Off To Sentosa!

For the 3rd time this month, we’re off again to another Asian country: this time, Singapore!  It’s been a hectic yet amazing January for us, Having gone to Bangkok, Hong Kong, and now Singapore.   What a great way to start the year.  I’ve never been to 3 trips outside of the country all in the same month. What a whirlwind!  Monster Radio RX 93.1 held a promo for a Sentosa trip and we’ve been sent to accompany the winners to Sentosa, Singapore!  There’s been a glitch with the plane tickets, so instead of going there Friday to Sunday, it’s been shortened to Saturday to Sunday instead.  Although it’s just an overnight trip, we’re still so stoked to finally see Sentosa.  We’ve heard such glowing reviews from people who’ve been there, so I’d like to see it for myself.  I promise to take lots of pictures, although I’m swamped with a huge backlog of photos I have yet to post, but I’ll get on it once I get back. I hope we get to meet the rushers in Singapore, although I really don’t have any idea how we’ll pull it off since we still don’t know exactly how our itinerary will go.  But will try to tweet about our skeds as much as technologically possible.

So, see you when we get back!

The Best And The Rest 210

When you love someone, this is the wish, to be a good boyfriend/girlfriend to them.  But sometimes, even if love is there, things just fall into place as you expect.  And when the one person who should be on your side the most, isn’t, then trouble ensues.

March 16, 2009 → The Top Ten Signs That You’re Not A Good Boyfriend/Girlfriend – Specialist

1. No name – If she consistently call you Bryan, instead of Ryan.
2. Fuster – If he didn’t show up on your wedding day.
3. Neo M.D. – When my father died, my girlfriend was one of the last to find out. She even found out from another friend.
4. Isprikititay – After 5 years of waiting for him to propose, I finally got tired and proposed to him. I bought him a ring and asked him if he will marry me. He said: “Nakakakalalaki ka naman!” and left with a huff.
5. Humangus Pepet – My boyfriend of 2 years never pays for anything. I pay for food, drinks, transpo, and motel.
6. Awsom – Everytime I get into a fight with my girlfriend, I go out with another girl. And when she calls I even let her hear that I’m with someone else.
7. Hellgirl – If he constantly competes with your family as to who you love more.
8. Ginger 0 If you’re sending an entry to the Top Ten instead of us talking about it.
9. No name – If after all the hard work you put into working out to achieve your hot body, he still doesn’t get “excited”.
10. Smiles-a-lot – If you tell people you don’t enjoy your girlfriend because she has inverted nipples.
11. Sasha Purse/Maomao – If she demands that you surrender to her all your passwords in all your email and social networking accounts.
12. Gracia – He demands to see what your wearing by webcam before you go out of the house. Same when you get home, to check if you got home on time.
13. Ube Wan Kinuba – If you’ve been together for 2 years but his status on his FB is still “single”.
14. Aicko – I told all my friends that the real reason I don’t kiss my boyfriend is because his saliva is too sticky.
15. Maomao – I’m used to being an indianera. One time my boyfriend waited for 6 hours before finding out that I changed my mind and was therefore not coming.
16. Lainey – When your girlfriend asks you out, you say: “I’ll check my sked.” And that translates to: “I’ll check my other girlfriend’s sked.”
17. Jan Kulog – If you ask him where the ipod you gave him is, the one you saved up for so long justso you can buy him one, he says: “Ay, na-misplace ko.”
18. No name – I skipped my girlfriend’s debut even if I was her escort because I had early classes the next day.
19. Psylocke – If his standard line to you is: “I love you, pero hindi tayo ha?”
20. No name – When we fight I throw him out of the condo, even if he owns it.
21. Jen/Hakuna Matata – When you tell him: “I love you.” He answers: “Pasa-load muna!”
22. Max – If you only say you love her when you want sex.
23. Specialist – If you give her gifts that were given to you by your ex.
24. Jedi Mstr – If your private videos end up online or in Quiapo.
25. RC & Cess – If he won’t text you unless you give him load.
26. No name – My ex-boyfriend told all his friends that he was breaking up with me, way before he told me.
27. Maximo – Pag yung iyo lagi mong pinapasubo sa kanya, pero yung kanya ni ayaw mo man lang amuyin.

Las Vegas Models

Thanks to my friend Alvi for re-posting this on Facebook!  The video speaks for itself!

Cebu Dancing Inmates

This is way cool!

