Ambot-ah is a blog about my life as a travel blogger, nurse, and freelance photographer. After graduating in college, I decided to make a living out of blogging and live out my many passions. Join me on my travels around the Philippines and South East Asia. Read my helpful backpacking journals, budget travel trips, do-it-yourself itineraries, blogging pursuits (making money online), and photography tips.
My Vote for the 2009 Bloggers’ Choice Award (Visayas)
I vote for Explore Iloilo! for the Bloggers’ Choice Award in the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards.
After a seriously long time of inactivity in Ambot-ah, I’m back posting about my travels over the months. While I take some time to jot down my journals, you can view some my photos at my flickr account. Here’s a photo of me during my most recent visit (and very first trip abroad) to Hong Kong:
Soaking up the Hong Kong skyline at Vicoria Peak in Central Hong Kong
Last week me and my friends most of which I met over at flickr, went photo tripping in Antique province. We visited a few spots in Southern Antique (Anini-y, Hamtic, and San Jose) for a day trip. We first met at Molo Terminal, Iloilo City where a few van drivers were squabbling for our attention, we had to choose between a spacious new looking Mercedes Benz Van and an L300 van, which looked like it had experienced too many trips. We picked the L300 van because the driver promised to leave immediately for us. We were lucky enough because the driver was very friendly and even made a deal with us to take us to where we wanted to go until Hamtic and San Jose and then take us back to Iloilo City.
I was supposed to go to Baras Beach Resort in Guimaras for the weekend with my friend and her classmates. Me and my friend were already prepared to go on with the trip, we’ve already packed our bags and met in the city. Unfortunately, her classmates bailed out on the plan because it was raining and opted to watch a movie instead. We were quite upset about that because the trip was already planned weeks before and the rain wasn’t strong enough to be worried about, there were also no reported storms coming. Wanting to go on with any trip, we decided to go backpacking to Bacolod City instead.
San Sebastian Church at Dusk
If you’re doing a complex task over and over, one way to help you do things more efficiently and help you remember key steps is making a mindmap about it. I’m currently starting to make a living out of blogging, and experimenting on starting new blogs to make my own little blog network. Starting a new blog takes some time and effort, and for it to become successful, bloggers have to be diligent in setting it up and promoting it. So I decided to systematize my workflow on starting new blogs by making a mindmap for it. Here’s how my first draft looks like:
I was excited to go to Fort Bonifacio Global City (FBGC) for the first time. It’s one the newest and most expensive bloc in Manila. I was so shocked to see the level of development there in just a short span of time. I liked Market! Market! because I really did feel like it was a market not just a rip-off name for just another mall. High Street is O-K, the place looks really beautiful but it feels very synthetic there, I prefer the organic urban feeling I get in Makati.
Here’s some pictures during my trip to Taklong Island in Nueva Valencia, Guimaras. We stayed there for 3 days and 2 nights last May 1 to 3, 2009 and slept in their large dormitory-type rooms.
View of Brgy. La Paz, Nueva Valencia
It’s been almost three years actually that I’ve used SmartBro as my internet provider. I pay P999 every month for my unlimited internet at 384kps, which is actually a bit lame and more pricey compared to internet access in other countries. I’ve hang on with them for so long because their line is, I think, the most reliable IP in Iloilo City. My friends have had experiences with Bayantel, PLDT myDSL, and Globelines, and they said their internet access have hiccups from time to time.
These people in the traditional media will stop at nothing! First they feed off and make money out of pictures painstakingly taken by us bloggers, now they are also starting to copy/pasting content from blogs. You can read how a writer for local newspaper in Cebu has copy/pasted from Byahilo.com, a travel blog run by my friend Eric D. here: http://www.byahilo.com/2009/05/31/philippine-stars-the-freeman-newspaper-in-cebu-used-my-blog-content-without-permission/
They can juice us for now if they must but there will come a time that these newspaper will become extinct and blogs will replace their outdated and unethical methods. We’ll be on top of search engine results when that happens.
An art exhibit is currently ongoing at Red Steakhouse and Gallery in Smallville, Iloilo City (along Diversion Road, Mandurriao District). The exhibit is called “Spectrum: Iloilo,” there are no themes, groups, or subjects just a bunch of independent photographers in Iloilo wanting to showcase their passion for their craft.
