Ten years, one month and a few days ago during the glory days of Yahoogroups, Tutubi, together with Ferdz (of Ironwulf and Barok (adikkk Holy Week travelers and now the blogger behind Byaheng Barok) and Manny Gaerlan formed the explore-philippines Yahoogroups that served as a group to share travel stories, tips and information.

It was only three years later, a few months after the Palawan tragedy where he almost died, quit traveling yet decided to blog about his travel experiences through the first incarnation of this blog: Tutubi Flight Chronicles

About two years later, the present domain was registered, a premium domain still available that's testament to the unpopularity of the Philippines to backpackers: Backpacking Philippines was born

This day marks the day this blog graduates from a baby/toddler to a child as it celebrates the seven years in the blogosphere.

Now, what happened during those seven years?

First, blog traffic increased from zero to a few daily visits to more than 2 million pageviews/year (see 2012 web analytics and media kit

Google Analytics for 2012 with 2.4 million pageviews for 2012

Blog revenue increased from months of zero earnings to several hundred dollars per month, peak time on the days before Holy Week. (Refer to to this Travel Blogging Business to see the income statement)

Facebook page and Twitter accounts started only in September 2011, very late to adopt social media, and had just optimized it, the reason why you only see a still paltry 3,400+ followers on Facebook, 40+ on Google+ and 600+ on Twitter. (Tutubi also do not like to follow another Twitter user just to add to his numbers like that you see on other profiles where the number of followers and following are almost the same). Facebook followers though continue to increase daily but do not contribute much to blog traffic compared to organic search on Google.

One of the best comments received came from from Gael on the blog's 4th anniversary:

i've been an avid reader for God knows when, ur page and ferdz' & lagalog's too has served as my travel guide, but i only started traveling solo 2 yrs ago and started blogging (w/ a lot of backlogs coz i'm too lazy! hehe) back in December.

i'm a freak of ur blog bec of it's helpful posts (directions) and unbiased reviews, true,i've seen some blogs turn into some kind of a money-making site w/ posts slowly deteriorating but you have adhered to your disclosure. your blog helped me a lot in some of my trips. as far as i cn rmmbr though,ive never left a mark on ur site. so when I stumbled on this post, i knw this is the best post & time to leave my mark at and. :)

congrats tutubi on your 4th yr! i knw,i'm a bit late but i jst wanna let u knw ur blog hs been a gr8 inspiration! thnx for sharing ur adventures! keep the posts coming and keep on exploring! :)

ur fan,
Gael
thepinaysolobackpacker"

The worst comments? they're those visitors who asked questions without reading the post, when the information is already posted had they bothered to read.

What's in Tutubi's bucket list?

Visit all 81 provinces of the Philippines: still have about a dozen or more to go
All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ph: Churches of Miag-ao and Paoay; Tubbataha
All countries of South East Asia: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar, Timor Leste
Set foot on 6 continents: four continents unvisited

When's the deadline? There's no deadline, it happens only when Tutubi's dead :(

Lastly, do you really want to know the secret behind the blog's success? it in this message:

"Try to be the BIG FISH in a small pond and not the small fish in the big, big OCEAN"

If you get the message, get to know your audience, publish informative articles (even with not so good pictures), then use a little SEO.

In time, you'll see visitors to your blog. Be patient though as it won't happen overnight.

Do you know the reason why Filipinos celebrate 7th birthday?

If it's something special, what's your wish for Tutubi? for this blog? for the Philippines?

Don't mention for the whole world, Tutubi knows it's always the beauty-pageant winning wish: World Peace!

Lastly, success in travel blogging is not really defined in terms of pageviews, blog visitors, Facebook page likes, Twitter followers but it's in being able to do what you like to do and share your passion for travel and explorations.

After all, Tutubi's primary purpose for starting this travel blog is to provide updated information and independent reviews for travelers when there were only a few Pinoy travel bloggers around, when the Department of Tourism people were lacking in zeal in promoting Ph and even the DOT website lacking in information.

That goal is being realized now...Kudos too to all Pinoy travel bloggers!

Here's to more travel blogging years!

Labels: Blogging

Are you a travel blogger? What is your primary reason for blogging? It is merely your personal space? To make money online? To be famous? To travel the world for free?

