Will surely miss this view from the balcony of the River House here in Lanuza. When a surfer dude would ask me "how long you been surfing?" Unashamed, I’d say "five days in Lanuza." I've a long way to go as surfing isn't just any other sports where you could learn on the fly, a few days, a number of weeks, a couple of months or even a year. No way Jose Aldo! That’s why I hold those talented surfers with high regard because they earned it in the ocean.

Coinciding with our visit to Gamagōri in the Achi Prefecture is the docking of the pirate ship The Thousand Sunny from the popular Japanese manga series One Piece. As someone who is oblivious to the world of manga, I was fortunate to have gotten a quick recap about the story of the ship from a fellow travel writer Mica, who has previous knowledge about the series. According to her, the Thousand Sunny is the ship acquired by the Straw Hat Pirates—a group of misfits comprising the lead characters of One Piece—that figured prominently in both the manga volumes and the adapted anime series.

Making a port of call at the marine resort and theme park of Laguna Ten Beach, the Thousand Sunny takes visitors on a scenic cruise around the bay surrounded by fancy yachts and towering amusement park rides.

The interior of the ship is as fanciful as its playful exterior design. Bursting with popping colors and visually-arresting corners filled with replicas of items one would see in an anime series such as One Piece, being onboard this pirate ship kind of transports you into the pages of a manga book. As much as I enjoyed being inside the Thousand Sunny, I’m pretty sure kids and hardcore manga/anime fans would be five-folds more delighted boarding the ship.

Staying true to the anime version of the ship, the real-life Thousand Sunny also has various rooms such as: the boys and girls rooms, a kitchen, an aquarium bar, a library, a sickbay, Franky's workshop and Zoro's training room.

The bigger-than-life-sizes statues of the characters can be also seen inside standing on the different parts of the ship. My favorite of course, is Monkey D. Luffy, the leader of the Straw Hat gang.

The cruise took almost an hour and for the most part, we just chilled at the open dock feeling the soothing wind and watching dozens of birds flying-by our ship. The clear sky made up for a beautiful day and in the world of the Straw Hat Pirates, it would be a good day to explore the manga series' four seas composed of the North Blue, East Blue, South Blue and West Blue.

It was a fun experience going out on a brief cruise aboard a peculiar ship patterned after its original design from the anime—a Carrack, type of ship—complete with an observation tower, a slide, swing and a lawn deck.

So, who are your favorite One Piece characters?

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It took a labor strike of some sort to give us a rare downtime during the Kerala Blog Express 2. During our 2-week exploration of the state of Kerala, we traveled from one city to another after a day or two. After ten days, we kind of felt a little travel fatigued—despite enjoying every second of it—and would welcome any pause from our itinerary. Good thing, it happened in a place where we’re billeted in a resort tucked within the lush forest of Vythiri Resort in the town of Wayanad.

Instead of the supposed to be an overnight stay, we ended up staying for three nights thus giving us one whole day of sheer relaxation. It was an opportunity that I took advantage to explore the resort’s property and ventured outside on a bicycle for some bird-watching experience.

The resort hosted a party for us during our first night over a bonfire, a feast of Southern Indian cuisine and a dazzling show of cultural dances. It was the first time we were offered alcoholic drinks during our trip as people in Kerala are not much fond of drinking.

The next couple of days was spent on relaxing at the resort’s various charming spots. Despite the cozy-ness of my spacious villa, I took time to walk around the resort as everything seems to be an extension of the great outdoors of Vythiri’s tropical forest teeming with bounteous nature.

I also befriended a few of the staff namely the gregarious Janesh who is probably the most popular staff in the resort. Standing not over 4 feet tall, Janesh is someone who can instantly become your friend because of his jovial personality. Another manager named Sathya would always greet me with the Tagalog word of greeting “Kamusta” every time he would see me. He told me he learned it from Filipinos he worked with when he spent the early part of his career in the Middle East.

One of Vythiri Resort’s nature expert staff named Bijesh accompanied me on a biking tour outside the property. Along the way, we pedaled past stretches of tea, coffee and spice plantation before we stopped to observe the bird noises emanating from the towering trees.

Each time, Bijesh would go on a deep concentration mode as if tracing the source of the sounds with his mind. Surveying the treetops, he would silently motion me to look at a certain direction. “Look at the tip of the tree, you see that yellow one” he would tell me.

