An impressive sight welcomes travelers approaching Puerto Galera from the sea, with its verdant mountains overlooking its scenic bay, which is considered one of the most beautiful bays in the world. You can just imagine how it must look from the air. Which is exactly how Gerry Lane first saw it.
Over 300 meters above sea level, it is cool like Baguio in the highlands in northern Philippines. Rice fields abound and even some rice terraces, which we saw along the way. But unlike the steep Ifugao rice terraces in the Philippine Cordilleras, the rice terraces in Ubud spread out gently on gradual slopes. There is nature and lush greenery all around, which have most likely served as inspiration to many native artists who call this place home. Many villages in Ubud are known for their intricate wood and stone carvings, as well as unique bamboo crafts and furniture.
A sip of the ginger tea is soothing and you begin to unwind. Your therapist starts to give you a foot scrub that prepares you to the pampering ritual of two hours and 45 minutes known as Boracay Puka Beach Package, or “Soul of the Sea”, the most eco-friendly treatment, at Tirta Spa.
Everyone starts with a blank canvas. For a first timer with no previous painting or sketching experience, one might easily feel intimidated. The session doesn’t just include painting. Each one sketches their own work as well. It is definitely not a Paint by Numbers kit as some people might think. Not to worry though, painting instructors and in-house artists, who are fine arts graduates from top universities, are there to assist.
When one hears the name of the southern province Negros Oriental, chances are one would immediately think of its capital city, Dumaguete, where the iconic Silliman University can be found. A ‘must see’ for first time visitors, Silliman, built by the Americans in 1901, is the first university outside Manila and the first Protestant school in the Philippines.
A young woman carrying her newborn son is hiding in a cave. Accompanied by her husband, there they wait until it is safe to go out again. The Holy Family took shelter on their flight to Egypt to escape the Slaughter of the Innocents ordered by Herod, the King of Judea at the time of Christ’s birth. There’s a plaque at the cave entrance where it’s written that when Mary was nursing the baby Jesus, a drop of milk “fell to the floor of the cave, turning the rock white and giving rise to the chalky stone.” This is the Milk Grotto.
Summer is synonymous with swimming. In the Philippines, you’ll never run out of places you can go to for a swim, what with its countless beaches lining its long kilometric coastline. And then, there are its numerous lakes. One of the best is Kayangan Lake, said to be one of the cleanest lakes in Asia.
“To help end poverty by 2024, that is my life purpose, says Antonio “Tony” Meloto, founder of Gawad Kalinga, a humanitarian movement that builds communities for the poor in the country, “to get my children to make it their mission; to get as many people to join us. What can be a greater goal than that?”
Galleria Duemila, the country’s longest running private gallery, was born out of a broken heart. But first, Italian-born gallery owner, Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz, fell in love. In 1970, while working as a flight attendant for Alitalia, she came to the Philippines where she met artist Ramon Diaz. In less than a year, they were married. They spent their honeymoon in Italy and New York.
The faint aroma of baked cookies welcomes you as you enter the house of Roshan Samtani. “I am not a trained baker,” she Samtani. “I am not a trained baker,” she was eight years old, assisting her mom in the kitchen. “My mom was very good in the kitchen, cooking and baking,” Samtani relates. “If I want to make something, she would teach me how to do it, or explain how it’s done. Then I would do it on my own.”
