destination roxas city

Quite obviously I'm no travel writer. I tend to gloss over travel details that would make a blog travel entry quite attractive to kaladkarins (people quite easy to convince to travel) and those whose penchant it is to hit the trail or catch the next flight to the next vacation destination.

This is part true of my latest sojourn that involved Desk-work in Iloilo and then in Roxas.

After my one night in Iloilo City, I hightailed it out of the city the earliest possible time I could manage (around 7:30am) to catch the bus to Roxas City, some two hours away, I was told.

I underestimated the traffic from the city proper to Tagbak (which took some 45 minutes, with the cab avoiding horrendous city traffic caused by ongoing road repairs), where the central bus terminal was located, and failed to catch the 8:00 bus for Roxas. The next bus left at a few minutes before 9:00am.

The bus I took was the direct route from Iloilo City to Roxas City but the travel still took about 2 hours and 45 minutes, roughly. Again, because of the numerous road repairs that somehow were simultaneously on-going as if the budget for such tasks were only released earlier that week! It also did a short stop mid-route (forgot the name of the town) but the real time-wasters were the one-laners where the bus had to wait for minutes because there was only one road lane passable.

Forgive me if I don't have the appropriate travel pictures. I'm not much of a photographer and I admit, I don't have the "eye" to spot interesting stuff. When I try to take pictures, they end up bland, plain, un-dramatic, and flat. I can't seem to capture the so-called essence (not unlike my pal, Wendell, or my former colleague Jen -- see the Roving Shutter Bug blog).

Old-style architecture of Presidents Inn

In any case, half of the office contingent were booked at Presidents Inn, a popular hotel in Roxas City.

Just three stories high, the hotel is so-named because Roxas City is the birthplace of Manuel Roxas, the First Philippine Republic President who, according to the hotel's website, was born just a block away. It's obviously Spanish-Filipino in design and architecture and what makes the hotel ideal, at least to us who work at the Desk, it's just a block and a corner away from our Roxas City branch.

I got the Laurel Suite, a full deluxe, which simply blew me away with its simple elegance. In fact, all the suite rooms, I believe, are named after Philippine presidents as I saw a Macapagal room, a Quezon, and an Estrada. It was even better than the room I stayed in the night before in Iloilo.

Laurel Suite -- full deluxe room

My room had a full-size bed that would be comfy enough for two persons but was advertised as just for one. The room was homey and just bordered on the edge of luxury -- not too much but just enough to pamper you. While the bed dominated the space, there was more than ample space to walk around. Cable TV was powered by Sky Cable so it was a treat to be able to watch the History Channel during the down times of my two-day stay in Roxas.

I do wished the room allowed for a white light bulb. Lighting was provided by the two table lamps casting a yellowish light all around even during the day. But other than the lighting, I had no complaints as the room was swell. 

The hotel had free wi-fi but the signal was limited. There was no problem accessing the wi-fi from the resto but in my room, wi-fi signal was at best only at 36% -- and this was when I was standing by the room's door. Moving inwards meant losing the signal. So, feeling sheepish that I was standing by the door trying to position the PSP for better signal reception, I quit and just decided to go downstairs where I could properly sit down.

Being the seafood basket of the Philippines, Roxas City was the place to go to if you want your cholesterol levels to go up. Two eating trips to different restos located at Baybay (bayside) resulted into food binges on crabs, seafood kare-kare, shrimps, kilawing tanigue, fish broth, and Roxas' own diwal or Angel Wing, a mollusc delicacy. Sadly, no photos of the food I consumed as my hands were busy (the tradition is, at least according to our branch manager, you eat with your hands).

A surprise eating establishment however was the resto at Presidents Inn itself. On our second day in Roxas, my colleagues and I decided to just have lunch at the hotel as our presence was needed in the branch for most of the day. The fare was simple -- grilled squid, spicy prawns, and fried chicken -- but they were surprisingly deliciously-cooked.

Across the street from the hotel, I espied a small unassuming shop and with some time to kill, I decided to check it out. Turns out, the small shop was a food shop selling sweet delicacies and pastries. Called "Mamaitas", its signage claimed it offered "old fashioned desserts". Inside were cheesecakes, tarts, pies, and other bite-sized pastries.

