Biketas 2013: Night + Early Morning Ride

Travel Period: February 13 - 14, 2013
Destination: Around Davao City

Wednesday Night Ride
February 13, when I decided to join the ride and it was past few weeks since I have joined a night ride for WTF rides. Another reason also was for the test video shot of GoPro Hero 3 Black for the next day which was recently bought by Jason. From home, I traversed Panacan and Diversion Road then Dacudao, Obrero and finally reached Bikerboy. A lot of bikers joined the ride, headcount of 20, 8 from Biketas: Ruel, Ramil, Leojim, Jan Gee, Jason, Raksil, Sherwin and me with special appearance of master Julius. :D

Biketas 2013: Skyline-Mintal-Mulig + Panabo Ride

Travel Period: February 09 - 10, 2013
Destination: Davao City and Panabo City

Downtown To Mintal Via Skyline
February 09, Saturday. We haven't done any bike ride before on this Skyline-Mintal-Mulig route, so I suggested it to the group. As usual, we had our early breakfast at fast food chain and ride out by 6:30am. We traversed Torres St. then to San Rafael Village to reach Maa and finally Diversion Road. A slow ascent on this part up to Las Terrazas, followed with a long descent down to Skyline intersection. We turn right at the junction and traversed Catalunan Grande road up to Skyline proper. Since it's our first time with the trail, we missed to take the shortcut road to Mintal proper instead we traversed a longer loop, it was blessing in disguise because we passed by at DECA Wakeboard park and had our photo ops.

Biketas 2013: Loleng's Revisited Ride

Travel Period: February 02, 2013

Destination: Loleng's Mountain Spring Resort, Davao City

The 2nd Time Around

It was just past 2 weeks since we did my first Loleng's ride last January 19. This was my second time to ride to Loleng's (first choice of the group since its cheap, 100pesos only for entrance fee and swimming pool) and this time, Leojim had his maiden ride with Biketas together with Jason, Ronie and Sherwin while James later joined the ride. Meet up at McDo Bajada around 5:30am, had our early breakfast at Chowking and it was past 6am when we ride out.

Biketas 2013: Salubong Ride

Travel Period: January 27, 2013
Destination: Around Davao City

Liwanag World Festival
"Liwanag" which translated to "light" means a lot, from its literal definition of being simply a light or a creative idea that will help to improve life in the community. MISSION (Movement of Imaginals for Sustainable Societies Through Initiatives, Organizing, and Networking) is the main proponent of Liwanag World Festival on Creativity and Sustainability with a theme of "Imaginality - Co-creating Sustainable Societies". To know more about the event, its goals, the current reality, the challenge and our participation as an individual, you can check their website Liwanag World Festival.

Biketas 2013: Night + Loleng's Ride

Travel Period: January 18 - 19, 2013
Destination: Around Davao City and Loleng's Mountain Spring Resort

Friday Night Ride
I usually join Friday night ride in case that there will be a scheduled Biketas ride on the following day. After my duty, I went home to prepare and proceeded to ride bound to downtown for a night ride with CFL and DDS members. From Bikerboy Obrero, we traversed Quimpo Boulevard, Matina Aplaya, Ulas and to Libby Road for a quick break at a spa clinic of Maam Neng Gomez, thanks for the food and accommodation. Then we proceeded to Libby Road head left to Toril but had a left detour shortcut to the main road. From this point we decided to went back to our Jason's office to end the night ride after 3 hours on the road.

Biketas 2013: Canibad Ride via Penaplata

Travel Period: January 13, 2013
Destination: Canibad Beach, Island Garden City of Samal

Puting Bato Plan
Days before the ride, it was planned to reach Puting Bato but it was not materialized during the ride. Let's check out why it didn't happen on my logs below. 6am was the time set for assembly at Sasa 11 wharf for departure to Babak, unfortunately, it was around 7am when the group assembled at the place (well, this is not common, Filipino time). This would be a challenge among members of Biketas to follow scheduled time, maybe next time, whoever cause the delay should treat the group. :p Back on track, we decided to board on  a larger ferry to accommodate our bikes. By 8am, we arrived at the Babak wharf and did a group shot. :D

Biketas 2013: Night + Reverse Sonshine Ride

Travel Period: January 11 - 12, 2013

Destination: Around Davao City

Friday Night Ride
It was January 11 when we joined the WTF (Wednesday-Thursday-Friday) Rides. I decided to join since I don't have a work by the next day and also the Biketas decided to have a short ride the next morning via reverse Sonshine route. We assembled at Bikerboy around 7pm and decided to ride out minutes after. A total of 19 bikers who joined the ride traversing Agdao, Sasa, Diversion Road, Circumferential Road and around downtown area. Below is the route of the night ride and reverse Sonshine ride with a total of 88kms.

