[smartads] I needed to get up early this morning because we were supposed to be going to Malajog Beach at 0800 this morning. I woke up at 0832 and no one was ready yet. Of course that doesn’t surprise me, because everyone is running on Philippines time. So I got up, got ready and got back in bed, after I checked the number of hits on here. When I went to bed the hits were at 20344 and this morning they were only at 20520. Not a very good night, but I have a feeling that better times for this blog are right around the corner. Anyway, when everyone finally did get ready to go, we left the house at 10:37am. We only stayed at the beach for about 3 1/2 hours, then we came home. I did get some pictures on the way there and while we were there. I brought 9 bottles of that lemonade I made to the beach, I drank 2 and there were only 4 when I got back. I’m pretty sure Mar drank the other 3. I know he drank at least 2, I saw him.
On the way, both ways, we passed by the airport and also that Marju Krisel Hotel. Well I didn’t know it at the time, but I have been to the swimming pool at that hotel. In fact, I’ve showed the picture of Robbie and her kids in that pool. It is a nice pool. I’ll try to remember to post it again today, so y’all can see it. In fact, let me go look for it now, to make sure I don’t forget.
There I found it. I found it in the 30 Sep post. I changed the comments since I now know where it is. I also added an additional picture just so I would not be wasting space.
This hotel is not quite at the airport. It is more like 1 1/2 – 2 kilometers closer than the airport. So that means it is about 2 1/2 – 3 miles from our house. Mar said his trip meter didn’t work correctly, but it turned out to be about a 8 minute trip from there to here. I also found out that this hotel is owned by the vice mayor of Calbayog, so he keeps it in pretty good shape. Jaclyn if you think you want to stay there, I’ll check out the details for you. It sounds nice and if the price is the same as before, P800, then that’s a good deal.
Lita is not too sure she wants to bring Jaclyn down to Tambis during her visit. She is worried about the more primitive environment. Jaclyn it is more primitive than here. There are 2 bathrooms that would be available to use. One is a toilet with a faucet and bucket. You fill the bucket with water and pour it into the toilet to flush it. There is a separate shower in that house, but the shower is not used that often, and it has spider webs all along the ceiling and high on the walls. The other bathroom has the toilet, faucet thing, but in this bathroom, you also use the water from the bucket to take a shower. For me, when I go down there for 2 or 3 nights, I just bring a lot of the baby wipes and use those to clean, unless I just have to take a shower, then I use the one with the spider webs, because there are less people there when you get out of the shower. I rarely have to take a shower. Plus you can take a bath at the river like many of the other people do. I feel weird doing that, so I don’t.
Also when we go to Tambis, I bring my own food with me. But I don’t eat the seafood they have, that why. I guess it wouldn’t be so bad for you, because you will eat the crab. What about Matt? If you decide that you do want to go down there with us, then when you send the ‘care package’, send extra stuff that Matt likes to eat and we’ll bring that with us when we go.
Now why would you want to visit Tambis at all? Are you asking that question? That is the place that Aunt Lita was raised, at least in that area. I just figured you’d what to see something like that. You would be able to see the house that Cathy was raised in. You could see the place that had the landslide and buried a whole village. That Hindag-an Falls & Forest Park (where I made the Small Leap for a Big Man video) is in that area also. You could buy some cigarettes for .30 per pack to bring to Uncle Mike, so he’ll quit pestering me on the computer. Actually I think Titing will buy them for you, all you have to do is carry them with you when you return. We will even go by the area where Violy is from. Sometimes we stop by to see her sister, not usually, but sometimes when we have a message for her or something to give her from Violy. Last but certainly not least, there are lots of things to see on the way over there. We could go by MacArthur park and see the statue dedicated to General MacArthur when he made his return…you know about that…”I Shall Return”.
Wait a minute…wait a minute. I don’t know what I’ve been thinking recently, but it hasn’t been straight. Since we plan to go to Korea to go shopping, and not in Manila, then when you get your tickets, you could request to come in at Tacloban and we’d already be in the town were MacArthur Park is. If you decide you want to go to Tambis, then we could go straight from there because we are over 1/2 way there already. Now the place you get to sleep in Tambis is alright. You’ll have your own bed and your own electric fan. Assuming there are no brown outs, it should be a pleasant enough evening. Of course if you just want to go down there for 1 night, then that can be done also. I wouldn’t want to stay more than 2 nights anyway. It’s complicated because when we get ready to go to Korea, we will have to go back to Tacloban to get on the plane to go to Manila and then on to Korea. You just let me know what y’all decide about going to Tambis and we’ll work it out from there. To us it doesn’t matter. Since they gotten the roads fixed, it’s not too bad of a trip. We will also go by Robinson Mall. The have a KFC and Shakey’s pizza there.
