Ulingan Kids in Tondo and meeting Sidney (yea, the famous Sidney Snoeck)

“The lives we touch will touch many others. When you bring encouragement, humor, hope, fun and positive energy, you touch lives you have never met. That’s the Ripple Effect. Life is short and time is precious. Waste not a single minute.” – Michael Potter

Oki and I met Sidney on a Saturday morning to go to Ulingan, a slum and garbage dumpsite community in Tondo, Manila. Sidney picked us up together with the other volunteers who would joined the outreach. We got there on-time. Oki specifically told me that Sidney would not wait for late-comers. I smiled and said, "of course, we should be there on time. Filipino time is always on time!"

Everything I know about the PEARLS Project, I first heard from Sidney and then from Oki when she reiterated that we should volunteer and so I searched about it. It was from here that we decided to sponsor one Saturday to feed and teach 200 kids and (perhaps) sponsor at least a scholar. To do this, we would solicit from friends and people we know. All proceeds will go to PEARLS. This will be on Feb. 4. Oki asked me to make a poster for this activity so that it's easier to solicit and spread the word.

Everything is in order (as of the moment). A lot of our friends had already signified their interest and pledges for the activity. I will post the poster here soon.

Anyway, our first experience in Ulingan was exhausting but definitely rewarding. I have no problems with poor sanitation, lack of water, dust, rats...but I was having a rough time getting through the thick, black smoke coming from the Ulingan factory. But anyways, I managed.

I encouraged Oki to go there again before our Feb 4 outreach, if time permits. I fell in love with the Ulingan kids. They are so "malambig" (sweet) ... but my heart breaks for their conditions. They seem to be contented with what they have amidst the extreme poverty and the health risk caused by the ulingan factory. I wish there would be medical missions for PEARLS. I wish I could do more!

Oh, did I just mention I met Sidney already? After eight years, he said, we met in the flesh! A nice fella as I have expected him to be. He doesn't like his photos to be taken, but I guest I was too stubborn to follow such a request (or was it an order?). I also met his adorable son, Bryan, a nice-looking kid who speaks Dutch, French, English, Filipino, and Bicol. He plays rugby! :)

I was taking your photo...

...while you take your time taking the photo of another. And then you whispered to me, "Pretty isn't she?"

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Batanes 04: Beautiful Ivatan

...and do you still wonder why people keep coming back to this place?

I can't get enough of the place, can't get enough of the food, most of all, can't get enough of the beautiful people. Here's a second round of the happy and beautiful people of Batanes!

A kiddo I met while we were exploring Shanedel's Resort in Batan Island. Gotta love those smiles. :-D

She looks perky and inquisitive. She is. She likes to pose for the camera but I like her most when she stops posing and starts being herself.

In Chavayan, we met this young lady who was milling white corn using a traditional grinding stone. It took a lot of effort on her side to mill the corn and talk to annoying tourists (like us) all at the same time, but she was indeed very accomodating.

Just to prove to you how hospitable Ivatans are. She was brooding and she seems to be in a deep thought when I bothered her. Still, she managed to throw me a smile.

One of the reasons why I was in BATANES and the main reason why I am enamored by this place. The ever-beautiful and witty, Crim. Gotta love this woman. Did I mention she's an Ivatan?!

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[postscript:]

...it's raining in quezon city. the sky is pouring its heart out to me. :-)

...can't help but smiling these days. why? i am losing every inch of hope and yet i feel like hanging on. yes, i am a masochist by heart.

....how could you NOT like jason magbanua? jezzuz. he's the best.

.... i miss Fiona. :-)

Batanes 03: Happy Ivatan

More than the beauty of Batanes, I think what struck me most about this place are the people, the Ivatan. They are the most heartwarming, friendly, and honest people I have ever met.

Before this trip, I've only met and knew one Ivatan, that's Crim. After this trip, I am happy to announce that the number increased. I had the chance to walk and converse with everyone of them. I adore children so most of my subjects are kids whom I've met while strolling around every corner of Batan and Sabtang Islands. I always found an excuse to stop by and chit chat. I have nothing but happy memories in this place all because of these happy Ivatan. :-)

I was telling one of my friends. "It's not bad to find someone here and get married!" The place is stunning, the food is great ...what else to ask for?