After taking me a while getting used to spotting small birds atop branches of trees—as if my eyes suddenly adjusting to noticing even the tiniest of movements—I started seeing an array of birds of different species. Bijesh would one by one tell me “That one is a Scarlet Minivet, that one is a Flameback” and so on.

All in all, he recited the various types of birds we saw and as I wrote it on my notepad one by one: full black drongo, gray malabar hornbill, yellow brown bullbull, plain flower picker, gray wagtail, chestnut headed bee-eater, malabar whistling thrush, white throated kingfisher, malabar parakeet (rare), oriental magpie robin, hill maina, crimson backed sunbird (smallest bird of kerala), cattle egret, white cheeked barbet. Apart from birds, we also saw a small group of Black monkeys (nilgiri langur) to go along with a giant squirrel.

According to him we got lucky spotting the two rare bird species of gray malabar hornbill and the malabar parakeet as bird watchers often spend days just to spot these two species. My only regret was not having a telephoto lens to capture the birds we saw on photographs.

Billed as "an exquisite jungle getaway', Vythiri Resort lives up to it at every aspect of its character. Located right in the smack of an enormous canopy of lush tropical rainforest, the whole property appears like a hidden habitat of all living beings; humans, birds, reptiles, blossoming plants, amphibians and countless creatures alike.

During the morning the surrounding is enveloped by a thick fog and this is when I would time my walk from my villa to the breakfast place trudging slowly over a hanging bridge that stretches across a streaming river.

The types of rooms are aplenty as well. Aside from the villa-type where I stayed, they also have a bunch of spacious tree houses and a grand 2-story Honeymoon Villa highlighted by a glass floor that see through a private pool on the ground floor.

As the strike ended and business came back to normal in Wayanad, we set out to continue the last phase of Kerala Blog Express 2. As we set to depart the resort, I thanked the travel Gods for giving me an opportunity to recharge in such magical place teeming with wonderful living things of the forest.

Years ago I remember dropping my jaw in wonder when I saw the rice terraces of Banaue for the first time. A seemingly endless expanse of rice paddies formed like stairways lay out before me. Since then, I've seen similar ones like in Sapa in Northern Vietnam and smaller farm terraces in other provinces. Each opportunity, I find myself achieving a feeling of calm while engrossing the entire visual banquet it brings. Last February, a wonderful opportunity presented itself when I was invited to be a part of the launch of PHILTOA's (Philippine Tour Operator's Association) new travel program called Cordillera Heritage Caravan. In a span of five days, we visited the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Banaue, Kiangan, Mayoyao and Bangaan clusters of rice terraces.

PHILTOA's Cordillera’s Heritage Caravan

This program is part of the Philippines Department of Tourism Visit Philippines 2015 campaign and participated by tour companies belonging in the PHILTOA organization. PHILTOA President Cesar Cruz shares.

"The Cordillera Heritage Caravan will accommodate both foreign and local markets where they can choose to bring their own vehicles or avail of the caravan vehicle. The caravan is designed to provide flexibility in choices of activities and accommodations. The trip promises that each traveller will be able to choose according to comfort as they will be given options like a campsite, star-rated properties, lodge houses, and even hostels."

A tiny settlement, just a few hundred feet below the main highway, was nestled within the breathtaking Bangaan scenery. The expansive view of the rice terraces immediately announced its presence as we approached in a mountain jeep seated from a top-load position.

From the roadway, you can make out the grouped roofs of residences in the valley, which stand for its diminutive position in comparison to the surrounding mountains. Coming from the congested major metropolis, I quickly appreciated the kind of environment that the little town offered, as the immense open space suddenly became apparent.

For the descent to the settlement, our party split into smaller groups. I was on my own at the trailhead, pausing only to take in my surroundings in awe of the natural beauty. At a fork in the road, I went left and eventually came to a little school where I overheard some children playing hop-a-garter-rope.

I reached the village after thirty minutes and watched as the others played with the children. After that, a local guide took us on a tour of some of the last remaining traditional Ifugao houses, pointing out important features and explaining their significance. The Oliang component, which is a wooden disc fastened to the four pillars that keep rodents outside the house, really stood out to me. The use of cogon for the roof is similarly remarkable for its significance; this humble material can insulate the entire house from intense heat and rain, and it also absorbs any odors that may be released by indoor cooking.

The house itself can be easily dismantled and transferred to another place - making the concept of Bayanihan real in this part of the country. The most memorable part of our journey around the village was getting a closer look at and understanding more about the traditional Ifugao house. As an example of brilliant ethnic architecture, the Ifugao home employs an ancient technique of house construction that serves more purposes than its simple appearance would indicate.

