Crowne Plaza East Kowloon, Hong Kong

This is a newly constructed hotel. It was opened only in late September this year, so we are among the newest guests of this cool place, yes. I am here as one of the international participants of the Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia conference, sponsored by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) and the Lion Rock Institute (LRI). I checked in last November 5, conference November 6-7, and will check out tomorrow and fly back to Manila.

It’s a tall building, 43 storeys high. I took this from the 1^st floor, outside the main ballroom. Details here,  http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/crowneplaza/hotels/us/en/hong-kong/hkgtk/hoteldetail

A huge driveway with a water fountain in the middle. This is shared by three tall buildings – Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express, and Vega Suites. And it is connected to a modern mall leading to Tseung Kwan O MTR station.

View from the 1^st floor, at the main restaurant. Below it is the main lobby. Cool, artsy design.

The marbles look high end. Here is the front of the six fast elevators. Neat and cool. Then inside the elevator, there is a small tv monitor that features some of the hotel’s amenities, with background soft music. I remember my hotel in NYC, the NY Marriott Marquis where I stayed in March 2009. The tv monitor in the elevator gives international news updates, and it hops really fast.

 

Ahh, our room. We are at the 38^th floor, it’s cool. I brought my wife and two young girls. My hotel and plane fare is shouldered by the organizer, so I and my wife just shared for their plane fare. HK-Manila is just 1:45 hour away and there are budget airlines to take. My two girls like their bed, and a huge flat tv to watch the cartoon network.

Nice view from the 38^th floor. Holiday Inn Plaza is equally big and tall. Hong Kong is famous for thousands of tall buildings. It has few flat land, it’s mountainous, so whatever flat land there is can easily be snapped for building high rise structures.

The toilets, neat and nice. Upper photo is the male toilet near the ballroom, lower photos the toilet in our room, the hallway.

I am not an art-loving person, but from time to time my eyes would be fascinated by some art works. Like this wall in the ballroom or conference hall. And those hundreds of hanging glass fishes on the ceiling. Cool.

I like this hotel. Well, I’m not really a frequent traveler, and each hotel should be unique. I have enjoyed my stay here.

Jeeves Manila

I am not into high end clothing and much less, laundry. My clothing are very basic with just few coats for some formal events like attending conferences in hotels or major Rotary events in our district. But last week, I attended a formal opening of a high end laundry shop in a five-star hotel, the 3rd shop of Jeeves of Belgravia Manila at the New World Hotel in Makati.

Our District Governor (RI D3830) in Rotary Year 2006-2007, Raphael "Butch" Francisco, the CEO of Jeeves, invited us to a fellowship during the formal opening of their 3rd shop last October 24. It was also my birthday, nice timing to have nice food and nice drinks in a hotel for free :-) I treated my family to a simple family dinner at a Chinese restaurant the night before.

Below, pretty Maling Francisco, the wife of Gov. Butch and I think CFO of Jeeves. And the twitter account of Jeeves, I just followed it.

Below, I think this is an original Jeeves shop in London. Gov. Butch's nice photo there. Further below, I think their 2nd shop in Manila, in Greenhills.

There were many guests that night at the New World Hotel shop. One British guy, I think he's from the UK Embassy, Sen. Koko Pimentel, Past District Gov. Guiller Tumangan, many others.

And of course, my "classmates" in Rotary during our term, "Lead the Way". There were several photos that night, but these two I got from the facebook photos of classmate Rose Acoba (seated right most upper photo, beside my wife Ella). Gov. Butch and Maling are in the middle, standing.

Thanks Gov. for that wonderful evening of good food, drinks and music, and good company with my classmates and other friends. 

Palawan Tour, by Patty Soliman

This is a guest post by a good friend, Patty Soliman. Patty and hubby Noli, were my housemates in the 80s where we stayed for free in the house of another good friend, Monchit Arellano, in Marikina.
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Amazing Trip to Puerto Princesa

By Patty Soliman

19 October 2012

October 15, 2012 was the first time Noly and I set foot to this amazing place called Puerto Princesa. When my sister Tricci asked me last February where I would like to go, I immediately said, Puerto Princesa in Palawan. I never thought she was serious booking us right away when she got a promo from Cebu Pacific. I chose to have the trip in October since Noly and I celebrated our 26th Anniversary last Oct.11.

