Top 5 Things To Do in Kabankalan City

Here is my list of the top 5 things to do in Kabankalan City (from a visitor's point of view):

1. Take part in the Sinulog Festival (held every third Sunday of January)
2. Swimming, hiking and a picnic at Mag-aso Falls
3. Public plaza
4. Public market (just so you see what the locals do)
5. Visit the new City Hall

Bring No Luggage

Just wanted to share a little tip out there, although it's not exactly a tip as everyone is supposed to know about this already. Yes, bring no check-in luggage with you when you can.

When I traveled a few days ago, I didn't want to bring check-in luggage with me, so I brought only carry-on luggage. In the rush for the Christmas holidays, there were long lines at NAIA III and I was quite anxious to get through check-in, specially as I didn't get proper sleep the night before (another side-effect of traveling). Why do I have to fall in line with all the other passengers that have a month's worth of luggage with them, right? Good enough I talked to a friend a few steps behind me on the line, for I suddenly saw the Express Check-in Counter of Cebu Pacific. Whew! There was only one person there, whereas I was in a line with 6 people before me with several carts (yes, carts) of luggage with them. From the time I arrived at the airport, it only took me 20 minutes to get through to the security gates. More time to explore and find a spot in which to park myself. :)

Cebu Pacific Air can be reached through their website at www.cebupacificair.com

Alpine Experience in Helen, Georgia

Nestled in the mountains of Georgia, the town of Helen is a must-see for all Georgia visitors and those who head to the Southeast US. Being in Helen is like entering a totally different city, almost like being in Europe, except that you're in Helen, Georgia.

The architecture is European, creating an alpine look and feel that can make Oktoberfest a richer experience. When we went to Helen, it was more of a "tour" of the place so we didn't get to participate in the Oktoberfest festivities. I know what you might be thinking, but yes, we didn't even get to taste the sausages and the pretzels. We did get to go to a Wendy's, which still had the alpine-European architecture.

A few miles outside the town center, we stopped by the Habersham Winery. They hold free wine tastings and they have pretty good wines. My friends thought it was an opportunity, considering that they thought they missed the beer at Oktoberfest, so we all flashed our IDs and went swirling and sloshing and spitting our way through the collection.

Near Helen is also a great place to unwind, the active kind that is. You can hike your way through the really walker-friendly hiking trail to Ruby Falls. It's a great hike after a week of hard work, with all the greens and the little streams every now and then. Our friends from Kansas who were with us thought it was really cool (they thought they didn't have something like that in Kansas).

Below is a picture of a tree I found that I think grew up on rock.


There are many other experiences in store for everyone at Helen and in the surrounding areas. You can do mini-golf, kart racing, river rafting or floating on one of those tubes, hiking, swimming, and a lot of other things to do. Happy travels.

Landscapes: Westwood Village

Westwood Village in Los Angeles, California as seen from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Home to entertainment and technology industry companies, University of California - Los Angeles, budding filmmakers, Fox Theater at Westwood, Diddy Reese (cookies!), Noodle Planet and a lot of other restaurants and shops.

SMX Convention Center Pictures

Pictures at the SMX Convention Center taken recently during the Firm's anniversary dinner.

To Live Inside a Mall

When I found out that I was to stay at a hotel that is connected to a 200-plus-store mall, I was dumb-struck. No way. Er,sure!

Two and a half years ago, I was assigned to work at a client located in Birmingham/Hoover, Alabama. I was kind of excited to find out where I will be staying as I was to be there for several weeks. So when I found out that I was to virtually stay in a mall, the first word that came to mind was "dangerous".

I am actually not that into shopping. I am probably what might be called a "bursty shopper". I shop only when I feel like it and when I absolutely have to. But when I do shop, I really shop. :)

So there we were, we made our reservations to the Wynfrey Hotel at the Riverchase Galleria Mall. It's a 15-story hotel with around 330 rooms. It's literally attached to the Riverchase Galleria Mall and it's also one of the state's most popular tourist destinations.

During that first week in Birmingham, we faced a lot of work so I never really got to do some serious shopping. On the two days that I did go around the mall, I suddenly had this weird feeling that everything was expensive and ended up only buying a couple of DVDs. I got Batteries Not Included, a Syvester Stallone sports movies collection... stuff. My kuripot side prevailed.

Why is there so much hype on shopping malls, I wonder? It has become a park and a tourist attraction. Which is also good, in a way. The urban planners and the marketing people have gotten really good at this. It's not that they're bad, but there could be so much more places and activities to do out there. I guess it is the generation of the shoppaholic and the maller.

One associate went out running in the woods of Birmingham every night. So he discovered all these great running trails in the area. Birmingham is like that, it's urbanized, yet it has these pockets of woods here and there. He liked the urban-nature interplay of the city so much that when a career work-life balance issue came up, he eventually moved there.

The week after we came to Birmingham, we moved to another hotel 19 miles from the Galleria Mall. So after work, I had to do a little bit of driving to get to the hotel. That's when I started discovering places off-the-beaten track. For example, I discovered this park with a garden, a hiking trail and a running path that winds through woods and trees and a few inclines here and there for a little bit of challenge. There was also this scenic drive that I can't remember where anymore because I just happened to pass by there because I got lost.

