soloflighted.com

Cebu to Hong Kong Flight Courtesy of Airphil Express

Note: This post was drafted and the blog owner is already in Hong Kong for the second time around. In an unexpected turn of events, I suddenly had to go through a pile of maps inside a brown envelope I kept and familiarize myself with the MTR. I’ll be going on a sponsored trip for … Read more

Zambales Trip: Cooking and Camping in Nagsasa Cove

After taking our last dip in the waters of Anawangin Cove, we proceeded to another cove called Nagsasa. As described by others who’ve been here, Nagsasa Cove is a bigger and more secluded version of Anawangin. There aren’t as many people but it’s not as deserted anymore. Travelers who have more time to spare head … Read more

Travel Blog Projects

Let me turn into a little nerd (if I’m not yet one) and share a blog update just to inform my readers what’s going on with this site. Work has been taking much of my time these days and I figured I’d write something random before I proceed with my travelogue series; I still have a lot of posts to publish in this blog.

Interview Sessions

Inspired by FlipNomad’s ‘Ask The Nomads’ interviews, I’ve been planning to set up my own sessions with fellow travel bloggers. I’m still a bit shy with the medium but let’s see how this will pan out. This is another venture and I should’ve started this a long time ago but it took me awhile to muster enough confidence to pursue the idea. I’ll post an interview session with a famous travel blogger soon and I hope to receive constructive feedback along the way.

Switching Hosting Providers

I’m looking forward to migrating all my entries to a new blog host to save more money. Maintaining multiple blogs in multiple hosting providers is a tedious task but this is how I started it so I should also learn how to manage everything in one account.

Banners

I’m thinking of placing banners to highlight blog posts that deem worthy to be shared. It’s still in the works but I’ll experiment how effective these will be to attract more traffic in each of these articles.

banners and lots more in the works.

Passing off a chain that came from word slayer blogger, AJ Poliquit, whose writing leaves me looking for tissues to wipe my nose. My 7 Links – This is a project by Tripbase “to unite bloggers from all sectors to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that … Read more

The Lost Bag of Oatiekin Bars from Tsokolat Bakeshop in Dumaguete City

UPDATE: The Tsokolat store sign might not be there, but you can still get these oatiekin bars. It’s not on display anymore but just ask the employee in the shop if you want some. For orders, contact Francine at 09178639443.

November of 2009, I spent a week in Dumaguete City in order to learn online jobs. It was a nice break since I never really had a long vacation from work. My leaves were usually spent as added days off from my normal rest days. While in the City of Gentle People, I was advised by a friend to check out oatiekin cookie bars from Tsoklat Bakeshop along Hibbard Avenue.

Tsokolat Bakeshop
Dumaguete City

Oatiekin Chocolate Fudgy Bars
photo credit: michellephilippines.blogspot.com

Oatiekin Chocolate Bars – fudgy chocolate cream bars wrapped between oatmeal blankets.

I couldn’t remember the actual note posted in a red cutout paper. But it sounded something like the description above. This was recommended to me on Facebook and a few people at the office requested me to buy these rich choco bars for them. Below is a conversation on my Facebook wall.

Great how technology works, no?

Prior to our online chat, I had to visit the place in order to see how their pastries tasted. The bakeshop wasn’t hard to find as it was located near a house where we lived when we were still staying in Dumaguete. Besides, the city is small so everything is easily accessible.

I arrived after lunch time and was welcomed with a quaint store between a water station and a laundry shop – really multifunctional. The bakeshop sold a number of desserts with peculiar names such as chizmosa, lanky chews, mango tango, kalamanji, hooters and so much . Pretty odd labels but still looked interesting.

Tsokolat Bakeshop Bread and Pastries
Where Sweet Dreams Come True

After 4 Countries and 8 local destinations in 8 months, one might think that I have a lot of money to burn. I’m glad I’m working in a BPO which is where I get most of my funds for traveling. But even so, when you know you’re going away almost every weekend to far-flung places … Read more

Zambales Trip: Exploring Anawangin Cove

I woke up from an afternoon nap under pine trees in Anawangin cove when I decided to go to the beach. The white sand turned black with a simple sweep of its layer. It wasn’t actually white in the first place; more of greyish – its shade depended on the sun’s brightness. Black or white, … Read more

Zambales Trip: An Afternoon Nap Under Pine Trees in Anawangin Cove

Coming from an uncomfortable sleep in Olongapo City, we proceeded to San Antonio, Zambales, via bus so we could journey to Anawangin Cove. It was only a two-hour bus ride and we were lucky enough to have seats reserved by Anton and his wife, Teresa. The bus was almost full since a number of couch … Read more

Cagayan Trip: Palaui Island Highlights

I gave up 3 months of traveling because I suddenly became busy with work and money. I didn’t get to enjoy my summer which was such a rare case for this travel blogger. But I’m not complaining as much; managing how to travel to 4 countries and 8 local destinations within 8 months was such … Read more

Zambales Trip: Standing on Top of the Lighthouse in Capones Island

“There’s an earthquake!” I heard a girl panicking as she felt a sudden shake from where she was standing.
“It’s just me guys.” I replied hastily to calm her down and show that it was just my legs that were trembling which produced the sudden movement. I was on top of the lighthouse in Capones Island during our Zambales Trip, literally.