At Shakey’s Pizza they have a weird thing. I hope I didn’t mention this in the blog already, but they have 3, I’ll call it levels, of drinks. First they have the single drinks. Then they have the “bottomless” drinks (all you can drink) and lastly they have the “by the pitcher” drinks. Now what is so weird about it, is that the bottomless drinks cost less than the pitcher drinks. I guess they are not use to large Americans being in there, because I can drink more than a pitcher of their lemonade. First time I was in there, I must have drank 10 glasses. They have to bring you the refill each time, but I had a young lady standing by the area up front with a pitcher of lemonade just waiting for me to run out so she could refill it. They also have some awesome flavored Icee’s there to try. I usually get the Pina Colada flavored.
I guess most of this post so far looks more like a letter to Jaclyn, but I think that everyone can get something out of what I have written, or I would not have written it.
On the way back from Malajog Beach, we stopped by Joyous Eatery to chit chat. Well they did, I didn’t talk very much. They also brought some of the food, that they were not going to bring to the beach, but did, to Judith so she could enjoy some of it. I’ve got pictures going to the beach, at the beach (including most of the food they had at the beach) (Of course it was stuff I will not eat), and some pictures of the new bus depot and market on the way back from Joyous Eatery, which I’ll put in tomorrow’s post.
I have more pictures of other food at the beach, but they will have to wait until tomorrow’s post.
Before we went to the beach we had a brown out. Since we’ve been back, we’ve had 2 more. All of them have been short. The longest one being about 15 minutes maximum. That didn’t stop me from taking a shower though. That was one of the first things I did upon return home.
Unfortunately that is all I have for this evening. I will put in the Tagalog word of the day, the trivia and add the rest of the pictures, and I’ll see y’all tomorrow.
Tagalog word of the day: ilong (e-long) means nose.
Philippine Trivia
- Cebu is the first Philippine City.
- Maria Teresa Calderon – World champion speed reader as listed in the Guiness Book of World Records
- In the Philippines, Filipinos were introduced to the English language in 1762 by British invaders, not Americans. Philippines is the world’s 3rd largest English-speaking nation, next to the USA and the UK.
- Coconuts – the Philippines is considered to be the largest producer of coconuts
- Gemma Cruz was the first Filipina to win an international beauty title – Miss International 1964.
- Dan Inosanto – from Mike Robandido – Pinoy who taught Bruce Lee how to use arnis de mano.
- The oldest philippine printing next to Manila can be found in Pila Laguna. The first book printed was named Vocabulario Delengua Tagala – the philippines first Filipino – Spanish dictionary which was printed in 1613, 25 years older than the first book printed in the States.
- The Philippine Basketball Association is Asia’s premier and the world’s second oldest professional league.
- After Happy Birthday, the song most sung in the Philippines is Lupang Hinirang, the anthem.
Salamat, Palaam
Reading this blog is addictive. I have finished
reading all of your blogging and let me just say,
“Great Blog.” You seem like a really good person,
and it’s nice to know there are still some good
people out there. You once asked about which
background is the best. I like the one with the
mountains and trees because it’s calming, the
Filipino flag alone is my second favorite, and the
combination flags is my third place, but all of them
are fine. Most blogs don’t make much of a profit in
their first year, but when you keep on blogging then
Google and other search engines will keep raising
your ranking in their listings. Eventually, when
someone types in the name of your town or the
hotel across the street or any of the towns you
mention repeatedly then you’ll be on page one of
the results and Adsense will beg you to place their
ads on your blog. Your love for the Dallas
Cowboys is admirable. I quit being a fan after they
let the coach with the helmet hair go after he won a
couple of SuperBowls for them. Now I’m a Saints
fan because their stadium is like 75 miles from
here. Keep rockin’ the blog!
Thanks a lot dude. I don’t think it’s so great, but other people seem to like it. I mean it’s just me, doing what I do, nothing special. For some reason it seems to attract people, so that’s good. Even Titing has complimented me twice and he has only read one entry. He doesn’t even understand English that well. Well enough though. The thing about the background I may need to change. Winda says that on laptops, the background interferes with the writing area. I can’t have that. So shortly after you see this, it will change again. I hope Winda will let me know if the new background still hinders her.
I don’t know about Adsense ‘begging’ me. They said that my blog is not their kind of blog. But I’m glad to know how that works, so I can keep typing those names and hoping get me out there more. Hey I know they fired Jimmy Johnson, and he was awesome, but Go Cowboys!
