An Old Lampshade

One corner at the Hill Station, the restaurant at Casa Vallejo, in Baguio sits this old lampshade guarding the windows against the glare of the sunlight peeking through. It gives an antique motif to the place.

Mirrored Shapes

The right tower is where my office is. ^-^

Going out of the building and looking up the sky during some lunchtimes is such a treat on a busy day.

Enter Here

Entrance to the Eid'l Fitr Festival Exhibit

In commemoration of the end of Ramadan, Islam's holiest month, SM The Block North EDSA has pulled a three-day exhibit that featured Islamic culture and a bit of history of the lives of Muslim Filipinos from the Mindanao regions.

The makeshift facade with arches shaped like a pointed onion --a structure quite common in most mosques in the Philippines-- look so enticing . It was made impressively beautiful enough for me, and probably a lot other mall goers, to want to see more of what is inside.

I spent a good couple of hours going around the gallery learning new things. Well worth the effort and time.

Eerily Dark

This is how Makati skyline looks like before the heavy downpour today. It's creepy.

Summer Mist

It's 6:00 in the morning here in Manila and the temp is 28C. It's quite hot and the humidity is crazy. Staying outside is unbearable and morning stroll is impossible. For days like today, it feels heaven to be on a bus with AC set to its coldest making its windows look like this.

Wrap Ads

They are seen everywhere. Mobile adverts like this are like mushrooms in the rainy season.

As they seem to be loosely regulated, a lot of buses and vans are used for wrap advertising and corporate branding. Nowadays, there are only a few specially-designed vehicles that roam around like those in the early days used only for patalastas and consume gas and nothing more.

PBCom Tower

The Philippine Bank of Communications Tower, commonly known as PBCom, is the tallest building in the country since year 2000 to date.  It is an office skyscraper located on the corner of Ayala Avenue and VA Rufino  Street in Makati.

Although ranked as the tallest standing at 55 storeys high, it is not spectacularly taller compared to other buildings around the area.

Yabu Grinder

Aside from good food, part of the experience of dining at Yabu: House of Katsu is the personal touch in making your own sauce. You are given a saucer of sesame seeds and a grinding stick. It is fun doing it by yourself.

They claimed they were the ones who pioneered this idea, or somehow made it mainstream. Interesting indeed!

Close of Day

Helping BreadTalk Glorietta finish today's business.

I was so glad we were able to catch it still open at 9PM, although there were only few cheesy floss items left.

The pastries and baguettes here are good and fresh. A lot of people form a long line in any of their stores especially after 6PM with the reason apart from good quality bread is the 25% mark down.

Trays and estante need to be empty and clear so that tomorrow is going to be another fresh new day.

Shared Menu

We had lunch at New Bombay at the Fort a while ago. The food was so Indian. Hmmm... read. But one of the things that caught my eyes is their menu. The design, the font, and the color combination are great, except that it's marked Glorietta.

You would know immediately if a place is a startup or new in the business. It is backed up by an exiting, sometimes bigger branch.

Paint the Lobby Red

As they say it every year, usually alongside Valentine's day, - raise the red lanterns!

These hanging paper lanterns made the lobby of the The Enterprise Center in Paseo de Roxas, Makati red as part of the celebrations of Chinese New Year. Traditionally, red lanterns are a sign of joy and vitality.

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Los Dos Caballos

These two giant horse statues remind me of the movie The Two Horses of Genghis Khan. But I have no idea whether the movie is all about horses not because I haven't seen it yet.

These are the Tang Dynasty signature horses that flank the entrance to P.F. Chang's China Bistros. This one is the branch at Bonifacio High Street, The Fort.

PF Chang's is an upscale Chinese resto, but I prefer to call it Westernized Chinese as most of the food do not seem to have that kicky gingery taste which is common in Chinese cooking.

Aside from the great food and calming interior, the waitress was entertaining who was very quick and showed us an assortment of dipping sauces by mixing hot mustard, chili paste and some soy sauce. Spicy hot mustard is not a very popular condiment here. I never tried it until today.





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A Bare Tree

I was in Manila last weekend and I thought of dropping by Manila Bay before heading home. While walking through Rizal Park from Taft Avenue towards the bay area, I was able to take a couple of interesting pictures of people and spots. One of them is this bare tree in the middle of the block next to Maria Y. Orosa Street.

