Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal, the Philippines
November 20, 2016
From ewww to ahhhh. And vice versa. A road trip on a whim one Sunday afternoon ran the gamut of vowel-sound exclamations. After church, what was left of the weekend was enough time for an adventure. Or at least a joy ride. Ki drove aimlessly, eastward, until we stopped by the main church of Montalban (now called Rodriguez).
What could be better than sleeping in on a Sunday morning? An early morning road trip, if you were my friend Ki. Though it didn’t feel that way as I was dragging myself out of bed, the vistas of mountains and valleys of the Sierra Madre Range were worth waking up early for. With the light weekend traffic, it took less than an hour to reach the highlands of Rizal Province. The gentle mountain breeze rippling through olive green cogon-covered slopes whispered in our ears, the tranquility broken only by the vrooming convoys of motorcycles that zipped past us.
Malabon, Metro Manila and Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal Province, the Philippines
May 24 and 30, 2010
One of my vivid childhood memories was going to the Manila Zoo with Dad. He soon regretted taking me there because I wouldn’t quit feeding a hungry pony. It took a roving guard with a flashlight to whisk us out of the already-closed premises. It wasn’t just childish defiance. It was the first time my little bratty heart bled for another living thing – that scrawny pony. So, while I had been fascinated with wildlife, I abhorred seeing animals emaciated and caged. Zoos were animal prisons, but these days there were degrees to this imprisonment.