Words and photos by Edgar Alan Zeta-Yap

The art of loom weaving thrives in Abra

“A tourist sees a place, while on the other hand a traveler seeks,” a friend of mine recently posted on Facebook. True enough, more than visiting popular spots, what excites me more about travel is discovering off-the-beaten track sort of places.

Locals at the Abra River

During a trip along Ilocos Norte’s northern coast, fellow travel blogger Gael Hilotin of The Pinay Solo Backpacker and I detoured southward to avoid an imminent tropical storm and spontaneously discovered a province off the tourist maps–Abra. Largely ignored by North Luzon’s tourist circuit, this landlocked province in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) makes a perfect destination for travelers who want to blaze the trail for new travel discoveries. Read the rest of this entry »

Words and Photos by Edgar Alan Zeta-Yap

The Bangui windmills, an attraction in itself, graces every tourist’s photograph of this town

Known for their impressive coastal tourist spots, the neighboring municipalities of Bangui and Burgos were my next stops after Pagudpud.

First up: Bangui Windmills. To my surprise, these much-photographed were far larger than I imagined! Out of place amidst bucolic surroundings, the white sentinels – all 19 of them in a single row – loomed 23 stories high above a sandy beach and verdant pastures along Ilocos Norte’s northern end. Since their inauguration in 2005, the handsome behemoths have been the poster boys of the region’s sustainable development and robust tourism. Read the rest of this entry »

Words by George Putong  |  Illustration by Ryan Jay Kabigting

Click photo for a larger view

Who could ever imagine our national hero booking the cheapest flight to Hong Kong?  Jose Rizal may be your first class doctor, linguist, writer, and revolutionist— but more often than not, he travels on a shoestring. Fasten your seatbelts ladies and gents, we’re flying with our man, Jose.

Notes, mementos and various correspondences reveal a paper trail of adventure.  I say adventure in fine print because he’s not the boring academic who confined himself inside the four corners of a room.  He was the kind of man who wanted to fully experience and observe everything he saw.  He wanted to be on the move whether for educational purposes in Belgium or writing gigs in Spain.  He wanted to pick up a new language.  The history books say he studied a total of twenty-two languages!

Rizal was a man who feared of his ideals vanishing without making a lasting impact during the Spanish-Philippines era.  That was his legitimate fear.  But he also possessed a lack of fear in something most of us still have a hard time on.  He was unafraid to leave his home. Read the rest of this entry »