Old fashioned but certainly delightful!

Since I did not read of any endorsement online, I wasn't expecting much but was curious enough to try out its delights. So, I bought myself a slice of their home-made cheesecake, a slice of their cassava cake, and two custard tarts. Went back to the hotel, ordered a cup of brew and proceeded to taste-test the cheesecake (saved the cassava and the custards for an evening snack, just in case).

The cheesecake was unlike the usual cheesecake. It was literally a cheesecake -- a moist cake flavored with cheese! And the custard tarts and cakes which I ate as post-midnight snack where equally delicious. Too bad that the store opened at 8am and I had to catch the 7am flight so no chance to bring home some of those goodies.

Cassava cake with 2 custard tarts, taken out

One thing I got addicted to however, during my stay in Roxas, particularly in the Presidents Inn was their hot chocolate. This was native hot choco, a tablea slowly melted down with water and served hot. It was awesome -- not too sweet, just the right hint of bitterness, absolutely savory for a chocolate. It took 15-20 minutes for your order to arrive but it was well-worth the wait.

So, while the seafood was the supposed highlight of anyone's trip to Roxas, I was more delighted with the pastries from Mamaita's and the hotel's hot chocolate. And oh, you can also count on the fried chicken from Presidents Inn as well.

monday mumblings: iloilo trip -- batchoy, brian, and coffee; comics on the reading list

I've not been reading any books of late because I've been rather hooked to reading (backtracking) on the events in DC comics. Right now I'm working on getting through the pre-Infinite Crisis series of books. As can be seen on the right side of this blog, I'm currently reading The Return of Donna Troy, one of the books that tie-in to the whole Infinite Crisis and after this 4-issuer, I'll get on to Villains United before I finally read Infinite Crisis proper and the ensuing 52 (and 52 Aftermath).

When I'm done with 52, I'll be proceeding to Final Crisis.


The unfortunate victim of my sudden turnaround to comics is A Game of Thrones which continues to be unread despite having traveled with me to Iloilo and Roxas City last week.

* * * *

Desk-work brought me back to Iloilo City last Wednesday.

My last visit to the place was I think late 2004 when I went there with the then RP National Basketball team coached by Boycie Zamar and bankrolled by Cebuana Lhuillier, my former desk. We were in Iloilo for the "Try-Outs ng Bayan" along with then the young national players of which I remember only Dennis Madrid, Celino Cruz, Marc Pingris, and Cyrus Baguio.

Last week, work again found me in Iloilo albeit for a quick stay (unlike the 2004 stay which was, if I remember correctly, 5 days). I had to visit our Iloilo branch and see what improvements can be done on the marketing-advertising side. I planed into the city on the noon-time PAL flight and was at the branch by 2:30pm. After an hour and a half and a dozen or so photos of the branch, I then had to kill time before meeting up with my pal, Brian, later that evening.

So, I undertook a mission I had promised to do -- sample the local coffee shops.

I was aiming to sample at least a couple of coffee shops but due to time constraint and the fact that the night plans changed abruptly, I was only able to check out Coffeebreak.

Near the Desk's branch was a branch of Coffeebreak which I promptly went to for a late lunch (I had just realized that I hadn't had a proper lunch as the flight was right smack in the middle of lunch-time).

Hazelnut coffee with passion "brownie"

I ordered their brew-of-the-week which was Hazelnut and also ordered a pastry which CB called Passion.

Passion is a moist choco-cake slice that is more brownie than cake with a choco-layer in between and almonds (or were those walnuts?) on top.

I'm not much a connoisseur of coffee but the CB brew was quite good and brownie was filling. Since I only had enough room for one coffee-type, I didn't have the chance to sample their iced or frapp coffee versions. Next time probably.

Aside from the great coffee and brownie was the free wi-fi at CB. 

Access to wi-fi granted!

I finally got the chance to test out the wi-fi capabilities of the PSP I brought along and after finally getting it configured, I simply asked the barista for wi-fi access and in minutes I was happily surfing away.