FIREWOOD GIRL. I met her in Sabtang while going inside one of the houses in Chavayan. I was actually aiming for the firewood against the stone houses (nice contrast I thought) but then I found a more interesting subject.

PEEPING BOY. I also met him in Sabtang. He was following me, I reckoned. But everytime I aim the camera at him, he would walk away. Finally after chasing him a few times, he granted me a shot. What a nice looking boy.

BESTFRIENDS. One of them was eating an ice cream, the other, green Indian mango. What could be better? And yes, I think they are best friends. I met them in Basco.

SABTANG KIDS. No, they are not the new kids on the block but you can call them that. They like to pose and pose behind the walls. The other kid (in blue short) was the one who was following me around.

STORE KEEPER. In front of the DDD Habitat, our residence in Batanes, there's this store which we kept on visiting for coffee, candies, or just about anything that we needed. And in this store is a kid who acted as a store keeper for his mom. He looked bored when I passed by for some packs of 3-in-1.

BONNET BOY. I met him at the back of the Basco lighthouse. I had no idea what he was doing there but I guess he likes observing the tourists. He seems like a nice kid.

WINDOW BOYS. They were watching a bunch of tourists who were passing by their house. I love how the window framed them. Yes, there were two of them.

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[Postscript]

This could be the very minute
I'm aware I'm alive
All these places feel like home
With a name I'd never chosen
I can make my first steps....

~ chocolate/snowpatrol

****

i felt his skin and got burnt. i touched his temples and for a few minutes i revived every lost verve. spiteful words make meaning, slowly weaving into something that makes sense. somehow, it's making sense. but the story was never revealed to me so i never knew what to expect. i lull at the moment that one day, our story will have an ending. hopefully, even though it's bitter, it will be better. and yes, i still long for the rain.

You've have been "my target" all along

six seconds. three steps forward. three steps away. i counted. i saw you. you saw me. it was just a brief moment. so brief that no one noticed. but i knew, you knew what those looks meant. i hope you’re okay. i hope you’re good. the last thing i wanted was for you to be out of my sight again.

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Only a (real) bookworm could understand such charge

Yesterday, we met with Mr. Jun Lana (yes, D' Palanca Hall of Famer and D' Award-Winning Screenwriter) to pick-up the box of books which I won from joining a book contest in his blog. Sel and Zoe were kind enough to offer us a ride to take home the books from Ortigas to QC where I live. Sel was the one who informed me about this contest so technically speaking, she owned half of the price (which she never 'insisted' on having, by the way...balato lang, hehe!). Oki went along simply because she was eyeing for some of the Haruki Murakami books I will get (and more!). Nat, who got the second price (3K-worth of Powerbooks GC which was given to him in cash because Jun ran out of GC), was there too. He told me he is an avid fan of Mr. Lana, which was to be expected. I think everyone in this field is "aspiring for a Palanca". And those who have achieved the high rank are worthy of being adored. They won't be there for nothing! :-D

A Treasure of Gold Found. Djadan! This is the balikbayan box full of books which Jun Lana presented to us immediately after he opened the door to his apartment. This might sound a bit exaggerated, but my heart skipped a bit after seeing the box (no kidding). hehehe! I could have screamed and jumped to my hearts' content at that very moment I saw it but thought otherwise due to some little propriety I have. I opted to compose myself. You see, I never owned that much number of books in a day. And for free??? Come on. I must be the luckiest person! Oh hell yea...I was.

The Two Towers of Unread Books. Okay, it was Jessica Zafra who said it first in Twisted 8 but you see, immediately after Zoe, Sel, and Nat went home, I started piling my "new possessions" into two towers. I have arranged them according to "my priority of books to read" the bottom being the first book in the queue. Okay, granting that I am a sloth and I have barely time for reading these days because of work, grad school, and extra writing jobs, I am very positive that I will be able to pass my 2books-in-a-month-challenge. So with more books to read, I guess it would not hurt to read (at least) 3 books in a month! How's that for a challenge?

Real Treats. Most of the books inside the box are fiction (gen fic, young adults, chick lit, etc) a few travel books, and a bio which were awesome. But underneath the box, I found some books on digital videomaking some which I consider a "must-have-books" if you are a film buff. You'll never go wrong with Roger Ebert (my opinion only). I've been wanting to produce a film-docu one of these days and having these books is a good start.

