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  • Blanche R. Fernandez

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  • Hemingway’s Paris

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    Paris est toujours une bonne idee, said Sabrina. Even in the rain, even with the crowd — and yes, even with the dog poop — the idea of walking around Paris is always romantic. The Parisians know this, of course, which is why there is an overwhelming number of walking tours serving an overwhelming 89 million visitors to the City of Lights every year....

    February 21, 2019
    Comments 0
    Places
  • The Beauty and the Beast that is Venice

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    Venice is one of those cities you have to experience at least once in your lifetime. Everything you’ve already seen in the movies is true — it is ancient, vibrant, dreamy, brimming with art and history. And then you add 28 million tourists. Suddenly, you get a different picture of the place: hostile locals, shoulder-to-shoulder human traffic, made-in-China souvenirs, and a sinking World Heritage...

    February 16, 2019
    Comments 0
    Places
  • The Stuff of Storybooks

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    Weeks before our family’s spring trip, a battle ensued. Which city should we drop from our must-see list? We had only 21 days to spend in Europe and 25 places we wanted to see. “Take out Rome,” I said. But my sister reminded me we were flying out from there—it had the cheapest fare to Manila. “How about Salzburg?” No. Our father was joining...

    January 2, 2017
    Comments 0
    Places
  • Wholesome Amsterdam

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    Cannabis, canals and carnal pursuits pretty much sum up the tourist’s image of Amsterdam. And you really can’t blame them when Google serves up “Tips for Getting Stoned like a Pro” or “Best Places for Cannabis Shopping” when you type in “Amsterdam travel.” In the capital of the Netherlands, you will learn the big difference between a coffeeshop, which sells weed, and a coffee...

    December 26, 2016
    Comments 2
    Places
  • (Just a little) Love, Actually

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    Sometimes, we really should listen to friends. Like when they say, “Bring an umbrella because it always rains in London,” you MUST grab an umbrella even if the sun is bright and shining when you leave the apartment to explore. Because those Londoners are right – it always rains in their corner of the Earth. Another thing that’s always in London are tourists — all...

    July 29, 2016
    Comments 0
    Places
  • The Highway 1 in my Head

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    It’s funny how memory works, or doesn’t work, in some cases. On non-working holidays like this, for instance, when I have to write a throwback travel piece about that California road trip we did in 2009, I beat my brains for details to make up even a half-coherent story, and my memory fails me. Where did we stay? What was that park? How many...

    January 16, 2015
    Comments 0
    Places
  • When the Fog Clears in Kalinga

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    The journey to Tulgao began the night before, with a decision to not go to Tulgao, a small community tucked in the highlands of Kalinga in northern Philippines that should have been famous for its rice terraces but isn’t—at least not yet. The weather forecast for the following morning was thunderstorms, so a detour was necessary. Thankfully, there were more than enough photo shoot-worthy...

    January 10, 2015
    Comments 0
    Places
  • Sleeping Beauty

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    For years, the sleepy town of Anda in Bohol, 100 km from the capital city of Tagbilaran, has been dubbed as “the NEXT BIG THING.” A well-known, well-travelled Filipino weatherman and scion of a political clan in Manila even declared Anda as one of the two most surprising gems he found in the Philippines—a country that does not lack for island jewels—and expressed his intention...

    August 18, 2014
    Comment 1
    Places
  • Shanghai-Spotting

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    What a difference zero makes Two little hours Brought the sun and the… No, there were no flowers, just buildings—an endless row of buildings that occupy block upon block of this industrial and eerily quiet part of Shanghai. It was our first day in what is supposedly a swanky, cosmopolitan world city, but I have yet to find traces of that—or of anything modern,...

    August 3, 2014
    Comments 0
    Places
  • A Tale of Two Kingdoms

    by Blanche R. Fernandez

    “I’M NOT SHOUTING AT YOU LADYYY!” the angry salesgirl at the MBK mall in Bangkok shouted as we left her stall. She screamed a lot more of what I could only surmise as invectives in the Thai language. Shoppers stopped, heads turned. I suddenly imagined her pulling me into a catfight, so I walked as fast as I could, practically dragging my shocked grandmother...

    January 23, 2014
    Comment 1
    Places

Today's Thought

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.

Ecclesiastes 3:3

Other Reads

April 8, 2019

Bringing old wood back to life

In another time, and perhaps for another generation, this company’s name–Silya, Elektrika, Atbp.–would have conjured images of pain and...

by Blanche R. Fernandez
Comment 1
March 23, 2019

Upcycled Plastic Waste Goes to Paris

Plastic trash from the Philippines’ Taal Volcano will soon be traveling thousands of miles to the City of Lights,...

by Blanche R. Fernandez
Comments 0
February 26, 2019

Knitting the Passions of Ifugao’s Women

Somewhere between the UNESCO-inscribed rice terraces of Banaue and Hungduan, the passions of one woman converged to make a...

by Blanche R. Fernandez
Comments 0
February 15, 2015

Made in the Philippines

Once in a while, we find surprising things in our own backyards. Digging up a bit around my own...

by Blanche R. Fernandez
Comment 1
October 25, 2014

Spooky Sojourns

Are those white-sand beaches looking all the same to you? Do city tours and museums make you want to...

by Blanche R. Fernandez
Comments 2
August 5, 2014

GKonomics: The Business of Restoring Dignity

With their lunch waiting on the table, a family in Baseco, Tondo, sat still and prayed: “Panginoon, ang bait-bait...

by Blanche R. Fernandez
Comments 0

Postcards from Everyday

A Place of Yearning

by Blanche R. Fernandez

Wherever we are, we are always, it seems, in the same place–a place of yearning. Yearning to rest, yearning to work; yearning to be someone better, yearning to do something great. Yearning to be relevant and yearning to be invisible, unburdened. Yearning to finally start, yearning to finish. Yearning to be free and yearning to love. Even in our moments of supreme happiness and...

October 4, 2020
Comments 0
Postcards from Everyday

Journalism's a Trip

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