December 2019

A lot of people has been asking me how I got a multiple entry tourist visa to the US. For someone like me with no strong ties to the Philippines, I was worried I'd get denied. To my surprise, I got a multiple entry visa valid for 10 years!I travel a lot and have no intentions to overstay in any country. I want a clean passport record but these we

Last month, @travelfeed provided some updates on the meetups that happened after SteemFest in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. By this time, I have re-joined the team to help in social media, PR and testing. I wasn’t involved yet when the team organized these meetups. It looked as easy as posting an event in Facebook and CouchSurfing and you just wait for p

Apo Whang-Od is one of the Philippines’ national treasures. Her skills and talent made Buscalan famous for the Kalinga tribe tattoo. I was starstruck to see a living legend, however, disappointed by what tourism has done to an icon. I usually write informative travel blogs but this is one of my critical write ups. Weed or Tattoo? They say there are

I am not a local of Banaue but I stayed there for almost a month that I learned a lot of useful information that I’d like to share to my readers. This place is popular for the Banaue rice terraces, however, it seems most travelers just do a stop over at the rice terraces viewpoint and then head over to other more popular places like Sagada. Pobla

Note: I did not intend to post this here as this is my letter to the Banaue mayor. However, I made some mistakes today which resulted to a duplicate post of House of Ekolife. So as not to make my blog look worse, I will just re-publish this blog here. I stayed for a week in Batad to rest and just be away from any distractions. There is no network

Banaue was my home base for my last month in the Philippines and I was able to live like a local somehow. I didn’t travel much in the Banaue area like at the Happao rice terraces, except for the Batad rice terraces which I have blogged about extensively. However, I did eat a lot and tried the restaurants and carinderia (afforfdable local eatery) he

I have just started out my digital nomad journey and long term travel. That meant that I have the option to travel slowly. I was like most tourists previously when I had my 9 to 5 job. I would take time off for a few days and get to as many locations fast. I think travel is personal, it differs how each one travels. I used to enjoy that hyper k

Table of contents While in Batad, I stayed in a solo room at Batad View Inn & Restaurant as this was my most practical option. This lodging is under the same management as Mang Ramon’s Homestay who owns traditional nipa huts. It got me curious so I decided to upgrade for one night and sleep like a native Ifugao inside a nipa hut. Nipa huts ar

Preserving the Ifugao Ethnic Tradition Ramon Binalit, owner of Mang Ramon’s Homestay, is known in the Philippines for all the work he does to preserve Batad and its tradition. He has been featured in several articles and documentaries. We can call him a legend not only for showcasing their Ifugao tribe culture, but also for fighting to keep it inta