Kampuchea

おはよう

This story is truly one for the books.

I had never really experienced real earthquakes before. I considered myself lucky because I am here, born and raised in the Philippines where the occurrence of earthquakes is way above average and yet I hadn't experienced the ground going all mad and crazy. The "worst" earthquake experience I've had so far, prior to my Japan trip, was when I was inside the Araneta Coliseum watching a basketball game, where every one was literally jumping up and down, cheering for the competing teams. That's the closest thing I've had for an earthquake experience. Well, not 'til the March 11, 2011 historical 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan.

It was a really, really crazy and new experience for me. When it happened, we were already on the last day of the conference where we'd all present our projects done throughout the week-long conf. The groups had already started presenting when I somehow felt the ground shake. I thought "Gosh, what was that?" And then the earthquake began. It probably took me 20s or so to realize that I was in an actual earthquake. The ground didn't stop shaking as I'd expected, in fact it only grew stronger. The chandeliers were all swaying, dancing, making loud noises in the background. I was... calm.


While everyone was scurrying under their seats, I was calm. I looked for what I thought the best cover/protection was. So instead of covering my had under our seats, I went on the podium and hid under the lectern.



(...to be continued)

Jazz Night at Ten02

@itsmekikay: Jazz night was perfect! The Big Band was awesome. Also saw some Filipino personalities in the club. :-)





Write-up & maybe a video clip to follow

Splash! Hot Springs Adventure in Laguna

Laguna, Philippines is well-known for its hot spring resorts in Los Baños and Calamba. I'm quite surprised that I only visited the place this weekend. Hmmm. It is definitely the place-to-be for workaholic Manileños like moi. There is no better place to go if you're from the Metro and just want to get away for a nice and relaxing weekend: air-conditioned hotel rooms, hot spring resorts, coconut juice, local delicacies, and well, a breath of fresh air. The best part? It's only an hour or two away from Metro Manila.


We stayed overnight at the Splash Mountain, in one of their standard rooms (1 double bed, 1 single bed), which, by the way, is so affordable. The initial plan was to get wasted, ergo the getaway and the Tequila; but well, it's just that--an "initial plan". The thermal pools of flowing hot springs from Mount Makiling were just so inviting. Meron silang tumataginting na 19 thermal pools! Saan ka pa?!?


Once checked-in, you have the privilege to use ALL of its provided facilities, including of course the pools of warm spring water, giant waterslides, oudoor jacuzzi, barbeque grills, and coin operated karaoke TV 24/7.


The snack bar's open 24/7 also. When you're there, you don't have to worry about anything else. Just leave all your worries in the Metro. And, there's a coffee shop :) They serve good food; I had a Filipiniana for breakfast. Delectable!



P.S. Calmed and relaxed me forgot to take photos of the pools. Hehe.
P.P.S. In case you wanna know, we (the three of us) only spent around P1,500.00 for the entire stay including travel fare (only P200 round-trip).



Getting There (cut-and-paste from their website):

If you are coming from Quezon City, aircon buses are available at Cubao, along EDSA corner Aurora Boulevard. HM Tranport leaves at 3:30 am daily from Cubao to Sta. Cruz via Los Banos. Bus leaves every 15 minutes until 10 pm. From Los Banos, you can wait for buses bound for Cubao at the highway in front of Splash Mountain. The last trip for buses coming from Sta. Cruz is at 8:00 pm.

For those coming from Manila, aircon buses bound for Sta. Cruz are available at JAM and Tritran bus terminals at LRT station, Buendia. First trip is also at 3:30 am and buses also leave every 15 minutes.

Leonids with Saturn, M42, and M41

It's been awhile since I went out with my org-mates to observe the night sky. On a whim, I decided to go to the public observation of the 2010 Leonids Meteor Shower at the PAGASA Astronomical Observatory Sundeck. It was already 10pm and I was only browsing through the Facebook profile pages of family and friends anyway. So I thought to myself, "why not do something more productive like socialize, right? I mean socialize with real people who move in the real-world."

I've been to a lot of meteor shower observations already so I wasn't as psyched about the observation per se. I was more excited to see who else was going. :) My plan was to stay for only an hour though, two hours tops.

I was there until 4AM!

