Lakad Pilipinas

The first thing that popped into my mind as the Tigerair plane I was boarding skidded into the tarmac of Iloilo International Airport was batchoy; that sinful noodle concoction native to the City of Love. The slightly sweet salty taste of its soup I once tasted right at this very airport triggered my mouth to salivate; making me forget about the pain in my ear, usually brought upon by riding airplanes.

Less than an hour later and we were passing through the darkened maze of La Paz Public Market, the place where batchoy originated from. That dish isn’t actually called La Paz Batchoy for nothing.

But we were not looking for just any batchoy, we were looking for a particular eatery claiming to be one of the original makers of that distinctive Iloilo noodle soup, Netong’s Original Special Batchoy.

I was overwhelmed with joy when I learned that Guagua’s Betis Church is included in Culture Shock PH’s Pampanga Culinary tour. The Sistine Chapel of the Philippines it is dubbed. The Baroque-inspired Betis Church is one of the 26 elite churches in the country that has been declared as National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum and the NCCA.

The group has visited another church in Pampanga, the half-buried Bacolor Church, just a few hours before we disembarked at Barangay San Nicolas in Guagua. The sun was almost retiring behind the faded pink facade of the church as we gazed upon its peeling exterior.

I once was fascinated by furniture design. During my stint as an Architecture student in UST, I used to design furnishings that go along with the houses I draw, believing that both the structure and its content should speak a single holistic language.

And during my still brief course as a traveler, I’ve seen all sorts of architectural gems around the country. But it has only been during my Pampanga tour with the Culture Shock PH crew that I was able to visit something related to furniture design; Pampanga’s Betis Crafts Inc.

I didn’t have any expectations when I booked a flight to Penang in Malaysia. The only reason I scheduled a flight was due to my buddy’s aunt who lives there. 

Honestly, I thought Penang was too quiet for my taste. But that was before I found out about George Town.

It’s an 18th century district in Penang, a UNESCO World Heritage certified site, that houses beautiful old shops and houses. Think Vigan City, only instead of only having a single preserved street; it has a whole city filled with it.

It totally blew me away.

Almost twenty years after Mount Pinatubo’s devastating lahar flow ravaged the province of Pampanga, the San Guillermo Church still stands proud, albeit half-sizedly, along Bacolor’s town plaza. It was the second stop of Culture Shock PH’s Pampanga Food and Heritage Tour and I was excited to explore a church quite different from what I normally see around the Philippines.

Originally standing at twelve meters high, the lahar flow from Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption reduced Bacolor Church’s façade into half its original height. The original door, which has been buried by mud and ash materials, can no longer be seen. What were formerly church windows are now used as main entrances to this house of worship.

Steam rose as Atching Lillian Borromeo opened the cover of a kawali simmering with fresh ingredients. The delectable aroma of what was to be our lunch wafted through the open-air kitchen. It was almost nine in the morning and together with the crew of Culture Shock PH, we watched with rapt attention as the Kapampangan culinary guru does her magic in her famous kusina.

We were in Mexico, Pampanga. I only heard about this small town was during the eruption days of Mount Pinatubo. Little did I know that this is also one of the culinary capitals of the province.

Our group alighted at one of the ancestral house in Barangay Parian, ready to discover the secrets behind the legendary Kapampangan food, Pampanga being known for being the Culinary Capital of the Philippines.

It was almost a year ago to this date that I attended Makati City’s Caracol Festival. I’ve been hearing about this event for quite a while now, but have always been out of the metro due to some trips or whatever. This time around, with nothing better to do one Sunday afternoon, I decided to head out to Makati City to see what the fuss was all about.

Since the festival was going to be held to a place familiar to me, I didn’t bother researching about it. I simply boarded a bus and waited at the Ayala Triangle where I thought the Caracol Festival would commence. It was a surprise then that the city seemed too dead for a festival to be happening.

There was absolutely nobody around. Was I in the wrong place?

Iligan City is known as the City of Majestic Waterfalls. It’s not a claim based on air. This city south of the Philippines boasts a total of 23 waterfalls in its vicinity, making it one of the most attractive tourist destinations in Mindanao, both for backpackers and tourists alike.

Located in the province of Lanao del Norte, it is the industrial center of the south. Its name is derived from the Higaonon word Ilijan. The name of the city originally means fortress of defense, being the site of frequent pirate and Muslim attacks during bygone eras. The area was initially settled by sea dwellers before being invaded by Visayan migrants from the island of Panglao in the 16th century, making Iligan one of the earliest Christian settlements in Mindanao.