clickthecity features masskara & pagudpud

clickthecity is now airing my masskara video and my pagudpud video was just uploaded today. you can check them now.

masskara festival is celebrated every third week of october in bacolod city. this video was recorded during last year's visit to negros occidental. to know more about my masskara festival experience, please click here.

pagudpud beach is the boracay of the north. many foreign and local tourists come to ilocos norte just to swim in this beautiful resort. fine white sands, clear sparkling sea water, and fresh winds are just some of the reasons why you should visit this place. pagudpud beach is a 2-hour bus ride from laoag city, ilocos norte. click here to see my pagudpud video and photos.

sumaguing cave

video clips were recorded in sumaguing cave, sagada
music: madonna's "ray of light (ultra violet mix)"
videos were produced by wencel angeles and abster ramos
edited and directed by wencel angeles

i would like to give my biggest thanks to those people that helped me with this video. thank you gareth for all the help you've given. you've offered me help and i will be forever grateful to that. also special thanks to the kids, ervine and joven, for the additional assistance and lightings. i am so honored to finally meet some of the saggas members: oscar, jeff, perry, lester, ben, john, and steve. i will never forget that night we did the group shots. i've had so much fun doing it. i hope that i will meet the rest of you all. to all the igorot friends i've made during the making of this film, i will never forget you.

meet the men of saggas

from left to right: oscar, jeff, perry, lester, ben, john, gareth, and steve

it's time to meet the men of saggas (sagada genuine guides association). they've been around for almost a year, founded by john magwilang in 2007, now headed by gareth likigan. they're all residents of sagada, mountain province. they're tough and highly-trained, yet the friendliest guys from the north. they've helped me with some of my projects in sagada, and the latest was my sumaguing cave video. i've made their profiles so you'd get to know more about them.

gareth likigan, 23 years old, saggas president, a leader, a dictator (based on his own opinion). he was the personal advisor of the former saggas president, john magwilang. he was later elected to be the group's leader after john left for taiwan. his hobbies are cave exploration, football, and volleyball. he is very knowledgeable about sagada, and its geography. a great friend.  very honorable.

return to sagada

december 23 - me and ab, my cousin left marikina around 7pm. we got stuck in cubao because of traffic so we came a little late for the 8pm cable bus to bontoc. there were two vacant seats in the other bus but we thought it wouldn't be a good idea for us to squish in at the back of the bus and sit for 12 hours to bontoc. we've decided that we'd come to sagada via baguio. we went back to cubao and got in the victory bus to baguio at 10:30pm.

december 24 - we arrived in baguio at 4pm. we had enough time to use the bathroom and for a good coffee at dunkin donuts. we came to dangwa station for the gl bus to sagada at 5am but i guess we came too early. bus didn't leave til 6am. at the terminal, we've met a german couple (the gehders) who later became our good friends throughout our trip to sagada.

hot springs in mainit, bontoc

december 27 - we've had a great rest last night. we were so exhausted from last night's spelunking from sumaguing cave. me and my cousin dropped by andrew's shop to use the computer and buy some souvenir for my sisters, before we met rafael at the jeepney station to bontoc. we left sagada at exactly 11am. it was a very short ride, about thirty minutes.  

bontoc looked so much different than sagada. sagada is located on the top of the mountains while bontoc is right at the foot of the mountains. it is a little warm down in bontoc and there, you could see more; more people, more stores, and more vehicles.

i've also noticed that people in bontoc love one thing which i've never thought they'd love so much. two words. PEANUT BUTTER. yes, everywhere that i go, i see peanut butter. on the streets, in the public market, and even in local stores. i saw these ladies eating a pancake-like food in the market and they'd put peanut butter on top of it instead of butter and maple syrup. there were like three local stores where i've seen them selling imported goods like SKIPPY peanut butter. that was just my observation. i could be wrong, or maybe i am right.

after eating brunch in the public market, we bought some groceries for tonight's meal. the jeep from bontoc to mainit wasn't leaving until 3pm. so we've waited for a long time before the jeep left.

a wedding in kalinga

december 28 - we were supposed to wake up at 4am so we can swim again at the other hot spring resort but we were so lazy to get up. we woke up at around 6am and had breakfast over rafael's uncle's place.

it was a very hearty meal and there i've had my first ugsa or wild deer in english. the smell wasn't really nice but it tasted really good especially with vegetables and a hot coffee. they've said that the worse the smell, the better the taste will be. we caught the first jeep from mainit to bontoc.  

we came early and the first and only jeep from bontoc to tinglayan would leave at 3pm. so we had enough time to do other things like check my email, eat donut, and shop around. at the terminal, there i first met the shirley and her husband, the very animated johhny pagada. they came all the way from manila just to attend lawig's wedding. we thought that the jeep was full so we had no choice but to sit on top of the jeep's roof. we climbed up the jeep and found ourselves a great spot. the view from the top was so different. everything looked both big and small. the fun was just starting when the rain ruined it. rafael said that the clouds that we see not so far away could be rain. so we climbed down the jeep, got in, and it started to pour. the rain slowed down the trip but the view of the mountains wasn't blocked.

when we got to tinglayan, we had to wait for another jeep to arrive to take us to tulgao. it was the longest trip of my life. it was supposed to be just a 30-minute trip but it felt like it was forever. after a two hour trek, a drizzle, thick fog, dark, muddy and rocky roads, we arrived at lawig's house in tulgao.