There is also a Philippines Fiesta that is held in the United States for American Filipinos to enjoy. The two-day Philippine Fiesta is one of the biggest indoor gathering of Filipino Americans in the East Coast. It features a trade pavilion with exhibitors from both the United States and the Philippines, a cultural festival with local groups and performers, and a concert featuring top artists from the Philippines. Furthermore, on the Friday night before the Philippine Fiesta weekend, a gala is held to welcome exhibitors, dignitaries, performers, Miss Philippine Fiesta Pageant finalists, and other special guests.

For more information about the Philippines Fiesta held here in the US visit www.philippinefiesta.net

I stayed in the city of Ormoc during most of my stay in the Philippines. There really isn’t much to do in Ormoc, as my wife says when I ask her to go out somewhere, “There’s nothing to do here.” Anyhow if your a pizza lover, like me, you won’t like Ormoc very much. Pizza choices I have tested included, Buns and Pizza, Tata, and a pizza shop near the water ( I think its called OMC Pizza ). Jonalyn, my wife, told me there used to be a Greenwich pizza in Ormoc, but it went under.

1. Buns and Pizza – has the best pizza in Ormoc in my opinion. The sauce there isn’t over done, their cheese is the best tasting too. I would usually get the ham and cheese pizza, but one time I tried the chicken pizza which was actually pretty good.

2. Tata Pizza – is alright, they tend to burn the bottom of the pizza and that never taste good. They have two locations in Ormoc.

3. OMC Pizza – is ehh, they don’t put sauce on their pizza so its kind of strange and dry. I tried to ask them to add sauce but the pizza I received still didn’t have any sauce ( they probably just didn’t understand me ).

You have to understand, in the Philippines pizza sauce is like sweet BBQ sauce, NOT tomato sauce. If your in Manila there are Pizza Hut’s and it is so masarap ( delicious )! I recommend the bacon cheese burger with sweet tomato sauce.. mmm!

I stayed in Ormoc Villa Hotel in Ormoc City when I first came to the Philippines to meet Jonalyn and her family. The hotel employees were kind and courteous to us during our entire stay. It cost about 35-40 a night. I would enjoy asking the hotel room service how much I should tip them, and they would start to laugh embarrassingly and say “up to you.” Below is from the Ormoc Villa Hotel website.

We took many of our after wedding pictures in the beautiful court yard. Me and Jonalyn often miss the Villa Hotel, and will hopefully stay there again someday.

Now i am sure your reading this and thinking, “Philippines sounds awful”, or you think “It’s not true.” Well even after I heard all that I decided that it was worth it to me to “jump in” anyway. So I did and here is what I experienced – I never heard of any cases of malaria or dengue fever during my stay there. It is very hot during the day but the A/C works fine. No one during my entire stay, and I was there for over a year, tried to steal anything from me. Of course there is dangerous areas, and you should probably avoid huge crowds, because an American stands out like a sour thumb. What he said about eating on the bus is true, most likely you will get a bad stomach illness if you drink the water and eat fruits in the Philippines. I ate at Wendy’s in Manila and I was in the bathroom all day for over a week, ( bad advertisement for Wendy’s hehe ) but on the bright side the meal was delicious. Most of the Philippine people are very kind and humble. Jonalyn’s ( my wife ) family treated me like part of their own family. So besides all the endless trips to get all the papers ready, and the constant stress of thinking you forgot some papers and it will ruin the whole visa process, it was a pleasant trip. One last thing, the air in every city in the Philippines ( even the small ones ) smells like gasoline, because all the vehicles use diesel. My brother did say Baguio has fresh air, but I never made it there. Please ask me and questions you have.

Ormoc City is an independent component city, not subject to regulation from the Provincial Government of Leyte. However, the city is part of the congressional district IV of Leyte together with Albuera, Kananga, Merida, and Isabel towns.

In November 1991, the Ormoc region was inundated by Tropical Storm Thelma (local name: Uring). Flash floods and landslides killed an estimated 6,000 people, mostly in Ormoc itself.