The Backpack Adventures

Located at Subic Bay Freeport Zone in the province of Zambales, Pamulaklakin Aeta Forest Trail  or simply Pamulaklakin Forest Trail is a wildlife refuge where visitors are toured deep in the forest by indigenous Aeta tour guides. Pamulaklakin Aeta Forest Trail Pamulaklakin Aeta Forest Trail Details Pamulaklakin Aeta Forest Trail got its name from the Pamulaklakin vines that abundantly grows in the area. These plants were once used by the Aetas as an alternative to vaccines. Pamulaklakin Aeta Forest Trail - Subic Freeport Zone, Zambales For my foreign readers, Aetas or Agtas are nomadic indigenous people who once lived in mountainous areas of Luzon. They are typically characterized by their dark brown skin complexion, small stature, and kinky hair. Due to their skin color, the Spanish colonizers labeled them as Negritos. Aside from that, their nomadic lifestyle and looks made the lowland people indifferent to the Aetas during the Spanish colonial period - a feeling some still have ev

First Published: April 25, 2018 I published my first birthday travel wish list last 2014. In that wish list, I listed down 15 places in the Philippines that I really would love to visit. To date, I only managed to visit 5 1/2 of the 15 places that I wrote about. This year, I'm creating a new batch of 15 new places that I would love to visit not only in the Philippines but in Eastern Asia.  Unlike my previous travel wish list article, I'm including personal conditions that I should meet so that I can say for myself that I really "experienced" and visited the place. 15.  Hong Kong / Macau, China - These two places are two of the most visited places by Filipinos due to their accessibility and usual cheap airfares. Hong Kong and Macau offer a wide variety of entertainment for their multinational visitors. I'm including these on my list because I always feel left out when I see friends visiting either place for the Nth time. So I think it's high time for me t

A Letter to 2020 Thank you for the 365 days that we've shared together. It was just sad that the COVID-9 pandemic took a lot from everyone. Unlike last year where I made sure to have at least one trip per month, the Philippines went on several quarantine procedures to avoid a boom in infection by the virus which took thousands of lives worldwide this year. I took this opportunity to improve my blog by adding cover photos and checking the grammar of older articles. Aside from that, I also exerted more effort in promoting my blog on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Sadly, Facebook saw this as SPAM and blocked my blog. Luckily, my Pinterest and Twitter accounts are reaping dividends and my views doubled in the last few months of the year.  Let's look back and see what milestones we've achieved this year. 1.  This year, I was able to  publish 63  articles  ( 13 articles less than last year 😢).  2. I have finally reached 2.2  million views . (That's 204K  new views this ye