New Direction going to Naga City Public Market (for non-Nagueño)

That's right, new direction to Naga City public market. Back in November of 2008 the second and third floors of the three-story public market and more than 700 stalls were burned(caused by a single candle). The owners of burned stalls were relocated at a new vicinity located along Abella Street. So if you want to go to the market you will have to tell the tricycle driver that you're going to the market at Abella( If you just say market the driver will take you to the old market place).

The new market place along Abella

I went to the market with Ate Nits(my mom) and had this chance to talk with one of the vendors in the market, The transcript of the conversation is written below (in Bikol, translated in English, I tried my best in translating the words :-
)).

Pathfinder: Anong oras po kamo nagbubukas digdi?
(What time do you open?)

Stall Owner: Mga alas dos nin aga noy, minsan alas tres.
(We open the store by 2:00AM or sometimes at 3:00AM)

Pathfinder: Amayon man po, may nagbabakal naman arog kayan na oras?
(That's too early, are there buyers around those times?)

Stall Owner: Iyo noy, dakul na yan, ang mga nagbabakal digdi si may mga tindahan man, mas barato kaya kung digdi ka mabakal, saka kung gusto mo la'bas pang gulay, sira, karne dapat talaga amay ka, pag nag digdi ka nin alas-sais na si mga tada-tada na lang kayan maabotan mo.
(Yes, a lot of them are store owners too, they'll sell it somewhere else, it's cheaper to buy goods here and you get to choose the fresh ones, if you'll be here by 6:00AM chances are you'll get the left-overs).

This is the proper way of helping someone in weighing bananas

Pathfinder: Papano po maaaraman kung may daya ang kilohan?
(How will I know if the weighing scale is not accurate?)

Stall Owner: Mayong daya ang kilohan ko noy, pero ang iba dyan igwa, may nagdadakop man sa mga madaya sa kilohan. Saka, tano ka baya kadakulon hapot, mabakal ka?
(Mine's accurate, but some vendors' are cheating when it comes to weighing scale, don't worry, there's a team monitoring it, and why are you asking too much questions, are you going to buy?).

Pathfinder: Naghahapot lang po, pero salamat pong maray.
(I'm just asking, thank you so much for taking time answering my questions)

One thing I noticed about the vendors at the new Naga City public market is that they are very friendly and very polite. And yes, the price of commodity here is relatively cheap and fresh.

Snaps from Fluvial Procession 2009

You might want to ask me where are the pictures of the majorettes? I didn't catch them, because the parade ended so early. In some radio announcements they said that the military parade this year will start from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, so I was so complacent, I went to Panganiban drive (where the military parades starts) at 10:00 AM only to find out that they are no longer there.

But it was okay, I guess Fluvial procession is more important than the military parade, so I walked again, this time not in black shirt anymore (I was thinking that you are good looking when you are wearing black shirt and a camera strap around your neck that screams Nikon) For the fluvial procession I wore my 3 year old shorts and my faded, fresh from the treasure chest t-shirt. If I don't have the camera with me I'm going to look like a beggar (Taong Grasa).

Sharing the snaps now. Click picture for a better view.


For me they are the most genuine nuns of all, they are from Mother Theresa's congregation, the Missionaries of Charity.

People from all walks of life, young and old, rich and poor, they are there to show their utmost devotion Ina.

The lead pack of boatmen, towing Ina's pagoda to Her destination.

This is not so healthy, kids swimming in the Bicol River, the city government of Naga has plans of cleaning this river though, I heard that they will use the river for transportation purposes.

Some of the members of the Camarines Sur Dragon boat team came from these men.

Guys, they took their bath today, no need to cleanse them, anyway they will be blessed later to honor their service to Ina for taking Her to Her path.

She is the reason for the celebration.

The fluvial procession was already over when I saw these kids, I guess they live near the river.

Why is he included here? He sells candle during the procession, for some reasons he always block my view by sticking candles on my lens. He only stopped whe I took a shot of him, and yes he gave my filters with candle smudges.


I didn't take pictures of the mass anymore, I just attended the mass. I was excessively tired after that event, but then again, it was okay. Compared to last year the fluvial procession ended earlier this year and in proper order. Again, Happy Fiesta everyone. Next year would be the 300 years of devotion to Ina, I hope to see more people and more experience and a stronger devotion to our Lady of Peñafrancia.

Remedy for the boredom in your workplace

Things that can remedy your boredom when you're alone in the office

Call your friends, tell them that you miss them (this is a form of blackmailing them), ask them to come to your office and bring pizza, coffee, balloons, soda (I recommend Sparkle, I hope you can find one) and puto bumbong (I also hope you can find one).

Surf the net, facebook, friendster, twitter, google, digitalphotographer.com.ph, bicoldirections.blogspot.com, ufc.tv or search for the answers to your weirdest question through the search engines (you don't know what a search engine is? go to google and search "search engines"), but you have to do this moderately, you might fail to accomplish your work, your boss won't be happy and it's hard to reason out that you didn't finish your work because you were too busy surfing the net.

Listen to some music, I will strongly recommend ACDC's back in black, if it won't work because you're boredom is so severe that you feel that coming to work everyday is a pain in the butt, then I'll recommend John Legend's "Each day gets better"(it's a good song, and I'm not joking, tell me once you heard it through my message area).