I started searching everything I need to know about the place through the help of those people who've visited the place and made their blogs through Google. And it helped me a lot. Where to dine, places to visit and of course the pocket money more or less I should prepare. But that was also being taken care of. I even made our itinerary for the entire 3-days trip and secured medical certificate for Noly. Just in case someone asked. Two weeks before we leave for Puerto, I called up my cousin, Levi Evangelista whom Ive never seen for the past 20 years and told him I hope to see him there. He was delighted to hear from me again and even told me to call him as soon as we arrived.

Waking up as early as 3AM started our day preparing for this trip as we need to be at terminal 3 by 6AM. I can't complain why she booked our trip to 830AM flight. Contrary to what I hear about Cebu Pacific, there was no delay in our flight and our plane touched down exactly as what was indicated in our tickets. It was the most beautiful 9:10 AM I ever appreciated with full of excitement wondering how would this vacation is going to be. We were picked up from Puerto Princesa Airport by our hotel shuttle.

We checked in at A&A Plaza Hotel and funny, the room given to us doesn't have any windows. It felt like we were in a big cabinet. Good thing both Noly and I are not claustrophobic. As promised to my cousin, Levi, I called him as soon as we settled in our room. He then told me that his son will show us around the city. He was apologizing that he cannot join us due to unexpected matters from work.

His son, Avin, met us at the hotel lobby at around 11:30AM and drove us to Bilao at Palayok. Told him to drive us there as it was the one indicated in the itinerary I made. The first meal we ever ate in Palawan, and can really tell how fresh the fish was. We ordered Grilled Tuna and Beef Lengua. Tuna was really fresh and the Lengua was cooked with cream and Banana Heart and really taste good. Right after lunch, we headed to our first destination, The Crocodile Farm. We parked our van in front of those souvenir shops and were already excited to buy Sky his pasalubong. We paid our entrance fees and went straight to where a little information about Palawan Crocodiles was given to us. We then first saw those cute crocodile hatchlings placed in rectangular deep basins. The big ones were placed in bigger cages with shallow water. The biggest we saw was about 11ft. long. Some tourists were given the chance to feed those middle-sized crocodiles from the hanging raw meat. We made our tour high top from those crocodiles.

Other Palawan animals were introduced to us, like the Kalaw, Bearcat, and Peacock. I never thought we also have Peacocks here in the Philippines and it is called Peacock Peasant. Noly had the chance to try having picture with a Bearcat. It scares me to try, so I was contended to just stand beside him with a huge Bearcat on his shoulders.

Next in our itinerary was supposed to be the Butterfly farm but I begged off. We've seen a lot of Butterfly Farms in other places. So Avin showed us the Mitra Ranch. Upon approaching the place, I felt a familiar atmosphere and Avin told us that the place is similar to Tagaytay. I guess so, because there was a sudden change of coldness from the breeze. It was amazing to see Honda Bay from Mitra Ranch. Our next stop was the Baker's Hill. Noly was delighted to see rare plants while I enjoyed looking at those statues around. He even wanted to buy some plants but I stopped him from buying, not only that it was a bit expensive, told him, we might have difficulty bringing it to Manila.

We then went back to the City proper to buy the pasalubong pearls I promised our daughter at Delma Pearls and Souvenir shop. Noly then chose to buy also for his sister and a Palawan Printed Crocodile shirt for our little Sky. While we were busy buying, we were surprised by my cousin Levi. Finally meeting him again after 20 years! He then took the privilege of showing us the Bay walk, Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral and the Plaza Cuartel while Avin, went to fetch his mom and his other siblings for the dinner Levi set for us. Our City Tour end around 5:30 PM. Levi then, brought us back to our hotel to shower. It was tiring though since we were up since 3AM but it didn't stop us to look forward for the dinner date with Levi and his family.

Galerie Joaquin and the UPSEAA

My appreciation of painting and other artworks can be compared to the appreciation of an average grade schooler of calculus or advance algebra. Nahh, just kidding. I appreciate music, classic rock music especially. But painting, not much. Not only that they are generally expensive for me, my interest of them is generally passing.

But last September 18, 2012, I joined a number of fellow UP School of Economics (UPSE) alumni in trooping to Galeria Joaquin to see lots of beautiful and rather expensive works of art. The galerie is owned by Jack Teotico, a kind hearted and former President of the UPSE Alumni Association (UPSEAA).

It was actually a fund-raising activity by the UPSEAA. Prices of each art work were as is, no discount. But whatever profit margin by the galerie for the sales that night will all go to the UPSEAA fund as the association is helping our alma mater have a great 50th year anniversary in 2015 or just three years from now. There are grand plans for the school such putting up a new school building, expanding the scholarship fund, creating more professorial chairs, and so on.