We did this for the news this morning: Michael Jackson’s longtime choreographer Travis Payne and dancers Daniel Celebre and Dres Reid paid a visit to the Philippines to teach the inmates routines to be featured in the DVD release of the late King of Pop’s “This Is It.”  The Cebu dancing inmates first became an online sensation with their rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.  What started out as an experiment, became one of YouTube’s most popular, making many top viral videos of all time lists.  The Cebu inmates did countless other songs, but they never quite matched the success of their first hit, Jackson’s “Thriller”.  So it’s just fitting that they would end up as part of the DVD release of MJ’s swan song, the unexpected box-office hit, the movie of his patched together rehearsal footage, “This Is It”.

Test Your Awareness

We’re back!  Couldn’t blog in Hong Kong because for some reason I couldn’t log into my WordPress account using my phone, even with the free wifi.  My friend brought her laptop but we were always dead tired by the end of every day.  So the idea of going back down to the lobby just to log onto the internet was too much for my aching bones.  Let me get my bearings before posting pics.  So let me post this first.

Thank you to @ishdenn on Twitter for sending me this link.  In case you haven’t seen this, just watch it all throughout and follow instructions, ok?

It’s not just fun, but I like the idea that “it’s easy to miss something you’re not looking for”.  Cliche alert, but sometimes in life, we miss many good things that come our way.  We’re too focused on some other stuff, that we completely miss out on some really good stuff.  So it isn’t always true whenever we sometimes feel like nothing’s going our way.  Even during the worst of times, or at least what we think are the worst of times, we get a nice reprieve or two, if only we care to look.  Here’s another one, again, thanks to @ishdenn:

Monsterizing Bangkok! (Part 2)

Of the 4 days we spent in Bangkok, 3 were spent shopping, but 1 day was spent going around for the city tour that came with the package.  We were taken around the city, but the highlight was the river tour.  We rode the bus, then we were taken to the port, where we boarded the boat to take us to the tourist spots around the river.

The main attraction was this place where we found the token temples and Buddhas that Thailand is famous for.  There was a prayer area near the entrance where you can send your prayers while holding incense.

And of course there were those steep climbs up the many stairs around the different temples.

It’s not so much the difficulty in climbing for me, it’s more of the height, coupled with little steps.  Having a bad case of fear of heights, I could only manage to go halfway, before I started getting a cold sweat and imagining falling with each step.  Me no likey.

Some of us climbed all the way, some climbed midway, some stayed on the ground, but mostly we acted like tourists and goofed around as we took tons of pictures.

It was fun, to not be too serious in taking photos, but just having fun with the monsters.

After we’ve had enough of the punishing heat, aggravated by all the climbing we did, we boarded the boat once again, and headed back to shore.  And just like any other city tour, we were brought to shops hoping to wrench from our clenched fists, money hard-earned, and we hope, well spent.  We were taken to a leather store which sold all sorts of bags and wallets and anything imaginable that can be made of leather of all types: cows, snakes, lizards, stingray, etc.  They also brought us to a jewelry store, enough to drive anyone who’s into sparklies (I’m not, so I found it boring), into paroxysms of pleasure.

After almost a day of walking, we still spent the rest of the day shopping.  And the rest of our stay in Bangkok…shopping, shopping, and SHOPPING.  Outside of the generous allowance we were given, I only spent $50 during our entire stay.  Like I said, I hardly shopped.  I mostly tagged along my 2 college buddies, Jude Rocha and RaffyB.  We also checked out the other famed red light district of Bangkok, Soi Cowboy.  They said Patpong was too seedy to visit, so we opted for the “safer” alternative, much like Reno as opposed to the flashier Las Vegas.  Apparently, they don’t do those ping-pong shows anymore.  You can, but you’d have to go to those private shows which  is quite dangerous, because you don’t really know what will happen if you go with them.  So everyone just ended up drinking — yes I had water, which made the waitress giggle everytime she passed by me.

It was really a treat hanging out with the monsters in Bangkok.  So we’d really like to thank the RX bosses for taking us to the city of smiles, and here’s hoping we have another great year this year, even better if possible, so we can do this again next year, in another wonderful far away place.

When we get back from Hong Kong, I’ll post some of the non-RX pics that I took of the city.

