Negros Occidental: MassKara Festival 2009 in Bacolod City

MassKara Festival in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental is one of the best festivals in the Philippines. My father's side is from Bacolod. But I've never been able to watch it until this year thanks to a family reunion that was purposely coincided with the MassKara Festival.

The MassKara Festival was first staged in Bacolod City in 1980. It's been held annually during the weekend closest to October 19, which is the Charter Day of Bacolod City. So this year marks the 30th time that the festival is staged.

The street parade is held along Araneta Street and makes its way to the Bacolod Public Plaza. Good thing it is walking distance from our house. There was a Schools Category held on October 17. But we weren't able to watch that since that was the day of our family reunion.

But we did get to watch the Open Category right before we flew out of Bacolod City on October 18. Although a street dance parade like many festivals in the country, the MassKara Festival is very unique because of the intricate masks that accompany the colorful costumes. I was able to see the dancers up close and indeed, the effort put into creating the festival masks is astounding and commendable.

I particularly liked the masks of Barangay Mandalagan. Their colorful masks looked very elegant and neatly-done. It's a good thing they won the Best in Mask Award.

After the parade, there was still a dance competition in the Bacolod Public Plaza. But since we had a flight to catch, so I was content with watching the competition and awarding on TV while waiting at the airport. I would have wanted to stay longer. But contrary to popular notion, traveling and blogging aren't the only things I've got on my plate.

Congratulations to Barangay Taculing, the champions of MassKara Festival 2009! Same goes to the runners-up Barangays Mandalagan and 23!

NPVB unveils its first tourism directional sign in North Philippines

Brown is the internationally-recognized color for tourism directional road signs. It's really a pity that our tourism signs in the Philippines are either blue or green. But the North Philippines Visitors Bureau (NPVB) will be correcting that error by installing several hundred brown tourism direction road signs in North Philippines.

Last November 17, 2009, the NPVB unveiled along the Jose Abad Santos Avenue (formerly Gapan-Olongapo Road) in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga, the first of several hundred tourism directional road signs. Leading the unveiling was Hon. Lorelei C. Fajardo (Deputy Presidential Spokesperson), local officials led by Pampanga Governor Eddie T. Panlilio, officials of the Department of Tourism, Department of Public Works and Highways, and the North Philippines Visitors Bureau, its network of local Conventions and Visitors Bureaus and its Corporate Partners.

The installation of these brown tourism markers along major thoroughfares in North Philippines is being undertaken as part of NPVB's effort to improve the tourists’ travel experience to its regions, where most tourist destinations are reached via land travel.

Two hundred fifty of these markers will be erected all over North Philippines, which are being made possible through the participation of SMART Communications, Robinson's, McDonald's, and Victory Liner.

NPVB is a private sector led, not-for-profit, membership-based organization with the mandate of promoting tourism in the regions of North Philippines. Currently, NPVB has a network of nine (9) local Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) in Pampanga, Greater Clark, Greater Subic Bay, Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union, Baguio, Ilocos Norte and Cagayan. The network was set-up by MNTC as part of its on-going CSR effort. In 2008, management of NPVB was transferred to ActivAsia Inc. – a 360 degree, brand activation Company.

Under ActivAsia’s management, NPVB published the first-ever regional tourism magazine called Northbound Magazine. Now, NPVB proudly rolls out its latest project – the tourism directional road signs.

Vince Araneta, ActivAsia’s Director for Tourism Marketing and concurrently Executive Director of NPVB said, “This project is not the work of one, but the work of many - MNTC, Smart, McDonald’s, Robinson’s Land, DOT, DPWH and even SBMA – these markers are a result of the partnership and cooperation of all these parties. What began with the brown markers along the NLEX and DOT Usec. Oscar Palabyab’s dream of having the markers outside the NLEX as well, is now happening. ActivAsia’s role, was simply to make the dream a reality.”

Batanes: Book now for the 2010 Ultimate Batanes Culinary and Heritage Tours!

Ultimate Philippines Tours announces its Batanes schedule for 2010. We're posting our tour dates early for the benefit of those who want to plan their trips way in advance, especially the balikbayans.

Tours leave Manila early morning Friday and arrive back mid-morning Monday. We have six dates to choose from: (1) March 6 to 9, (2) March 20 to 23, (3) April 9 to 12, (4) April 30 to May 3, (5) May 14 to 17 and (6) May 28 to 31.

The tour fee is Php34,000 all-in, which includes the round-trip SEAIR Manila-Basco flight, accommodation at Fundacion Pacita, all meals, activities and transportation in Batanes. Due to increases in rates of accommodation for next year, we had to increase our tour fees. But if you deposit the P15,000 down-payment on/or before December 15, 2009, we'll give you a Php2,000 discount on the tour fee.

To reserve for the tours, please e-mail reservations@ultimatephilippines.com or contact my tokayo, Ivan Man Dy at +63 917 3291622. Find out more about our tours here.