Haunted White House

If you searched for tenderness, it isn't hard to find...ano daw?

If you searched for Baguio's Most Haunted places, for sure if not the top, Laperal White House is always included. The Laperal Guesthouse was built in the 1930s as a vacation home by the clan heads, Roberto and Victorina Laperal.

In 2013, the tycoon's Tan Yan Kee Foundation transformed the house into a Bamboo Foundation museum, thus it was open to the public and so, I paid a visit. I love old houses and I don't mind the haunted stories that go with them. 

So, let's take a peek inside the house.

the stairs are my favorite, obvious ba?

Isn't she lovely? The White House, I mean =)

Food trip in Bacolod City

The AssoTech team went to Bacolod City to do a 2-day training workshop on rice production for our partners in Negros Occidental. We stayed in East View Hotel in Bacolod, our poging Sir in PhilRice-Negros did all the logistics and he's also the one to tour us around, but not for places but mostly for food, thank you, ACS (Albert Christian Suner).  

photo op of the participants with our welcome banner

inside East View Hotel

halata bang gusto namin yung stairs?

After our courtesy visit to the Mayor of Kabankalan City, that's how we do things, we always go to the municipal hall or provincial hall to visit local officials and their municipal agriculturists. Then we proceed with our activities for the day in the area.

for my TODA collection, a tricycle wrapped in plastic because it's raining most of the time (it's July when we visited, already rainy season) waiting for passengers in Kabankalan City hall

Welcome to PhilRice-Negros, the station based at Cansilayan, Murcia, Negros Occidental, going here you will pass by a lot of sugarcane fields, oh well, you are in Bacolod, that's why. 

Additional 2 for my TODA collection, saw these tricycles when we went to Pala Pala.

Pala Pala is a seafood market on San Juan Street corner of North Capitol Road. The style here is very much the same as "Dampa", you pick your kinds of seafood in the market (like what Ms. Lani and Tita Vangie are doing in the photo) then go to the restaurants around Pala Pala and asked them to cook it for you. 

grabe, anlaking mga itlog

halaan nga ba 'to? hulaan nyo =P

pssttttt sarap!

iba't ibang klase ng hipon, di ko na inalam kung anong tawag sa kanila at anong kaibahan, basta orange din lahat yan pag naluto =P

siempre pag may hipon, may crab, partner yan sila 

at dahil nasa Bacolod, siempre not to miss ang masarap na scallops, na ang tagalog pala ay "iskalop" or kabibi...mahal at di masyadong present to sa Laguna, kaya sige Marya, "heeyah scallop" ay gallop pala yun =P

at ayun na nga, sa alaala na lang sila =P

salamat po sa masarap na paluto =)

nakuha pang mag-marang after ng super busog na dinner

lakad lakad lang para humupa ang busog at nadaanan ang San Sebastian Cathedral 

It was a productive official trip and a happy tummy too food adventure with the AssoTech team, till next time.

Sleeping beauty travel

Borders Cagayan to the north and east, Abra and Ilocos Norte to the west, and Kalinga to the south. Kalinga and Apayao comprised a single province named Kalinga-Apayao, which was partitioned in 1995 to better serve the needs of individual ethnic groups, wiki shared.

And I share, this is one of the longest land travel I did, I already slept my quota for 2 days, exag? nah! And I really thought that we are at the end of the country, although it's partly true since I saw an arrow leading to Aparri (the tip of the country as sung in Eat Bulaga). So, this is my sleeping travel to Luna, Apayao.  I went there for work, so, I don't have tourist photos to share. It was also raining when I went there, so not much photo op also. But I'm "ME" and can't leave a place without documenting it. Here it goes...

 

for my TODA collection, with Darwin as model

my cute cottage in Luna

with Sweeper as my roommate, my ever-reliable travel buddy

The outside of the "Star Jewel Homestay" in San Isidro Sur, Luna, Apayao

Back on the road again, long travel again with Sweeper

Abra cadabra

Sometime in 2015, I was here in Dolores, Abra.  I visited this place for work and of course photo op to some places that we pass through.

After 12 hours on the road, finally, the tunnel going in and out of Abra. I couldn't believe I will get here, tick off from my provinces list.

I was wondering why Grabriela Silang welcomed visitors in Abra, so I googled it. Kaya pala, she fled to Tayum, Abra to seek refuge after Diego's assassination (Diego is her second husband after her businessman husband, Tomas Millan died). And that bolo-wielding "la General" on horseback is her popular image, she was the so-called Joan of Arc of Ilocandia (nakakatampo, di man lang nya yan nabanggit sa'kin, kung di pa ako pumunta dun, di ko malalaman =P).

Calaba Bridge, the longest modular bridge in the Philippines is beautifully constructed along the Abra-Ilocos Norte National road across the Abra river. 

View of Abra river from OPAG-Abra, Abra river and the mountain they call sleeping beauty because they said it looks like a laying maiden (can you picture her?)

Don Mariano Marcos Bridge is the third longest bridge in the Philippines, it's along Abra-Kalinga road, the boundary of Tayum/Dolores/Lagangilang, and this shot I took while passing the bridge, isn't it beautiful? Yeah!

I want to go back to Abra to experience the cold and see for myself the beauty of  Kaparkan Falls in Tineg (the posted photo below is from the internet)

And that's my Abracadabra byahe =)