Monsterizing Bangkok! (Part 1)

It’s been 2 years in 2008 since the last time the monsters got to go on a trip abroad, when we went to Hong Kong.  This time around, we were all stoked to be visiting the city of smiles, Bangkok!  Most of the monsters have been there, but it’s my first time to visit Thailand, not including stopovers.  Unfortunately, Danielle, Gelli, and Cerah weren’t able to join us, so they stayed behind and held the fort.  The RX jocks and marketing team were treated by the RX bosses to a 4-day, 3-night stay in Bangkok Thailand.  Their airport was awesome.  I heard it was a new airport.  But I got a bit of a fright when I got held up at the immigration.  The officer would look at me, then look at the screen, shake her head,  then look at the screen once more.  After about 10 minutes of this, she called another officer who did more of the same.  For a while there images of Midnight Express flashed before my eyes.  Maybe I looked like a wanted criminal or a serial killer!  Turned out there was just a computer malfunction.  Whew!

When we finally got there, we found out that there were so many options to choose from!  Tourist spots to visit, shows to watch, there were just too many to fit in one day.  We were met by out tour guide, the animated Golf.  Yes, that’s her name, “Golf”.

It was a bit hard understanding her English, with her thick Thai accent, but she was very eager to please, very animated, and did not flinch when egged on to sing or dance, even teaching us some Thai phrases and dance moves.

When we got to our hotel, Baiyoke Sky Hotel, it turned out that it was the tallest building in Thailand.

So there is a revolving viewdeck, to get a full 360-degree view of the city of Bangkok.

When we got there, we all teamed up in pairs for the room assignments.  Everyone started sampling some of the food as soon as we got to the hotel.  They just raided the convenience store at the lobby for whatever they got their hands on.  Notice how the girls sexily devoured their food of choice:

Gino and Rico, on the other hand, decided to have a “Magnum Showdown”.  Who won?  You be the judge.  Take your pick:

After a quick rest, we met up again downstairs and started the one main activity that most of the group went there for, with little resistance from the rest: SHOPPING.  We went to Platinum mall, which is basically like the mall in Divisoria, 168, only bigger, more floors, more shops, and more choices.

They told me that most of the tiangges here in the Philippines get their stuff from Bangkok anyway, so the range of choices there, our tinderas’ source, is much wider.  I didn’t really shop as much as the others. I told myself I wouldn’t buy anything there that I could probably find in Manila.  So I just bought a couple of shirts that were Thai in design.  Other than that, my discipline was unshakable.

Before we knew it, it was dinnertime.  We ate ate the fast food on the top floor.  This was our first taste of the much-talked about Thai food.  And even though we just ate in a fast food, the cuisine was every bit authentic.  Hardly any generic stalls, everything was hardcore Thai food.  I got me a fish and bamboo shoot curry dish.  Big Mistake.  Apparently, curry in Thailand translates to: “burn a gaping hole in your tongue with badass spices“.  I hardly ate 2 spoonfuls, when I quit that plate of mean-spirited chilis, and drowned myself in water.  I ended up buying some crab cakes to tide my hunger over.  Note to self: NO MORE CURRY.

After that, we went back to the hotel and decided to have an inuman on our first night there.  It isn’t an RX out of town trip without the requisite inuman.  Unfortunately, I can’t drink anymore.  So there I was, the wet blanket, sipping bottled water while everyone sampled the local beers.  And since the inuman was held in our room, I had no choice but to be a hapless spectator to the alcohol-induced merrymaking.

We had a couple of more nights drinking, in different rooms, and on one night, at the hotel’s observation deck, where there’s a bar that serves beer by the tower.

(To be continued…)

We’re Off To Hong Kong!

It’s been barely a week that we’ve been back from Bangkok, and already we’re off again for a couple of days for our first trip as a barkada outside of the country.  This time, we’re going to Hong Kong!  We’re all so stoked because we’ve been to Bohol as a barkada, but we’ve never been outside of the Philippines.  We’ve planned this since November, even way before we found out that we were going to Bangkok.  Thank goodness everything fit in the schedule.  We’re even traveling with a kid and a baby.

This is the first time I’m going back to Hong Kong since RX brought us there early 2008.  That’s where I bought my first DSLR, my sentimental favorite, my beloved Nikon D40x.  The picture above was still taken by my then PNS cam of choice, my Olympus C5060.  So I’d like to see Hong Kong through my new lenses, although I don’t really expect this to be too much of a photo trip, buecause we plan to be full-blown tourists this time around.  Believe it or not, we also don’t expect to do much shopping, although I don’t know how long I can resist, once we get to Mongkok and their streets lined with camera shops.  I have my eye on a couple of lenses, but we’ll see…

I haven’t been this excited about a trip in a long time.  I expect we’ll act like kids, out on the town for the first time.  And the food! I expect to binge on Chinese food, diets be damned!  It was a long nightmarish path to get to the trip, with many obstacles and roadblocks along the way, but we made it.  Hopefully the returns are good and many.  So we’ll have to be on leave from Wednesday to Friday (since we don’t have work this weekend), and you’ll hear from us again on Monday!  If internet isn’t so expensive (like in Bangkok), hopefully I’ll get to post some blog entries while we’re there.  See you guys!