Various reasons why people travel and blog about it with passion (one of the weirdest answers was to sleep with random women/men they meet on the road, more like Rock Star/groupie fling)

Regardless of the rationale for travel blogging, if Tutubi's going to prepare an income statement from his travel blog considered as an online business, here's how it will probably look like (of course, most details are not printed due to confidential nature.)

TRAVEL BLOGGING INCOME(LOSS) STATEMENT:

REVENUE SOURCES
Google Adsense:
Nuffnang
Advenue
Ambient Digital
Text Link Ads
Affiliate Marketing
Ad Space Leasing
Sales from e-books publishing

LESS: EXPENSES

Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)

Digital Camera DSLR (pretty basic): PhP60,000.00
Mobile Phone (iPhone 4S): PhP40,000.00
Mobile Phone (Cherry Mobile Flare): PhP3,999.00
Laptop (Lenovo): PhP45,000.00
GPS Navigator (Garmin Nuvi 1300): PhP7,000.00
Internet Wifi router (bundled with Sun Broadband): 0.0
Backpack/luggage(1 50L, 1 overnight, 1 trolley luggage): PhP5,000.00
Camera Bag: PhP3,500.00
Tripod: PhP4,000.00
Snorkeling gear: PhP1,500.00
iOS/Android App purchases: so far all only free apps
External Hard Drive for backups: PhP4,000.00

Operational Expenditures (OPEX):
DTI Business Registration: PhP300.00
Barangay Permit
Mayor's Permit
Annual Domain Registration: PhP410.00/year ($10.00/year)
Monthly Hosting (free for Blogger)
Monthly phone subscription: PhP599.00 (Globe)
Monthly phone subscription: PhP350.00 (Sun Cellular)
Monthly Internet broadband subscription: PhP649.00 (Sun Broadband)

Travel expenses (see notes below)
Transportation
Accommodations
Food
Travel Insurance

Miscellaneous:
Pasalubong
Souvenirs
Sunscreen: PhP500
Memory Cards

PROFIT (LOSS): ????

ANALYSIS:

Google Adsense, if properly optimized, earnings can be estimated as Pageviews x CTR x CPC (CTR of 3% and CPC or $0.10/click is typical)

What would be your guess if we're going to consider Travel Blogging solely as a business for Tutubi, who declines freebies and sponsored trips/accommodations/meals?

With the high cost of travel and the frequency he has to do it makes travel blogging as a losing business venture but the returns are not in monetary value.

Travel Bloggers should pay taxes even for income earned from blogging their income exceeds the minimum wage earners income or their total personal and additional exemptions (per the Bureau of Internal Revenue); if blogging is part of business in the red without any taxes payable, you still need to file a BIR income tax return as required by law.

Travel Blogging, in Backpacking Philippines (the blog) context, is a non-profit, public service venture. No real profit even with steady revenue but serves the public with independent and unbiased reviews.


CONCLUSION:

After presenting all possible revenues and expenses incurred in travel blogging, what is it that drives most travel bloggers to keep on blogging?

One simple answer: it may not be profitable but the end of it all is HAPPINESS!

Travel bloggers do what they love to do i.e. to see the world and share their experiences to guide others!

HAPPINESS: don't we all want to be happy even when broke? At least we did what we love doing! :P

---

NOTES:

Tutubi is only using Google Adsense, Nuffnang, Ambient Digital, and Advenue as revenue sources, Adsense is the biggest channel while the three provides nickels and dimes (sayang din)

Capital expenditures, particularly the camera and the smartphone, are usually replaced every three years typical at most but not unusual to be replaced annually to keep up with the latest versions and trends

Transportation costs include air/ferry/boat/bus/jeepney/train/trike/habal-habal/padyak fares and the following for
roadtrips: gas, toll fees, including vehicle preventive maintenance schedules, parking fees

Travel blogging requires frequent travels requiring travel funds in order to provide constant updates and publish fresh travel posts otherwise readership will drop and also result to lower rankings in search engine results page (SERP) (this is the reason why news sites rank high on Google/Bing/Yahoo, besides being popular and authoritative, churn out lots of fresh pages daily so much to the detriment of typical travel bloggers publishing a post once a week)

How much does a trip costs? The typical minimum is PhP2,000.00 for 2D/1N (backpacking or travel on a shoestring style)
to any amount imaginable depending on the destination.