After wandering around, I finally discovered where the rest of the young and hip crowd of Birmingham hang out - at The Summit, a huge mall complex, strip mall style, and has almost everything that you would ever need or want. Fun. That is where the real shopping began. That though, is another story for another day.

Colored Jellyfish

Jellyfish inside color lighted tanks in a dark room at Ocean Park Hongkong.

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.

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

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?

Pyrolympics Awarding Ceremonies Tomorrow (Saturday)

Last week, I turned my back on the World Pyro Olympics and instead went home to watch the Great King Sejong show on TV. Well, another relative is recently in town on vacation and I will actually suggest that they go to the Pyrolympics awarding ceremonies tomorrow. It's the last night and there will be a Fellowship of Fire exhibition display.

What makes it even bigger is that for the past few years, the competition has been held in the classical fireworks exhibition format, or Classical Pyrotechnics. Simply put, that is fireworks with no musical accompaniment. Next year, the organizers are said to be planning to introduce the pyro-musical format, where the fireworks are synchronized to music.

Read more on the Pyrolympics and the participating countries at the clickthecity[dot]com website.

Frank Gehry and MOCA Los Angeles

Earlier today, I discovered this video of Frank Gehry's talk (From 1990, defending a vision for architecture). I never realized that it's kind of long but it's a good introduction to him and his work. I loved his design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California.


When I was in Los Angeles, I happened to wander into the Museum of Contemporary Arts (L.A.). It's also a great place to discover design. It's just in front of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and it has a great collection of Frank Gehry's designs, including the previous versions of the Concert Hall when it was still being designed. There are also a lot of interesting stuff there like, like a mechanical skirt that "blooms" or sort of moves. There are architectural models of the Bubble Building in Beijing, the Beijing Olympic Stadium, fabric designs by Issey Miyake and other great stuff on fashion. What's more, the entrance fee is only USD$8. That ticket also got me free entrance to their satellite museum at the Pacific Design Center. But I wasn't able to go there anymore as I ran out of time.

Grand Avenue is a good place to wander and explore. What are your favorite architectural highlights in your city?

Visiting Savannah

In my previous post (It Takes Clouds to Make a Glorious Beaufort Sunrise), I wrote about a trip to Beaufort, SC. After Beaufort, our party went on to explore Savannah, Georgia, which is only around 2 hours from there. Savannah is a beautiful city; I have been there twice and every time I always find something new or cool. It's a city rich with tradition and history. There are historic homes all over, historic cemeteries and historic forts. The downtown area is now one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United States.

I took the picture above at the Colonial Park Cemetery. With Spanish moss hanging from trees, silence, old tombstones for publishers, businessmen, leaders and patriots, the cemetery is calming yet eerie at the same time. That's why I found it interesting to find people reading or walking/exercising there. Usually, cemeteries are only visited on special occasions or on November 1st. But here, people treat the place as a park.

In Savannah, I love walking on River Street and Factors' Walk, visiting the "squares" that are all over the city, having lunch at Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons, walking around to look at the unique architecture and, generally, just soaking up on all that Southern charm. An author, Nick Cohn, talked to someone in Savannah once and that person told him that the secret to living there is to live slow, to learn to drip like honey.

Remember that movie called Forrest Gump? "Life is like a box of chocolates" and all that? The scenes where he was sitting on a bench waiting for the bus were shot at Chippewa Square. Unfortunately, the bench is not there anymore. There's a replica of the bench at the museum at the Savannah Visitors' Center.

I think I actually wrote something about Savannah before, which I will look for after writing this. Some of my suggested things to see and do when in the city are below. Savannah is a city great for walking, so I suggest you stroll around, take out the camera and explore.

Must see:

• Factors' Walk
• River Street
• City Market
• Colonial Park Cemetery
• Bonaventure Park (where the statue commonly associated with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil used to be; it's now in a museum)
• Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
• Telfair Museum of Art
• Chippewa Square
• Forsythe Park
• Historic Homes (great also if you can schedule during the Savannah Tour of Homes)
• Tybee Island (for the Tybee Island Light Station, the first lighthouse on the southern Atlantic coast)
• Mercer-Williams House

Must dos:

• Eat. There is Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons (the Sunday buffet has a good Southern spread) and other nice restaurants at the City Market.
• Visit the "squares".
• Join a ghost tour.
• Walk along River Street.
• Watch how a taffy is made. There are stores selling water taffy along River Street.
• Take pictures of the unique architectural highlights.
• Find unique water spouts. There are uniquely designed water spouts all over; I saw one shaped like a fish' head.
• See all the must-see's.

It Takes Clouds to Make a Glorious Beaufort Sunrise

Around two and a half years ago, I got invited by a friend to go to Beaufort, South Carolina. I have been looking for the pictures from that trip for years now. While poking through my email accounts (yes, I maintain several email accounts), I found pictures from that trip that I emailed to myself years ago. Past disaster recovery plan trainings are working, I guess.

