The Philippines

Random Pictures

2006-06-19T10:27:00.000+08:00

Here is a selection of random pictures; Domiques Japan Diner, Intramuros golf, Deans parents visiting and yesterdays Brazilian farewell of Filipe!

World Cup Fever

2006-06-18T16:58:00.000+08:00

Heckle 'n Jeckle is the place to be to watch soccer matches. This bar is owned by a Dutchman/Filipino, and during matches of Holland it feels like being home; everything is painted orange, Dutch Wk music and almost everybody speaks Dutch. To give you an impression: right-click here, and open in a new window.

Western Union

2006-06-18T16:04:00.000+08:00

It has been a while; next to my regular job I have also found a part time modeling job. Three weeks ago was my first commercial for Western Union. Had to get up early in the morning (6.30am) to start my new career. I had the role of bankteller in this 30 seconds commercial. The big star in the commercial was John Lesaca, a famous Filipino violinist. Together we had a lot of fun and I was surprised to see that such a short commercial takes three full days to shoot. Next month this piece of art will be broadcasted for one month in the Philippines, after that it might go worldwide. I haven't seen the final result of it yet, but the experience of just being on the set was already amazing. For some picture click here (right click-> open in new window)

Familia

2006-05-15T10:20:00.000+08:00

After the weekend at Pagudpud, my brother and parents came over for 10 days. The first weekend of their stay we went to the north of Luzon, to the eighth wonder of the world the rice terraces of Banaue. The ride there took us a 10 hours with a driver who kept on talking. We took a jeepney into the mountains and enjoyed the surroundings. The nature was amazing; mountains covered with green 'stairs' and beautiful views! Too bad that we were on a tight schedule and had to leave early for our trip to the south; Bohol.

Famous for its Chocolate hills (1000s of small (30m) brown hills ) and the tarsier (worlds smallest monkey/bat), Bohol is the place to be to kick back and relax! For four days we stayed in a great resort, where my dad, brother and me got our Padi and for the rest we read a lot and basicly did nothing. It was nice! For some pictures of Banaue and Bohol click here

Pagudpud

2006-04-21T13:16:00.000+08:00

Last week it was Holy Week in the Philippines, which means that everybody is free from work and can spend 5 days to religion. In some areas of the country people show their believe in religion and Jesus by actually crucifying themselves. The nails they use are 20cm long and go through hand and feet. It is a strange spectacle to see. Five huge crosses with bleeding people hanging from them....

Besides bleeding people and crosses, me and a couple of friends made use of our free time by exploring more of the country. For four days we went to a small village in the north of the Philippines: Pagudpud.

Pagudpud is 430 km from Manila and it takes 14 hrs to get there by bus. Halfway we decided to visit an authentic Spanish village called Vigan. In the Lonely Planet this village is decribed as one of the highlights of the country, with its special spanish architecture, culture and rituals. When we got off the bus at 5am in the morning, the village was waking up and we were ready for this spanish experience. However after an hour walking through the village we all came to the same conclusion: Vigan is as filipino as balut, notthing special or spanish about it.

After my sunglasses were stolen from my head, we decided that it was definitely time to leave this touristtrap and go on to our final destination: Pagudpud. Arriving in Pagudpud we first had to find accomodation, this took us 4 hrs since everything was booked. Our last (and in the end best) option was to home-stay. This means renting a part of the house of a filipino family, we were really, really lucky because our family was fan of Dirty Dancing. So Patrick S. and his moves were 24/7 on the TV.

We spend the three days by relaxing and reading at the beach, playing soccer and by singing our favorite filipino songs in the local karaoke bar! Some pictures can seen here!

Balut

2006-04-03T21:44:00.000+08:00

Last Friday my weekend started with a Hawaiian Beach Party at the office with my workmates; cool drinks, chill music and a smooth atmosphere. Everything went pretty smooth until Ronald, our IT guy, brought in a Philipino treat; Balut.

Balut is something that does not qualify as food, or a thing that should be consumed at all! A Balut is a duckegg. Sofar so good, however there is a dead baby duck inside this egg. The preparation and consumption is to boil the egg for a couple of minutes. You take the egg out of the boiling water and peal off the top of the egg. Then you put the egg to your mouth and drink the partial clotted egg white. Then you peal off the rest of the shell and you separate the egg yoke of the embryo. With some rock salt you eat the yoke, still doable, and then as final treat you eat the embryo with a pinch of salt! You swallow the whole thing; beak, feathers and feet! Bienvenida a las Islas Philipinas!

