Rain is here

The third season in Philippine is the rainy season - normally from July to September, it sometimes can be earlier and later a bit. The season is heralded basically with a big typhoon that well happened early this week (Conson). Last year, the season began with Ondoy which was really bad. Its still a tragedy this year but nothing like last year.

You will get a up to half a dozen typhoon in a year. I remember last year there were four of them. Except for two of the typhoon last year, the rest did not impact Manila greatly. The north and east of Luzon actually take the brunt of these storms. The impact is bad because a lot of structures are just not strong. In truth, if infrastruture such as drainage are better built, most of the tragedy can be avoided.

I actually like rainy days as I find it refreshing. There is smell of cut grass and leaves in the air that I find comforting. My favourite time of the year in SG and MY is Dec-Jan period when the rain comes. I especially like rainy days during weekend. I would actually choose a neighbourhood coffee shop/mamak stall/kopitiam to read my weekend papers there. If I have a laptop and there is wi-fi which some places do, I could spend many hours there.

Of course the rain puts a damper on my morning walk to the office if it rains which happens quite often. I have a route that I take that avoids me having to bring my umbrella but I still get a bit of rain. Most morning, I wake up early enough that I avoid the rain. For some reason, it does not rain early early morning but usually happens later in the morning, afternoon or evening.

The reputation that Manila/Philippine is a place to avoid during the rainy season is overblown. Its not a great time to go to the beach but really there is no reason not to visit it. Even if a typhoon happen to come while you are here, its just one-day thing that quickly blows over. Its actually a pretty interesting experience. Many years ago I was caught in the middle of one for the record and was in the eye of the typhoon for 10 minutes. The shops were shut down early and electricity do get cut off but other than that, its kind of surreal experience to be in a typhoon here. If I were someone planning say corporate, group retreats, meetings the rates of many places are so cheap, that its worth it to consider doing it here during this time of the year.

Philippine ahem Talent.

A photography club which some members are known to me, had a session with the following girl and showed me this. Self-explanatory.

The Best Music Scene in Asia II - Dave Eggars

An article in the Manila Times that I liked

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/lifestyle/20398-bridging-brooklyn-and-manila-through-music?fontstyle=f-larger

I particularly like the line..

"continuing quest for high-risk collaborations that brought him back to the country."

It speaks to me because I think its only through the right mix of risk-taking and talent that truly great things happen.

World Cup in the Philippines 2

In my last post, I said the World Cup fever here is not the same as there are only a few places to watch the games. But the German-Eng game resulted in twitter world going crazy here. Ever since then, the places that showed this games have been packed late into the night.

Not being aware of it, I decided to catch the game at a couple of bars here this weekend. They were packed. I was actually surprised how many places was showing the games in Makati especially. The papers and online don't get 10% of the places. You just got get out and walk around the major bar areas.

When I watched the game, for some reason I get asked by many people if I were Korean or Japanese. There is a large Korean community here who loves the game especially when South Korea plays. It also summer school hollidays in Korea and I met up with a whole bunch who are here on vacation or even doing summer jobs here.

Anyway, its getting fun to watch the World Cup here and I got my money on Germany to win it all. By the way, you can bet legally on the games with PAGCOR outlet.