Capones Island, Zambales
February 22, 2011

view from the top of Capones Lighthouse, Zambales

They were also wondering where the voice came from as they couldn’t see my face. One of the men in charge of the lighthouse pointed his finger towards me to reassure the girl that there was no natural calamity happening at the time.

lighthouse in Capones | my feet on top of the tower

We were trekking after a photo op with golden cogon grasses in the island of Capones in order to see the lighthouse as this has been a famous landmark which my companions wanted to visit since they’ve never reached the tower.

looks like dinosaur to me

I won Dispatch Magazine’s Hunt for EL SUPREMO. It was a simple photo contest of posting your most fearless picture of yourself while traveling. Among the many photos that I have in my archive, I wondered which one to place but when they said we could create a collage, I decided to post most of my crazy photos in the different places I’ve been.

Prizes are:

Plane tickets to Kota Kinabalu for one male and one female contestant
Plane tickets to anywhere in the Philippines for another pair, and
3 consolation prizes.

Full mechanics can be viewed here. Below is my photo entry with a caption on why I love traveling.

My entry to Dispatch Magazine’s Hunt for El Supremo

Bungy and cliff jumps, headstands and crazy stunts. I do just about anything to make the most of traveling. I live for adventure and share my stories in my travel blog (http://soloflightEd.com). Every journey is a work in progress as I learn more about life and discover realizations that I am normally unaware of when I’m stuck at the office. Traveling on a budget makes a trip more exciting as you acquire new skills of improvisation. Going on an expedition is not as expensive as you think; so long as you sacrifice little luxuries to gain experiences that are far more enriching.

Read more

Sagada Trip: Slipped and Hit My Head on a Rock in Bomod-ok Falls

With the number of crazy things I do during my travels, it’s inevitable that accidents happen. During our Sagada trip, I slipped and hit my head on a rock in Bomod-ok Falls.

Bomod-ok Falls aka the Big Falls
Sagada, Mountain Province
March 5, 2011

stepping slowly
Photo by Doi

It was an hour’s worth of hiking along the rice paddies but it wasn’t that hard as we were trekking down a mountain. The weather was also cold which helped in keeping us from sweating. When I saw the waterfalls, I was happy that we finally reached our destination.

beautiful Bomod-ok Falls in Sagada, Mountain Province

My main objective in Zambales was to visit Nagsasa Cove but when Anton and his wife introduced us to Capones island, it became an unexpected highlight. Months ago, I had an affair with big red ants and cogon grass in the island of Guimaras. Little did I know that a golden sea with the same … Read more

Davao City: Solo Travel to My Hometown

My mind was switching back and forth, hesitant if I was going to push through with a trip to Davao that I already booked months before. Sitting at my desk in the office, a lot of questions came to mind: Where will I stay? How much do I have left? Should I even bother?

It was only a day after a one-week vacation in Bangkok and Cambodia, yet I already had another ticket scheduled for the next. A temporary break in my hometown; something that was also long overdue.

I almost decided to just let it pass and continue with my work. I only paid around 200 Php for the airline promo fare so it wasn’t much of a loss if I didn’t push through. Besides, I didn’t even have a concrete plan.

But it didn’t convince me enough to cancel the trip altogether. I’ve been waiting for a long time to go back to Davao just to see how it’s been; without visiting people I know and just doing things my way. I already filed for a vacation leave so it was only me that was stopping myself from pushing through. But I’m glad that I did go and board the plane.

Arriving in Davao

Armed with a knock-off Lonely Planet guide book and my backpack and gadgets, I arrived in Davao without a clear sense of goal. But in the end, I visited my younger brother, met other PTB members and bloggers, and ate one of my favorite fruits–durian.

The only place I truly went for a nature-trip was Isla Reta in Samal Island; a beautiful place to spend a night with friends over drinks under Talisay trees. I can still recall the fallen leaves on the sandy beach – how they add drama to gloomy landscape.

Isla Reta, Samal Island