Kalinga - Part I - Scenery

It was only for two days, but it felt timeless. 

From Tuguegarao, a town in the far northeast of Luzon, a group of nine of us left at the crack of dawn for the six-hour drive southwest across the Cordillera Mountains into the landlocked province of Kalinga. 

Our destination was a small mountain village called Buscalan. To get there we passed through some stunning scenery.

 Chico River

The final 1.5 hours of the trip were traversed on foot, down and up mountain sides, often at a 45 degree incline. Where the road ended we were met by "porters" - five women of the village, mothers of three to six children each! They nimbly carried our heavy bags and boxes of gifts for the villagers; while many of us, the visitors, unaccustomed to hiking at these heights, huffed and puffed our way up.

There were a number of spots along the way where I struggled with my vertigo, especially crossing this narrow bridge with no railings. Pity the photo does not fully show the long drop! 

[More bridges can be found at Sunday Bridges.]

 Kalinga, 2012

I link this post with Scenic Sunday. Stay tuned for Part II.

Clouds Over Fall Fields

Austria, 2007

This panorama (better seen enlarged) was taken on an early fall day, when the gladiolas and corn stalks were past their prime, somewhere in the vicinity of Vienna, Austria.

Countryside Scenes and a Bridge in Taishan

On a balmy early evening about a month ago we drove some kilometers south from Kaiping and crossed a little ways into the county of Taishan (see map at end of post). Our mission was to have dinner in an unassuming countryside restaurant (read: converted private home; no name, no address, no license) that had become popular merely by word-of-mouth.

While the others ordered our meal - all from live and fresh farm ingredients - I grabbed my camera and walked down a path off the paved country road. Want to come along? You may like the images better enlarged.

I crossed the bridge to find farmers working in a rice paddy and vegetable field, although it was quite late in the day.

Turning back, I see both sky and river showing off soft pale pastels.

Not long after, the sun painted the sky this rare (for Guangdong) brilliant orange for me.

Taishan, 2012

Taishan, which I've always called the Cantonese Toisan, is a county-level city. You can see most of its borders in pink on this map below, and we didn't drive far into it this evening. The tip of the arrow marks the dinner spot.

Taishan is the place of origin for many of the Chinese who migrated to California to work as contract laborers during the Gold Rush, then later to work on the Pacific Raiway. The Taishanese were among the many migrants from four counties (Kaiping, Enping, Taishan and Xinhui) who established the Chinatowns in North America. Until as late as the 1980s, when more Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese and Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong people started to emigrate to North America, the languages I most heard spoken in Chinatowns were the dialects from this region.

I am linking this post with the blogging communities at Skywatch Friday, Weekend Reflections, Sunday Bridges and Scenic Sunday.

Strolling Along the Sea in Negros Oriental

Last week my honey and I joined a group of good friends for a few days of fun and laughter at a resort on the tip of Negros Oriental, about an hour's drive from the university town of Dumaguete.

Join me here for a little stroll along the beautiful sea. The boardwalk is concrete and has seen better days, but the camera did not mind that.

Negros Oriental, 2011

I am linking this post with the blogging communities at Sunday Bridges, Scenic Sunday, Macro Monday and Mosaic Monday.

HaPpY hApPy NeW yEaR!!

Multiple Bridges

Amsterdam, 2008

These rows of typical stone bridges in Amsterdam joins bridge seekers at Sunday Bridges and pleasant places at Scenic Sunday.

Marmot in Mongolia

For Camera Critters and Scenic Sunday, I am taking you back up into the vast alpine belt of the far western Mongolian province of Hovd. There in the desolate wilderness we did not see many wild animals. 

So when our driver Magsar spotted this furry ball, he stopped the van and went out for a closer look. 

 Mongolia, 2007

What his keen eye had seen is this little creature. 

It's a marmot, a Mongolian marmot, a rodent species closely related to the squirrel and groundhog. Marmots live in mountainous areas, eat mainly greens and hibernate in burrows through the long winters. This chubby little fella looks pretty well satiated to me, don't you agree?

A final piece of trivia: Marmots are hunted during a designated season - usually late summer or early fall when their furs are perfect - and are roasted on an open fire with hot stones in the cleaned belly to cook it inside and out. You can read about boodog, this Mongolian cooking style, in gory detail here.