Biketas 2013: Kaputian + Talicud Loop Ride

Travel Period: January 05 - 06, 2013
Destination: Kaputian, Island Garden City of Samal and Isla Reta, Talicud Island

First Bike Adventure of the Year
January 5, first Saturday and weekend of the year 2013 when BIKEtas decided to have a ride bound to Isla Reta Beach Resort via Kaputian, IGACOS. Since I'm living on the northern part of Davao City, I directly went to Sasa 11 for the assembly. By around 7AM, we gathered at the pier, paid 26pesos (for the passenger and the MTB) and boarded the ferry bound to Babak port. After arriving at the Babak port, of course, the mandatory group picture before starting the ride. :D 

My Seventh Solo Backpacking Trip

Travel Period: December 7 - 10, 2012
Destination: Banaue, Ifugao; Bontoc and Sagada, Mountain Province  

Amazing Race
It was 5pm last December 7, 2012, Friday when I punched out from work and went home. Immediately, I pack my things for the trip and proceeded to airport for a 7pm flight. Everything is on a rush from contracting a motorcycle to bypass bottleneck traffic in Panacan area until hailing a cab bound to airport. Due to 15 minutes flight delay, my time allowance to reach Ohayami bus terminal bound to Banaue was reduced, I hailed a cab but unfortunately I wasn't able to catch up with the scheduled trip. I opted to take the Florida bus bound to Cagayan where I supposed to drop at Solano, I was lost on transit and decided to drop at Santiago City, Isabela. Well, I just checked out Isabela from my province-to-visit list. :D

Biketas 2012: Hagimit Falls

Travel Period: October 13, 2012
Destination: Hagimit Falls, Peñaplata, Island Garden City of Samal

Saturday Ride
This is the first saturday ride we had in our Biketas group with the special participation of Jay together with his all-Giant specs bike. The rest of the group met at Mcdo Bajada and I waited at the Sasa 11 around 6am, when the rest of the group arrived, we proceeded to the ferry and paid 26pesos both for the passenger and bike.

Biketas 2012: Kaputian Side Trip In Isla Reta

Travel Period: July 15, 2012
Destination: Kaputian, Island Garden City of Samal and Isla Reta Beach Resort, Talicud Island

Biketas 3.5
Prior to Biketas IV to Tagum for DM's 40th day, the group initiated a biketas event last week with Kaputian as the destination and just last Sunday when the Biketas 3.5 was materialized with 11 members. We assembled at Sasa 11 Pier past 6AM and boarded the ferry boat bound to Babak Pier. Upon arriving at the pier, we had our group picture taken first and then off to the trail.

Bukidnon Day Trip

Travel Period: July 14, 2012
Destination: Bukidnon

All-Expense Paid Day Trip

Currently, I am connected with pallet making industry here in Davao City and our company provides pallets to customers for efficient logistics. As part of the field operation, the company needs to visit supplier's location for inspection and fortunately, I was able to tag along with this scheduled supplier's visitation. Along with me in this trip were Jake and Jhong (Operations), Maam Leizl, Jackie, Miching and Kristine (Accounting) who left around 6AM from the city and off to our destination, Bukidnon! :D

The Journey That Started It All

It will be my first time to participate the PTB blog carnival for July 2012 and the theme was "the journey that made us travel blogger". Well, there is no definite answer in my case because the first journey I had was in Cebu and Palawan. This is the journey that ignites the passion in my heart on traveling while the journey that made me a travel blogger was already a decision of mine to document the accumulated trips I had.

