General

Fort Ilocandia

By on Sunday, December 22, 2013

Our next destination on the family on a year-ender road trip was Laoag where we stayed at Fort Ilocandia. The hotel is really good. It has several wings with many rooms for any budget (as long as it’s not small). The hotel offers a wide array of facilities:

  1. Golf and country club
  2. Driving range
  3. Casino
  4. Several restaurants
  5. Beach for swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, and jet skiing.
  6. Rides such as horses, carriages, ATVs, 4×4 jeeps, and even hot air balloons
  7. Sporting activities such as shooting, archery, tennis, and basketball.
  8. Swimming pool
  9. Gym

It’s practically a theme park (where the theme is being rich and famous, I guess) and you could spend all your time (and money) there. But seriously, although Fort Ilocandia is a bit on the expensive side, you do get what you pay for.

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General

Paoay

By on Sunday, December 22, 2013

On our way to Laoag, we passed by Paoay which has a few tourist spots of its own. The ones we visited were:

  1. Herencia Cafe – where we met an acquaintance of my dad, none other than Gov. Imee Marcos. Oh and yes we also tried their igado and bulanglang for lunch
  2. Paoay Church
  3. Malacanang ti Amianan – Ilocano for Malacanang of the North

Interesting rest stop to say the least.

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General

Vigan

By on Saturday, December 21, 2013

Went with the family on a year-ender road trip. Our first stop was Vigan where we stayed at Gordion Hotel. The hotel is pretty good and is right beside the Spanish-era themed Calle Crisologo, the town’s main attraction.

There are many places to go and visit in Vigan such as:

  1. The aforementioned Calle Crisologo
  2. Bantayan Church and Bell Tower
  3. Loom Weaving
  4. Pagburnayan (Pottery)
  5. Burgos Museum – residence of Fr. Burgos one of the GomBurZa (Gomez, Burgos, Zamora) priests executed by the Spanish
  6. Syquia Mansion – residence of former President Elpidio Quirino
  7. Baluarte – residence of Gov. Chavit Singson. Also has a zoo.
  8. Cafe Leona – serves Ilocos delicacies
  9. Light and sound fountain display

The best way to go around town, and definitely not to be missed, is via the calesas or horse-drawn carriages which charge a mandated hourly rate (P150 per calesa per hour).

I’ve been to Vigan before but from what I saw, other than the light and sound fountain display at the town plaza, not much has changed. And that is good. Vigan has remained the same rustic and charming albeit crowded town.

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General

Nokia 105

By on Friday, December 20, 2013

nokia105frontThe Achilles’ heel of smartphones is their battery life. Sure they provide voice calls, SMS, video calls, chat, email, navigation, games, etc. But when your run out of power, it’s no more than a very expensive paperweight. You don’t even get to call or SMS. I’ve sometimes gotten into such situations. Sometimes disaster (in a manner of speaking) is averted by meeting a preset meeting place (that itself is a good practice but that’s another story). But it is definitely a bummer when your phone runs out of juice.

To lengthen their smartphone usage, people resort to battery cases (expensive), carry extra batteries (somewhat expensive and limited to a specific phone model), power banks (less expensive but can get bulky), or chargers (needs somewhere to plug in). Also, more and more public spaces such as malls and cafes are offering charging stations. But then there also the possibility of a prolonged power outage as in a disaster scenario like the recent Yolanda supertyphoon. Of course, cellular signal was also affected but at least the telcos were able to restore some within 3-5 days.

Enter the Nokia 105 with a whooping 35 days of standby. That should be good till the telcos restore service and the US Marines and the Red Cross arrive (never mind the government). It’s probably the perfect smartphone backup. It’s small and light albeit a little chunky due to its relatively big battery. But still, it’s quite handy and fits in some small pocket in your cargos or [bug out] bag.

It’s got the basic Nokia phone functionality we’ve grown up with as well as an FM radio (requires headphones, not included) and flashlight (which unfortunately doesn’t work without a SIM). The keyboard is splash and dust proof but the unit itself is not so you’ll need to wrap it in a Ziploc or something. It’s also relatively inexpensive (lowest I’ve seen so far is P950).

To complete my backup phone kit, I also got a nano SIM to micro SIM to SIM adapter as well as an iPhone SIM extractor tool. And they all store inside the phone. Nifty!

Of course, don’t forget to keep a copy of important numbers either on the SIM or on the phone itself.

 

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General

Killer Buses Strike Again

By on Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Yesterday, a bus fell off from the Skyway, an elevated expressway, and onto a van below. Eighteen people were killed and many injured. The of operations of the bus company involved was immediately suspended. Unfortunately, it turns out that this bus company already has a history of accidents. So what happened during those previous accidents and ostensibly suspensions? Somehow I suspect it involves money changing hands and the bus company going on with it merry (and deadly) way?

Then there’s supposedly talk of a plan to review the design of the Skyway because of the incident. Leaving no stones unturned. That’s all good. But it’s so ridiculous even mentioning this when obviously the likelier combination of factors are:

  1. Vehicle condition – public utility companies are notorious for keeping dilapidated vehicles (or should it be keeping vehicles dilapidated?) in their quest for maximizing profits. I won’t even expect their doing proper pre-flight on vehicles. If there’s one thing that screams for regulation, this is it. But what is the LTFRB doing?
  2. Driver – both qualification (trained and certified?) and readiness (enough sleep? not drunk or high?). What is the bus company doing? Again, I’m not expecting this but is it properly screening drivers during hiring? Is it providing  proper training? Is it properly vetting drivers as part of pre-flight?
  3. Speed – you’d think those buses are lumbering and slow. I drive close to the limit at expressways but I’m always amazed at how buses can keep up with me and in  cases even overtake me. In this particular case, a witness reported that the bus traveling at around 100kph, much faster than the 80kph limit for buses at expressways. And this was when the conditions were wet.

BTW Neither Aquino nor Roxas were at the scene. Not that I want them to be. It’s just that they were at the SM robbery scene where nobody was really seriously hurt or even killed (which is good). Curious.

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