The night turned out to be more fun than what I had expected. Although I didn't see a lot of old faces and didn't really get to acquaint myself with the new ones, I had the pleasure of meeting Copernicus--Erika V.'s 8" Sky-watcher Flex-tube Dobsonian.


Although I didn't get to see a shooting star (what the heck, right?!?), I got to marvel at Saturn and deep sky objects M42 and M41.

SATURN


M41


M42


As usual, seeing these objects gave me chills. And there I thought none of them could surprise me anymore since I've already "gotten used" to seeing these heavenly objects. Yeah, right...

It was a great night. Not only did we get to observe beautiful objects we also got to talk about a lot of stuff--our dreams and our passions. :) Ad astra per aspera indeed! It was totally worth the puyat.

Here's a shot of the sky just before dawn. This lovely shot was taken by Erika V.


How I wish I brought my camera with me.

Lesson learned: Celestial objects, stargazing, astronomical observations will never seize to amaze me.

How dare I think otherwise?

Tupas in 澳門 and 香港 ♥

The Macau/HK trip was my first time abroad with my brother Fourth and cousins. Going places is definitely way more fun with family and relatives--especially with cousins whom you grew up with. It's so unfortunate though that my brother and I only got to spend three full days with them... we had to leave right away for work and school. Although it was a very short vacay... it was definitely an action/adventure-packed weekend.


The night we first arrived in Macau, we just dropped off our stuff in my cousin's place and went strolling around the busy and colorful city right away. We were all giddy and excited (read us noisy and rowdy) like typical tourists. What made it more fun was the company of my cousins.


We then dined in around the Fisherman's Wharf area for the Bisperas of Jem's birthday. Spicy sea food plus some meaty meal was heaven. We were home past midnight. Since it was gonna be a really short vacay for me and Fourth, we all had to wake up early -- to make the most out of our stay there.

Spent the entire morning touring around San Malo.



As I'd expected, the streets were pretty crowded; it was so surreal. I felt like I was in some Chinese movie or something. What made it more grand was when we finally got to the end of the narrow streets of San Malo -- Saint Paul's Ruins awaited us. It was such a sight to behold!



Surprisingly enough, even with the moseying in the morning, we still had the energy to climb up the summit of the Macau Peninsula.


My crazy cousin Jem (our tour guide) didn't warn us about what we were getting ourselves into. Let me rephrase that. She didn't warn us about what SHE was getting us into. It was a real climb, which reminded me of my Pulag climb! (And there we thought that it was just going to be another easy mosey.) It was really just fortunate for Jem that the A-Ma Temple at the summit was majestic--she eventually got spared from all the foreseeable whining. Anyway, according to Wikipedia, it "is one of the oldest and most famous Taoist temples in Macau."


The temple was really beautiful with some Chinese traditional music in the background making it more uncanny. When I was there standing at the center of the temple, it wasn't difficult to imagine Jacky Chan or Jet Li flying over my head with daggers and some red Chinese silk drapery like those seen in Chinese action movies.


After marveling at the majestic and culture-filled temple, it was such a relief to know that there were shuttles that we could take that'd take us down the foot of the hill. hehehe


As if we weren't tired enough... when we arrived home we were told to rest for only a few hours, we still had to celebrate Jem's birthday! As if my feet weren't hurting enough already, we dressed up, wore killer heels, and went bar hopping and partying around town. The city was grand at night. The city lights were fabulous and so were we!




Next Stop: Disneyland! Two countries in three days! Awesome, right?!?




Best Disneyland experience ever. I have been to Disneyland USA in LA but this time it's more fun, awesome and memorable... simply because I was with my brother and my cousins. We were on fire! It seemed as if we were transported years back when we'd all get together in one of our living rooms and do some Disney movie marathon! We realized that although we all seem to have "grown" up, we're still those same kids who used to hangout in our Lolo and Lola's bedroom watching cartoons and having fun bullying each other.

Sigh.

It was all so nostalgic. While strolling around Disneyland, we'd reminisce about those days of ol'.

The night ended perfectly with the impressive and splendid fireworks display. My Tita and I were both teary-eyed. It was so surreal being there with everyone... well, almost but not quite.



I wish I could tell you more... but I've gotta start writing my dissertation. (lol)


Anyway, we are all definitely going back... and there's definitely gonna be more of us! Yay! xox

HK/Macau trip write-up to follow very, very soon.