Manila Ocean Park

south-east asia → philippines → metro manila → manila

this post is so overdue, but anyway, manila ocean park with my mom, sister, and cousin weeks ago. ‘got free tix from my sister, so i guess it’s not bad to tag along. this facility is behind quirino grandstand, near rizal park. obviously incomplete at distance outside, it’s significantly smaller compared to hong kong ocean park. although both facility carries ‘ocean park’ in their name, each belongs to totally different category, i guess. hong kong ocean park is more of an amusement park with rides, wildlife park (other than sea creatures) showcasing pandas, birds, butterflies, etc. and live show of trained animals (birds, dolphins, sea lions, and seal). while manila ocean park, for now, is simply an oceanarium. it’s the largest aquarium facility in the philippines (if not the only), and it features a wide variety of species ranging from fishes to sharks, lots of sting rays, and a giant crab. when completed, it will include a specialty mall, some restaurants, and outdoor pools. at the moment, it’s a complex containing fish tanks that you could go around and see fishes and be done in about one hour and a bit. and at 400 pesos entrance fee, it’s a bit pricey.

apart from the fish tanks, they have an area where you could have ‘fish foot spa’. if i remember it right, it’s 100 or 200 pesos for 20 minutes. basically, you dip your bare feet in a reservoir with some species of small fishes, and they’ll feast on your feet’s dead skin [cells?]. although it sounds completely exotic, we didn’t catch the bait. another extra feature is a glass bottom boat. from the advertisement, you’ll take a boat ride, and the bottom of boat is glass, hence the name (eureka!) unbelievably, there’s a queue going on for this "extraordinary" boat ride. after walking the whole building for hours, seeing fishes, sharks, and sting rays swarm around, from flat aquariums, to gigantic ones, to open water aquariums, and especially from that one, where you enter a long walkway tunnel with 220-degree curved acrylic walls, i couldn’t possibly think why one would suddenly desire to see these water creatures from a boat with a clear bottom? isn’t that enough? give the fishes a break please.

the oceanarium is owned by a chinese subsidiary company in the philippines, and although it’s good to see facilities like this arising in the metropolis, i wish we could have something wholly owned by the government. apparently, the only thing that happens when government intervenes is …sadly, delays. NAIA terminal 3? where art thou?

i better stop now before i turn this post into a rant. good night.

more pics -> here

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this is from google adsense on the right side of my blog. and surprisingly for some reasons, there’s a bit of truth in it! "How I Lost My Belly Fat?" yup, i’ve been losing a lot recently. since i started working again in manila, i lost more than 25 pounds. looking at my pictures from late last year, it’s really a drastic change. to counter this unpleasant happening, i’ve asked my mom to put in extra rice in my lunch box, and starting now, i tried to eat more than what i normally consume. even for dinner, i don’t stop until i feel like puking. i still run on the tread though. i normally do a 5-km, 3-4 times a week, more or less 30 minutes each. planning to make it at 10km straight, i guess i can still handle it.

"new zealand guided walks". well this is undoubtly one of the most beautiful landscapes on planet earth. as seen from lord of the rings movies, stunning vista, green endless pastures, and of course it’s the land of the "middle earth"! i hope i could go here in the future.

kung fu human, (not panda)

for some strange reasons, i received a lot of birthday greetings today, mostly from the office. even my boss messaged me! and a lot asking for birthday treat (cheeseburger! cheeseburger!). some of them even seems so sure that it’s indeed my birthday and suspected that i’m just denying it! to make it clear, no, it’s not my birthday today. honest.

it started when one of my officemates changed her YM status announcing my birthday loudly.

*thanks to glai for the kung fu pic *

The scientific name for the common house cat is felis domesticus (aka felix the cat).

south-east asia → philippines → rizal → san mateo

teambuilding last friday, may 9. one thing i like in this company is that we always have company activities on a friday so we still have wholly 2-day regular weekend break. we arranged for car pool (i’m going to ride with a collegue from paranaque, anna) and i had to be in mc donald’s atc at 6.00am. a bit too early, and i don’t want to be late, i drove to alabang and just parked nearby the church at the backsides of atc (because it’s free here and i will be gone most of the day) and then walked briskly towards mc donalds. ‘got there 3 or 4 minutes past 6, and wilson and jeremy (same name) are having breakfast already. as you might already know, i don’t eat breakfast. accurately, early breakfast. i could take a brunch or a rice breakfast at around 10 or 11, but not that typical pancake-cereal-tapsilog-and-all-kinds-of-other-silog breakfast at 6 or 7am. after a while, anna and jacq came, and we’re on the road to expressway right away. first stop would be shell station ayala to get lanie, which was a quick one because there was no traffic.

