Featured Blog #19: Our featured blog, The Chronicles of Love Mindanao is the FBW Top Travel Blog of 2012, beating out 42 other nominees. Every blog post is a great way to share the author's travel experiences and inspiring images to his readers. The pictures alone are worth more than a thousand words, while the story behind the pictures are just as fascinating to the readers. Let us learn more about the author of the Love Mindanao who inspires more people to travel not only to Mindanao but around the Philippines as well.
Blog Name:The Chronicles of Love Mindanao
Niche: Travel Blog
Blog Description: The blog site started as a personal advocacy to overturn the general public’s negative impression about Mindanao by promoting its rarely seen and unsung paradise hidden in the most deprived Christian and Muslim communities in the Philippines.
About the blogger/Tell us something random about yourself.
I hate the limelight the same way I hate sitaw (string beans). I turned down several offers to work abroad and decided to put my degree in practice as environmental specialist in Mindanao and ended up very very poor. I love the perceived ugliest living creatures either plants or animals. Keeping in touch with wild birds and snakes and any carnivorous plants seen in the forest keeps me alive. A beach lover, but never lasts in the water for more than five minutes.
How did he get into blogging?
I was so lonely working in the most secluded community with the most beautiful preserved natural environment in Surigao del Sur. There are no other means of entertainment other than rowing a boat to the river and singing in a cheap videoke bar. So, with nothing much to do, I hit the net and activated my blogger account and started sharing my unique travel experiences purposely as an advocacy for uplifting the negative impression about Mindanao.
What do you find to be your biggest struggle as a blogger?
Communication. It sounded so odd, but, I am really having a hard time to convey what I really wanted to tell to my readers. Since my blog is a form of an advocacy, I wanted to make them feel what I actually felt in a particular place, people or culture I am featuring. I am not a professional writer and the only reason I am able to write is when I am deeply inspired emotionally and things just flow naturally.
What is the inspiration behind his blog and how long has it been around?
It started just last June 2012 when I got myself hooked into sharing my travel experiences through blog. But what really inspired me to write was when I saw the Manobo Children of Inadan of San Miguel Surigao del Sur, who live in the most serene and beautiful mountain place, but left with little hope to finish their education due to extreme poverty. It was an ironic situation that the place is rich with beautiful natural resources yet the community dwells deep into poverty. And with nothing else to do during that night I wrote everything I can remember especially my encounters with the indigenous community, hoping someone would pick it up and start to trigger a fire of hope for these people.
What is his favorite blog post and why?
So far, my favorite blog post would be my Tawi Tawi Series. It changed everything about my perception about our Muslim brothers and sisters and the whole ARMM and the freedom they are fighting for. Learning it first hand with the people of Tawi Tawi is far different from what is being shown in the media. I have seen the truth, the sincerity and hospitality of the original dwellers of Mindanao. My jaunt in this part of the country is a ‘nirvana’ to which I could really vouch for all Filipinos that just like anybody else, the people of Mindanao only seek peace and want to live in prosperity. For me it is the happiest place where I experienced true freedom away from the norms of our current society. I could just walk on the roads of almost 100% friendly Muslim populated barangays and some are even “kikay”. I can even wander alone in the farthest country side and run and lie down in their deserted airport’s airstrip- unharmed!
Where do you see your blog(s) and yourself in 5 years?
I am not aiming my blog to become a household name in the future but hoping it serves as a reference and triggers our fellow Filipinos and even the outsiders to extend their assistance to our brothers and sisters in Mindanao instead of avoiding them. I just hope that my message be received by everyone about the unspoken truth. It maybe not in my lifetime but still my hope flares high that my advocacy will have its fruit in due time.
I’d like to set this blog as an inspiration, saying that I can do more and be a productive citizen of my country. So, if I can do blogging and it inspires others, it means I can also do other things beyond my limitation in the coming years. We just have to wait and see what the future have prepared for us.
How does blogging help you, in terms of life and career?
Financially, I am not going to depend on it. But this platform introduced me to a wider audience that enhanced my personality to be more open. Blogging is like a diesel fuel which slowly triggers to develop my personality positively and continues pushing me off to my limits. I have now a wider audience that connects to my passion and giving more inspiration to continue on what I am doing right now. Blogging may have brought me a checkered life and career but at least I don’t adhere to the expensive norms of our society. Carpe diem!
Advice/tip you can give to new bloggers to succeed in blogging.
Blogging involves writing and I would like to quote “Professional writers are amateurs that never quit!”- by anonymous. Consider this platform as a medium to share your aspiration in life and not merely a source of additional income. Write passionately and accept criticisms. Seek the advice of the seniors and always remember to connect to the heart of your readers and never fail to thank them as well. They are the bloodline of your blog’s existence.
thank you.