There are travel bloggers who get free tours from marketers, but Tutubi, typical of him, chose the road less taken not accept freebies, free accommodations in hotels or free meals in restaurants, in order for him to provide independent and unbiased reviews.

Some of those bloggers practice full disclosure which is at least ethical (so you know not to expect too much when it's your turn to visit a reviewed place) and there are also a despicable bunch who do not divulge any freebie received, sponsored trips, free meals/accommodations.

If you're a blogger not into travel, particularly tech bloggers where CPC rates are generally higher than travel, there's a high possibility that you're really earning, travel bloggers though need to cough up money in order to travel (except travel bloggers who are junketeers: the type of travel bloggers whose trips are sponsored (but not disclosed) but not to be trusted for their reviews and recommendations)

Labels: Blogging

Just to give in to a request by an online friend on why Tutubi commented that Facebook is more of a marketing tool for blogs but it's not really effective in giving you the more important thing needed by a blog: traffic!

This blog does not have the numbers when it comes to Facebook page followers nor Twitter nor RSS feed subscribers but there's one thing here that advertisers and affiliates see under the hood, something readers don't see unless you monitor the blog's statcounter numbers daily:

herewith are the web analytics from January 1 to December 31, 2012 from Google Analytics:

Google Analytics for 2012 showing visitor traffic


Google Analytics for 2012 with 2.4 million pageviews for 2012

Blog Statistics:

Total visits for 2012: 1,638,038 visitors
Total pageviews for 2012: 2,408,763 pageviews
Average monthly pageview: 200,000
Average monthly visitors: 120,000 visits
Average daily pageviews: 6,000
Average daily visitors: 4000
Average daily returning visits: around 700 (per Statcounter)

Highest visits: 224, 423 visitors (april, peak in Holy Week)
Highest pageviews: 327843 pageloads (april, peak in Holy Week)
Lowest traffic month: December where visitors and pageviews drop around 50%

Adsense revenue: of course this is confidential, please note that it's only around august/september when the site was fully optimized for adsense that resulted to 30% more revenues without increase in traffic (thanks mucho Google). This is the reason why there has been no major template re-design here (besides Tutubi's dysfunctional motor system syndrome)

Now to support the claim that Facebook is next to useless (for now) here are the numbers:

Number of published blog posts: 930
number of Facebook page likes: 2,592 (since September 2011)
number of Twitter followers: 221 (since September 2011)
RSS feed subscribers: 434
Google Reader followers: 73

these numbers above are paltry compared to other travel bloggers but if you look at the actual traffic generated by facebook, even facebook likes on the facebook page do not guarantee the actual post as read by people.

In fact, Facebook users only click Like on a facebook post but do not actually visit/read the promoted post!

In numbers, Facebook referrals out of 2.4M visits for 2012 is only around 11,000. Google is still is this blog's best friend followed by Yahoo! Top blog referrals came from Flipnomad and Chyng Reyes (thanks).

Something more must be done to improve the likes and traffic from FB, but looking at other bloggers with more than 10k or even 20k followers on FB but traffic, gauged from Pinoy Top Blogs, is still too low, is discouraging. (By the way, do you have an idea why Tutubi opted out of Pinoy Top Blogs? :)

Getting more FB likes and Twitter followers is nice to have though and improves the "media kit" image besides having a more solid "Digital Influencer" status

Anyway, blogging is just a distraction for Tutubi, something he does in his (very limited) free time...and he doesn't like to be called names nor wants to be famous thus his still being a private but not anonymous blogger.

Looking forward for more explorations (and less post backlogs) in 2013!

Labels: Blogging

This blog prides itself with being one of the very few blogs who've resisted offers of free hotel accommodations, resort tours, free meals at restaurants and other freebies in exchange for positive or neutral reviews.