Call your gf or your bf I hope they can inspire you to continue working( but most of the time they will encourage you to go home or meet somewhere, so this is not highly recommended).

No gf or bf? Find one, how? Finish your work first, then, go out of the office, go to a place where many people assemble or congregate, join clubs (like pathfinder's fans club, this is in the pipeline :-)). Seriously, join clubs that caters to your interest you might find her or him there. I know a couple who are living together for 15 years now and do you know where they met each other? They met at the cockfighting arena. I'm not encouraging you to do the same.

There, I hope this can help you. I'm going out of the office now.

Ciao!

Snaps from Voyadores Festival 2009

I was in the streets when this event happened, ahh, good thing my old little nikki was with me, so I fired away like crazy.

Click picture for a better view.


The wind during their performance was perfect

I'm learning now, you can talk to them and ask permission if you can take a picture of them. So I smiled and and said, Hi, I'm Jerry Mcguirre(not my real name of course, hehe) can I take a picture of you, and she said with pleasure sir :-) click!

I hope you liked our company fans

Gulp, gulp, gulp gulp, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh....

What about you guys, do you also need some gulp gulp? :-)

We are on the same boat, whatever our goal is, we'll successfully reach it.

I wonder where the source of joy is..


More to come...

The Path to the Mother of The Youth (The Marian Congress experience)

I was in a crazy crowd of 6000 young, energetic, dynamic and very active men and women last night. They were there not to watch Lady Gaga's concert or watch David Blaine drowning himself on stage, but they were there to express their devotion to our Ina through singing, dancing and praying. The objective of the Marian Youth Congress is to gather the youth of Caceres to honor our beloved Ina, as the Mother of the youth.

At my age I was thinking that I should not be there anymore, kids there might think that I came to the wrong place that I should be at the prayer rally of adults for Christ (I'm not sure they're existing).

Walking their way to MYC

I realized something after nine hours of observing these young men and women, they are very dynamic and very active creations of God, I came to think that with so much energy they can accomplish a lot of things, these youngsters has a lot of potentials. This kind of religious activity is one way of properly channeling the potentials and dynamism of the youth.

Our Lady of Peñafrancia and her young devotees

Traslacion 2009, a way of communicating devotion to INA

I was standing in the middle of the road when I heard the clang of the church bell of Our Lady of Peñafrancia church this afternoon, then minutes after I sensed a vibration from the ground where I was standing, a vibration produced by countless men who were all instantaneously motivated to start the traslacion. Traslacion means transfer and traslacion is the start of the Peñafrancia Fiesta.

I was present during the transfer, but obviously I'm not one of the men who carried Her to her journey to Naga Cathedral.

My mom told me to stay away from the crowd, she says it's not good for my health, so I shot pictures instead.

Ina on her way to the entrance of Naga Cathedral

Not too young to communicate devotion

They are good guys this time

The struggle of transferring Her to the altar

During the mass

After the mass

The path to where the good food is

Officially, tomorrow is the start of the Peñafrancia fiesta here in the Bicol region, and in my experience, you won't feel the vibes if you're not going to join processions, visiting churches, hanging out with the locales (they can be your friends or cousins or anyone in the streets of Naga), along the way you'll get tired and will definitely get hungry after joining or experiencing the activities during the feast of Ina. If it's your first time to visit Naga City, bicoldirections will recommend a place where you can find the good food you are looking for, this restaurant is all over the city and all over the Bicol region as well.

this is not a space ship, this is a restaurant, Biggs Diner

You can't brag to your friends that you visited Bicol without experiencing Biggs Diner, I'm no food expert but for someone who loves eating there's no way you won't appreciate the way they cook your food and the amount of serving they give the customers.

TIME OUT from the usual Bicol Directions blog

Okay, I just want to remind you that this blogsite is not only existing to give directions, we are also here to give or probably to draw out some realizations. I want you to look at the picture above.

I visited the grave of my friend today and this one caught my attention. I'm not even sure if I have to post this one here, I'm uncertain, if I'm the one in that grave will I get embarassed? I'm also unsure, but I know this picture up there is telling us something and I just know what it is and I'll keep it to myself.

I hope you'll have a realization as well, you can keep it to yourself or share it using our comment section.

fyi: Pathfinder is joining Traslacion this Peñafrancia Fiesta.

Order of the Traslacion Procession 2009

Please click the image for a larger view

Images courtesy of Peñafrancia Tercentenary Committee

Our Lady of Peñafrancia Church
Traslacion procession this year will start here, Our Lady of Peñafrancia Church

The Basilica Minore
Since 1982, The Basilica Minore became the starting point of Traslacion, as a move to renew the devotion to Our Beloved Ina, the procession this year will start at Our Lady of Peñafrancia, the original church of our Ina.

Motorists' Guide for the Traslacion Procession 2009

Please click image for a larger view

Image courtesy of PSO, Naga City

Main roads in the City of Naga will be closed during the traslacion procession, please see above motorists' guide for this forthcoming event on September 11 of this year. The procession will start at 9:00AM, and the start point this time would be at Our Lady of Peñafrancia.