On the road

Life's journeys are worth sharing.

recent posts

  • To “harm” or not to “harm”

    (Reflections from another Monterey Bay Aquarium visit)

    Visitors mill about the Wharf section of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Photo by Luz Rimban

    Half-day visits to the Monterey Bay Aquarium were free for locals in September, so I took advantage. In the Aquarium, you could stand transfixed, staring at marine life, oblivious to the passing of time. A few hours were insufficient to explore the whole place so I spent three half days there last month.

    In one of those visits, displays of different varieties and sizes of fish started to agitate my taste buds.

    As fleshy fish glided before my eyes, my mind saw steamed pompano laid on light soy sauce, garnished with ginger, scallions and cilantro.

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  • Monterey Bay Aquarium

    Colorful fishes on display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Photo by Luz Rimban.

    When the Monterey Bay Aquarium announced free admission for local residents this September, I jumped at the chance to visit. 

    Part of its mission is to educate coastal communities on how best to sustainably use ocean resources, so it made sense for the Aquarium to open its doors to local residents, free of charge. 

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  • Warhammer moments

    Reflecting on an encounter with a Warhammer enthusiast on the road

    The piece below is a version of a post that appeared in my Facebook page on December 13, 2023. I remembered it recently as I was thinking of the interesting people I have encountered in the course of my travels.

    I am not normally a chatty person and I generally tend to leave people alone, especially when I find them beside me on a plane or at a nearby table in a crowded cafe. But this person was carrying delicate cargo that was screaming “Look at me!” and I could not help but gawk, so I started a conversation.

    We learn so many new things from meeting people. And from sharing such encounters with friends on social media we also discover another side to our friends too.

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  • Filters

    Social media can be a hellhole some days, especially when a raging controversy brings out the critic in each one of us. People feel like they have something to say, even if that something is nothing really and ends up only muddling the issue. We rage and rage, and in the process encourage others to do so, till the platform becomes nothing more than a boombox spewing banging sounds that don’t really make sense. 

    This was what came to mind when I heard how Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, deals with the demands of his job. Cupich was close to Pope Francis and is also esteemed by Pope Leo, who appointed him to be a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican State. 

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  • Viral Pinoys

    Nurse John and other funny Filipinos entertaining social media

    Screenshot of Nurse John’s Instagram content. He achieved a career milestone when Forbes Magazine included him in its list of Top 50 Creators.

    I turned my cellphone on the other day to the awesome news that Nurse John, a social media influencer I follow on Instagram, was named one of Forbes Magazine’s Top 50 Creators for 2026. 

    Nurse John, whose real name is John Dela Cruz, ranks Number 28. He is just a few notches below the children’s show host Ms. Rachel at Number 24. He outranked two other creators I follow, the Japanese-American lawyer-finance expert Erika Kullberg at Number 40, and Chinese-American Vivian Tu, another finance expert known as Your Rich BFF, at Number 45.

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  • On the road, one more time

    (Or why I write about migration, the new home and the old, and everything in between)

    I am a journalist by education and profession. Recently, I acquired the status of immigrant to the United States, the latest in a lifetime of twists and turns.

    My life has been like a road trip, one that has taken me down beaten paths, face-to-face with dead ends, past new and unfamiliar roads, and humbled by about-faces. In fact, I started this blog with exactly that kind of a story: a road trip that was so familiar and at the same time exciting that an adventurous detour seemed like a given, only to find out it would lead nowhere. Finally, disappointed and defeated, we road-trippers were forced to make a U-turn, but not before we saw the possibilities that that detour could bring in the future.

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  • Marine mammals at risk: Monterey and Mindoro

    The carcass of what appears to be a sea lion at the Seaside State Beach. Photo by Luz Rimban.

    Three incidents caught my attention yesterday, June 3, all having to do with dead or dying sea creatures. 

    The first was a personal encounter. I was taking a stroll down the Seaside part of the Monterey Bay Recreation Trail, when I spotted what appeared to be the carcass of a sea animal. I know from reading about it that when this happens, people are not supposed to touch or even approach it but instead report the sighting to concerned agencies.  

    Various groups cater to stranded sea otters and sea lions which abound in the Monterey Bay area. I chose to send photos along with the location and time at which I found it to Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML), which had a ready email address. MLML is an academic unit under the San Jose State University and is located at the nearby town of Moss Landing. I did not know exactly what this marine mammal was, but my guess was that it could be a sea lion l. I have yet to hear from the MLML. 

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  • On The Road, Again

    Taal Volcano in Batangas, Philippines, viewed from the famed ridge in Tagaytay City. Photo by Luz Rimban.

    I thought it timely to explain to visitors, especially those here for the first time, what my blog is all about, and how or why I write what I write. 

    This blog is titled On The Road but was never meant to be a travel blog. I do not really travel a lot but when I do get the chance, I always make it a point to document my experiences visually and note whatever insights I may have gained from the people and places I encounter.

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  • Visit to Carmel

    The view of the Pacific Ocean and Monastery Beach from Villa Angelica in Carmel. Photo by Luz Rimban

    I was headed for the Carmelite Monastery on Highway 1 in Carmel when I entered what turned out to be the wrong gate. After driving up a short road, I found myself beholding one of Monterey County’s most stunning views. 

    I would later see the sign that said I was at the Villa Angelica, a retreat house run by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Like the Carmelite Monastery next door, Villa Angelica sits on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Just a few steps outside the gate and across the street is the shore, christened Monastery Beach in honor of the Carmelites.

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  • Bonsai

    If time is precious, then a bonsai is gold.

    Each one holds the years of care, skill, and concentration its owner poured into it to create a miniature landscape from the saplings of a normal tree. That would make a bonsai the ultimate luxury.

    That is what it seemed to me as I viewed the bonsai collection on display in Salinas last April.  Members of the Asian Community—Japanese, Chinese, Filipino—held their annual Asian Cultural Fair and opened their doors to visitors.

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