Where is the city that never sleeps? Philippines in general is a country that is very colourful and full of joy despite of it being a third world country. Philippines is a tropical country that consists of 7,641 islands in the Southeast Asia. The 7,641 islands that makes up the Philippines are divided into three main geographical division from north to south. Philippines capital city is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City which is also part of Metro Manila. Being born in Quezon City and growing up in Manila is something I would always look back to, to remember all the ups and downs that made me who I am today. Stomping, walking, and clanking cookwares is what I hear as I wake up in a sunny morning. As soon as I hear the street vendor screams “taho! taho! Bili na kayo”, (sweet hot tofu, buy now!) I would run downstairs almost tripping over nothing just to make sure I get my sweet hot tofu despite of the blazing hot weather in the Philippines. The smell of the refreshing air and the sunshine welcomes me as I get out on the street. Its 6am in the morning but everyone is already done setting up their table with their breakfast, when I say everyone it means every family in the neighbourhood eating together and sharing the food they have to everyone. You can hear the sound of the cars, jeeps and tricycle passing through the road and the rooster that never stops crowing until it’s 9am in the morning. As the sun start to fade and the stars and moon takes over, more people join in when they get home from work. The night vendors are now wandering around every street screaming “ balot! balot penoy!”, to let everyone know the food they’re selling.Even if it’s already dark and the only light on the streets are the lamp post, there are still kids laughing and playing street games, the chatter of people doesn’t die it only gets louders and more street foods stalls opens. Despite of what happens to our day, whether we’re family or not we would always sit on one table, share the same food and talk about how are day went. Suddenly, everything changed. Instead of people welcoming me whenever I go out on streets all I see are houses and parked cars. The’re wasn’t people smiling at me or hot sweet tofu to warm me from the cold breeze. I can also hear the cars passing through the roads and the birds chirping but that’s about it, there were no kids playing on the streets nor families enjoying each others food. The city is busy but it feels empty, people are busy with their own life. I never knew that going home into an empty house or eating by myself would be this awful. The deafening silence in the room gets worse everyday especially for someone who grew up in a huge and loud family. My family would occasionally get together to share but unlike in Philippines it feels like everyday there’s an occasion. Days, months, and years have passed but the feeling of being in a different place is still new and fresh. Being away from home was and will never be easy but change and stepping out of my comfort zone is good thing to experience. I’m used to with my life now but it doesn’t mean that I don’t spend the night crying myself to sleep anymore. It’s hard to get use to a new environment, culture or people but it would get better everyday. Remember to not let emotions especially sadness get the best of you. I wouldn’t say that it’s not allowed to feel homesick or the longing for someone but don’t let it come to the point where you forgot about living the life you have now. It may not be the life that you’re used to have but it is definitely a life that gets better if you work on it. #farfromhome #lifeinthePhilippines #PinoyTravel
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Philippines has one of the best foods in the world. Filipinos are known because of being a good cook.There are different kinds of foods that only Filipinos can make with whatever they have in the kitchen. Filipino Cuisine is a mix of different styles of food since Philippines is a multicultural country. Our foods consist of dish that has mix veggies, meat, soup, rice and a very colourful desserts. The foods also fits very well with the rainy and the hot weather of Philippines. Filipino’s cooking skill is one of the most loved when it comes to being a filipino. One of the best food is Kare-Kare (stew). Kare kare is a stew in Philippines that has a thick orange sauce that is made of peanut. Beside from the peanut sauce, it also has different kind of vegetable such as eggplant, cabbage, and other green veggies. Other than vegetable it’s also made with stewed pork, oxtail, beef meat, hocks, calves and also tripe but it depends on what people want to use. Kare-Kare have types, there is a Kare-Kareng gulay which is made of pure vegetable but it can also be Kare-Kare that is seafood. However, it is commonly cooked in our home with the mix of vegetable,tripe, beef stew meat, beef rib stew and a sauce made of peanut but sweeter. It is a favourite in Filipino homes because of its mixed taste, it has a salty and at the same time sweet thick orange sauce. It is also a go to dish because of its healthy but at the same time savoury contents such as the beefs. If they have Kare-Kare they should also have Pancit. “Pancit is the food that will make you live longer,” is literally what every filipino parents would say. Pancit is a noodles in Philippines, it is introduced to Filipinos by the chinese settlers but Filipinos made it their own by making different styles of it. Although it was the chinese settlers who brought pancit (noodles) up, Filipinos made it a very special food by making different kinds of pancit such as pancit malabon, pancit lomi, palabok, pancit bihon and many more kinds of pancit. The two famous pancit are the palabok and the pancit bihon. Palabok is made of either thick or thin but the mostly used noodles are the thick noodles with shrimp, hard boiled egg, onion leaves and sometimes with chorizo. Its sauce is made of fish sauce and it is also sprinkled with chicharon (a crispy pork cracklings that is crushed into powder) while the pancit bihon is a kind of pancit that has a thinner noodles. It is marinated and fried into a pan with soy sauce that’s why it has a lighter colour like soy sauce. It also has kalamansi(citrus) and possibly fish sauce too. Beside from the marination of the noodles it also includes fish ball, squid balls, sliced meat and vegetable like cabbage,carrots and red pepper. Even though the pancits has its own meat and sauce the cook could always experiment and add anything that can turn it more savoury than it is already. Pancit is a food that is commonly serve in houses every birthday parties and traditional event not only because it is delicious and has a lot of flavours and textures but also because it is very convenient to cook since it has the most used ingredients and it is cheaper.
