Monday, July 21, 2008

The Rest... Cliff Notes Style

Yeah yeah i know it's been like 2 months since i got back from the phils. But i'm finally getting around to updating my blog. Because I want to commemorate my trip like I originally planned? No. Because I was reliving my trip on one of my boring mornings at work? Nope.

SO I CAN SPITE MATT ALATIIT. TELLING ME I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH MY BLOG. FUCK YOU BUDDY. TAKE THIS!


So here's the cliff notes for the rest of the trip.

Boracay- WAS STRAIGHT UP B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

It started with the hotel. Boracay Tropics was awesome! Literally 10 steps from the beach, breath taking views, a pool you can spend all day and night in, an awesome restaurant, with great live music every night and a kick ass spa!

The food was again top notch. Ate at a great place for lunch where me and my fam feasted on lobsters. The seafood in Bora was top notch. On our last night me and Anne had a great dinner at a Greek restaurant called Abe. Never thought i'd try raw beef but it was an awesome appy. The lamb was good too.

The night life was crazy as well. Drinking, smoking sheesha and late night swimming in the beach. Definitely one of the best times of my life.

Sounds like a good trip eh? Well I didn't even get to the beach hoping. 5 hour beach hoping trip where we got to explore different islands, 2 caves, go scuba diving and have our own beach to ourselves for lunch!

After Boracay was a family reunion at my mom's province. It was a great time at a pool. And i'll never forget the memories (or the giant callouses i got from playing ball barefoot) I took away from that day.

Then came a week in Cavite. Prepping for my grandparents anniversary. We had to learn a catilion (basically a traditional spanish dance) which sucked. We were forced to spend literally hours a day throughout the week practicing that shit. But in the end it really made my grandparents anniversary so it was all worth it.

The week was littered with nights of getting completely wasted on my grandparents roof... yeah i said roof. but this is not what you're thinking.

A fun little reunion as well were my giant family was split into teams and competed in events. All i cared about was taking home the gold in Basketball which we did.

This was followed with another crazy night in Manila with Hammer Time and Claudine. Shut down a gay comedy and had the best time. That and surprise 4am shiatzu massages was the cherry on the top.

Finally the second to last full day in the phils was quiet the experience with Anne. Touring through Manila in everything from the train, bus, tricycle, JEEPNEY and CAB! haha

This was a life changing trip. Makes me want to go back more often and i hope i'll be able to do that in the future.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

In Transit

So i'm trying to remember what i did 2 weeks ago...

After Bagio we had a good 2 days rest in my mom's province. Got to see my Lola and introduce her to Anne. Awesome experience. Best part was when my Lola handed me my old school bag from kindergarden w/ my gym clothes. that was cool.

Next we headed to Cavite for a day before having to go back to Manila to pick up dad. Back to Cavite for a night, then my family headed to my mom's province cause my sister was part of Santa Crusan (SP??). Which basically consists of walking around in the hot sun wearing formal wear. Not my cup of tea. So me and Anne stayed in Manila. Went on the ABS/CBN tour and watched a live taping of the flip show Wow Wow Wee.

Oh man that was so NOT COOL. they make you dance like homos and if you're caught not smiling and having a good time the producers get sour and you can even get kicked out hahaha. The funniest part was when the camera was focused on me and anne we tried to act like we were talking to each other but she ended up getting picked to be one of the contestants. hahaha if i ever find a video of that on you tube i'll post it.


*Gotta love the Edmontonians behind us that were sour they didn't get on the show... it was almost worth it just to hear them bitch and complain for 2 hours!

after the taping we met up w/ hammer time and co. did a little shopping and had some good chinese food at a wicked restaurant in green hills. i forgot the name of the place but i'll try to remember for you all. only complaint was when i asked the waitress how many people could a single order of their dishes feed and she said 2, so we ordered 2 orders of everything because there were 4 adults and 3 kids. they bring out a feast that would've fed like 10 grown adults easily. tack that on to my "why i hate chanks" list.

afterwards we headed to claudine's condo in makati. 11th floor of a high rise condo unit. straight balling w/ wicked 180 degree views (a corner suite) and prime location. Unfortunately they gave their nanny 2 weeks off so they didn't have a sitter. no worries cause odine was nice enough to let hammer time show us the night life in Makati.

and what a night life! Even though we went out on a Monday night it was still good times. Headed to Fort Bonifacio High Street which is a upscale, outdoor mall/restaurant/club area. we hit Pier 1 for drinks and the live band.

You gotta love any group that can sing soldier boy accoustically in Pop version! hahahaha. Also if you ever want to get fucked up really quick, order the Weng Weng at Pier 1. Imagine a slurpee w/ rubbing alcohol that tastes good... that made sense in my head.

afterwards we took a cab (15 min drive... less then $2 canadian) to a tai massage parlor. Keep in mind this was past 1 in the morning. But we were still able to get 1 hour massages for P300 each. That's like $7! i love the exchange rate here.

after that massage we walked back to the apartment (2min walk) but were so relaxed that it didn't even bother us that it was raining haha. I've officially fallen in love w/ Makati.

