It's the last day of May! I've been home for just a handful of days since the RCS left for the US in April, then Masbate, Bicol right on time for my birthday on the 1st of May. A few weeks after that, we went to Candon, Ilocos Sur to perform at their 1st music festival. That last one, being the shortest of all the trips, is the one I've been able to sum up (somewhat poorly) in a short video. I'm writing this from Iloilo, while on another work trip, so for now, I'll just share the link below. * The skipping on the[...]
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Philippines
Surf towns have a distinct, laid-back vibe, judging from my visits to La Union, Baler, and Hale'iwa on the North Shore of Oahu. Among them all, tiny Liwliwa has got to be the chillest, stripped to the barest scene I've experienced.
On the 2nd week of December, we flew in to Dumaguete for 2 shows. On the 8th, we had a concert at the Luce Auditorium at Silliman University, followed by a Christmas tree lighting event at the plaza the next day. As with most of my work trips, so long as time permits, it doubled as a QuicKation, or so I've come to call them. Day 1 We were on a red eye flight, so breakfast was the 1st order of business when we arrived. While Casa Rubin prepared our rooms for early check-in, we ordered food at their restaurant Co[...]
It all started with 2.2 kilos of ube that I bought from our trip to Wawa for P136. This was *gasp* the 1st time I'd ever seen ube in its raw form, and it was pretty humongous, too. I was excited to see what I could make out of it. The first thing I made was halaya, a sort of jam taken from the Spanish word jalea, which means jelly. There were many recipes for it, but most were typically made with coconut and/or condensed milk and some butter. I don't know about you, but I've always found it so inconvenient to ea[...]
I had quite the adventure last Monday, and leading up to it. I had been wanting to hike up Mt. Masalakot and Nalayag Rocks since I saw photos of its monolith, but this guy from Instagram warned me that there had been news of militia in the area in September. That's never a risk I want to take, despite assurances that they leave civilians alone. So I looked for another option, defaulting back to my favorite province of Rizal. 1st Choice Mt. Lubog was a promising choice, its altitude and difficulty pe[...]
Pinoy Playlist Music Festival For 2 weekends, I frequented the BGC Arts Center for the 1st Pinoy Playlist Music Festival. I was there for 3 out of 6 days, performed twice, and watched 16 artists. It was food for the soul, taking part in that as both performer and audience. Regardless of the size of a venue or the amount of people in it, live performances feel so intimate to me. As an artist, I can absorb all the emotional energies from those watching and use them to adjust my delivery of a song or movement. As a sp[...]
After foiled plans to go to Bangkok (the forecasts predicted daily thunderstorms) and Bali (late booking during peak season made everything absurdly expensive), we decided on a more practical destination that we were sure to enjoy even with minimal planning. Ry and I drove up to Baguio for his short, and only, vacation leave of the year. Not wanting to just replicate our previous trips, we asked friends who live in or frequent the mountain city for new things to try. The response was a list of food, breweries, vie[...]
1DK / active / athlete / climb / environment / exercise / explore / fitness / friends / hanging / hike / hiker / hiking / holiday / Kikki.K / Mabuhaykers / mountain / mountains / Mt. Masungki / outdoors / Philippines / pinoy / Renee Salud
Jam-packed January
January caught me off guard. Once my brain went on vacation in December, it seemed reluctant to come back. Aside from waiting to transition into a new journal that I get as a traditional gift from my sister yearly, I took a breather from being my OC self and figured I'd have time to get my plans all sorted in the new year. I kept saying yes to meetings, parties, and gigs without taking down any dates. When the last holiday ham and rhum cake had been consumed, and the gifts had all been handed out, I knew I could no[...]
adventure / bicol / camarines sur / city / countryside / explore / Filipino / inventions / iriga / mountain / Mt. Asog / only in the philippines / outdoors / Philippines / pinoy / tracks / train / transportation / Travel / volcano
Rail Skating: Only in the Philippines?
Back after an extremely long hiatus ✌? I have so many stories pending that are waiting to be told, but let's start with something light and unexpected. After having just returned from London, we went to a small city in Bicol for work. Camarines Sur is famous for its untouched natural beauty like white sand beaches, and lush mountains and volcanoes with hundreds of hot and cold springs and waterfalls. We didn't have time for any of those, but wanted to try something different. One of the guys assigned to take us[...]
adventure / beach / explore / hike / hiker / hiking / ilocos norte / mindanao / mountain / nature / outdoors / Philippines / tourism / Travel / traveler / vacation / waterfalls
Fly, Work, Fly, Work
I am terrible at this. I missed all of May (my birth month!) when I wanted to share about the trips leading to my birthday. I went to Camiguin and Ilocos Norte in a span of two weeks, and I was exhausted but so, so content. https://www.instagram.com/p/BTJU773hTM-/?taken-by=kaichypoo https://www.instagram.com/p/BTL8Q2lhMwa/?taken-by=kaichypoo https://www.instagram.com/p/BTL-UdaBbKc/?taken-by=kaichypoo https://www.instagram.com/p/BTOslfvhkA5/?taken-by=kaichypoo https://www.instagram.com/p/BTSfs3lBU_k/?taken-by=k[...]