So again, THANK YOU Jun Lana for these treats!

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Ho Chi Minh City: At first sight

"Vietnam is a country any serious traveler should visit at least once in his/her life.
The country has a vast offer of places to visit."

~Virtourist.com~

This travelogue should have been over by now. But because I am a natural slack and a topsy-turvy person, I guess I have an excuse why this series has not been posted yet. I wish I could put this blog in an auto-post mode, but even the most quickwitted machine couldn’t compose a narrative for me or at least recall a story that was.

Anyhow, the story continues…

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City in the late afternoon which provided us enough time to look around and discover the city. Our official city tour would not commence until the next day. But before that, we searched for a place to eat and fill our growling stomachs. Our hotel was located in Bui Vien Street—a busy, commercial street chock-full of skyrocketing buildings and houses. Everything is expanding vertical which rallied me around of my fond memories when I was in Hongkong amazed by the tall buildings here and there.

I tried looking up every now and then worrying to my heart’s content if those tall buildings would crumble down and fall on me, just as I was crossing the street. How unfortuante and an absurd talk.

Congested houses, a mix and match of colored, tall buildings, narrow street, traffic--This is crazy but it looks pretty much like Manila from here.

See the electric wires? Even that looks familiar. But at least they are not as loopy and convoluted as we have back home.

We are staying in a 7-storey building and the manager put us in the 7th floor, which could be both a curse and a heaven sent. Tell you later about the 'curse' but right now, let us focus on the advantage: a nice spot for photography. I can see the whole of District 1 from our window.

We found this Italian resto called, Cappuccino which is adjacent to our hotel. It’s very easy to remember and they serve pasta and pizza and coffee. The tag says something like Gastronomia Italiana: Traditional Italian Cuisine. I was hungry and my stomach wasn’t ready for any Vietnamese food yet so I ordered one of their combo meals (which included fried rice, egg, veggies, and fried chicken) plus a glass of mango juice, which cost me around 57,000 dong ($3.56 or P185).

In Vietnam, one pays by the thousand, which I find really funny because I feel like I am rich. In the Philipines, holding 16,000 pesos is a thrill in the bin. Jesus, I could buy a lot. In Vietnam, holding 16,000 dong is almost a zip (it’s equivalent to a dollar).

Here's the Cappucciono Gastronomia Italiana resto. It's convenient as it is just adjacent to our hotel. We ate here a couple of times I think.

For a food adventurer like Oki, this would be the 'most mundane' lunch ever in Vietnam. For me though, this is the most appetizing especially with a growling stomach.

After appeasing our stomach and resting a bit, Oki and I went for a stroll around the city trying to familiarize ourselves with the new environment. Not really new though. I loved the frill.

Ho Chi Minh City, usually abbreviated as HCMC, is NOT the capital city of Vietnam (like Toe mentioned in her blog). It’s actually Hanoi. But HCMC is the largest city in Vietnam and is located near the Mekong Delta. I used to think it is the capital city (stupid me!) which I think is understandable because under its former name, Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina, and later of the independent state of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975.

Ho Chi Minh City is named after the leader of the Viet Minh Movement whose face I have become utterly familiar (long scrawny face and the goatee). I bought a couple of souvenir shirts with his face on it. HCMC is one of the most populated metro areas in Vietnam with more than 7 million people living in there.

Today, HCMC is a frequent destination among tourists all over the world (mostly those from the West). And why not? The city is popular for its great architecture. The city is adorned with wide elegant boulevards and historic French colonial buildings from their magnificent halls down to every corner of their city hall, theater, post office, banks, people's court, and brilliant churches. It’s like the old and the new meet and converged to harmonize and be an attraction aside from their main functions.

So at first sight, what was HCMC looks like?

If there's one thing that greatly differ Metro Manila from Ho Chi Minh City, it's the number of motorcyles and scooters on the street. Jesus Christ, they have at least thousands of them roaming the city everyday. It's the most common and easiest way to get around the city, according to the locals.

Here they come! And some of them were even wondering, what the heck I am doing at the side, taking their photos.

Another high angle shot of the long and narrow Bui Vien Street. At the other street is Pham Ngu Lao Street, the backpackers' area.

