New Moon in the Forks of the Philippines

New Moon and Twilight fans: there's a place in the Philippines that closely resemble Forks!

It's a small secluded mountainous area almost constantly under a cool blanket of fog and rain, dotted with pine trees and shrouded with mystery.

Sounds like vampire haven!

You can almost imagine Edward Cullen emerging from among the caucasian denizens or visitors that pilgrimage to this mountain hideaway. Or Jacob Black showing up from among the culturally rich native inhabitants of this scenic spot. Incidentally, it is famous for its amazingly preserved coffins ceremoniously niched in the sacred chambers of its limestone cave walls.

Where else but in Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines. While there are no vampire/werewolf stories that abound here, there's a lot to discover in this hard-to-reach place that's truly worth the bumpy six-hour bus ride from Baguio City (not yet counting the other six-hour bus ride from Manila to Baguio).

Follow my blog by clicking here for a closer look at this truly stupendous spot where you can almost feel like New Moon in the Forks of the Philippines. http://joandarling.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/sacadas-in-sagada-2009/

Ped Xing

Sounds Chinese to me. I saw the name on a street sign in Manila in 2006 and wondered, "Who in Philippine history is Ped Xing?"

Then I came across an article by a Filipino columnist with the same thought about some unheralded Chinese hero now being honored by naming a street after him. Flabbergasted, he soon found out that Ped Xing is actually short for PEDestrian CROSS(X)ing.

Ped Xing. Who would have thought?

So when I came back to Manila again this year, 2009, I saw a lot of intersections with the glaring Ped Xing sign. And I just wonder, will the below average promdi get the message?

Manila LRT Booboos: A Promdi's Blooper

No matter what, a promdi ("prom di" or from the province) is always a promdi.

Manila is not my ol' stomping ground. I've been there many a transient times. I've taken the LRT several times, and I've had several unforgettable experiences worth blogging.

Let me just narrow them down to the two most memorable:

Late 90's. I and my brother just came from Clark, Pampanga, where I bought several blinds for my house back in my home province. From Monumento LRT terminal, we were to get off Baclaran terminal. My younger brother, being more experienced in the Manila jungle, was giving out instructions like an army general. I have to be alert lest I get left behind by the train, he huffed, carrying eight boxed blinds across his chest in his arms. Obediently I did, but he was too busy giving me tips on how to go about the LRT maze that the train door closed on him while I was already squeezed in with the other unmindful passengers. With an alarmed look in his wide eyes, he stood still, dazed as the LRT started to move on without him, blinds and all. It was a time when analogue cell phones are a luxury even the promdis couldn't yet afford. So, without any means of real-time communication, I just remembered to get off at Baclaran station where my brother was happily reunited with me after the next LRT came in.

Ten years later. I was traveling alone, a lot more confident after making a lot of booboos in the past. From Central terminal I was supposed to alight at Gil Puyat station. Alone and absentminded, I saw "Gil" at the next stop, so I quickly got off, went down the street and asked around for the ride to Ayala. Although I could get a ride from there, I realized I got off the wrong station. I alighted at Pedro Gil, not Gil Puyat! Why, the names could almost be palindromes! The bus ride from Pedro Gil got stuck in afternoon rush-hour traffic I was nearly in tears thinking I might not make it to our scheduled get-together at The Fort that night.

Whew! I never realized until now how the two Gils could make LRT life a bit more complicated to a promdi like me.

Don Salvador Benedicto's Rolling Uphill Illusion

Spook or science? Thirty four kilometers up Bacolod City is the famous Don Salvador Benedicto KM34 marker where a strange occurence happens.

Called the "rolling uphill illusion", it is a visual trick that makes things seem to roll upward an inclined plane when actually it is rolling down.

This video demonstrates how our mini van rolls up about two meters without a driver.



Here are two more links to show you how spilled water would drip uphill in the same area.

The locals, though, would like to believe that the area is enchanted, sometimes causing accidents despite the wide concrete highway.

That's how science can still be spooky.