We arrived in Beaufort at night, just long enough to meet our host, my friend's family friend who were gracious enough to let us stay at their lake cabin. The next day, we woke up very early in the morning to go crabbing. Going around in the dark, the morning light slowly crept on the horizon. Everything was still and quiet. The picture above is a testament to that beautiful moment when you get afraid to even whisper.

Then the clouds came. Big, glorious clouds that we all went scrambling to get our cameras to get pictures. It was still silent, the water was calm, but the clouds made our day. As they say, it takes clouds to make a glorious sunrise.

Pasadena Museums

Around five hours ago, the Mars Phoenix Lander landed on Mars. In mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California everyone was celebrating in the middle of the chaos. This reminded me of my little adventure about a year ago, when I went to the Huntington, maybe took a wrong turn and got lost along the way, then ended up at the gate of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That was exciting... but it also scared me in a way, so I quickly made a U-turn and looked for the highway.

Why was I in the area again? I was looking the Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens, which is only one of the most beautiful gardens in the East coast and has one of the most extensive and impressive art collections. The Huntington is free every first Thursday of the month. When I was there, I didn't have to get a ticket, but it seems they now require everyone to get advanced tickets on Free Day.

Another great museum to visit is the Norton Simon Museum, also in Pasadena. It's free every first Friday of the month, from 6pm to 9pm.

More great links and info to free museum days in Los Angeles here: Free Museum Days.

Turning My Back on Pyrolympics 2008

Early yesterday, things were calm, peaceful and great. But when my sister wanted me to go the Mall of Asia to meet with them, that was when the pandemonium started. It seemed like all of Manila was there. It turns out, it was the fourth night of the 2008 World Pyro Olympics, or Pyrolympics for short. It's a fireworks competition that goes from supposedly 6pm to 8pm but an insider told me when I was there that it's from 7pm to 9pm. Probably because summer is already here and we have longer days.

The best ways to watch it is by either watching from a skyscraper in Makati or Manila, a hotel near Manila Bay, or going to the SM Mall of Asia. When at the mall, you can pay PHP150 to watch from the ground floor, but there are no seats and there can be quite a throng there. Another way is to "reserve" tables at the veranda restaurants that face the bay; but the restaurants mostly offer "set menus" that can from PHP700-1,000. It's a good deal in a way, but a little expensive for me. Kind of. You can reserve by going to the tables near the areas marked "Reservation Desks" near the seaside area at the Entertainment Center.

I didn't watch it last night. It was too chaotic for me, a little too disorganized and expensive. Besides, I had to rush home to catch the Great King Sejong on KBS World. But if you're into this, do plan for it and go. The fireworks can be quite nice, I saw it once while traveling to the airport.

The last night of the Pyrolympics will be on May 31, 2008 (Saturday) and I believe it will be France vs. Philippines. Happy gazing.

Sunday Mass at the Mariner's Club Hong Kong

We've been walking for several blocks and my uncle just kept on walking without saying a word on where we were headed. It was a Sunday, and I knew that we were going somewhere to attend mass. But I couldn't see a church anywhere! In the busiest commercial section of Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong, church steeples are rare.

When we arrived at a building somewhere, I thought we were stopping for an errand first. Imagine my surprise when I saw that inside, there were smaller rooms, including a small chapel filled with Filipinos, and a few Chinese and British nationals, preparing for Sunday mass. I was totally blown away to find these devout and prayerful lot in the middle of Hong Kong. It was also weird in a way because the mass was so like the way mass is done in the Philippines.

After the mass, I went outside to peek at the other rooms. There was a British family outside, in a circle, talking. The men were wearing Sunday suits, the women in dresses and the little baby dressed in white with frills and ruffles. It looked like the baby was about to be baptized.

Later, I found out that this was the Mariner's Club, a hub for devout Filipino Roman Catholics on Sunday mornings, and a hub for seafarers at other times. When you're in the area when you travel to Hong Kong, be sure to drop by and observe the mass on Sunday morning. It's just different.

The Mariner's Club is located at 11 Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, HK.

Dreamy Morning Drives

There's a road in the Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta, GA that winds through dreamy homes, where people regularly do their morning jogs and a canopy of trees shade you from the hot Southern sun. For several weeks, I had to pass by this neighborhood where some of Atlanta's wealthiest citizens live. My morning drive consisted of going through Peachtree Street, then Ponce de Leon Avenue, a left on Clifton Road at the corner of the Druid Hills Golf and Country Club, and winding my way up to North Decatur Road. At first, I dreaded the drive, where the roads are crooked and the maximum speed is only 25 mph. But after a while, I began to enjoy it, I began to appreciate the landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the place and "ambience" of the neighborhood.

Coming from the Philippines, where the drivers are kind of suicidal, I found it funny to have to stop everywhere there's a stop sign printed on the road and on intersections, when I was running at a top speed of 23 mph. I noticed too, that everyone was very courteous, so when at an intersection, I stop, and when there's another car coming from the other side, I wave and yield to the other driver. It wasn't a place run by stoplights, it was the South after all, where grace and good manners were de rigeur.

Sometimes we face uncertainty, find ourselves at a new place or are forced to be where we don't want to be. But sometimes, with a little bit of luck and effort, we can find ourself enjoying the place and the whole experience.