The plan was simple. Walk to the lake before breakfast, see the fruit trees flowering along the path, and be back before the sun climbed too high. What we did not plan for was how wide the water would be when we finally stood at the edge of it.
Pili Beach is a shoreline in Barangay Pili, Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro, about five kilometers north of the town center.
On May 21, 2026, John Aries Almendras and Lyka Isabel Bastida exchanged their vows at Our Lady of Fatima Mission Area in Leuteboro 2, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro, before family, sponsors, and guests who had gathered to witness the beginning of a shared life. The church, a mission chapel with white walls and a gilded bell tower, held the quiet weight that Filipino wedding ceremonies carry; a solemn moment that belongs equally to the couple and to everyone who loves them. Outside, the afternoon sky was clear and unobstructed, the kind of day that makes everything feel more deliberate than coincidence.
Kuya Rencel had already tried three unli wings places before this one. When he said Crosswings in Alfonso was the one worth going back to, that was the kind of recommendation that carries actual weight. The three of us left Mendez Nunez, Cavite, with no particular schedule and a plan that amounted to eating wings, getting coffee, and taking the long road home.
Sariaya, Quezon is not a destination most Manila families land on by accident. Someone in the group has been before, or someone's officemate mentioned it, and eventually a long weekend lines up and the plan stops being theoretical. That is how we ended up at Villa Del Prado Pool and Beach Resort in Brgy. Bignay I, Sariaya for the Halloween weekend of 2025. Two families, a few friends, some neighbors. A DLTB bus from Buendia and a hired jeepney from Candelaria. We arrived just before noon on October 31 and did not leave until the afternoon of November 2.
The first thing you notice when you step onto Alona Beach is not the water. It is the signage. Korean characters run across restaurant fronts, food stall banners, and shop windows the entire length of the strip. Walking through it on a bright January morning, you could be forgiven for doing a double take. The sand is Philippine white and the sea is unmistakably Bohol blue, but the crowd and the commerce around it have shifted considerably toward a Korean tourist economy. For a Filipino visitor, it registers immediately. Standing there with your family, looking at the signs and the faces and the menus, the thought arrives without much ceremony: it does not feel like the Philippines.
The boat leaves from Matabungkay's shore and takes about fifteen minutes to reach Talim Beach, long enough to watch the coastline shrink behind you and feel the chop of the open water through the hull. At P250 per person, the package covers the bangka ride out, time at the beach, and a snorkeling session on the return, with life jackets provided and a boatman who knows the reef. Booking goes through a resort's Facebook page, and afternoon departures begin at 3 PM.
Most photographs of the Chocolate Hills in Carmen, Bohol show rows of brown conical mounds under a bright dry-season sky. That image is accurate, but only for a portion of the year. When you visit in January, the hills are green. Not slightly green, not transitioning from brown. Fully, deeply green, the same grass-covered shade as the coconut palms and forest surrounding them. The name still applies in the imagination, but the color you arrive expecting is not the color you will find.
There is a particular kind of ease that arrives when two people have already decided. The question has been answered. The date is set. What remains is the time before everything changes formally, and that time, if spent well, becomes its own record. For Judy Ann and Ryan Lester Celorico, a prenuptial shoot at Southwoods in Alabang, Muntinlupa became exactly that: an afternoon of photographs that belonged entirely to them, unhurried and genuine, set against the familiar grounds of a place they chose together.
Most action cameras ask you to plan around them. You need the right housing for underwater work, the right mount for a bumpy ride, and the right lighting conditions before the footage is worth keeping. The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro takes a different approach. It is built to be picked up and used without a checklist, and for casual shooters who want coverage across varied situations without carrying a bag full of accessories, that design philosophy changes the entire experience.
There are places that never get written about, not because there is nothing to say, but because the people who know them best never felt the need to say it. Barangay Maputi in San Isidro, Davao Oriental is that kind of place. The falls and the river have been there for as long as anyone in the barangay can remember, and for most residents, a visit to either one is as ordinary as any afternoon can get.
