Well, since June of last year I was on a rigid search for a certain AV in the US and ended up with a bunch of failures upon doing so. (Okey, dont ask why on earth am I lookin for this person coz the story’s pretty long and if I ever share the story here, you would only think Im a psycho. Let’s just say that I am into a weird obsession of lookin for missing people).

Okey, so the mission is to find a person.

How, and where to start?

First of all, you need the following tools:

* Google or Yahoo - Type in the name of the person you are looking for and the place they were last seen. Although you are less likely to get useful results from this kind of search but these search engines could provide you links into certain websites where you could find this missing person. You have greater chances of finding that person if he/she had gone into sites where they have posted their complete names or atleast their emails that’s goin to appear as a search result. I, for instance, have posted a comment on my friend’s Blog. I googled my name and found a link to my friend’s Blog. Now , how is this gonna help? Well, if youre lucky, you can get this person’s email address and work with it.

* Facebook - popular sites like Facebook are pretty effective tools to finding that someone. Unless that person’s ancient and hasnt been into the world of Social networking then youre bound to fail. Some people too prefer not to register with their complete names so that’s another problem. So you may wanna try lookin for their relatives and or friends and start scanning their walls and their friend’s list. Patience dear, its takes time to search for someone.

* People search Engines ( e.g, white pages, zabasearch, intelius, ussearch and stuff ) – These sites specialize in people search and might cost you around 8 to a hundred dollars.. and a few cents ofcourse. I think that this is probably the most efficient way of looking for someone as it provides you a list of possible telephone numbers, addresses and even Public records information like Educational and work background, criminal records and the like. The fee varies depending on the type on information you are requesting. If you are into some kind of secret-investigation-whatever, then expect the fee to be high. I havent tried this and not planning on it no matter how obssessed I am * But im already tempted!!! shoot* .. First of all, I dont have a debit/credit card, and second of which, I dont wanna pay! So No!

Just a caution though, if youre planning on using a PSE, get reviews about the website first before entering your digits as a lot of them are scams and a total waste of time.

So, if youre gonna ask me, was I successful in my search for this missing person?? The answer is NO.
Then why the duck am I sharing tips that dont work for me then?
Its coz we have our own shares of frustrations, what might NOT work for me, might work for you. And besides this is my blog and I have a heart of gold, I share whatever I wanted to share, you know, like Im the share-ry kind of person? ( if there is such a word) .

“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.”

Noelle – age 7

“My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.”

Clare – age 6

“Love is when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken.”

Elaine -age 5

“Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.”

Chris – age 7

“Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.”

Mary Ann – age 4

“I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.”

Lauren – age 4

“I let my big sister pick on me because my Mom says she only picks on me because she loves me. So I pick on my baby sister because I love her.”

Bethany – age 4

This is how kids think of  Love, kinda funny but better than how adults perceived it. Another realization that a lot of times, we go through all complications in life because we expect too much from what our idea of love is. The give-and-take BS they say. * Yea, i know a lot would deny , say ” Im not expecting anything?? I just want to love you ” * But where do heartbreaks start? Isn’t it because you know you wanted somethin but never had it. You know you gave somethin, but never received anythin back. You know you wished for somethin to happen but things never go your way. Frustrating. The irony of Love… Or no, dont quote me on that, I mean, the irony of what people think of love.

Has anybody ever define love in its most basic form?

“God is Love” Which is the ultimate truth, but no, thats not what Im talkin about.

Has anybody, ever grasp the idea of Love?

Or Love.. like the existence of universe,of milky way, of earth, is just too complicated that human minds wont be able to comprehend.

I am not an Agnostic of Love. No, not that I know of.
I believe in Love.. Ive always believed in Love. Its everywhere. Its within our hearts, our faith. Only that I dont think it can ever be defined.. Put into writing. Love’s way too much than a 4 letter word.

Uhh.. not exactly conquered all of it though, but we made it!

The explorers:

Kremme, Joan , James and Jeri

Our mission:

Nahhh… nothin specific.. We’re lost kids and we dont really know whats waitin for us in Sagada.

The Travel:

Manila to Baguio – ( 5 to 6 hours)  Our bus left at  around 10:30 pm. Just to share, before leavin’ ,  I went to a nearby 7-eleven to buy chips and hotdog,  and I just found out they are no longer selling cigarettes to 25 yrs old and under unless you show them a valid ID? Seriously eh..

