sulo riviera hotel

it's not everyday that i find design that blows me away... and so i'm so happy to indulge in this discovery of mine...

yesterday, i headed to the old sulo hotel for a UNICEF presentation... only to find out that the hotel has been refurbished and is TOTALLY beautiful.

without exaggerating -- for me, it's the BEST designed hotel that i've seen in the city. it beats all the other boutique hotels that have been sprouting up around the metro.

this is one of the first things i noticed -- VERY cute chandeliers that have been fused with a big twig.

too bad i didn't get to take a photo of the ballroom... but here's the hall outside it.


even the fresh arrangements are so tasteful!!!

this is pretty much what you see when you enter the hotel...

the styled bookshelves and seating area...

old books, animal figurines, purple sequined pillows... who put this all together???

the beautiful chandeliers & lighting...

the very cleverly chosen and placed tiles...

the reception area with the glass that matches the tiles...

the cafe (even the buffet table and floral arrangements are spot on) that overlooks the pool...

the pool area...

the bar... where no detail was overlooked...

everything is so tastefully done... and i feel like this look is a look that SO MANY are trying to achieve -- but i've only seen it really successfully done here.

i didn't get to see any of the rooms -- so i looked up their website and i was NOT disappointed! look at this! wow!

it's awful but my first thought was that this was not done by a Filipino. i was pleasantly surprised to find out that it WAS in fact done by one -- although she did spend 20 years in Spain -- so that might explain the success of the design too.

read more about her here.

go and visit the hotel!

today was a good day to FLY

jumping right back in with a video of my first paraglide flight jumping off a ridge in carmona :)



woohoo!

seriously thinking of taking this up as a new sport.....

the magic of pacman and the philippines

coming out of our hybernation, let me share a few thoughts about the pacquiao fever i'm sure we both welcomed in the past week.

taking from the recently released biography,

let me quote a pretty accurate and sad description of our beloved city...

"...Manila, the decaying capital of the Philippines. It's one of Southeast Asia's most impoverished capital cities, a modern Third World metropolis created by the worst of colonial intentions and a parade of some of the most ridiculous dictators ever to walk the earth. Even Manila's well-off cannot totally escape the city that they have helped create: A trip to a shopping mall restaurant, or five-star hotel involves machine gun-carrying guards and a canine unit that checks vehicles for bombs or guns. Even the most exclusive areas, such as Metro Manila's Makati City are within fifty feet of endless shantytowns, which catch fire on a regular basis. One in five children must forego school for work and walk through the busiest traffic without a care for life or limb. Impoverished men who cannot find work drown their days with a mixture of Colt 45 beer and homemade gin. A typhoon in 2009 submerged 80 percent of the city in mud, and the city's bay-side dump, with its black clouds of flies, has four thousand residents. One of Manila's inexplicable tourist attractions is the Hobbit House, a bar in which the waiters are all dwarfs..."

but, of course, we -- and i mean people like you and me-- remain optimistic as ever.

and as manny's victory (and graciousness!) shone last Sunday, a certain blogger,

couldn't have described last Sunday's magic any better...

"...what is on display when Pacquiao speaks is essential Filipino values that typify the elusive best of a country whose people’s humble and gentle virtues are not particularly well understood abroad. This is, after all, a world where, for example, some cultures have adopted the term “filipina” to be slang for “housekeeper”. The truth is, it’s easy for ignorant westerners to underestimate and misinterpret the gentle, gracious nature of the Filipino character — yet somehow Manny Pacquaio is singlehandedly changing that, teaching the world and reminding the Philippine universe that humility, grace, compassion, and empathy can coexist with the heart of a warrior...

... And so now he has the position he sought — the position of “public servant”, and he has stated that his goal is to become a “champion of public service” as his life transitions toward a new phase. Boxing has been his vehicle to “make people happy” in one profound, “let me lift you up” way that Filipinos perhaps understand better than the rest of us. That phase will end. But now, today, he is an elected Congressman who through both his boxing and public service has truly has made millions of people happy in that transcendant way he seeks–so truly and so beautifully that the skinny kid who grew up on the streets may well someday have the opportunity to lead not just an impoverished Sarangani province, but an entire resurgent nation that with Pacquaio as example-maker-in-chief–a long-suffering and self doubting country that under his inspired leadershp may lift itself up as a country in ways that would be just as surprising, yet just as inevitable, as Pacquaio’s rise to the top in boxing. I for one believe in Manny Pacquiao–his heart, his sincerity, the sheer power of his will, and the true Filipino essence of his character. He makes me feel hope for the future of the Philippines, and proud to be part of a Fil-Am household that has plenty of Filipino blood flowing through our family’s veins."

(read the whole article here).

now we continue struggle to find our own identity...

and i think carlos celdran was right in calling out DOT for their somewhat, for lack of a better term, *corny* new slogan.

