Lightning Storm As Seen From Makati

Who saw this lightning storm in Makati City six days ago?



No wonder the storm was like that. This was taken around 3am of Wednesday morning (or was it Thursday??). Weird, right?

What's Your Driving Music?

What's a great driving song? I was just sitting here and listening to Yahoo Music when it played Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield.

Take me away: A secret place.
A sweet escape: Take me away.

Then I just thought that this song would be great when driving. It's not too slow to make you feel drowsy and it's upbeat enough to make you feel that yes, you're still alive. That's how I like the songs to go when I'm driving. Rock music makes me hyperactive, and that's not so good for soon I'll be going at it at 80 mph. If the music is too slow, it makes me feel sleepy and drowsy. The best types of driving music for me would probably be jazz, some kinds of R&B, a little alternative rock, erm country music, something in the mid-stream upbeat side.

There's this male friend who likes to listen to The Carpenters while driving. Oh boy, once we were on a ten-hour marathon road trip and when it was his turn to drive, he played the whole 2-disc Greatest Hits: The Carpenters album. Of course, we all fell asleep in no time. I woke up in the middle of the night and found him all-alive, energetic and singing along with Karen Carpenter at the top of his voice!

There are also some who like playing classical music when driving. Imagine that, driving along to the sounds of the Hallelujah Chorus. Or to the thumping sounds of The Great Gate of Kiev. Majestic... and amazing. I wonder where I'll end up if that were me.

We all have different preferences and I'm sure you will have your own driving music preference. What's your style? What's your favorite music for driving?

The sun is on my side. Take me for a ride. I smile up to the sky. I know I'll be all right.

Fernbank Museum on a Weekend Afternoon

Fernbank Museum, originally uploaded by Rizza Po.

Other than New York, where else can you find a museum that offers dinosaur fossils, martinis and movies in IMAX on Friday nights? Answer: the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia. It's a geek paradise - DNA models, dinosaur fossils, life-like replicas of animals in the wild like bears, deer, and other exotic animals. There are also areas for play for kids and the not-so-kids, like a giant bubble-maker, science tricks, and other great stuff. Though we're not exactly kids anymore, I think we kind of enjoyed it.

Two of our friends based in Houston, but working from Kansas City, decided to visit Atlanta that weekend since Hurricane Katrina was hovering near the Mexican Gulf at that time (yes, this photo was taken in 2005). We all decided to go to the Fernbank Museum that weekend since it's just nearby. Besides, I have been passing it everyday for several weeks already yet didn't even get to peek inside. But we were glad, it's a great place for a drowsy weekend. You will get scared, have fun, be awed and amazed, see a film on IMAX, all in one place.

Again: Think Big

A great man just asked a thoughtful question today -- is it worthy? Everything that we see and experience in our travels, is it all worthy of the hard work and sweat that we put in to get there? Seth Godin in his blog proposes that "our birthright is to fail and to fail often..." but all the while doing something great, working for something bigger than ourselves.

Read his stuff. :)

Oklahoma City: Steaks, Bricktown and A Water Taxi

The boat guide slowly steers our boat through the dark waters of the man-made canal. The night sky is clear, the crowd at the nearby stadium is going wild, the younger generation are all at the giant cinema complex a block away, the hip and the fabulous are waving at us from the terrace of the bars and restaurants above us, and we all wave back. When we pass by a foot bridge, the boat guide tells everyone to shout "yee-ha!" Obligingly, we all shout back - men, women, children - "yee-ha!"

Oklahoma in Two Days
That is a scene straight from my trip to Oklahoma City. I was working on an engagement for one of the oldest and largest non-profit organizations in the US and my Manager wanted me to go over to Oklahoma for two days to visit one of the client's facilities. I was shocked at that, for even in the Philippines, I haven't even been assigned in Laguna. Now, he wanted me to go visit a city in another state, for only two days. From where I came from, that just wasn't done!

Arriving in the city on a Thursday, I get lost right away two miles from the airport. Blaming it on the car steering and bad directions, I went around the airport loop several times before finally finding my way out to the main highways. It seems I have a penchant for getting lost at the wrong places at the wrong times.