Baguio to Sagada-  (6 hours or so ) The road was pretty toxic . If youre the type who gets motion sickness during long hours of travel, bring meds with you otherwise you’d be throwin’ up all the way. But when traveling to Sagada, I’d say get ur favorite music playin while enjoying the view outside.  I brought my Psp that time so as not to get bored.

We reached Sagada at around 1 o clock  in the afternoon the following day.

The Lodge:

George Guesthouse. Its like 100 meters  away from the Sagada Municipal Hall.

The Food:

There werent too many nice restaurants in Sagada . I mean , I was expecting it’d be like Baguio where you’d see veggies and fruits scattered everywhere and the restaurants would serve like Jumbo meals for a really low cost. Most restaurants served the usual tapsilog, cornsilog, porksilog and all that breakfast stuff for the same rate as in Manila.

We, however, found out that there exist a restaurant called… “Yoghurt House!!!!”

Ahh my god.. Their food is just impossibly good! I just ordered Fried rice with veggies and I was surprised of what I got, I was about to tell the fellahs” Hey guys, dya’  order this?” coz what I thought would look like a plain chao-fan is brown rice stuffed with green and purple veggies , it looked like a mini-garden.  And the place too is a winner! The interior’s made of natural wood with photos of natives hanging in the wall  mixing the traditional with the modern, simple yet complex, giving a truly ethnic feel.

The People:

The locals are really silent people. They smile once in a while but theyre not the type you can joke around with.

We had a funny encounter with an old lady when we were tryin to ask for directions . Jeri spoke to her in  Tagalog language and the old lady respond in English, with all fluency and no accent . Boy. I was lookin at Jeri, she got tongue-tied. We were like technically, .. lost for words .. kind of smitten. We werent expecting that either, until we found out their second language is actually English.. Coool ei??

The Adventures:

Echo Valley -  this is the most accessible spot. Visiting this wouldnt require you a tour guide. We didnt even hire one, we just followed the Sagada map, trekked along with other tourists, and there you are .. Echo valley. Before getting there though,we passed along their famous St. Mary’s Episcopal Church and a cemetery.. The road goin to Echo Valley is a lil bit scary, scary since you’d see tombstones everywhere, but its literally scary coz you’d pass thru cliffs and rocks, and if you have a fear of heights, you’d die in an instant. *just kiddin* yea. I was extremely careful that time. If you tripped once , ur very unlucky. We saw a picture of a foreign guy embossed in a large rock near the cliff, we asked one local who he was and we were told that he was a tourist who fell off the cliff and died..

Walk to Kiltepan and Rocky Inn ( The orange farm)- The most exhausting part of the trip coz we hiked non-stop for around 4 hours under the scorching heat of the sun. My legs were already shaking . In Kiltepan, we’re supposed to view the early morning sunrise but were a  lil’ too late for that so we thought of just viewing the terraces.. It was too exhausting but when we got there, the place is heaven , the breeze, the view, the smell of pine trees, the silence .. everything, as if they work together to create a perfect ambiance. If you wanna go soul searching, or u wanna go emo, try this spot.

Sumaging Cave – This place is totally exciting. Ive never done anything my entire life like what we did inside the Sumaging cave.

In the cave opening, you’d see the hanging coffins.  We asked our tour guide why their ancestors hang the coffins, its coz they had this belief that hanging the coffins allows the spirits of the dead to roam around the earth. Hmm.. Makes sense.

This is one place where you have to have your adrenaline workin  coz the passages are very tricky, one wrong step and you might end up with a leg injury. There are no soft landing, just rocks.  Which is why I wouldnt wonder why the locals do not allow tourists to get inside without a guide.

We’ve passed thru holes, walked through pools of water with temperature near freezing point. God, I was freezing like crazy when we passed thru a waist-deep pool. There were different rock formations too. Our tour guide ” Kuya Ben” told us funny stories about them. He was very entertaining.

We left Sagada the following day at around 8 in the morning. Made a stop over in Baguio and bought some goodies.

Whoa.. Im still not getting over how glorious the place was. And the experience.. ahhhh.. its Epic!!