Overall, the Kare-Kare and the Pancits gives a different kind of experience with foods. It includes a different kind of texture such as with the rough and crispy chicharon and a very savoury and flavourful thick orange sauce of the fish sauce they use in palabok. When it comes to Filipino cuisine generally I would highly recommend it because it offers food that would definitely remind a person with a specific kind of food from another country since Philippines has been with a lot of different ethnicities and they adapt with their cooking styles but with a twist.
#filipinocuisine #PanlasangPinoy José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Realonda aka José Rizal is seen as Philippine’s Hero. He is a 35 years old man born in Calamba Laguna on June 19, 186 and died in Intramuros on December 30, 1896. He was the seventh in the eleven children of Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro and Teodora Morales Alonzo Realonda y Quintos. When he was still alive José Rizal was a polymath, Filipino Nationalist, Ophthalmologist and most importantly a reformist during the Spanish Colonial Era. He is also an author who used a paper and a pen as a weapon against the Spanish during that time. One of his many novels that inspires people and are still learned up until now are El Filibusterismo and Noli Me Tángere José Rizal is one of the great heroes in the Philippines because of how he inspired people through his novels, essays and poems to start a revolution against the Spanish Government. He used his talent and platform to spread what people can’t see that was happening between the Spanish and Filipino. During the Spanish colonial era his novels, poems and essays were an eye-opening for what the Spanish Government was like and what they were doing with the Filipinos. At that time Rizal’s novels, essays and poems was the inspiration of the Filipinos to act against the colonization that is happening. “On this battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart”, José Rizal. For Jose Rizal, education is one of the most important thing and the key to success which he shows in all of his work. At a very young age Dr.Rizal showed an intelligence that is different from everybody. He could write and read at the age of five and learned the alphabet at the age of 3. Rizal found his way into poetry, where professors are impressed by how his great he is with castilian and foreign language. Besides from writing he also took up pre-law in University of Santo Tomas but soon change into medicine when he learned about his mother’s eye condition. He soon pursue being an ophthalmologist in Madrid, Spain and got a degree. He also studied in Europe but was still part of a Propaganda Movement in Philippines where he wrote the his first novel, Noli Me Tángere . Noli Me Tángere particularly talks about the role of Catholic Friars and Spain’s colonial rule in Philippines. This novel was banned in the Philippines and led to Dr.Rizal being targeted by the police when he came back to the Philippines. When Dr. Jose Rizal’s return to the Philippines was cut short in 1887 he returned to Europe and write his second novel which was El Filibusterismo the sequel of his first novel. This novels was a look inside the Spanish’s unfairness towards the filipinos. Through this novels written by Dr. RIzal, people were encouraged to start a revolution against the Spanish Government to attain the freedom they have today. Spanish saw this as a crime and rebellion which caused Dr. Jose Rizal’s life. In 1892, he was exiled to mindanao for four years then in 1985 he was approved to be an army doctor in Cuba but later on August 1896, Katipunan which was founded by Andres Bonifacio revolted and provoked the Spanish to arrest Rizal even though he has nothing to do about it. By December 30, 1896, Dr. Jose Rizal was executed by the firing squad which took place in Intramuros,Manila. Today there is a law the Rizal Law where it says that schools in all levels should educate students about the life, works and writings of Dr. Jose Rizal especially his first and second novels. For in today's generation people often don’t realize what the people in the past such as Dr. Jose Rizal did for our country to have a better and beautiful society. When no one believes in young people we have Dr.RIzal who always believed that the youth is the hope of our future but today youth doesn’t even acknowledge what Jose Rizal did for our country. Some don’t see it as something relevant in their life but it is actually the reason why they have their freedom today. “Consummatum Est” (“It is finished”) - Dr.Jose Rizal before he died in 1896, December 30th. SOURCE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal https://www.biography.com/political-figure/jos%C3%A9-rizal https://myhero.com/J_Rizal_nmhs_US_2010_ul https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Who-Made-Rizal-Our-Foremost-National-Hero-P3X85ZEKRZZA https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rizal_Law http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jose_Rizal https://www.joserizal.com/death-jose-rizal/ https://images.app.goo.gl/MrjHpFvDsq4JPygX6 https://www.azquotes.com/author/12414-Jose_Rizal #PhilippineHero #FilipinoPride Philippines is known because of its jolly and generous people but it is also famous when it comes to its different kind of foods and especially the tourist spots. Philippines is always seen as the country who has beautiful beaches, what they don't know is Philippines have more beautiful places than beaches and mountains. Our country also have interesting history and wonderful historical places. Here