The Guinayangan Republic

Some of the Photos Courtesy of Rannie Lopez's Facebook

I Googled the word gayang to find what the heck is that plant (see the history of Guinayangan), and I found this seafood's restaurant somewhere in Malaysia. It's a good idea nevertheless if I may someday get rich and decide to venture into a food business. I will name my place and theme it like this one, and of course it will be place here in Guinayangan..."A Seafoods Paradise".






Gayang Seafood Restaurant entrance

Gayang Seafood Restaurant is another popular venue for elites to enjoy great seafood dinner with friends and family. Spacious and open air dinner hall is the landmark of Gayang Seafood Restaurant, and this is another reasonable price seafood restaurant.



Live Mantis Prawns

Wonder why the Mantis Prawns are kept individually in a Coke bottle? This is to prevent them from fighting with each other, so that the beauty of the prawns are kept in place. Like any other seafood restaurants Gayang Seafood Restaurant specialises in fresh seafood that is right out of the aquariums. Live fishes, tiger prawns, crabs and clams are available for customers to select, before they go into the wok.









Live Sea Produces





Dinning Hall

Gayang Seafood Restaurant is a wooden structure with stilts that was built on a swampy area and during high tide the building look like it is floating on the sea. Patrons can enjoy the sea breeze and steep in the beauty of the mangrove swamp surrounding the Gayang Seafood Restaurant.

An Overview of Gayang Seafood Restaurant Dinning Hall

There are also private rooms with air-condition for patrons who need a bit more privacy. Only two rooms are made for this purpose, one that seats 30 persons and the smaller one can seat 20 persons. Patrons only need to pay an extra charge to secure the private rooms, to avoid any disappointment do call in early for reservation.


Wet butter prawns

The ever popular butter prawns, cooked with butter and eggs, has a very tasty sauce.


Nyonya sauce with steamed talapia



Lemon chicken

Chicken and beef dishes are also available and there are lot of vegetables to choose from. This restaurant serves no pork.



Mushroom and Vegetable with Oyster Sauce



Kim Hiong fried crabs

“Kim Hiong” is a wonderful sauce that cooked with a mixture of ingredients, like curry powder, curry leaf, grounded dry shrimp and eggs. “Kim Hiong” sauce can be used to fry prawns and fish. Here we have Kim Hiong sauce on fried crabs, the out come is finger licking good, yummy.



Other than serving great seafood, Gayang Seafood Restaurant also commences a great view of the surrounding mangrove swamp.

A View from Gayang Seafood Restaurant

Gayang Seafood Restaurant,
Kampung Baharu, Jalan Sulaman,
Tuaran, Sabah, Malaysia.
tel: +6088 229 066

Business Hour: 11am to 10pm, daily.

I keep Googling the other night till my fingers were numb, so that at least add an article regarding our small lighthouse “Parola”. I have found a related site about lighthouses in the Philippines and to my frustrations none of them are even close to Ragay Gulf. The site is quite informative yet shortlisted to very few popular lighthouses like Cape Bolinao lighthouse.( http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/phl.htm )

I phoned my seafarers friend who were my (Bunkmate or Mistah in PMA) back in the PMMA(Philippine Merchant Marine Academy). Wishing he could help me with my little curiosity. I narrowed his research to focus on and gave him the coordinate 13°54'52.39"N, 122°30'31.73"E where supposed to be the Lighthouse erected. My friend helps me and quote “To find its history is to find its purpose”. After all lighthouses were built to aid nautical navigation. Lighthouses give absolute bearing to ships or sea craft with reference to north. Signaling the ships its true relative position from the chart it uses.
He also said that in lighthouses the observer is always assumed to be at a height of 15 feet, although on large ships he may be 40 to 60 feet above the sea. Assuming a light at a height of 20 to 30 feet, the range to an observer at 15 feet above the horizon will be about distance is 6.4 + 14.3 or 20.7 miles.. This is known as the geographic range of the light. I recall the table in book of Navigation by Bowditch.



Charting the range it will depict a purpose of Catabangan Port or Ragay wharf. That “Mang Taning” my old folk use to tell me a story then that Catabangan once had a port, where large Log ships who carry Timbers and Logs to and fro the Stretch of Gulf. Also Ragay Gulf were mentioned numerous time in a book “The closing of the frontier: a history of marine fisheries of Southeast by John G. Butcher.” Where he documented that lots of fishing activity of foreign fishing like the Japanese sardines and mackerel trawlers during the 50s and 60s ( http://bit.ly/zRen4). With that demand I would assumed that lighthouse was served that purpose.