My Fifth Solo Backpacking Trip

Travel Period: July 7 - 10, 2012
Destination: Coron, Palawan

The Photo That Captures Me
Months after I started journeying, I already have the symptoms of a travel addict, a feeling that you need to travel on weekends, constantly check online for airline promos, and want to discover new places. One day, I stumbled a scene like the image below that captures my attention. From that day on, Coron, made into must-visit place list. Fortunately, Airphil Express had this promo last year for all domestic flights and I quickly look for available seats and finally booked a flight of Davao - Manila - Busuanga - Manila - Davao. It was a big savings for me to be able to grabbed this promo fares and will finally set foot on Coron soon.

Biketas 2012: Conquering Mt. Puting Bato

Travel Period: July 01, 2012
Destination: Mt. Puting Bato and Canibad, Island Garden City of Samal


The Route
Climbing a mountain peak is never been an easy task, there are challenges along the way and keeping the pace is an important thing to consider to reach the peak at a scheduled time. Two weeks ago, an adventure event was created and the goal was to reach the highest point in Samal Island which is the Mt. Puting Bato with a height of 410 MASL situated in Brgy. Guilon, Island Garden City of Samal. But here's the twist, we will be conquering the peak not by hiking but through mountain biking, this made the experience an extreme adventure one. Below is the trail we took during the event.

Samal Excursion

Travel Period: March 11, 2012
Destination: Monfort Bat Colony and Vanishing Island

Davao: From Islands To Highlands
Indeed, Davao City is strategically located in southern part of the country that cater the needs for adventure and vacation of individuals. It's blessed with places to explore, people to interact, and one can experience an island to highland adventure just within a reach from the city. Island Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS) is the nearest place to experience beach bumming and water adventures. Aside from wide array of beaches and resorts, the island has also natural tourist spots like bat caves and a vanishing island.

My Fourth Solo Backpacking Trip

Travel Period: February 28 - March 7, 2012
Destination: Clark, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore

The Preparation
Before the day of my travel I have already researched the necessary information, revised my itinerary many times and packed the necessary things in a backpack for a 9-day journey. Starting from the places I want to visit, things I want to do, details on every expenses and even possible questions that Immigration Officer would ask, all is already planned and prepared. Since this is my fourth solo backpacking and my first trip abroad, I was very anxious about it. Let's say on how did I get through on this travel trip abroad.

Northern Mindanao Road Trip

Travel Period: February 10 - 12, 2012
Destination: Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Ozamiz, Marawi and Cotabato City

Region X - Northern Mindanao
Northern Mindanao is one of the regions here in the Philippines and its interesting to know that this region is adjacent to the rest of the regions in Mindanao namely the Zamboanga Peninsula, ARMM, SOCCSKSARGEN, Davao and Caraga region. Among the 5 provinces that comprises Northern Mindanao, only Lanao del Norte and Misamis Oriental that I haven't been to. I have already visited Bukidnon and Misamis Occidental including the island province of Camiguin. This time, I wanted to explore the remaining provinces where visiting the City of Majestic Falls was the main plan.

It's More Fun In Calinan

Travel Period: January 23, 2012

Destination: Calinan, Davao City

The Initial Plan

It was January 23, 2012 when a holiday was declared in celebration with Chinese New Year. Days prior to the trip, we have already decided to do the river tubing in Talomo River and even inquired, unfortunately it was not pursued because some of our friends backed out and it would be costly for the three of us to avail the package. Nevertheless, we push thru our plan to have a trip on Calinan but this time, it would more on a nature trip. Along with this trip is my partner in crime Jesisa and a close friend of mine named Lorna.

Mati Inventory Trip

Travel Period: January 19, 2012
Destination: Mati, Davao Oriental

The Excitement
It was just a day before the trip when I materialized the plan and knew that a workmate of mine named Jethro will be having an inventory count on one of the JVC farms in Mati, Davao Oriental. Our company (PMR Pallet Ltd. Co.) is on pallet industry which supply pallets to Unifrutti and JVC farms. One of the task of the inventory team is to account the quantity of pallets for every farm. This time, the scheduled farm for inventory is Panombom Agri-Ventures and when I knew it was located in Mati, I'd got excited to tag along in the inventory count. I emailed my supervisor about the matter and my purpose for tagging along and luckily it was approved. Yeppey!