Aklan, Travelouges 1 comment

Boracay Captured my Heart: A Love Story of Aklan

By admin on May 21st, 2010

by Eden Lorren Pabalan

New friends, new families

One week was all I had to take a trip to Aklan, a province better known for it’s Boracay Island. It was a very fulfilling and unforgettable travel experience for me because I reaped laurels in Kalibo due to the National Schools Press Conference, and at the same time, had a leisure trip to the tourist attractions of Aklan, especially, where else? Boracay! The sand and the smell of the sea was overwhelming. But I was most thankful for the tour guides and co-contestants in the NSPC who have become my buddies in my vacation-cum-contest. Everything was worth it!

1st Day: I don’t love airports

I was so excited when I boarded the PAL plane bound for Kalibo at 3:00 pm. My adrenaline was surged up and I had a lot of misfortunes and adventures before I got the chance to go to Aklan for free. I won a Metro Manila journalism contest where the winners will compete in the national levels which will be held in Kalibo, Aklan for three days. The other days left were for travel and leisure for us. So DepEd and my school sent me to Aklan together with another participant to bring back to Manila the much needed victory in the field of journalism.

The flight ran smoothly for us. After about 45 minutes the plane landed in Kalibo Airport where the little hassles began. When we arrived, there was a blackout in the airport! It was drizzling and the machines used for scanning the baggages were not working. After a few moments, we saw our bags being drenched in the rain and were just piled up in a corner of the airport and we rushed to take our luggage! It gave me a headache. But that’s where the troubles ended. We were welcomed in the airport by my adviser’s friends who served as our tour guides during our one week in Aklan. They drove us to our billeting area in Kalibo Pilot Elementary School. Unbelievably, their public schools were nice. We had dinner in a barbecue house near the school and unpacked our stuff. Everything was good so far.

2nd Day and 3rd Day: Love the weather, hate the tension

On Sunday, we went to Aklan Baptist Church to pray for the upcoming contest and we met some people whom my adviser knew. They served us a sumptuous lunch and gave us a warm welcome. Hospitality reigned in their culture.

Monday was the official start of the NSPC. There was a popular ati-atihan dance (dance for a feast in honor of Santo Niño) and we enjoyed the warm welcome of Kalibo people. It was my first time to see it and my curiosity was satisfied. I’m began to adjust in the weather, which was really cold, and met new friends. Cristina, a senior, jogged around the school every morning when she woke up and invited me to join her. The cool smell of fresh air soothed my lungs. It was a welcome breath after living in Manila for 15 years.

Despite the good events, the tension in my heart rose up. Wednesday was the schedule of my contest for Copyreading and Headline Writing. It doesn’t help that I had fun the whole time.

4th Day and 5th Day: I Love Precious Moments, Bakawans, and awards

Wednesday was the day of the contests for my category. It was also the day our school principal arrived to join us for the contest and awarding. I did my best in writing a headline and my comrade already copped an award for winning in Radio Broadcasting. What I cannot believe was when I heard my name being called for winning 4th place in the nationals! My Aklan trip was already well-paid. Our school principal was so happy about my achievement. My co-student also won third place in a different category.

Travel-wise, on Wednesday and Thursday, we strolled around Aklan. We went to the museum of Precious Moments, dolls which were made by an American national based in Aklan. There were lots of dolls inside the museum which looked like a huge doll house, and I saw all the limited edition Precious Moments dolls. They were so cute. After that tour, I started to love the dolls with the trademark teardrop-shaped eyes. We also went to Bakawan park and marvelled at the aquatic trees. Of course we ate and ate during the tour, and probably gained weight. When night fell, we started packing up to get ready for tomorrow’s travel to Boracay Island!

6th Day and 7th Day: I’m in love

I never thought that Boracay was so far from Kalibo. Our “tour guides” who were actually the best guides for me, drove us in a van from Kalibo all the way to Malay, Aklan for about 2 hours. During the travel, we saw lots of coconut trees and a view of the ocean, and the province. It was beautiful. I had already fallen in love with Aklan, and I actually didn’t want to end my trip. After the long ride to Malay, we took a 30-minute boat ride to Boracay island.

