Hello everyone!

This short video is from Basco Sunset Viewing Deck and the view from Tukon Chapel or commonly known as Mt. Carmel Chapel. It offers a first glimpse into the famous rolling hills of North Batan in Batanes.

With the whispers of the sea breeze, the absence artificial sounds, and the smell of nature, I can't help but fall into introspection. There's so much in the world to see and even here in the Philippines, I still have a lot to travel and discover.

Here are my previous posts about or inspired from Batanes:

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Hello everyone!

I'm really taking advantage of this newly-found inspiration to post, so bear with me if I'll post more often. I just want to document everything about Batanes. As I've said in my previous posts, I'll share all of my photos and videos from this trip, and I mean everything, including the videos I took while on the plane from Clark International Airport to Basco Airport.

The reason I'm documenting this is basically for my future self. Eventually, I won't be able to do this anymore, but I'll be happy to review all the adventures I did. I won't have any regrets when the time comes.

I guess that's all for this post. Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Hello everyone!

This video is my ode to my past self. Please stop haunting me with the decisions you made, the opportunities you missed, and the chances you didn’t take—because you were too afraid of change. When you were swinging in that place in Sabtang Island, you reminded me of how carefree yet idealistic you were. I think it’s a sign: I should either accept that you were a part of me or let you go, because there’s no going back in time.

There’s actually a perfect song for this video, but of course, it’s copyrighted. If you’re Filipino, you’ve probably heard of Multo by Cup of Joe by now. I think Batanes has started to haunt me, so the song makes an ideal background for this video. I mean, Sabtang Island is so hauntingly beautiful.

That lighthouse in Sabtang Island will forever be etched in my memory—and will continue to haunt me until I return to Batanes to find some closure. I need that closure, and I know it may take another decade to get it. But one thing I do know: it was the place where I was able to write freely. Words flowed, and I had a hard time keeping up.

For now, I’ll continue to live and pretend that everything’s fine, even though I know nothing’s been fine since that trip. I’m not fine. But at least, that trip was a step toward healing. I know I’ve got a long way to go, but that journey gave me just enough strength to push forward. Yeah, I know—you’d probably say I’m just overreacting, but it doesn’t matter. I feel what I feel.

I guess that's all for this post. Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

This video is just a collection of clips from our hike last Sunday. I wanted to share this because it's my first hike after a while. I'm just so happy I didn't ditch this hike. For context, I was not able to hike in a long time because of everything that happened, and you might be aware of all of it. I have shared almost everything here, so just read my previous posts if you haven't caught up yet. Anyway, my hiking friends post their invitation almost every week, and I initially agreed to hike with them but ended up ditching them at the last minute.

I don't know what happened last Sunday because I slept early the night before even if I was supposed to be awake the whole night, and then I woke up early, took a shower and then left the house to hike. Glad I changed my routine just for this because it was so refreshing to finally hit the mountains after almost a year. It was an almost 20-kilometer hike with an elevation gain of 1000 meters.

What I like about hiking with these people is the variety of routes to reach the same destination. They're not contented with the same established routes, so it's almost always an exploratory hike with them. I mean, I've hiked from Talamban to Sirao or Kan-irag more than I could count, but it's not always the same route. So, there's always something new to discover along the trail.

They're already planning for another hike this weekend because they're preparing for their major climb to Mt. Guiting-Guiting this third week of March. Guess what? I'm already adjusting my schedule to hike with them this weekend because I want to be more active again.

I guess that's all for this post. See you in the next upload!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Hello everyone!

I'm so happy that I was able to camp again after exactly a year. I guess you all know here what I have been through last year. So, I'm just ecstatic to share that I'm now feeling a little bit of relief knowing that I'm slowly back on track.

We already camped here at Mt. Manunggal last 2015. I already made a post about it a long time ago, like during the Steem era. There are a lot of changes like the campsite is now famous to the rich kids. The parking area is full of cars and there's an entrance fee and parking fee. There's a store where you can buy a lot of food. However, we didn't camp in the main camping site. We camped at the lower part of the park where there's no entrance fee.

