Foreign-based Names of Beach Resorts in Marinduque

I noticed recently that a few beach resorts in Marinduque have foreign-based names. In 1996 when we first constructed Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort, it was the only beach resort or hotel with a non-english or tagalog name. Today, there are several beach resorts with either Spanish, Portuguese or Italian derived names. A good example is Bellarocca Resort( beautiful rock) in Buenavista. Bellarocca is a five-star resort and touted to be one of the best in Southeast Asia. Another example is a small beach resort in Balaring named Tierra Azurras ( is this Portuguese?). Of course, there is the old Villa sa APLAYA in Ihatub and Casa de Azul( Blue House)in Buenavista)*. The older hotels have tagalog or English names such as the Boac Hotel, Tahanan Sa Isok, East Point Hotel, Blue Seas, Katala, Cagpo and Love Bay Resorts. I believe naming the resort with non-tagalog names denote class and distinction. In the case of Chateau Du Mer(House by the Sea or House of the Sea), we selected the name after considering more than dozen names( Casa del Mar, Balay sa Baybay etc..) with the goal of attracting European specially French or Canadian tourists. We believe this goal was achieved since our first European guests were from France about 4 years ago. Today, we are attracting more American tourists. The disadvantage of the non-tagalog name, is that majority of the locals have a hard time pronouncing it, thus our local name recognition is slightly impaired. Anyway, we believed that Chateau Du Mer is a good name and the second building we will be constructing in the future will be named Bella Chateau. Note that the gramatically correct french name should have been Chateau de la Mer. But this was too long. For details on Chateau Du Mer, visit http://chateaudumer.blogspot.com *Changed recently to Blue Castle

Things that I will always remember at Chateau Du Mer

1. The chirping songs and cacophony of sounds of the birds(Mayas)as they fly from tree to tree looking for worms



2. Native fishes and tilapias thriving well on my creek that meanders to the ocean



3. Sunset and coral reefs at low tide seen from the balcony of the beach house



4. A Reflection of an almost full moon as seen from the balcony of the beach house



5. Thousands of fireflies illuminating the firefly tree on a moonless night, just like a Chistmas tree with flickering miniature lights



6. Monitor Lizard ( bayawak) looking for chicken or duck eggs. He looks scary, but actually harmless,unlike the Komodo dragons of Indonesia



7. A native hawk (lawin) diving from the sky for young chicks. This lawin is on a cage to do no harm to your chickens for the moment



8. Coconut rats feasting on young coconuts ( one coconut almost hit me on the head). Watch out for your head, specially on a windy day



9. Blue starfish and corals seen only a few meters from my back yard



10. Bougainvillas and orchids blooming in my front yard



11. A sunset that takes your breathe away ( notice the two swimmers also enjoying the sunset)




12. A papaya tree with ripe fruits ( not yet seen by the fruit bats)



13. Mangoes loaded with fruits almost touching the ground because of its weight



14. Bananas and avocado trees loaded with fruits( no picture of avocados)



15. The scream of an alley cat on “Heat” at midnight ( photo taken from the web), and last, but not least


16. The crowing of the rooster at 4:00AM everyday morning before dawn, a reliable alarm clock if you want to wake up that early

Please visit my website, www.chateaudumer.com or my blog site, http://chateaudumer.blogspot.com for more pictures!

If you are from Marinduque, do you have things that you will always remember about Marinduque. Please submit this to http://marinduqueonmymind.blogspot.com
Thanking you in advance for sharing and contributing to this literary project

My top Ten Blog Sites-Cure for Computer Addiction

Balcony of the Beach House at Night-Chateau Du Mer Beach Resort

Last January 17 to April 10, my wife and I spent our annual snow bird vacation in my island paradise-in Marinduque,Philippines. In our retirement property, I did not have a 24 hour direct access to the Internet. However, I could go to downtown BOAC, only about a 15 minute drive to check my e-mails, manage my blogs and read FACE BOOK as well as surf in the Internet if I want to. My sister-in-law owns an Internet Cafe and for 20 pesos ( less than 50 cents) per hour, I could spend one to four hours in the Internet every day without breaking my bank account. But during the above period, I used the computer only every other day, thus I was able to cure my addiction of spending at least 6 hours per day in the computer, as what I have been doing prior to our snowbirding sojourn. I was cured with my computer addiction during this time. Now I am back to my daily routine of at least 4 hours on my PC.