are the five of many historical places in Philippines: 1. Fort Santiago in Intramuros Manila Fort Santiago is one of the significant place in Manila. Fort Santiago was the citadel built by Spanish conquistador, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. In Fort Santiago there is a embedded bronze footsteps onto the ground of our late Philippine Hero José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda ( Jose Rizal ) who was imprisoned there before his execution in 1896. The footsteps is a memorabilia of his last walk from his cell to the place where he was shot. 2. Albay, Bicol Albay is a province in Bicol region on southeastern Luzon. Albay is the city capital of Legazpi City where you can find Mayon Volcano. Mayon Volcano is a sacred and active volcano in Philippines. It is one of the tourist spot because of its gorgeous scenery and its “perfect cone” shape. Mayon Volcano is not your typical volcano, people believed that Bulkang Mayon grew from the burial grounds of the two lovers Magayon and Panganoron that's why they named it Mayon. The story and the volcano became a hit again when it erupted last January 2018 because people believed that they saw the smoke resembled the two lovers. People who adores fiction may love to visit Bulkang Mayon. 3. Vigan, Ilocos Sur Vigan, Ilocos Sur is located on the west coast of Luzon Island. Vigan is one of 7 wonder cities in Philippines because of its history. Although centuries has passed, Vigan is one of the few towns that is still intact since the spanish colonized the Philippines. Besides from historical places such as Plaza Salcedo and Vigan Heritage Village, It is also known for its famous empanada a snack that looks like a thin taco but crispy and has vegetable and meat filling. If you love history, vigan would be the place to visit. 4. Batanes Batanes is not only adored by everyone because of its breathtaking views it is also adored because of its ancient background. Batanes is a province in Philippines, it is the northernmost and smallest province in the country. Ivatans are Filipino ethnolinguistic group who lives in Batanes whose origin are untraced but known as the Austronesians Group. Back in the days Ivatan tribe do farming, fishing and boat making they also lived in a stone houses made of coral and limestones, made to protect them from the hostile climate. 5. Buscalan, Kalinga Buscalan, Kalinga is where everyone can find Apo Whang Od the oldest and last mambabatok(tattooist) in Philippines. Apo Whang Od also know as Maria Oggay is 102 years old who is part of the Butbut people of the larger Kalinga Ethnic group. She has been tattooing headhunters and indigenous people in Buscalan, Kalinga since she was 15 years old. Apo Whang Od is a legendary in Philippines because despite of her old age she still continues practicing her ancient art form and sharing it to every tourist who visits Buscalan. This article gives an idea to everyone where and what are the some places with a meaningful background to visit in the Philippines. Articles to read:
#PinoyDestinations #ItsmorefuninthePhilippines How does tourism impact another culture? Cultural Impact of tourism has been a wide issue because a lot of people travel around the world. Tourist impact the culture of the country they are visiting through clothes, behavior and religion. Cultural impact arises when sacred places, souvenirs, and destination are improved just to meet tourist expectations. In addition, when a traditional ritual or dance that are done only on a celebration became a daily basis to entertain tourists its value decreases. People forget that this countries they visit also have a culture to hold and respect but for the sake of tourist’s entertainment they decided to share their culture to the world.
In an article about cultural impact of tourism the “Keechak Dance of Bali” was used as an example to explain how a traditional dance that they perform on special occasions only became a daily basis performance because they are being paid to do so. Locals share their culture to the world because they are proud of it; however, their dance, foods, sacred places and things don’t get the recognition and appreciation they deserve because some people don’t understand it. Lack of culture awareness of a certain culture can lead to a lot of things, such as un-intentionally disrespecting and disregarding the importance of local’s moral and customs. Although there are negative cultural impact of tourism, there is also a good side to it. Local people get to share how beautiful and meaningful their histories are and where it came from. Not only they can share their legacies, locals also inspires tourist with their heartfelt stories and how one place can tell so much beautiful stories. For instance, the Magellan’s Cross or Cruz de Magellan in Cebu, Philippines a christian cross planted by the Portuguese and Spanish explorers by the order of Ferdinand Magellan when they arrived in Cebu, Philippines. To avoid incidents like this, tourists should take time to briefly learn about the culture, clothing, eating manners and religion of the country they’re visiting. They should also consider the feelings of the local people and respect their privacy because not everyone who lives in the country they visited is appointed to entertain the visitors. People should make it a habit to respect and assimilate in a culture they wanted to see. Lastly, for the readers who likes to travel or not, encourage everyone who travels a lot to respect, appreciate and understand every culture they encounter.
#Diversity #TravelWise |
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