Mt. Manunggal is the crash site of the plane carrying President Ramon Magsaysay on 1957. Now, it's a famous camp site and hiking trail here in Cebu.

I guess that's all for this post. Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Hello everyone!

I'm sharing our shenanigans in Hanoi. If you're interested to know more about my perspective while we were at Old Quarter, you can read my previous post:

All I can say is it was one of the most sensory overloaded travels I've ever had. Hanoi's traffic is chaotic at first sight, but underlying that is an exquisitely tuned and efficient system. It's a dance, a multicolored tapestry of movement in which everyone has his or her niche. For a visitor, mastering this rhythm is the key to understanding the true nature of Hanoi.

I included a huge portion of Hanoi Train Street in the video, and there's a reason for that. Let me tell you that it's a sort of "expectation vs. reality". When visiting the area, forget about all the awesome photos you've probably seen on Instagram. It's chaotic and always be prepared to be called out by local vendors and policemen. There are probably better spots to stay or better time to visit, but we weren't prepared when we visited, so it was exhilarating at best or scary at worst, depending on your perspective.

Don't forget the Night Market and everything there is to buy. I'm not too much into trinkets and souvenirs, but I was enticed to buy something there. I'm more into food, especially the local fruits. I had a great time eating a lot of fruits that are new to my palate.

I guess that's all for this post. Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Hello everyone!

Here I am again, sharing snippets of my travels to Taiwan last year. This time, I want to share a short video from our short "hike" in Qingtiangang Grassland as part of our Yangmingshan tour.

It was one of the tours where we felt having an hour to roam around one area is never enough to fully explore the area or at least be satisfied by what the place has to offer. Having a chance to visit Qingtiangang Grassland, it's forever etched in my memory and that the world is so beautiful for me to just stay in one place. It solidified my resolve to continue travelling or at least never stop dreaming about visiting the places of my dreams.

Situated in Yangmingshan National Park, which is not that far from Taipei but it's free from the crowd and noise of the city, Qingtiangang Grassland is one of the best places to hike in Taiwan. The first thing that got me was the space — the endless, wide, open space with the huge, gentle hills that were green (or brown) as far as one can see. The land just seems to spread out before the mountains, and very often there was mist sitting on top of the grasslands, it gives a feeling as if one is dreaming.

The temperature was just right for hiking and there are many trails which wind through the grasslands and the surrounding forests. In spring and summer the vibrant colors of the wild flowers are out and the whole place looks like it has come alive, full of bright colours; you can almost feel that every single step on the trail will unveil another shade of green, yellow or purple. I have to stop and just look. As I have read, it was previously used as a pasture for cattle and still now you can see a wild buffalo wandering around the meadows. It is a plus to the place and I love it when I see such things.

Here are the posts I made from our travels in Taiwan, but expect more to come as there are still a lot that I haven't shared yet:

I guess that's all for this post. Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Hello everyone!

This video is just very short because this is the only video I have in Ninh Binh that's in landscape format. Well, maybe there are other videos somewhere in my laptop that are still to be recovered. It's not surprising that I only have these videos because I never intended to shoot long videos. I only take photos and a few short videos for Instagram. That's why most of my videos are in portrait format. Anyway, I'll still share this here because my I want to compare the traction of my videos with those from my mother's FB page.

This video shows a glimpse of what it's like having a river cruise in Ninh Binh. It's the main highlight of our day tour in Ninh Binh. It's called Tam Coc River Cruise in Bich Dong, Hoa Lu District, Ninh Binh, Vietnam.

The whole boat tour took about two hours through one of the most scenic locations in the world. Through the flooded rice paddies, towering karst formations, and caves, it was definitely one of the best moments we had in Vietnam. We initially planned to go to Ha Long Bay, but changed the whole itinerary to Ninh Binh. Trivia: Ninh Binh is one of the shooting locations of King Kong: Skull Island.

