Island Hopping Karaoke

Longanisa sausage with rice and an egg.

I ate a Filipino breakfast with Mike at our resort at around noon. Shortly after breakfast we all went on our island hopping tour via banca boat. The island that we hung out on was very picturesque. Reggie brought some pork belly and chicken he bought in the morning for lunch. We snorkeled, ate a tasty BBQ lunch and just hung around the beach for two hours. The beauty of the place made up for the slight disappointment of Bantayan. After the beach, we set off to go to another island.

Rain in the distance passing by.

Banca boats parked at the beach.

Mike walking back from a little swimming in the water.

Reggie and Suzette snorkel in the distance.

Suzette taking a nap on the beach.

The second island was not as nice as the first because there were a lot of fishing boats around and debris on the beach. Also, someone was playing typical top 40 Filipino dance music really loud. I wouldn’t mind if they were playing Reggae music to give the area a more island feel; hip hop dance music does the opposite and gives the island a more urban feel.

Mike and Suzette hire horses to ride on the beach during sunset.

A young boy looks around at a mooring post in low tide.

Back on the island of Bantayan, we cleaned up and settled in a little. Mike and Suzette hired horses to go horseback riding on the beach at sunset. They enjoyed it a lot. Afterwards, everyone was really tired from the days activities so we all took a nap. At around 11 PM, we rode motorbikes to Zen Zebar again to eat dinner. The cook wasn’t around so one of the workers at the bar borrowed Mike’s bike to pick up the cook. I felt bad we had to drag the cook out but the bar had no problem with it.

Singing "3 Little Birds" with Reggie and Mike. That was a hard song.

Returning home at 5:30 AM from karaoke at Zen Zebar.

Throughout the night we just sang karaoke, danced, and drank lots of beers with some local girls. I sang “Creep” by Radiohead and also tried singing “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley; the latter was hard to sing but it was nice to have backup from Reggie and Mike. It was a fun night and we ended up leaving the bar at 5:30 AM when the sun started rising. So much for a relaxing weekend.



- jason

Weekend Trip to Bantayan

Our expensive van drive up to the port to take a ferry to Bantayan wouldn't be complete without a stop to Jollibee.

Today Mike, Suzette, Reggie and I went off to a weekend trip to Bantayan. This required us to drive for a couple hours in a really expensive van and then take a short ferry ride to the island. We arrived in Bantayan by around 4 PM and made our way to the resort. We booked one of the more expensive resorts on the island because a few people wanted to stay in comfort. When we arrived at the resort, I was a little unimpressed with the beach and the resort. The resort was average and the beach was a little dirty with mostly organic debris.

Arriving at the pier in Bantayan.

View from our resort when we arrived.

The lifeguard of the beach.

Mike and Reggie wanted to rent motorbikes which I was slightly opposed to do because it was almost night time and it seemed like a waste to rent bikes for a day rate. Since there was nothing else to do, we rented three bikes. We decided to bike into downtown to do a little exploring and to see the oldest church in the Philippines. The drive to downtown was fun and the seeing the church was nice. Downtown had a good amount of life and was fairly clean and nice. For some reason, we didn’t stay in downtown very long.

Fueled by Coke—A small store selling gasoline by the liter in Coke bottles.

Bantayan Church in downtown Bantayan. It's the second oldest standing structure in the Philippines and is made of coral.

Somewhere between our resort and downtown—which is a long distance—we ate at some all you can eat restaurant owned by a French guy. The food was diverse and quite tasty. After dinner we asked a few locals where a good bar was and they drove us to one called Zen Zebar. When we got to Zen Zebar, a girl outside greeted us and encouraged us to come inside.

The band that played at Zen Zebar was great. The guitarist really rocked it out and the singer, and her voice, was beautiful.

Inside there were no customers and the band was just hanging around. We sat down at a table, ordered some beers, and the band started to play. It was like our own private concert. The band was quite good and the manager of the bar was very hospitable. The guitarist of the band was really talented. When the band went on a break Mike and I went outside and got to meet all the band members. It was great chatting with them and learning a little bit about them. They all have different jobs during the day and are all locals to Bantayan.



- jason

Exotic Food

Exotic menu—turtle, moray eel, snake, and wild boar.

We worked hard today to meet our deadline so we could take a weekend trip to the island of Bantayan. After work, Reggie took Mike, Suzette and I to a nice restaurant with more exotic cuisine. The restaurant sadly was serving turtle which I think is horrible because there’s so few in the ocean already and they seem so innocent and gentle. Some of the other exotic menu items are moray eel, sizzling snake, and wild boar. Thankfully, they also served other more normal food that isn’t as detrimental to the environment.