Using the PSP to connect to the internet shows one that not all websites have been configured to work on all mobile devices. Maybe the sites would work well on most tablets and smartphones but websites like Yahoo and even this blog did not display properly on the PSP screen. I could not even access the CMS of Blogger.com which made on-site blogging impossible. Fortunately, the mobile website versions of Twitter and FB worked well. Maybe I just need to install another internet OS on the PSP or upgrade it.

Just like any other coffeeshop, Coffeebreak's counter was easy to understand although they were more colorful than your usual green, brown, mocha variant shops.

Aside from passion, there were a lot other pastries and sweet stuff to chose from. Unfortunately, I wasn't there for a sugar-load. The other delicacies will just have to be tested on another occasion.

* * * *

It's always good to see Brian. 

Brian relocated to Iloilo several years back, got married, had kids, and has settled in his home province for good. So, it's quite seldom that we see each other, the last time being on the sad occasion of our friend's death.

Despite my trip to Iloilo being just a one-nighter, I still checked up on him and we agreed to meet later in the evening. He picked me up from my hotel around 9:30pm.

Deciding that coffee was the last thing on his mind that evening, we went instead to a small watering hole just off Loney Bridge (I think) for two bottles. While the videoke was blaring with tunes sung by the other patrons of the bar, we talked about life, careers, future plans, diabetes cares, and other stuff including reminiscing old times. 

After the two bottles and a song each, Brian proceeded to give me a tour of the city. I was surprised that at before 11pm, Iloilo was already relatively quiet, not unlike Cebu which at midnight was still roaring with life.

See you on my next vist, bro.

* * * *

The next day, I got up early, had breakfast at the hotel's resto, packed up my stuff and headed to the bus station for the trip to Roxas City which I'll chronicle on a next post.

* * * *

Everyone knows that Iloilo is famous for La Paz Batchoy. And when it comes to batchoy, the name Ted's easily comes to mind.

Deco's La Paz Batchoy

So, I evaded Ted's even though it was just around the corner and instead tried the La Paz batchoy at Deco's.

I ordered their special which promised a whole lot of extra stuff that would turn-off my doctor. This was dinner, some 30 minutes after I just had my mid-PM/late lunch at Coffeebreak. 

Along with the batchoy, I ordered four pieces of pre-war pandesal. The digit-sized pandesals were more interesting than the batchoy, sadly. These pandesals were bite-sized and were packed. You could use them as pamato if they were flatter. Despite their diminutive size, they were surprisingly filling. And they were baked well -- firm, packed, solid, yet easy to munch on. More like soft biscuits only thicker.

Going back to the batchoy ...

If my tastebuds remain accurate, the batchoy at Ted's was tastier. Although both stores used the same ingredients and are cooked the same, it all boils down to the sabaw or the broth. Ted's sabaw was the more superior one IMHO.

lingering in lingayen photos

I'm not much of a photo-taker, I admit. Sometimes I forget to take pictures and sometimes I tend to get shy. Unlike others who have no qualms about snapping a few clicks here and there, I have reservations about taking pictures especially when there are other people around.

In any case, here are some photos I did take during my latest sojourn in Lingayen.

Some stalls at the trade exposition including the stall that sold the popular "puto-Calasiao".

One of the stalls hawking a beach resort in Pangasinan.

A good chunk of the trade expo was devoted to furniture-makers who came from different parts of Pangasinan. Apparently, furniture-making is big business among Pangasinanense businessmen.

Several stalls sold sweets from all across Pangasinan including panutsa, polvoron, banana chips, ube halaya, chichacorn, and others.

That's me, rightmost in our booth with two of our Lingayen branch staff. It was freakin' hot in Pangasinan.

One place that was cool was the convention center which featured an exhibition of photographs, sculptures, and paintings by Pangasinense artists. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the names of the artists who did the following artworks which I'm posting here.

Steampunk inspired? A sculpture composed of metal and wood.

Water-color painting which caught my attention. If I recall correctly this is water-themed or something. The colors were more vivid in real-life.