The Best And The Rest 209

In my life, I’ve hired 2 drivers for myself.  The first one was really good, but I had to let him go because he kept advancing his salary that it got to an amount that he couldn’t pay back even if he worked free for 6 months.  So better to just let him go that have the amount rise any further.  The second driver I had to let go because he really stinks.  I tried giving him toothbrushes and toothpastes and soaps, but to no avail.  Plus, I found out he makes chismis to other drivers (like Delle’s for instance) every move I make.  Later I found out, he died of a heart attack while bringing up his new employer’s luggage up a staircase.

March 13, 2009 → The Top Ten Driver Quotes – Astroboy

1. Lekizz – The driver told the passengers: “Pasok pa, maluwag pa yan, parang galing Japan!”
2. Ogs – I rode a tricycle and told the driver: “Lakad na po tayo.” He said: “Gusto mo palang maglakad, eh bakit ka sumakay ng tricycle?”
3. No name – My tita rode a jeep. Tita: “Mama bayad!” Driver: “Ilan po ‘to?” Tita: “Dalawa, may niyog!”
4. Voxby – My friend: “Mama tabi lang po sa may shed!” Driver: “Do you mean, sa may ‘waiting shade’?”
5. Abernathy – Passenger asked the driver to stop because he had to pee. After, he said: Pasensiya na po, kasi maliit talaga pantog ko.” The driver said: “Ako din nga eh, kaya laging nagrereklamo si misis…”
6. Dona – A co-passenger in a jeep told the driver: “Mama para po sa tapat ng kambing!” When the goat started to run, the driver kept following it. When the passenger said: “Para! Lampas na ko!” The driver said: “Hindi ka pa lampas, kasi eto pa yung kambing!”
7. JKB – I paid 500 pesos so the driver asked if I had smaller bills. I said: “Wala na po akong mas maliit.” The driver said: “Ows…pramis? Sige nga, pakapkap!”
8. Geek In Pink – The barker was shouting: “Pito pa! Pito pa!” The a really fat guy rode on the jeep. After the barker shouted: “Lima nalang! Lima nalang!”
9. Lavander lady – There was a lady on the jeep who asked the driver: “Manong, magkano po Quiapo?” Driver: “Bakit, bibilhin mo?”
10. Ogs – Barker at MOA: “Isa nalang, isa nalang…yung walang friend!”
11. Ilagan/Jafruity – Guy: “Mama, bayad!” Driver: “Saan galing?” Guy: “Sa akin.” Driver: “Saan papunta?” Guy: “Sa inyo.”
12. Tikboy – A guard at the gate asked our driver: “Saan po tayo, ser?” Our driver answered: “Kami lang, hindi ka kasama.”
13. Ronald – A foreigner asked: “How far from baguio?” Driver said: “Day here, night there!” (What he meant was, you’ll leave here in the morning, you’ll get there at night)
14. Rexxx – In Pamapanga, there’s a minibus w/c has labels for its seats, on the left side: “DITO MAGAGANDA” and on the right side: “DITO MGA PANGIT”.  When the driver saw that everyone sat on the left side, he said: “Asuuuuuuuuuuuus!”
15. Yunix – A sign on a jeep: “Pag sa jeep naidlip, malayo ang mararating.”
16. Smiles-a-lot – During a sharp turn, the jeepney driver shouted: “Kapit lang po sa matigas!”
17. Oscar dela Hopia – Driver: “Ang di pa nagbabayad magbayad na! Wala nang libre ngayon! Kahit nga ang pag-ibig…may kabayaran na…”
18. Geyp – Taxi driver was telling us he used to be a family driver. When we asked why the shift, she sadly said: “Kasi po naging crush ko sa ma’am…”
19. Chill – Woman said before boarding the jeep: “Palengke po?” Driver answered: “Hindi, jeepney.”
20. Jlaw – Driver: “Upong ipit-itlog lang po!”
21. Denxio – Me: “Isang blumentritt, dalawang recto, at dalawang carriedo.” Driver: “Dine-in o take-out?”
22. Smiles-a-lot – When the driver or the conductor says: “Mag-ingat lang po sa mandurukot!” It means a known pickpocket just boarded the bus or jeepney.
23. RC and Cess – A friend asked the taxi driver, referring to the meter: “Boss magkano patong niyo?” Driver: “Miss ha, naughty ka! Pero para sa yo, libre na patong ko.”
24. Rohan – From a mini-cooper owner: “It takes a real man to drive a small car.”
25. Kikoman – We told the manong driver to drop us off at the bonfire. He said: “Takot ako sa bonfire…naninipsip ng dugo.”
26. Geryl – Woman: “Manong, dadaan kayong ilog?” Driver: “Hindi sa ilog, sa tulay lang.”
27. Specialist – Driver went to a drive-thru and told the cashier: “Miss, isang regular yum with cheese…at isang meron.”
28. RC and Cess – Taxi driver said to the gas boy: “Full tank, 200 pesos.” (Paano kaya yun?)
29. LilRedShingNips – Driver: “Sinong bababa sa IBON?” Nobody had any idea what he meant, until he stopped in front of AVON.
30. Rustom – While I was driving, we saw some monkeys on the road. So I joked to my wife: “Hon o, mga relatives mo!” She answered: “Oo nga no, mga in-laws ko!”