This Tutubi was able to maintain for the last six years. On this occations, Tutubi's slightly changing this policy to be flexible enough to post advertorials from companies that can possibly provide travel funds (as you know, I need to travel to maintain this blog)

Advertisements on this blog e.g. Adsense, text link ads, affiliate marketing and other travel fund generating sources can't fully defray the high costs of unsponsored travel.

This blog will now occasionally post advertorials but full disclosure shall be pursued. However, no advertorials nor paid reviews shall still be posted here for hotels (and other accommodations), resorts, restaurants and other similar establishments thus still assuring readers of unbiased reviews and recommendations. Positive or neutral reviews shall always be devoid of strings attached.

Hope for your understanding.

List of advertorials as of May 31, 2012

None

Labels: Blogging

There are many articles on the net about Facebook having millions of users and yet the Facebook advertising is not as mature as Google's. I've browsed many blogs with thousands of likes for Facebook pages and Twitter followers much more than mine but I noticed something by studying this blog's web analytics: that Facebook fans simply "like" Facebook page posts but not actually visit the blog post. There are of course some pages that get spikes on visitors referred by Facebook but as a general observation, Facebook is "just" another marketing tool or a way for your fans to follow you, same as Twitter.

This blog arrived late in social media presence being only about a year old with barely two thousand likes for Facebook page and about a hundred followers on Twitter. It's probably due to Tutubi's being inaccessible, being busy with life's routines rather than tweeting, posting FB updates, even bloghopping. Heck, he can't seem to reply to comments like he used to.

But even with the pathetic numbers of his FB page and Twitter followers compared to other travel blogs, here's a sneak peak at this blog's hidden numbers, something you can't see on Pinoy Top Blogs (want to know the reason why he opted out of this blog ranking site? The reason may make you decide to leave that blog ranking/aggregator too)

Total visitors, page views and unique visitors during Holy Week 2012:


Typical web statistics for Summer of 2012:


Numbers in a nut shell:

Blog age: six years
Number of Posts: around 930
RSS readers: around 320
Followers on Blogger reader: 64
Twitter followers: barely one hundred
Faceboook page likes: almost 2000 (paltry compared to most blogs)

Number of sponsored posts/advertorials/freebies in exchange for positive/neutral reviews: 0

average daily visitors: around 5000
average daily page loads: around 7500

these numbers are paltry compared to other blogs but the numbers that really matter are not the Twitter followers, Facebook page likes, not even comments but the pageviews and visitors of this blog that leave no imprint. There are about a few hundred people visiting this blog every single day without saying any thing, probably bookmarked due to absence of referrer site information.

And if you understand page views and how it relates to these acronyms: CTR, CPC and RPM, you'll know what they mean :P

Thank you, all silent followers of this blog. Been six years, Tutubi may have slowed down traveling, blogging and blog-hopping, it doesn't mean he'll stop at it!

Labels: Blogging

More than five years blogging and 774+ posts and not a single meme as Tutubi is not really into memes that was the fad before Facebook became a byword.

But as a courtesy to Edelito, who tagged Tutubi, he gave in, just once, thus this post.

Your most beautiful post

Tutubi's most memorable trip to the Philippines' best beach:
Calaguas Island

Your most popular post

this is a "trade secret" but it's the second page clicked by visitors referred by the number one keyword of this blog: backpacking philippines :P

Backpacking Philippines Travel Guide

Your most controversial post

Nothing really controversial in this blog but a SEO experiment is still getting one or two hits a day.

Your most helpful post

Still the best Pagsanjan Falls guide there is:
Pagsanjan Falls

A post whose success surprised you

Thought of posting the information when Tutubi was unable to get it from any other site: HM Transport/Green Star Express Bus to Sta. Cruz, Laguna.

A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved:

Few people really follow and emulate Jose Rizal these days. Students are just forced to read his two novels in high school and a Rizal course in college, fed down the throat to comply with the Claro M. Recto-backed Rizal Law.

Tutubi has been all but a few of the 27 Rizal Shrines listed by the NHCP and DOT, even before the "amazing race" was launched last June 19.

