Preparing to move out and multiply

On my 30th blog (whoohoo!) I'm announcing plans to move out of this site. A bit unsettling because I'm already used to this set-up. I feel like there's more flexibility in terms of customising the layout, fonts and all this sort of stuff.

I want to share more photos though, hence, the decision to move out which I'm unable to do here. Yes, it took me months to admit it's time to pack up and go.

I'll leave you with this (second to the) final shot. It was taken forty thousand feet (or so) above sea level at the break of dawn on my way from Europe back to Asia. Yes, I purposely woke up, amidst interrupted sleep and all, just to watch the sunrise. It's always a beautiful sight to behold the start and end of a day from this perspective. How often does one literally catch rainbow colours splashed on clouds that collectively look more like "frozen" turbulent sea?

Ok, poetry aside, I'll let you know once my new space is up and running. Still under construction. Ciao bellos!

Venice & Rome - Another blast from the past

These I quickly jot down just so I don’t forget. I’m beginning to discover that this whole blogging phenomenon has much to do with not wanting to forget. While I can just grab a pen and write a journal, coming to this space has become a more preferred channel to release whatever it is that’s clogging my mind. Yes, I am “declogging.” It’s like I can’t move on until I write it. I know it’s bizarre but it’s there anyway. Maybe because I know if I were in Manila I would have somehow told you about it (even if you didn’t want me to) and shown you all the snaps I took with pasalubong (souvenir) to go with them. And so I go back to this.

It’s been almost a month since Italy but just to seal off all the anecdotes on this trip, I’ll swiftly run you through some of the highlights on Venezia and Roma. Again, the charm of these cities, best discovered walking, is in their ability to intantly transport you to a different era altogether. Whether its in a 70's James Bond film or a masquerade ball in the 1600's, it still made for much time travel.

Venezia

• Labyrinthine passages to get to Piazza San Marco - where you find its basilica and square (piazza) as beautiful as anyone else has attested. Locals said it should take us less than an hour to get from Piazza San Roma (where we could just take a boat) to this must-see cathedral. It took us 3 hours to find San Marco inspite of all the supposed directional signs. Venice is one massive maze you can easily get lost in (had been forewarned in Lonely Planet earlier on). Yet this seeming deliberate attempt to ‘lose’ you is “forgivable” because you just want to savour the beauty of this uniquely captivating maritime city. You know instinctively that you won’t find anything like it in the world.
• Art: Venetian masks and costumes, Murano glass, Burano lace
• Boat rides on the Grand Canal to and from Piazza San Roma to Piazza San Marco that Noi and I quietly burst into song (discovered we could sing some songs in harmony)!

Roma

• The late evening instant tour of ancient ruins and tourist sites (Palatino or Roman Forum, Mouth of Truth, Colloseu, Fontina de Trevi) by the hotel driver upon our pick up from the airport

• 3-hour afternoon walk around the city with office colleagues (activity part of work) which included visits to the Fontina de Trevi, Piazza Venezia (Capitol), Piazza Navona, The Pantheon, Piazza de Spagna (Spanish Steps)

• Orange tree-lined streets. The first time I've seen orange trees in my life!

• Discovering the Palatino (Roman Forum) and Colloseu on foot with Noy – even saw a newly-wed bride and groom walking by the arch beside the Colloseu

• The Vatican City – the tears just started to fall. I couldn’t explain it. I’ve been to other ancient sites, temples and museums which all showcase the richness of their respective cultures and faith. But the Vatican City, I was telling my mom, is a living monument of how truly our God rocks. It’s a gigantic storybook narrating the fall of man and his redemption. And best of all, a loving God who reaches out to fallen man. Christianity, it’s been said, is the only religion that has its God reaching out to its puny creation. I was so overwhelmed at all the things seen and heard at the Vatican. My jaw-dropping moments at the Uffizi or Accademia (Florence) are incomparable.

"Chillax" in Koh Samed

Pause muna from all the Italy talk.

I finally hit the beach --- sorry, I hardly count Hua Hin because it feels to me more like a seaside resort like Punta Fuego or Puerto Azul than a 'real' beach like Bora or Palawan--- after 18 months pining for one! Last weekend, with work issues coming out of our ears, a couple of us just decided to drop everything and go to Koh Samed (pronounced koh' sa-met'). Ok, in typical loserly fashion, I carried along my security blanket (aka my laptop) with the hopes of finding inspiration to go through my unread mails but we all know that didn't happen, right?! I know, I never seem to learn...

Anyhow, if you miss Boracay (or your favourite white sand beach party place), Koh Samed is a good place to start since it's only a 2.5 nerve-racking drive away from Bangkok plus another 15 minute nerve-racking speed boat ride to get into the island. It felt like what Bora might have been like 20 or so years ago. Some firsts for me in Koh Samed: First beach bumming outside my country and first henna tatoo! I have a sun design on the small of my back!

