~manila, you're not that ugly

The hardest thing about eating raw?  Not having options for meeting up with friends!  Having a “restrictive” diet restricts my social life, huhu!

Think about it– if you take food and drinks out of your activity options, what’s left?  Maybe a bit of sports, work, movies, and… well that’s mostly it.   But what are sports, work and movies without food?  Never realized that so much of what we do really revolves around food.   When someone visits you at home, you serve merienda and juice  or coffee at the very least.   You go watch a movie, there’s popcorn or shake.  You watch a game, there’s beer and pizza.  When you’re willingly choosing not to eat what maybe 90% of the population eats–coffee, rice, milk, meat, chips, beer– you are also making a stand not to participate in or to stay away from activities that involve any of these!  It’s hard to stay raw when everyone else around you is salivating over grilled baby back ribs, fried tawilis, or hot fudge chocolate!

The first time I got to try being 100% raw for a sustained period was last August when I visited my friend Pi in Bahay Kalipay, Palawan.   Six days on raw.   I posted pictures of that 6-day Raw food detox if you want to take a look.  Since then, I’ve been trying to infuse raw into my everydays as much as I can, with very encouraging results with the green smoothie…

…and not-so-encouraging ones from experiments like this pumpkin soup…

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Don’t you think it’s so hard to find a meaningful toy to give kids these days?

It’s always been a problem for me–I don’t buy into plastic toys and the PS2 generation–and come kiddie birthdays or baptisms, I always get torn between giving something I’d rather not give or just giving nothing.

Was so glad, then, to have met Tes Sobeng, a Waldorf mom who makes wooden toys for children (and children-at-heart!). She had access to wood craftsmen in Paete, Laguna and took it upon herself to make toys that resonated with love and encouraged imagination.

Do you notice the mini palayok (clay pot) on the shelf? I have so many fond memories playing with clay pots as a child!

Tes has an assortment of toys, but mostly for kids of school age. Most adhere to the Waldorf ideals of age-appropriateness and imaginative play.

Here’s one toy I took home for myself, inspired by a tansan (bottlecap) spinning wheel usually played in the provinces:

Hayyyy, what joy in being a child!

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You can look at Tes’s toy catalog on her website, toys and stuff, or contact her through
0908-492-3953 / 912-4056 or tesmsobeng@yahoo.com

There’s a twitter “movement” now to #helpDOT, and not surprisingly, many people are jumping in and seeing how they can get involved.

It started with a post from Carlos Celdran about a tour he did with new Tourism Undersecretary @entengromano, which led to @TeamManila making tourism posters for free:

Bloggers journeyingjames and otherworldpixie made their own posts of support, not to mention countless tweeters, and voila, now we have one viral volunteer campaign for Philippine tourism created in an instant.

DOT Undersecretary Enteng Romano tweeted back: “Still thinking of how 2 harness d outpouring of volunteerism 4 DOT. Hope to come up w some ideas 2moro.”

Let’s hope this to be the start of a real dialogue for tourism development!

I dug up my old post on how to help tourism back in 2005, fresh from my Spain trip and right when I started manilarat:

I am a great fan of the potential of the Philippines (and of the Filipino). I was born and raised in Manila, but there has always been the curiosity and eagerness to explore our culture through travel, conversations, daily interactions with people.

A month ago I left the family business and started working for the Department of Tourism. On the premise that I was there #1 to help tourism, and #2 to find out how government works from the inside.

I left the DOT after the Island Paradise Adventure Race Project (which is still held every year, but under the Development Bank of the Philippines now), and my biggest take away then was that for what I saw as the necessary work for Philippine tourism, the place to start was not the national government, which I felt had very limited authoritative power development-wise.

Five years and a new Tourism Law after, I don’t know if things are still the same.

But for sure, in our own circles, there are lots to do, and do now!  Quoting from that same post in 2005:

everyone always has something to say about tourism. i know i always romanticized it, holding up high “how i think things can be improved.”

many ideas–bright ones at that–get lost in implementation. and im learning firsthand that most of the time, no one really wants to be accountable for implementation. especially in government.

coming up with a great project and starting it is actually doable.sustaining it is not, or at the least, it is difficult. according to a colleague who’s been with the DOT for more than 10 years, projects fail mostly because of politics– everyone wants to run his own show; no one wants to carry on flagship projects of previous officials.

fact of life.

so what’s a private citizen to do?
i say sell the country in his own circle… be a walking salesman of what it means to be a filipino, to live in the philippines. work within one’s reach, with what you have control over, and stop barking at the government (it’s not only exhausting, it’s really just not effective).

statistics show that word of mouth is still one of the preferred modes of securing information about our country. we should capitalize on this. that’s why i have such faith in blogs and travel writing!

Let’s hope things have taken a turn for the better in our government and #helpDOT, but let’s also do our part as private citizens!  Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

If you ever wanted to learn Buddhism, this would be the way to do it!

(Image from the FSG site)

Break free. Breathe
Detour. Detox.
Retreat. Renew.

