№ 798. Route 66: Galco’s Old World Grocery

 

№ 264. Food Porn and Feasting Festival

"The World Street Food Congress 2016 (WSFC16) will be held in the Philippines, what CNN calls one of “the world best food destinations”.

№ 260. Osaka, Kyoto and Nara Through Square Lenses 2

More instagram shots....

№ 254. The Reading Club

Here's a good Friday find:

If you put all the books you own on the street outside your house, you might expect them to disappear in a trice. But one man in Manila tried it - and found that his collection grew.

№ 184. Venice Through Square Lenses (2)

2 August 2014

Pictures for now, coherent narrative to follow. But in my defense, a picture is worth a thousand words. This is worth at least about 5,000, then.

---oOo---

5 August 2014

Ok, here are the random, arguably, still incoherent narratives to go with the photos.

If there's one thing near omnipresent in Venice, it is the sea. The air is redolent with the faint, cool smell of salt. The briny scent accents the insular feel of the mazes of canals, alleys, dead ends, pocket parks, Churches, courtyards, private gardens and quays. To be sure, Venice's maritime roots and history are expressed indelibly in its surrounding moats and waters. Perhaps because of the city's affinity with the Adriatic, its people also draw near the shores and congregate just about anywhere near the sea--- where the view is unfailing and grand.

If one tires of the crowds, as I often did, it's not difficult to lose them. Go away from the shores and head inland, into the sanctuary of the old structures. One really need only to stray from the tourist vortices by the sea such as the Rialto, St. Mark's Square, the grand passage facing the Lido on the San Marco's south side and the sidewalks along the Grand Canal.

There are more than enough unexplored and often deserted alleys and Churches that offer quiet breaks from the horde.

№ 180. Venice Through Square Lenses

St. Mark's Square at 7 AM, May 2014. Pre-wedding photo deals are,
I think, trending among Chinese. I saw a few of these
during the three-day stay.  

It's been three months since the late spring visit. I finally have the time to post these itinerant snap shots.

Venice, after my first visit more than ten years ago, has lost none of its magic. It's still littered with tourists and their trash. This time there are more Chinese than Japanese and Americans combined. I was one of them.

St. Mark's appears half-emptied after the tourists dispersed,
mostly back to Mestre. Venice, May 2014.

№ 177. Selfie

Bearded guy, whirling
Dervish with schticks, selfies,
And, cash loads to burn.

 

PS: Saw this youtube post by Tati, my advanced photography classmate.

№ 175. Romblon: Visita Iglesia via the Nautical Highway

Philippine Nautical Highway

If my recollection is accurate, the Strong Republic Nautical Highway plan was announced in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, in 2003, during the time of Arroyo's besieged administration. It aimed to provide a backbone of safe and affordable sea and land transportation for people and goods throughout the archipelago. At least in theory then.

Of course, as with most infrastructure projects, they required huge investments in capital, political will and other essential agents of good governance. Did we mention complex mobilization of resources? Ports, roads and highways had to be built, terminals and transport companies had to be managed and operated and the business models had to pass feasibility.

№ 159. Batanes Through Square Lenses

These are random images of a second visit to Batanes, last year. 

The Batanes archipelago is the usual alley of typhoons exiting to the north after entering the Philippines from the Pacific Ocean in the east. So the islands see their share of two to three destructive ones every year. Fortunately, the network of roads are again reconnecting the small barangays scattered in the big island of Batan.

Street art in the capital

It is still relatively expensive to fly to Batanes. Because it is the northernmost province, it takes a good one-and-a-half to two-hour flight by propeller plane. 

The locals tell us that there are no ferry boats able to shuttle people from the mainland. The Balintang Channel, they say, acts as rough sea barrier where the West Philippine Sea and the Pacific Oceans converge.

One of the many art pieces by Pacita Abad

№ 126. Chasing the Endless Summer

№ 116. Joss Stone at Malasimbo

Just three hiccups before the Sunday Malasimbo concert of Joss Stone:

First, a friend from the Dutch Embassy wished us good weather before she left for Manila. Uh oh.

Naturally, it rained.

№ 110. Binondo Rising: Part 1

Say "Ahh" for Tikoy, kid.

