Things I Love About Buhi..

I got to visit a number of exotic and excitingly attractive destinations for years now, wrote about them and recommended a few to friends. But lately, it dawned on me..I might have overlooked for a long time now, the beautiful attractions that can be enjoyed right in my own home grown town, Buhi, Camarines Sur. I tell you...it's a lot more different writing about your own:-)

Let me start it by listing down the things I love about BUHI.

There's no traffic. The roads downtown are wide, concrete and clean... (here's a look of the main road along Brgy. San Pascual)

The streets are not so busy; people's lifestyles are simple..

My favorite high school's motto...

Our parish (St. Francis of Assisi) have a great patio landscape and a multi-purpose hall made as a venue for all sorts of occasion.

The church's facade is plain and simple

This structure always makes me wanna go home every Holy Week to see the traditional "binalo" and the Easter Angels ceremony..

Our Lady of Prompt Succor who guides and helps the locals in their urgent needs.

Preserved in a vintage touch is the old Municipal building..it's like living in Melaka, Malaysia (they have buildings painted with the same tint as this)

The fascinating statues depicting the first settlers in town (correct me if I'm wrong :->) at the so-called Pamuntugan Park.. 

The enticing view of Lake Buhi...

...And the Mt. Asog

We have a public market that is just beside the lake shore where you can see and get almost everything fresh, unprocessed and affordable.

The "batag na kalibo"

Buhinons are advocates of environment protection and climate change, and so are these environmental advocacy slogans...

You won't believe a small naive town like this has a hang out place and a night life!

An old chapel just across the main road, revived to its finest..at Brgy. San Pedro

Spending a tranquil morning and feel the relaxing ambience at the Nakabuhi Park

And there's no air pollution..

The coconut trees..and the coconuts are sometimes for free:-)

The newly established private resort in the middle of the local farm village

The ugly ducklings just loitering along the rice fields..

A real native house in a live farmville..

The "panabong na manok" which most Buhinons are very fond of..

Most Buhinons' source of living..farming in a traditional way

Our pet dog "Rio" who always welcomes us with a loud bark!

And our very simple Home Sweet Home...

Everything can be reach on foot and you'll find friendly people everywhere around the town. Come visit Buhi sometime..and hope to greet you a Happy Staycation!

Discovering Marikina City

Me and my friend had a fun sunny Sunday discovering Marikina City. This was actually a long overdue planned day-out and was delighted that it was finally pushed through now.

We started out by attending the 6:30am mass at the St. Claire Monastery in Katipunan. Afterwards, we rode a PUJ bound to SSS village and dropped by the Riverbanks Center.

What a fascinating view of the Riverbanks tracing back to its devastated state after the typhoon "Ondoy". We still saw a number of people jogging, cycling and just hangin' around like us.

Thanks to Mang Mantataho for somehow relieving my morning hunger..after going out not taking any breakfast (due to excitement..lol!)

We rode back another PUJ bound to SSS village, dropped at the long Ordonez St. corner Katipunan St., and walk thru our next stop to take a sumptuous brunch at the Pan de Amerikana.

It is an old bakery known for its famous pandesal de pugon and a restaurant serving Filipino and American dishes.

The kitchen is now open..tara lets eat!

Beware of the warnings! This is a restaurant serving food and beverages..so why bother bringing anyway? haha!

The interior of the resto is mostly made of wood..that explains why:-) If you want to smoke..go outside!

I think the owner of this resto is fond of vintage collectibles and memorabilia..seen from the paintings on the walls, pictures, furniture and fixtures.

We took lots and lots of photos while waiting for our orders to be served. My eyes captured a lot of nice and interesting things inside this place, as an avid fan of vintage collections and crafts.

 The huge tuna PANDESAL!

I ordered bangus with fried rice and egg and sisig for brunch..and with mango shake

I think this is the highlight of this resto as it is known as the first and only chess-themed restaurant in the country..I got to have a pose on this!

It's getting late and a little bit hot..so we got to get going for a walking tour of downtown Marikina. And because it's impossible to walk from the resto, we walk back to Katipunan St and rode PUJ bound to Bayan alighting at Shoe Ave.

The Clock Tower of Marikina

Walking straight thru Shoe Avenue via the Marikina City Hall and when we reached V. Gomez, we found the Teatro Marikina

Walking ahead V.Gomez until JP Rizal is Our Lady of the Abandoned Church, the Shoe Museum and the Kapitan Moy Restaurant.

The frustrating part here is we got to pay an admission of P50 each for such a small room exhibit like this..Nonetheless, I had fun because I really love shoes!:-)

not really becoming Emeldific!

Kapitan Moy..is known as the first factory of shoes in Marikina now turn to a restaurant and a venue for parties etc. We didn't have the chance to enter the building because GMA7 had an ongoing show when we arrived.

And we call it a day! It was fun though and who would have thought I would come back to this place where I was born. It's been 28 years and its worth all the wait to finally revisit my place of origin:-)

Happy Trip!