When we arrived at Boracay, I excitedly disembarked from the boat and admired the fine white sand. I even put some sand into a mineral water bottle and took it home. We checked-in to a hotel and swam in the blue water of the sea. There were not much tourists because it was February, and I liked the serenity of the place. The only problem when you swim in February is that there were moss and seaweeds around the shores. But then, I enjoyed every second of being there, most especially the food and the weather, which was not too hot. I loved their green mango shake and mongolian buffet! Yum! But the best thing in Boracay is its sunset. Lovely is an understatement for describing it.

To wrap it up, Aklan is a province rich in culture, hospitality, and biodiversity. It’s people, attractions, and festivals are the reasons why tourists swarm the province. And I will never forget the moment I fell in love with it.

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Egyptian ways of life: A look at the Cairo Lifestyle

By nissan on May 20th, 2010

By: Eden Lorren Pabalan
Ahhh rats!!!
“Welcome to Egypt!” is the greeting of Egyptian rats of all sizes, shapes and ages to anyone who wants to try vacationing in the country.Yes, rats. I think the population of rats in Egypt  are outnumbering the human population. And let me introduce to you the family of King Rats whom I met in Cairo.
There are many stories I can say about the King Rat and his family. While we have caught most of King Rat’s family (Grandpa rat, mama rat and 3 teenagers), it took us nearly a month to finally catch King Rat. In an exaggerated way, I think King Rat can maul a person down with its size. We are still catching some of the relatives and we hear them quite frequently when waking up in the middle of the night to go to the kitchen as we are dying of thirst. Of course King Rat cannot maul a human down, but he measures at around 15 inches in reality. Well, That is only the introduction. Here are some interesting “tails” about rats in Cairo.
The Vegetarian Glue
Jeff was the one who started off the whole rat frenzy. He bought a trap back in October when he realized that someone (or something) was eating his apples. For a few days in a row, he had come home to half eaten apples, and he was the only one living in his apartment. Jeff had left other types of food out-bread, cheese, nuts, and the other thing that the rat would eat was apples. He came to the conclusion that this little bastard was a vegetarian.
He went on a serious hunt for a rat trap and couldn’t find one anywhere. Each place he went to had never heard of a rat trap before; they had only heard of “rat glue”. Apparently you are supposed to take this rat glue and put it in corners of the kitchen (or whatever room the rat has made his new home). The rat then steps in the glue and ventures off… and then like Spiderman he scales the walls and ceiling and becomes Super Rat… until he gets stuck and cannot move. Jeff didn’t end up purchasing this amazing product because he couldn’t quite figure out what to do with the rat when his feet became glued to the wall… would he take a pot or pan and smash the thing until he was dead? Would he capture it and hope that the rat didn’t bite him and give him rabies? Jeff finally found a rat trap and caught the rat a few days later.  We decided to be the rat champions and invite as many rats in as possible, but we began to have what was the start of a Rat Epidemic. More rats than we ever thought we would see in one apartment! We have now caught something around six rats. It was an adventure.
Splish-Splash I was takin’ a bath…
Dad awoke one night around 2am, when he heard a “Splish-splash…splish-splash” sound while he was sleeping. He got up and tip-toed cautiously over to the bathroom. The “splish-splash, splish-splash” sound is getting annoying. He looked in the bathtub and found nothing; then he peeked into the bowl of the toilet. There he was…. a rat about the size of a small puppy, splashing around in the toilet bowl. Unsure of whether to flush it (as it may clog the toilet and how sickkkk would that be to have Egyptian toilet water spilling up and running all over your bathroom floor) or try to kill it. He just slammed the lid of the toilet, put a heavy weight on the top of the lid and went back to bed. In the morning, when I got up to go to the bathroom, I opened the lid and thank heavens the rat was gone. He must have swam down the toilet and found his way out somehow. But it was only us who thought he was gone. Later that day, I went into the kitchen to get a drink and once again, King Rat was staring at me while sitting on the stove. Now I know I was pretty damn quick as I grabbed the pan that was beside me and ran over to him to give him a good smack- but he jumped up! (4meters or so) and chewed a whole threw the screen window and was out free again. I am still very nervous every time I go to the bathroom because I’m afraid that some rat is going to jump out of the toilet and bite me!
