nostalgic nonsense

Catching Fire at Cebu - Day 1&2

Welcome back to more of my nostalgic nonsense adventures! 

Photo by Paolo Marku-ji

One of my goals for 2013 is to travel more around the country because as they say and I would have to believe, ‘It’s more fun to travel in the Philippines’ especially with friends!

I was given the opportunity to randomly book a flight to Cebu last November 30 - December 04, 2012 and I apologize for the late blog entry. This 2013, I vow to blog more from my travels and also share some bits of bliss from my previous adventures last year.

———————————————- Day 1 ———————————————-

“Without weakness there is no strength.” 

This is Dom also known as Weakman, hence the quote from above. Before our departure, Batman aka my dad discreetly came up to give our bodyguard his final instructions and if I may rephrase it went something like this:

“You better watch over the girls and before I forget anything…” *hands him a pair of nun chucks* “…Starting today, you are now the real Bruce Lee!”

And we all just loled XD

Taken with a Lomography La Sardina 

I miss airports and airplanes. I love the thrill of take-offs and landings! Whoa, I miss traveling period!

This is Dom and Daphne throwing some peace when arrived around 3pm and checked in at our lair, the Castle Peak Hotel, which is very convenient location in Cebu City.

We were so famished that we found some good and cheap grub at a place called Chickenamit which is a short walking distance from the hotel :) Our meals ranged from P65 -P85 complete with large servings of homemade ice tea and soup ^_^

At Ayala, we randomly bumped into new found friends, Kat and Kor (^_^)

After investigating a number of Starbucks branches, we were all to track Miles and luckily during her break. After her shift ended, she graciously took the time to find dinner for my famished meat-loving friends.

Le lechon lovers we’re amused with themselves at CNT Lechon! It was only P130 a plate for a large portion of porky chunks making the kamayan goodness worthwhile :)

For those who don’t know, I have been a practicing pescetarian for 8 years and abstain ingfrom eating red meat since so lechon had no effect on me ehehehe.

———————————————- Day 2 ———————————————-

At 6am, we had a happy and hearty breakfast buffet that our hotel offered us ^___^

Taken with a Nikon FM10

Then we met up at 7am with Sachi and Chi at IT Park hunting for milk tea while enjoying each other’s crazy and sabaw company.

We we’re able to chill with our glorious milk tea and fool around with Dom’s iPad apps.

We gave Big Pao his gift and boy was he surprised XD

Photo by Paolo Marku-ji

Let’s lock and load baby! Yep that’s me and my weapons enough to satisfy me for documenting the trip in both digital and film 

Digi vs Film

After bidding goodbye to Sachi and Chi, we hopped into a jeep to begin our day tour around Queen City with Pao as our tour guide 

I just had to snap a photo of this! The Baguio girls rock it out with flowers imported from the City of Pines lol!

At Magellan’s Cross whoot!

Taken with a Lomography La Sardina

I love the contrast of the colors here *A*

Photo by Paolo Marku-ji

Beautiful bokepic shot 

Photo by Paolo Marku-ji

Hehe and this is where Sam almost got ran over by a pretty jeep of rainbows XD

It wasn’t a coincidence that the color blue was attracted to Bram that day, hence his nickname, “Blue Boy” XD

Photo by Paolo Marku-ji

Posing at the Basilica Minore De Sto Nino

That yellow contraption my friends is actually a vending machine for water :D

Photos by Paolo Marku-ji

 We tried some of their local grub sold by the street called Cebu’s Puto & Sikwati

Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral

Haha we also encountered Bram’s blue immortal self together with his trusty blue animal guardian XD 

Photo by Paolo Marku-ji

For lunch, Pao took us to Hwang Ga aka the Crab Shabu-Shabu place

Despite the place offering unlimited meat they made sure to reserve me a “Sam-Pot” which mostly consisted of squid, octopus tentacles and vegetables. I didn’t realize that we  stayed there feasting for almost 3 hours

Before dusk hit the horizon, Dom and I decided to fool around

Awesome photo and concept by Daphne

I call this, “Catching Fire at Cebu” 

For dinner, we reserved our stomachs for Cebu’s LARSIAN Barbecue, a haven for food lovers loved by the rich and poor alike, the young and old, and popular and not so popular, the boisterous and the meek, the poetic and unsympathetic. 

