Despite the fact that now a days, travel tales are all over the world-wide-web, spread through blogs and journals, I still had this great craving to get a book related to this topic. Hence when I saw this old-looking book at National Bookstore, I immediately made the purchase.

Maybe I am preparing for something, someone said , he will visit the Philippines sometime soon. And because of that I have to learn more to prepare. hihi I may already have visited some of the nicest places in the Philippines, but still, I think, my knowledge about most of the places are insufficient. I don’t think it’ll ever be sufficient because we have 7107 islands, each has its own unique characteristics therefore, it’ll be tough to remember especially now that im having occasional episodes of “senior moments”. Hoooooh…

This book is about two people’s travel experiences in my beloved country, the Philippines.

Here are my favourite excerpts from the book;

“Whether in Luzon, Visayas or Mindano, Filipinos laugh over the same things, dream the same dreams and hope for the same things.” – introduction pg xiii  – TRUE.=)

“Writes Dr. Hornedo: “In this close-knit, faraway community departures carry a sense of finality. That someone who steps off the island may never come back is a grim possibility. If the thyphoon doesn’t get him, the lure of a better life elsewhere will.” – Visit to another world (my fave chapter) pg 7 – sad but true

“Governor Castillejo’s own story was of a stormy night when he was a child, when the family gathered in the kitchen waiting for the typhoon to pass. Suddenly he roof caved in, dropping a full-grown cow at their feet. The next day, there was a feast at Castillejo’s house.” A Visit to Another World pg 7 – LOL LOL LOL

“Lovely as the cordilleras are, what we saw was a diminished version of its former beauty. And now the question is how long these mountains can hold our before they become a diminished version of the diminished version.” –  Walking amongst the Cloud pg 22 – it goes to most places in the Philippines, it’s the reality, we all have to realize before its too late..=(

“But none looked  more incongruous, if delightfully so, than the carabaos, who were beflowered, beribboned and besashed.” Wading through Carabao Plop in Pulilan pg 46 – my imagination worked and I began to laugh

“ Or as Daniel Maclain, who first flew a C-47 in 1948 and still flying a DC-3, puts it, “I would rather fly a C-47 than make babies.” – Bogies at 12:00 high pg 61 –  My ex bf (he’s also a pilot) used to tell me that he would sing me this song when he retires  “could you be my number two, me and number one (flying) is through.” Lol

“Although we move around Manila a lot, we ashamedly admit that like so many other Manilans, we have paid little mind  to Intramuros.” – Speculations in  Neighborhood Enigma pg 69 – I am guilty of that too…I actually paid little mind to most of the places in Manila and  I plan to change that as soon as possible.

“Perhaps that’s how a lighthouse works, its not supposed to find you, you’re supposed to find it.” – Peninsula of Icons pg 79 – reminded me of my earlier post about light house

“Whether we were born here or moved here. This is now where we belong and where we are needed.” – A Faraway nest pg  112 – touched my heart. I should be able to get this kind of feeling somewhere.

“As the culinary expert says, paraphrasing the old saw, the shortest way to a people’s past is through their stomach.” – On Safari in Negros, pg 162 – true

About our cuisines “ As writer Manina Mercado wryly puts it, we were “first prepared by early Malay Settlers, spiced by commercial relations with Chinese traders, stewed in 300 years of Spanish rule and hamburgered by half-century of American influence” – have tastebuds, will travel pg 187 – nicely summarized culinary history=)