It’s congested but it’s easy to find your way out especially if you know how to ask. Language is not much of a problem either as most establishment-owners and vendors understand English (if not, one could always do the mime). Least to say, the city is foreigner-friendly. In fact, from above if you look down at the crowd you’ll see a mix of blonde hairs along with the black, silk long ones. You know what I mean.

The traffic is nerve-wracking especially with all the motorcycles coming from nowhere but it becomes easy to appreciate once you get used to it (give it a few days). Money exchange is not a problem as most establishments take payments in dong or in dollar. But it’s easy paying in dollars because you don’t have to by the thousands and I am awful in math. Food is pretty much cheap. There is no Jollibee but at least they have the Lotteria.

A lady clad in Ao Dai, their traditional costume, completed with the conical hat which is almost synonymous among us, Asians.

I found him napping at the side of the street. Looks comfortable to me.

Ho Chi Minh City pretty much feels like home. Need I say more?

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Ho Chi Minh City, here we come!

"The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences."

~Chris McCandless, Into the Wild ~

I should have given up on this travelogue as they are piling up in my desktop but I know I promise someone I would post our little Vietnam adventure so, here we go.

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I love going somewhere with my backpack. That is the truth.

If I could do what Chris McCandless a.k.a Alexander Supertramp did in the movie, Into the Wild…I would. Although, I can't promise I would also burn my money so as not to make people cautious. I know that money can make people cautious but at least I have something to be cautious about, say, buying my own meal? I don't like to die because I got poisoned eating weeds. :-/

Anyway, the next morning, we decided to embark on a new adventure. Our next stop?

Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam which is located near the Mekong Delta.

This time, we chose to ride the Mekong Express bus and forego on experimenting for other rides like the GST Bus, Capitol GH or Angkor Express. We wanted the most recommended bus line. A little expensive than others but at least we're getting what we paid for. We purchase our tickets ($12 each) a day before from the lobby of our guesthouse in Phnom Penh so on the day of our departure, we’re all set.

This is the Mekong Express station. The woman is one of the couple we met inside the coaster who were with us all the way to Mocbai border. They seem to be a nice couple but we never chat, just little gestures. I also noticed that they brought their own food so that they don't have to buy anything during stopovers.

A few minutes after seven in the morning, a coaster fetched us from the guesthouse and brought us to the station. Inside the coaster was a White couple who gave us a smile and a nod. I was sure they meant to say "Good morning!" but since we look like Cambodians and they had probably enough of the looking locals, they forgotten to say what's on their minds. Okay that was just me and my wild interpretation of things.

I had my heavy backpack getting on my nerves (it usually does as the travel progresses) and managed to smile back. There were just the four of us inside the coaster and we got to the bus station before 7:30am. There was this guy who took our backpacks and gave us claim numbers. Then we went inside.

Inside the bus. That is our little, skinny and able English-speaking lady attendant on the microphone informing us that we will be departing soon.

I like riding the Angkor Express but Mekong Express is better. It’s not as new as the first bus we rode on the way to Phnom Penh but at least there’s this lady attendant who was always right on the dot telling us everything we needed to know. Like, where are we now, when is the next stop over, how many minutes we have stay before the bus leaves, even tidbits of history about the place. These information are crucial I think, it helped us in so many ways.

Our attendant is a little, skinny lady who seems to know her craft. She speaks in English with thick accent but we understood her. She talked fast and I had this feeling that she had everything memorized. She looked at the ceiling every now and then and said the magic “ahhh” and "ohh" everytime she gets lost with her words (which I find cute). She reminded me of someone (before when I still lived in the province).

Locals looking at the bus while our bus board on the cargo ship.

Going to the Ho Chi Minh City, our bus boarded into a huge boat so that we could cross the Cambodian boarder. The idea was like a ro-ro (roll-on/roll-off) but it was for a short time only. Then we traveled again by land.

As usual, we had stopovers for eating, drinking, pissing or just hanging out and feeling the land on your feet once again. The whole travel would take eight hours so I really appreciated these stopovers because it also gave me the opportunity to step down on the bus, look around, chat with the locals and take photos. The most important of all things, yes, taking photos otherwise, I'll have nothing to share with you and everything would just be a nonsense blabber.

This is the stopover.

