The images at the beginning of this video are great, and will awaken your travel muse. The rest… just for entertainment purposes only, folks!

Note that the facts are not 100% accurate. But you’ll have to agree it deserves points for creativity!

Have you ever been stuck in an airport? Was there a time when your flight was delayed or cancelled that you were forced to sleep in the airport?

If you answered yes to one of the questions above, you are not alone. Last year, my friend was forced to sleep in the NAIA because she was on Philippine Airline’s list of passengers waiting for a vacant seat for Cagayan de Oro on Christmas Eve. The waiting area was not the most comfortable place to wait let alone sleep at, but if you want to know before hand and read some funny anecdotes and stories about airports and how “comfortable” or “conducive” their airport is to sleeping, you have to check out The Budget Traveller’s Guide to Sleeping in Airports.

At Sleeping in Airports homepage, everything is clearly laid out. Click through to a region to select a particular airport, or you can just browse the stories and funnies using the links in the main section. Funny, I have checked out Manila, and found out Manila is on the List of Airports you would rather pay to avoid flying through/from. If you want to read about travellers amusing stories about their experience at our airports, click here.

I bet you’ve heard this line before when you are about to go on a road trip to a place you’ve never been to before. When you asked the only person who knows about the place if it’s too far. Usually that person would answer, “it’s not far from here, just a one hour drive.” And so off you go, only to realize that you have travelled for more than an hour already and still have not reached the place.

My most recent experience with this was in November of 2004. The destination Lipa, Batangas City. After a sumptuous lunch at our friend’s place, our group decided to spend the evening in a “nearby” beach as claimed by our host friend. My companion and I have no plans of staying overnight since we have to go back to Manila to attend a wedding the following day. We just agreed to go with them and have a look at the place since it’s only a “one hour drive”.

The beach is located somewhere in the town of San Jose in Batangas. On the way, my companion were still having fun as we follow our friends in their respective cars. We were enjoying the Batangas scenery as we drive through dilapidated roads, passing by markets and busy folks minding their lives. But soon enough, we got weary of the travelling. We noticed that we have been travelling for more than an hour already. The sun is about to set, and darkness is beginning to unfold. We called our host friend and asked how far do we have to travel still, and he just replied, “not too far, we’re almost there.” For awhile, we thought of going back but decided to drive on nonetheless. After traversing a rough road in what seems to be an abandoned place, we finally reached the beach that we were longing to see. The sun was about to set. We would have been mad with our host friend for telling us that it would only take “a one hour drive”, if not for the beautiful sunset that we were able to witness while enjoying the warm fresh November breeze.

The one hour drive was worth it after all.

*note*
my companion and I decided to stay overnight and left dawn of next day for Manila. We were able to attend the wedding.

It was a branding idea from hell.

I was with some colleagues doing fieldwork when we went to a simple carinderia (cafeteria) along the highway.

I like carinderias. It’s “normal” food, inexpensive, lots of choices. It’s not too healthy, usually, nor surgically clean. But, my like all that.

After selecting our ulam (viand) from the many silver pots, we took our seats and waited for our food to be served.

The food came, the spoons and forks came, the glasses came and then the plates came. The plates!

And the plates were no ordinary plates. They were special plates. The plates were made out of plastic. They had the either of two carinderia-esque designs: flowery or checkered.

What made these plates special was the name of a private company’s product prominently printed on the plate right above where people place their food. I straightened out my plate so that the printed word faced me squarely. I stooped down towards the plate and my food to make sure I’m reading the words clearly.

On the top of the plate there was a label:

PIGROLAC
Hog Feeds

Suddenly, my food’s “sarap” points plummeted.

ka edoink
piglet

Next Tuesday, more street food: Vigan Empanada!

“On this Site in 1897, Nothing Happened!”

This is just one of the wackiest signs that you may encounter during your road trip at Pangasinan. Thanks to my brother who shared me this picture.