Most people who search for Mt. Talamitam in Nasugbo, Batangas land on articles that are a few years out of date, and several of those skip the mandatory tour guide policy now enforced at the jump-off. That single gap can catch a group off guard on the morning of the hike. This article is from a visit on April 12, 2026, starting from the Sitio Bayabasan jump-off in Barangay Boso-boso, and covers what the trail, the summit, and the full day after the descent actually look like now.
Tagaytay City, Cavite has long drawn couples to its cool highland air and quiet sense of occasion, and on December 10, 2024, it welcomed Kevin Riño Zamoras and Jessa Sierra as they exchanged vows before family, friends, and the community that had watched their relationship develop. The ceremony took place at the Iglesia ni Cristo lokal ng EVM, a congregation that carries particular weight in their story, having been the place where their connection first deepened beyond acquaintance.
Some places settle into you slowly, and you do not fully understand what they are until you have visited more than once. Cape San Agustin Parola in Governor Generoso, Davao Oriental is that kind of place. The first visit, made in January 2022 on a clear sunny day, showed the cape at its most visually open: the Pacific stretching out in layers of turquoise and deep blue, the rock formations lit hard by midday sun, the tower rising white against a clean sky. The second visit, in April 2025, arrived under cloud cover and a light drizzle, and showed something different entirely. Softer, greyer, and in its own way just as worth the ride.
Most pool resorts in Davao Oriental sit along the coast or somewhere close to town. Mt. Hamiguitan Escape Resort, San Isidro, Davao Oriental does not. It sits tucked behind a wall of trees, reached by the Manikling-Governor Generoso Road, and the first thing that registers when you arrive is how much forest is still standing around it. The pool is large and cold. The grounds are planted and tended. A stone marker reading "Mt. Hamiguitan Escape" in gold letters sits directly at the pool's edge, with a small waterfall feature built into the stonework beside it, so that the water cascades right at the lip of the pool. That combination, polished signage, a working waterfall, and a backdrop of tall second-growth trees, registers immediately as you step into the grounds.
Not every beach worth visiting announces itself. Punta Abijod in Barangay Baon, San Isidro, Davao Oriental sits along the Manikling to Governor Generoso Road without much ceremony. There is no entrance gate, no posted fee, and no curated approach path. The water is simply there, and on a late April afternoon, it is calm in the way that makes you want to get in without overthinking it.
Most people who visit Albay come for the volcano. They photograph it from hotel windows, frame it behind ruins, and hope the clouds hold long enough for a clean shot. But there is another way to approach Mayon Volcano, one that puts you on a four-wheeler in a river, grinding through rock and current with water spraying across your legs, climbing steadily through volcanic terrain until a field of yellow flowers opens up at the top and the mountain sits behind you, covered in cloud.
Most beaches in Davao Oriental face calmer water. Lanca does not. Purok 2, Barangay Lanca, Mati City sits on the Pacific side, and the ocean behaves accordingly: medium to large waves arrive in sets, the water holds a blue that shifts with the light, and the sand underfoot is a warm, creamy orange that does not read as white until you are standing on it. The shore itself is wide and unobstructed, no rock clusters breaking the line between water and land, just open beach running in both directions under a row of coconut palms that mark the edge of the camping grounds.
Most people come to Barangay Lanca, Mati City, Davao Oriental for the beach. They set up camp along the shore, spend the night, and leave the way they came. Not many continue along the coastal road toward Cabuaya. The ones who do find something that does not appear on most itineraries: a cliffside pullout with a direct line of sight across the Pacific, a roadside shrine to the Immaculate Conception, and a standing white cross rooted in a pile of painted rocks just a short walk further up.
Matabungkay in Lian, Batangas has been a weekend fixture for Metro Manila and Cavite families for decades, and Alfresco Beach Resort sits comfortably within that tradition without trying to be anything it is not. The shore is wide. The sand is cream-colored and fine. The water near the shore runs clear and calm, and the view from any point along the beach includes a scatter of bamboo raft boats with their small shade covers drifting just offshore, which gives the whole place a look you will not find on most resort brochure photos.
Hon. Ester S. Marasigan Marks Her 60th Birthday Celebration in Tagaytay with Performances, Tributes, and a Full Room