the crew complete now, we headed further north and we’re actually familiar with the route up until passing by edsa shine and turning right in the KKK/Bonifacio monument (not sure how you call this). after that, we relied on our maps, which are sadly, too hard/blurred to read! i spotted a landmark in the map called ‘cosmopolitan market’ but in reality it’s ‘conception market’. going a bit in circles and started to get lost, all of a sudden, lo and behold! we saw two vehicles approaching (a car and a van) and inside it we spotted our officemates! happy accidents! saved us getting lost and late! so, we just followed them ala convoy and made it to the facility a few minutes before 8am. the place is called eartHaven, more info from their site. it’s situated along sides of sierra madre mountain range and they promote environmental awareness and back-to-basic way of life. as oppose that we were on an elevated land and there would be lots of cellphone signals, all our phones were dead. registration, and then we had some trivia games first ranging from scientific name of things like cats and dogs and rice grain to highest of everything like highest paid actor, highest tower, and tallest tree. i actually know the scientific name for rice (oryza sativa), but after saying so he asked me to spell! whatta. one of my colleagues knows that the tallest tree has to be the sequoia, but our guide says no. the correct answer is california redwood, and just double checking the fact now. sequoia = california redwood haha! he added that there were some 200+ species of redwood and he knows all of them. obviously bluffing, we asked him to recite them all, but he reasoned that we would run out of time. we then bargained for him to recite even half of it, but he still declined. i guess some of his trivia, he ain’t sure himself. just like when one of my officemate says that the highest paid female actor is julia roberts (i think it’s witherspoon, i just remember i heard about her high wage before), our guide says it’s wrong, and when we asked who the correct answer is, he thinks for awhile and then says "ah tama ka! si julia roberts nga" (yes, you’re right. it’s julia roberts). well we didn’t really blatantly made fun of him (just within ourselves, hehe) but my take on this is that, if it’s your job to share facts, then you have to diligently make sure they’re not fictitious.

enough of that. we had breakfast. carrot cupcakes (yes they were that small), and after grouping into 2, we had indoor games first like inventing group name (ours "pangkat-i", the other group was "team ba?" with a pail logo), group cheer and group logo, and building the highest and sturdiest tower using plastic straws and limited tape (which we won btw). we then proceeded outdoors for the spider web game. i don’t have a picture of this but it’s like spider web made of ropes and each individual from a team has to cross from one side of the web to the other by getting into web (rope) holes without any body contact. each hole is to be used only once and since we were 11 in the team, we had to use upper holes and had to carry some of our members. if there’s any body contact, we have to start from the beginning. i think we had 4 or 5 takes on this, and on our last and successful try, i was the last person to pass through so i was very careful not to hit the ropes. again we won this game. after that, the walk-in-unison game, which we easily won again (ahem. hehe) due to faster count pacing (1-2-right.. 1-2-left and so on, instead of 1-2-3-right.. 1-2-3-left) and using all members wearing closed shoes. headed back to our main base for lunch which we had using barehands (which was fun and natural for most filipinos) and a quick rest. then the ultimate challenge which is a small obstacle that includes crossing the river through bridge made of ropes, crossing back on slippery logs with pendulum bags going back and forth trying to hit you, and then finally crossing the length of the river by tightly clinging on a hanging rope and swinging ala-tarzan. there might be lots of us who ended up soaked in the muddy river, but still, it’s an amazing experience. needless to say, we won again this part.

then, we still have some spare time for swimming (this time in real pool), and since it’s back-to-basic, we have to wash ourselves from drums of water using pails and water dipper (aka tabo).

back to our base again for snacks, awarding of winners (hakot award because we won every challenge), and finale. some group pictures and then back to manila. before heading home, we dropped by one of our colleagues home (in ayala alabang, yes the village!) it’s my first time to get in this subdivision (which is a very notorious neighborhood of the elites) so we were kidding about the air smelling different here, or the mosquitoes having right attitude in this part that we could leave the doors open.

