Intramuros - 3rd time around

and our journey continues.....

As the Pasig River Ferry docked, we disembarked at Plaza Mexico Station in Intramuros, we headed towards Manila Cathedral then to Fort Santiago. It was the first time ever for my girl friend to see Fort Santiago and Rizal's shrine. Her excitement was very evident. I led her towards the ledge to see the Pasig River and we ended up at Rizal's shrine. We stopped briefly at the entrance where an electric fan was on. We needed to cool down as the sun was at 45 degrees already. We took several photos inside the shrine and continued our walk. We saw several tourists coming in and it was a nice feeling to see them. We were also tourists in our own rights.

After Fort Santiago, we walked towards General Luna Street. We're searching for Casa Manila and Bahay Tsinoy. Unfortunately, Casa Manila Museum was closed on Mondays . We managed to peek inside the wide center court , took a few shots and left.

Our feet took us to corner Cabildo and Anda Streets and saw Kaisa Heritage building which housed Bahay Tsinoy.

Bahay Tsinoy is closed on Mondays for the regular maintenance but since there was an important visitor, the museum was opened.

After Bahay Tsinoy, we sipped some cold drinks and went back to Plaza Mexico to catch the 1145 ferry back to Guadalupe. We would have lunch at Tapsi niVivian in Marikina. After lunch, we would go to Butterfly farm.

Cruisin' Pasig River

Had the chance to finally take the Pasig River Ferry cruise on April 26. I took the tour with my girl friend and board the 715am ferry at Guadalupe Station to Plaza Mexico Station in Intramuros.

As the ferry began to sail, my girl friend and I went out to the deck with our cameras in tow. We were greeted by the terrible stench of the river. We didn't mind it as we were so excited having taken this cruise. We were deeply saddened by the blackish water and the floating trash. We wondered if there will be a living thing that can survive these polluted waters.

We took pictures of the sights along the river banks to our heart's delight. We gamely waved to the people on the other boats and those working on the river bank. We did not mind the heat of the mid-morning sun as we continue to watch from the ferry's deck.

When we approached the portion nearing Malacanang Palace, we went inside and stopped photographing. For security reasons, phototaking of Malacanang Palace and its surroundings is prohibited. Across Malacanang palace is the Malacanang Park where some Presidential Security Group staff were stationed.

We passed underneath several bridges notably Quezon , McArthur and Jones' bridges.



We got off at Plaza Mexico in Intramuros. We had a walking tour of Fort Santiago and Intramuros .


We returned to this station to catch the 1115am trip back to Guadalupe Station and met Mang Manny. He is a tour guide and has facilitated many tours of the river. He has high hopes that the dredging, cleaning , beautification and relocation of illegal dwellers will bring back the glory of the river. I promised to mention him in my blog.

Here are brief facts I gathered and photos i took. Hope you enjoy them. Lastly, I encourage friends and readers of this blog to support any endeavor to revive Pasig River.Let's join this effort.

*Pasig River (from PRRC brochure)

• 27 km stretch from Manila Bay to Laguna de Bai

• 13 bridges crossing the river; with the completion of Estrella Bridge near Rockwell, it will be 14 bridges
• the 19 km stretch is 3 meters deep, 40 meters wide (dredging to 6 meters and widen to 60 meters)

*Landmarks we saw

• Power Plant Mall and Rockwell Business Center Buildings
• Makati City Hall
• Oil Depots
• Malacanang Palace
• National Post Office
• Hospicio de San Jose
• Polytechnic University of the Phils
• Napindan Flood Control ( we did not see)

*Pasig River Ferry Service (from PRRC brochure)

• 10 ferry stations and 5 satellite stations
• 6 ferry boats-fully air conditioned twin hulled catamaran type
• 150 seating capacity, with flat screen TV, separate toilets for male and female;life jackets
• trip schedules: 7am and last trip is 430pm, Monday thru Saturdays
• fare: from Php25 to Php60; Php20 flat rate for students
• travel time: 1 hr (from Plaza Mexico to Guadalupe); 2 hours (end to end)
• can bring food aboard the ferry

*Rehabilitation Efforts

• on going dredging project of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission
• PRRC partnered with ABS CBN Foundation on a 7 year project to clean the river
• resettling of the informal dwellers
• implementation of estero clean up

Transport Show 04.23.2010

There were two transport shows this April 2010; first was the Manila International Auto Show at World Trade Center and followed by the Transport Show at SM Mega Trade Hall.