We got to this one stopover. It has a huge eatery shop with a bunch of fruit vendors on one side and a little resto on the other. People were flocked into the huge eatery shop that I went there myself to get something (I dunno what). Oki was somewhere buying herself some food, I believe.

I don’t know what will I have so I went to the vendor selling all sorts of drinks. On the queue was this French guy who ordered black coffee. I wanted one too but knowing my experience with stopovers, I don’t think I will be able to enjoy my coffee. So I bought a soda instead. I don’t know why I bought it, as I don’t even feel like drinking anything.

Fruit vendors selling pomegranate, orange, banana, etc.

So anyway, I decided to just look around and take photos. I met this woman who asked some money. I told her, “I don’t have money, but I have a Sprite!” and modeled the soda to her like one of those soda commercials. She seemed to like it, (the soda) so I handed it to her. I went to the other side and found two White young couple smoking. I wanted one too but opted not.

She looks like she's irritated in this picture but she's not. In fact, she was happy that I was there butting in her business. She's the recipient of my cold, icy Sprite. The boy could be her child.

Instead, I decided to go inside the bus and found Oki eating a grenade! That sounded a bit off, but granada is actually a pomegranate, a local fruit which we also have in the Philippines. I believe I bought some of that when I was in Sagada in Mountain Province.

Oki eating the grenade!

To our relief, we arrived in Mocbai, the Cambodia-Vietnam border to have our passports stamped. When we got the border, there was this long queue. Imagine batches of buses full of people coming in and out of the boarder. Our able lady attendant took all our passports and asked us to wait at the other line, which we did. I have imagined the long line of people but hardly I imagined that it would take long to wait. My shoulders were giving up on me. I had troubled enduring the whole seven hours but what’s 45 minutes more? Yea, that long!

We saw batches of passports held by a man passing us by. I asked Oki what’s the deal here because I felt like something fishy is going on. These people going in and out of the line were like pimps going straight in front of the line and to the counter where a man was stamping passports. One of the guys was smoking too. I thought smoking was prohibited inside. Grr.

This is the other part of the couple who was with us from the coaster in Phnom Penh all the way to Mocbai. He looks pissed here. And so am I. The person stooping down in front is Oki. I believe she's also pissed. Ha!

The couple we met in Cambodia who was also inside the coaster and the Mekong Express looked tired waiting. I was snorting already but it’s not as if I could do anything about it, right? We’re just foreigners trying to have our passports stamped. We don’t want any trouble.

At the Mocbai where you get your passports stamped. Boy, was I glad to see the outside view.

After the hullabaloos and the long wait, I think that the most important thing to say is that, we arrived in the city. Tired but safe.

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LAST NIGHT IN CAMBODIA: A Vietnamese dinner with Toe

Part 1: Jumping from the virtual world

So it was our last night in Phnom Penh.

And what could be a better way of spending our final night than having our last dinner with a fellow blogger, Toe. Yes, I have mentioned her here quite a few times ever since we started this Indochina adventure. But way before I started visiting and commenting in her blog, I used to be a frequent lurker since I kinda see myself traveling in that part of the world one day. And knowing that she is a Filipino working there helped me a lot, particularly in getting a first glimpse of how it is living there. But little did I know that I will one day meet her in person.

I did tell her that we will travel via Phnom Penh going to Ho Chi Minh City. But I didn’t quite expect that she would actually invite us to meet her. Honestly, I was flattered. But I was hesitant too. I haven’t actually met someone from the virtual world and the idea of actually meeting someone from that world is still a strange idea to me. No, don’t get me wrong, I am ecstatic to meet Toe I just don’t know if she would be thrilled to meet me. I just hate disappointing people especially those who have prior notion of me (physically, mentally, spiritually). I might not be the person they thought I would be. And that’s a real spank on the ass, to tell you the truth.

The thing about blogging is that, people read your thoughts without judgment, just an honest-to-goodness curiosity that other people may really find interesting or useful for them. What I am trying to say is that, there are no expectations. This is because at the back our minds, we never really entertain the idea that one day, we will actually see these people in the flesh and that we have to make a solid, good impression on them. Okay, this is just me and my thoughts. I don’t know about you, but I have always looked at blogging not merely as an outlet but also as an extension of myself. And being at that, you somehow expose yourself to a certain "risk" that the people you know in real life will read your thoughts and haunt you back. A vulnerable stage.

