By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

AZURE is one word to describe the beaches of Anilao in Batangas. And it is also the name of the first five-star hotel to rise in the area.

Batangas is known as Metro Manila’s “Southern Doorstep” and it offers busy metropolitan executives an alternative for refreshing mini-vacations. About two hours of travel from Manila, one is transported to a place of fresh breeze and lush vegetation lined with clear, cobalt-blue waters.

It is for this reason that in 2005, Vivere Hotel general manager Elvie Sanchez sent a team to scout for a place to develop a resort in Anilao.

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By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

HOW can you determine if a certain place has not been explored yet? You can Google it. I did that and found some travel websites and some online forums that had basic information about the place. But when I got to a Wikipedia entry, I was surprised that it only had a short description about Bantayan island. It included a short description of its location, the population, and the different towns on the island.

Perhaps one travel website was right. Bantayan island is one of the “best kept secrets” of Cebu province. One possible explanation is that it takes half a day to get there, if you’re coming from Cebu City.

To get there, you have to travel from the city to Hagnaya wharf in San Remigo, where roro boats are docked. We went there using hired vans (I was sent there to cover an event of the Government Service Insurance System). The roro (a boat that can carry vehicles and people) ride took another hour to get to the Santa Fe dock.

Here’s a video I took of the roro vessel.

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By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net

INQUIRER.NET reporter Lawrence Casiraya interviewed El Nido Resorts chef Rey de la Cruz and sampled the exotic delicacy known as tamilok.

While it looks like a worm, the tamilok is actually a mollusk that burrows inside the trees in Palawan’s mangrove areas. It’s supposed to be an aphrodisiac, hehe

Video taken by INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania at Miniloc island on Nov. 17.

For more videos from our Palawan adventure, check out my earlier post. And go to iVDO on Yahoo! for more videos from INQUIRER.net and our partners.

By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net

UPDATE: Added a video.

WE went to Miniloc island in El Nido Resorts, Palawan last week to cover the annual Synergy information and communications technology forum jointly organized by Intel Philippines and Hewlett-Packard Philippines. This year’s Synergy was special because this was its 10th anniversary.

Of course, since we were in paradise, we not only covered the ICT forum itself but also shot videos for iVDO on Yahoo! and Tales for the Nomad, as well as producing content for different sites under INQUIRER.net. We wanted to show multimedia journalism in action, meaning the coverage provided by the INQUIRER.net team that attended (we’re informally known as the INQuboys, heh) not only included breaking news and Infotech articles, but also blog posts, podcast interviews and video. Because that’s how we are over at INQUIRER.net — we work hard and play hard, and we have fun while doing our jobs well.

Here’s an underwater video that INQUIRER.net reporter Lawrence Casiraya took with the waterproof Olympus mju 790SW digital camera that Axis Global lent us as a demo unit. We’re evaluating different digital cameras for our Editorial team, and this baby has really caught our attention.

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CHECK out this video from INQUIRER.net executive editor Leo Magno.

For more videos from INQUIRER.net and our partners, visit iVDO.

By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net

FUNNY enough, we only went to Bohol Beach Club to have lunch.

This was on June 24 when I flew to Bohol to cover the launch of three Animal Bite Treatment Clinics by the provincial government, in cooperation with Family Vaccine and Specialty Clinics Inc. and IP Foundation, the corporate social responsibility division of IP Ventures Group.

Still, even that brief visit was enough to impress us with the resort’s pristine surroundings and beautiful white sand beach. It was the first time for me and my companions to go to this resort, and I’ve actually vowed to go back there in the near future with my family because this place is truly a sight to behold.

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