Next day we had to get an early start because my cousin from Bataan sent her driver to pick us up at noon. We went to Greenbelt (BEST MALL IN THE PHILS IMO) and had a wicked breakfast at this crepe spot. Did some shopping at GB and Glorietta Mall. Before Aga picked us up right on time and we headed back to Bataan for my nieces bday that night. The next day we had to join some procession in the sweltering heat, @ 7 in the evening, while it rained, holding candles. Yeah, all that.

But the very next day (i'm guessing the 21st? i know it was a wednesday for sure) we left for Boracay...

*I'm hoping the thongs we see in Boracay are like these... but on WOMEN! This was from the wow wow wee taping, and it's a pic of one of the gay comedians.

Just remembered why i don't blog

So i know it's been a while since my last update. To be honest i forgot i even had a blog. But you can't blame me since i'm basically in a whole other world. some days i don't even know what day it is, and everyday i don't know the exact date. so don't hate.

i'll try to recap the last 2 weeks to the best of my recollections but please excuse me if i fuck up my dates.

a couple side notes before we begin:

1.) I know i promised pics but like i've said i've been busy, so suck an egg
2.) Shout outs to keeks and Phil for their bdays
3.) Hollar at CO-#1 Laker Head Mr. Allan Catibog w/ the txt updates on the Lakers

Thursday, May 15, 2008

No Pics?

Sorry for no pics. But as you can tell by my post dates on these posts i've fired these off on one day. I'm actually spending the day at my cousins house while the house we're renting is getting new flooring put in today. I forgot my camera at home but will be updating my posts with pics as soon as i can.

So stay tuned.

Bagio- City in the sky

We left early Monday morning and headed to Bagio. From Pampanga it was a good 4 hour drive. We hired a driver named Paul who i swear looks just like my buddy Arneil.

The van was cool cause it had strong AC and fit all 12 members of our party comfortably. We stopped in Pangsignangngngingng (that's the wrong spelling but that's how i pronounced it hahaha) and i had Jollie Bee for the second straight day... no complaints haha.
The drive up to Bagio was banana's. Parts of the trip we were literally feets away from a cliff with a hundred foot drop. But amazing scenery.

We stayed 3 days and 2 nights in Bagio and did the tourist thing. It truely is the city in the sky. We hit SM Bagio and the top floor of the mall is open to the outdoors. At a certain part of the day the clouds that surround Bagio move their way through the mall and you are literally engulfed in the clouds. i wish i had taken a picture but when this went down we were running late to meet up w/ my mom to catch a movie.

Some high lights of the Bagio trip:

SM Bagio
Horse back riding
Botanical Gardens
Picture taking at one of the many view points in Bagio
Copping souvenirs at the Palenke
Dinner at Jerry's Grill

If you ever visit the phils then Bagio is a must! I could compare it to Banff in Alberta, Canada but really they are 2 totally different entities. The scenery alone is worth the trip.

(Show me a giant boob and ask me not to touch it, yeah right)

(Me and Wifey on top of a mountain, awesome view!)
*Wanted to take a pic in front of the Botanical garden sign... then Matt's people showed up

*Anne at the foot of the Botanical Gardens

Finally in Manila

2 hour lay over in Tai Pei and 2 hours to Phils. Finally touched down around 10 am Manila time. Claudine did her thing and got us threw customs in under 15 mins which is fucking amazing!

Got our shit and we stepped out into HELL. For real it was crazy hot. My balls stuck to my thighs .

We were greeted by my dads family who were there to see the members of our fam who were heading to cavite.

From my moms side was my mom, my sister, my cousin Jing and her driver.

We headed to Mall of Asia and WOW. That mall is crazy big and is amazingly designed. They even have a stage for performances that's opened up to the ocean.

We grabbed a quick lunch, walked around for a bit and headed to pampanga. We stayed the night in pampanga at a decent hotel before heading out to Bagio early the next morning.

Oh and i gotta throw in the fact that co-#1 Laker Head Catibog txt'd me at 3 in the morning to give me score updates... hahaha but being co-#1 Laker Head i was already up watching the game live via satellite. Hahaha Lakers '08 Champs bitches!

*Gotta love the exchange rate!! Those are 1,000P btw

Tai Pei

12 hours from Van to Tai Pei.

TAI PEI SMELLS LIKE MOLD.



7 hour lay over w/ no where to fck

Small world. When we were waiting for our flight from Calgary to Van I spotted some chinky looking guy staring at me. Our eyes met and i couldn't stop staring at him. Not in a homosexual way but the guy looked familiar. Turns out it was this guy James who i had over one night for a party. Hadn't seen him in well over a year so it was nice to catch up. He was on route to Van to surprise his moms for mothers day and he ended up sitting one row behind us.

We touched down in Van a little after 7 and grabbed a coffee with james before his ride arrived. Like i said before it was great to catch up with him but the conversation peeked after i ran out of things to talk about and i explained in detail on how i was going to join the mile high club w/ anne or by myself. :|

We grabbed some sushi for dinner and i could tell i was a little anxious to get on our way because i only had one sushi meal. No fat boy special today. I also caught the end of the Lakers vs. Jazz game which just pissed me off. 1 hour down, 6 more to go.

