The Anthem Philatelist

I've on occasion been asked, how do you remain fit? Now, I'm going to reveal my secret- Hormesis. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. This is the basic layman concept of hormesis.  Our body responds to transient, acute physiologic stress or discomfort by triggering the adaptive stress response pathways. This reaction makes  our cells - especially the mitochondria, (the powerhouse of the cell) work better, making our body more efficient machines. The stress should be acute; chronic stress leads to debility and disease. One of the most common hormetic activity is exercise.  We stress our heart and muscle  to a certain degree and our body responds by making our muscles stronger, bigger and more adaptive to stamina. As in life and hormesis, too much of anything, including exercise is bad. I ran too much in my 40's and I injured myself then. So now in my 50's, running has become an occasional activity. Fasting is another hormetic activity. I have always skipped bre...

I have been buying and collecting CDs since the 80's until the stores stopped selling them around 2010. This collection started when my Dad came home from the US in 1984 bringing with him one of the first CDs to ever come out of the US market.  It was a CD of Pat Benatar from her Live from Earth Album with the hit song Love is a Battlefield and Yes Owner of the Lonely Heart 90125 album. Thirty years after,  I have collected around 2K CDs with complete Albums and sets (mostly 80's and alternative rock, up to the time when the the CD stores closed)  of The Beatles , Queen , U2 , The Police , The Cure , Madonna , Green Day , Duran Duran , Tears for Fears , Depeche Mode , Stone Temple Pilots , Dishwalla , Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins , and many more.  My two favorite Filipino Artists to collect are Ryan Cayabyab and Eraserheads . I completed the collection through buying the physical CD in stores, here and abroad, and when the stores disappeared- online. Nowadays m...

   Once upon a time... an old donkey was ill- treated by his master. Tired of such unkindness, he decided to run away, and when he heard that Bremen was looking for singers with the town band, he decided that someone with a fine braying voice like his might be accepted. As he went along the road, the donkey met a skinny dog , covered with sores. “Come with me. If you have a good bark, you’ll find a job with the band too. Just wait and see!”   A little later, a stray cat , no longer able to catch mice, joined them and the trio trotted hopefully on towards the town. As they passed a farmyard, they stopped to admire an elderly rooster who, with outstretched wings, was crowing to the skies. The donkey, the dog, the cat and the rooster “You sing well,” they told him. “What are you so happy about?”   “Happy?” muttered the rooster with tears in his eyes. “They want to put me in the pot and make broth of me. I’m singing as hard as I can today...

The Fujian Tulou , which literally means earthen buildings are the humble abode of the Hakka , endogenous mountain dwellers, in Fujian province.  After a few hours from highly urbanized Xiamen by car, we were led by our Chinese guides, whose ancestors were originally from Fujian, to rural China.   They  were excited as us, since they have never been there before. In hour half day tour, we were able to savor an authentic Tulou meal and drink their tea, interact with the natives and buy handcrafted works of art and some delicacies. A tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth building (there were a total of 46 in varying sizes) most commonly rectangular or circular, with very thick earth walls between three and five stories high.  We only visited the largest and 2 other unique houses. Traditionally, it houses an entire clan which can number up to 800 people. Smaller interior buildings are often enclosed by these huge peripheral walls which can co...

Machu Picchu was never found by the Spanish conquistadors.  This city was abandoned by the Incas to avoid being ravaged by the colonizers.  This was a strategic move by the Incans. A move that allowed us travelers to witness the wonder of this place today. The city would have been destroyed to ruins had the Incans fought.   After deplaning from Cuzco , I could feel my chest pounding and breathing heavily.  Good that I was able to acclimatized in a few days.  My oxygen saturation dipped to a low 70%. Some of my co-travelers became sick with vomiting and headache. One thought he had a pulmonary embolism. If unhealthy and unprepared, one could really die visiting this place so get yourself fit before visiting.  Descending down to Machu Picchu made me almost vomit.  The road was winding and snake-like which may trigger severe motion sickness. One of our colleagues had intravenous fluids given due to severe nausea and emesis. The edge was so cl...

The great writer, Ernest Hemingway was a prominent fixture of Havana.  Even when the United State's  relation with Cuba soured, he chose to stay in the country longer than many Americans.  I can see why he loved this place- the ambiance, the drinks, the music, the views and people that inspire.   Old cars that look new abound and are heirlooms and maintained in polished conditions since no one can buy new cars in Havana- there are no car dealerships there.   Havana captivated me. People there are generally contented.  They are poetic and artistic.  While walking down the street, an old man approached me and said a poem to me in Spanish .  Good that I have some comprehension of the language which was taught in our HS in UP Cebu and in our college in CebuDoc .  He was telling me to celebrate life and be contented of what you have.  Havana Oonana!!