The book mentioning Ragay gulf in several passage.

I promised my father Estanislao that If I saw a book documenting the “Basnig” I will read and translate it for him. He died last summer that I haven’t told him I did. If he only knew that Basnig means “Bagnets” in English he would at least amazed what information Technology can do in either way of our life. It’s funny that fishing problem and its history of our gulf have been written by a foreign guy with statistics and data, we should be ashamed of our selves!. It means we really doesn't care at all about our surroundings. The book even documented and illustrates how “Basnig” catches fish. Though it’s late to fulfill my promise to my father, but at least someone like the British John. G. Butcher published a book about the gulf conditions from circa 1850 to 2000.



I never recalled that the (Parola) lighthouse was operating in my child hood days neither my father. That time It became a place for short picnics, sightseeing and boating destinations when checking in some Tagkawayan Resorts. I believe we associate Parola as our own in Guinayangan, but geographically it is part of Tagkawayan Quezon. Nevertheless we both owned it to say the least. I have to thank Second Officer Paul Carcasona to show me the Bowditch books to enlighten me with my unusual curiosity. To my father with his little educational literacy bring out the best out of me. To where you are it’s my duty to tell our kababayan about something we ultimately neglected, the gulf. It is from where he took all our source of food from my childhood to my teenage life, till I learn to feed myself. I hope someone could preserve it since nearby tourist destination like Sta Rita and rest of resorts may take advantage of the rare locations where Parola is in their horizon’s view that adds beauty in it.

-By Cornelio Cenizal

Repost from simpleoddmind.wordpress.com

Every last Sunday of August, Manlayo a small Barrio in Guinayangan celebrates its “fiesta” in honor of Nuestra Señora de la Paz. Lavish with a day to recon my childhood memories, with my parents’ beliefs and my curiosity in etymology of name and words like "De La Paz". I feel, I was at least obliged to share a story about something. If my usage of “Wiki” is correct, ,Our Lady of Peace or Queen of Peace is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church. She is represented in art holding a dove and an olive branch, symbols of peace. Her official memorial feast is celebrated on January 24 each year in some other countries. Elsewhere, the memorial feast is celebrated on July 9.In the contrary, perhaps our day of celebrations rooted from social agreement from our old ancestors or early Church leaders then, which is, up to now it is last Sunday of August. But I believe it was chosen with a purpose. Personally with my assent of beliefs that she was chosen because of her being “Star of the Sea” , as Manlayo needed guidance and protection from the sea. August, perhaps it’s the month of “high tide” as ebbing of water observed to be relatively high during this season. Perfect for the “Karakol” or fluvial parade disembarking from boat when the Sea “Karakol” reaches each end and begin the famous “Street Dancing”. To my recollection this is the only Month perfect to this occasion. This is the month my father recall their catch was called “LAMAK” kaing-kaing(bountiful). This is the perfect moment for benedictions of her grants, celebrate thankfulness to the sea with its abundance.


My father’s “Basnig”crews use to tell folklore that in the night of the Storm Winnie(Typhoon Dading), year 1964 a lady appear near the shore and as if she was protecting our barrio. True or not, people like us don’t mind it at all. Respect and Thankfulness need no proof of factualism. A fire broke near the chapel of Manlayo during the 80s destroying and burning almost 50 houses with the chapel and houses behind her seems to be protected from the fire. Amazingly, chapel suffered only a minor damage from convection fire cause by adjacent burning houses. The Pura, Estenso, Beligon families and rest of my friends lived there were among the families witness one of the many consecrations of our Patron Saint.


No fiesta is fiesta if there was no “Karakol” when I was a kid ,I was about 8 years old we don’t mind the bountiful of food at the table as long as we witnessed the “Karakol at sea”. Watching from the distance, with my other friends, while clenching the mast of a docked boat, near our house to keep us from falling. We still have to climbed second level of boat mast to perfectly focus our sights. I have promised myself that if I reached my maturity I will not missed the “Karakol”. It’s funny that it’s my gauge of puberty though I can swim half a mile with that age I was still not capable of panic commotions when something happen in the boat. Dangerous as it looks I have never witness any disaster related to Karakol. My mother was hailing me to climb down the mast it’s dangerous she said. I shouted back “I NEED TO SEE THESE!”. “OO nga!” My friend seconded. Oh, I miss the day.



During those days, no quip! We (Manlayohin) had the most extravagant celebrations of fiesta among the Guinayanganin. It’s not a show-off but it’s our beliefs that sea will still bequeath as with the same abundance. Visitors and guest from all over town crowd our streets. It’s a feast! Indeed a feast!