I have so many photos to share, but I'm still so lazy to sort and edit them. For now, just have this very short video. For sure, there will be a time to upload all the proper posts of these places. At least I intend to share most of my previous travels before my major travel this year.

I guess that's all for this post. Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Hello everyone!

It's time to share the videos from my first international travel. I shared about Vietnam and there are still a lot to share especially from our river cruise in Ninh Binh. However, I'm in the mood to share our temple hopping in Vientiane, Laos. It's one of the best last-minute decisions we made.

From Vietnam, we travelled to Laos via a sleeper bus that took us 26 hours from Hanoi to Vientiane. Our original itinerary was supposed to just stay in Vientiane for one night and travel the next day to Vang Vieng. After the grueling 26 hours in the bus and crossing an international border that looks like North Korea, we were so tired once we reached Vientiane. Since we were already so amazed by the nature trip in Ninh Binh, we ditched the original Vang Vieng itinerary and decided to just explore Vientiane.

If you're into Buddhist temples, Thailand must be the first country in your mind. We also had a fair share of temple experience in Thailand, but I felt the temples in Viantiane are much more intimate. One reason is that Thailand charges fees to visit their temples which became tourist attractions themselves. In Vientiane, it's really a place of worship so it's mostly the locals that can be seen in their temples. In Thailand, expect a lot of tourists, but in Vientiane, you can have the temples to yourselves except when there are a few tourists and worshipping locals.

In Laos, expect a lot of photos without any other tourists. It's solemn and quiet. We only paid 30,000 kip in Haw Phra Kaew. The rest of the temples and landmarks we visited are free. Pha That Luang might have an entrance fee, but we were not able to enter because it was already closed when we got there. The whole park surrounding the golden stupa is free though and Pha That Luang looks more majestic on the outside. The Hor Dhammasabha Buddhist Convention Hall was also closed during our visit because of an ongoing renovation. Overall, it was one of the highlights in our Indo-China trip. Sometimes the unexpected changes in itinerary would turn out to be epic. I felt more connected to Buddhism in Vientiane than in Bangkok.

I guess that's all for this post. Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Hello everyone!

I Snapped about not being able to sleep last night (actually earlier this morning) that I edited some videos from our hike to Lake Holon in South Cotabato. I'm playing with a lot of things in Capcut and I'm amazed by how easy it is now to create videos. I'm far from being good at editing, but I'm really enjoying the process. I'll continue creating short videos for my mother's Reels (because her Facebook is already monetized) and also share them here. I want to have a first-hand comparison between Facebook monetization and Hive. I'm so excited for this whole process!

I realized I haven't shared anything yet about our Lake Holon adventure. It's time to have a glimpse of the lake's enchanting allure. Upon reaching the view deck in Kule Trail, I realized why so many Filipinos are sharing their experiences in Lake Holon on social media. The trip was all worth it!

Lake Holon is a crater lake of Mt. Melibengoy or Mt. Parker. No one knows the exact depth of the lake, but one thing is for sure: the crystal clear waters and the stunning view of the lake draws a lot of tourists from all around the country. It's not yet well-known to international tourists though. I would say that the whole trip to the crater lake is an experience and an adventure in itself. From the death defying motorcycle ride to the slow-paced steep ascent to the mouth of the crater to another steep descent to the lake, it's not for everyone. I'm just happy I experienced it while I still have the energy and will to climb mountains.

Of course, I'll share the whole experience in a separate post(s), but for now, have a taste of its ethereal calmness. Just know that before that calmness, you have to endure the whole ordeal of climbing a mountain.

I guess that's all for this post. Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Hello everyone!

This video is symbolic as this is the very first video I edited myself. My past videos were edited by @indayclara. Now, this is just very basic, but I think it's my first step to creating long-form content in video format.

I still have to make a proper post about Kaipuhan Sulfur Vents, but I want to start sharing a short video of the place. It's also my way of gauging the reception to my videos. I want to make more videos about my travels soon as I feel travel vlogging is still untapped here in Hive.

