Chiang Mai Thailand

I'm happy to have the chance to go to Northern Thailand.  My flight was scheduled last June 30 via Thai Airways to Bangkok then from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. We arrived at Bangkok at 4:45 pm and the next flight to Chiang Mai was 7pm. I had plenty of time, I took pictures while transferring to domestic flights. It took us 10 minutes to get there. Suvarnabumi Int'l Airport is really huge and the architecture is wow. I can't help but admire the paintings and the murals that are scattered around the airport. I think they made this on purpose so when you get tired of waiting for the next flight you get to look around and appreciate these quality paintings.  But I noticed the flowers at the airport, Santan lang, the type of flowers that i plant in the backyard.

Here are some of the pictures I took.

 Want to see more pictures?... (Click here)

At the airport, we saw Dr. Ronel Abila OIE Regional coordinator for ASEAN countries. I remember Dr. Abila was the one who taught me how to manipulate MS Access which led me to explore more of the program. He's the same approachable and down-to-earth guy. Tet and I didn't anymore agonize how to get to ChiangMai Orchid Hotel because the hotel shuttle was going to pick us up. The hotel was just around 30-45 minutes drive. Ten minutes after arriving at the hotel, we were at the Hotel Resto eating Thai Food...spicy. No problem with me because I can tolerate spicy food. We also met Dr. Carolyn Benigno FAO officer and the participant from Bhutan.

After that, we went straight to our hotel room, at the 8th floor where Dr. Abila was also booked, I joked that the 8th floor level was where the resource persons were booked.(lol)

The Philippine Eagle Center

Went to Philippine Eagle Center last week in support to their 11th Philippine Eagle Week from June 4 to June 11, 2009. Their new office is at Malagos, Baguio District. I will post their activity schedule here for their weeklong celebration. Their theme is "Kaligtasan ng Agila at Kalikasan, Kasaganaan ng Sambayanan".

June 4: Motorcade and Opening Ceremonies (Magsaysay Park to Philippine Eagle Center), Open House at the Philippine Eagle Center

June 5-9: Wild Views: Basic Wildlife Photography Workshop (SM City Davao-Lectures), Philippine Eagle Center (Photosafari)

June 6-7: Animal Encounter (SM City Davao)

June 7: Philippine Eagle Week Concert (SM City Davao)

June 4-9: Exhibit; Film showing ((SM City Davao)

June 4-10: Raptor Display, Fun Games, Exhibits, Film Showing, Petting Zoo (Philippine Eagle Center)

June 27 (all month): Tree Planting Caravan (Arakan Valley, Cotabato)

Click to see more pictures here Philippine Eagle Open House

Samal Escapades

Someone noticed that I got a tanned look and she guessed that  we took a dip at the beach. What a better way to celebrate my birthday than to go to the beach. We went to one of the Samal's beaches called BlueJaz Resort, it's the fifth beach when you turn right after the ferry port approximately 20 minutes drive.It is located on the right of Paradise Beach Resort. We paid 270 pesos for the car ferry at Sasa.

The other access to the resort could either be a pick-up from Bluejaz operated speed boat or palm boat at The Beachside Resort, Maryknoll road: Barangay Vicente Hizon (travel time is 5 minutes) or by Passenger ferry from Sasa wharf to Babk and then tricycle to Bluejaz resort - Barangay Caliclic (20 minutes) and lastly by Samal Island bus service with pick-up in various locations in Davao direct to Samal then motorcyle from the ferry port.

We arrived early because we don't  like it when beaches get super crowded. It was really hot that day so even if I'm not a beach person, I took a dip just to get that cool feeling. I wanted to wait until the sun was down before taking a dip but it was really late. The whole morning, I just took advantage of their free wifi service and relaxed at the cottage.

The resort has a lot of amenities such as exclusive private beach, windsurfing, paragliding and diving. They also have swimming pools where Abby really stayed for hours along with other kids. So, medyo negra siya ngayon at nagka-sun burn. They are currently completing the huge adult and children water slides.

Ganda ng Fiji cottages!

View from our cottage.

They tried to stop Abby from having too

much sun exposure but from the looks of it,

Abby was successful in stopping them.