That's obviously Lisa Simpson on the right, right?

A mixed media artwork which was getting much attention from onlookers, yours truly included.

The vivid colors of this guitar-themed painting was a delight to look at.

A impressionist (?) kalesa painting, one of several impressionist paintings exhibited in the center.

I'm sure this won't be the last time I'll be visiting Lingayen, and Pangasinan, in general. Maybe next time I'll be taking more meaningful photos.

the good ole days in u.p.

Elaine unearthed these old photos back from our college days at UP Diliman. They should've remained buried :)

lost memories

While fulfilling my duties as the security guard in my folks' home in Laguna while they were away, I tried vainly to rummage through the junk in my former room (turned bodega) to locate precious mementos of my younger days -- letters from friends and those who've I've held dear, movie and concert tickets that stirred up various emotions, various notes on pieces of paper and memo and sticky pads from significant individuals, photos, birthday greetings, various keepsakes and little souvenirs -- only to realize that I cannot, for the several hours I've rummaged, find them.

And I fear that I've lost them forever.

These little stuff, while seeming to be nothing more than junkable stuff to others, tell my story. In a nutshell, one can get a glimpse of who I am, and more likely who I was, with all the things that are contained in that medium-sized filofax. In between the covers of that filofax one can immerse in what things I value most in life. In the concerted junk, one can understand why I am now who I am and what has shaped my entire being.

And unfortunately for me, I've now lost them all.

Elaine would probably be the best person to understand my penchant for keeping things as she herself is another such junkie. Like myself, she is a sentimentalist and a romantic at heart -- always looking back to the past either for help in tackling the now and tomorrow, or for comfort, or for anchorage when the present seems forbidding and unsettling. Still got that box of keepsakes, Layne?

The bulging filofax I lost contains approximately stories and memories of my life from highschool up to college. That's a good eight years of memories down the drain. Definitely no monetary value but rates high on the sentimentality and emotional scales. Included in that bunch were letters and cards I got from my ex-girlfriend who is now my wife plus several movie tickets on dates we've had, and not to mention receipts from the coffee shops we frequently haunted during our courtship years.

Also lost is a bunch of letters from a good friend whose insights to life were always thought-provoking (like how it is that when we write letters we do not talk to the person himself or herself but to a piece of paper or how it is that we learn to understand early on that life is indeed not always fair and that you need to compromise).

Gone as well are various memorabilia from Peyups days including blue books with positive comments from professors, my class cards, my CMC library card, my acceptance letter to UP, among other things.

In junk heaven have gone pictures - highschool ones, college days and I believe, some personal pictures of my younger days when I was no more than a little boy with a rather big head on a small frame. I'm also missing photos of my days in the Lhuillier Group with former officemates which I was sure was also included in between that filofax's cover.

And oh, yes, letters from past loves as well are now in oblivion.

I was meaning to eventually clean up this "mess" actually and just retain the really, really important mementos (those of my wife's and those that I believe would cost something in the future should one of my friends suddenly become famous) but fate (or a rather overzealous cousin who believes cleanliness is the only virtue) played a cruel joke instead.

And now, they're all gone, gone, gone ... whoa whoa whoa.

wednesday warbles: rig is dead, fic deadline extended, montemar pics, more books, frienster

Deadline Extended
The deadline for submission of entries for Fully Booked's 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards has been moved from the earlier d-date of September 30 to November 3, giving us procrastinators a month and more to finish up our stories, comics, illustrations and short films. Hurray!!!


The Rig is Dead
After just about three weeks after being repaired, the rig has again died down on me. It just decided to stop processing and my suspect is the motherboard -- four fully years of running the impossible has just snuffed out its life. So now, rather than spend thousands repairing the CPU, I'll most probably just buy a new CPU -- probably a dual-core with those new memory module standards, the DDR2s. The thing is of course this will mean spending some moolah -- something I don't have much of at the moment.

I will still try to salvage the rig because its components are still working perfectly (now this is more probable than buying a new CPU) and purchase a new motherboard for it. If and if I do get to buy a new CPU (or a new desktop for that matter) then the old rig might go to pasture in Laguna where it can be put to good use that stow it with me where it'll just sit and collect dust in one corner.


