BAYBAY BEACH - ROXAS CITY, PANAY
(PHILIPPINES)
11th August 2017
Facing the Sibuyan Sea, Baybay Beach (also known as La Playa de Roxas) has been the location for a family dinner both times we have found ourselves in Roxas City.
A great place if you are into seafood. Lots of restaurants, with a endless amount of fishy based foods.
I personally don't much like seafood beyond prawns, calamari and marinaded milkfish (or the stuffed one, the name of which eludes me right now).
What I am into is Philippine island sunsets, or the photography of such.
Despite 21 years of going there, only twice have I come across the particular orange coloured sunset I have sought.
The first, a very fast (couple of minutes actually) one while on Jintotolo Island in 2007, while island hoping our way from Panay to Luzon, via Masbate.
While I was wrapped with that opportunity, it was nothing compared to Roxas City a decade later.
As the sun got lower, and the family prepared to chow down on all sorts of, mostly unidentified, seafood products, things started getting orange and the camera prepared itself for a spanking of epic proportions.
Baybay Beach sand is rather greyish colour which is initially a bit off-putting o anyone used to white sand. But who cares, with a sunset like this.
How romantic.
No idea who they were, but they blessed me with being there at the right time.
'Peoples Park Plaza', the dining location of choice on this visit.
Can't recall what I ate. I prefer my food to have grown up on land.
However, Roxas City is often called the 'Seafood Capital of the Philippines', so logically that is what you are probably going to see most.
Give me a good pork adobo any day.
Look - Look - Look
It was only I getting a little excited, the family don't much care for photography, while the locals, well, I guess they get to see it with boring regularity.
A bit like me and those endless mind-numbing SM Mall sessions.
No idea what this is for. Can't imagine there is life savers there, so it had me beat.
Regardless, it was something different to the endless palm tree shots.
Maraming salamat Roxas locals for posing in my shots. :-)
Tin Tin looks for sea shells.
The final moments of sunlight, as I watch my last sunset for,
possibly, another decade.
Face Feeding Time!
It is a very rare occasion that I time a Philippine visit at the same time my beautiful niece Aireen is in the country. Being overseas a lot, well both of us, means our being there can be very random in nature.
Like the Philippine sunset experiences, it was a decade before that I first
met Aireen in Manila.
It was a long visit, and I was suffering the usual side-effects of being largely ignored by people who don't wish to talk. A week of talking to yourself is tolerable, any longer begins to drive you to a level of crazy that not even Mr Tanduay can solve.
Suddenly Aireen shows up from Roxas and, unlike most others, she made an effort to talk. Oh, and talk we did, usually till after midnight, usually about the topic of Philippine myths, ghosts, aswang and other, mostly Capiz, unexplained phenomenon.
Capiz does not only lay claim to having the 'Fish Capital Of The Philippines' (Roxas City), it also is claimed to be the area of most aswang activity in the country.
Do I believe in aswang? No, not really. I have seen a few things, including people with serious issues, who have their condition blamed on the aswang. But, despite not being a medical professional, I feel I can explain the underline causes for the issues.
That being said, there is a lot of stories that make me believe there is far more to Roxas, and the rest of the country, than we will ever understand.
I spent many years researching this stuff as a side hobby.
Anyway, far more scary was the trouble we were getting in for keeping people awake with our long chats.
Have never forgotten how good Aireen was to me. Made the 2007 visit far more enjoyable and catching up again is always looked forward too.
Maraming salamat Aireen.
OH YEAH: Another interest we share is YouTubing.
Aireen has a great channel that thus far looks at the Philippines and Thailand.
Check out, and support, her channel HERE.
Dinner be finished, so we got the customary group shot of, I guess, closer relatives.
Family to the right of me, Aireen to my left, Cousin Cisa behind, along with random others :-)
Phew....that's it until I feel inspired to post some guff.
Thanks for viewing....if you bothered.
