Balloons for our Mothers

Angeles City, Pampanga, the Philippines

February 10, 2012

17th Hot Air Balloon Fiesta at Clark Field, Pampanga

My friend Ki surprised my mom with party balloons on her 79th birthday in January. A month later, he had a bigger surprise in mind. He invited my mom and me to the annual Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, now on its 17th year. Held in the plains of Pampanga, a couple of hours north of Manila, the festival was also an excuse for a road trip. The party eventually ballooned from three to five when my brother and Nichel, my niece, tagged along.

Drowned World: True Stories from the Titanic

Singapore, Singapore

November 23, 2011

Forget Jack and Rose, the fictional characters in James Cameron’s Titanic. The real passengers of RMS Titanic have more compelling stories to tell. Some of these anecdotes have gained legend status; others are little-known factoids about the people who lived through and died in one of the greatest tragedies in maritime history. Their stories have not gone down with the ship untold.

Mom and Me - Souvenir Photo from Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at ArtScience Museum, Singapore

The Golden Hour

Taal, Batangas, the Philippines

April 30, 2011

And he had learned to love, I know not why, for this in such as him seemed strange of mood. But thus it was and though in solitude’s small part the nipped affections have to grow, in him this glowed when all beside had ceased to glow. 

Taal Church (Basilica de San Martin de Tours) at Golden Hour

When the day is dying, it bleeds in crimson. This is called the “golden hour” – when the sun hangs low over the horizon, casting its refracted rays horizontally through the atmosphere. The stately Basilica de San Martin de Tours, its massive coral stone facade squarely facing the afternoon sun, is the perfect canvas for this painting of light. Gazing at the church through this rose-colored shimmer, I remembered you, my first love.

Dogged Devotion

Kalayaan, Laguna / Boljoon, Cebu / Dauis, Bohol / Magdalena, Laguna, the Philippines

June 2010, March 2011, April 2011, and November 2011

All Dogs Go to Heaven, so goes a movie title. I think there might be a grain of truth in it after seeing some canine parishioners in various churches I have visited. They gave the phrase “faithful as a dog” a literal spin.

Dog Looking at Jesus in Magdalena Church

Orchard Roadshow Presentation

Singapore, Singapore

November 24, 2011

The best things in life are free. Ironically, the cliche could not be any truer than on Orchard Road, Singapore’s premier shopping belt. I was taking an evening stroll with my family under Christmasy lights, oblivious to the brand names in screaming neon all around. Instead, I bought into the visual and auditory treats of this posh street.

Mom on Orchard Road

2011 in Review (by Team WordPress)

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 21,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Sins in Iloilo Cuisine

Iloilo City, the Philippines

April 18 and 20, 2011

Though the name Iloilo may have come from the word ilong, the vernacular for nose, the province is known for another facial organ – the tongue. Not only because its local cuisine is a delight to the taste buds, but for a molluscan species endemic to the waters around the island: diwal. The Ilonggo word means to stick out one’s tongue. That pretty much describes the appearance of this mollusk. When its shell is pried open, its elongated body hangs out limply like a tongue.

Diwal: Tongue in Shell

Transfiguration in Miag-ao

Miag-ao, Iloilo, the Philippines

April 19, 2011

Miag-ao Church, built in the late 18th century in the province of Iloilo, is a magnificent marriage of colonial and folk art. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with three other churches in the country, all of which I had already visited. But more than checking it off my heritage site list, the church’s flamboyantly-designed facade, its singular claim to fame in a country dotted with baroque churches, is for the books and that alone calls for a go-see.

Miag-ao Church

Sugar Shock

Silay City / Bacolod City, the Philippines

January, April, and October, 2011

What do you expect from the sugar capital of the Philippines? I’ve been in my home province, Negros Occidental, three times this year and every time felt like a trip to a candy shop. I blame my sweet tooth on growing up next door to a sugar mill. I still remember waking up to the sweet aroma of molasses during milling season pervaded the house in the morning. My sweet dreams carried on after I had awakened – on to adulthood.

El Ideal Bakery in Silay City

And so when in Negros, do as the Negrense do – indulge your sweet tooth. These are some of the sweet stops on my dessert trail:

Gadgets, BC (Before the Computer)

Bacolod City, the Philippines

April 17, 2011

There was a time when stereo systems and television sets were furniture pieces and telephones were household fixtures. But with each new innovation in technology, we dispose of our obsolete gadgets. Not so with one family in my hometown who has preserved their appliances, among other things, reflecting the lifestyle of Negrense bourgeois in the last century.

The Dizon-Ramos Museum, formerly a house beside the mansion of Raymundo L. Dizon and Hermelinda V. Ramos, transported me, not only to the tantalizing world behind its perennially closed gates, but also to the bygone era of my childhood in the 70s.

Mom and a Candlestick Telephone

Hofileña: The Man and the House

Silay City, Negros Occidental, the Philippines

April 16, 2011

Heritage conservation begins at home.

Ramon Hofileña doesn’t say it, but the winningest smile this side of Silay certainly makes that statement. A tour guide in his own home, Ramon has been welcoming visitors into his family’s ancestral house, the Manuel Severino Hofileña Heritage House, built by his father in 1934, for almost 38 years now – and counting. He leads the longest running cultural tour in the world.

Hofileña Heritage House

Cemetery Corner

Bacolod City, the Philippines

April 17, 2011

I walked amongst the dead.

Every morning of my childhood, the gaping gate of the public cemetery would greet me. I lived in a house directly across it. My first parade was a funeral procession, my first live band music a dirge. My neighbors across the street were stacked in cement boxes painted white, guarded by frozen angels and adorned with melted candle wax and wilted flowers.

Familia Luzuriaga Cemetery, Lopez Jaena St. cor. Burgos St., Bacolod City

From Under the Sun to Where the Sun Doesn’t Shine

Panglao and Dauis, Bohol, the Philippines

April 3, 2011

Even a whirlwind trip to Bohol would not be complete without sun-worshiping and spelunking. I gotta hand it to my sister for packing our itinerary with as varied an experience as night and day. From bumming around the beach to cavorting in a cave, she got it all covered in the space of a few hours.

Beach Buds: The Transcendental Tourist and his Sister at Bohol Beach Club

Crazy Stupid Love and Bridge: The Lowdown on Loboc

Loboc, Bohol, the Philippines

May 30, 2004 and April 2, 2011

The lead star of the Visayan-language film Panaghoy sa Suba (The Call of the River) got me at the opening credits. With apologies to (actor-director) Cesar Montano, the languid Loboc River stole every scene it was in. But before the film’s release at the end of 2004, I had already seen its titular star up close and personal during a trip to Bohol.

Busay Falls, Loboc River in 2005

Lament for the Littlest Fellow in Bohol

Loboc and Bilar, Bohol, the Philippines

April 2, 2011

What’s a cross between a marmoset (a furry monkey so tiny it can fit in the cup of your hand) and a gremlin (that 80′s movie critter with huge protruding eyes, long bony fingers, pointy ears, and upturned lips)? Throw in a good measure of Yoda and you’ve got the cute mascot of the province of Bohol – the tarsier.

A Tarsier at Kanipaan Kingdom in Bohol

The tarsier, endemic to Bohol and its neighboring islands in the Philippines, is among the smallest primates in the world. It is known to do a Linda Blair in The Exorcist – a 360-degree head rotation, minus the vomit. Like a gremlin, it is nocturnal and highly sensitive to light. Exposure to the noontime sun can be fatal. But unlike a gremlin that multiplies asexually when wet, the tarsier is very fragile. Exposed in the open during a thunderstorm without any leaf cover, the tarsier can die from pellets of raindrops.