A travel & adventure blog by Kara Santos
I often like to think of myself as a character in a video game when I travel. In fact, this blog was inspired by the whole video game concept of “Leveling Up” and I consider every trip as a way to earn EXP points. Last year, I was fortunate to get upgrades for some of the motorcycling gear I’ve been using for road trips. So in the tradition of upgrading equipment in video games, here’s a look at the main features of the motorcycle safety gear by Spyder and what makes them so cool:
Thank God I didn’t insist on driving my own motorbike. That was all I could think of on what seemed like never-ending stretches of dirt roads from Coron to Calauit. Our destination was Calauit Safari Park, a game preserve where animals roam freely, located on a small island at the tip of Busuanga, Palawan. A map showed that it was roughly 70 km away from the Coron Town proper and locals said it could be reached in about 2-3 hrs time by motorbike. But like a real life version of Excitebike, the terrain seemed to challenge us with increasing levels of difficulty the longer we drove. There are dirt roads, then there are demented dirt roads. This was the latter dialed up a notch.
It seems simple enough in concept – attach bait to a hook, throw the line in the water, wait for the fish to bite and then reel them in. How hard can it be, right?
Old military trucks and vehicles lined the path of the muddy trail under a canopy of trees, rusted beyond repair. Overgrown moss and cordyceps-like plants sprouted from the back of one vehicle covered in decaying leaves.
In an abandoned building, only the rafters from the roof remained, the rest of it crumbling into pieces on the floor. Rusty nails, gear and a machete just lay on the floor beside planks of wood and steel pipes.
This could easily be a glimpse into a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. Continue reading “Scenes from a Zombie Bike Ride”
Updated February 2016
In the latest edition of video game Tomb Raider, Lara Croft can choose to deviate from the main quest and search for relics and GPS caches hidden off the beaten path. In Arkham Asylum, Batman can opt to track down the Riddler’s trophies while trying to foil the Joker’s plot.
Many video games, especially the role-playing/adventure types, usually have sidequests where the goal is to collect certain items. Usually these items are not really essential to finishing the overall game. Most of the time it’s just for bragging rights. Among the memorable collectible items in games I have played are those rare cards from the Triple Triad card mini-game in Final Fantasy VIII, the insanely hard to complete 100 stray beads from the game Okami, and memories and bottles in Alice: The Madness Returns.
The latest game I played, The Last of Us, had me searching for Firefly pendants, training manuals and comic books while trying to fight off the infected and survive in a brutal post-apocalyptic world. Continue reading “Collectible Items IRL (In Real Life) Travel”
Since I’m nearing the end of my 99 beers collection sidequest, I was thinking of branching out into cocktails and mixed drinks. One of the coolest resources for this that I’ve come across is The Drunken Moogle, a blog devoted to the “two best things this side of Hyrule: geek culture and booze.”
The Drunken Moogle contains an extensive collection of nerdy cocktail recipes inspired by video games, anime, movies and as well as geeky drinking games. They even have a listing of gaming bars around the world that makes me just want to open up one here in the country. Here are a few cocktail recipes that I’d like to recreate from the games I’ve recently played. I think these would all be great for a video game themed Halloween party.
Bloody Alice (American McGee’s Alice Cocktail)
Though I finished playing Alice: Madness Returns last year, I’ve been replaying it in an attempt to get the 100% completion rate for pig snouts, bottles, memories and radula rooms. Bloody Alice, a modified Bloody Mary concocted by The Drunken Moogle, looks as delicious and twisted as the game is.
If you dream of owning a car that can take you back in time or has the looks of a spaceship, this is the article for you. It’s a land where anything is possible, and Hollywood has produced some of the most futuristic vehicles out there. Here we take a look at some of the craziest concept cars from the movies. Are they a glimpse into our future, or just the unattainable dream of over-excited directors?
From the 90’s movie, Mystery Men, the Hermiker Battle Jitney has been dubbed the finest non-lethal fighting vehicle ever built. You wouldn’t want to get in the way of this huge military tank, with its armored, windowless body. There are a number of stories regarding the Herkimer’s origin and its whereabouts now. Whilst some insist it was custom-built for the film, others claim it was a real vehicle built for, and used by, either the British or US armed forces. Wherever it came from, it’s certainly cooler than any car we’ve seen at the traffic lights. Continue reading “Top 10 On Screen Geeky Concept Cars”
Last July 28, we participated in Outbreak BGC, a 5km zombie-themed night run in Bonifacio Global City. The event proved to be the Nightmare Mode of Outbreak Manila, the fun run held in Nuvali in April this year. While the first run had a rural setting of mostly dirt trails and fields with a backdrop of perfect sunny skies and shambling zombies hiding in the grass, this time we were being chased by zombie sprinters in dimly lit slippery roads, at night, in the the pouring rain. Fun!
We ran in the same wave as Shaun of the Dead, Wolverine and a Jedi Knight!
Being the great procrastinators that we are, Art and I were left scrambling for last-minute costumes the day of the run. Our criteria for “costumes” was simple: 1) should be related to the zombie genre (movies/games) ; 2) should not impair our ability to run; 3) could be put together with stuff lying around the house.
There’s something about traveling that’s kind of like playing an open-world exploration video game. You can choose your own adventure, select the areas of the country or the world that you want to explore, savor the journey itself or just pass by to visit as many places as possible, and go on self-imposed quests and sidequests along the way.
The bullets whizzed above my head and tore into the shrubs and tree branches as I slowly raised my head from the tangle of grass to seek out the rest of my companions. I knew the situation was dire, but I had no inkling it was practically hopeless.
I realized I was on my own, the last person standing (or rather crawling) from our team of 10 who set out to test our airsoft mettle against Baguio’s veterans of the game. Continue reading “Real Life Counterstriking in Baguio”
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