Hope against hopelessness

The best news the Philippines has had this year is a recognition brought in by a man, though not through his force or power, not through his intelligence and cunning, not through what's exotic and peculiar. He earned it because of his good heart.

Congratulations, EFREN PEÑAFLORIDA JR., CNN's Hero of the Year! Mabuhay ka!

HOSTEL REVIEW: Smile Hostel, Lisbon, Portugal

OVERALL RATING: 4/5
DATE OF VISIT: November 4 to 5, 2009

PLUSES: The hostel is very home-y, a far-cry from the previous Lisboa hostel where I had stayed before. It's right next to the Sé, the city's cathedral, and very near the Castelo de San Jorge, Praca do Comercio and Praca do Rossio. You could also get Lisbon's mythical Tram 28, which goes around the main tourist spots of the historical center, at a stop near the hostel. The breakfast is nice and the fact that you could cook in the hostel's kitchen is an added bonus. Breakfast was okay.

MINUSES: The shared bathroom is small. In the men's room, for example, there two small shower rooms located right next to two toilets. The doors to the showers were also perpetually jammed. Ditto with the girls', I think. If ever you plan to take public transportation, locating the street, Travessa do Almada, will be tough because it's a minor road not located on any city map. The hostel has no sign whatsoever to indicate that you're there.

Visit their site

A bumpy elephant ride

I guess no one leaves Thailand without doing anything with elephants. I mean, elephants are for Thais what cats and dogs are for the rest of the world. From souvenir items to football games, from T-shirts to temples, the Thais have probably cornered the international market for elephants.


For the more adventurous (or the gullible, depending on your bias), the best way to appreciate Thai elephants is to take a ride on its back and traverse mudfields and rivers during the course. The ride is a bumpy one (my friend Pam's screams and bleep-bleep comments toward the end prove that) but you can never ever fault it ever for being not memorable.

A place called Manila (A Blog Action Day 2009 Special)

One paradox that this blog W.A.M. has is the fact that it never mentions anything on the capital city of the Philippines, Manila. I was thinking way back then that I would soon have to write a travel article about Manila in a way more special than I did for the rest. That was until two strong typhoons hit the Philippines a few days back.

I wanted to write about the hustle and bustle of Manila, its frenzied traffic and its gregarious people, all smiling and noisy as they head off to work, but times require that we write about how cries echoed throughout the Philippine capital, with families upon families trapped on their roofs of their houses as floodwaters submerged their homes, taking away all their possessions from them and leaving a trail of mud and grime and death.

I wanted to write about how well we eat in Manila, but times ask that we think about how people oxymoronically had no water to drink, even though rivers had overflown, dams let out water so as not to break and a month’s worth of rainwater fell into the city for just 10 hours. The devastation that ensued afterwards — people infested with skin diseases and high fevers, hungry mouths satiated with instant noodles and canned tuna, children unclothed and men in tattered clothes — belies the Filipinos’ reputation for good hygiene and vanity.

I wanted to write about travel — hell, I wanted all of you folks to visit the Philippines! — but there is something greater and far more important than leisure and that is the sad realization that if we do not take drastic and immediate measures right here right now to combat climate change, there will be no more stories to tell about this magnificent island-nation of smiles caught in the destruction of a fast-changing planet.

(***W.A.M. is greatly indebted to Rodel Enríquez for the pics of his hometown, the city of Marikina, which he says has experienced this kind of flooding for the very first time ever after the onslaught of Typhoon Ondoy "Ketsana.")

Manila underwater

It's one of those days when you feel all alone and no one is around to help. And worse, no one really seemed to care. Typhoon Ketsana (Local name: Ondoy) made landfall in the Philippines last Saturday and flooded the whole of Metro Manila and nearby provinces, the worst typhoon the country has had in the last 40 years with the amount of water on that fateful day equivalent to what should fall for a whole month! This collage made by UP MassComm batchmate Glenn Omanio tells the sad story.



This following video was taken from the UERM Hospital during Ondoy's wrath. See how cars get swallowed by the raging waters... and this was just a snippet of the entire scenario that destroyed cities and provinces and left many people homeless or dead.



Let me just say in closing that as soon as I've gotten back my Internet connection, I tried posting in several groups I have in Internet (e.g., Flickr) to raise awareness on the matter. Unfortunately, many people do not seem to mind and were so apathetic. So, dear reader, I am taking this opportunity to ask you to spread the word that help could be given to the Philippines through its Red Cross. And you coul also get more information from the website of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Blog Action Day on October 15!

On October 15, bloggers around the world will once again unite to blog about another cause. We will talk about climate change this year with that hope that blogging would increase awareness on the issue and put into fore the solutions that may be done to avert further damage.



If you're a blogger and are interested to participate, please click on the icon above that will get you to the home page of the organizers. Register your blog and participate!