Subway Sammies
Subway is my favourite sandwich in the world. Maadi, the district in Cairo I live in, just opened one the other day. My girlfriend Jenn and I were walking home from her place one afternoon and saw that it was their “grand opening” and there was a buy one get one free promo. So we got a footlong Veggie (and then one free), and it ended up being 50 pounds as we were forced to buy a drink, cookie and bag of chips in order to get the promotion. Frustrated, we took the subs home and put them on the kitchen counter. We started chatting in the living room and a few hours later we were hungry for Subway. I went into the kitchen and saw that the freaking King Rat was eating our subways. The whole area was a mess of vegetables and plastic bag scattered from a hungry rat eagerly chewing his way through to eat our subs. how angry I was so angry when I saw this hairy black rat look back at me with his yellow little beady eyes and a big piece of sub in his mouth. I screamed and threw a pan at him, but that hole in the screen is his escape route and he quickly evacuated within moments of seeing me.
Shut up and Drive, drive, drive
“Probably an accident”, I said, shuddering at the memory of the watermelon truck accident I had just been a victim in. Our bus was barely moving as we were stuck in a traffic jam. Nobody wears seat belts or helmets and road deaths kill far more people than Islamic extremists have ever done. The number of cars that break down a day is uncountable; overcrowded buses drive into the Nile, bricks fall off semis in the middle of the freeway, tomato boxes roll off the top of a cargo truck and land in the middle of the freeway, speeding, poorly maintained roads, and a total disregard for both the law and personal safety make Egypt’s roads the most dangerous in Africa. This is part of the driving test system. I have a good friend who is an Egyptian and we were chatting the other day about the rules of the road and drivers’ licenses. She told me what are the news with regards to the way one goes about to receive a driver’s license which (surprisingly) you need to drive here.  The practical test in Cairo consists of a short drive a few metres forward, then in reverse. She told me that when she took the test there were so many cars waiting in line, that after a couple of hours, the examiner took pity of them and issued everyone in the cars a “pass”without actually seeing any of them drive at all!!! After one got his license, there were a few things that he will do such as paying documents and writing paperwork. Finally, came a check of the vehicle’s road test.  The road test meant an inspection of the car boot to see whether was a fire extinguisher inside, since a law had recently been passed stipulating that all vehicles need to be equipped with one. Whether your car had lights, brakes, mirrors or indeed anything besides your four wheels and a fire extinguisher truly had no importance.
Policemen wander aimlessly back and forth crossing the street and patrolling. Really, they are traffic patrol police, but are wearing different uniforms and are much busier than policemen, as policemen usually just hang out on a street corner in their little box, sleeping with their guns on their laps, texting/chatting on their mobile phones or eating mushy cheese and pita with their other partner who is working just as hard as he is. The guys aren’t really trying to control the traffic and are only looking like crazy musical conductors as they wave their batons chaotically and attempt to impose some sort of order. For a man who is paid a monthly salary of around 10 US bucks, (which probably includes room and board too), these guys are overly brave and hard-working. The health consequences of extreme exposure to traffic all day long can kill anyone. I read about a survey of Egyptian traffic policemen conducted by the faculty of medicine of Cairo ‘s Ain Shoms University found those levels of lead and other heavy metal toxins in their blood were all above average. Additionally, an estimated 10-25,000 people die each year in Egypt from particles and lead in the air and pollution costs kids who grow up in Cairo 4.25 IQ points. Good stuff I read here.