Binondo is still a study in controlled chaos.

Many Filipinos already know that Binondo is home to Manila's Chinatown. Many Chinese-Filipinos call it their spiritual home, I think, mainly because it's a transplant of their roots in China. I had lived in Binondo for almost two decades before college beckoned me to the hills of Valencia.

Binondo is so different now and yet oddly familiar in equal parts.

For one, it has become gentrified: cleaner, although the esteros still stink; littered less with horse manure and other organic refuse; and, freshened up with new high rises and coats of paint. Another reason for the ambivalence is while I can still eat at the staple restaurants like The President's, Eng Bee Tin, Ha Yuan and Country Chicken, et cetera, there are many that have already upgraded while a few have not done so well.

Fried garlicky peanuts, chicha-corn
(dried and  fried crisp with coconut oil) and other street delights.

№ 104. Sky Fall of Bataan

Dear M,

Mission accomplished! Briefing and pictures below.

7:30 am Saturday. Cubao is really a backpacker's beginning and end point. Most trips start here and mercifully wind down at the same civilization by the EDSA artery, after a long trip.

8:00 am. We boarded the Five Star bus to Bataan. Forty kids via Route 63 promised of green road trip.

5:30 pm. Notwithstanding the bus downgrade, uhmm, transfer in Pampanga, flat tire, uphill malfunction at Mt. Samat, muggy hike to the Cross monument, sardine-can dorms turned quarter-star upgrade, the pawikan (sea turtle) groupies finally settled in at the Pawikan Conservation Center in Morong, Bataan.

7:30 pm. Dinner was served, after the orientation by Mang Manolo and the happy birthday ditties. Hormones, adobo lunch and international goodwill form a noisy cocktail, said an old crank.

For the most part the group was subdued. All that multi-lingual camaraderie can be a drain, Frank. Besides, no one could source a bucket of subzero beer for the thirsty teens.

We were ready to accept our tepid fates. But thanks to Mang Manolo and his ATVs, we had a round of iced Red Horse to fortify our resolve for the late night patrol.

11:00 pm. Volunteers of the center walk night patrols to scout for nesting female sea turtles by the beach. November is the best time. An important part of the conservation effort is their intervention to prevent poachers from harvesting the hundred or so eggs laid in each nest. Volunteers observe the sea turtles as they dig the nest. After that, the turtles are identified, measured, tagged and then allowed to swim back to the sea.

The next process in the intervention is egg management. Volunteers collect the eggs after they are laid, then relocate and transplant them in a safer area --- usually within the enclosed hatchery of the center.

2:30 am Sunday. A long walk in the sand under the moon, is exactly like that, a long walk. Two kilometers.

Moonlight and good weather brought in a lone, but injured, sea turtle to the black shores of sleepy Nagbalayong, Morong.  A swim across nautical miles to the beach, no less than four attempts at nest building, big crack on the shell and an injury at the left hindflipper could not stop the call of nature. Before our hushed, sleepy senses, we saw how life struggles against nature and man-made barriers, in real time. A pin drop, or in this case, the calm sea could be heard as we saw the quiet birth of a hundred eggs!

3:00 am. We were barely awake when we reached the center. But before we retired, we saw a volunteer very carefully transplant the eggs in the hatchery. It's the last step before the long wait of incubation. Fifty days or so.

5:00 am. The alarm went off. Nobody heard. Ergo, it did not exist.

6:00 am. No eggs hatched. Snore. Nobody knew.

8:00 am. If the clock couldn't do it, the smell of food could. Everyone rose and shone to the scent of boiled rice, fresh tomatoes, salted eggs, longganizas (sweet and spiced sausages) and fresh watermelons.

9:00 am - 12:00 nn. The cool, sunny, black beach invited. Everyone obliged---even that guy clad in pink malong. Resistance was futile.

1:30 pm. Bus was stuck in the sand. Oh well, more siesta.

Somewhere off the coast of Bataan.... in Scarborough Shoal, Orcs and Gremlins from the Middle Kingdom were downloading invaluable intelligence from the injured pawikan.....