I am not a fan of car shows because i feel it's a man's event. Most of the post i see in my male friends' album were female models showing much skin, not too mention their belly buttons, cleavages and legs.Anyway, to finally satisfy my curiosity, i went to SM Megamall's Transport Show mainly because it was near our office. As expected, there were lots of photo buffs there, mostly male. I went around the entire venue to check out interesting subjects. The venue was crowded; cars were situated side by side; there's not much room to turn around.Am helpless as all photographers jockeyed for position to take photos of the models, cars etc. I am an amateur and I dont want to rush my shots; but i did. my composition suffered or this is just not my thing...anyway, here are my snapshots

Earth Run 2010, 04.18.2010

One of my cheap ways of keeping healthy is to walk and/or jog. So i have this goal to participate in one fun run per month in 2010 (if it's not raining). I had one in January and March, none in February. For April, i joined the Earth Run held at Bonifacio High Street, Taguig. I was able to convince my daughter, sister and bro-in-law to run with me. We all registered for the 3K run.

On the day of the race, we woke up late at 415am and hurried up to make the 525am call time for 3K. We met my sister and her husband and took some photos via our cellphones. We were all excited as this was their first time to participate in a fun run.

As the organizer called the 3K participants, we joined the other runners behind the starting line. The gun fired and runners began to run. Since there was no timing chip provided and no separate timer for each category , we had to take note of our start and finish time.

After 20 mins and 10 secs, i crossed the 3k finish line. My daughter and sister clocked at 32 mins +. Am not sure of my brother-in-law's time. After changing clothes, we went to Mcdonald's for the much needed carbo-loading. We had so much fun and vowed to do it again..Nature Valley run!!

Marikina Shoe Museum

I only saw 2 pairs of Imelda's shoes when we visited Malacanang Museum on easter monday. The tour guide said that the other shoes were donated to Marikina Shoe Museum; told myself that i need to see those shoes.
Never thought that i would see them 4 days after. We had an impromptu trip to Marikina for food tripping; happened to see the Shoe Museum.


It's past 5pm and the museum was closed already. But the kind guard let us in; told us that picture taking is not allowed but we were able to snap some shots; no dslr on hand. luckily, i always bring my P&S ; ran out of battery and i used my cellphone camera..hehehe

Food Trip - Marikina

Xtian craving for goto (porridge),Grace has nothing to do ; it was friday and the result was an impromptu visit to marikina. First stop, street food--BBQ, gulaman;



second stop- shoe museum ( that's a different story),

third stopMacky's for the goto,

fourth stop- buy pandesal and the last stop - Qi Zha for cheesecake and double choco mousse.

What a day...

My Public Ride Part 2

Aside from taking the MRT, i also take the PUB (public utility bus) and tricycle to complete my public ride home. I alight at the MRT -Ayala station and take the PUB Sucat-Bicutan route. The fare is Php13. Sadly, the Sucat-Bicutan plying buses have no aircon. Five years ago, they still do and now for some reasons , the airconditioned buses have disappear.

I always take my handy P&S camera whenever i take the public ride. Why? The waiting and stopping are killing me. Bus drivers have this attitude of waiting endlessly for passengers to board the bus; they stop at every person who is not even flagging them to stop. When will this attitude change? anyway, here are some of the photos i took with my P&S camera which made my boring travel interesting.

There are vendors selling food stuff. cashew nuts, bottled water, candies, and other munchies. Will i buy from them? No way..

. After stopping at Mantrade-Magallanes, the bus speeds up and hit the SLEX. The dedicated lane for Bicutan has made the travelling much faster as vehicles not bound for Bicutan can not enter this lane anymore. At Bicutan bus stop, a short walk going to SM Bicutan will take me to the tricycle terminal.

My last leg of my travel.

Btw, i kept some bus tickets to complete my blog.

My Public Ride Part 1

It's been almost 4 months now since our team moved from Cyberone in Eastwood to Eton Cyberpod, Ortigas. I have gotten used to taking the public transpo.

i enjoy riding the MRT. It's fast and airconditioned;I am able to save on shuttle fare. I take the MRT whenever i dont drive to work. I need to save on gasoline expense .I either board the Taft Ave or Magallanes Station. I can easily get a seat at Taft Avenue station as it is the end station while in Magallanes, chances of getting a seat are slim. I always get a stored value card @Php100. I hate the long queue .I wonder why people opt to toe the line when they can breeze through the turnstile using a value card. On the dark (?) side ,it is so frustrating that vendo machines are not available (in Hongkong ,Singapore, Australia there are plenty of vendo machines to buy the train cards). Also, the entrance and exit turnstiles are few. During the morning and afternoon rush hours , people entering and exiting certain stations are running to be first in line as the queue gets longer. It's really chaotic. Take for example, Ortigas Station where i exit every morning. There are 2 entrances and 2 exits. Who in his right mind will enter Ortigas station early in the morning! In my daily experience, just one or two enter Ortigas Station in the morning. The exiting commuters outnumbered those entering Ortigas station by 50-60 people in one stop!!! I can also see the Guadalupe station that hordes of commuters exit between 5pm-7pm and there are only 2 exits..you can just imagine the longest queue ever.