Lakbay Jose Rizal@150

The post that you are most proud of

just read why ;P

5 Years of Blogging No Quid Pro Quo


No one to tag as he's not really into this, just feel free to post your own.

link bait courtesy of Tripbase

Labels: Blogging

Sorry, folks! It seems that blog traffic this last Holy Week was too heavy that the headers and pictures of this site consumed the free bandwidth of Photobucket but at least the site is still accessible due to unlimited bandwidth of Google Blogger, and gratis at that

Tutubi went home to Quezon City on Holy Wednesday last week and avoided heavy traffic of EDSA northbound particularly the traffic prone Cubao area. He passed by his usual route going to Makati via Mandaluyong, San Juan then Araneta Avenue.

On Holy Thursday in going home to Paete, Laguna, he again encountered unecessary heavy traffic along Teresa, Rizal near Teresa Church and Teresa Public Market. No particular event, accident or activity, just a less than kilometer long stretch of Manila East Road manned by stupid policemen merely waving their hands commanding drivers to go but didn't bother to remove the obstacles blocking the road. Less than a kilometer and yet took more than 30 minutes to traverse. Traffic Police and local government of Teresa Rizal should be hanged were it not Holy Week.

This blog's visitors for Holy Week was simply overwhelming with people from all over looking for travel information on this blog (that earned a PR5 PageRank from Google, btw, some months ago.

Anyway, the pictures will resume to be displayed soon after this blog's bandwidth allocation get reset or Tutubi will edit the header to be less heavy and for the blog to load much faster.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Labels: Blogging

It took a private message from R.O., Tutubi's long time friend and blogger, to alert him and look up this Big Bad Blogger issue hounding the net and found this Inquirer.net article by Margaux Salcedo.

The article's about a restaurant owner Georgia, a certain PR firm and the "influential" yet unethical blogger aptly named Big Bad Blogger. The article says:

"Big Bad Blogger ate at her restaurant. He smiled, ate like a regular blogger, took pictures with his ginormous SLR, and paid for his meal. He wrote a raving review about the restaurant. She thought it was a sincere review.

However, a few days after THAT, The Firm called Georgia again. “Have you seen Big Bad Blogger’s post?” they asked. Of course she had. “He works with us. We have an arrangement with him. We can make sure that more bloggers write about your restaurant the same way if you hire us.”

How much? Georgia asked. The price demanded: P120,000 a month for a year. “What?!” Georgia thought. “These guys are crazy.” And again she gently declined. They lowered the offer to P80,000. (That’s P80,000 per month x 12 months or P960,000; almost a million bucks.) Georgia still declined.

Cut to a year later when Georgia opened another restaurant. Big Bad Blogger visits. Again, he smiled, ate like a regular blogger, took pictures with his ginormous SLR, and paid for his meal. This time, though, he wrote a scathing review. A few days after that, The Firm called Georgia again. “Have you seen Big Bad Blogger’s post?” they asked. Of course she had. “He works with us. We can make sure he retracts his comments and clarifies that your restaurant is not bad but really good after all.” For the same price."

If we're to read the whole story, The Firm may or may not have hidden affiliations with Big Bad Blogger but it's also an open secret that mainstream media, like other bloggers, receive payola, freebies or any form of payment for a feature or review (if you don't believe it, you may be living in Mars). What's so gross from the article though is the extortion part.

Isn't it obvious to you readers that even mainstream media like food writers, travel and lifestyle get special favors, freebies or paid in cash or in kind just to feature a new restaurant, establishment? Travel writers get invited to a hotel, resort or destination for free? Of course, the story will always come out positive or neutral at worst, the Filipino trait of utang na loob plus the lack of "element of surprise" for the establishment and anonymity for the reviewer. For a review to be really be effective requires multiple visits, unannounced and anonymous, for a single visit that turned out bad may be the exception.

Bloggers can't bring down a really good restaurant for not all people read blogs, and those who read blogs don't really believe everything unless they have no mind of their own. Even if Big Bad Blogger writes scathing remarks, his reputation is at stake when other bloggers find out it's the other way around. (but who trusts Big Bad Blogger anyway? A few names were floated on the identity of Big Bad Blogger, the most famous one, however, is not really trusted by Tutubi). Reading posts of some bloggers is akin to inducing a bit of high-blood-pressure-inducing substance --take it with a grain of salt!

