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General Siquijor Siquijor

Siquijor: From underground to the highest point of Siquijor Island

Cantabon Cave natural bath tub

Cantabon Cave natural bath tub

Apologies for the slow updates here as I’ve been caught in between some side projects and work related projects as well. Promise to do my blog rounds as soon as I’m able. For the meantime here’s one of my last few entries for Siquijor. After doing some rounds of beaches and mangrove sanctuaries surrounding the island, it’s time to go inland and go subterranean and explore some underground wonders, after which, we’ll do a short hike up to the highest point of the island.

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General Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Malaysia: Climbing Bukit Tabur

View over Bukit Tabur, also known as Taman Melawati Hills

Jills and lake over Bukit Tabur, also known as Taman Melawati Hills

I have always been a nature person. Given a choice if I’ll hang around a mall or the countryside I’ll definitely choose the latter. With my friend already off back to Singapore by bus yesterday, I’m on my own on my last day in Kuala Lumpur. So what am I to do on this city of skyscrapers and railways before I fly out by night? I’ve already explored the Mini-forest at Bukit Nanas near the Menara Tower and been around the malls and parks in the city. So very early in the morning I went to the nearest LRT, bought a ticket and took the first train to Wangsa Maju station since I decided to go a bit out of town to climb Bukit Tabur in Taman Melawati.

View of the serene lake which is really a big Dam

View of the serene lake which is really a big Dam

Before I went on my trip, I researched around where I could find a nice nature tripping escape out of the city. There are lot actually around Malaysia, but most would take at least 3 days on which I have no luxury at the moment. Then I stumbled on some photo groups and individuals who were raving about their sunrise pictures at a place called Bukit Tabur which is only 30 minutes away from the city. So I researched more and found some bits and pieces of information and asked around as well. The place is not really a tourist spot so you won’t find it in any guide books around. So here am I again, going to another off-the-beaten path, riding on the train, armed only with a few notes and information, I was wondering if I’ll be able to climb the place or find it at all. It always give me a chilling feeling traveling to an unknown place not certain of what I’ll found. I remember my first lonely planet travel to Sagada on an unconventional means years ago, I felt a combination of fear and anticipation like now. I guess adventures are like that, you always start of with a cold feet, but once you step a foot forward, it makes all the difference and you move on.

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General Waterfalls

Road to Cambulo

Jump Off at Kinakin

Jump Off at Kinakin [K800i]

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been out on the road. So when a fellow climber and one of the officers of MFPI Ms Ruby, invited me to join an Akyat-Aklat Outreach Project by Batch 19 of of MFPI’s individual members, I jumped at the opportunity and hey it would be a great start for the year to do an outreach. Last outreach I’ve done was way back in 2001. So off we go to Cambulo, Ifugao.

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Batangas General Lakes Travel

The Rockies revealed

Enjoying the Rockies

Enjoying the Rockies

I never thought that I’ll be back in Mt. Maculot so soon. But since I promised an old climbing buddy I haven’t seen for some time that I’ll take him here after seeing my previous post on Mt. Maculot, I scheduled our climb. Thanks to Cruise for inviting me here the first time around, it greatly added to my logistics of the area. Same as what we did, we went on a night trek, but the fun came much later as 2 new friends were added to our list during our climb.

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Batangas General

Retracing Dagulgol

Daguldol camp

One of the campsites in Daguldol near the water source

Had another chance of climbing again last weekend thanks to the gracious invitation of Adtrek on their anniversary climb. Thank god the weather was nice (I guess too nice, – it’s freaking hot!). It was really hot, probably why I got lazy to take more shots than the usual.

Daguldol camp

Walk along the long stretch of beach

I have been to Mt. Daguldol before, at least a year ago with MFPI where we camped by the beach. This time, with the adiks around we camped at summit clearings. It was a fun open climb and got to know more people along the way. Heard there were amazing corals and fishes on the beach. Well maybe if I had the chance to get back here I’ll do more snorkeling this time.

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Batangas General

Ma-ulan na Maculot

Tent in the Rain

Isa sa campsite sa Mt. Maculot

Nung isang linggo, nayaya akong mag Mt. Maculot. At dahil medyo matagal-tagal na rin akong di nakaka-akyat ng bundok pumayag na rin ako. Una medyo nag-a alangan ako kasi Mt. Maculot. Isa ata sa pinaka sikat na bundok na inaakyat sa Batangas, na-iisip ko di masyadong maganda at baka madumi paligid. Pero dahil mura lng naman at wala naman akong naka schedule nung weekend na yun, pumayag na rin ako.

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Camarines Sur General

Guta de Leche: Island lagoons

 On top of Mt. Caglaon

360 view of Caramoan on top of Mt. Caglago

This will be the first in the series about Caramoan. Since there are some people asking how to get there, this would serve as a simple guide.

Dutch travelers in the 1600s call this island as Guta de Leche, a name that used t describe the milk-drop stalagmites found at the Gota Beach port. Later, the Spaniards arrived and called the place Carahan, due to the nuerous sea turtles found at the beach at that time. It was later renamed to what is called today as Caramoan in 1687 by Spanish friar Francisco De la Cruz Y Oropesa.

To get to Caramoan which is around 501km from Manila, you have to get to Naga first. Cubao has buses going to Naga even straight to Sabang port. If you decide to stop first in Naga, you have to ride a Van to Sabang which is around 2 hours. Then from Sabang port, you’ll be riding a boat to Caramoan port, Guihilao which is about 2 hours. From Guihilao you’ll have to ride a jeep to the Centro which is about 30 minutes more. From there you can ask for lodgings available at the area. The Centro will be your Hub while at the area.

First interesting stop would be climbing Mt. Caglago in Barangay Tabgon. It is one of the tallest mountains in Caramoan and one of the easiest to climb as well. They said it has about 527 steps, which I didn’t manage to count, but once you get on top, the large statue of Our Lady of Peace will greet you. It has an amazing 360 degrees view of the whole Caramoan and it will serve as a preview of the islands you’ll be visiting. Oh yeah, going up you have to bring one sack which contains very few rocks (about ¼ filled) when going up the steps. It’s a tradition.

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