Earthquake!

It was not a good idea to finally watch 2012, the movie I actually failed to catch when it was shown here in Manila.  With the big earthquake in Haiti, suddenly the apocalyptic catastrophe exaggerated in the movie eerily became not so ridiculous.  What was generally deemed as hyperbolic disaster porn, now it’s really making me think about how things could just end, just like that with hardly any warning.  Just a few days ago we felt a temblor, and recently in Taiwan, Fiji, and the video above happened just 5 days ago in California.  The ring of fire is pretty active recently and they say even Mayon’s activity is still part of the big network of fire.

Of course it is a fact that every generation, from the ancient times, all the way to the present, believed that they’re living during the end times.  We all feel special, in a twisted kind of way, that the orgiastic cataclysm will happen in our lifetime.  Although it seems self-absorbed to believe that we will be around to witness the end of days, it also isn’t so far off either.  The chances it will happen is just as much as the chances that it won’t.  Somehow, I feel Armageddon won’t follow the rules of science as we know it.  It’ll creep in like a thief in the night.

One scientist said a good rule to follow when it comes to disasters is: “If it happened before, it will happen again.  If it hasn’t happened in a long time, then it will happen soon.”  Apparently there’s a forgotten island that used to be a vacationer’s paradise in New York.  No one remembers it even being there, but way back, it used to be a Coney Island type of refuge, but after one particularly vicious hurricane, it was completely demolished, wiping it from the map permanently.  So if you were to follow that logic, if life was decimated at one point during the reign of the dinosaurs, cataclysms of that magnitude will inevitably happen again somewhere in the future.  Just how far off into the future, that is the question.

Brazil had it’s first typhoon ever recently, Venice is slowly sinking due to rising waters, it floods in areas where it never used to flood, droughts where it used to be wet all year, even snow it places that never experienced snow.  As a kid I’ve been fascinated with subjects that dealt with the unknown: the Apocalypse, apparitions, bigfoot, and whatever arcane stuff floated my way, I devoured with inquisitive fervor.  I’ve reenacted so many versions of the end of the world, from the Biblical version with the four horsemen and the plagues to the scientific version with meteors crashing into the cities, to the viral version where we’re wiped out by pestilence and disease, to the polar caps melting, to a new ice age, to zombies ruling the world (unless the plants save us first).  So with my fertile imagination, it’s not difficult to freak me out with movies engineered exactly to panic gullible people like myself.  When I watched Jaws for the first time, I refused to swim in our pool for months!  I had to have someone swimming with me so that the great white shark that will swim up from the drainage will have more choices to choose from.  I’d have at least 50% chances of not being shark lunch.  And after watching the Omen, I was so paranoid with the thought that: what if I was the Antichrist?  What if at the appointed time, a bad-ass rottweiler with red eyes starts protecting me from my “enemies” and I start freaking out every time I go inside a church?  I was impressionable that way.

But back to earthquakes, we work on the 17th floor, and memories of the 1991 tremor still haunt me.  Do the math.  Maybe I should lay off on the disaster movies for now…