Happy Holidays!!!

From one of the counter's in Gabby's Bistro. The Parol added a very traditional and solemn touch.

This post is created to wish everyone the best of the Holidays. May Peace and Love reign among all of us! Sharing with you the places I have been to, the stuff I have been eating and some other ideas in case you find yourself in Dumaguete where I spent my Christmas break. Be back in two days Dumsville. See you!

Christmas Mass at the Redemptorist. I have been hearing mass here since I was a kid with Mama. 

Gabby's Bistro. 

Never miss the treats from Sans Rivals. Cravings only satisfied in Dumaguete

Finally a 24 hour coffee shop for locals and tourists in Dumaguete. Kofficcino, not sure how it's spelled but it is across Qualfone. 

Source of Joy. Two of the six puppies from my beautiful Labrador Retriever, Quila.... 

And finally, our department decided to share some love this season. Instead of spending our Christmas Party funds, we will be using it to buy underwears for Sendong victims in Dumaguete. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! Hoping for your love and support in the coming year. The best in life to all of us in 2012.

My Grown Up Christmas List

Difficult times require hope and resilience.

I know that the Dumaguetenos will see this difficult situation through. A few months from now, we will all look back at Sendong and realize how it made our Christmas more meaningful. Let us continue to help each other and keep praying. 

Dumaguete + Sendong + Holidays = Hope and Optimism

Today, December 17, 2011 is a very challenging day for the City of Gentle People. Typhoon Sendong decided to drop by and left everybody in a very tough situation. 

 

Our once clean, well-maintained boulevard is filled with murky mud water. 

No lives should have been sacrificed for the Dumaguete City officials to learn the value of disaster preparedness. while this is nobody's fault, I am looking forward to the results of their discussion and see what they can do for the Dumaguetenos in this very difficult situation. I have always bragged about the peaceful community I came from, but I am not happy about the complacency of the local government and its  inability to prepare for extreme situations like this. 

Raised like every Dumagueteno, I am about second chances, but this has happened on my birthday on February 7, 2009 and we seem to have not improved but in fact have lost more lives this time around. 

To the people in the current provincial and city administration, show us your worth, and try to make this situation as painless as possible for every Gentle Person in Dumaguete. We deserve better!

To my friends from other places, please offer a prayer for my city. 

Photos grabbed from :

http://www.facebook.com/luigiborromeo

My Wishlist for Cebu for 2012...

I was in Manila overnight for a very short Holiday break/shopping with Mama. Given what she wanted to do, I had to make sure I'm able to manage our time so both of us get to do what everything we want by the end of the trip. 

Since most of the trip was about going somewhere to buy this and that... Here is a list of things I wish we had in Cebu so I can stop my craving and have more shopping time while in Metro Manila; instead of making sure to include these places in my itinerary to try and get a taste of what they offer.

1. ARISTOCRAT - The barbecue chicken, honey garlic fried chicken, sotanghon guisado; Aristocrat can definitely add more excitement to Cebu's dining experience. 

Taken from the Roxas Blvd branch which is open but undergoing renovation after being hit pretty bad by the last storm in Manila.

2. BINONDO - I want a Chinatown in Cebu. Somewhere we can get hopia, and all those other delicious Chinese delicacies.

I was too scared to take pictures in Binondo, I took this photo of the Starbucks Binondo before stepping out of the cab.

 3. BON CHON CHICKEN - Thanks Karen for going with me to Glorietta to eat here. Definitely must have in Cebu.

4. DAIRY QUEEN - With Krispy Kreme, Cebuanos have proven they don't really care about weight gain. Someone bring Dairy Queen to Cebu and in IT Park, please? 

5. MRS. FIELD'S CAFE - Who doesn't love Mrs. Field's????

6. CINNABON - Thanks for being so conveniently located in NAIA but maybe Cinnabon can put up a stall somewhere in Ayala Center Cebu, I will willingly wait. I promise.

Well, that is more or less my Manila trip. The rest of the time were spent in Divisoria, Tutuban, Greenbelt, Sofitel, MOA, etc... Don't get me wrong, but i love Cebu and I can live with Ayala, Colon, Manalili, SM, Marco Polo, etc... but I do hope seeing some of the things above opening here in 2012, that would make not want to leave CEBU at all... 