Senior Orc 1: Sir, there's a UN gathering in Bataan, a province northwest of Manila.
Senior Gremlin 1: Hmmm, an international caucus on regional balance of power?
Senior Orc 1: Sir, UNCLOS and strategic architecture. 
Senior Gremlin 1: Do we have representation?
Senior Orc 1: Formosa, our renegade province.
Senior Gremlin 1: Send encrypted dispatch. Carrot and stick diplomacy must be revisited.

4:30 pm. The tow truck, they call it wrecker, arrived. Finally.

We all lined up for the bus, ready for the tired ride to the city.

Behind us glowed a cyanide sunset.... a mute witness to a rigged pawikan clone detonating a neutron bomb.... somewhere in Scarborough Shoal.

Signing off.

James

Bento Box:

1. No sea turtles were harmed during the trip.

2. No sea turtles and humans were harmed during the conception of the story. Purely literary license and nonsense. Seriously.

3. Some resources:

Pawikan Conservation Center, Morong, Bataan
Route +63
News Info Inquirer

№ 103. Analog Vacations

Staycation is dead. The tea pack says it all in the marketing-savvy write-up:

"No Signal / Herbal

Cell phones, crackberries, laptops --- we thought digital technology was going to free us but instead we find ourselves shackled by wireless handcuffs.

Here's a thought: Turn off the cell phone. Shut down the computer, Get off the grid, Our soothing blend of rooibos, lemongrass and orange peel will help you disconnect from the world and reconnect with yourself. This tea is 100% analog."--- LA Mill Coffee

Ivan About Town

№ 99. First Trip to Bicolandia

The Division of Public Schools used to disburse funds only from imperial Sorsogon, decades before ATMs became available in our sleepy town, Masbate. This meant that, to get their salaries, public school teachers had to travel for three hours by sea to Bulan, Sorsogon and another hour by land to Sorsogon City. My two aunts were no exception and had to make one of their long penitential treks to Bicolandia that summer.

Inquirer

№ 93. Empty Universes

I have wondered why, at most times, awkwardness
steal into conversations. Why little laughs dissolve
silences, but only momentarily. Things fall back into
an ordered, inane set-up.

It's a null set. After the green light, yellow.
Then red. A messy, predictable chaos. Even a fly
tires of its daily morsels. To the sooty, almost bitter taste
of grime, there's a sterile, neutral air.

Experiences can have polarities.
Dismal; sunny. Stale; novel.
The idea of variety must seem strange.
But it's the same can we fill with little details.

Empty universes filled with
orbiting infidels and stirred assassins.

1996.

№ 77. Beach Hives

Even if  the skin were lathered with thick, titanium sunscreen, 36 degrees sizzles it to a crispy, caramel hue fit for a fiesta centerpiece: our beloved lechon.

So we find enough excuses and leaves to kick off the dry season (aka summer) and dash to the nearest waterhole.

El Nido, check. Boracay, check. Palaui, Pagudpud and Panglao, check, check, check. But Siargao and Bantayan. Here we come.

========

"Picking a favorite beach in the Philippines is like trying to pick a favorite child. 

Challenging, but not impossible. With more than 7,000 islands edged by white sand buffering turquoise waters filled with some of the world's most diverse marine life, not everyone will agree on which one is best. Disagree with our picks? Share your favorite Filipino island or beach in the comments box below.

 1. El Nido, Palawan

 

more fromcnngo.com

№ 72. Ilocos on My Mind

dispatchmagonline

№ 56. Advice for the Young-ish at Heart

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends.

You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.”

― Cesare Pavese

Bento Box:

I've traveled back in time. Thanks to gmail and my trove of archival data in the past 10 years. I've been deleting mails, spams and other forwarded wisdom.

There is so much history.

I remember circa 2001, email was the status line for online buddies. And forwarded anything---photos, videos, jokes, spams, chain mails, NSFW centerfolds and other trivia---used to pile up on our office inbox.

How far have we come? So far: snail mails, postcards, texts, emails, ym, Facebook updates and tweets. Same content, different media.

The Baz Luhrman video is one of those I came across in the pile.

№ 32. Subic Beefs

There is proof that Tanduay Ice bends perception and reality. Thanks to a late nighter of that mild drink paired with wild Guesstures™. Throw in a grass skirt, light the mob of six on fire and you're set!