(the calling out was successful as they are going back to the drawing board).

i just wish our DOT could come up with something that could really capture that 'magic' that first-time visitors experience over and over...

that 'thing' that people like our business guests, friends of our bro, and all the other unsuspecting foreigners discover here...

it's a combination of our speaking and thinking in english, our interesting history, the sophistication of our CBDs and night life, the cool fashion and design sense of our people, the beauty of our beaches and reefs, our openness to diversity, our unexpected western worldliness, and yes, our graciousness as exemplified by the pacman himself.

sorry, kinda wordy post... that's all :)

flip, flop, filipino

a few nights ago, i received these special filipinas collection havaianas:

it was the company's way of honoring "filipino icons who inspire other filipinos." *touched*

speaking of filipino, i just remembered sharing with you our independence-day dvd-day that you missed.

although the movie was japanese, the snacks were all pinoy.

even the remote control was "themed"

the theme went on until merienda time...

with matching chismosa palengkera doll.

mabuhay!

president flower

times like these, the messianic complex in me overthinks about what can be done for our country...

so here's my little rant...  if i were president, i would:

1.  switch our political multi-party system to a bi-party system.  just have 1 side leaning towards the left, 1 side leaning towards the right.  i mean really, what do our many parties stand for?  nothing.  right now, our politics is all about personalities.   so, so silly.

2.  switch to parliamentary system -- whichever party wins the election will just choose who will lead the party, and that leader will be our president.  there are too many uneducated swayed-by-money voters here... so let's vote for our ideologies rather than people.

3.  appoint nicky perlas or some other super environmentalist as denr secretary.  in light of our many natural calamities, it's really time we take our eco-responsibility seriously.  let's address pollution, garbage, mining, logging, etc etc etc...

4.  BAN sachets.  i will sanction these uber-profitable multi-nationals to come up with hygienic refilling stations to replace these garbage monsters.

5.  mandate everyone earning above xx amount of income to do xx amount of volunteer work -- whether it's through teaching, professional service, manual labor, managerial service, etc. etc.

6.  hire urban planners (to report directly to me) to redesign and restructure all our cities and city's facilities... oh and to regulate our architecture (hehe).

7.  mandate organic farming.

8.  kill all redundant government offices (there are MANY), and all redundant positions within each office (there are MANY).

9.  mandate all barangays to have their own self-run farms -- if not on land then on their roofs (read:  container gardening... google it).

10.  promote family planning.  condoms, pills, etc...

11.  have only ONE number for emergencies.  so silly when the stations would flash so many numbers during Ondoy.  to think we're the call center capital of the world!

12.  BAN empty-calorie snacks and noodles.  malnutrition makes kids perform poorly in school.  so let's stop allowing big companies to make msg-ridden zero-nutrition snacks.  at least fortify them with the good stuff.

13.  hire industrial engineers to FIX our systems in sec, bir, sss, etc.  do you remember how hard it was to start a company of your own?  do you know in the states it takes half a day to put up your own company?  most of the forms you just fill up online??  and to maintain the businesses... so tough. to think these sme's make up the back bone of our economy.

14.  FIX our public transport system -- color code the buses, make maps, times.  only allow the optimal # of buses, jeeps, etc.
 
that's it for now... sorry this is a bit of a boring post...

but anyway, it's good to get it out of my chest.  i have more to say... but this should be enough... for now...  so will you vote for me?  hehe.

errport 2

still on design...

the facade of our (not so) newest airport terminal 3 is as good as it gets...

inside is a complete bore...

couldn't we have done something as cool as singapore's?

or interesting as KL's?

or as timeless as Paris's?

after all that time and money, (and since we're so proud of our creativity), this is all we could come up with?

something with more design aesthetic like even greenbelt or trinoma would have been better than this...

disappointed.......

island eating

one of the highlights of mangenguey is interacting with the island's mother, helena -- and this interaction usually happens around food.

she once ran 3 restaurants in new york -- 2 in the hamptons.

these matchbooks are from helena's tapas bar on lafayette street.

twinpophub chatting with her as she prepares our first dinner.

seating us...

having spicy cream of vegetable soup.  soooo good. twinpophub (surprisingly) loved it.

main:  mixed grilled food -- veggies, beef, sausage, chicken and mashed ube!!!

for dessert, some sort of sweet chocolate sandwich.

every morning she would serve us fresh buko juice (from the island), fruits and pastries.

for lunch, we had jamon serrano and tomatoes on bread,

with kangkong salad (that tasted like arugula!) and spanish tortilla -- a traditional catalan meal with the pinoy touch via the kangkong.

for dessert:  homemade mango and buko ice cream.

for dinner:  pate...  (eye spy pusing)

seafood bouillabaisse with garlic alioli...

dessert:  mascarpone with pine nuts and honey.  mmmmm......

more later!