(At long last) The Arrival: Kolkata, India

Unknown June 30, 2014

My fascination of going to India started even before I was bitten by the travel bug. Five to six years ago I deemed of going there as almost next to impossible as there are many factors to consider; the long haul flight and expensive airfare, being tied up with a corporate job and for a country as big as India - a mere 5 day trip just won't cut it, unless you go there just to see the Taj Mahal at Agra. However, circumstances have a strange way of conspiring to bring me to the country I longed sought to see.

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Halong Bay Side Step to Dau Go Cave

Unknown June 13, 2014

Apart from the thousands of limestone karsts and small isles dotting the whole of Halong Bay, there were small islands that also provided additional attractions like the Dau Go Cave (Wooden Stakes Cave). According to a local story, while planning a counterattack against their Mongolian enemies in 1288, the men of General Tran Hung Dao hid an enormous number of wooden stakes inside that cave. The wooden stakes were then streamed into the Bach Dang River to serve as obstacles against the attacking Mongols. It was a risky plan that tricked the enemy, as the men of Kublai Khan got entangled with the wooden stakes while crossing through the treacherous riverbed, drowning a number of Mongolian warriors.

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Channeling Dolph Lundgren at Pulangui Bridge in Quezon, Bukidnon

Unknown June 04, 2014

When one mentions 'rappelling', I always remember the scene in the first Universal Soldier film where the characters of Dolph Lundgren and Jean Claude Van Damme attempted an Australian rappel assault down the Hoover dam. Though, our experience at the 155 feet high Pulangui Bridge at Quezon, Bukidnon ain't nowhere near a UniSol's feat, I felt a massive rat throbbing from inside my chest as our guide prepare my safety gears. "Are you nervous" he repeated it to me "Are you nervous". I give him a thumbs up sign betraying what I'm feeling, just before I kicked my feet and catapulted my body mid-air. With only a sturdy rope saving me from a 3 second free fall to massive broken bones or worse, death, I recited a short prayer.