Travel Footprints

Before February ended, Mr. Rono and I decided that we’ll take a break from our training routine for Nepal and join members (and non-members) of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines on a bird-watching trip. The thought of just sitting back watching birds was appealing to me especially after a nasty fall on my mountain bike while riding the trails of San Mateo, Rizal on Saturday.

Ouch is an understatement!

Besides, my young sister and youngest brother are both avid members of WBCP for more than two years now and have long wanted to bring the family to a bird-watching trip so we gladly obliged on this lazy Sunday.

And off to Candaba, Pampanga we went…

…for some serious birding action!”

That’s me (Mrs. Rono), my brother and my mom with the beautiful Mt. Arayat at the background. The real ‘birders’ – my younger sister and brother – had gone here several times before and they were a bit disappointed that there were fewer birds on this trip than their usual. Personally, it was ok for my first bird-watching experience, we saw common kingfisher, blue-tailed bee-eater, yellow bittern, cattle egret, little egret, purple and grey herons, island-collared doves, red turtle doves, zebra doves and whole lotsa ducks – tufted duck and garganey! Oh, I sound like an expert rattling off bird names like that but I honestly wouldn’t have the slightest idea what they’re called other than, uh, birds, if the WBCP members weren’t there to guide me (so hooray for guided tours!)

Sometimes we see these birds perched on a branch like this common kingfisher -

Or, flying back to their homes after a day-long sumptuous buffet in the swamps of Candaba.

It was amusing how the ‘birders’ get excited when they spot a species and consult each other to identify it correctly. My younger sister even have the ‘Birds of the Philippines’ guidebook as a ready reference to show to us. For Mr. Rono and I, the experience was made more relaxing with the lovely breeze of the countryside and way more enjoyable with a dash of creativity where Mr. Rono imagines he is guarding the perimeter, on the watchout for the silhouette of imaginary enemy soldiers at the horizon. It happens when you’re watching late night re-runs of Band of Brothers.

Mrs. Rono shouts ‘Banzai!’ just to amuse Mr. Rono while he takes his post surveying the land (yes, with his pinky finger up!).

I’d love to do bird-watching on a regular basis but time is always a limiting factor. Well, UNLESS, Mr. Rono can mountain-bike first to where the birds are. That’s a thought to consider at least – MOUNTAIN-BIKING with BIRD-WATCHING!

For one thing, I do have a bragging right of sorts for being the first among our group to spot a white-browed crake idling playfully somewhere near the pond *pat on the back* Peak season for bird-watching is said to be November to February when migratory birds flock this area of Candaba by the hundreds to escape the cold northern hemisphere. And I don’t wonder why –

Candaba really does look like any bird’s tropical paradise!

And it has not even begun yet! We haven’t been posting in our blog lately because we were so caught up in our training plan in preparation for our travel to Nepal next month AND prepping ourselves to move in a 2-bedroom bi-level condo unit we bought for nesting right in the heart of Metro Manila. Yes, the RoamingRonos are moving house soon!

So, our typical weekends this month were spent either mountain-biking in San Mateo, Rizal or Bataan, having our physical check-up in Medical City (we want our pink of health when we travel to a high-altitude country), bargain-hunting for outfits to bring to Nepal or window-shopping for furnitures that might fit nicely in our condo.

So far, on our quest for lightweight, thermal wear clothes for Nepal, we’re loving selections from Columbia (we already bought Columbia thermal wear, trekking shoes, jackets and long-sleeves blouse) and ROX (we got Aigle trekking pants on sale!). Rustan’s has a varied selection of travel stuff (travel bags, lock for our backpack, etc). Needless to say, we’re stacking up on shopping bags in our room already! 

All this big (and small!) purchases made Mr. Rono and I re-evaluate our finances this month as well. We love doing this to make sure that we are on the right track with our financial goals (successfully building a retirement fund for one!). As a DINKY (Dual-Income No Kids Yet) couple, we feel privileged to have the freedom to travel and splurge on our hobbies. But, we always have a big picture in mind in terms of finances (hence, the condo purchase among others). So, even if our top spendings are on travels and eating out (and now house amortization), we can still sit back with satisfaction on our financial health. I guess you can say we have become sensible lakwatseras as we grew older

We will be posting any other interesting preparations for our trip to Nepal as we try to make the most out of the few weeks left to stick to our training plan! For our future posts, we are inclined to put more tips and real-life experiences for the travelling couple. Since we both have full-time day jobs, we realized it’s pretty amazing how much travelling we try to do in a year. We wouldn’t say it’s easy though. It’s challenging to even take time off work for holidays. So we want try to write about our experiences here as much as possible and dedicate this to the road to our maturity. You know what they say, travelling…

…when you’re in your 20s, you have the energy and time but no money
…when you’re in your 30s, you have the money and energy but no time
…when you’re in your 40s, you have the time and money but no energy

So cheers to adventure travels for us in our 30s (almost!). We are both looking forward to sharing our amazing travel stories to our future kids and travel with them, in a milder fashion, as they grow up.

Some of the other highlights for the month of February for RoamingRonos: watching RENT The Musical (Mr. Rono didn’t enjoy as much, which woud have been avoided if he had a slight idea what the musical is about before actually going to the show) and eating ‘designer burritos’ at Ristras in Greenhills (we call it designer burritos because you customize all the filling depending on your preferences! We spent two of our Sunday lunches here this month alone!)

Notice that Ristras serve authentic Mexican beer (a bit expensive at Php200/bottle). Btw, DINKY is the term I got from Lindsay’s blog which I have been checking out lately for decor ideas on our condo

Mr. Rono and I have been frequenting malls lately checking out interior decor and furnitures. Over the weekend, we were doing the rounds of stores as usual. It gets pretty tiring after a while so naturally we always end up eating! In Robinson’s Galleria, we discovered Nasi Lemak which serves Singaporean cuisine with Chinese and Malaysian specialty dishes. I was happy to see they have my fave dish from Penang, Malaysia – char kway teow.

That photo was taken on our last trip to Malaysia last November 2009 where the noodle dish is served by the road (hence, the plastic plate) pretty much like pad thai in Thailand. Although I found the char kway teow dish that was closer to what I had in Malaysia in Crustascia (Trinoma Mall), Nasi Lemak’s edition was a close second.

This had us thinking about the dishes that takes us back to a place we visited before especially after we had dinner at Fish & Co. at the Shangri-la Mall where the signature dish is, well, fish and chips. This fish and chips dish was very reminiscent of our vacation in Cape Town, South Africa. Toast Box in Trinoma (inside Bread Talk) also serves good hainanese chicken dish that takes you back to a time in Singapore or Hong Kong. I’m sure there are a lot more to discover on a food trip around the metro, it’s really interesting how far you can go while staying stuck in Manila with a great sense of culinary adventure and a healthy dose of wanderlust.