World Cup in the Philippines

You can actually catch the World Cup here. But the atmosphere is not the same. Its kind of reminded me of the days in US when you can't even catch it on cable TV. But its a little better, there are a couple of places you can catch the games but no one is watching the games. I look like a freak watching the game at a bar here.

However, the live games are all at night which means I am usually at home already. I only catch the first game live except on the weekend when I can catch the later games.

There is a growing group of kids who play soccer here like in the US. But it will never match basketball or boxing in popularity. Maybe it can grow to a decent size like badminton here which actually have a sizeable folllowing with organised competitions. After all in the US, the popularity is growing and the US team looks pretty good although they got knocked out by Ghana. People don't remember how bad US teams used to be - they could not even qualify for the longest time.

I tried to describe what its like to Pinoys here about watching the games in SG or Malaysia. Remember S.Korea? So many people played hookie and watched it a bars and restaurant in the middle of the day, people did not even lie to their bosses about it and the bosses gave up enforcing any kind of discipline. I say imagine a Manny Pacqiao fight in the middle of a work day - that last for a month.

The best Music Scene in Asia

One of the best thing about my expat vagabond life is meeting interesting people. Its actually amazing some of the people I met. This week I met Dave Eggar. I did not even know of him until this week although I was a New Yorker for some six years.

Dave is prodigy musician from New York.  His resume is perfect but his music is inventive. When I heard him it reminded me of the first time I heard The Who, U2, Nirvana, people who broke the mold of new genre in popular music.  The more I hear his work, the more it reminds me of the very very best engineers in Silicon Valley that I have met - Steve Wozniak, Paul Allen, Dean Kamen. Dave is like them in the sense, his fundamental skills, his classical training, are as good as it gets and yet he is inventive and courageous, a rebel seeking to make new music and new ideas - just like the best of the best in Silicon Valley.

Listen to his classical skills.

Now listen to this.

He was here for one week playing in different clubs with some of the underground bands here. Did I mention that Manila have the best underground music scene in Asia?  That is saying a lot because I have been to places in Japan, Korea, China which also have some activities but here in Manila there is scene here that is closest to what you will find in the Village in New York.  Those who like these kind of music should check out bands like Drip, Sinosikat and sites like www.splintr.com

To have met Dave Eggar here in Manila playing in a hole-in-wall rustic bar and discovering all these great bands is going to be one of the greatest memory in my life.

Taking short breaks and hanging out

I have mentioned before that I seek out greenery on the weekends to relax which is unfortunately in short supply here. In Malaysia, one of the way I relax is take a few hours drive to quiet nearby town or neighbourhood with some trees and grass and walk around stopping for snacks and coffee.  I also do it in Singapore with HDB neighbourhoods. I read an article from Harvard business school a while back that its good management practice to have these 'alone time' to reflect and collect oneselves.   I wanted a short break this weekend before plunging in back to work and missed that a lot.

I tried to think of places to do the same thing here and there just is not a lot of choices. I usually end up going to either Salcedo or Legazpi market on weekends for this. The place I work and live has lots of green space but choices for coffee and snacks is actually very limited unlike in Singapore and Malaysia. I usually end up at a fast food place for some pau and really bad coffee. I recently came across this small chain that serves donut and instant coffee in some neighbourhoods that its not quite the same as the ubiqutous mamak stalls and kopitiam in Malaysia

There is a lot of mall here to go to but its really crowded, the hours are very limited and after all its really about 'alone time'. Its one of the reason I do all my shopping early when it opens (8.30am). I can then go to the big foodcourts and just get some 'alone time' - it does not last long as the crowd comes in. (Did I mention that the malls here are really really crowded almost all the time. The only other place I have ever been that is equivalent are malls in China)

Actually I find it strange there are not more places to hang out given Philippine's Spanish history. Hanging out in plazas, gardens and neighourbood restaurant and tapa bars in Spain, morning, noon or evening, is one of the great living experience I have had. Pinoys certaintly like hanging out in places. Where I live, people hang out in the restaurants to wee hour of the night and during the hollidays.  There is a couple of breakfast/coffee places here on the weekend that is jammed packed every weekend as soon as they open at 7.30am  and people hang out until the sun gets too hot. Why they have not built it in the neighbourhoods, I don't get it.  Our elders in Malaysia and Singapore have been hanging out in neighbourhood coffee shops and markets for generations. The neighbourhood road-side wet market here called Palengke is very crowded early but the sites are usually badly maintained and no place to have a cup of coffee. Even their larger farmer markets have limited offerings early in the morning.

Its possible, its all American influence whose idea of hanging out is at a bar. But even in US, well New York, there is the neigbourhood diner (remember Seinfeld?) where I used to take long breakfast with unlimited coffee on Sunday, read the papers and then check out the local neighbourhoods.  But most of the US is just like here with malls and chain stores.  I don't get the idea of hanging out in Starbucks - the highly yuppie crowd just reminds me all the things I have to do and I keep thinking of work!

There are a couple of places sort of worth strolling around for example in Alabang township which is very nice but a bit far away but the crowd and traffic does not get maddening except near the hollidays. The Ortigas neighbourhood is OK on a Sunday morning but the crowd and traffic shows up before noon.  I walked the Roxas Boulevard by Manila Bay weekend mornings but again its downtown and traffic+crowds shows up pretty quickly. One of the better place actually is Intramuros which is the well-preserved historical Spanish city but I have been told its not safe to walk alone since its surrounding neighbourhood is pretty rough ones. There is Riverside Park in Marikina City which does not have much choices to get a bite. The University of Philippines Diliman which has the best green lungs in the city and the university dining places actually give some pretty good deals for a bite.

Maybe I just have to look harder...