As an apathetic blog reader, you merely rely on what kind of information is being fed to you, and that’s where the clout of the blogger comes in. You form an image on the bases of that. And it sticks to you, no matter how shallow they maybe.

So anyhow, I have gotten over this ‘groundless anxiety’ and decided to embark on my first blogger eyeball (EB). Toe actually wrote a very engaging entry on our first meeting in her blog.

Part 2: Meeting Toe

Like any first meeting, I had my own thoughts on what Toe would actually look like in person. This is crazy but I was in a real deep thought that night, sitting at the corner of the guesthouse's lobby while waiting for her to arrive. Oki was reading a magazine at the other end of the seat looking so cool about it. Between the two of us, she handles this kind of situation more unfussy. She’s good with people (conversing most especially).

I was in an awe thinking how the hell am I going to introduce myself and how to reassure her that I am not a bad person. I really have the weirdest thoughts when I am anxious. I feel really edgy meeting people on the first day because this is where “first impressions” are formed and usually, people get the wrong impression of me during the first meeting. This is precisely the reason why I am not fond of EBs and blind dates. Also, I am really shy and I am not a very sociable person. But I get over that once I know the person really well. Most of my close friends are those that I didn’t get along (so) well during our first meetings. They usually have the wrong impressions of me and vice versa.

Toe arrived in a cozy-looking Hyundai Tucson. She was wearing a skirt and a blouse and she had this little, cute clip on her hair. As I approached her, she belted from the window of her car something like: “Rayts!?” The greeting was so warm that it really put me to an ease.

She looked exactly like what I have imagined. Pretty much close. Chinita-looking, fair skin, and really pretty. Her fair skin made me look like a real nog-nog having a sunburnt skin due to our travels in Siem Reap the previous days. Amputi ni Toe nagmukha tuloy akong Kirara sa kaitiman! And may I just say she’s prettier than Bea Lucero! No wonder her honey is so patay na patay to her! Well, I am biased as I have special affinity for Chinese-looking people.

Part 3: A Vietnamese dinner

Toe drove us to a Vietnamese Hole-in-Wall resto, I believe it’s their favorite restaurant. The place was not crowded which was good and I for once, felt I was already in Vietnam having those skinny Vietnamese waitress clad in ao dai greeting us.

Digging from Toe’s previous blog entry, this Vietnamese resto is called An Nam which I don’t know the meaning of. Talking about “ideas and concepts that jumped out from the virtual world” I found it odd that we’re actually dramatizing a somewhat scene from Toe’s entry. We often read about this particular resto and the food there in her blog entries.

Toe ordered ca kho me, a fat fish in caramel and tamarind which we savored in all its goodness! It was really, really rich in flavor. We also had chicken pho complete with lemon, herbs, and bean sprouts; and of course spring rolls! To top it all, we had Vietnamese coffee with milk which was wickedly bitter and sweet. Oki loved the food and the coffee that we tried finding them again when we were in Vietnam. We had the ca phe sua da but we couldn’t find any ca kho me simply because we don’t know how to say it.

Here are some photos. Not really a top notch. I am not as good as Ferdz when it comes to food photography. I didn't use a flash and my hands were shaking. :-(

I am basically a chicken and noodle lover so much so that I enjoyed this chicken pho. Pho 24, the one in Rockwell, has perhaps the best chicken pho, next to the authentic one I had in Vietnam.

Ca kho me, a fat fish in caramel and tamarind. Toe's favorite. Our favorites.

Spring rolls! We ordered spring rolls in Phoa Hoa and the taste and the coating were not the same. Even the texture and the presentation.

Rice and herbs. I love their sticky rice and their fresh garnishing.

Toe paid our bill, which made me sank to my seat. Oki and I promised a payback dinner when she comes back in the country. :-D

After making our stomach happy, Toe gave us a ride in her Hyundai Tucson with a Bon Jovi music at the background, which was the coolest. She gave us a night tour and brief background of Phnom Penh. She and Oki were talking most of the time while we were having the tour. I enjoyed looking at the city which was totally different at night having all those colorful lights and sights.

Thank you Toe for this wonderful experience. :-)

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