Hazel's Travel Journals

Hazel

  • 26 years old
  • From Tacloban City, Philippines
  • Currently in Cebu City, Philippines
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What was your most challenging travel experience?

Trying to get the immigration officer to let me on my flight--they held me because they said I was on the list of government scholars who are not allowed to leave the country without a special clearance. I had the clearance, but my copy did not have a freaking LETTERHEAD. I thought they would have it in their computer systems, but then, I thought, I AM in the Philippines, go figure..they let me on the flight after asking for every imaginable proof that I intended to come back to the country--good thing I went to board 3 hrs before the flight, or I would not have made it!

Island-hopping!

The Philippine archipelago has 7,107 islands---and I aim to set foot on all the major islands before I'm 75. The number of journal entries here is the number of islands I've been to. So join me as I count the islands, and I welcome all challengers!

Leyte: My home

Philippines Tacloban City, Philippines | Feb 21, 2000

“Leyte is also home to the infamous Imelda Marcos...”

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I was born and raised in little Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, which is one of the biggest islands in the Philippines.

Leyte is a chiefly agricultural island located in Eastern Visayas. Many important facets of Philippine history happened in Leyte. General Douglas McArthur landed in Palo, Leyte to liberate it from Japanese forces in 1944, and the seat of government was placed in the Leyte provicial capitol for a brief period in 1944-1945.

Leyte is also home to the infamous Imelda Marcos, whose lavish home in Olot continue to strike awe (and cause head-shaking) in anyone who beholds them, the way the Ming and the Italian leather in Sto. Niño Shrine and all those rotting shoes do. Sto. Niño Shrine was built in honor of Tacloban's patron saint. It is now a museum and is open to the public (there's a minimal fee). If you decide to go and check the museum out, you should have no trouble locating it as everyone knows where it is and it would certainly be on any Tacloban map. Just make sure to say 'shrine' and not 'church' as there is a Sto. Niño Church nearby. But then, the church is worth a visit, too, as they say that the Sto. Niño at the altar is miraculous.

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