This is another response to a comment from 25 Oct. I was thinking about this again today. I did search for the Ciriaco Hotel in Yahoo and I was on the first page. In Google I think it was the 3rd page. I checked out a couple of other things too like ‘philippines bata’ and ‘salamat, palaam’. I was in there on both in Yahoo, but not in Google. I don’t understand the difference, but I do know if someone searches in Yahoo, they’ll find me, actually I think I was at the top of the ‘Ciriaco Hotel’ and ‘salamat, palaam’ listings.
Cowboys play the Saints this weekend, so I guess we’ll be rooting for different teams this week.
Hi JJ. I made several attempts to post a comment in the last couple of days but had to abort when I ran out of time. 🙁 Just so I won’t forget, is it possible for the space for comments not to have any background graphics “behind” it? Sometimes when I’m using a laptop it’s hard to make out the print. Maybe my eyes are just going… 😉
OK, if you’re all going to Tambis, my beach shack is only 20-30 minutes away since you have your own transportation. It’s right by the national road so it’s all paved to and from St. Bernard, Catmon… I’ve never been to Tambis so I’m not sure if it’s close to the “highway.”
You can all stay there [how many in Jaclyn’s family?] and be in Tambis all day and go back to the shack at day’s end. There are 6 bedrooms; well, 5, since the caretaker uses one. It has 3 bathrooms: 2 bathtubs and 2 showers. Hot water and exhaust fans in all BRs, a fan in each bedroom. It’s a few degrees cooler than in town because of the constant sea breeze. Not a business, so of course, no charge – Filipino hospitality and all that. Think about it seriously. It’s 8 months away so let me know closer to the date so I can give the caretaker a heads up. I’m planning to be back there after the holidays to do more work [perimeter fence, landscaping, etc.]
Gotta go again…
Keep typing!
Opps. Found out I have another few minutes. And just thought of a couple more things.
Ten minutes drive away towards Anahawan is Mainit hot springs in the middle of huge bamboo and other trees. You might want to soak there for an hour or two and there are tables for minimal rent if you bring snack and need one for a picnic.
The beach shack has a good Whirlpool clothes washer. With the seabreeze it doesn’t take long for the wash to dry on the line. When we’re there it’s going at least once a day.
And the water is good to go for drinking straight from the tap. I mentioned the town’s great water early on when your blog wasn’t too old. 🙂
St. Bernard has a farmers’ market with lots of fruit and veggies. St. John/Cabalian has a few internet cafes, as does St Bernard, of course. It all sprouted there quickly in the aftermath of the landslide; Smart provided them for the international journalists who rushed to cover the tragedy, and the business stayed.
OK, I now really have to leave.
Ingat!
I’ve heard of that hot springs, but never been there.
Lita just walked in and I told her about your beach shack. She want’s to know exactly where it is, so she can ask one of her cousins that lives in the area to try to find it before we try it and get lost.
I’m not drinking the water straight out of the tap, so it doesn’t matter. I’ll let the others judge the water.
Yes we know about the Farmer’s market. We went there last time we were in the area. In fact, I posted pictures on here about it. The day I posted the one about the CR and I believe the first time I showed the pos, before it was a pos. I’m hoping it is no longer a pos, by the way.
Didn’t think about it, but that makes sense about the internet cafe’s.
Okay, let me know and we’ll check it out.
Alright lets answer the questions and statements first. Tambis is not close to the highway, no where near close.
There are only 3 in Jaclyn’s family: Jaclyn, Matt and Wyatt (he’ll be 2).
I thought you where talking about a small little shack on the beach, that’s sounds bigger than my whole complex here.
I’ll mention it to Lita again and see her opinion on it, but it still sounds good to me, even more so now that I know it’s bigger than I imagined.
I see they haven’t repaired the road to Malajog, yet they say this is a tourist spot. How many tourist want to go down a muddy pot hole road and get whip lash. And no hospitals.
I had heard alot about Malaog beach so we decided to go check it out,going down that muddy road i thought we were on the wrong road,when we made it to the beach could not believe it.Not at all what i expected.Beachs on samar are not as nice as other spots i have been.
I agree with you Wayne. There are many places that have better beaches than Samar, but it’s all we have. They should build up some of them and make it more attractive for tourist, but I don’t think they will, not right now anyway.
Yea we have a beach alot like Malaog,with little hut you can rentWe have to take a boat to it,but family are fisherman so no problem there.Better than nothing and is clean and not crowded,kids love it.
That is like Malajog, and yes it is better than nothing.
That’s 2 for background.
That’s the same thing I tell Mar and/or Titing, depends on who is in the car with me, almost every time we go down that road.