Tutubi's for full disclosure of blog posts, yeah, it can't be mandated since this is a free country. It's not really bad to get free invites, and other freebies but, please, disclose them and don't make your post look like it's unsolicited. There are a few bloggers out there who still maintain independence, ethics and dignity either through full disclosure or no freebies at all.

Tutubi is not a celebrity blogger nor aspires to be one (heck, he doesn't even want to publish his real name and picture here), but for the record, Tutubi is not affiliated with anyone related to travel or any restaurants occasionally featured on this blog. He's able to travel mostly using personal funds and official trips of his day job that takes him to many places (he's an engineer working in the banking industry and gets to visit mostly rural banks and cooperatives in faraway places of the archipelago). It's those sidetrip adventures, after finishing his official work duties, that you always read on this blog. He's not working for the Department of Tourism (DOT), which is actually his favorite whipping boy due to laziness and lack of brain power of most people there.

This blog may not give you the best stories and pictures but there really are no paid advertorials, no sponsored posts, no free meals/trips, freebies of any kind, just honest reviews and feedbacks unbiased and as independent as you can get...there are only ads to help him defray the costs of travel and buy some personal gears!

Labels: Blogging

Blogging has been on the mind of Tutubi way back then when his online friend and travel mate, Ferdz of Ironwulf has been blogging for quite some time, as well as another friend and blogger R.O., quite acerbic yet really nice in person, has been bugging him to start his own travel blog knowing how itchy his feet was.

Three months after the ill-fated Palawan trip, Tutubi fired up his browser, logged on to blogger.com and published his first blog post, with blog title Tutubi Patrol. This blog later morphed into Backpacking Philippines two years later and the rest is history.

Four years after, he's still at it blogging unbiased and unsponsored posts bashing establishments for lousy service or giving glowing reviews and feedback to deserving ones.

Year 2009 was marked by an attempted buyout of this blog by a Singapore-based company interested in buying this pathetic space on the web with an inclusive offer to hire Tutubi as a paid blogger that he didn't accept, even if the pay's good, for sentimental reasons.

Tutubi may have slowed down his posting and limited his travel and adventures lately but one thing's not going to change though, this blog will NEVER post advertorial and sponsored posts. It's not easy doing it, with offers from resorts, hotels (the soon to be opened budget hotel of the Philippines' budget airline is one of the latest), doing so will turn this blog into something like mainstream media lifestyle writers and some bloggers receiving freebies for promotional posts lacking objectivity and, worse, without disclosure.

He may not have the best pictures and articles that didn't go through rigorous polishing to accompany his posts, but Tutubi will always be the fun blogger with a trustworthy blog, one of the very, very few actually in the Philippines!


"I Explore, therefore I blog...No Quid Pro Quo!"

-- tutubi AT BackpackingPhilippines DOT com



Last note: Good luck too to Nina whose blog anniversary post serves as annual reminder of this blog's own anniversary... Just Wandering is just few days older than this blog :P

Labels: Blogging

"I'll let you in on a secret," said Tutubi, as he showed a friend a copy of Manila Bulletin's June 9, 2008 issue featuring an interview by Annalyn Jusay in her column Blog-O-Rama that features Philippine bloggers while Manila Bullettin is the nation's oldest newspaper in circulation.

Tutubi, ever the person who shuns the limelight and prefers to be low key, accepted the interview and replied to all questions thrown at him by AJ.



Getting recognized is one thing but Tutubi still prefers to be a faceless blogger, blogging mainly for fun though earning something on the side is a good thing to subsidize his expensive hobby.

Another milestone for this blog, besides the 2nd year anniversary, is the total number of visitors just hit the first 100,000 mark after two years. Note that visits is different from pageloads/pageviews that is almost double that of the unique visitors count. Total unique visitors of this blog per day is steadily increasing also.

Lastly, Tutubi would like to get feedback from RSS readers of this blog if they prefer full or summary only feeds. Tutubi still can't figure out how to configure abbreviated posts similar to the "read me" feature of this blog.

To know more about Tutubi's rants and techie side, you may also visit his alternate blog Paetechie which also open for link exchange :P

Labels: Blogging

Born as Tutubi Patrol on May 26, 2006, re-christened Tutubi Flight Chronicles a few months later, before morphing into Backpacking Philippines and Asia, along with the top level domain name just last January 2008, this blog is still alive and... blogging!

