As Seen by TV

San Juan… a small beach town located on the western coast of Luzon, just north of San Fernando City.  Very popular surf area… small, quiet and the perfect getaway from Baguio City.

The paradise island of Boracay.  What more else can I really say?

I spent some days on this extremely beautiful island and hardly took a single picture (the ones below make up of about half the total), a photographer needs his vacation too damnit!

Once, I will have to write a nice in-depth essay delving into all the characteristics between all the famous paradise islands in south east Asia, having been to several over the past few years (Bali, Samui, etc) it certainly would be an interesting conversation to have.

But yeah, our flight out of Shanghai left just after midnight, putting us down in Manila in the wee hours of the morning, only to board a small prop-plane an hour later to Kalibo.  A small “ferry” (seen in the photos) then took us to the island and by 9am I was on the beach with a Red Horse in my hand.  One could say I was indeed quite sufficiently ready for the end of the world (the Mayan prophecy of December 21, 2012).  Had the skies come tumbling down, I really could not think of a better place to be.

I don’t have much more to say about Boracay, friendly people, cheap prices, live music in every direction, and the fresh seafood market with restaurants located all around it that instantly cook your purchases any way you desire was a tremendous delight.  Certainly my kilo of king tiger prawns BBQ’d with garlic and butter was only just short of utterly mesmerizing.  Just go to your favorite travel site and buy a ticket, simple as that.  Boracay.  Do it.  Do it now.  You won’t be sorry.

This was my fifth or sixth trip to the island of Bali.  Not sure what else to say about it other than that it’s dope.

Oh yeah, and the sunsets are amazing.

^Just a few more taken over the following days.

I will keep the commentary short this time around, said most of what I needed to about Brunei in my last post.  Pictured above the official seal as seen on the gates to the Sultan’s Palace, while below you see the magnificent Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin mosque.

We had rented a car and drove around… from the Sultan’s palace (couldn’t really get a good view), legislative buildings, beautiful mosques, beaches and parks.  Brunei spares no expense!

Just a quick note about the image of the house on stilts… it is a very rare site, as Brunei is pristine!

Night photos comin’ in the next post…………

…the moon treated us to some wonderful nightscapes…
(could not have asked more from a leap-year day)

The sunset over Sunset Bay, evening #2!

Just got back from anther amazing trip… 2 weeks in Malaysia/Brunei/Indonesia.  Not too happy to be back, but am happy to be posting again… so let’s continue where we left off, the Philippines!

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After heading up into the mountains around Baguio (for the flower festival), we got a car and drove right back down to the coast, destination: San Fernando City… more specifically: Sunset Bay.
You can see why………

We arrived very late at night in Pagudpud… it was pitch black and the sky was utterly breathtaking.  Seriously beyond words (see pics!).  The stars… I could not quite believe it (living in cities like New York and Shanghai you can sometimes forget how magnificent the night sky can be).

Waking up the next morning I was once again a little surprised… as I again stood standing and looking at something beyond words… a pristine white sandy beach, all to ourselves.

I could not think of a better place to drink $1 beers.

I experimented a little with super long exposures (up to an hour!), some were hit, some were miss.

I am going to keep the description short, because I think the photos speak for themselves, what a stunning place.  Write it down, Pagudpud.  Not the easiest spot to get to (but that is part of the reason it is so striking), as we had to fly a tiny propeller place to Laoag City, then take a local bus a couple hours to the very most northern tip of the Philippines (map).  The bus dropped us off on the side of the “highway” (1 lane in each direction), pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  It was COMPLETELY DARK.  Pitch black.  Luckily a friendly (and slightly drunk) man and his friend stopped their jeep (to our anxious waving) and then offered to drive us to our “hotel”, it was the only car we had seen since a good half hour down the highway.  As I mentioned before, when we arrived I couldn’t quite take my eyes of the sky.  Breathtaking.