That is why I said that Jack is a kind hearted entrepreneur and alumni of the school. Every year, there is a general alumni homecoming, sponsored by graduates 25 years ago. And every year, Jack would donate some art pieces to the school for bidding. Whatever amount to be raised will all go to the SEAA fund. Jack is definitely among the most gallant alumni of the school.

There are other rich alumni too, who gave substantial amount to the school, mainly to modernize each classroom. If you see the classrooms there, you will be impressed, they are word-class lecture rooms with high tech facilities -- all from donations of alumni. The taxpayers subsidy alloted for the school only goes for the maintenance (electricity, water, books, office supplies, etc.) as well as salaries of faculty and staff.

Me, I went there just to eat as I knew that Jack would prepare really yummy food for all guests, buyers or plain kibitzers. I was not disappointed as the food was really nice. But I was disappointed also because I thought that there would be some medium or high octane drinks, say 17 percent alcohol content red wine or even 5 percent serbesa, there was none. Disappointing Jack! :-)

There were lots of juices, soda and water.

Food of Penang, Malaysia

It's been four days since I left Penang, but I can still savor in my mind its delicious and often spicy food. Before I went there, a number of my friends were telling me that "food there is delicious", so I was curious to see it for myself. I was in Penang last September 7-9, 2012, for our seminar-workshop on "Promoting Markets in Healthcare" sponsored by EMHN-London and IDEAS-Malaysia.

Our hotel was the Red Rock Hotel, a modest one in the city. To its left is this complex of many small food stalls. I walked here around 7:30pm on Day 1 (September 7) and though we have a scheduled dinner at 8pm somewhere, I could not resist the temptation of tasting one noodle soups there, it was nice at 4 Ringgit.

That night, our local hosts, Wan Saiful Wan Jan and his staff at IDEAS, brought us to this Indian restaurant, Kapitan. I was intrigued by this long line of fried chicken, upper right. Hmmm, yummy.

Lower left, some of the different viands that we ordered. The prawns and those fried chicken were not included in this photo. Lower right, not in this resto, from a food stall somewhere, frog meat for sale, cool.

Around Kapitan restaurant is a district of many Indian shops -- clothes, music, bags, jewelries, etc. And not far from it are old mosques. Nice place.

On our second and last night in Penang after our workshop ended in the afternoon, Wan brought us to this famous Malaysian restaurant, "Cina Muslim Restaurant". This is several kilometers away from our hotel.

Haaa! Really yummy food -- chicken, vegetables, grouper, I'm still salivating until now. Lower right photo, that's durian desert, mmmmm.

I think Wan ordered 3 or 4 orders of grouper ("lapu-lapu" in the Philippines) and they were all wiped out by 14 hungry tummy :-)  Tea and another juice complemented our yummy dinner. I kidded Wan that I needed to walk at least 3 kilometers in order to hasten digestion of my food intake that night.

On our way back to the hotel, Wan toured us to Georgetown proper, lots of interesting places there. Then not contented yet, Wan brought us to another Indian restaurant, "Pelita" for some drinks, tea and black coffee (above, lower right), bread and desert. Another round of delicious food.

The food list, they are not expensive, and yet delicious and clean. I noticed that many food shops are open until midnight or even early morning even on a Sunday night. Many locals, I was told, prefer to eat outside than cook at home (do groceries frequently, wash the dishes, etc.), as it is not time consuming and not costly at the same time.

From Indian food, Chinese food, Malaysian food, to a combo or mixed of those cuisine, there are many food choices and restaurants or food stalls to choose. 

I liked Penang. Thanks to Wan and his friendly, hard working staff at IDEAS being great hosts.

Kuala Lumpur International Airport

I landed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport this morning to get a connecting flight to Penang in the afternoon. I am writing this in my hotel, Red Rock Hotel, here in Penang, about 45 minutes by plane from KL. I've been to KL three times before -- 2005, 2009 and 2011 -- but it was only today that I took many photos of the airport. So as usual, I'm shrinking them three photos in one frame to minimize space.

It's definitely a modern airport, comparable to the huge and modern airports of Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul-Incheon, Tokyo-Narita, Bangkok, etc. Glass and steel structure, silent walkalator that have sensors, meaning they move only if there are passengers using them.

But unlike the airports in HK, Singapore, Narita, or even Manila, there are not too many planes and passengers landing and taking off at KLIA. I noticed at the planes monitoring station, there is a take off every five minutes on average, and consequently, a plane is landing every five minutes too on average, for both international and domestic flights.

