Apr
19
PhotoHunt: Purple
Filed under Photohunt, beach, travel
My feeble attempt at catching the sunset in Bantayan Island, Cebu. This is purple, right?
Archive for the ‘Photohunt’ Category
Apr
12
PhotoHunt: Triangle
Filed under Photohunt, beach, travel
Hooray! I am back in the blogosphere and in PhotoHunt! 
I celebrate my comeback with my favorite element—fire. This is a bonfire we lit on a weekend getaway to a beach in San Remigio, a town on the northern tip of Cebu which boasts of having the longest shoreline in the island province. It takes around three hours to get there from the city. I made the mistake of eating a rather heavy breakfast before we hit the road, so on the way there my stomach felt funny. I puked twice on the road. It was embarrassing, but all in all the trip was great because I was with great company. 
San Remigio is also a great diving spot, but I was such a coward that I didn’t try it even though I really, really wanted to. The diving instructor said I need to learn to swim first before I should try diving (maybe because he didn’t want to be responsible for me).
Believe it or not, I grew up in a coastal city and the beach is my favorite place to be, but I have not learned to swim after all these years. No one taught me to swim when I was a kid, and I think the fear grew bigger as I grew older. Now I wonder if it is still possible for someone in her early twenties to learn such a basic skill?
Oct
26
PhotoHunt: Scary
Filed under Photohunt, the good earth, travel
Brace yourself, because even I, don’t like looking at this photo:
See the green coils around the tree?
These are green tree pythons or Morelia viridis. They are a non-venomous, arboreal (refers to animals that live in trees) snake species found in Indonesia, the island of New Guinea, and Australia. They like coiling around tree branches to rest there, as you can see. They sleep during the day and forage for food at night.
I don’t like snakes. Just looking at them (and even their photos) make me cringe. There were several kinds of snakes at the Singapore Zoo, the famous Anaconda included, but I wasn’t able to take lots of photos because I was in a hurry to get out of the area where the snakes were.
But, looking at this photo now, I must admit that I like the color of the green python—vivid green (I like green!) with spots of white that look like crystals when viewed under a certain shade of light. It makes them blend well with the trees. Fortunately, there aren’t green pythons in the Philippines, so no worries about mistaking them for leaves.
(This is my third PhotoHunt entry about animals. I seem to have taken my animal protection realization to heart, eh?)
Oct
19
PhotoHunt: Family
Filed under Photohunt, family, the good earth, travel
One of the reasons my Singapore trip was memorable was because I had a reunion with my distant cousins. Look, we have a lovely photo together!!
Sorry for the yellow splash in the middle. I try not to post frontal photos of myself here, lest someone takes my photo and paste it on a porn star’s nude body. (Or maybe I just don’t want you to see how my cousins and I look alike! LOL).
Okay, serious now. They are orangutans, the largest species of arboreal animals (in other words, monkeys). They can only be found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. In fact, Orangutan means “person of the forest” in Malay and Indonesian.
I remember this kind of money very well because I used to call my second brother orangutan. When we were kids, we had contests of who came up with the worst name for the other. His nickname is Atan, so I called him orangutan. He, in turn, called me Badak. I don’t know where he got that, but I’m sure it’s not a monkey’s name. Technically, I won, right?
Oct
12
PhotoHunt: Lazy
Filed under Photohunt, human interest, the good earth, travel, trivia
This is what white tigers do on a lazy afternoon:
“I am bored.”
“I wish I could get away from these people. They are starting to annoy me.”
“I should just go down to the water and cool off.”
“Whew! I love this!”
“Now my coat is squeaky clean.”
This white tiger can be found at the world-acclaimed Singapore Zoo, which is known for its open animal dens. I was one of the annoying people who kept staring at him. I just really loved his beautiful white coat.
Trivia:
- White tigers have blue eyes and pink noses, and no, they are not albinos. White tigers resulted from a rare genetic combination.
- White tigers descended from Mohan, who was caught by an Indian Maharajah in 1951. He was bred, and became the proud father of many cubs.
- There used to be five kinds of tigers in the world. Only three remain today. The other two are extinct.
- Only 7,000 wild tigers are alive today. They are being hunted and killed at an alarming rate for their coat. They are also losing their homes in the wild to real estate development.
Before I went to the zoo, I didn’t care so much about tigers. I only thought of them as animals to be feared. Now I think of them as beautiful creatures to be saved. I think I am going to adopt wildlife as another advocacy.