Regarding the domain name, Tutubi was surprised to discover such a premium domain still unregistered when he queried domain registries for various top level domain names. It's just testament to the undeveloped backpacking facilities and routes along with lack of information on backpacking underrated Philippines, a segment of tourism unseen on the radar screen of the myopic Department of Tourism focused mainly on the usual tourists and incompetent travel agencies who only know how to book flights and hotel/resort rooms besides processing passport applications and renewals.

To update you on all places Tutubi has visited so far, herewith is the new map of Philippines from Lakbayan:map of the Philippines, so many places, so little time...and money!

Tutubi's grade has been updated to a full B from B- :P
hoping for B+ soon!

Tutubi's travel Wishlist: Babuyan Islands (for the breeding ground of humpback whales), Batanes, Cagayan Valley, Caramoan Peninsula, Catanduanes, Masbate, Marinduque, Romblon, Carabao Island, Cuyo Island, Balabac Island, Siargao...the list can go on including an upcoming trip down under...

If you also noticed, Tutubi has been secretly posting his past travels in the Philippines as well as other countries he visited (i.e Thailand, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong) to complete his flight chronicles. It's not yet finished and he also has lots more unposted recent travels in this blog so please stay tuned!

Labels: Blogging

Tutubi used to have a map of the Philippines with the places he was able to visit marked with pushpins; it's some sort of bragging right to friends where he's been to so many places already.

His plan to get a similar map to post here was preempted by this cool work by Eugene Villar; that's the idea he has in mind

The Places in the Philippines Explored/Visited by Tutubi:

My Lakbayan grade is B!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Some of the places marked here still have yet to see the light in this blog. Trying to catch up by accelerating posting velocity somehow but always constrained by time.

Note that this is still not objective since not all travelers are the same. Most are "usual" tourists, some travel plainly for business, some claim they lived somewhere but didn't really get to explore the place, while a handful are true explorers with the audacity to boldly go where few men had gone before!

For those looking for travel buddies, tips, and trips, try subscribing to Explore Philippines YahooGroups by clicking the Join button displayed here or by sending a blank email message to THIS address. (This email group is co-moderated by tutubi and Ferdz, the blogger extraordinaire behind Ironwulf, Sabine and Manny)

Didn't you notice that Tutubi has never been to the top tourist destination and most visited place in these Philippine islands: Boracay? :)

List of places (Still incomplete, please click the Categories on the right navigation pane)

Ilocos Norte (Pagudpud, Laoag)
Ilocos Sur (Vigan)
Benguet (Baguio City, Trinidad)
Ifugao (Banaue)
Mountain Province (Sagada, Bontoc)
Pangasinan (Dagupan City, Calasiao, Alaminos City, Hundred Islands)
Tarlac (Tarlac, Camiling)
Zambales (Candelaria, Subic, Olongapo, San Antonio, Potipot Island, Capones Island, Palauig)
Nueva Ecija (San Isidro, Cabiao, Cabanatuan City)
Laguna (Sta. Maria, Mabitac, Famy, Siniloan, Pangil, Pakil, Paete, Kalayaan, Lumban, Pagsanjan, Sta. Cruz, Victoria, Pila, Cavinti, Luisiana, Nagcarlan, Rizal, Majayjay, Liliw, Magdalena, Alaminos, San Pablo City, Los Banos, Calamba City, San Pedro, Binan, Sta. Rosa, Cabuyao)
Batangas (Lipa City, Tanauan, Batangas City, Nasugbu, Ibaan, Sto. Tomas, San Juan)
Cavite (Bacoor, Gen. Trias, Silang, Tagaytay City, Imus, Dasmarinas)
Bulacan (San Miguel, Sta. Maria, Bustos, Marilao, Baliwag)
Pampanga (San Fernando, Mexico, Clark, Angeles City)
Quezon (Sariaya, Lucban, Tayabas, Sampaloc, Lucena City)
Camarines Norte (Daet)
Camarines Sur (Naga City)
Albay (Legazpi City, Daraga)
Sorsogon (Donsol)
Cebu (Mactan, Mandaue City, Cebu City, Carcar, Badian, Moalboal)
Bohol (Tagbilaran, Panglao, Tubigon, Bilar, Chocolate Hills, Loboc, Balicasag Island)
Aklan (Kalibo, Roxas City, New Washington)
Iloilo City
Dumaguete City
Negros (Bacolod City)
Guimaras
Cagayan de Oro (CDO)
Butuan City
Misamis Oriental (Balingoan)
Camiguin
Bukidnon (Malaybalay, Quezon, Impalutao)
Agusan del Norte (Butuan City)
Gen. Santos City
Davao City,
Saranggani (Maitum)
Zamboanga City
Digos City
Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS)

