There were ten times as many people as there were the mushroom-like stones rising out of the geopark. We should’ve expected this, visiting one of Taiwan’s famous tourist spots on a weekend. My friend tried posing in front of the rock formations, waiting for tourists to clear the view, but to no avail. After some minutes of waiting, the view almost cleared, then another group suddenly appeared into the frame. Shoot it! I’ll just clone everyone off in Snapseed, my friend exclaimed in frustration.

SHORT WALK FROM THE BUS STATION TO YEHLIU GEOPARK

Yehliu Geopark is located at the Wanli District of New Taipei. Getting to Yehliu from Taipei is easy enough. Since we were lodged at the Grand Hyatt Taipei, we just took a train to the Taipei Main Station (using the 3-day train pass we used for our Taipei day trip), and from there, took a Yehliu-bound bus for TWD96.00 (PHP148.84). It took about an hour and half to reach the Yehliu Bus Stop. From there we just walked for about ten minutes to the gate of the geopark (good thing we have our Flytpack with us, else we would have taken a cab), passing by a sleepy town fronted by a less than busy wharf.

The view from our motorbike on the way back to the land split from Pam Bok Waterfall was very scenic. But we were so hell-bent on finally having a meal that we didn’t even stop for a single photograph until we saw the yellow sign indicating we finally made it for lunch without blacking out from starvation.

PAY WHAT YOU CAN FOR LAND SPLIT’S CAFE

The owner of the Pai Land Split welcomed us with a smile as we entered his gate. He immediately offered us crispy banana chips, peanuts, potatoes, and fresh papaya with roselle jam. He asked us if we wanted to try his home-made juice too, which was also made from roselle flowers.

► CHECK OUT: PAI HOUSE OF LOVE

My heart was thumping, hard. It wasn’t from exertion but from fear—the fear of plunging down Pai Canyon’s thirty to fifty-meter vertical drop. Somewhere in between uttering a non-stop prayer and balancing using two cameras on each hand, I made the mistake of looking down as I traversed the steep, foot-wide path. A very big mistake. My head quickly spun in vertigo as blood rushed through my fear-addled brain. The narrow path was only about four to five meters long, but it definitely seemed much, much, much longer.

THE SHORT HIKE TO PAI CANYON

It was our first afternoon in Pai. And after settling down and resting our nauseated heads at the Pai House of Love—blame the endless curves going to Pai from Chiang Mai—we decided to see the sunset at the best place to view it in town, Pai Canyon (not to be confused with the Pai Land Split).

On board a scooter we rented from our resort, we roared through the deserted highways of Pai, climbed through a winding 300-meter pathway and looked for our sunset.

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Don’t worry, that goes down very very deep, my friend nonchalantly told me as we saw some guy jump from a cliff at the so called Chiang Mai Grand Canyon. He made a big splash at the emerald waters below and we all went, awwww! The dude landed badly on his side, making his buddies all laugh. Not the best cliff dive of the day but that guy definitely has guts.

THE MAN-MADE CHIANG MAI GRAND CANYON IN HANG DONG DISTRICT

This was my second time in Chiang Mai, and I thought it was all about temples and Lanna culture before our friends, who were semi-permanently staying in the city, told us of a canyon where we can jump and swim.

And of course, we cannot but go.

After almost an hour of driving and getting lost, we finally arrived at our destination. It wasn’t quite the grand canyon that we pictured it to be, but more of an old quarry resembling a canyon of sorts at Chiang Mai’s Hang Dong District.

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We watched from the shade of a craggy white rock as a makeshift bamboo raft effortlessly glided across the calm, coffee brown waters of Peñaranda River. We were at a the limestone gorge in the town of Gen. Tinio in Nueva Ecija and we missed the sparkling green waters of the Minalungao National Park by a single day.