Kaipuhan Sulfur Vents is a nature preserve located near Mt. Talinis. It's the place where beauty and destruction are juxtaposed. Imagine standing at the place where the evidence of volcanic activity of a mountain is evident. The air is very warm and humid, and the whole place is covered by the stench of rotting eggs. Fumaroles of different sizes scatter around and yet the whole place is very beautiful.

I have so many philosophical musings about this place, but I'll just reserve them for the proper post. In the mean time, let me just emphasize the sheer forces of nature and the inevitability of death when subjected to those forces. And yet, life thrives even in the harshest conditions. That makes the place very dynamic and the beauty lies even in the algae that thrives in the acidic stream water that started in the fumaroles.

I guess that's all for this post. Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Avisala!

To say that I was paralyzed is an understatement. It's been a while and I was contemplating leaving Hive altogether. But then the people from @hiveph visited Cebu and made me realize that my curation stint was not the be-all and end-all of my existence in Hive. The people that I made connections with are what's most important. Besides, I still get some random messages from time to time from Cebu pips asking for help with their withdrawal. What will happen to them if I'm completely cut off from Hive? I'm not having some hero complex, or maybe I am, I just want to be there to help in any way I can.

I know that what happened to me was self-inflicted and a cautionary tale on what I should look out for in the future. Now that the announcement about @worldmappin is out, I guess I will still stick around. For now, I want to rekindle my first passion for content creation. It seems I lost along the way. It's also time for a peaceful era and everything turbulent that happened. Just like this video, I find it so serene that I can't help but share.

I guess that's all! Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Avisala!

Hi! It's me again with another short video after one week of not trying to make an effort to post anything. Anyway, this is about our trip to Qingjing Farm in Nantou, Taiwan. I already made extensive posts about Qingjing Farm and Nantou, but it would be a bummer to let these videos rot in my phone storage. If you're interested to know more about Qingjing Farm, here are the links to my posts:

I still have a lot of photos taken using my camera that I haven't even transferred yet. I might upload them in the future, so be warned in advance. I'm more of reminiscing about my past travels now.

I guess that's all! Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Avisala!

I was trying to upload my very first TikTok video and came up with this! Together with @indayclara, we had a chance to do freediving again in Moalboal after almost two years. I can't believe it took us that long to visit Moalboal when we were there almost every month a few years ago. Times have changed and our lives have turned a different path, but the sardines and turtles are still there.

I will start exploring some things on TikTok and of course, share the output here. It would have been awesome to have the same UI in Threeshorts as with TikTok or Instagram reels. I'm sure there are other content creators who might be interested in joining from those platforms. Since I'm now free of any promotional activities, I might start promoting Hive on those platforms and see if there are tangible results. Anyway, I know there's so much to improve, but I'm happy with the outcome of this first video.

I guess that's all! Enjoy the video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

Avisala!

I have a lot of videos stored in my phone and I guess it's time to share some of them here. They're only short videos I took for IG reels, but I'm still so lazy editing them, so I'll just share them as is.

For this one, as I was scrolling through my saved videos, I was amazed by the oil palm plantation we passed by when we visited La Palmera Mountain Ridge in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat. When you say oil palm plantations, it's usually Malaysia and Indonesia as these two countries are the world's largest producers of palm oil. I didn't know we have oil palm plantations here in the Philippines. Maybe because it's located in a remote municipality in Mindanao and the reputation in that part of the country is not that good. It's only now that tourists are starting to explore the beauty that's hidden in those places.

Due to its remoteness, the only mode of transportation going to the ridge is via habal-habal or motorcycle. That's an adventure in itself; even going to Columbio is another adventure worthy of a different post. Anyway, I'm just amazed by how large the plantation is. It's almost like the whole mountain has been converted into oil palm groves. The guide told me that the locals prefer oil palm now because they can harvest almost every month and the value of oil palm fruits is higher now.

I guess that's it. I hope you'll enjoy this video!

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits remote destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying-hard photographer, so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}