Ask a local what’s really in the water and you wont get a straight answer. It’s sort-of a secret of the swimming pool that must not be revealed. You have to go there yourself and taste the water to know if it’s coke, sprite or pepsi?

continue reading about Soda Swimming pool here

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About 2 million years ago, most of the island of Bohol was below a shallow sea coral reefs, similar to those now found offshore of Northern Bohol, thrived and extensibly covered the sea floor. During stormy days, fragments of coral and shells derived by waves from the reefs were deposited were mostly deposited in the landward side of the reefs. The coral and shell fragments formed relatively thin layers surrounding the live coral reefs.

Slowly, the land rose causing the coral reef formation to emerge out of the sea. The taller arrows shown in the diagram indicate that the southern sections of Bohol island have been uplifted more than the northern section.

The Chocolate Hills have been carved out from the relatively thin layers of coral and shell fragments. Gullies were developed in the low lying areas and lakes occupied pre-existing depressions.

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This cow has an extra limb closely attached to the right, front legs. This medical condition is called polymelia, a birth defect that ends up with an extra and usually malformed limb.

Sometimes an embryo started as conjoined twins, but one twin degenerated completely except for one or more limbs, which end up attached to the other twin. Sometimes small extra legs between the normal legs are caused by the body axis forking in the dipygus condition. The extra limb is most commonly shrunken and/or deformed as shown in this picture.

Paradizoo also showcases several other animals, including ostriches, wild boars, deers and camels.

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At the Tarlac stop-over, the bus kundoktor plugged in a DVD. The bus was filled with piped-in music from the movie (sing with me…): “Santa Baby, hurry down the chimney tonight.”

I smiled and had pleasant thoughts: “Ah, so nice! A Christmas movie to ease me into the cool air of Baguio on Christmas weekend.” NOT!

The movie turned dark and gruesome! The movie was a loud, horror/thriller flick about a stalker security guard kidnapping a lone lady yuppie on Christmas eve, tying her down with a chain with a drooling pit bull on guard. In one scene, the stalker strapped an office worker to an ergo chair, tied him to the fender of a car and repeatedly rammed the poor guy unto the …

Well, you get the idea.

It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t funny. Just the thing to kill the Christmas spirit on a Christmas weekend. My brother and I started sending SMS messages to Victory Liner’s hotline: 0917-Vicline (0917-8425463). I made a call and spoke to a certain Sol Laxa of Victory Liner, Cubao.

I think Santa was listening, and my wish was answered – a wish for world peace on this Christmas weekend journey. Ten minutes after our call to the Victory Liner hotline, the bus conductor turned off the movie without saying a word.

Ah, the silence was sweet relief!

I know that passengers have different preferences for movies. That is precisely the reason to be very selective of movies. Obviously, its the driver/conductor who chooses the movies they show on buses. I’ve been on bus rides in the past where the movie was offensive to minors or to women (or to the public in general); movies with excessive violence, with nudity or even porn. Tsk tsk tsk. Somebody’s not thinking here….

I sent my Christmas greetings to the Victory Liner hotline and included a challenge which I re-iterate here.

To Victory Liner Management:
Victory Liner Management must choose appropriate General Patronage movies suited for public viewing on bus trips.
It will be a good service improvement to ensure that your patrons — a wide variety of travellers including minors — are not subjected to inappropriate media.

With that, I went back to dreamland and woke up to a cool noontime Christmas breeze of Baguio. Sarap!

ka edong
my cellphone, a weapon

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A Chinese Pagoda. It’s not really a mausoleum, but more of a waiting shed or something.

AStone Angel stading right in front of the oldest mausoleum in Manila Chinese Cemetery. It dates back to 1890’s

A Cathedral-Shaped mausoleum. If you think that this is a marvel already, go and look inside and you’ll see for yourself how the tomb was designed.