After a couple of beers I ate my first Balut and was ready for the rest of the night! The party moved to my DHL friends for some more drinks with them, 2 Belgiums and another Dutch guy. At 11pm we left for Tiesto! We were lucky we left early because our friend was casually late and started his set at 2am. The night was great and ended early in the morning with our taxidriver in the McD for a cheeseburger. A couple of pictures can be checked here ! Not a lot of pictures, but believe me it was amazing!

A night to remember

2006-03-30T16:49:00.000+08:00

Together with my 5000 best friends I will celebrate my 25th anniversary Friday! Among the guests will be DJ Tiesto, who will be in charge of changing the CDs! Its probably going to be a fantastisic night, and otherwise I will make it a fantastic night! Since our Dutch friend isn't well known here in the Philippines, the crowd will probably consist of mainly foreigners and especially Dutch, which is nice for a change! Will be back here Monday to post the pictures of this weekend! Take care

PS check out PostSecret; an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

Norman Island

2006-03-28T09:08:00.001+08:00

An a-ma-zing weekend! Last Friday we; Dean, Alvaro, Yihit, Salvador, Roy (Philippines), Martha (Espana), Dominique (France) and me left for the 100 islands! After 6 hours bus, we found our selves at 2 am drinking, dancing and singing in the street in front of worlds most dirtiest hostal! Next morning our boatman Ricky brought us to our new home for two days: Norman Island!

The mix of eight different nationalities, a desert island with a batcave and our invisible friend Norman made these 72 hours to a great experience; check here for your self!

Survival of the fittest

2006-03-23T11:55:00.000+08:00

This weekend me, Dean, Alvaro, Yihit, Salvador and some more people will take the bus to the south of the northern island and will visit the 100 Islands National Park. Here we are going to spend a day and night on a small deserted island, which is going to be cool! After weekend I hope I will be able to tell my stories and show some pictures!

Makati City

2006-03-22T16:04:00.000+08:00

When the working day is over; I go home to my apartment. Located in the center of Metro Manila, Makati City, Palm Tower is the perfect place to live. In the building next door, two Aiesec friends (Dean and Alvaro)live and together we sometimes have dinner and hang out! With them, Yigit (trainee from Turkey) and Salvador from my work, we are planning to a deserted island one of the next weekends, and we try to go to the bounty island Boracay for Holyweek, which is mid-April!

Check pictures apartment and Dean,Alvaro, Christina and Yigit here!

Headway

2006-03-22T14:56:00.000+08:00

After my first week I got to know the basic ins and outs of Headway. Run by a Filipino (Mike Cardenas) and a German (Florian Groebel); the main service the company sells is mobile enabled processes. This means mobile b2b payment systems, ordering systems and customer service systems.

Headway is located in Mandaluyong. Every day it takes me 30 minutes by jeepney (old American army jeep) and 15 minutes by metro to get there. The atmosphere at the office is campus like. So everybody works on his/her own pace to fulfill their projects!

The people that work at Headway are all Filipino except for me, trainee Salvador (Cataluna) and Florian (Germany). Here are some pictures of my workmates!

First Impressions

2006-03-22T13:52:00.000+08:00

After being stuck for 5 days in airports such as Baghrain, Abu Dhabi and Singapore, (Damn those people at Gulf Air!) I finally touched ground at my final destination: Manila Airport! Picked up by members of Aiesec, I was taken to the temporary apartment they arranged for me. After a long, long sleep I woke up ready for my first day Metro Manila!

Metro Manila is a huge area of 17 cities that covers the greater part of the northern island of the big three ( Luzon/Samar/Mindanao). Just like other big Asian cities, the street scenes are; lots of traffic, people and animals.

There is big difference between the seperate cities in Metro Manila. Some cities are clean, have big buildings and serve as business areas, other cities are folk neighbourhoods, usually dirty, people live in small cardboard houses and children run around naked. In these areas people basicly live on the street.

Right now the weather is krazy hot and dry (27-30 degrees Celcius), but within two months, the summer rain season will start which means that temperature will go up to 37 degrees and the flooding will start due to lack of proper drainage-systems. Whohoo looking forward to that!

My first week at the office was good! I met my two bosses, employees and learned what all three companies at Headway are doing. Through one of the trainees I work with, I got in touch with Dean (India) and Alvaro (Colombia). Also two trainees, who work at DHL. Their landlord had another apartment for rent which I checked out. It was perfect! Great living room, good bed and great view from the balcony. After five days in the Philippines I settled my self in Palm Towers, Makati City!