I wished I could witness that again before I set sails from this life. My father departed us months ago. Though he has prevented us from going to Karakol, because of his overprotective type then, He knew we will enjoy it. So to the next generations of Manlayo, it’s your prime undertaking to bring those memories back and you shall capture it in Blog like repository. Use facebook or other sites. You! ,now had the tools and technology to at least share it with others. Unlike what we have here, though vividly clear it is not shareable by words. Happy Fiesta “Mga Kababaryo”. Mabuhay ang Manlayo.!!

-By Cornelio Cenizal

Repost from simpleoddmind.wordpress.com

Its my own plagiarism of the story “What then Señor?. Though author is unknown. But the story actually spirited by philosophy of Chuang Tzu.

A Manileño was at the fish port of a small coastal village of Guinayangan when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.
Inside the small boat were several large Maya Maya and Lapu Lapu. The Manileño complimented the Guinayanganin on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Fisherman replied, "Mga 3 to 4 hours lang."
The Manileño then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"
The Fisherman said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."
The Manileño then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, play (Tong IT)poker, stroll into the village(Maglilimayon) each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my tropa, I have a full and busy life."
The Manileño scoffed, " I can help you, If you don’t mind I have a Masters Degree in Business. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Gumaca, then Lucena and eventually Manila where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."
The fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
The Manileño replied, "15 to 20 years. If that you already had the Masters Degree that Ive got from Ateneo. With his hand fixing his collar sarcastically"
"But what then Manong?" asked the Fisherman.
The Manileño laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions?...Then what?"
The Manileño said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, play poker(Tong its),stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your friends."
Ganon ba Manong? . It will take 15 to 20 years.At saka yong MBA ano po ba yon nakakain? LOL! Para lang maranasan ko ang nararanasan ko na ngayon. ????

Dami pang paikot ikot. Eh ganon rin pala lahat pangarap natin eh. Mga kababayan hinay-hinay lang po. Magtira po tayo sa mga nagmamahal sa atin.

GOD TEACH US HOW TO LIVE, NOT TO MAKE A LIVING!!

-by Cornelio Cenizal

Repost from simpleoddmind.wordpress.com

We Were So Fortunate After All


Raw Scallops, Top Shell Filled Off

Sometimes you don’t consider you self lucky until someone or something realize it for you. Have you experienced feeling odious on consuming something? hat peculiarly tends you to find to consider other food as your lunch. Well, back in our small coastal place Manlayo, where Guinayangan has it as the seafood’s gate for tasting rare Scallops shell fish (not knowing it was). My father was a trawl fisherman then, I was about 9-10 yrs old, when I could barely eat much of things to consider as rare dishes. Trawling is a form of dredge fishing that the nets actually scoop everything out of its path, hence the word “trawl”. Scallops are sea bed shellfish catch that my father use to take-home, segregated as “dyako” or fish meal from shrimps, crabs, and “hoyas” rare fish (i.e. Lapu Lapu, maya maya,malakapas, etc.)Yes you heard me segregated to process as fishmeal, my fellow Manlayohin could attest to that. My father, with his willingness to offer us a chance to study and live a good life, large size scallops with about 2 to 3 inches diameter shells would become our meal for the day just to save other catch to be converted to cash. Half basket full of brown and white shells would become our dishes for the day. My older sibling became expert in cooking these. Sautéed’ scallops, Steak scallops, Grilled scallops and sometimes Seviche’ or “Kilawin” in Tagalog other country called it Ceviche,or Cebiche. Did I mentioned odious, for scallops, not actually, I was just telling a monotonous meal that my young taste then had been consuming to the point where me and my dismayed sisters don’t want to have it anymore. Why? To our young minds those days, we look to ourselves as so unfortunate, that my classmates in school use to telltales about our dishes for the day. We sarcastically uttered “Ayon,Capis na naman, buti pa kayo Manok” Trans: As usual, Scallops again, it’s good that you had Chicken. Though unhappy, but we love what our father use to bring in, it is his sweat, his catch for the tiring overnight trawling.