Mike Rama, Vice-Mayor of Cebu.

Mike Rama sings with Suzette.

After dinner, we went the Wine Shop to hang out a little. There the vice mayor of Cebu, Mike Rama, was singing. As usual, he wasn’t that good and despite this would walk around the bar singing. He even walked up to Suzette and tried to get her to sing.

- jason

Fixing my Latch

This taxi driver likes grapes.

I went for my second attempt at getting my laptop lid’s latch fixed. This time I had to go to the Banilad Town Center to the iStore there which is an Apple Authorized Service center. The mall is fairly far away and a very small and boring mall to visit. At iStore, the technician was out to another mall so I couldn’t get any concrete estimates as to when the repair can be done. I was scheduled to leave Cebu fairly soon and so I was on a little time restraint.

The very bad Banilad Mall.

Work.

"Hanging rice" or "Puso" in Visaya language. Rice wrapped in leaves.

Mike, after some BBQ.

Suz having a laugh while eating some BBQ.

For dinner Reggie took Mike, Suzette, Rob, and I to AA BBQ Restaurant. The food and setup is similar to Martia’s BBQ place we went to but the ambiance was a little nicer; the food though wasn’t as good as Martia’s.


- jason

Beagles, Mangosteen, and the Devil's Cross

Suz taking a good look at the beagle being sold.

Suzette really wanted to see some beagle puppies that were advertised for sale at a restaurant nearby so Reggie picked us up from the condo and took us there. The restaurant had only one puppy left which was a pure bred with all the proper vaccinations and papers. The puppy was energetic and ran all around the slippery floor at the restaurant. It was it just discovered freedom. The puppy costed about $300 USD.

The inside of the souvenir shop.

Picture of an old Filipino woman. I was interested to see how Filipinos looked like a long time ago.

Reggie next took us to a small but charming souvenir and breakfast place. The place had various products from around the Philippines including organic mangosteen jelly, coconut wine, and various other interesting little snacks. We got to get samples of pretty much anything we wanted. I’ve been looking to eat a fresh mangosteen for years since I heard about them in Belize and this is the closest to actually eating one. I bought one jar or mangosteen jelly.

A wood carving on the church door.

Statues outside the church.

Suz and I in front of the church.

Frame "666" in my camera. Also the first picture I shot of the cross. I was hoping something supernatural would happen after that but nothing happened.

A better angle of Magellan's cross.

Reggie then drove us to downtown Cebu where there’s an old church, Sto. Niño Church, that houses Magellan’s cross—a Portuguese explorer that planted the cross in 1521 to celebrate the baptism of the island chief and 500 followers into Catholicism. The architecture of the church was quite nice and I’m always interested in old things. Ironically, the first picture I took of Magellan’s cross was frame number “666” on my camera.

Oh, work.

Chicken on skewers ready to be cooked.

Reggie with his mouth full.

Rob probably picking apart his BBQ.

For dinner, Reggie took us to what he called one of the best BBQ places around. He took us to Martia’s BBQ which had all sorts of meats to be BBQ’d. The food was delicious and my favorite was the pork belly. After dinner, we went to a place to shoot some pool.



- jason

Good Food Day

Taxi driver is a fan of fast cars, slow cows, and religious statues.

In contrast to yesterday, today’s highlight was all the good food I ate. For lunch, Suzette and I went back to Ayala mall where I wanted to eat at a Vietnamese/Thai restaurant I saw the day before. The restaurant is called Lemon Grass and is a clean, stylish place with fresh looking food and ingredients. It looked like a typical quality oriented restaurant from hippest parts of Los Angeles.

Chicken wrapped in leaves were delicious and well presented.

Vietnamese spring rolls were good and plentiful.

My Vietnamese pho was good with lots of fresh ingredients.

I was excited to order the Vietnamese spring rolls, a Thai iced tea, and Pho bo. The last time I ate Vietnamese food was when I was living in Los Angeles 6 months ago so it was exciting to try it again. Suzette ordered some chicken that was wrapped in some kind of leaves. The food was better than I thought it would be. It was actually better than the usual Vietnamese restaurant I normally ate at in Los Angeles. Food presentation was great and everything was tasty. Overall, the prices weren’t too expensive—sure, it was more than eating at a little family owned eatery, but it was equivalent to eating at a place along Alona and much cheaper than Wineshop.