Unlike previous trips to the beach, this was my most unplanned and relaxed one. I finally understood and embraced the true meaning of "chillax!" I remember a hard-nosed advertising account director once tell me "masarap pala tumunganga sa beach" (it's apparently enjoyable to blankly stare at the beach). I didn't really make-tunganga much but I spent a good deal just vegitating, getting unprofessionally-massaged (at a good price) and people-watching. I especially enjoy watching chubby, stray dogs --- Thailand has the chubbiest stray dogs...I find it very odd...I think it has much to do with its benign, non-violent, animal-loving religion/culture --- fetch frisbees, soccer balls and unabashedly rush against waves. Now that's one sight that frequently made me tunganga.

Jolina, Whit and Carlo introducing me to the concept of “chillax"

Firenze - Blast from the Past

The first Italian city I set foot on was Firenze (Florence). What began as a journey towards the cradle of the Renaissance movement fascinatingly became a surreal trip down memory lane: readings, lectures and exams in school as well as late-night conversations over barako coffee and some bibingka (native dessert) with my Mom and Tita Luchi (a bonafide artist) on related topics. I couldn’t help acquiring a newfound appreciation for my teachers in art, literature, history, even music and Christian Life (religion)...more distinctly Miss Windor’s almost nagging reference to the “grandeur of Rome!" Back then, my classmates and I annoyingly thought, "what the fuss was all about!" It was only years after did I actually wholeheartedly agree with my high school English teacher on this count, as I walked through Firenze and watched storybooks, encyclopedia and still slide shows from a distant past come alive!

The Uffizi Gallery had my mouth gaping from start to finish. From Byzantine paintings of Madonnas and Children to influential works of Filippo Lippi (siya pala si Fra Lippo Lippi…all this time I thought that was just the name of an 80’s band!) to the ‘greater’ (or more famous…amongst trying-to-be-art-enthusiasts like yours truly) masterpieces of Botticelli, El Greco, Da Vinci, Raphael and, of course, Michaelangelo! Several of my companions and I had become instant fans of Michaelangelo after seeing his major works in Florence and Rome.

I was fortunate enough to have prebooked a guided tour of The Uffizi which allowed me to bypass queues that took hours to get into the museum. When we reached the Botticelli room, curiously there were long benches in the middle of the room. I suddenly understood why when I stood in front of “The Birth of Venus” and later on “La Primavera” My knees turned into jello when I saw these great pieces that I literally sank into a bench as I quietly admired the paintings. They had the same effect on my other tour groupmates. Our tour guide said, “Oh, don’t worry. We get that a lot. I think that’s why they have these benches. Take your time.”

My next and greater heart-stopping episode was at the Galleria dell'Accademia. By this time, I had rejoined Trang, Noy and Noi. Just when we thought we were getting the hang of and have had enough of Florentine artworks, we enter this room that had us screeching to a full stop. As in we halted for probably a good 5-10 minutes, 50 meters away from the legendary Michaelangelo sculpture of “David!” It’s not like we agreed “Ok let’s stop right here.” No, its perfectly imperfect beauty (David’s head and hands are disproportionately bigger than the rest of his body) simply demanded for a respectful, speechless pause. As we slowly approached this amazing piece of marble, we saw a number of “draft Davids” on both sides of the corridor.

I kept asking my friends, “How long will it take you to create something like that (the ‘final’ David) from a single slab of marble?!?” Initially, none of them would answer. Eventually, Trang exasperatedly said, “Forever!!!”

Me? Never. And Michaelangelo? Well, it only took him 2 years to sculpt David into perfection.

(Also check out Trang's blog on the same, entitled "David")

Breathless

I was describing to an Italian colleague how I felt my heart stop so many times mostly in absolute wonder of his country's glorious beauty, frequently having left me (and my Southeast Asian girl friends Trang, Noi and Noy) totally breathless.

It's only now that I realise the flight from Bangkok to Frankfurt (connecting flight) provided an ominous sign of what was up ahead. How often does it happen that ones' plane suddenly stops by, dead of night, at a place like Delhi, India to entrust a passenger suffering a heart attack to medics?! It happened with mine.

#1 Our whole trip had been dotted with anxious moments running after trains, boats, shuttles and tours, sometimes with heavy baggages in tow. The most excruciating dash was the walk from Piazza San Roma (Venice) to the train station which included 3 bridges (cummulatively worth as many steps as those of the "Spanish Steps" in Rome) to catch the train from Venice to Milan for me and Noi (to Rome for Noy and Trang). That's experiencing back-packing first-hand, with laptops to boot!

