Bukit Kutu: A New Perspective In Hiking

Bukit Kutu directly translates to louse hill and when someone names a place after a tiny insect and a hill, it would be instinctive to think that it is an easy climb. 

Skytrex Adventure: Defying Limits

Every time I invite someone to go with me to Skytrex I usually get the question "What is Skytrex?", I would then describe it as an obstacle course in the trees but according to their website this is what Skytrex is about:

Skytrex Adventure provides the first of its kind in Malaysia, a tree to tree  ‘sky-trekking’ experience where you can fly, swing, glide and dangle on the various aerial obstacles suspended above the lush tropical Malaysian Rainforest.  Take up the challenge and pump up the adrenaline on our many circuits at the various parks in which we are located and experience the best and most exciting forest adventure in Malaysia. 

Skytrex Adventure has two parks, one in Shah Alam and the other is in Langkawi. I was supposed to visit their Langkawi park last June but for some reason I skipped it and it has been bugging my mind ever since. Fortunately, I was able to find like-minded crazy people to go with me a few months after.

Cameron Highlands: On Reaching Peaks and Hitting Rock Bottom

Tea plantations as far as the eye can see, cool mountain breeze, mossy forests, multitude of land rovers, fresh and sweet strawberries. These are not the things that Cameron Highlands remind me of.

Cebu: Canyoneering Moalboal

Cebu is my home break in traveling. This is the first inter-island destination I've been to when I was in my tweens but as an adult, I have never been able to return to this place.

If I am going to describe Cebu in one word before this trip it would be elusive. In my previous work, I was never assigned to Cebu even if it is one of the most common destination. November of 2013, I already booked my flight to visit the Queen City of the South but Typhoon Yolanda happened and the trip had to be cancelled. So this year I thought that Cebu would be a great destination in celebration of my birthday solo travel tradition. 

As I mentioned, Cebu is a very popular destination so I thought of something less touristy to do for my week long vacation in this island. The scarcity of a travel guide available about canyoneering in Cebu tells me that it is something I ought to experience. 

Aside from being overshadowed by swimming with the whale sharks as the top activity in Southern Cebu, the hefty price of this activity is probably what makes it less popular to local tourists or so I thought.

Where Do Broken Hearts Go

It is a place where free spirits and wandering souls take refuge, like hers that once found itself in its shores almost a year ago. Wandering and free, a state she should've preserved she thought. But this dopamine-inducing utopia found its way to her mind and eventually her heart and she found herself willingly caught in its zealous trance.

She doesn't know what happened. A couple of months back she was happy and full of love, then one bad decision led to the next and here she is now, ruptured in the in-between.

Broken hearts, shattered dreams, fragmented idealism. A mess beyond repair. 

Mt. Batulao: Celebrating Life and Embracing Freedom

“A man is not where he lives, but where he loves.” - Latin Proverb

I have never been a fan of Valentine's Day, partly because I've never experienced anything memorable on all my Feb 14s and mostly because of the consumerism that comes with it. But I thought I'd do something better this year than hate on the overflow of love and its corporeal things so I took four of my lovely, single, and unattached friends out on a date that they will never forget. 

The Cordilleras: Baguio - Sagada - Banaue - Batad Itinerary, Expenses and Travel Tips

DAY 1 - 11/14	Time	Price (Php)
ETD Manila via Victory Liner Caloocan	9:00 AM	450
ETA Baguio, take a taxi to AJ's Pension House	3:30 PM	50
Check in at AJ's Pension House	4:00 PM	1100 / 3 pax
Walk around Baguio City	5:00 PM
Dinner at Ganza Restaurant in Burnham Park	7:00 PM	700 / 3 pax
Walk around Baguio City some more and appreciate the night lights	8:00 PM
Back to AJ's Pension House, Lights out	9:30 PM

AJ's Pension House

Mt. Cristobal: In Limbo at the Devil's Mountain

WARNING: This is a very Dashboard Confessional post. If you are looking for hike tips to Mt. Cristobal please stop reading and click HERE.

This is probably the first time I ever traveled without doing much research. I just followed the itinerary that Kirk of Kirk Anatomy laid out. Maybe it is the travel fatigue and therefore I thought a mountain, just like it always does, could change my current mindset. After all, Mt. Cristobal is also called the Devil's mountain being that it is beside the holy mountain, Mt. Banahaw, so I expected a faith-changing experience.
 
As compared to Mt. Maculot and Pico de Loro, this is the most exhausting. The ascent is a constant assault but even so, I tried to keep up with our veteran guide, Tatay Jaime (the uncle of the Mt. Cristobal guide kuya Lucio - 09993903350). I distanced myself from the other 3 people I am with and opted to stay closer to him and talk to him instead. Partly because I wanted to get to know a local and to challenge my endurance to keep up with his pace, and mostly because my antisocial juices are overflowing that day.

With Tatay Jaime

Dayhike Haywire: I Shouldn't Be Alive Experience

Reading back on my blog post about my first climb:

180 by Mount Maculot. I guess mountaineers will find the saying "Do not change the mountains, let the mountains change you." such a cliche but it is exactly what Mt. Maculot did to me. It challenged me, it dared my limits and most importantly, it humbled me. 

If Mt. Maculot gave me a 180, Pico de Loro gave me a roller coaster ride.  It took me to my highest highs and my lowest lows. This is an experience I would, and should, never forget.

As far as I could remember, it all started when I felt like someone is following us. I somehow saw a light of a cellphone at the corner of my eye and I thought that someone hidden in the woods is planning on capturing us and making us the main characters in an award winning suspense thriller movie. 
At that moment I asked my friend if someone back home knows where he is, he said no. This got me a little worried because no one knows I am at Pico de Loro either. We have one friend that we invited to go with us but we told her that this trip wouldn't push through because she is not able to join us. I ignored that feeling and we continued traversing the trail. After all, we already passed by the base station and we are an hour away from safety, or so we thought. We talked and talked and talked until the time we realized that we are not seeing trail marks anymore. We saw a couple of hints that we are on the wrong direction such as a water buffalo that is blocking the way and is staring at us, but we ignored it.

Dayhike Haywire: Mt. Palay-Palay/Pico de Loro The Descent

While on our way back to the summit and the campsite, the view of the coastline and Mt. Palaypalay are still very visible. We do not want to go down, I mean who would with these view in sight.

Dayhike Haywire: Mt. Palay-Palay/Pico de Loro The Ascent

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."
-- T.S. Eliot

I intended to stay home until my foray to South Korea in September to conserve money and energy. But I just can't say no to an opportunity for a great adventure simply because I know how bad it feels to be filled with excitement and later on be turned down by your friends when all is set, so I halfheartedly agreed to do a day hike in Pico de Loro. Thank goodness I agreed because on the eve of the climb, life gave me a blunt dose of reality and left my pride and heart broken so I am in dire need of an adrenalin rush to revive shattered self.

Mount Maculot: A Beginner's Insight on Mountain Climbing

My First Climb

Beaches are for pussies. 
I never realized what that phrase really meant until today. When I sort of organized a Mount Maculot day hike with my officemates, all I was expecting was a good cardio activity. Sure, I could run a whole 5km without stopping, I do Yoga, Pilates and, at times, Zumba so climbing a "beginners" mountain should be an easy thing for me. Right? Wrong. There is so much more to mountain climbing than breaking a sweat.