That afternoon, deciding to do something "local" other than working at the hotel, I went out in search of Lake Hefner. The lake is pretty near the city (according to the guidebooks) and I found it easily. Yes, I didn't get lost this time, thanks to online driving direction. There's a park around the lake and on a work-day afternoon, it's quiet with a few families having a snack here and there, several kids on the playground and rain clouds brewing in the distance. There must have been some kind of wind that day for after taking only a few photographs, it started to rain. Off I went back to the mall.

Obviously, I don't want to elaborate on what happened at work the next day. Suffice it to say that I saw some really cool stuff and had to do a lot of writing and editing afterwards. That night though, I thought that I had to make the effort to get to know the city a little bit. Sometimes, we do business in different cities but we just go to the places that are familiar to us and we do things that were part of our routine back home. At that time though, I was determined to understand local culture, so I madly read the magazine at the hotel, the one with all the city guides and information. Then off I went to find local flavor.

Get Me Some Local Flavor, Er Culture
Oklahoma is famous for its steaks. Please don't ask me about the beef production statistics there but the restaurant seemed to be on all the major recommendations for things to eat. I went out to the city center and settled on one of the best places in town - Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse. An Oklahoma native, Mickey Mantle was a baseball legend. Now, what could be more Americana than a medium well prime rib at Mickey Mantle's in the middle of Oklahoma's Bricktown district? I thought it was one of my luckiest nights.

After all that heavy-hitting dinner, I had to go and pass the time by doing something fun and frivolous. When I saw the yellow water taxi, I knew right away that I had to get on one of those. After all, my drama was supposedly to do what the locals do and experience what the tourists do.
The water taxi is a longer version of a speed boat. It goes along the Bricktown canal which winds its way through several blocks in the city center, affording one with a good glimpse of the bar and restaurant crowd, historical points of interest and several foot bridges. Unlike the Venetian gondolas though, this water taxi is powered by an engine.

So there I was, riding the water taxi with groups of families, a couple of people my age and an older couple. The weird thing is that in this water taxi ride, the guide doesn't just point out things and places of interest, he also makes everyone wave at people in outdoor tables and terraces, as well as cheer on everyone to say "yee-ha!" everytime we pass under a bridge or foot bridge. Until this day, I never understood why it's done. It must be a Southern thing. But I do intend to find out soon.

That was my quick adventure in OKC. I must have been there for only 48 hours but I felt like I had done a lot. I can still remember the sounds of the crowd from the baseball park across the street, Bricktown, downtown, and the drive around the city. What I did there was somehow affirming for me, that I can balance business and having other pursuits outside of work. What happened to that "affirmation" though is another long story. That trip also marked a start to having a new attitude towards business travel - that we can work hard and do business in other places but that it is also equally important to take the time to absorb the local culture, the city's eccentricities and traditions, as well as experience the local attractions. It can make a trip a richer experience.

When We Disappear, We're On Vacation

Lately, I've been hearing a lot of talk on people suddenly disappearing in the office. Most just need a break and go on vacation. No formal notice, no vacation leave forms. It's just a vacation for a few short days.

People notice only this. They go crazy when someone does not come to the office, despite the fact that the person has a high-end laptop, top of the line internal modem, wifi connectivity, remote collaboration software and, sometimes, a remote access connection token for connectivity to the office network. I see this again and again, I have even done this myself - the sudden disappearance act. But there seems to be a good explanation behind this.

We work in an intensive, client-driven industry. The customer is king and the deadline drives our life. Where I work, we have ten, sometimes more than ten, projects going on at the same time. Also, there is an unwritten rule that you cannot roll around for a week with no project going on. You always have to have something going on. Then, while you're doing that project, something's always beeing cooked up and new projects suddenly appear out of nowhere! With this kind of intensity going on, there is no way that a proper vacation can be had even if you plan for it months in advance. Of course, by proper vacation, I mean you blissfully relaxing somewhere and the whole office blissfully humming like the well-oiled machinery that it should be and not blasting at you on where you put that god-forsaken file.