#2 Authentic Italian food and the concept of Slow food vs. Fastfood

#3 Coffee and the proper time for capuccino or espresso (as the rest of the world calls it), otherwise Italians just call it coffee

#4 Gelato

#5 Beautiful cities. Firenze (Florence), Venezia (Venice), Milano (Milan) and Roma (Rome)

#6 Beautiful, fashionable men (ages 12 to 92) who seem to have a strong appreciation for Asian ladies. Check out a hilarious account on this topic at Noi's blog (entitled "The Barbaric Invasion")!

Details on food and cities to follow. Ciao!

Bellisimo Italia!

Buon giorno! Here in beautiful, beautiful Italy now for work. Even if we try not to, it's inevitable to soak up its fabled rich culture.

Arrived in Rome late last night and was instantly psyched to see the Trevi Fountain (amongst other ancient sites) enroute to our hotel!

Taken for a (Tuk tuk) Ride...

What we had intended to be a necessary trip to the Royal Grand Palace ended up to be a hot and humid tuk tuk ride around the "old city" (felt like how a foreigner might feel inside our own Intramuros). Upon reaching the gates of the palace at noontime, we were stopped by "officials from the tourism office" to say we can't enter the premises until 2:30pm because of some Buddhist ritual going on (first time I've heard of that). Nevertheless, we were referred to a tuk tuk driver assuring us that for only THB 20, we can go to other historical spots including a "quick stop" to some lapidari.

Long and short of it, we did pay only THB 20 alright seeing the less-than-beautiful-side of this city, passing by the Temple of the Golden Buddha...

...gaping at gemstones and jewelry in some lapidari, only to miss the main event itself --- the Royal Grand Palace! Apparently the tuk tuk drivers get a cut of THB 100 for every purchase made in the shops they unwittingly slip the tourists into in between palace and temples. Ours even wanted to bring us to several other shops before going to the palace so he could get a few liters of petroleum for free if he brought us there. I firmly declined. Ano pang makikita namin (What else will we see) if he did?! At best, I got to show the Golden Reclining Buddha to my parents.
To top it all off, we couldn't find a metered cab to take us back to my apartment downtown. Going to the palace, we paid the cab driver THB 120. On the way back, we had no choice but to accept a THB 300 flat rate, reason being traffic downtown is extremely bad on Saturdays. Okay...but guess what? The driver gets us back in half the time it took us to reach the palace! Unbelievable.

This happened on my parents' last day before flying back home. What a fitting end. I should have trusted my Bangkok Survival Guides' advise on tuk tuk's. My Mom aptly commented, "All that glitters is not gold."

Oh well.

Pachyderms through Jungle & High Water

For me, the best part of this Kanchanaburi trip was riding on an elephant through a jungle and the River Kwai (Kwae Noi --- small river) itself!

Our elephants were up to their ears while wading through the river. I don't know if it was sheer boredom that drove her but mine had the audacity (humour?) to keep squirting water at me while on the river. Here's my dame in action.

My parents on their pregnant elephant (apparently mine was too).

This is the Mon village we passed through. The Mon people is a minority group that lives around the Sai Yoke Elephant Camp and make their living tending to the animals.




In these parts, it isn't unusual to see baby elephants accompany their moms while taking tourists on their backs. And yes, they trek the whole nine yards including swimming through the river! We thought that must have been very difficult for the babies but apparently, according to our tour guide, the river is their favourite part of the hike. She has seen a baby elephant refuse to get out of the river that her mom had to start pushing her up the riverbank. In response, the baby sprayed water on her. Parang tao!

* * *

Last quick cuento. While bamboo-rafting on the river, lo and behold, we saw a Kingfisher! We saw something similar to this.

The Truth behind the Bridge over the River Kwai

This is the train that carried us on the infamous "Death Railway" which the Japanese Imperial Army directed during World War II. It is called such because of the atrocities and death thousands of Allied Prisoners of War (PoW) have had to endure to construct this link between Thailand and Burma --- which my Dad agrees was a potentially good strategic move at that time.

Based on the account written in the "certificate" I received after riding the said train: "More than 16,000 prisoners of war and 100,000 labourers, including Chinese, South Indians, Malays, Burmese, Japanese and Dutch-Indonesian Eurasians died building the railway. Most of the deaths were from disease, malnutrition and exhaustion."

I guess it's a bit gruesome to be checking out the Death Railway, JEATH (acronym for the primary participant nations: Japan, England, Australia, Thailand and Holland) War museum and War cemetery at the first leg of my parents' journey. Sobrang nakakaawa (truly a pity) to see the living conditions of the PoW and appalling how some people can be capable of such inhumanity. I remember having the same feeling when I visited the War Crimes Museum in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I literally burst into tears when I was there because of utter shock. This time I think I was a bit more prepared. Still, it was a sobering thought knowing we live in relatively peaceful times compared to those who have had to live through war (and continue to do so elsewhere in the world). Even asked my Dad what my grandfather, a war veteran, was doing during the war. I was just thankful none of my family had to go through anything like this.