Musings of a Solo Traveler...(part 3 of 3)

Well, the rest of the trip is pretty much something other bloggers may have documented before. I went to Macau, went around HK following the same usual tourist routes, and visited Disneyland. Sharing with you some pictures with anecdotal notes of the experience. Enjoy! 

For whatever reason, the first restroom I went to had a pair of boxers  hanging by the door. 

I was next to this mother and son pair in Starbucks, kind of reminded me of me and my mom when I was a kid. 

Talk about "Parent Trap", he seemed like my missing brother, we caught each other laughing after looking at each other. I only got a back shot. I was too shy to ask for a side by side pic.

This attendant from Disneyland carried my luggage to the counter. His name is Chin or something like that. He gave me a personalized map, with handwritten instructions on what places to go and what shows to check out. I knew they couldn't eat out with guests, so I skipped on my intent to invite.

And by the way, something happened at The Venetian. I am still thinking if I should blog about it. 

Coke Happiness... Family and more reasons to be happy this Season.

Musings of a Solo Traveler...(part 2)

Mind. Lost. Hazy. Blurry.

Nathan Road... Take me there... 

I remember crossing a few intersections, entering and coming out of a few subways; and walking a couple of blocks but none of these seem to get me anywhere near Tsim Sha Tsui. The road names have changed as I continued walking and I started to get a little weary when I realized how they remained unfamiliar and not sounding any close to Nathan Rd. or Tsim Sha Tsui.  

7/11. I'm so glad to see you...

I know I quit smoking but these two kept me warm and company while lost in Kowloon.

Coke and Coffee... Always does the trick.

Having updated my Facebook status to indicate my intent to head to Kowloon, I was very happy to find a comment from a previous colleague about them being in HK at the same time. And luck seems to start pouring in when I saw a 7-11 store in Austin Road. I started to get some help from my friend who were also then in HK for a vacation via social networking. An hour later after our comment exchanges in facebook, they arrived with a map that will soon be my guide while I am in the Chinese territory. While waiting for them I have managed to smoke a few sticks, chatted with a 7-11 customer, and painfully attempted to get directions from the Chinese lady in 7-11 which really kind of turned out to be a waste of time due to language barrier.

Thanks to roaming access and social networking. Friends are coming to the rescue.

After an hour of briefing on which way to go, which trains and exits to take, they took me to a Mc Café where I spent an hour of cat napping before heading to China Ferry Terminal in Macau. In between I spent my time observing Chinese nationals having their after party meals still dressed in Mc Queen’s and limping in their high stilettos...

Thanks Jelai and Issa for helping me out... 

Fast forward... I found myself on the first ferry out of HongKong to Macau at 7AM the same day. 

Musings of a Solo Traveler...

This was my first “solo” out of the country trip; that alone makes it memorable. 

Interesting graffitti in one of the posts in Kowloon. These are public announcements on temporary closures, renovation of  places in the next few blocks from the said post. 

My first out of the country trip was as a chaperoned minor and the rest were accompanied by college friends and colleagues. Needless to say, I had the convenience of companion and everything that came with it in all my previous of out of the country travels. Even my domestic trips had always been in groups, and this Thanksgiving itinerary was definitely an exciting but somehow frightful venture. 

Plans, Maps, and Google. With a little help from a friend, I came up with an itinerary with two things in mind: visit as much places and interact with people .I wanted to be away from signature shops as much as possible, my budget in this trip definitely is not within the “Hermes buying people” scale and I didn’t want to waste my time having pictures taken in front of signature stores and monograms. On the contrary, I wanted to be on the streets, wander, ask directions from people, take the cheapest public transport possible and just be spontaneous. 

"Charlie", resting in one of the fire hydrants in Austin Road.

Nathan Road. Midnight after Thanksgiving.

I arrived in HongKong a little over midnight the day after Thanksgiving. Between booking a hotel and lounging around the airport cafes until the first ferry to Macau, I chose the latter. Of course, I took spontaneity to the next level and jumped on the first train I saw out of the airport. That gave me around 5 hours of productive time between me and my backpack “Charlie” in the streets of Kowloon without a plan on hand. 

Instead of getting out of Exit E in Kowloon, I found myself exiting in a flyover and walking on the highway.

Me. Alone. Subway. Midnight. Lost. Picture. 

 After almost and hour of walking, going in and out of subways, I found myself getting lost... This is where is the real fun begins... (to be continued... )