I have a theory that the best time for the employees of a project-based firm to go on vacation is in between projects. That time when a project has just been finished so that you come back ready to take on a new project. I tried this once and it was great. Awesome. I came back to work ready to rock.

The American Institute of Stress estimates that burnout costs the United States $300 billion a year in medical expenses, absenteeism and associated costs. According to the National Geographic Society Traveler magazine, some studies have also shown that an annual vacation can cut the risk of heart attack in men by one-third and in women by one-half.

Whatever the reasons may be for employees suddenly going on vacation, it can be said that we cannot underestimate the importance of a vacation. There are some who say that when you're tired, work. But Richard Seltzer, a writer, also said that, "your vacation is a break with the ordinary work-a-day world, and also an expression of who you are, or at least the self you dream yourself to be." It's about you, and your dreams for yourself. The new generation of workers do not accept second-best anymore. Unless the modern-day workplace helps employees realize their dreams for themselves and see themselves in the workplace, these employees will one by one disappear.

Moments to Just Do It

In our travels, there are times when we are so attracted to a certain scene, a certain view that we get the urge to take a picture. We hold an internal mental debate whether to just grab the moment and take that picture, or risk looking naive, or worse, like someone from the boondocks.

I often have times like these, and often, these happen at weird times like when a camera is not exactly easily reachable or allowed - like in the middle of the road while driving, or inside a plane that is about to take off, or a hundred meters up in the air inside a cage-like thing for humans (they called it a cable car, ha...) suspended in the middle of two hills. Exciting, but insanely distracting.

Often, the answer is to give in. There is a running joke among some of my friends that I am the only person they know who will stop on the shoulder of a highway road to take pictures. It's like that Nike commercial, just do it. How I wish we can also do this more often in life. You know, grab the moment and just do it.

New Metered Taxi Service at NAIA

There's a new metered taxi service at both NAIA I and II. These yellow taxis will take you to any destination in Mega Manila (Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan and Laguna). Flagdown rate is PHP70 for the first 500 meters and PHP4 for every 300 meters. The taxi meter units are also equipped with a receipt dispensing feature.

These taxis can be found right near the white airport taxi loading area at the airport. When you come out of the Domestic Arrival area, turn right and go straight until you see the line of yellow colored taxis. Get a "receipt" from the counter and give that to the driver.

Last time I was there, I wasn't aware of this service yet, and the airport staff were helpful enough to point me to the metered taxi service. The fleet is new, the drivers are trained and they issue a receipt. I only paid half of what I usually pay for the big white SUV taxis. This is a great development in the travel industry. Next time you travel, just look for the yellow cabs. Happy travels.

Bacolod-Silay International Airport: A Survival Guide

Bacolod City has a new airport. It's in the middle of a sugarcane field and surrounded by majestic-looking mountains in the East. Sitting in the departure area becomes an otherworldly experience as the clear glass window frames mountains, sugarcane fields and coconut trees. But when I arrived there, I had no idea what to expect or what it looked like. As I was feeling a little shy, I told everyone not to bother picking me up. Besides, I wanted to see how the transport system was like. This new airport is a little tricky as it's in Silay City, around 30 minutes from downtown Bacolod City. Fortunately, there are several options available.

So here's a little guide for all of you who have not yet passed through the new Bacolod-Silay International Airport.

How to Get Out of the Airport

• Get someone to pick you up.
• Take a taxi. When you leave the baggage area, there will be guys right before the other door going outside holding placards with "Taxi" written on them. Approach them and tell them you need a taxi. They will give you a sort of receipt which you will give to the driver waiting outside. Standard rate going to Bacolod City is around PHP420.
• Take the Shuttle. Right next to the taxi guys will be little counters marked "Shuttle" and there will be ladies there who will take your payment and give you a receipt. The shuttle is only PHP100 (and don't pay anything more if someone insists otherwise). Shuttles are basically vans and don't be surprised to find 4-6 other passengers there with you. These shuttles have official stops like SM, Robinson's Place, and such, but don't be shy to ask the driver to drop you somewhere specific, like your hotel. It's perfectly okay and they're actually willing to do so. But the farthest that they can go is the downtown area.