And who says that the dead can’t enjoy the beauty of Art Deco? This is a fine example of an Art Deco design which was made popular between the 20’s and the 40’s Notice the geometric patterns, one of the highlights of Art Deco.

Another fine example of Art Deco, utilizing the smooth curves and lines.

Imitation is a form of flattery, right? Are you familiar with this mausoleum’s design? You bet it right. It’s patterned after the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Main Theater.

And this one? Somewhat similar to University of the Philippines (UP Diliman) chapel

And the king of all the dead… A 3-storey mausoleum complete with a wide parking lot. This is approximately 500 square meters. A 500 square meter-mausoleum is very wide already! It is surrounded by some trees to provide shade.

More travel tales at Byahilo: Ito ang Trip ko!

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Ten to 15 years ago, Grove is a line of old residential establishments whose ground floors have been converted into a student’s eatery or restaurant, bookstore and boutiques.

Now, UPLB Grove is  buzzing with it’s new night life. The new buzz word for gimmicks and the place to be: LB Square.

LB square is much like a landscaped sunken garden surrounded by food and bar stools. The cuisine is international, catering to the melting pot of culture that is UPLB, from good old Pinoy, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and western cuisines to satisfy the varied palate.

While the bars…the bars never run out of anything with alcohol.

If you are like me, I’d rather sit in a quiet place, put my feet up (or curl them under my legs), have a coffee or two while waiting for my friends to arrive, preferably in front of a computer, surfing the net or checking my emails. The last time I was in LB square, Crib Tea and Coffee Bar allowed me to do all of the above. Cool eh.

After making the rounds at LB square and you’re full and tipsy, then nothing like good coffee or tea to perk you up for more chika into the middle of the night at the Crib.

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Yes, inspite of milenyo’s aftermath and still out of electric power, for the past nine nights, the residents (the devout catholics at least!) of Brgy. Payawin, Gubat, Sorsogon (my birthplace) has been religiously attending the novena and procession that culminated with a concelebrated mass this morning.

Señor San Raphael, as we fondly call him is one of God’s archangels.

In his mortal life, he was a fisherman that was able to miraculously heal a sick child named Tobias using fish-bile.

Thereby in sainthood he is particularly known as the healer of the sick and companion to the traveller.

That explains why an image of St. Raphael is always one with a fish hook and fish and sometimes with the young child Tobias.

Legend has it too that on the dawn of his feast day there always is a light rainshower that stops before sunrise, because that’s the kind of weather he loves best to go fishing.

Like it did exactly this morning!!

In this photo is the image in our barrio’s small church.

Laom mi Raphael na kaherakan an samong mga kaipuhan…

(We hope Raphael that you will be merciful to our needs…)

The prayer couldn’t be more timely as now!

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

Department of Tourism Secretary  Joseph Ace Durano said that Wowowee has been helping the government in reaching the tourism  market. Revillame’s task would be to help in enticing Filipinos abroad and foreigners to visit our country by hosting Philippine tourism roadshows abroad.

Source: ABS-CBN News

Author’s note: I wonder which branch of the Philippine government would appoint Manny Pacquiao as it is rumored that he is interested to try the political ring this time?

The sandals carry the brand Bagtas, an Ilonggo word meaning “to walk”. They come in your garden variety design but can gravitate further to the obscure or most artistic expression of sandal design evolution.

These products were once featured in ABS-CBN’s morning show and were once used in the ABS-CBN sitcom, Bora. Aside from the sandals and bags on display, there is also a picture stand showing the sandals being used by popular celebrities.

Another great thing about this shop, is that you can have a personalized sandal made if you don’t find any to your liking in the shop. They said that it takes about an hour to make a personalized sandal, so comeback after taking a stroll.

Price ranges from Php 100~350.00 for the sandals, while the different mesh bags come in the Php 200~400 range.

According to the sales people, their main shop is located in Boracay, so if ever you decide to go there and are lacking any suitable footwear, be sure to look them up.