As much as home is where the heart is, it is also, oftentimes, where great adventures start. Whether it be the pride in memorizing a terrain or the epiphany of seeing a familiar landscape in a different light, our hometowns are one sure way of eliciting emotions that'll translate into stories. There are tales in the thoroughfares of our childhood, atop the trees we climbed when we were kids, and the corners and hills we grew up with – all of which are just waiting to be told. In the November edition (the first after a loooong hiatus) of the Pinoy Travel Bloggers' Blog Carnival, my esteemed colleagues drew inspiration from their respective hometowns and take us with them on a journey that will give us (and, in a way, them as well) a glimpse into what makes them the person that they are today.

Island-hopping with Gym Buddies

Gian and Sheila, the love team behind Adrenaline Romance, share one summer adventure with their gym mates. Far from the urbanized skyline made up of Mactan's high-end resorts and "man-made paradises", Team Sweetie finds themselves at a financial disadvantage one moment, among Japanese tourists the next. 

"A lovely eternal dance of sea and sky,

Blue lips meld but only in an endless distance,

With the absence of touch and tenderness, they only have eyes for each other

As man passes between them, oblivious to their infinite love"

Read more about the sweet summer escapade here: Island Hopping Around Hilutungan Channel: Visiting Pockets of Heaven

During my 12-day Trip of Wonders in Wonderful Indonesia last September, I was able to experience some of the best accommodations this country has to offer. While we backpackers often opt to stay in hostels and lodges first and foremost for budget reasons, there’s definitely no harm in spending some time in more, for lack of a better term, luxurious places when given the chance (and budget permits). Because, sometimes, the weary wanderer can do with some fresh linens and a bathtub, here are, in no particular order, six of Indonesia’s best hotels:

1. Mercure Hotel Jakarta

Jakarta

What I love most about Mercure Hotel is the cozy vibes it affords. All the comings and goings of the bustling metropolis seem to die down once you step inside. The ambient lighting of the rooms is very comforting – perfect for when you’re tired from a 5-hour flight. But perhaps the best thing about this hip hotel (it has a Mac in the lobby available for guests to use!) aside, of course, from the delicious breakfast buffet, is its strategic location. It’s just a few minutes from some key spots in the city, most notably the train station. When you’re transiting to, say, Bandung via train the next day, you’ll thank the hotel gods you stayed at Mercure Hotel, especially after finding out that traffic in these parts is as dumbfounding as that in Manila. (Click here for the best rates to Mercure Hotels.)

I partly blame Sorsogon for how I turned out. For twenty years, I've equated summer with 14-hour car rides, blue marlins either fried or sinigang, and days spent in Manunggul Beach getting sunburnt. My mama was born and raised in a sleepy town on the southern part of Sorsogon, and she had made it a point for us to come here every May. She remained oblivious, up until the end, to the fact that every visit had fed (and probably inspired) my wanderlust. 

The town she was from was called Bacon. Pronounced not like everybody's favorite food but with the ba of bazaar, its rustic wide open spaces contain several of my most cherished childhood stories. But this is not about Bacon and childhood. (If you want to know more about it, you can check here and here. Oh, and also here, and here.) This is about its neighboring city of Sorsogon and the now. 

Sorsogon City is my kind of city – a fact I've realized only very recently. Capitalism mans its till, sure, and Progress lurks perpetually along its periphery, but I sense in it a layer, something faint but undeniably there, that could never truly be erased by modern ideals. This layer I do not sense in Makati, or in Ortigas and BGC – cities, for better or for worse, that have been far too stripped of their former selves that it's hard to imagine them as something other than what they are now. On the other hand, there's Cebu City, Manila, and Antipolo, all possessing this layer which makes cities poetic, in that it inspires nostalgia. This diaphanous layer had ensured Sorsogon City remains recognizable to anyone, even with the countless transformations over the years; even if it's just your first time seeing it. In spite of the modern buildings that now make up most of its topography, the city's origins endure. Its history permeates through asphalt. Through the bright LED lights, its true character smiles and beckons. It took me more than two decades and my mother's death to notice this, and it was only after two more years, with a brand new set of sensibilities, that I decided to take a closer look.

Read: Travel Guide to Antipolo