In HK for instance, I think a plane is landing every 30 seconds, In Manila, despite the small airports compared to those in its Asian neighbors, I think a plane is landing every minute or so. That's mainly because there are may domestic flights. Our country is an archipelago.

Colorful decorations. This is after the immigration going to gates for domestic flights.

I landed at KLIA from Manila around 11:30 am and my connecting flight to Penang left around 2pm. So I was at KLIA for two and a half hours, I did not notice too many planes nor too many passengers. Middle photo, nice replica of different airlines.

This is the gate I boarded this afternoon for my Malaysian Airlines flight to Penang. It's huge for a domestic flight, so passengers can practically roam around the departure lounge. I think on number of passengers per sq. meter of airport terminal, Manila's terminal 1 (the terminal used by foreign airlines) has probably 10x that in KLIA. Meaning Terminal 1 is too small relative to the number of passengers who are flying out and arriving.

Nice monitor for departing planes from different airlines. This is where I noticed that a plane was taking off about every five minutes on average. Below the departures monitor, are maps of the domestic and international concourses.

There was a cultural presentation in one side as I roamed around the airport this afternoon. Nice performance. Some guys were distributing a Malaysian flag and cookie to passersby.

Photo above, I took last year. I think this was at the main arrival area for international flights.

On toilets and drinking fountain. I don't know how much is the terminal fee at KLIA that is incorporated in the plane ticket, but at least there are plenty of clean toilets and many drinking fountains. In Manila airport, we pay P550 (nearly US$14), was P750 before, terminal fee. and the terminal does not even have one drinking fountain. Passengers have to buy bottled water if they get thirsty, even if they have paid a high terminal fee.

Trees in our Farm, Bugallon, Pangasinan

I visited the farm last week, August 31, 2012. I think the "representative" photo of the farm will be this -- a treehouse perched on a big and live mahogany tree, is itself surrounded by many big trees, and a small rice field in the front.

This is part of the "public road" passing by our farm. That road going up is generally abused with deforestation and various forms of illegal logging by the local folks themselves who live in the barrio. Only the portion in our farm that the trees are allowed to grow tall and big. The thieves respect the "private property" aspect, so long as there are people watching the property regularly.

Another view of my treehouse, the rice field, and many trees around it.  If our caretakers do not visit the farm daily, plus our dogs who accompany them and stay in my treehouse at night, thieves and illegal loggers will simply chop these trees for their own interests.

Several panoramic view of the trees. 

Another side of the farm, not far from my treehouse. The young trees, they multiply like grasses once the mature and bigger ones have started bearing seeds. The seeds are spread anywhere the wind will blow them.  

My treehouse, back view. And the trees beside it....

A portion of our mango orchard. Not too many trees. Strong typhoons would rip apart some of them, or uproot them. Below it, more trees near my treehouse.

I feel "recharged" whenever I visit the farm. I used to do it every two to three weeks before. In recent years until now, I can only afford to visit it once a month, or sometimes, once every two months. Have many household errands and activities on weekends with my family.

Club Manila East, Taytay, Rizal

Yesterday, my family went to Club Manila East (CME) in Taytay, Rizal province. It was a Sunday, our travel time was less than an hour, Makati to C5 to Cainta to Taytay. It was a nice place. Entrance fee is P375 for adults and children, babies free entrance.

This is the view from the top of the winding slide. The cordoned area on the right is where one will splash from the slide.

The main attraction of CME is this -- the kiddie pool. It's wide, lots of water fountains, deepest part is probably only 1 1/2 feet. There's an artificial waterfalls, and a small, short slide for toddlers and children. My two young girls enjoyed this part a lot.

Lower photos are the trees, shaded area in front of this kiddie pool. Going towards the slide and swimming pool for adults.

The covered or shaded pool for adults. Lower photos, the lower tower where the zip line ends. I don't know how much is the fee for the zip ride, I did not try it.

View from the kayak area, it's wide. Kayak ride is free, it's part of the entrance fee.

The main attraction for adults in CME are these artificial waves area. They have two or three. The waves are huge, they offer surfing lessons. I heard it's P1,500 for the lectures plus two hours actual ride on the waves.

Lower photos, left side of this huge wave area, there is another artificial water falls. Right side is purely for surfing students. See the note. 

Additional photos. Upper right is where my two girls enjoyed the waves in the morning. In the afternoon, this place is closed and CME turned on the waves in the second, much larger wave area.

Lower photos, the four-storey cubicles for day time guests, and the higher tower where the zip ride starts.

I will post photos of my two girls and wife in my next blog entry.