I think it came out great with the sky so orange providing a dramatic backdrop. It was a nice time of the day.

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Dressed in Bread

A mannequin rarely, if totally not at all, would come into mind when you talk about bake shops. Sure, a life-size figure means fashion. But Bread Talk  stores are different. The one at Market! Market! has a display window in front with two mannequins dressed in bread. Of course, they are not real. They are carton of boxes and threads that look like abaca but were made to look like varieties of bread.

Talk about going against the convention. That's called marketing.

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Sunset in Manila

Someone told me that a beautiful big sunset like this looks better over a body of water. But it's beautiful wherever you are if you ask me.

Lucky are those who practically live in the park that they always get to see this kind of sunset.

Petronas Towers

Standing high and mighty - these twin skyscrapers are a must visit when you are around Kuala Lumpur. You can have a good 360 degrees view of the city.

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Concert at the Park

One of the cultural projects of the Department of Tourism along with the committee that takes care of the development of national parks is a mini concert held every Sunday at Luneta. It showcases a themed musical program that features a Pinoy musician or a group of musicians in an open area where the Flower Clock is located, which is used as the back drop.

Today, they had the Jive Disciples, a group of woodwind ensemble enthusiasts and hobbyists. They played contemporary jazz, pop music, and jazzed-up Tagalog songs.

Bato sa Buhangin with the saxophone throughout sounded great.

Journaling Pen to Paper

Sitting in an angle with a notebook on his lap, one hand holding his drinks and the other his pen.

This dude did not only catch my attention but earned my respect as well. There is really something to be said for the simplicity, or rather complexity, of the pen and paper. I find him cool not only for not relying on a device to write something down but also for writing a journal to document his travels.

This is on a tourist bus headed to Bangkok from Siem Reap. Upon getting back to my seat, I tried to search for my favorite frixion pen that I remember I brought in my bag, but to my dismay I could not find it. I always bring a pen with me, but I always lose it.

I know it's a burst of emotion of suddenly wanting to do something because I saw someone doing it. I wanted to write this all down, badly. But I guess it's just as easy to keep things simple and I ended up posting this using my phone.

Trinoma Christmas Ladies

Hanging Christmas decors at Trinoma 
in Quezon City

They are not trees, but they are Christmas decors shaped like ladies. So I call them Christmas ladies. All Ayala malls have these shimmering splendid and beautiful distinctly elegantly Ayala holiday decorations.

In the Philippines, we have a very long, if not the longest in the world, Christmas celebration. It is believed particularly by the Catholics that Christmas ends on epiphany, the day after the Twelve Days of Christmas, which is why most Christmas trees and other decors are not taken down after January 7.  That is also after the day when the three wise men came to pay homage to Jesus Christ.

Spice Up your USB Drive

It looks like a normal chili pepper-shaped toy.

But when you open it up,  tadaah! A usb drive! A pepper-shaped USB drive. It is a freebie from Chili's.

The thing itself is cute, the idea even more.   :D

The Tallest Flagpole

Have you ever wondered where the tallest Philippine flagpole is located?

It is along Roxas Boulevard in Manila, across Kilometer Zero right in front of Jose Rizal's monument in Luneta. It is called the Independence Flagpole which was erected in commemoration of the Philippine independence from the United States on July 4, 1946. Yes, that's the date when the country finally became politically independent.

It is interesting to note that this pole is included among the few notable flagstaffs around the country under a law where in the national flag shall be hoisted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Also, it should be illuminated at night, as evident in this blurry night photo.

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I will try to take a better picture of this during the daytime soon. :)

Riding a Kuliglig

Isabela Farmers on a Kuliglig

It was so lucky of me to chance upon a group of farmers on a new year's day coming from the farm. I do not know exactly what they have in their carriage and what it was for, but the carriage they are on is something typical that farmers use around here. It is called kuliglig, a two-wheeled mini trailer pulled by a hand tractor.

They are commonly found in northern Philippines. There are no regulations that I know of regarding the use of these machines, so there are a lot of them. Some even use them as mode of transport in lieu of a car or a tricycle. Apparently, it can carry more passengers.

I haven't tried driving one myself, but they said that it is not easy to maneuver it because of its primitive steering.  To be able to make a sharp turn, the driver needs to get off and walk it around and then jump back on.