UPDATED: March 6, 2008

Labels: Blogging

The Tutubi is about to turn a year old in blogging, so I decided, as you noticed, he shelved his old skin, put on a new one, and also added a feature I root for in Wordpress: the Read More or pagebreak to expand the posts to be more friendly to slow dial-up users and save on bandwidth!

Details on How to Add "Read More" Feature to Blogger are posted on the techie side blog of Tutubi.

Note this blog will still undergo minor surgery particularly bringing back the Labels/Categories pane I unknowing lost when I upgraded to the New Blogger but somehow downgraded to the Classic Blogger again. The unwanted justified boxes need to be centered by modifying the CSS code.

Btw, The best way to view blogs with expanding posts is to use Mozilla Firefox browser with Google toolbar you can download at the link on the left pane of this blog.

Once you downloaded and installed the browser, open this blog then right click each "Read More" link to open in a new tab so that you can browse other pages while waiting for the post to load.

This tabbed browsing feature is now available in Internet Explorer 7 but the Tutubi highly recommends to stay away from IE for security reasons (I'm an Information Security Officer by profession i.e. my primary job function is to keep viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, hackers and fraudsters at bay-- such a daunting task indeed!)

Lastly, do ping me for I keep on forgetting to update my Links/BLogroll; the Tutubi, and Sidney (the bloggers I met in real life besides the prolific blogger/traveller/photographer Ferdz (preparing for his flight to...on Tuesday), and the travel with heritage conservation advocacy trio of Ivan Henares, Ivan ManDy, Carlos Celdran and lastly the cranky-online-yet-really-nice-in-person R.O.) expected to look like a "heritage" creature is suffering from chronic memory gap.

Labels: Blogging

offline for a week and feeling sleepy the whole day...

so many things to update as well as post pics of my recent wanderings including:

Binondo-San Nicolas tour by Carlos Celdran (july 16)
Kinabuhayan Cafe/Mt Banahaw saga
Paete (Laguna) town fiesta
Singapore trip

Will try to post numerous travels i did in the past one of these days

Labels: Blogging, Samut-sari

Just to let you know i'm starting what has been a long time wish for me to publish some of my pictures and travel stories...

I'll be blogging about my travels and photography "exploits" here plus occasional rants.

If you have questions on travelling and exploring my beautiful home country, the Philippines, please do contact me.

A short list of my wanderings:

Ilocos (Pagudpud, Laoag, Vigan), Zambales (Subic, Potipot Island, Iba, Candelaria), Cordilleras (Baguio, Sagada, Bontoc, Banaue), Metro Manila and adjacent provinces (Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, Pampanga), Tarlac (Mt. Pinatubo, Capas), Mindoro (Puerto Galera) Bicol (Daet, Naga, Legazpi, Donsol), Visayas (Cebu, Bohol, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Bacolod, Guimaras, Siquijor, Roxas, Kalibo), Mindanao (CDO, Davao, Camiguin, Bukidnon, GenSan, Digos, Saranggani), and many more!

have travelled beyond our shores to:

Thailand (Bangkok, Ayuthayya, Pattaya)
India (Mumbai)
Malaysia (KL and Genting)

I trace my roots from the artistic town of Paete, Laguna

I'm currently using Canon EOS300D Digital Rebel and Canon Digital Ixus 30 for photography stuff i'm learning while displaying my photos on the Net and on my Palm Tungsten E and iPod Video. I'm "not" a gadget freak! :)

Feel free to drop by!

Labels: Blogging