a tale of foiled tangub plans

several years ago, i learned that there is a place in the philippines that claims to be the country's christmas capital. when i saw the festival of lights featured in one of korina sanchez's tv shows, i vowed that someday i will see for myself tangub's festival of lights.
tangub city's festival of lights / chrismas symbols photo credit: tangub.com

fast forward to 2009, i still have not visited the place. in fact, i could not recall the name of the city in remote mindanao. one day, i had a chat with a co-worker and we talked about the place, but for some reason i just couldn't remember the name of the city. (haha, quite ironic for someone who wanted to see the place, and yet could not even recall its name.) in my defense, i just trust google so much that i know i'd be able to search it when the time comes. i described the place and the activities until that friend blurted that he very well knows the place since it's just 30 minutes away from his hometown. for some reason, after several years of being away from his hometown that friend decided to visit his family that year. when he was there during our christmas break, he asked a favor on some work-related stuff. that gave me an opening to ask a favor in return. naturally, i asked for him to visit tangub city to take pictures of the town plaza. yeah, i'm a big believer in vicarious traveling (that's what blogs help do. people can travel anywhere in the world through the eyes of another).
tangub city's christmas symbol 2009 pictures. click here for more. photo credit: john

2010 when i saw the pictures after new year, it resurrected my desire to see tangub for myself. unfortunately, in 2010 i was an unable to save up.
2011 on september 2011, a friend and i booked a one-way flight ticket to ozamiz to specifically swing by tangub and see the town's christmas symbol festivities.

we didn't get a return flight from oz because we planned to head to cagayan de oro city to check out dahilayan nature park and return to cebu from there. BUT typhoon sendong happened. most of mindanao (our travel route especially) was greatly affected. in fact, typhoon sendong claimed many lives. so, my friend decided to cancel our trip. additionally, there were reports that some bridge collapsed after the typhoon that it would be impossible for us to get to cdo without access to cross the bridge. if i wanted to see tangub, i'd have to buy myself a return ticket to cebu. which i did two days before christmas:

only to waste it since i arrived at the airport 5 minutes before my flight. :(
2012

april this year, i got myself round trip tickets for cebu-oz-cebu. i'm hoping that come december 9, i'd be able to go there. as of writing time though, things aren't looking up. for one, i failed to save up AGAIN and work is getting crazier. but we'll see.
here's an old video i saw on youtube. it shows the lit plaza and fireworks display some years ago. it's uploaded by youtube user misocc2009.

How to Get to Tangub from Ozamiz City
Disclaimer: These are information I gathered from the net, when I researched about Tangub and planned to go there last year.

From Ozamiz' Labo Airport, take a tricycab to the city's Integrated Bus and Jeepney Terminal (IBJT).

At IBJT, hop on a bus (Rural Trans/Rural Tours) with signboard destinations to Pagadian or Molave.

or Take a V-hire and ask driver to be dropped off at the "Y" crossing or at Tangub.

If you have time to spare, check out Hoyohoy Highland Park. From Tangub city crossing, ride on a "habal-habal" (motorcycle) to Hoyohoy. Park's contact details are as follows: (63)(917) (326 7878) or (63) (088) (586 0242).