We tried jumping on their large trampoline. Only two jumpers

allowed.

Over-all, I like the resort and I'd like to go back with my family when their water slides are ready.

  

Mati City, Davao Oriental

Minutes before we arrived in Mati City (my hometown) last Thursday, we stopped over to take a picture of this small island which resembles a sleeping dinosaur in Badas. This was after the viewing deck, hubby didn't want to go down so I just took it from the vehicle. The sleeping dinosaur has now become one of the city's tourist attractions.

The off-roads to Barangay Casiklan

Before heading to Casiklan, the group aboard the pick-up from USM and PVO Agusan Norte had transferred to this truck. We are on board the Land Rover. A woman who passed by gave us a scornful look with a message “your vehicle won’t last in that very bad road” –What a welcome!

Our vehicle journeyed through the squashy roads constantly stopping whenever we encounter a deep gap. And....... got stucked to this 3ft muddy holes. The patient off-road driver "Jo" sampled the newly repaired Land Rover in this obstacle.

Big brother came to rescue small brother.

We didn't want to camp inside the Land Rover so we got out the vehicle and
waited while it is being pulled.

I'm not surprised why the roads are bad.

Loggers: The destroyer

Why did I looked like I had a great time?

Because I'm not the driver.(bwahahahaha!)

Barangay Casiklan, Las Nieves

This is a photo from Barangay Casiklan, Las Nieves in Agusan Del Norte, the remotest barangay I have ever been to. After almost 2 hours of traveling a truly road adventure - roads are pretty bad (vehicle got stuck on our way up here) the people settled in this place to pay attention to the experts on surra, the disease that plagued their animals.

The whole process took about an hour.

While they were at it, I got lost in my own weary world.

Travel Updates: Monkayo, Comval

Good thing the sun didn’t show up on our trip to Monkayo just like what we hoped for. As soon as we arrived at the farm site, I got my GPS and recorded the coordinates of the farm. The farm is owned by Hernaez Group of Companies. They were chosen as one of the Ten Outstanding Achievers of the Year in Mindanao and Gawad Saka Winner in 2007 for Fish Culture Technology. That is their primary commodity and just recently added livestock farming. After our veterinarian had a brief talk with the farm’s technical consultant, we proceeded to their livestock farm site located on the other side of the mountain.

There was a bit of delay because there are only few animals when we got there. The owner sounded like he was scolding the animal caretaker because he did not prepare the animals for the blood collection. So we waited. We finished at noon and went back to their fish farm where we had our lunch.

Our lunch was fresh hito with chicken tinola soup (not in picture). After eating, a delivery of feed supply arrived at their small office and our group decided to have another picture taken with this pinoy innovation, habal-habal. (taxi style kay naa atup!). This is a popular mode of transportation in this area.




Honestly, I will not survive in that kind of transportation.Kahoy lang man gilingkuran basi mabali pa lang na wa pa kalarga..Lisod magpa-gaan-gaan 'no.

After a couple of camera clicks, we headed back to the farm site; finishing work at nearly 3pm and drinking buko juice before leaving; we arrived in the office at 5:30pm.

Misamis travel is rescheduled

My travel to Misamis was rescheduled to April 29-30 so I was able to progress with my movie making chore today. I finished the introduction. I hope I can package the movie before the 29th so we can show it to the people who needs to see it.

I'll be heading tomorrow to Monkayo, Compostela Valley, a 2-hour drive from Davao City. I'm recording the GPS location coordinates of a farm which reported a livestock disease. I'm bringing a camera but I'm not sure if I can snatch time for nice views.

Travel to Misamis Oriental

I will be going to Misamis Oriental starting April 23 to 25 to visit some sites in Magsaysay. It is work-related not a pleasure trip. I wish I could say it is a pleasure trip.

I will be there to record the GPS location coordinates of barangay sites which reported animal disease outbreaks for this month. And since I am involved in Geographic Information System (GIS) disease mapping I will be busy for a few days to process that.

As someone who spends so much time in front of the monitor, this travel is such a refreshing diversion.


So folks, blogging is off for three days.