Summer Mist

It's 6:00 in the morning here in Manila and the temp is 28C. It's quite hot and the humidity is crazy. Staying outside is unbearable and morning stroll is impossible. For days like today, it feels heaven to be on a bus with AC set to its coldest making its windows look like this.

Wrap Ads

They are seen everywhere. Mobile adverts like this are like mushrooms in the rainy season.

As they seem to be loosely regulated, a lot of buses and vans are used for wrap advertising and corporate branding. Nowadays, there are only a few specially-designed vehicles that roam around like those in the early days used only for patalastas and consume gas and nothing more.

Riding a Kuliglig

Isabela Farmers on a Kuliglig

It was so lucky of me to chance upon a group of farmers on a new year's day coming from the farm. I do not know exactly what they have in their carriage and what it was for, but the carriage they are on is something typical that farmers use around here. It is called kuliglig, a two-wheeled mini trailer pulled by a hand tractor.

They are commonly found in northern Philippines. There are no regulations that I know of regarding the use of these machines, so there are a lot of them. Some even use them as mode of transport in lieu of a car or a tricycle. Apparently, it can carry more passengers.

I haven't tried driving one myself, but they said that it is not easy to maneuver it because of its primitive steering.  To be able to make a sharp turn, the driver needs to get off and walk it around and then jump back on.

Misty Baguio

That water repellent spray that's supposed to make windshield wipers unnecessary is useless here in Baguio.

With the mist that forms easily and the reduced visibility, one has to be extra careful when driving here. It can get dangerous.

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Weekend Jog at the Oval

Today’s highlight of the day (Taken with Instagram at UP Acad Oval, UP Diliman, Quezon City)

Sun Drying

Sun Drying of  Palay on the road

After the recent typhoon, the roads in rural areas of Isabela are back to normal - used as dyer for newly-harvested palay.

Sun drying like this is a common practice among the locals. Although each town has their heated air and in-store drying facilities as well as those Flatbeds being distributed by the Department of Agriculture, some farmers still opt to manually do the job. Mainly because it is cheaper. When they use machines, drying will only take a couple of hours but they have to spend for fuel which is relatively more expensive.   Relying on the sun means lower cost although labor intensive.

The farmers manually need to turn the rice every 30 minutes or so. It is indeed a tough  job. And it's itchy.

Isabela is the second largest province next to Palawan and it is known as the Rice Granary of the North. It produces around 15% of the country's total  rice output.  So during the harvest season, rice in a stretch of streets and even in national highways is a common sight.