Tacloban City 2010

My trip to Tacloban City was not actually a pleasure trip but a business trip. I was supposed to be destined to Cagayan de Oro on Oct 11-13. Due to conflict in schedules, I flew to Tacloban City instead on Oct 4 to 6, 2010.

I just would like to share a few photos of the van we that took us to our hotel! The can was dull of butterfly and flower decorations! I wonder who designed it :)

Meanwhile, we stayed at Hotel Alejandro at Tacloban City. We actually found the place eerie as the lighting is quite dim, the structure is old and the building is full of display photos, antique furnitures, old staircase, etc. It was only when we met the salesman who assisted us with the activity, that we knew that Hotel Alejandro was a museum converted to a hotel. Now we understand why the place is quite weird.

Our first lunch were taken at Otso a restaurant located at the heart of the town. We ordered different dishes of vegetables and seafoods, their specialty.

I can't tell more stories about the place and the trip. I can't give tips to travellers as I was not the one who arranged it. But still, I can show some pix of basically 2 attractions we visited, the San Juanico Bridge and the Mc Arthur Park.

After a series of interviews withour consumers and after, basically, finishing our tasks, we asked the driver to bring us to Mac Arthur Park.

The weather was quite cooperative when we were on our way to the Park. It was quite cloudy--- not too warm to stroll around, though not too good for picture-taking. Unluckily, as we were taking photos, heavy rain started to pur down!But that did not styop us from taking pictures, until it came to a point when we were all wet, we ran toward the van and decided to go back to the hotel first before we do some trade visits.

After a series of visits to the supermarkets, wet markets, and distributor, our next destination was San Juanico Bridge, at least before we take our dinner.

The San Juanico Bridge is the longest bridge in the Philippines, with a length of 2 km. It crosses the San Juanico Strait, bridging the islands of Samar and Leyte. It is also known as the Marcos Bridge, it is said to have been presented as a Gift and "Testimonial of Love" by the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to the first lady, Imelda, a native of Leyte. We took some photos on this historical bridge before we headed for dinner.

Dinner was taken in a restaurant in the middle of the farm named: Rafael's Farm located at Babatngon, Leyte. We appreviated the beauty of the farm much but it could have been better if we arrived in the place at daytime. What we appreciated was the light effects on the farm, and of course the sumptuous dishes. The Farmer's Salad and the Baked Scallops are the best for me! :)

Sad to say, I did not bring our DSLR, as this is a business trip. I only had with me my point and shoot and I was not happy with the photos. Honestly, this made me realize that I need to upgrade my point and shoot---either to a small DSLR or to a higher-performance point and shoot.

These are the only places we visited for pleasure. Upon our departure for Manila, I saw the Tourism corner in the airport and realized that there are still lots of tourist spots to visit around Samar and Leyte area. This just means one thing... that I need to go back and explore the Waray islands!

By the way, I took some aerial scenes from the plane on my way back to Manila... God is really so great that he made our Mother Earth a beautiful home.

!