december destination: tangub city

tangub city is about an hour-long roadtrip plus 15-min barge ride plus another 20-min roadtrip from iligan city. going there, getting there is not new to my family. after all, it's my father's hometown and, as far as i can remember, there was no year in my earth life that we didn't have a trip to tangub.

having said that, tangub city's lure for me goes more than its being the christmas symbols capital of the philippines. tangub city is where i get reunited with my relatives on the paternal side -- grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins, their kids and their friends.

tangub city was where i spent lots of summer days playing, walking through rice paddies, shooting birds with tirador (slingshot), experiencing mongo and peanut harvests, looking after (and eventually riding on the back of) the carabao, bamboo rafting on fishponds, whiling away the time on make-shift swings, and eating fruits fresh from their respective trees.

this is also the place where i am assured that i could eat the best lechon. my father's eldest brother knows how to prepare and serve yummy-licious lechon. side note: the lechon my parents served during our birthdays (when my kuya and i were kids) came all the way from tangub city.

go here for the multiply album i dedicated to the making of a lechon: http://kulitjr3.multiply.com/photos/album/425/lechon_story

this year, despite heightened security alerts in the lanao-and-misamis-occidental areas that we have to go through in order to get there (and still make it back in time for the new year), our family made the trip from iligan to tangub city. the christmas lights which i wanted to see in iligan, i saw in tangub city -- and i saw more!


rushed collage of the 12.29-31.08 trip
wow, tangub! | bonggacious kung mag-pasko ang mga pinoy!
during daytime, the heavily-decorated arches they put along the roads will call your attention. at night, the same arches light up the paths in so many colorful and artful ways. if you go to the city plaza, you will understand why tangub city is the christmas symbols capital of the philippines -- huge, dazzling, inspiring, amazing pinoy wonderland in the heart of mindanao.


december 2008. christmastime in tangub city
it's one place where you and your family could be entertained without spending too much (PhP50 for parking fee and that's all we in our group of 11 spent). even their marketplace is adorned with oh-so-colorful lights that sometimes i find it difficult to believe i'm looking at their wet market.

i will be posting a separate album of the nighttime pictures i took of the oh-so-christmas-sy scenes in tangub city in my multiply account soon. i'll let you know when i finally get to do it.

have a happy and prosperous new year!