When I am in the beach house and gardens, I do not feel like going to town because of the traffic, noise and the heat and humidity. In the beach house, there is always an ocean breeze during the months of December, January and February and thus no air conditioning is needed. If I get tired of gardening, I could watch TV, read or just enjoy relaxing. But, if I want pizza, hamburger or Halo-Halo, ice cream or my other favorite Filipino delicacies, then it is time to go to town.

So with this in mind ( that is no 24 hour direct Internet access and no longer addicted to my PC), I am proud to announce my top 10 favorite blogs as follows: The list are not arrange in any particular order of likes or favorites. To me the 10 are all equal in importance in my enjoyment in reading them as often as I can.

1. http://liveinthephilippines.com
2. http://marinduquegov.blogspot.com
3. http://gawker.com
4. http://dennisvilligas.blogspot.com
5. http://my_sarisari_store.typepad.com
6. http://tourism-philippines.com
7. http://zelmarqs.blogspot.com
8. http://comedyplus.blogspot.com
9. http://www.ironwulf.net
10.http://aroundtheworldinyoutube.blogspot.com

Please visit the blog sites above. It will be worth your time. Do you have a favorite blog site? Can you share!

Statistics from My Eight Blogs on My Vacation

The following is the 3 months statistics(during my vacation) based on the number of page views from my eight blogs. The first column was taken on 1/15/12, second column on 4/21/12, the 3rd colunm the net gain and the last colunm is the percent increase. Visitors from my eight blogs came from 142 countries.

Blog Name 1/15/12 4/21/12 Net Gain % Increased

1. Life in US 77,443 97,566 20,123 21
2. Marinduque Awaits You 93,491 109,939 16,448 15
3. Chateau Du Mer 71,888 83,512 11,624 14
4. Marinduque,Island Paradise 74,724 104,548 29,824 28
5. Why Retire in the PHL 27,614 31,994 4,380 14
6. Where the Heck is MDQ? 31,678 37,915 6,237 17
7. I left my Heart in MDQ 24,765 28,922 4,157 14
8. The Intellectual Migrant 42,738 62,712 19,974 32

Conclusion: I have no reason to quit blogging. The number of page views is increasing in the right direction. Hopefully this will translate into more adsense dollars. Note that this time period was during my vacation in the Philippines when I can only update my blogs one or twice a week. I am delighted with stats.

To all my readers from 142 countires, thank you for visiting my sites, especially to those of you who took your time in making comments and clicking on my ads. Have a good spring and later a summer vacation. I hope you continue supporting my blogs and tell your friends and relatives about my blog sites. Good day to ALL!

Do you have a High Internet Presence?

Part of the David J Katague Clan with their wives and husband, Jaro, Iloilo, Philippines

Have you googled yourself lately? In my case, if I searched for the word “Katague”, my surname, the first two pages will be about my daughter, Ditas, my nephew from Australia with the same name as myself, my oldest son Dodie and his book, Cloyne Court and myself with my twelve blogs, my dozens of scientific publications and my autobiography.

If I searched for “David Katague”, I will get the same hits, but with my blogs in the first page along with my nephew's website. Please note that there are three David Katague's in the Internet: myself, my nephew from Australia and my son David E in the US.

My nephew, Dave Katague is a Sydney based photographer, motionographer, designer and cinematographer. He has a website, Davidkatague.com. His Internet presence is very high.

My son David E. had only a couple of publications, so his internet presence is very low.

My daughter Ditas had been employed in several California state agencies and in the governor's office, for the last ten years so her internet presence is very high, indeed.

My oldest son Dodie, is a prosecuting attorney and a writer, so his internet presence is also high.

As for myself, I believe my Internet presence is also high. Besides my 12 blogs and over 900 articles, I have several scientific publications in the field of pesticide residues, food and drug regulations.

There are several other Katagues in the Internet. For example, Stephanie Katague- my niece from Australia has an article in food preparation, my daughter, Dinah is getting published because of her art work and pottery and my wife Macrine Jambalos Katague name is in the Web because of her involvement with the medical mission in the Philippines. My brother, Efren from Australia is in the Internet because of his consulting business in the field of computers. My sister-in-law, Lourdes Katague, is in the Internet, because of her work in the field of library science in Sydney, Australia.

There are more than a hundred FaceBook (FB) users with the Katague surname and several hundreds more with the Catague surname. Their names are certainly in the Web.

So, do you have an Internet presence? If you are a Facebook user, your profile is in the Internet. If you have any article published during the last five years, I am sure your Internet presence is high.

Is there any advantage or disadvantage if your Internet presence is high? I do not know the answer, but if you have any opinion on this subject, please share via the comment section of this posting. I know however, that if you have a business or a product to sell, a high Internet presence is good and an advantage.