It’s time to hail Havana as one of the world’s great art cities. The Cuban capital has never lacked artistic credentials, but a growing band of small private galleries, fresh interest in outlandish street art and the emergence of the extraordinary art collectives has sparked a creative renaissance that has truly put the city on the map.  Havana’s artistic roots go deep. The city is home to the olde st arts academy in Latin America, the Academia de Bellas Artes San Alejandro , housed in a colonnaded building in Marianao. Founded in 1818, the academy has bred generations of precocious talent, most notably in the 1920s when it spawned the Vanguardia , a loose collection of painters and sculptors who, rejecting the contemporary penchant for mundane landscapes, invented Cuba’s avant-garde. ( Lonely Planet )  Sand Art Mural in Habana Vieja (Old Havana)  

This is where one can see the oldest work of art in the Philippines done 3000 years ago using stone tools.  I visited this site on May 1, 2018 and what normally is a 2 to 3 hour ride from Manila to Angono-Binangonan in Rizal Province took me less than an hour, being a Labor Day holiday.  The Waze app I used was very accurate and I suggest using this because only 5% of the locals have knowledge of this place.  Ninety five percent of the visitors are out-of-townees.  The site is on an elevated area, hilly, and located inside a subdivision which is privately owned.  There are no public transportation inside so one has to walk a few minutes from the entrance to the site.  If you have a private car, there is a parking area beside the tunnel entrance to the petroglyph.  Its a 5-10 minute walk from the man-made tunnel entrance which was a little dark but cool.  There is a mini museum which use to house the artifacts like flake stone tools ...

                              Our passports were checked as we left Dubrovnik and entered Bosnia-Herzogovina .  Asians these days are a welcomed travelers and passing through the checkpoints was a breeze.  It was a rainy day but our hearts were not dampened by the weather and we ventured into the Old city with our young guide who started the tour in the old Town.  We saw some remnants of the ravages of war like large holes through buildings and destroyed mosques but the town was completely rebuilt out of the original materials.  Even the cobblestone streets were patterned from its prewar appearance. An interesting place we visited was a mosque where traditionally one is allowed to wear shoes inside.  This is the only mosque in the whole world where this was once done.  It was a tanners mosque and being smelly and dirty, they were allowed to wash their bodies inside the prayer...

The Historical Village of Hokkaido covers an area of some 54 hectares and is located in the Nopporo Forest Park in the suburbs of Sapporo City . This outdoor museum was opened to the public on April 16, 1983, to preserve the olden day structures and to show what the pioneer's life was like in Hokkaido . About 60 typical structures of the Meiji and Taisho era (Mid 19th to early 20th century) are restored in a site which is divided into Town, Fishing Village, Farm Village and Mountain Village sectors.  Due to time constraints, we were only able to visit the Town sector of this massive area. Each structure is reproduced authentically with displays inside.   Horse drawn trolleys in the summer and sleighs in the winter provide transportation for visitors along the main street, which is lined with old wooden and wooden buildings.   I had the privilege to visit a doctor's clinic, a barber shop, police station, brewery, newspaper, and photography studio building to ...

After a breezing 30 minute ride from the Geongju city center, we arrived at the Yangdong Folk Village (Yangdong Village of Gyeongju), a traditional village from the Joseon Dynasty.  It is located in Gangdong-myeon, sixteen kilometers northeast of Gyeongju, South Korea, along the Hyeongsan River. Mt. Seolchang stands to the north of the village.  The village is designated as Important Folklore Materials No. 189 by the South Korean government. The size, degree of preservation, numerous cultural assets, traditionalism, beautiful natural setting all contribute to the importance of Yangdong Village. It is also a fine example of the  yangban (Korean aristocracy) lifestyle and Neo-Confucian traditions. The village is listed by the South Korean government with UNESCO as world heritage site with Hahoe folk village in 2010.

This observatory was built during the reign of the Silla Queen Seondeok (632-647 AD).  This is the oldest astronomical observatory in East Asia which consists of 26 steps of 30cm high stones placed above double stylobates.  Its exact dimensions are 5.17 meters in diameter and 9 meters in height and is made of granite stones with a stone base measuring 5.35 meters.   At the top, the square stones are arranged in the shape of the Chinese letter for "well".  Every part of the building from its structure and composition of each stone contains symbolical meaning.   It is filled with various scientific yet mysterious points, such as the fact that the stones that make up the letter for well at the top of the observatory are exactly the length of the stylobate.

In the year 679 AD, during the 19th year of King Munmu's rule, Donggung Palace was built  as a venue for state festivals, banquets and as a prince's palace. According to to History of the Three Kingdoms (Samguksi), that inside the Palace, a pond was dug, artificial hills were created, flowers were planted, and strange animals were brought in and raised.  The pond also served as a place to entertain valuable guests and hold banquets for the king and his subjects.  The artificial pond with an area of around 190 meters in all four directions was also called the Anapji during at the Joseon dynasty. Wolji Pond was uncovered during the excavation and dredging work conducted in 1975.  The date inscribed on the roof and tiles decorated with stylized floral medallion (posanghwa),  confirmed that the original dates of construction were accurate.  During the Joseon Dynasty, the pond was neglected and became a straying place for wild ducks and geese hence bec...