Work.

The Lapu Lapu at KK's Restaurant was some of the best fish I've had in a while.

For dinner, Reggie took Mike, Suzette, and I to Walter’s Malaysian restaurant—KK’s Restaurant—at the IT Park area. IT Park is a clean, perfectly groomed but sterile area that reminded me of the city of Irvine in Orange County, California. The food we ate at Walter’s place was awesome. The best dish we ate was the steamed Lapu Lapu fish. It was fresh, moist, and tasty. It actually reminded me of steamed Chinese catfish. It was so good, Reggie and I persuaded Suzette to eat a piece of fish. It was only her second time eating fish and she said she liked it.



- jason

Ayala Mall and Bad Food Day

Furniture at our condo.

Woke up around 9:30 AM and waited for Suz to cleanup before sharing a taxi to work. When we got into the office, there really wasn’t any work to do because we were waiting for feedback from the client about the shots we just finished. I caught up on email and general Internet things before going to Coffee Dream for a coffee.

I had a really bad cappuccino at the coffee shop. I anticipated this judging from the barista’s technique for the customer before me. I really wanted a coffee and I had nothing else to do so I requested the same fate as the previous customer. To accompany my bad coffee I had a slice of banana bread.

Parents controlling their kids at the mall.

Since I broke the latch on my laptop in Palawan, I really wanted to get it fixed in Cebu and decided it was the right time to look into this. I read that there is an Authorized Apple reseller in Ayala Mall—iStore—which meant I could get my laptop fixed under its Apple Care extended warranty. I went there to learn that they didn’t do service at that branch and only in their other branch in the Banilad Town Center mall. My typical luck of course—nothing is right the first time.

Micro-Extinguisher. Extinguishers are so small here, you can't see them.

Plastic wrapped laptops to keep them fresh.

Escalators along Ayala Mall.

Suzette eventually met up with me at the mall and we decided to eat lunch together. She chose Kenny Roger’s Roasters which I agreed to eat. I ordered the pork belly dish which turned out to be the worst food I’ve had in a long time—it wasn’t fresh, it tasted bad, and it was expensive! Suzette agreed that the place was lousy.

Out somewhere drinking Red Horse.

After work at night, Suz, Rob, and I decided to go out. Another one of the owners of the company, Reggie, came along with us. I don’t remember where we went but I do know I drank a Red Horse.



- jason

Slowly Slowly

Demon-boy. By far one of the hardest photos to look at that I've shot. Around a certain street corner in Cebu, kids, mothers and their babies often walk up to your car window soliciting food or money. This kid's blank stare haunts me.

The sun rose by the time I finished working from the previous night—I worked all night. That wasn’t fun. I’m not going into work early today. I got home from work by 8 AM and slept until 1 PM. Back into work. All the shots I worked on were approved by the client. That doesn’t mean I can take a vacation now though. I helped Mike out with his shot.

Ginesa at Mike.

For dinner Suzette, Mike, Ginesa, and I went to an area called IT Park. We ate at Patio Ecila which seemed like a nice place to eat. I ate baby back ribs and a seafood soup which were delicious. Afterwards we went back to the condo to just hang out and relax. Suz’s friend from Spain met up with her at the condo and they stayed over. They raved about their experiences in Palawan and especially at a small island called Coco Loco just off Roxas. The pictures they had of the island were beautiful.


- jason

No Joy in Work

The outside world from inside our condo's garage.

I had a big deadline for work today. I had to rotoscope—or trace—Hugh Jackman’s fast moving blurry hands. There was no joy in doing it.

For lunch I went to Vienna Kauffehaus again and ate the butterflied pork which was really bad. It looked completely different from what the picture in the menu showed.

The highlight of my day was calling my friend Sara in the Netherlands via Skype. I hung out with Sara in Bohol a lot and for a little more than a week we traveled around Palawan with some other friends. It was good to hear her voice and to catch up with things and how our other mutual Dutch friends were.

The wine we had at Wineshop.

I worked all day and late into the night. The only decent respite I got was dinner and some drinks at the Wineshop. Suz and I tried a wine that was on sale and was supposed to be decent. The wine we got I think was from Spain and was just okay. It was a little light and I prefer a more full bodied wine.

Working the work.

Back at work, we worked very late. While working, I realized how glad I was to have left this kind of work in Los Angeles. I really don’t have any passion for doing it and am only doing it because it will help me a little more financially. I need to save up money to travel more.



- jason