Why can't MRT staff and management see this commuter's predicament . why cant they increase the

exits--close one entrance not being used and make it an exit. Why cant they add more counters , more security guards to lessen the queues. Why can't MRT management get out of their offices and personally check the condition of the MRT to see what's lacking and what can be improved on. why, why

Yes it is obvious that I drool over other countries' efficient mass transport system, disciplined commuters, good governance and everything nice. with the coming election, am hoping for a change.

anyway, i'll just have to contend myself with riding the MRT and dream...ang layo na nang narating ko, wake up , wake up.. (by the way, it's prohibited to take photos inside the train and the station..i stole some few shots.)

Full Account of Visit to Malacanang Museum

Glenn M, a former colleague at IBM , posted in facebook pictures of his 2009 visit to Malacanang Museum. It's interesting to know that while already based in New Zealand , he returned to Manila for a short stay and was able to visit malacanang museum. Since i am looking for nearby places to see and to hone my photography skill, I must include a tour of malacanang museum in my bucket list for 2010. I wanted to have my family with me on this tour and since the museum is opened only on weekdays, i have to schedule the visit when all of us are free. I am working with a BPO and have to time my leaves on days when there is not much payroll activities.

The visit to the museum is strictly by appointment only ;you have to send in your request 7 working days before the day of your intended visit. So as early as March, i browsed my payroll calendar. I am handling an australian account and saw that Easter Monday is a public holiday in australia. This is a perfect day --schoolyear would have ended by this time and i could ask my daughter to file an advance notice of leave for April 5, Easter Monday, which happens to be her birthday also. So I emailed my request on March 15 and the museum staff was kind and accomodating to calendar our visit on April 5 at 930am.

It will be my first time to drive around the Mendiola and Arlegui streets. I only take the public ride whenever i go to these areas. It has been long time since I last saw mendiola and dont know what to expect. When the day of our visit finally arrived, we left the house early so if ever i get lost, i still have enough time for some quick turns. We took Roxas Blvd then to Finance Street straight to Ayala bridge. We reached Mendiola and it was closed to traffic--permanently that is maybe to prevent rallies. So i drove pass Arellano University ( not taking the flyover ) and turned right to a street which lead us to a fork--one with a checkpoint and the other road used by jeepneys. I could have gone straight to the checkpoint but my daughter said to take the other road. We ended up in Mendiola (or part of Mendiola which was converted to public parking) near College of Holy Spirit, La Consolacion and CEU. Had we taken the other road, that would lead us to Malacanang grounds. But anyway, we've arrived. Since it's still early , we had breakfast in the nearby mcdonalds and waited.

By 915am we left mcdonalds and walked towards the first entrance guarded by uniformed men. There was a banner greeting GMA ;it's also her birthday. (but she's celebrating in her hometown, Lubao). After the security cleared us, we strolled about 100meters to Kalayaan gate where the waiting room is located. We were advised by the Presidential Security Group that picture taking is not allowed but i pleaded nicely and calmly. The PSG was kind and allowed us to bring camera but only 1. I showed them my dslr and they placed a tag on it. My daughter surrendered her camera. There were only two groups scheduled for that day, one group of youth from Iloilo and then us. It was nice coz it would not be crowded. Btw,entrance fee is only P50 and P30 for students, elderly etc.

Our assigned tour guide met us and signalled us to wait for the first group to finish with the simple orientation. He introduced himself ; his name is Rommel . He started to narrate the museum's history as we entered the Kalayaan Hall reception room. The Kalayaan Hall (Freedom Hall) is the old executive building built in 1920.

The ground floor houses several galleries but we walked into the Old Reception Room (Spanish Era),

Old Executive Secretary's (Era of Reform) Galleries. There were historical and amazing and priceless relics, memorabilia, artworks and photos displayed in these rooms.

The Old State Rooms and Main Hall are located on the second floor. The Old President's Office is called Quezon Room;

Old Cabinet Room is called Roxas Room and the Old Council State Room,Quirino Room. According to Rommel, the Main Hall was the ballroom of the then First Lady Imelda Marcos when there was a party.

The Main Hall contains now the Gallery of the Presidents, lots of wooden bookshelves etc. There is also a display of selected state and officials gifts to President Arroyo. There was an interesting jewelry box made of pure gold which was the give away during the wedding of the daughter of the Sultan of Brunei . Wow!