Shuttle Me to the Airport

Options for going to the airport are basically the same:

• Get someone to bring you to the airport.
• Taxi.
• Take the Shuttle. There are shuttles/vans parked at SM City Bacolod and Robinsons Cybergate (in front of the old airport). They leave the terminals 2 hours prior to the departure time of flights but some say that there are also vans that leave every hour. Again, don't be shy to tell the driver if you're in a hurry. Fare is also PHP100.
• Colorum SUVs/Vans. There are colorum SUVs parked at the Silay City Plaza. Fare is PHP50, but you can have the van for yourself and not wait for other passengers for PHP200.
• Take the tricycle. Weird, huh. But yes, you can get a tricycle at the Silay City Public Market for PHP10. Another option is a multicab going to Guimbalaon, but it's not a recommended option. Jeepney fare from Bacolod (i.e., Mandalagan) to Silay is PHP10-12.

Additional photos of the new Bacolod-Silay International Airport are posted in Flickr.

Free Wi-Fi Hotspots in Makati

Metro Manila can be one of the most boring places out there. It depends on the day, or my mood, but it's usually kind of boring. To compensate, I play around on the internet, discovering new stories, concepts and applications, reading other travelers' stories. But it's much more enjoyable when I don't have to pay for the internet, that is, when I find a free wi-fi connection.

Here's my list of free wifi connections in Makati City. There are other lists out there as well, much longer and wider in scope and you may want to try those out as well. But I encourage you to go around and discover on your own.

• Bel-Air Village, Baranggay Park [WiGo]
• LKG Food Tower Odyssey [WiGo]
• PBCom Tower, Food Patio [WiGo]
• Power Plant Mall (Block 9, P1, R1, R2, R3 but there's none at Starbucks) [WiGo]
• Shakey's Rada, Jaycem Building [WiGo]
• Enterprise Center, Food Park [WiGo]
• Bo's Coffee, Dela Rosa St [BOs delaRosa]
• Greenbelt 2
• Starbucks Glorietta 4

These I haven't tried yet but I had some leads that they have wifi. Well, most likely they'd have it.

• Hotel Intercontinental, Makati
• Manila Peninsula (lobby area)
• Makati Shangri-la Hotel, Makati

Stone Mountain Park: Sculpture and Laser Show

"Hi, are you guys Filipinos?"

After living in Atlanta, GA for a few weeks, it was the first time that someone asked us that question. We all look at the American woman and her daughter behind us, smiling. We are on the train that goes around the Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad, a 5-mile trip that goes around the base of Stone Mountain. We acknowledge them and she exuberantly invites us to meet her Filipino husband. When we got down the train, we all follow her to the picnic area. A voice inside me is saying that we shouldn't talk to strangers, but I trust my other girlfriends' instincts and follow along.

We meet the husband, a missionary from Samar. We talk a little bit and listen to the wife talk about how she used to go to the post office in Samar to deliver and mail letters to her mother in the US. They then invite us to go and visit Myrtle Beach. Great.

This is Stone Mountain Park, "America's favorite picnic ground" prior to the Civil War. The main attraction here are the activities around the stone mountain, also called "the largest deposit of merchantable granite in the world." In short, it's a mountain that is actually made up of solid stone. On the northern face of the mountain, there is a gigantic carving of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. This is the world's largest piece of sculpture.

After walking around and taking the cable car to the top of the mountain, we get hungry. So we pile up on the car, go out of the park and find a Chinese restaurant that offers a buffet spread. When you have six people who have different tastes, Chinese food is the only food we can all agree on. Chinese food is also generally cheaper in the U.S.

The buffet is good, there is a wide selection and there is a desert bar which includes fresh fruits and ice cream. We all think we are in food heaven. Who knows how many plates of food we have consumed that day. Who was counting anyway? What I don't forget up to now are the mountains of orange wedges piled high on our plates.

After the heavy early dinner, we go back to the park to catch the laser show. Parking space is nowhere to be found and we go around the parking area several times. Two of my friends are already threatening to literally move the motorcycles parked nearby. Then our prayers are answered and we finally find the prized parking space.