With the daylight slowly drifting away from the sky's horizon and the wind starting to howl stronger, I feel the cold engulfing my body. But new information about the humble lifestyle in these small communities dotting the expansive Bangaan rice terraces flooded my thoughts. In the same way that the Ifugaos' forefathers labored the land by hand, the ipugo built practical traditional dwellings and created breathtaking rice terraces. After this short hike, I realized that people and environment can get along just fine without technology.

During the height of the Mughal Empire, the invasion of kingdoms are so commonplace, that the Maharaja rulers and their followers defended their own domains madly and as hard as the fortified walls of Forts all over Rajasthan. Amer Fort is one of them. Rising over a scenic lake overlooking a town inhabited many centuries ago by the Meenas before it was taken over by the Kachwahas - in an act termed "as most coward and shameful in history of Rajasthan", The Fort now stands as mightily as ever. Magnificent at its best and architecturally mind-blowing.

Listening to the 500 Rupee audio guide offered me some tidbits about the rich history of Amer Fort. I figured I could Google everything anyway, so I took off the earphone and concentrated visually on the imposing structures of Amer Fort. Standing across the Maota lake earlier, and staring at the mammoth walls of the Fort, I could have conceded that only an act of rabid aggression buoyed by thousands of courageous warriors or a Trojan Horse-que method could penetrate the seemingly impenetrable walls of Amer Fort.

All existing parts of the Fort was built in 1592 with additional temples and pockets of palaces being added in the intervening decades. Leading up to the entrance of the Fort, I walked a few hundred meters to an elevated path surrounded by five to six feet walls that stretches out to the neighboring hills making it appear as a shortened version of the Great Wall of China.

Inside, a large Courtyard greets you with only the surrounding hillside peaks reminding you of the outside world. Not soon after I directed my eyes at the Ganesh Pol entrance where a group of photographers were taking pictures of a female Indian model dressed up as a Maharani (term for the wife of the Maharaja)

After entering the Ganesh Pol, I went into a dizzying giant maze-like route consisting of stairways and narrow alleyways leading to ancient private baths, small rooms, temples, and palaces. It was here that I and Aileen got separated as she ventured to follow a group of elephants being paraded inside.

The Fort was so huge I ended up on some parts by my lonesome. Driven by curiosity I entered small rooms leading to other small passageways until I reached a dead-end portion. I got worried a bit when I missed the stairway where I came from - all of a sudden the 'Twilight Zone' soundtrack played in my head. Not wanting to be caught up in a worm hole taking me back to the days when Amer Fort is bloodily repulsing enemies, I managed to crawl out of a small hole and into another small hallway and unto finally, the open space.

Imagine my relief upon seeing other tourists and getting away from that maze. At the upper portion of the Fort, I rested briefly by just immersing at the wonderful view of the adjacent town. It seems so close that I could clearly see people hanging laundry on their rooftops. The patches of circle shaped plants complete the picturesque desert backdrop.

Beside the Fort at the side of Maota Lake, I saw a square Mughal garden in a floating like appearance patterned by color coordinated plants. Some of the highlights of the Fort also includes the Mirror Palace decorated by its mirrored ceilings and countless other temples such as the Sheesh Mahal.

Declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013, Amer and along with five other Forts are referred to as the "Hill Forts of Rajasthan". Today, Amer Fort attracts thousands of tourists every day.

On a beautiful day under the hot but breezy Jaipur weather, I was glad to be among the many visitors that day. Walking along these storied grounds and walls gave me a new part of history to marvel at, be fascinated with - enough for me to do more readings and learning about the Mughal Empire that once ruled mightily over the land of Rajasthan. Like one of the old guards of Amer Fort, I stand behind the wall and went looking for the figure of Aileen. Using my camera's 200 mm lens, I saw her by the first entrance gate. A stark contrast from the time the defenders could only see haunting figures of enemies, that time I see my friend and off I go down hurriedly, visually satisfied but starving and in need of my Indian Thali fix.

Every movie with a church scene should be filmed here—the filmmakers of "She's Dating a Gangster" made the right choice—as you have one of the most amazing backdrops you can ask for. This is one of my favorite Spanish Colonial Churches in the country: Daraga Church or Nuestra Señora de la Porteria Parish Church (also Our Lady of the Gate Parish Church).