NO GREEN WATERS AT MINALUNGAO FOR US

It rained the previous night, a sentry along the road told our van driver as we shelled out a few hundred pesos to enter the road leading to Nueva Ecija’s only Natural Park. We pushed on despite the warning. After almost an hour of driving, we were almost at Minalungao, it seemed such a waste to turn back now.

The air was getting increasingly colder as our rented jeepney slowly clambered up to the Landingan Viewpoint at the town of Nagtipunan in Quirino. Like a panting dog, our vehicle put forth a burst of energy before finally stopping and letting us all go down.

And we were all rarin’ to go! From inside the jeep, we were all clicking our cameras like crazy as the view past our window went from gorgeous to breathtaking.

THE ROLLING HILLS OF NAGTIPUNAN

It was almost the exact same scene earlier in the day as we entered the town of Nagtipunan from Quirino’s capital, Cabarroguis. From timid sleepyheads, we quickly turned to hyper shutter freaks as the view changed from flat boring farmlands to majestic fog-capped hills.

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At the far end of the cove is a rocky area highly in contrast with the rest of Guisi Beach. Here craggy rock formations soar like deconstructed houses hovering above the sea; the booming waves battering them, hell-bent on bringing them down to their foundations. I watched and sat down on the most comfortable rock I could find, and waited for the sun to peek through the thick blanket of clouds quickly moving through the darkening twilight.

The first time I found out about Guisi Beach was when I visited the nearby cast-iron Guisi Lighthouse. From the promontory leading to the tower, I spied this beautiful emerald cove and promised myself to check it out the next time I visit Guimaras.

That next time proved to be much quicker than anticipated.

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The sea breeze gently ruffled the leafy talisay trees lining the shoreline of Iligan City’s Centennial Park in Barangay Dalipuga. Our group has just finished the hike from the nearby Dodiongan Falls and we were looking for a place to relax and while the afternoon away.

The Dalipuga Centennial Park is a favorite among the Iliganons for picnics and quiet afternoon respite. Facing the western sea, it provides a breezy place where locals just generally hang out and spend time doing nothing. Small sari-sari stores line the road parallel to the park, but if you’re not in the mood to walk, vendors selling Filipino snacks like balut and chicharon also frequent the area.

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Most people in the country associate beaches with golden sunsets since a lot of the nicer shorelines in the Philippines are located in the western seaboard. This, however, is not true in Dumaguete City as it faces the east where mornings are greeted by the rising sun.

So it was that during our five-day stay in Sta. Monica Beach Club, I struggled everyday to get up the early hours of the morning to catch the colors of the sunrise.

It was impossible to resist the call to visit Babuyan Islands, one of the northernmost groups of islands in the Philippines. Some say it’s the most beautiful in country, but I have to see for myself. The trip entails riding a grueling fourteen-hour bus ride from Manila to Claveria in Cagayan then transfer to a five-hour boat ride to the islands.

The island transfer did not happen though; we got stuck at Claveria due to inclement weather conditions. For the meantime, we checked out what Claveria has to offer. We made do with what we have.

The sun arose with me on my last day in Bolinao. I have witnessed its demise the previous afternoon, radiating a final magenta warmth over the whole land and introducing multitudes of tiny sparkling stars as the twilight passed into evening. Now I await as it slowly resurrected itself at the other side of the land, unseen from the rocky shoreline of Patar Beach where I was currently standing, again waiting for it to paint the land with its golden hues.

The land was bathed in glowing magentas. Waves relentlessly pounded Patar’s distinct shoreline, the natural elevated seabed extending some meters into the roiling sea acted as my personal breakwater and my landscape playground. The tide hurriedly crashed in, I waited as it filled my mesa; I lightly touch my camera’s shutter waiting for the right moment when the water ebbed back to the sea and pressed it at the crucial split second as another set of waves crashed into me.

This is the only reason I stayed a day more in Patar, Bolinao. There were a few more caves, another waterfall and probably some more sights I was unable to visit during our tour of the place but my interest was focused on only one thing, Patar’s unique rock formations and how I would capture its beauty during the golden hour.