before we knew it, it was already past 9pm. then everyone called it a day. i walked to the parking lot, my arms starting to sore now (because of rigorous physical activities) and drove home. 

of course, pics -> here 

time for movie reviews

to catch up tons of movies i’ve downloaded but haven’t seen yet, i attributed several hours of my weekend for 3 different films.

the marrakech express (1989). this is a italian film by gabriele salvatores. plot is simple. marco receives news from teresa saying that their old friend rudy is in jail in marrakech (morocco) for possesion of illegal drugs. the only way to get him out is by paying huge amount of bail. not having such amount, marco asks several friends ponchia, paolino, and cedro, individually having lives of their own, to help out their friend, rudy. a bit hesitant at first, they decided to embark an adventure from italy to morocco by land to relieve rudy. passing by france and spain (atleast), hitching through locals, and crossing the blazing desert with infinite sand dunes in bikes, they reached marrakech only to find out that rudy wasn’t imprisoned at all. the money was actually needed to buy irrigation machines to produce water in the middle the desert, where rudy and teresa, among others, find settlement. with the help of everyone, they successfully managed to produce water in this arid piece of land, and planned to make it an orange plantation. rudy promised to pay them back from the very first harvest. reuniting their friendship (although there was bit of lies), the story ends when the four has to go back to italy, again by land. this is a movie for adventurers. you would really be inspired to go and see the other side of the world. sad to say, i haven’t even been outside asia, but i know it’ll come, i’ll have my chances to see more of our planet. morocco will wait for me.

under the tuscan sun (2003). coincidentally, this is another movie where you’ll be feeling the urge to travel after seeing. it’s mostly set in tuscany (italy), but the film is mainly in english (unlike the first film). although i think this is not completely a chick-flick movie, it has some elements that are, well, feminine. it involves the recover and search of love by protagonist, frances (diane lane) in a foreign place, tuscany. frances is a writer in a writer’s block after a recent divorce. her bestfriend, patti, offered her an italian trip on a gay tour (which patti bought for herself and her partner (lesbian) but then changed plans after learning that patti is pregnant). frances rejected the offer at first, but then convinced that she needed the break. while in tuscany, she saw an old squalid villa for sale, and on the spur of moment, left the travel group and decided to stay in the town. not knowing anyone, she rebuilt her life, had acquaintance with the locals as well as a group polish who repairs her new house. adjusting to her new life and a possible relationship with a local italian, her bestfriend patty visited her unexpectedly (now with a big tummy) and sadly without her partner; though eventually her italian relationship didn’t work out. at the beginning, frances’ wishes are to raise a child, and witness a wedding in the villa. at the end, she realized that she actually had what she wished for. patti gave birth at the villa, and they hosted a wedding (for a polish boy and a local italian girl).

the prestige (2006). completely different from the first two films, this is a bit heavy, complicated and for my standard, recent (yes, i know i’m always late in movies) and because i’m interested with magics, i’m intrigued by this movie. since this is the most popular, and probably what most of you have seen already (among the three films), i’m not going to talk about the plot. the film is incredibly cunning really. however, i was a bit confused at the end, not knowing if it’s because i absorbed something wrong in the earlier part of the movie, or it was really a movie-plot mistake. consider the tesla machine. it’s not magic but science. earlier experiments show that the tulsa machine is not actually a teleporting machine, but a copying machine. with the help of high levels of energy, the object placed on the center of the machine will still be there, and a duplicate will be produced nearby (just like with the hats and cats). at one instance, when protagonist, angier (hugh jackman), used it on himself, he still remained in the center of the machine, and copy of him appeared a few meters in front of him, which he killed by gun. given that case, it’s obvious to the viewer that the original person will be left unmoved at the center of the tulsa machine, and the duplicates (or prestige) will be somewhere around the area. having said that, i don’t get it why for the stage performances, they’re deliberately drowning the person in the middle of the machine. isn’t he the original angier? i just don’t get that.

also, magic plus extreme tulsanic(is there such a word?)-science-of-lightning-power-physics is just too much for a fiction! i understand it’s fiction, but at least in this kind of plot, there has to be limits. this isn’t the world of harry potter’s.

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‘will get back next weekend for another set of films.