Rommel also opened to us the door leading to the balcony where Pres. Marcos normally appeared before the crowd. It sent me chilly feeling knowing that i am standing on the spot where Pres Marcos and Imelda once stood. Unfortunately, i was not able take a picture of the historic balcony. He also showed us the Pasig river from another balcony. Across the river is Malacanang park. From this park, we were told you can see the palace ; the view is similar to the photo in a P20 bill. (I will visit this park one day, if permitted by the PSG).

We went around the Main Hall and viewed the Gallery of the Presidents of the Philippines

Each President has his/her "souvenir" stuff, bust,portrait, copy of inaugural speech. There were also jewelry given to First Lady Eva and Imelda. GMA has her inaugural gown; Imelda has a gown adorned with peacock feathers. Funny that Erap's memento is so few compared with other presidents' . Of course, the famous wrist band was displayed.

There was a sculpture of a naked lady in marble, a wooden carving of Michael the Archangel ( i wonder where the artist got the appearance of an archangel). There's also a wooden carving depicting the first mass held in Limasawa. Rommel offered to take a family photo under this wooden painting (he was really nice). Sadly, that was the end of the tour of the second floor.

We went down and return to the empty reception hall. We alternately took shot at the podium; Patrick gave different poses; Zsa and me posed ordinarily and that's it. That wrapped up our sojourn to the historic Malacanang Museum. But wait, no tour is complete without souvenir--keychain and sticker (office of the president) hehehe

Lesson learned: take down notes for proper description of photos (which i forgot to do due to excitement)

Thanks to my lovely family for bearing with me and my hobby. My heartfelt thanks as well to the PSG for allowing me to bring my camera; to Rommel, our wonderful guide, and to the people responsible for maintaining the museum. Next stop lunch at Tong Yang.....

Pasig River

Photo bloggers have these photo projects - 365day, 52 week, 1 shot a day and i wonder which one i can go into without spending too much. It shouldn't be always an out-of-town shoot as it tends to be expensive.

So while i am riding the MRT to work, i begin to think of subjects that i can "shoot". As the train crossed Pasig River (Guadalupe Station) , told myself why not take photos of this river !!! So everyday, i picture in my mind on where i can probably position myself. I am also thinking of my safety. will a knife wielding goon rob me and take away my camera? When i went home one early evening, I saw the river again and the reflections on the water. Now i really got to capture this..

I will just wait for the opportunity or for a companion to go down there at the bank.

When i registered for the Unilab Wellness Fun Run, the kits were only available at Planet Sports at Rockwell Power Plant. So i have to go there to pick them up. Lo! i saw an opportunity to check on the riverbank which was just fronting Power Plant. On tuesday, feb 16, i packed my camera and tripod and drove to work. I was excited that at the stroke of 4pm, i left the office and headed for Rockwell.

After picking up the kits , i proceeded to the "riverfront" . I cant remember anymore the last time i've been to this area. It's been years since i last passed by this area. I'm surprised that there are lots of development going on. Thanks to the mighty Lopezes, a bridge connecting Estrella Street to the other side of the river is being constructed !!!. I hope they would include a pedestrian walkway on this new bridge similar to Sydney Harbour Bridge .Also, the riverbanks fronting Rockwell have been beautified and lighted. There were some people taking pictures with Rockwell as a backdrop; couples seated on the bank watching the river maybe; a few "fishermen". .

I felt that it was ok and safe to shoot here. I walked a few meters away from rockwell to check a nice spot. As advised in photo blogs, make a 360 turn whenever you shoot; dont just shoot right away and i did that. I reached a stairway to a makeshift dock where people can ride the banca to cross to the other side. With some people around, i took out my camera and compose. I watched the people as they go down to ride the motorized banca; i sat on a make shift bench , took some shots; walked on the narrow ledge , took more shots. I waited for nightfall and took shots again of the building afar with the light reflections on the water.

I saw a white big boat cruising the river and i can see lots of passengers. And i remember one FM DJ mentioning that there is a boat cruising Pasig river from Pasig to Quiapo. Maybe that was the one. The fare is something like Php45 one way.

After taking several shots, why not take the boat ride to the other side!! It will only cost me Php 2.00. So i did.. Am quite nervous as this boat was small and so unlike the ferries i have ridden in Hongkong, Singapore and Australia. Our government could have developed the river as part of the city's transport system and provide a bigger passenger boats.

Anyway, as i reached the other side, i set my camera on a tripod and took photos of the building where Power Plant is located. Though there was a busy basketball court nearby, I only stayed for about 15 mins and left; rode the banca back to the other side; back to Rockwell and drove home. Mission accomplished!!