Rain!

I think the raining season officially started this week. Philippine basically has 3 season (cool, summer and wet) and this is the third one. On Wednesday it poured really hard. Should have expected it since last week the humidity was really high. Its the first sign of rain coming.

Traditionally in the rural areas it means that the planting season has begun. Passing through the provinces a week before its no wonder I saw people preparing their fields. You can see padi-fields just an hour out of the city as Manila is situated in traditionally one of the most fertile volcanic plain the world.  It also marks the end of the major vacation period and children going back to schools.

The tourist spots are starting to clear out too.  If you want bargain on the most popular places, its time to shop but its not as much fun as during the peak season of Feb-May when there are parties everywhere. Its one of the problem of developing tourism here. We were at very nice place called Anvaya Cove two hours from here and it was a great place with a nice little beach, lush greenery surounded by high hills but there were only a few rooms. I was told because of the seasonal nature of the business, its really hard to make money.

When it rains here it can really pour and the winds can get scary with typhoon later on in the year. Right now most of the time the rain is just moderate and cloudy most of the time. The temperature is way-off from the last couple of month but there is some humidity. But when its cloudy and with light wind, its actually very nice. I don't mind light rain (I just do laundry more frequently) when I am not working. Its sort of therapeutic - like heaven washing away our little worries.

Zambales

It was labour day weekend and so although I had work to do, decided to do an overnight trip out of town to get some beach air and water before I hunker down. So headed for Zambales province.

I essentially drove North West of Manila - through Subic Bay and then just drove North on the coast.  I was aiming for this little island called Potipot which is a small uninhabited white-sand island 1km from the shores.





But I did not make it. It took me nearly 8 hours to just the reach the towns of Botolan and Ida because of there was just too much traffic. The traffic did not came from the long weekend holliday crowd as much as because of events and electioning going on. At Subic Bay, they closed a lot of roads just for a bicycle race and that took up just an hour.  There was a lot of election activities with slow moving convoys vehicles, procession and loudhorns blasting messages. Its more than just the presidential race here although that receives the most foreign press. Its election of Senate, Congress, Mayors, local Councilmen. AND there are multiple candidates for each seats.  Senate seats are national, not provincial or state level seats like US. That adds up to a lot of campaigns to win over the voters. You see banners of so many people all over the place. They have these convoys with loudspeakers going around campaigning. Add all that and the activities of the summer like bicycle races and local festivals etc and the traffic was impossible.

When I hit the town of Botolan, the road got really bad. There was a lot of diverted path which were essentially just rocks. Its a major project by out-going president GMA who now want to be a local congresswoman.  Since the car did not belong to me, I would risk damage as well as not make it in time to catch boat and return in time to find a place to stay.  I may not find any place to stay near the island as all the major resorts are booked and its pretty rural in those parts.

So I decided to turn around and was going to head back to Subic when I saw some interesting beaches and decided to stop. However, the property was private and I could not get in. But next door to the property was a couple of small resort which I decided to get my much delayed lunch.

After lunch, I checked out the beach and while it was not beautiful, it was pretty OK especially the private property next door. A friend explained to me that a Japanese expert once explained to him that in the Philippines, the great beaches faces the East because the during the Monsoon season typically from June-Sept known as Habagat, the sands are washed up on the East sides of islands. If you  look at the white sand beaches of Boracay, Palawan, Cebu, etc, they face the East. The only exception is down south in Mindanao where the monsoon is less pronounced.

Anyway for P125, I could sleep on the beach and use the facilities like the swimming pool, the bathroom. So instead of heading back to Subic, I decided to camp out until tomorrow.  I drank beer, swam and chatted with some of the other guest  and took some pictures.  The sea was actually pretty calm and I was told that most of the times the waves are pretty strong and you could even do a bit of surfing.  Dinner was basic, not cheap but not exorbitant like the top resorts.  I grabbed an early night and headed back even before first light.

On the way back, I stopped at a couple of other places and was glad that I stayed where I did because the beaches did not get better.  I stopped at Crystal Beach and Subic Bay.

At Subic Bay, I decided to explore it a bit further. The place pretty much still look like a piece of American small town with football/baseball field, strip malls but it has a gorgeous yatch club with some beautiful boats in it.  You have to hand it to American military - when they built something, they do it right, probably expensive but they last forever.

There was less activities going on  the return trip so I actually made it back less than half the time it took me to get there including all the stops. All and all it was a pretty good excursion.

37.3 deg C in Manila

Highest temperature recorded in Manila this year.

And the air-conditioner in my office are broken. Holing myself in a conference room where the air-cond still works.

Being Good at What You Do and Doing a Good Job.

One other thing that interest me is how some people are good at what they do. Its talent of course but finding talent is not so easy. Well, I came across someone that I thought worth talking about.

I  get invited to all sorts of events due to work. Recently I was invited to this joint-campaign from Johnson & Johnson with a local retailer called Bayo and I thought was pretty innovative. It combined J&J's Body Care product with the retailer 'Soft-Look' Collection,  Their product really fits into each other image.

But that is not what I wanted to talk about.

I want to talk about the model headlining the campaign. I forgot her name but she was really good at what she did.


This is her walking down the runway

This is her with the crowds after the show

What struck me really is how good she was in conducting herself at all times. She was professional down the runway giving the usual various model looks i.e. poutty, serious etc. , but when required, she turned on her killowatt smile on a dime. She did it all night for a long list of adoring fans and each time the camera flashed. At one time, I was actually hanging out with supermodels in Milan, Paris as part of my job. I met Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, etc. They were the same way at shows but of course they hung out only with the rich and famous. This is what it takes to be good like any job  - talent and dedication.


I like people who are good at what they do and do their job well.