The F-Fever Has Hit Me
I'm sure a lot of my friends and acquaintances and colleagues got a surprise when they opened their inboxes and found a Friendster invite from moi. Surprising because I never was the social networking-type (am not even very sociable at all) and to suddenly get an invite from me -- that's tells you something's up.

Well, the decision to finally create a Friendster account was a result of a momentary soul-searching and one of the few times that the reality and possibility of leaving the P.I. is quite, well, quite becoming a reality. In probably less than a couple of years, I and my little family will be making our ways in what is hopefully the greener pastures of Australia (God willing and pocket money willing) and what little circle of friends and pals I had I wanted to make sure I keep in touch with continuously.

So, friends, click here to view my Friendster account. Pictures forthcoming.


Bookworm
Every time I visit and decide to have a browse at the Booksale branch in Cityland 10 (fronting RCBC on its Dela Costa entrance), I always end up buying, err, a book. The last three trips has yielded a couple of sci-fi anthologies and just this week, a treatise on the Middle Ages entitled "The Waning of the Middle Ages: A Study of the Forms of Life, Thought and Art in France and the Netherlands in the Dawn of the Renaissance". The last title was bought because it can become a good resource for future Middle Ages-related (translate: fantasy) fiction complete with chivalry, sex in the M.A., and codes of honor and how just about every nobility, royalty and knight break it.

Not a month goes by that I do not buy a book and more of ten than not, the book I buy is already a resale or pre-owned in retail speaks. Not that I do not have the money to buy new books (the last new book I bought was the Fritz Leiber one some posts ago), but it's just that trips to these book resellers yields great finds.

And the books, like I've also previously said, are scattered all over the house and I'm sure, one of these days, my wife will notice this and that will be the end of it. I guess, I have to start thinking real hard about getting some book shelves set up so that I'll have a proper place to, err, place my books.


More Montemar Pics
And to end this day's post, here are some more pics of the Montemar outing I took using my phone cam and a toy cam -- an old Polaroid digicam (2.3 megapixels), which unfortunately doesn't compare to the digicams of the new age. From top to bottom: the buses we rode to Montemar; the Welcome Streamer welcomes us at Montemar; Montemar front office; the beach front on a rainy Friday afternoon; colleagues playing beach volleyball in the sand and rain; another shot of the beach with some mountains on the BG; sunset; and a shot of the revelers partying in the evening. I was out of commission the next morning so, no shots whatsoever!

beach front

And just before you think that I've been dreaming about Montemar and not have actually gone there, here is proof -- a pic of me on the actual beach of Montemar on the morning of Saturday, quite early, after just about a couple or so hours of sleep.

phone cam foto sessions 3

And yet more phone cam photos taken in my wanderabouts. From top to bottom: a sense of religion at the lobby of the Makati Medical Center; office-mates walking in the underpass under Ayala Avenue; RCBC Plaza at night all aglow; the Starbucks branch at Yupangco Building - Reposo when it was still undercon; and a view of Makati from the smoking ledge of RCBC Plaza's 43rd floor.

phone cam foto sessions 2

Some more phone cam photos I've taken over the past couple of years. These are randomly taken, no real topic or theme. If I find something interesting and I've got my phone cam in hand, I push the button, so to speak. In this collection -- the entrance of Enchanted Kingdom in Sta. Rosa, Laguna on a cloudy day; Glorietta littered and cluttered with ads and brand merchandising; the toilet bowl inside Jollibee Makati Avenue -- notice the padlocked tube and flush; signage inside an LPG-powered tricycle warning the passenger.

phone cam foto sessions 1

The wonders one can do with a phone cam. 

Amateur that I am, I am displaying here some photos I've taken using my handy N6680. From top to bottom: Balut, heaps of it, for sale - sold in front of 7-11 along JP Rizal Street, Makati; a shot of the Kopi Roti branch at The Columns at night; corner Ayala and Buendia traffic scene; and my hardworking Crocs, posed and poised for the cam. More random phone cam photos coming