ASEAN Hive Community Challenge #74: Favorite Local Places (Where My Home Is...)

A new challenge has emerged this week yet again! This has become a habit for me which is actually an awesome thing, especially in terms of further enhancing my writing skills. Moreover, I plan to continue doing so as long as I can or if there's something I could share.

So, for this week's ASEAN Hive Community Challenge, our task is to talk about our Favorite Local Places.

What can I say? This is indeed a challenge especially for someone indoorsy like me. I'm a huge homebody that the life in quarantine when the pandemic happened a few years back wasn't much of a big change for me. And to top it off, we aren't allowed to answer "my house" in this challenge. What should I do?

Anyway... Let's start!!!

If I'm to choose one place in our area, it would be this park in front of our city hall. It's called Plaza Talisay. Not only is it beautiful, but also I have a lot of wonderful memories in this place which I'd be sharing with you in a bit.

Firstly, let me show you around the place.

Taken last week. It was rainy the night before, so there are puddles.

Upon entering the gate, you'd see this encaged fountain. I don't really know the reason for the cage, but they added this during the pandemic. Aside from that, there's a small square with benches where people can sit. At times, kids also run around this part encircling the fountain.

Note: The rest of the pictures were taken last Wednesday (unless stated otherwise), so no more puddles...

The first picture is the front view of the encaged fountain while the second one is the gate to this plaza as well as our city hall.

As you can see, there are two pathways surrounding the square. A smaller one which is quite obvious in this picture and a much wider one next to it. Perhaps you can see a grandpa wearing a yellow shirt walking on that path on the right side of this photo.

These pathways are what we use for either walking, jogging or even running. Here's a much closer look of the inner pathway below.

This plaza is quite huge and it's surrounded by very beautiful greenery, lots of vibrant flowers and some interesting statues. I did a Wednesday Walk post of the flowers surrounding this plaza last time. So you can check them out there, but I'll be sharing a collage of the flower photos here, too.

Aren't they pretty? It somehow encourages you to exercises in a much more relaxing way because the view is amazing.

Beyond the wall of concrete and flowery plant is the highway. You can even see a bus in the bus stop nearby. It's quite elevated compared to the plaza, so it's not that noisy or chaotic compared to having them on the same level. You hardly even see the road due to the plants. :)

There are several statues in the area, but they need to be repaired. Some statue's head are missing. Also, part of the decorations were used last Christmas. I guess, it's Christmas whole year round in our city. haha

The place is also very lively at night because of the beautiful lights, especially when Christmas decorations are up. I'll try to get some shots once they started decorating for Christmas. You know Christmas is super early in the Philippines, right? :)


Aside from the beauty and serenity of this place, I had a lot of nice memories here.

My family is my home... and this place is one of the places my family and I frequent. We go for a walk, jog or simply relax and enjoy the place.:)

Godwyn was still so tiny in this photo

Nicole and Nanan...

Nanan, Nicole, Mama and Me... <3

This part is temporarily closed for now because they're constructing some skatepark, playground and other facilities for people to use. They're keeping the beautiful trees, though... so I'm glad. :)

This place was also where my bestie and I spent our time together before she permanently left for the US. We went for a walk that afternoon and we just stayed in this area until the sun went down. It was quite a sad but also a happy memory.

This was also the place where my male bestie had their wedding photos taken. Can you find me?? haha I don't like wearing a dress and heels, but my male bestie asked me to do so on their special day... so yeah, I'm a good bestie. :P

My graduation for DPE (Diploma for Professional Education) was also held in front of the city hall, so this is also a memorable place in terms of my achievement and career as a teacher.

When the pandemic happened, I almost never visited the place... However, since I started participating in Wednesday Walks, I've been visiting it again. It's the perfect place to go for a walk, jog or even run in my area. We even used to play badminton and dance Zumba in the huge area in front of the city hall.

So yeah, for a typical homebody like me, this local place is a home away from home... not only because it's relaxing and homey, but also because of the nostalgic memories I've once shared with my family and friends. Thanks for checking this post out. See you around! (^^,)/

---

BONUS PHOTOS:

The following photos are not in my city, but I really love this place as well. :) It's in the countryside where my family and I used to live when I was in high school. This place has some floating restaurants, but the place where we went as I took the photos is free to use for the public. I went with Nicole and Nanan a few years back and I really enjoyed appreciating the vast sea, the horizon... and just thought about life.

view from the road

view of the road from the farthest cottage

the sea... from the cottage