waiting

Manila, PH --

Tropical storm 'Ondoy' has made life uncertain for a lot of Filipino children. Thousands wait in desperation for aid to come to them. Ease their helplessness. Please give what you can.

Donations may be made to the Philippine Red Cross at www.redcross.org.ph or Lomomanila's chipin account lomomanila.chipin.com/lomoaid

give. volunteer. help.

(more photos at lomomanila's flickr page)

park life

Manila, PH -- there’s a fantasy of mine where i’m at work and during lunch break I go out of the office. outside, I don’t see a sidewalk painted in a dizzying mix of red, blue and yellow. the pavement isn’t tiled like jigsaw puzzles. pedestrians don’t need to bump each other while walking through the narrow street filled with vendors and beggars competing for their attention. puddles don’t make portions of the sidewalk impassable. instead, there’s an expanse of trees before me, and a park in the middle of it. i pick a bench to sit on and watch kids running by while eating my sandwich. the grass in the field is so inviting that people take off their footwear and just wander about barefoot.

i’m sharing this because I chanced upon this local TV show last night and they were talking about urban planning. the guest was my friend’s dad, a well-known architect and urban planning advocate. he talked about new york, paris, london, and other places where people value open spaces. parks aren’t considered a cost penalty but an asset to the community as these serve as the lungs of the city. they also talked about public transport, which is really not one of our country’s strengths. the average person spends 300 hours in traffic annually. i, on the other hand, spend at least 180 more than that here in manila. in places like singapore, mass transit systems are thoughtfully built next to high-density residential buildings so more people can get to work in just a few minutes. wasted time and carbon footprints (plus incidents of road rage) are reduced.

getting to work in 15 minutes. leisurely lunches at the park.

one can still dream.

photo from here

bohol part trois

Bohol, PH -- island life 101. when it's a weekday and you're stuck at work, it's not a lot of fun to be in the middle of summer. the heat is oppressive, you feel like taking a shower 3x a day (or more), and you wish there was life beyond staring at your computer screen.

thankfully though, today is different. instead of heading to the office before 6 a.m. i joined the family on a flight to tagbilaran. we took zest air ("asia's most refreshing airline"), the dad's employer, to the land of tarsiers and chocolate hills. by 11 a.m. we were on the road to a yet-unspecified location. we ended up at amarela, a resort that's not very close to the famed alona beach. it's all good though, this place is fantastic. it's a relaxed confluence of asian and spanish touches (nuks). the place reminds me of this quiet and secluded villa we stayed at in bali (it's not as cheap though). you can see clearly see what the owner is passionate about: even before we met him, we concluded he was an art lover, a voracious reader and a music aficionado.  his resort had shelves filled with books (including a couple on bali), its own art gallery, and carefully selected songs were softly playing in the dining room. when my dad introduced him to me i was surprised to hear him call me compañera (i was not in lawyer mode). turns out he retired from the world's most-maligned profession 4 years ago and was now engrossed in running amarela full-time. 

so now it's still hot but the sun seems to be gentler. the bogged-down office airconditioning has been replaced with the endless crashing of waves. and instead of refilling my water at the office pantry, i'm enjoying my citrusy welcome drink. is citrusy a word? 

Greek & Stuff

CA -- I was checking out the farmers' market near our place. I suddenly thought of Ditas when I saw this goodlooking Greek guy (at least he looked like one.. and besides, he was selling olives and stuff). Here's how the conversation went:

Me: "Ditas!"
Ditas: "Ano? San ka?"
Me:"Farmers' Market. Alam mo ba yon?"
Ditas: "Ako sa Hopkins, o ano?"
Me: "Sosyal!"

The rest of the conversation was not much because apparently, several eyes were on her. Probably because she's new there, or perhaps as I usually tell her, "nai-insecure kasi ang ganda mo daw," as we both laugh. I wonder how she spent her birthday. Did you get the flowers??

My family and I were back home last month but we didn't stay that long. But it was enough, at least for me, to catch up with my family, relax a bit and go to a few places I haven't been to. I went to Cav, I definitely enjoyed wine- tasting but I think I appreciated it more because I was in good company. We went to Anvaya Cove and it's definitely a place I will look forward to visiting when I get back. I'll post pictures soon.

reprieve

Taipei, TAIWAN -- i'm here for an extra day. apparently my flight to manila yesterday was cancelled last week and no one bothered to inform me. at least now i know how to take the bus back to the city (cost: 90 taiwanese dollars).

i hear the heat back home has been intolerable so i guess i should be thankful for my reprieve (it was 13 degrees here yesterday).

the past few days have been just great. the food has been excellent - from fancy restaurants to crowded little joints. i even got to try veggie chicharon in sweet and sour sauce. it doesn't come near the real thing but it was really good nevertheless.

off to bali

we spent the weekend in beitou and danshui. we people-watched by the river and took the ferry to go biking in bali (a fishing village near danshui - now i can say i've been to bali twice). had a good laugh at this restaurant called 'large footprint' as they serve 'brazilian mushroom soup' and l the brazilian has never heard of it.

back in taipei we rushed to the zoo to say hi to the pandas that were a gift from the chinese government. taken together the two pandas' names mean 'reunification.' pretty smooth on china's part - all the locals were just crazy about the furry couple.

panda diplomacy 101

later in the day we threw in some pinoy flavor and headed to little manila to attend mass. st. christopher's was packed with OFWs and l got to practice his tagalog with the parish priest. the row of pinoy stores next to the church reminded me of quiapo. people were selling pre-paid load, ligo sardines and dried mangoes, plus liwayway magazine (i didn't know that was still around). there was even a TV showing a live broadcast of the late great francis m's wake.

we headed to SPOT taiwan film house afterwards for dinner and smuggled in some red horse from a little manila grocery to cap the night.

good times.

bem-vinda!

Manila, PH -- welcome to las islas filipinas! especially to all the superstar OFWs (overseas filipino workers). jushtine was here for christmas and new year and jeetas was here just last week. my favorite commies, jordan and lemon, spent christmas day with us in alabang.

a few highlights:

1) dolphin-watching in bohol

2) indie film-watching in makati

3) ziplining in tagaytay, with taal volcano in the background (with mouths wide open for the cameras)

4) beer-swigging at the saguijo parking lot with ditas' long-lost frat brothers

5) stopping over in cebu just to take the supercat ferry to tagbilaran city (the alvin and the chipmunks movie wasn't so bad)

pseudobackpacking fun!

joy, jan and i will see you here in the islands soon…