(Before the conclusion of the Lakers game)

We decided to check the weight restrictions on our carry on's and realized we were a combined 10 lbs over. But all good cause Ma's straight and she pulled out jeans and we threw them over top what we were already wearing. She even threw on a pair of my lebrons to save weight. (insert small feet joke by Allan and/or Jordan here) --> fuck you homos hahaha.



Some time between hour 2 and 3 of waiting Hammer time and co arrived and we checked in. We got a nice little scare at the check in when they told us that Anne was only allowed to stay in the phils for 3 weeks because she wasn't born in the phils.

It was awesome how the chanks at the check in made it sound like she wouldn't be allowed to go but of course they let her go but not before she almost teared up. hahaha.

So we finally got checked in around 11 and i decided to run the twins ragged so they could zonk out on the plane. an hour and an asthma scare later the lil bastards were still going strong.

We finally started boarding around 1:20 but again got stopped before we got on because the chanks at china air got pissed we had 2 carry ons each. I understand that if those were the rules they should've said something when we checked in but these fckn chanks waited till we were boarding to let us know.

So they confiscated our carry ons and checked them in with our check in luggage. One more final "fck off chanks" and we were finally off.

05/09/08- 403 to the 250

Today was a decent day. My boss let my off early so i can get my shit right before i left. Ran some quick errands; hit the bank for some US funds, returned a movie at rogers and copped a couple of Vitamin waters so i can get my kobe on.

Didn't have to be at the airport until 5pm so i had a good 2 hours by the time i got home so i took a shower and hit up the mrs.' to tide her over for the next 24 hours. Your welcome btw.

Jordan was nice enough to drive us to the airport. Love Jordan. He's always there when you need him and never fails. Always w/ the best intentions but doesn't always come up with the best results.

Like today for instance. If any of you are Filippino then you know the usual "balikbayan" routine. you got your 2 pieces of carry on, your 1 big piece of luggage for your clothes and then one huge f'n cardboard box full of spam and shit. hahaha. But please believe i'm new age balikbayan. I don't do that box shit haha. So between me and Anne we had 8 pieces of luggage and my loving cousin shows up with his 4 door corolla. Now i have all the faith in the world in Jordan and given the chance he would've done that shit tetris styles, stuffed all 8 pieces in his car, me in the front and anne strapped to the roof. but for safety reasons we figured it would be best to call in the re-enforcements.

Lucky for us we were able to catch the elusive Vernasauras before she went down for her daily 14 hour hibernation period. We packed half the luggage in her whip and we were off to the airport.

Here's another good piece of travel advice. DON'T BELIEVE SHIT ABOUT BETTER BRANDS WHEN IT COMES TO LUGGAGE. We bought new Swiss luggage which was supposed to be really good shit but before i could even use it i busted the fucking handle. But to be fair it was probably the raw horse power pumping through my pipes. But still it was pretty fucking ghetto dragging my carry on be the strap.

BTW shout outs to the people who saw us off, J, Jer and Vern.

You guys don't suck.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

The Night Before...

05-08-08

So it's the night before we leave and it's been snowing and raining on and off all day. Man am I going to be glad to be in a tropical climate.

Work went fast today, had a nice outting with the fam for drinks and wings and then me and wifey hit the airport to weigh our luggage. It's a good thing we did cause it turns out half our bags were 2 lbs over. Still so much to do and yet i find time to start a blog and load new jams onto my ipod haha.

Here's what i've loaded on my "Pinas" playlist:
*The first 3 jams were to get me in a FOB state haha

The APL Song- BEP
Bebot- BEP
Bakit Ba Inibig Ka?- Regine Valesquez ft. Eric Santos ( I swear I don't know how I found this song)
Move Mountains- Usher
Success- Jay Z ft. Nas
Lollipop- Lil Wayne (I also put this on wifeys playlist to get her in the Mile High mood haha)
75 Bars- The Roots
Crazy Love- Bob Marley ft. Jim Morrison
Jammin'- Bob Marley
Paper Float- Cassette's won't listen
Side Effects- Mariah Carey ft. Jeezy

Well I really should get the rest of the things i need to get done finished. I'll post again once i get to the phils. I'll also do a review on China Airlines and a recap of the flight. Here's hoping i get into the mile high club... preferably not by myself.

In the begining

Hello people of the internet. I've decided to keep a reflection of my recollections to my trip back to the Philippines. This is mostly a way to keep up in touch w/ my peoples back here in Canada but if you happen to stumble upon this then just enjoy and take my thoughts, actions and experiences with a grain salt.

Most of you strangers who read this will probably ask what's wrong w/ me? Is this guy retarded? Seriously.

But in all honesty I do what I do cause I think it's funny or will be fun. Most things I do I usually regret but hey that's life. A good friend of mine, Matt Alatiit (email me for his personal contact information) labeled me as an entity within reality. Well welcome to my reality...

Oh in anticipation for the hate I'll be receiving for my profile pic... it's the best one i have hahaha