answer to that.
But at least, for the point of view of a traveler, a certain place makes a lot more sense if one is aware of its history -- whether it's in the Philippines or elsewhere around the globe.
And as for this place, I do hope that these monuments give us Filipinos that sense of pride for our history, culture, and heritage.
As a traveler, should I go and check this place out again? Why not, if I happen to pass by Bataan again.

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No Man's Land: crossing the Cambodia-Thailand border

The tuktuk ride at the border of Cambodia and Thailand. This photo taken using my Nokia N70.

For someone living in an archipelago of 7,107 islands, crossing the border of one country to another is a thrilling experience. And so when I decided to embark on a Southeast Asian backpacking trip in 2008, I made sure that I'll do land trips just to be able to experience border crossings.

The first I did was cross the Mocbai-Bavet border of Vietnam and Cambodia, which entailed a 10-hour bus ride from Ho Chi Minh to Siem Reap (read my previous post: Saigon to Siem Reap by Land).

I planned to take the train going to Bangkok from Aranyaphratet, right at the border of Cambodia and Thailand.

If you're gonna do it, here's how I went through. Please note that this is kinda dangerous. But yeah, I'm still alive:

1. Book a taxi that would take you to Poipet, the Cambodian town at the border, with your hotel or hostel. Mine costs $35 for the whole thing, meaning it would have been cheaper if I had companions to split the cost with. Had I decided to look for a cab myself, it would have cost $30 (because hostels or hotels take a cut from the cabbies). There are plenty of cabs at Sokimex, although I'm not sure which Sokimex station is that since there are a lot of them around Siem Reap. Better ask your hostel about it. The taxi ride, by the way, is about 3 hours. I passed by several Cambodian towns with dusty roads. The roads should have been paved by now as I've read that the Asian Development Bank lent millions of dollars to the Cambodian government just for this.

2. Have your passport stamped at the Cambodian immigration office.

Cambodia's portion of the no man's land going to Thailand.

3. Cross the border! This is it! And walk towards the Thai immigration office. I was asked what was I going to do in Bangkok. I showed the immigration guy my hostel reservation and he drew a conclusion that I was in transit. Whatever. And since I'm a Filipino, I don't need a visa to enter Thailand so better check with your respective embassies in order to secure a visa to Thailand ahead of time.

Looking back: That's Cambodia right there!

Inside the Thai immigration office at Aranyaphratet. It's a big no-no to take pictures there!

4. From the immigration office, walk going to the... well that place looked like a market to me.... and pick a tuktuk that would take you to the Aranyaprathet train station. The tuktuk ride cost THB 80 (or was it excessive?).

5. Third class trains without air-conditioning leave at 5:55 a.m. and 1:05 p.m. Travel time to Hualamphong train station in Bangkok is approximately six hours and costs THB 60. It's a slow but breezy ride, and the view of countryside is great (the view must be super scenic for Westerners. For me it's not as breath-taking since Thailand and the Philippines have the same terrain!).

At the Aranyaphratet train station.

The Aranyaphratet station.

Inside the third class trains. Not bad, eh?

So there you have it. But a piece of advice: as always be very careful, watch out for your belongings, and don't be too trusty.

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And... I'm back!

Sculptures right at the bank of the Singapore river (photo taken last May 2008, using Nikon FG and Fuji 400 film. Yes you read it right, film.)

It's been almost three years since I've made my last post in this blog. I've changed assignments, changed my career, met a lot of new people and of course, traveled to cities I couldn't count anymore.

When I shifted to the broadcast medium from print, I've just felt so tired of writing after doing it for more than six years.

But after unearthing heaps of printed photos from my film SLR aside from more than 20-gig worth of digital photos -- not to mention an upcoming fourth expedition to Europe -- I've realized that I have a lot of stories worth telling to netizens.

So here, I'm back with a bang (BANG!) and I hope you find this re-made blog worth visiting, and my travel stories and weekend adventures worth reading. And I hope you yourself will also soon embark on your own fab but pocket-friendly journey. 

Cheers!

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