I wasn’t expecting to personally witness the famous Patar landscapes I’ve been seeing on many local photography forums during our Bolinao Tour. I knew we’d be visiting caves, waterfalls and beaches but not landscapes. It just wasn’t on most local tourists’ lists of things to see.

We were simply told we would be checking out the Bolinao Rock Formations. One of the hills in the area is owned by Puerto del Sol and we’d have exclusive access to it. To be honest, it doesn’t look like much when viewed from the ground.

A waterfall is something I wasn’t expecting when we visited Bolinao. Most falls can be found on mountainous areas where waters are expected to cascade down into streams and rivers. Bolinao is hardly like that, the surrounding areas are mostly flat and are generally composed of farmlands.

It was surprising then that Bolinao has not one, but two three waterfalls in its vicinity. The first one we visited was eponymously named after the town.

Sunset view of Cadlao Island from an entirely different perspective. I stayed in Corong-Corong the first time I visited El Nido and I’m now staying at its opposite location.

Now I really have to beg your pardon. I know I already owe you guys a whole series on El Nido when I went there last September, but here I am again, posting another run of postcards from the same place. Backlog posts would really be the end of me.

It’s my second time in Baler and I was trying to better the landscape photos that I took from the same place more than a year ago. Although I came prepared with the proper filters and microfiber cloth for sea spray this time, the light just wasn’t there when we checked out Aniao Islets; I failed to capture the images that I have in mind for the second time.

Redemption came a few hours later as we set foot at Cemento Beach. Surfer waves and craggy rock landscapes is what Baler is in my book, so I was surprised to find a causeway that has fallen in disrepair in the area. I haven’t seen this part of Baler in the worldwideweb and we were lucky enough to have the light bloom into godrays the moment we stepped on the beach. It isn’t the iconic Baler landscape that I was looking for, but it is good enough until my next Baler escapade.

THIS BALER WEEKEND TOUR WAS MADE POSSIBLE THRU PROJECT DORA

It’s an early start for this year’s adventure. Four hours through numerous highways and I’m back at my mom’s hometown, Cabanatuan City. My usual haunt, the farmfield a few minutes from my grandparent’s house, was unfortunately covered with looming dark clouds. It’s not as grand as the New Year sunset I witnessed years before on this same place, but no matter; blues and grays are still part of the color wheel anyways.

I was dreaming of electric sheeps when my alarm flared. It was quickly followed by an explosion of knocks on the door, L of PinayTravelista was checking if we’re alive for the sunrise at the old pier in Baybay Galas in Dipolog City. My consciousness was almost floating to the surface of reality but my roommate’s, C of JuanderfulPinoy, was still at the deep end of the ocean.

Those who were able to fight off sleep met at the lobby and marched off into the crispy Dipolog dawn. A tricycle was hailed and we piled aboard for a connecting ride to Barangay Galas.

We woke up to the loud patter of rain, Vigan City was drowning. And before everything swam to the ocean, we escaped the torrential rain enveloping the city. Trying to outrun dark clouds, we headed north again, this time to the coastal town of Currimao in Ilocos Norte.

The heavens still have tinge of blues as our van drove up to a lone hotel fronting the sea. The morning air was crisp with dew as we went further up the road, looking for a place to turn.

I recall a message years back from an old friend telling me about a place in Ilocos Norte that resembles something straight out of the Star Wars universe. She said it was like Tatooine, only everything’s frozen.

I’ve been to Ilocos countless times already but I can’t believe I still haven’t seen this George Lucas induced landscape yet.

On my latest trip north, Kapurpurawan Rock finally made it into the itinerary. The plan was to shoot the iconic landscape for the sunset. Only problem was, it had been raining on and off all day and it would be a miracle if the sun showed itself at all.

It seemed our luck was about to turn though. The sky showed hints of blue as we started to descend the stone steps that lead to the shore where the nature-sculpted rock of Kapurpurawan is located.