Ironwulf.net Ver 6: En Route - Philippines, Travel, Photography

Dubbed as the “Paris of Negros“, the Town of Silay is next to Vigan in terms of a number of well preserved Ancestral Houses. It is interesting to see how the former moniker fares and also the presence of ancestral houses that we decided to stay at one of the 31 heritage houses there, the Baldevia Pensione House.

No, this isn’t an early Visita Inglesia post in Manila nor did I shoot a wedding here, it just so happen that there’s a wedding being held at San Sebastian Basilica Church when I was there. I was supposed to shoot a few scenes around the neighborhood of Malacañang, the country’s seat of the government, as a minor assignment for a publication I regularly contribute at. My route was the same as Ivan Mandy’s San Miguel Walking tour, but since I’m no historian, I pulled out a fellow blogger, Tito of Tutubi Patrol, whose more adept to history than I am and we were also joined by another photographer/writer Joselle for a short walk around the San Miguel District in Manila.

When we arrived in Casa Dela Playa in Sandugan, Larena, we didn’t waste much time to be back on the road again. After checking our beach front house, leaving some of our things and being friendly with the resort dogs. Yes I said dogs (there’s a really friendly and cute one there)! We hopped on our AUV and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the municipality of Lazi down south.

For my long overdue wrap-up post on Cambodia, I’d like to summarize some of the not-so-popular or off-the-beaten-path temples around the Angkor Archaeological Park which I think is worth some people’s look if they have extra time. The park like I always said is huge and warrants considerable number of days to explore all of them. But personally, no matter how grand the structures here are, there are times you would be “Templed Out”. I must admit on our last day there after visiting a major temple, I no longer want to see another brick or ruin again because they started to look the same. hehe. So it is advisable if you mix your temple-hopping with other activities in between to add variety.

After eating a Satti breakfast at one of the Satti shops in Pilar Street, morning finds us strolling the streets of Zambaonga City ending up at the imposing structure by the Zamboanga Peninsula Seas, which is the historical Fort Pilar. This venerable fort founded in 1635 yet still proudly stands strong until now, represents the rich colonial history of this region of our country.

I still have quite a lot of materials from my fave temples in Cambodia’s Angkor Wat Archaeological Park. Like I said before, this place is quite huge so there’s a lot of photo opportunity here. I will try to post an entry or two each month until it runs out along with some new materials. Please note that not all travel post are real time, as some materials are posted for documentation purposes as well. And for this entry, is another temple that I enjoyed exploring at the park, Preah Rup Temple.

Continuing on with my series of my favorite temples in the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park, this time we venture of quite a distance, 20km away from the main temples and visit the so called ‘Jewel among the Temples Angkor‘, Bantey Srei. If Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom impressed you with its sheer scale, Bantey Srei, which literally translates to ‘Citadel of the women’, will mesmerize you with one of the most celebrated Khmer Art intricately carved along its temple walls.