And don't forget to nominate our featured blog here Tatt Awards 2013
Blog Description: The blog site started as a personal advocacy to overturn the general public’s negative impression about Mindanao by promoting its rarely seen and unsung paradise hidden in the most deprived Christian and Muslim communities in the Philippines.
About the blogger/Tell us something random about yourself.
I hate the limelight the same way I hate sitaw (string beans). I turned down several offers to work abroad and decided to put my degree in practice as environmental specialist in Mindanao and ended up very very poor. I love the perceived ugliest living creatures either plants or animals. Keeping in touch with wild birds and snakes and any carnivorous plants seen in the forest keeps me alive. A beach lover, but never lasts in the water for more than five minutes.
How did he get into blogging?
I was so lonely working in the most secluded community with the most beautiful preserved natural environment in Surigao del Sur. There are no other means of entertainment other than rowing a boat to the river and singing in a cheap videoke bar. So, with nothing much to do, I hit the net and activated my blogger account and started sharing my unique travel experiences purposely as an advocacy for uplifting the negative impression about Mindanao.
What do you find to be your biggest struggle as a blogger?
Communication. It sounded so odd, but, I am really having a hard time to convey what I really wanted to tell to my readers. Since my blog is a form of an advocacy, I wanted to make them feel what I actually felt in a particular place, people or culture I am featuring. I am not a professional writer and the only reason I am able to write is when I am deeply inspired emotionally and things just flow naturally.
What is the inspiration behind his blog and how long has it been around?
It started just last June 2012 when I got myself hooked into sharing my travel experiences through blog. But what really inspired me to write was when I saw the Manobo Children of Inadan of San Miguel Surigao del Sur, who live in the most serene and beautiful mountain place, but left with little hope to finish their education due to extreme poverty. It was an ironic situation that the place is rich with beautiful natural resources yet the community dwells deep into poverty. And with nothing else to do during that night I wrote everything I can remember especially my encounters with the indigenous community, hoping someone would pick it up and start to trigger a fire of hope for these people.
What is his favorite blog post and why?
So far, my favorite blog post would be my Tawi Tawi Series. It changed everything about my perception about our Muslim brothers and sisters and the whole ARMM and the freedom they are fighting for. Learning it first hand with the people of Tawi Tawi is far different from what is being shown in the media. I have seen the truth, the sincerity and hospitality of the original dwellers of Mindanao. My jaunt in this part of the country is a ‘nirvana’ to which I could really vouch for all Filipinos that just like anybody else, the people of Mindanao only seek peace and want to live in prosperity. For me it is the happiest place where I experienced true freedom away from the norms of our current society. I could just walk on the roads of almost 100% friendly Muslim populated barangays and some are even “kikay”. I can even wander alone in the farthest country side and run and lie down in their deserted airport’s airstrip- unharmed!
Where do you see your blog(s) and yourself in 5 years?
I am not aiming my blog to become a household name in the future but hoping it serves as a reference and triggers our fellow Filipinos and even the outsiders to extend their assistance to our brothers and sisters in Mindanao instead of avoiding them. I just hope that my message be received by everyone about the unspoken truth. It maybe not in my lifetime but still my hope flares high that my advocacy will have its fruit in due time.
I’d like to set this blog as an inspiration, saying that I can do more and be a productive citizen of my country. So, if I can do blogging and it inspires others, it means I can also do other things beyond my limitation in the coming years. We just have to wait and see what the future have prepared for us.
How does blogging help you, in terms of life and career?
Financially, I am not going to depend on it. But this platform introduced me to a wider audience that enhanced my personality to be more open. Blogging is like a diesel fuel which slowly triggers to develop my personality positively and continues pushing me off to my limits. I have now a wider audience that connects to my passion and giving more inspiration to continue on what I am doing right now. Blogging may have brought me a checkered life and career but at least I don’t adhere to the expensive norms of our society. Carpe diem!
Advice/tip you can give to new bloggers to succeed in blogging.
Blogging involves writing and I would like to quote “Professional writers are amateurs that never quit!”- by anonymous. Consider this platform as a medium to share your aspiration in life and not merely a source of additional income. Write passionately and accept criticisms. Seek the advice of the seniors and always remember to connect to the heart of your readers and never fail to thank them as well. They are the bloodline of your blog’s existence.
thank you.
And don't forget to nominate our featured blog here Tatt Awards 2013
SITE NAME: http://www.lovemindanao.com/
SITE URL: http://www.lovemindanao.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/chroniclesoflovemindanao
SITE URL: http://www.lovemindanao.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/chroniclesoflovemindanao
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/lovemindanao
CATEGORY: Best Travel or Food Blog
TELL US WHY: (write with your own words)
CATEGORY: Best Travel or Food Blog
TELL US WHY: (write with your own words)