Manila: Misa de Gallo at San Agustin Church

San Agustin Peeking Through the door

Just a short walk from Manila Cathedral is another church where people flock for the Misa de Gallo. Inside the walls of intramuros stands the oldest church in the Philippines – The San Agustin Church, one of the Baroque Churches classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This church built in 1607 now sports a new paletada and is aglow with simple drop line of lights on its facade. Honestly, this church need not to be extremely adorned for it sports one of the most beautiful church interiors I’ve seen.

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China: Zhangjiajie National Park

Wulingyuan's Natural Forest of Peaks

It was evening when we arrived at the city proper of Zhangjiajie from the town of Fenghuang. That’s about 2 hours bus ride costing us 60 RMB. The bus was much better and comfortable than the ones we had from Tongren to Fenghuang, allowing us to catch on a bit of sleep. When we got down at the city station, we hired a taxi to take us to Zhangjiajie Hong Tian International Youth Hostel. At first it was a fairly smooth drive then when we got into a bottleneck at one of the streets. We some cars pulling back to turn around, we thought our taxi was gonna do the same until he went up on the pedestrian lane and started driving past the vehicles caught in the bottle neck while people were avoiding our car on the lane. It was crazy! We finally found our hostel where we would sleep at night. Zhangjiajie, this is gonna be an interesting place, I thought.

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Batanes: House of Dakay

Lola Ida reads her Reader's Digest edition

Just over the town of Ivana, stands the oldest stone house in Batanes known as the House of Dakay. Built in lime and stone in 1887, it is the only 5 structures that survived the frightful earthquake in September 13, 1918 which literally leveled the the whole town of Ivana to the ground. Most of the structures like the shutters and floors still retains the original materials. Only the thatched cogon roof has been changed every thirty years since 1917. It is a small impressive structure which earned a UNESCO heritage building title.

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China: Dujiangyan City

Dujiangyan Hanging Bridges

On the recent major earthquake in China, one of the cities that was majorly affected was Dujiangyan City since it was close to the epicenter of the quake. It’s devastating to know that schools were some of structures badly damaged. I’m dedicating this post to the victims of the quake. Dujiangyan is a pretty little City just lying a little west, up north of Chengdu City. We visited another UNESCO World Heritage Site there which is the Dujiangyan Irrigation System.

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Vietnam: Ha Long Bay Hidden Lagoon

Early morning the next day after spending a night at Ha Long Bay, our next activity after having a hearty breakfast was to explore a Hidden Lagoon. Not too far from where we were anchored that night we took a small boat, which can cross through a low passage under a lime stone karst. This would be our last attraction to visit, after this we would be going back to the port of Ha Long and drive back to Hanoi.

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Vietnam: Exploring Sung Sôt Cave

Aside from cruising the numerous karst islands of Ha Long Bay, another activity along this UNESCO World Heritage Site is spelunking. There are a number of cave systems on some of the thousands of islands dotting the bay. On our first day of exploration, we were able to visit one of the popular caves at the center island of the bay called Sung Sôt Cave. Found on Bo Hòn Island, the cave has also been known as the Amazing Cave or Cave of Surprises.

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Vietnam: Ha Long Bay Images

Bay of the Descending Dragons is such a dramatic phrase. It’s like going into a mythical world where magic and mythical creatures still exist. Quite unlikely in this day and age, but Ha Long Bay, which literally means the same phrase can be a good setting for a fantasy movie. This karst filled bay found in Quảng Ninh province in Vietnam, 170km east of Hanoi, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Let us go on a photographic journey in this natural wonder.

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