Baked Scallops

I know that some of you know Google Earth. But one thing was sure, you have no luck on finding our town. It seems Google were not taking much satellite pass to a less populated town, its blurry and cloudy, nothing but crumpled of clouds. But finally, Last week I checked the coordinate of 13 ⁰ 53’ 57 North 122 ⁰ 27’ 06.43” East. (Sorry its a bit technical!. But simply it’s the latitude and longitude reading of our town. Many of you, like those people who live in US, most of their cars has GPSs and for sure they know what GPS coordinate is ) And Voila!! It’s our town.
I was waiting for this moment for almost 5 years now actually. Eagerness had come to me just after my father’s interment. Wishing I’ll be seeing his grave in times of melancholy and feeling nostalgic about our town. You can actually put pin of location to certain place as if you're flying. Anyway, just my wish of sharing these things to you guys. I know some of you already knew this and makes my idea a bit old. But for the other who wishes to come home but couldn’t! Now it’s the time.
You can download Google earth here http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html and then fly to the coordinate I gave you ( 13 ⁰ 53’ 57 North 122 ⁰ 27’ 06.43” East).
Just by zooming out of our town and tracking to where you are now. It’s a fulfillment you must appreciate and realize how lucky you are. It’s a journey you were all deserved to have. Thousand miles from Guinayangan, is quite a ride isn’t it. It’s amazing how Google put all this things up. How many satellites do Google contracted for the transponders to lay these things up for free?. Amazing!. I had appreciated it more, when I saw our town.
At the skirt the “palaisdaan” and “aplaya”. Where, I spent most of my childhood. It just brought me to tears seeing them in a view that I have never been witness. Now I know where my father niche is. And I will have no trouble finding it again this November 1. You can actually zoom up to a relative height where you can actually recognized the street. I’ve heard that in some country, you can actually saw their barbecue grills at their rooftop. I Hope our town reaches that popularity and Google will polish our grid to a recognizable view . Great!!! Things are great!!

-Cornelio Cenizal

Repost From simpleoddmind.wordpress.com
Aerial Map Courtesy of Google Earth

With today's kid’s habit of playing, they can’t rival what Manlayohin had those days. I don't know what this game was called in upper Guinayanganin LOL! Or places outside Manlayo. I don’t know where the hell we got this game called. I keep goggling the weird name for over a week now just to know where the word came from. “IMBIMBIW” we simply use to say it as “BATAD” or literally “babad” hear it again and still it will not register as an acceptable word on your memories’ vocabulary bank. Anyway, If you are one of my kababata or one pretending not my kababata here you could relate LOL!. The game simply ruled as just like any other running games. The competing teams had to have a base. Simply an imaginary base line. Like in our days we use the end of “Bilaran ng Kaping(Tuyo Bamboo Plates’ drier)” to mark our base



Simply to say we had about 400 square meter of play ground. Each team should have balanced number of players. Say 10 X 10 that will be each team has 10 runners. You could emit from your base anytime you want, just like birds flying through 400 square meter area, but it is a time based game that your opposing team will track how soon you left your base. The sooner you came out of your base became your vulnerability, they can tag you and capture you as “taya” captives to their base and line up with an arm spread length with your fellow captured teammates. The games flows with that simple rule (with honesty of course)each team can honestly say he left sooner than him. There! Honesty on this game plays a major role in continuing. Okay it looks boring, but here is the thrill of this game. Let say all of your 8 team mates where captured and they all line up like garlic in braided stalks. You must become their hero, by touching either hands or body of the captured teammates without you being tagged by your opponents. And once you did that, the game became more exciting. The game continue on and on back and forth with edging each other team to the point we had about the hear the word “ KUYA KAKAIN NA. or KUYA uwi na raw sasalok pa ng tubig! That’s the most hustled word you may hear if you caught in the middle of intense game. I don’t point out my simple article will make you laugh ,no I don’t. but to people who can relate. it’s a reminiscing we will share with our friend that we once had a game like that. This is to show them that there are other games which they can enjoy aside from the emerging state-of-the-art video and computer games.



With those days you would not see kids with Diabetes. You would not see kids with heart ailments. It’s because we run all day, we play with kid’s friends real friends. Friends you can play with. Not just friendster and facebook friends. Who laugh at your word or picture once they saw your facebook wall LOL!. PS3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft XBOX. You know what, Kids today will make them smarter but not affectionate. I will give you an example, Close your eyes and name kids you had played with those days. And perhaps 80% you can still accurately name a few. Today, you play online games it will only represent an avatar or a nickname over the web you absolutely doesn’t care about.

-by Cornelio Cenizal

Photo Courtesy of Flickr
Repost from nellix.wordpress.com

On the road to Sariaya, Quezon, this is the view from the back of a jeep with an open back. The bus will stop in Lucena, before heading for Quezon province's southern towns of Guinyangan and Calauag. The ordinary fare means no air-conditioning -- in southern Tagalog lowlands' intense heat and dust. At least passengers will be watching DVDs.

-by Howie Severino

Excerpt From Howie Severino's Blog
Photos Courtesy of Howie Severino's Blog