May 25
Monday, April 23. At this point we were already halfway with our tour with mighty interesting gigs and experiences in Cebu, San Carlos and Bacolod. It's a non-gigging day so we have time to kill. Luckily plans have been made to check out the grand opening of the Pasalamat Festival in La Carlota City in the evening. But not before we had our fill at the Manokan Country of Bacolod.
April 22. The better part of the morning was spent in bed trying to catch up on sleep and nursing a hangover thereafter. A post gig videoke session with Guido and friends lasted till 5am in the morning. It was too much fun and everyone was singing their hearts out till we can't sing anymore. But I do remember Mary mentioning "lunch later at the beach" as they drop me and George to the old house where we stayed.
True enough, an hour past noon, we were on our way to Calatrava to a beach house owned by Guido's family. Along the way, in search for ice, we caught a truckload of sugarcane parked on the side of the road. When we were told it's alright to ask for some free sugar cane tubes, George and Bach hurriedly went down our vehicle and approached the truck driver, to which he obliged willingly, pulling around 4 or 5 canes from the sides of the truck.
Saturday, April 21. After the show in Handuraw, I joined Ian Zafra (Shiela & The Insects) and his friends for a night-cap at the parking lot of Cebu Grand Hotel chugging Boracay Rhum until the sun decided to show up and we scurried away for cover.
I joined my band mates for breakfast, checked out and waited for Mary Ty to join us. She's our producer for the San Carlos City leg and manages the bar along with her husband Guido. Mary is a Cebuano designer and one of the finalist in the 2012 MEGA Young Designers Competition.
Thursday, April 19. We decided to write a series of posts to share our day to day happenings while on tour. Hopefully you'll find our blogposts interesting with tidbits of information, photographs and hopefully some videos too, if time and network permits.
Our Visayas bar tour officially starts today in Cebu with the first leg happening at Handuraw Pizza Gorordo. We arrived a night earlier, just a few hours ago, via Air Philippines. Flight was delayed but considerably smooth. Eric Smith, owner and marketing manager of Handuraw, along with his cousin Charles welcomed us at the airport in Cebu.
Lilystars Records, Manila's finest indie pop label, in partnership with Panay News, the largest newspaper in Western Visayas, produced a five-city pop tour down south for our band. This is a first for The Camerawalls to embark in a proper tour so we can reach more listeners and meet music aficionados.
Dubbed “Pamagdoy” (a word that means “wandering” or “peregrination” in both Cebuano and Ilongo), the tour is an opportunity to familiarize the Visayan market with The Camerawalls’ indie releases. On the side is the desire for a little travel and cultural experience – the food, practices, scenic spots, and the people – with each city transfer, and for the band to create a tour diary of the experience.
The Camerawalls 