Bird's Eye View of Coron, Palawan

When I looked down  _ I knew right away that I was in for bundles of nature treats. Landscapes were uniquely interesting  like art works.

Assemblages of islands were icing the ocean. The bird's eye view was so fascinating, I was surprised to realize that it was raining when we touched down Busuanga airport.

PAL provided umbrellas for everyone.

There were teasers of what the dive sites here in Coron could offer. They said, this province was rarely or  never visited by strong typhoons. Even rains were only short affairs.

True enough when we went out of the airport the rain stopped.The weather cooperated well throughout the duration of our stay

Already, the (30 mins) trip to Coron Town from Busuanga airport was loaded with scenery. Green meadows of grasses exported from Australia ( courtesy of the past Marcos regime) gave off a feeling of being out of P.I. The long roads were only accommodating  hotel transfer vans and pedestrian cows.  





We reached our hotel ( Coron Gateway), the newest and most expensive in town. This would be our first accommodation as we planned to hotel hop every night of our four days stay. We were not rushing so we didn't plunge- in to island tours right away. We settled and feasted on our first sight of the Calamianes Group of Islands from our windows and terrace.

In a minute . . . .

oopss. . . not yet ready for posting <):)
stay tuned <> for  astonishing rock formations, marvelous islands, fanciful corals, richest fish sanctuary, marvelous lakes and lagoons, glassy oceans, powdery beaches, historical towns, mysterious caves, statuesque mountains,  . . . ohh,  I could go on prefixing these gifts of nature with all highfalutin adjectives and yet I couldn't move on from a beautiful trip.
all found in a quiet and quaint Coron.

see ya ! :)

Prov. Capitol Of Sultan Kudarat

If there's Ampatuan Town, is it politically correct to say that Sultan Kudarat is the town of  Mangudadatus? Ahh politics_ how blurry this subject is to me and how glad I am not to be part of any. I love my simple life.








What is this? White house?

It's the Provincial Capitol of Sultan Kudarat. It really amazed me how big the local government buildings there in Mindanao. The vast land area they occupied. Just show how rich the province is and that land and population has never crossed yet here as issues.

Forgive me, but yours truly hailed from a small town in Quezon Province (Luzon), grew up with a municipal hall seated in a land area not bigger than the waiting shade infont of this capitol. Thriving in the city of Manila, I still haven't seen government structures as big as the ones there. Manila City hall? . . nahh, this one looked bigger to me, maybe because of the spaces surrounding the buildings.




Take notice of the structure right beside the main. It's a coliseum. I figured, every government buildings here were always twin-ed with a huge gymnasium. The gift of space.




Meet Sultan Kudarat. Oh please don't ask me to go back to my school history. Google it_ a lot you would find in the net about this historical figure.

Notice that the color of gold monopolizes the capitol_ not pink! No single trace of  Datu Ampatuan?

The lobby was as golden as the facade. Gold continued to spark up to the interior.




Nice meeting you here Sultan Kudarat.

Pinky ARMM, Maguindanao

Another vast structure in this side of Mindanao had snapped my fancy.

It was the ARMM in Maguindanao.




It was huge, pretty in pink and empty. Again, I had no source to know why it seemed like another abandoned structure. There were no people, not even a guard in the gate. Cousin (fr Cotabato) said it used to be where ex ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan held his office.

It was monumental. Almost looked like an airport to me, you know almost as big as one of our terminals in Paranaque in Manila.




Without any serious harm intention, just pure souvenir photos, we decided to go up the main building to have a better view of the place.

On my left, facing the main highway road, was an annex building which purpose I had no way to know. Next to it  was another building which seemed to be a garage/parking for construction vehicles.

On my right facing the same road was another annex building. Not in photos, at the near right, almost beside this main building was a gymnasium or could pass as a coliseum cos of its size.

From where I was standing, was the main entrance of the seemed to be the main building. Although it was still considerable beautiful structure, "abandoned" is the best word to describe it.

Aside from the absence of people, there were deserted manifestations.




My growing curiosity couldn't keep my eyes to the outside anylonger so I tried to peek a little inside. I was not sure, but look_ seemed like a t.v. and someone was watching!




This is one vast beautiful structure that holds history of power. I wonder what's next for this pink elephant.