Dong Bridge

Guizhou, 2006

This is a Wind and Water Bridge built by the Dong ethnic minority people in Guizhou province of China. I find it interesting that the first one I posted (here) ranks as one of the top ten viewed pages on my blog.

Linking with Sunday Bridges and Scenic Sunday.

Quirino Bridge

Quirino Bridge crosses the Abra river connecting the rocky mountain slopes to the north of the town of Santa and the southern tail end of Bantay in the province of Ilocos Sur.  

The bridge is named after the former President Elpidio Qurino, the sixth president of the Philippines (1948-1953). He was born in this province in 1890. 

 

A super typhoon washed away one of its steel spans in 2001, destroying the bridge. This shot is taken from the new bridge to the old, more appealing, bridge.

Ilocos Sur, 2010

The bridge is also locally called Banaoang Bridge after the barangay it is located in. Barangay is a Filipino term for a village, district or ward or the smallest administrative division in the Philippines.

This bridge joins Sunday Bridges and Scenic Sunday.

Another Guizhou Bridge

This is the second bridge I post from the beautiful province of Guizhou in China. It may not be as unique or interesting as my earlier Wind & Water bridge; still the setting with the terraced rice fields is so serene, don't you agree?

 Guizhou, 2006

For Sunday Bridges and Scenic Sunday.

Count Dracula's Castle

The character in Bram Stoker's Gothic novel Dracula, published 1897, was based on the real life chilling personality of Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476). Vlad's is a complex history of power and ugly revenge, and space does not permit a fair recounting; so if it interests you, you can check out the stories, real and fictional, here.

Yet the castle described in the classic book was based on this fortress in Bran, a few hours drive north of Bucharest, where Vlad never lived. Nonetheless, it is now nicknamed Dracula's Castle. 

 Transylvania, 2011

Have you read the book? A friend cajoled me to read it in the 80s and it's a heckuva compelling story. Having now seen Bran Castle, inside and outside, I am tempted to reread the novel.

My best shot of the exterior was this pretty view from behind with a little footbridge, so I join the bridge hunters at Sunday Bridges and Scenic Sunday. 

Rowing under a Park Bridge

On this warm sunny day, the people of Bucharest were out enjoying their public park in the city center. This little bridge crossing a man-made lake in Parcul Cişmigiu joins Sunday Bridges and Scenic Sunday.

 Bucharest, 2011

Truss Railway Bridge

This photo of a truss railway bridge in the Romanian countryside I took some weeks ago before spring came to color our world green is for Scenic Sunday and Sunday Bridges. [Enlarge for better view of bridge.]

Romania, 2011

Blossoms in a Bucharest Park

Today I strolled down the historic Victoriei Street in Bucharest in search of fruit trees in bloom. I walked quite a ways from the apartment I am staying in before I arrived at this small park. And there I found my blossom trees.

 Bucharest, 2011

Locals too were basking in the cool spring day, while bumble bees buzzed and the sun cast shadows. I was not the only one with my camera pointing at the pretty pale pink.

It is a little late for the Mărţişor, a traditional Romanian celebration of spring held on March 1 when men gift women small amulets tied to strings of red and white. Still I saw dozens of these marţ tied to flowers throughout the town. This one below with a little butterfly is a fancier - maybe more modern - version. 

 

Here is one final view of this charming park looking towards the back of the old royal palace, today the National Museum of Art.

Linking to Scenic Sunday, Shadow Shot Sunday and Today's Flower.

Ottoman Stone Bridge

I can not really say with certitude that this bridge with nothing much to cross we saw a few hours north of Bucharest was built by the Turks. 

Romania, 2011

Yet the long and complex history in the region - with various wars fought against the Turks since the 15th century, the domination of the Turkish Empire from the 17th century onwards, and Romania declaring its independence from Turkey as recently as 1877 - plus the stone and arch architecture, historically Turkish in style, lead me to conclude that the bridge is some centuries old and built by Romanian's past aggressor from the south.

Here is my capture of the other side as we drive by:

Linked to Sunday Bridges and Scenic Sunday.