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It’s deep Tagalog (or is it?) for something that also means masinop or never let anything to waste or something like that. I was in the market for a new pair of pants (maybe I still am) when two good things happened to me this week. I got a new pair of Docker pants as a gift (actually will get another pair of “gift jeans” next week) and a little house cleaning yielded some old pants that caught my attention. Several shades of khaki chinos (Lee, Dickies and yes, Dockers) plus a Wrangler corduroy that still fit. But they do have some holes and could use a few repairs here and there. I figured that since tattered look is in vogue then maybe a little zigzag stitches over the holes here and there can make these pants worth wearing again. As my mother would always say, a little “arimunan” can go a long way. Later.

Just got back from the Ilocos region where I became part of some sort of history as one of the passengers of Cebu Pacific’s maiden flight to Laoag.

Maiden voyages do have a somewhat scary Titanic feel to them but thankfully we arrived safe in sound in both Laoag and in our return trip to Manila. In a media fam tour sponsored by yes, Cebu Pacific, our group of mostly lifestyle journalists of Laoag, Vigan and other neighboring towns. Ilocos is largely a sleepy and peaceful province but I don’t think there’s any part of the country that has succeeded in preserving our 19th century Spanish heritage, with the possible exception of Cebu, perhaps.

The old churches, the pottery-making process (old Demi Moore jokes, aside), the tasty Bagnets, empanadas and longganisas and oh, yes, the Malacañang Ti Amianan (or Malacañang of the North) and other Marcos memoirs are just a few reasons why people come here. Ferdinand Marcos is very much revered and he is referred to everything from our tour guides to signs as simply President, not a former one.

In the museum just beside where his remains remain preserved (the belief is that the late president’s corpse is actually underneath the supposedly wax figure that was actually on display) in cold storage, his biography states that he was ousted by virtue of a military coup d’ etat. No mention of people power or anything similar to that. To be fair, the old man has done more for the Ilocanos than any other president this country has ever had so it is understandable why most of them don’t really care what he was to the rest of the country or the world for that matter.

The highlight of our trip to Vigan was a visit to Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson’s house where he has an amazing mini-zoo that included several ostriches, peacocks, gazelles (I think), monkeys and oh, yeah, lots of tigers. Chavit wasn’t around but his sister, a councilor, was there to entertain us.

More of this on my upcoming article about it for Manila Bulletin. Stay tuned.    

I have to admit that this is turning out to be a banner year for me in terms of travel opportunities. So far, I’ve been to San Fernando, Pampanga, Batangas City, Subic, Cebu City, Mandaue City and Singapore (twice already) and it’s only June. The experiences that I had in these places was to say the least, exhilarating. It’s nice to be gone for awhile but in the end, there’s still no place like home. The downside of going on a trip is trying to get pasalubong for your loved ones but once you see their appreciative smiles, I guess every peso spent is well worth it. Tell you more later.