The Cape Floral Region, one of South Africa's eight World Heritage sites, comprises eight protected areas stretching from the Cape Peninsula to the Eastern Cape, cutting across spectacular mountain and ocean scenery and containing some of the richest plant biodiversity in the world.  The region was the sixth South African site to be inscribed on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. Unesco's World Heritage Committee declared the 553 000-hectare Cape Floral Region to be of "outstanding universal significance to humanity", describing it as "one of the richest areas for plants in the world".    The Cape Floral Region "represents less than 0.5% of the area of Africa, but is home to nearly 20% of the continent's flora," Unesco said. "Its plant species diversity, density and endemism are among the highest worldwide, and it has been identified as one of the world's 18 biodiversity hot-spots. "The site displays outsta...

After an hours flight from Johannesburg, we landed in Victoria, Zimbabwe.  The falls was originally name Mosi-oa Tunya but was renamed to Victoria in honor of the British Queen when Scottish Dr. David Livingstone discovered the place.  He was much revered here that even when Zimbabwe regained Independence  almost all traces of British influence were deleted save this place name. We were lucky to see the double rainbow and enjoy the sporadic spray of heavy mist with the sun shining ever so brightly.  This was moderate rain season so the falls were said to be in their not-so-strong flow. Had we visited during the heavy months, it would have been difficult to appreciate the vista this magnificent place offers. The Zambesi river cruise the day before the falls was exciting.  It was the first time we saw real river creatures unlike the river safaris we experienced before.  A family of pearly white tusked elephants with their babies on the Zambian side...

The Declaration of Independence was adopted and the Constitution of the United States of America framed in this fine early 18th-century building in Philadelphia. These events, which took place respectively in 1776 and 1787, were conceived in a national context, but the universal principles of freedom and democracy set forth in these two documents have had a profound impact on lawmakers and political thinkers around the world. They became the models for similar charters of other nations, and may be considered to have heralded the modern era of government.  Independence Hall was designed by attorney Andrew Hamilton in collaboration with master builder Edmund Woolley to house the Assembly of the Commonwealth (colony) of Pennsylvania. Begun in 1732 and finished in 1753, it is a dignified brick structure with a wooden steeple that once held the Liberty Bell.  The building has undergone many restorations, notably by architect John Haviland in the 1830s and under...

Rising 1,950 meters above sea level, Halla-san is the central volcanic mountain peak of Jeju Island. About 360 parasitic volcanoes surround Halla-san's base, the largest number of such volcanoes that has been found around any single mountain peak. Halla-san is famous not only for the uniqueness of its geographical formation but also for its ecological diversity. The combination of high mountain peaks, oreums (parasitic volcanoes), caves, and beaches make for numerous and various environmental habitats.  A variety of plants and animals can be found on Halla-san, where climates range from the subtropical to the temperate and, even in some areas, polar. The Geomunoreum Lava Tube system was instrumental to Jeju's selection as a World Heritage site. The Geomunoreum caves were formed by lava pouring down the island's coastline from Halla-san, and both its length and scale make it one of the largest and most distinctive of any such cave systems in the world. ...

After an hour fast train ride from Osaka via the the Shin-Osaka line, and a 15 minute walk, we arrive at the magnificent Himeji-jo castle. The castle is the finest surviving example of early 17th-century Japanese castle architecture. It is located in Himeji City, in the Hyogo Prefecture, an area that has been an important transportation hub in West Japan since ancient times. The castle property, situated on a hill summit in the central part of the Harima Plain, covers 107 hectares and comprises eighty-two buildings. It is centred on the Tenshu-gun, a complex made up of the donjon, keeps and connecting structures that are part of a highly developed system of defence and ingenious protection devices dating from the beginning of the Shogun period. The castle functioned continuously as the centre of a feudal domain for almost three centuries, until 1868 when the Shogun fell and a new national government was created.  The principal complex　of these structures is a master...

Hoi An Ancient town is located in Viet Nam’s central Quang Nam Province, on the north bank near the mouth of the Thu Bon River . The inscribed property comprises 30 ha and it has a buffer zone of 280 ha. It  is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a small-scale trading port active the 15th to 19th centuries  which traded widely, both with the countries of Southeast and East Asia and with the rest of the world. Its decline in the later 19th century ensured that it has retained its traditional urban tissue to a remarkable degree. The town reflects a fusion of indigenous and foreign cultures (principally Chinese and Japanese with later European influences) that combined to produce this unique survival.  The town comprises a well-preserved complex of 1,107 timber frame buildings, with brick or wooden walls, which include architectural monuments, commercial and domestic vernacular structures, notably an open market and a ferry quay, and religious ...

Ephesus contains successive settlements from the Neolithic, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Selçuk and Ottoman periods. The property is located at the Aegean Coast of Turkey within what was once the estuary of the River Kaystros, Ephesus comprises Hellenistic and Roman settlements founded on new locations, which followed the coastline as it retreated westward. Excavations have revealed grand monuments of the Roman Imperial period including the Library of Celsus and the Great Theater. Little remains of the famous Temple of Artemis, one of the “Seven Wonders of the World,” which drew pilgrims from all around the Mediterranean. Since the 5 th century, the House of the Virgin Mary, a domed cruciform chapel seven kilometers from Ephesus, became a major place of Christian pilgrimage. The Ancient City of Ephesus is an outstanding example of a Roman port city, with sea channel and harbor basin.