ReDiscovering Baguio. A Cold Experience.

July 5, 2008 · Filed Under general, travel · Comment 

After about 12 years, I came back to what was dubbed as the summer capital of the Philippines. I remember quite vaguely the details of how it looked like in the past but what lingered in my memory was how me and my friends enjoyed the city of beautiful tress, flowers, and American architecture.

I love traveling but I hate sitting in the bus for long hours. I usually sleep in my travels so I won’t feel the nausea. When we reached the foot of Baguio though, I reached for my camera and we opened the window to savor the cool air breeze. Baguio… I often thought Baguio is the place for me because I easily sweat. It would be so cool to have an all-day and citywide airconditioning system.

baguio city, philippines

Uphill, I saw the mountains and trees and I felt very excited. I eagerly took shots of the lush green in front of us but halted at the sight of familiar balding mountains… I asked myself: “Is this Baguio or Montalban?” The hell with quarrying, these were not the mountains I used to drool over when going up to Baguio in the past.

baguio city, philippines
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Living Less but Paying More

July 3, 2008 · Filed Under general, travel · 1 Comment 

I again hit the ceiling last night. When I went home, my nanay told me we ran out of rice and she had to buy some for P40.00 per kilo. My husband also arrived telling me the gas shot up at P61.00 per liter which almost wiped his weekly budget. Whew!

I again realized how much I wanted to watch the latest movie of Will Smith, Hancock, and how sad we do not have the budget for it. No wonder my brother-in-law, an OFW who’s only here in the Philippines supposedly for his vacation, uses his time here in the country searching for better overseas opportunities.

He was telling me about a job offer from Negril, Jamaica. Right now, He works in the Saudi Arabia and he was tempted with this offer from another land.
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Wordless Wednesday: Don’t You Just Love To Eat?

June 25, 2008 · Filed Under general, travel · 8 Comments 

Makes me wanna buy kakanin and other native food from the Philippines. This was taken from our trip to Sariaya, Quezon. Yummy!

native food in the philippines

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Marikina Peek: Riverpark at Night from Jabey’s Lens

June 20, 2008 · Filed Under about marikina, travel · 6 Comments 

This is the most beautiful shot of the Marikina Riverpark I saw. Thanks so much Jabey for allowing me the use of this photo. Jabey is a fellow member of the Marikina Valley forum.

Marikina Riverpark

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Mardi Gras in Marikina

June 19, 2008 · Filed Under about marikina, travel · Comment 

Barangay Calumpang of Marikina celebrated their Fiesta last Friday, June 13. My family were lucky to be invited by our friends, Ate Gemma and Kuya Lito, to their household where we feasted on delicious food. They prepared kare-kare, sugpo, lechon kawali, menudo, and many more, For desserts, we had salad and creamy gelatins. My husband and I went home stuffed and happy. :)

My friend from Marikina Valley forum, sir rands (a.k.a. Randyblu) is also from Calumpang. He is also a very good photographer and he was able to take pictures of the Gay Mardi Gras in Calumpang. Let’s take a look at these photos and marvel at how creative gays really are –

Mardi Gras in Calumpang Marikina

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Scouting for the Best Home in the World? See the Best Countries to Live this 2008.

June 14, 2008 · Filed Under general, travel · 1 Comment 

My attention snapped when I saw this yahoo headliner for the World’s Best Places to Live in this 2008. I was silently praying that just maybe, Marikina would be included in the list. I know though that I was like hoping for a miracle especially with the ZTE and other corruption-related scandals in the government, the oil and rice price increase, the Meralco billing outage… blah… blah… and more blahs…

Anyway, here it is — the result of the Mercer Consulting’s annual roundup of the global cities with the best quality of life. (From the Business Week and Yahoo Finance)
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Marikina Peek: A Photo from the Past by Cesar Mariano

June 13, 2008 · Filed Under about marikina, travel · Comment 

Cesar Mariano, a fellow Marikenyo, sent this old photo of the faculty staff of Marikina Elementary School in the ’20s. Thank you Cesar for sharing with us this photo from your collection.

marikina
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Marikina Peek. Photo of the Old Marikina River.

June 2, 2008 · Filed Under about marikina, general, travel · 2 Comments 

Marikina has gone a long way, it has transformed dramatically since 1992. Curious to see how it looked like in the past? Think no more, see this photo of the old Marikina River and marvel how possible it is to revive an unsightly, biologically dead river.

Photo Source: MCDA and Marikina PIO
Photographer: Unknown

marikina river

See the Marikina River at present here.

Read about the Marikina River Development Program here.

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Marikina Peek. Photos from the Past.

May 30, 2008 · Filed Under about marikina, general, travel · 6 Comments 

There will be a new section at Marikenya.com — the MARIKINA PEEK. This page will contain photos taken from Marikina, by the author or by other Marikeños or even non-Marikeños wishing to share to the world the beauty of Marikina City.

The first Marikina Peek Entry. PHOTOS FROM THE PAST.

marikina in the past

Source: Marikina City Development Authority
Photographer; Unknown

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The CowGirl in Me

May 28, 2008 · Filed Under general, travel · Comment 

When I was a teen, among my favorite hobby was reading books, collecting books, and trading books. I have always been the hopeless romantic type even in my youth and among my favorite reading were selections from Sweet Dreams, Sweet Valley and Mills and Boons Paperbacks.

Among my favorite settings for my love stories are farms with cowboys as leading men. Even in the Philippines, TV commercials painted cowboys as the dream lovers — big and strong, chivalrous, good horse riders… Today, I have overcome reading teeny paperbacks but not watching movies with Rodeo and farm settings and with the advent of internet, I can now go to websites like the National Finals Rodeo. NFR is the premier rodeo event championship in the United States, it is also called the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
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