There is a big crowd in the picnic area. We find out that guests sit on the grass; others brought a picnic blanket, while others have picnic chairs. The sound-and-light laser show includes lasers beamed on the side of the mountain, fireworks and music. Of course, country music too.

On the way home, we sit in silence and wonder at the day that went by. Why was that Chinese buffet so cheap when we ate so much?

If you want to read more on the park, more info can be found at the Stone Mountain Park website.

Goya Dark Mint as Pasalubong

In the Filipino culture, there is a concept called "pasalubong". It's the traditional practice of giving a gift to your host, friends or family when you arrive at another city or place. Actually, the gift itself is also called the pasalubong. It is a tradition that is so much a part of the Filipino culture.

For so many years, expats and migrant workers bring along an extra bag or balikbayan box just for the gifts. Travelers and vacationers who go to other countries do the same thing. But there's never been a local brand of chocolates yet that can stand head to head with the likes of Hersheys, Ferrero Rocher or Milka, that travelers can bring to other countries.

Flashback fifteen plus years ago. Kids then loved Goya, that local brand that brought us Curly Tops and Flat Tops. There was no need to refrigerate them so even the neighborhood tiangge had it. It was cheap too.

Now back to the present time, where everyone has been blogging and twitting about the new Goya Dark Mint (dark chocolates with mint). Or maybe it's not new, maybe it's been there for some time now and it just slowly entered the conversation. Whatever. People love it, I love it and there's been a mad rush ever since to find them. One Dark Mint-holic from Davao went grocery shopping last week and when she saw no Goya Dark Mints, she panicked and thought they ran out of it. It turns out they just transferred it to another shelf.

The new Goya Dark Mint comes in an export-ready packaging and it's only PHP25.50 (at Landmark). Are we witnessing the rebirth of the Goya brand?

There have been a lot of people who have been saying that they will bring this as a pasalubong when they go to other countries. It doesn't really matter what you bring as a gift. As they say, it's the thought that counts. It's the fact that you thought about giving something to your friends and family. Different cultures may have different ways of showing gratitude but it's still all about sharing.

Goya Dark Mint is only one of the new pasalubong trends coming out. There was a commercial that claimed that it was Goldilocks, ang pasalubong ng bayan (the gift for everyone). What other interesting pasalubong ideas and/or travel gifts do you have? Care to share them? Send me a message. Or drop a note.

Globility

While reading posts on the net, I came across this write-up on a cool family (The Jenss Family Travels) that will go on a year-long trip around the world. They call the idea for the trip as Globility, that is, the "quality of being open to a world of cultures and experiences." Why this caught my attention? It's quite interesting. I look forward to reading their travel stories from different parts of the world.

Read on... As a friend of the father, Rainer Jenss, says, "Set your intention and the universe will conspire to show you the way."

Back Lot Tree

I always feel blessed when I see this picture. We were riding the tram that goes around the Universal Studios lot in L.A., and since we were on a studio tour, we were restless. There were a lot of information that were being given to us, so many facts and so many interesting things to see. I could never remember in which particular part of the lot that tree stood, but I can remember that it was in the middle of a cicular driveway. There was something about the tree’s shape and the way that the light fell on it that I was compelled to just take a picture of it anyway. Everytime I look at it, I feel thankful for the blessings given to me at that particular moment. Who knew that light and shadow could ever work together like that?

On Sunday, there was a fire that destroyed parts of Universal Studios Hollywood back lot. It is said that even the popular King Kong exhibit was burned down. I hope that the tree is still there, standing proud and playing tricks with the light.

If some areas were destroyed, maybe there will be additions to the park soon. Change can be a good thing. What new attractions do you think can we expect to see this year and next year?

Sunset from Midtown Atlanta

I have no idea what to write about that picture. I just wanted to share it… Call it nostalgia if you will. Vacation sunset meets industrial/residential area. Hehe.

That shot was taken facing western Atlanta, and if I moved my camera just a little bit to the right, I would have included Atlantic Station in the shot. Atlantic Station is one of the area’s newest premiere entertainment, residential and business hotspots.