On a lighter note, here's a look at the coffee and cookies that come with riding "first class" on this train.
We passed through lush vegetation all throughout our train trip, confirming what we were told that the Thai government strongly supports its agriculture industry, one of which is through a very extensive and effective irrigation system.

Phra Pathom Chedi

Phra Pathom Chedi (Nakhon Pathom Province), said to be the tallest Buddhist monument in the world, was our (me and my parents) first stop before heading towards Kanchanaburi some two weeks ago. The chedi supposedly attracts Buddhist pilgrims all over the world. In fact, I saw a few pilgrims perform a particular ritual of walking around the circular structure three times carrying around, in a prayerful pose, what seemed to be a lotus stem. Each 'revolution' around the chedi represents a prayer offered to each of the following in this strict order: (1) Buddha; (2) The monk of the highest order in the temple; and (3) all of the pilgrim's ancestors.

Buddhist pilgrim performing the ritual of '3 revolutions' around the Chedi.

My parents visit & Kanchanaburi Part I

Tomorrow my parents would have been here in Thailand for exactly two weeks. It's been great hanging out with them and learned they were such troopers. Yes, including my Mom! I must say that, truly, "my cup overfloweth" with all the new experiences shared with them in this country. I feel very blessed.

The next few blogs will be devoted to describing how their visit had been. First off would be the weekend spent in Kanchanaburi. I had previously gone to this province with a couple of Pinoy friends last October to check out the key tourist spots. This time I went with my parents to appreciate its more "historical" side. So before I rattle off with another round of historical ramblings, I'll let you in on its more "tourist-y" attractions.

* * *

Kanchanaburi is a province 128 km West of Bangkok. There you will find the well-known "Bridge over River Kwai" from which the award-wining 1978 film "Deer Hunter" (Robert de Nero, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken) was based on. We also visited the Tiger Temple, Lawa Cave and the Hellfire Pass.
The Tiger Temple is a monastery and sanctuary to wild animals. Legend has it that some tigers had found their way here for protection by the Buddhist monks who later on became their 'friends.' We also saw deers, herds of wild boar as well as a black bear cub.

We had to climb hundreds of steps to get to the Lawa Cave. It housed eight chambers (rooms) with awesome stalactites and stalagmites to behold. Here you see Mabs, Dong and Claire in one of Lawa Cave's more impressive chambers.


Apart from reflecting on the state of PoW's who perished while building the Hellfire Pass, we soon discovered that this historical site offered some of the best photo opportunities compared to the others we went to. Below is Dong's postcard-pretty 'candid' pose as an example :)

Meeting prehistoric ancestors in Jakarta

Couldn't help remembering my history classes here in Jakarta. It offered living proof that we Filipinos are truly descendants of Indo-Malay people (who walked on landbridges long before we could recall the name of our oldest forefathers)!

Skimming the surface. Apart from a closer semblance to Indonesians compared to other Southeast Asian cousins (from Thailand, Vietnam, etc. who seem to have stronger Chinese influence), we are very much prehistorically related to Indonesians in terms of our positive disposition (friendly, extremely hospitable), food (greasy) and language. In fact, one of the highlights of this trip was figuring out some of the Bahasa words I encountered. Dig this:
BAHASA / FILIPINO (DIALECT ) / ENGLISH
dua / duwa, dalawa / two
pitu / pito / seven
walu / walo / eight
libu / libo / thousand
pintu / pinto / door
gunting / gunting / scissors
balut / balot / wrap
anak-anak / anak / child
mura / mura / cheap
mahal / mahal / expensive
makan / mangan (kapampangan) / food
babi / baboy / pig
kambing / kambing / goat
krupuk / kropek / some crunchy fishy-smelling snack

I even found this dish that closely resembled our bulalo (bone marrow soup) except it tasted more like beef sinigang and they had a different way of taking out the marrow. They suck it out with a straw! Eeeeyyyummmm...

Trang and Rahul marvelling at this thing called the krupuk, found in almost every market stall --- in different shapes and colours, too!
And just when I thought that the kulintang was originally ours, I find that they have it too! Either they invented the musical instrument or we did! Does it matter?!? :) This isn't exactly the kulintang but I saw a lot of it in the souvenir shop as well as the sungka!
Under our skin. Both our nation's histories share a similar pattern. Our culture has some Chinese influence the same way that theirs has traces of Indian culture. Our countries were both colonised by European nations for several centuries and somehow been bruised by that experience. In spite of this we both seem to carry on a deep sense of religiousity. Indonesia is about 80% Moslem, 20% Christian while the Philippines is about 80% Christian, 20% Moslem.