My camera died on me that time so I had to depend on my Fisheye that night

They gave us plastic gloves for the kamayan experience once again. This is something I really really love to do when eating here

Each of our meals ranged from P5 - P100+ from a barbecue stick to scrumptious squid, something that would be edible for me for the next few days. All meals were accompanied with “puso” also known as rice wrapped in pandan leaves.

milk tea + film = ♥  

Just thought when the night was over, I got to visit my dream cafe which was at Sprockets Cafe. I was spazzing at every corner and snapping shots with my fisheye and spazzing even more. Yes, I was at Disneyland that time ♥ 0 ♥  

We ordered milk tea and the cafe even had slide film for sale but I didn’t get to buy any :(

They had a giant lomo wall, the lomo camera-shaped pillows like the one Dom was holding onto.

Ooooh yes the night was complete when the staff took a group shot of us using one of their polaroid cameras as tradition to their customer’s visits :D I will vow to return one day! 

This reminds me of my former white Fisheye 2..RIP.

Lomo lads

I’m guessing the cafe was named after the Sprocket Rocket which takes amazing panoramic shots

We already did a lot in 2 days and I was so grateful to meet more friends from Cebu! There’s so many of you, I wish I had more quality time to spend with each one! Till next time!

The Promise: Part 1

A comic book sequel that takes place after Team Avatar puts the 100 year war to an end.

I’d like to thank my friend, Miguel for fetching it for me :3 Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to order Part 2 since it’s only going to be released this month.

I guess I’m so caught up with Korra and theRepublic City setting that I also wanted to take time to back track and figure out how Team Avatar turned out after Book Fire. Even in pages, I can just imagine their hilarious dialogs and even the sound effects from the bending in frozen frames. The art is very nostalgic andstays faithful to the series and the story gets even better, awkward and rather political which is a combination of awesome for me. 

I really don’t want to say more but I encourage everyone to get their hands on a copy, hopefully they’ll be available in any bookstore soon. 

For now, I’ll just leave you with Zuko’s cry ♥ ___ ♥

Panagbenga: Funky Float Parade

Previous blog: Panagbenga: Street Parade and Such

—————————————————————————————————-

The Panagbenga Float Parade was the most awaited day for me! Growing up, I always had a small fascination for colorful and moving contraptions. But it’s only now that I’ve come to appreciate the beauty of festivals of the Cordillera culture in the form of floats :3

Posing with one of the floats that were parked in Athlete Bowl after the parade but we shall rewind to the beginning…

First of I’d like to thank Baguio Cosplay group, Kawaii Kazoku for encouraging Baguio cosplayers to join them for the first ever Cosplay Parade for Panagbenga together with our good friends Shari and AJ from Otageki :3

Digital and Film comparisons 

Naruto and le ladies!

Becuz we roll in Panagbenga like a boss :}D

I found the Star Wars float from Country Club to be most unique for me. They even had Storm Troopers and the rest of the cast marching alongside the float :D

Posing with the (founder) Father of Panagbenga, Tito Damy Bangaoet and doing protagonist poses ^_^

Photo from Carlo Reclosado Tamisin 

I don’t even know what was happening here XD

According to GMA, there were over 3 million that weekend o_0

I remember when we were younger, we used to enjoy watching the parades in this manner ^_^ The crowds on the street were very troublesome so people opted for higher ground that day. Oh how I envied them for their perfect view of the parade @__@

I bumped into the awesome blogger Robx aka the The Creative Dork, my long lost clone :) You can read his feature on the parade right here  FLOWER POWER: 10 THINGS TO SPOT AT THE PANAGBENGA FESTIVAL

A typical day with Naruto and friends XD

During the intervals of each wave, Ton and I decided to imitate the band and dance are butts off! We couldn’t care less of making fools of ourselves and we apologize to those viewers who saw our dancing behinds on your local channel XD

Presenting to you the firemage and his tuba …

It was Hannah’s first time to experience the Panagbenga festivities and cross trip during the parade! What a lucky duck :)

Brace yourselves for Sharkee the inflatable beast!!!

Flower power in both digital and film!

More street performers :D

The festive colors are just too yummy :3

Free advertising XD

Happy look! It’s Igneel!!!

I was screaming like crazy when Kuya Kim waved at us when the ABS-CSN float passed by! I wish to meet this awesome guy one day :)

Happy year of the dragon! 

As usual, I got lost in the crowd of thousands venturing to take snapshots with my toy camera when suddenly news reporters from GMA abducted me for interrogation o_0

Due to the extensive heat, I suffered from mild heatstroke and got left behind the group (again for the enth time) for a while but we managed to survive and take a short nap to cool off.

Ama just leave this here ^__^

Thank you so much Mukha ng Baguio (MnB) for this lovely close up of me doing the Jean Grey pose :D Till next year!

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All film photos taken by Angelo, Hannah and me! All authentic and awesome shots were not photoshopped in the process :)