We invite you to three months of a simple way of life in the Chan (Zen) tradition learning the religion, language, culture, arts, diet, and philosophy of Humanistic Buddhism.

Discover and experience not just a new perspective in life but also, more importantly, about yourself, in a meditative lifestyle guided by the Buddha’s ancient teachings adapted into the modern world of converging cultures.

THE PROGRAM

Officially called the FGS Philippines Humanistic Academy of Life and Arts, this temple stay and studies program is open to those who want to learn our way of life, to take a break from the world they are used to, or to cultivate spiritually, whatever religious background they are from.

The program will offer three months of:

~ Classes introducing Chinese Chan Buddhism, its philosophy and practice
~ Monastic life experience, routine, discipline and etiquette
~ Vegetarian and silent meals using two bowls and chopsticks
~ Nightly walking and sitting meditation
~ Other forms of meditation like tai chi, calligraphy and tea ceremonies
~ Buddhist rituals like chanting every morning, full moon and new moon
~ Basic Mandarin reading, speaking and writing
~ Special workshops on arts, crafts and music
~ Communal or team work in cleaning and events

Accepted scholars for the second batch will live full-time in Yuan Thong Temple situated in the small but bustling city of Bacolod, Philippines from September 15 to December 15, 2010. The food and lodging are all sponsored by Fo Guang Shan Philippines, but costs of transportation and personal necessities need to be shouldered by the accepted scholar.

I met Dave (who posted about the upcoming course) and Artyom, who are part of the first batch of the FGS Philippines Humanistic Academy of Life (started May this year), at the one-day Zen meditation at the Mabuhay Temple.  They’re graduating tomorrow, July 31 (yay!). They stayed for two months in Bacolod and completed their last month here in Manila.  Artyom is pursuing further studies in the FGS university in Taiwan.

More details at the couchsurfing event thread and the FGS Philippines multiply site, including answers to frequently asked questions like “What if I am not a Buddhist?” or “Do I have to shave my head?”.   Dave says a typical day in the monastery would be:

…waking up to the sound of a woodblock at 6:00 AM, and proceeding to the main shrine for morning chanting. Breakfast follows, then a formal class (Mandarin and/or Buddhism) with a monastic, then lunch. All meals are silent. After lunch, there is time for walking meditation and rest. An afternoon class is next, then personal time to shower, wash clothes, and clean rooms. Temple work will be scheduled assignments to help in the kitchen, keep the garden or temple grounds, or other tasks. Dinner will be called at 6:00 PM. After which, an evening class follows and meditation. Everyone will be called to bed at 10PM. There will be days of the week with different schedules, depending on the occasion. Some days will have special workshops on artwork, music, cooking, gardening, or events. Every Monday is a rest day (no classes but it will be time for cleaning own rooms, personal study, writing, etc.).

You can also look at everyday life in the temple through pictures of the first batch of three-month monks in Bacolod here.

Found this video through Carlos Celdran, who says it’s a “1960′s travelogue on The Philippines… from the ‘New Horizons’ series by Pan American Airways.”

The German narration made me zone out on some parts, but I especially loved the clip on sipa!  I always wondered why we were taught that sipa was our national sport given that I never ever played it or saw anyone play it, but wow here’s proof that it was part of Pinoy everydays once upon a time.

Interesting to note that even after fifty years, we’re still using some of the same travel come ons (both subject matter and style) for Philippine tourism…

Just the same,  what a lovely peep into our past!

I had a lovely, lovely day at the Mabuhay Temple in Malate last Sunday, where I got to try meditation for the first time.

I’ve always been interested to pursue meditation as a complement to the search for clarity, and I’ve been particularly curious about Zen.

When I saw an  invitation to an introductory course to meditation, I took it as a sign that it was time (and that I was ready) and registered for the course:

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Masarap daw.  Have you tried it?

Was surprised to see a Hermes painting while going up the escalator in Shangri-la Mall yesterday…

Turns out there’s an art exhibit of the Saturday Group of Artists until July 26 (two Mondays from now). What a lovely pick-me-upper in the middle of a mall!

Was also so happy to see this piece by Migs Villanueva, who was such a patient writing mentor for our group of fiction-writing babies in 2005…(indulge me– I wrote a piece that got published then!).  Migs invited us to her first (?) painting exhibit a few years after that, but it was a nice surprise yesterday to see that she’s still at it, and exploring new themes:

There was also a Blanco! I didn’t recognize the first name from the Blanco kids I saw in the Angono museum, maybe it’s by one of the grandkids?

Lovely fantastical images…

Am glad that Filipino art is made more accessible to Pinoys today, most of whom find more reason to frequent malls than museums…

Coming in a few weeks is the 2nd Annual Manila Art Fair, which is a bigger (and hopefully just as successful) sequel to last year’s Manila Art09 “Asia’s Latest Contemporary Art Fair”!  Yahooo, excited for that!!

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Art at the Shang is an exhibition of the Saturday Group of Artists at the Grand Atrium, Shangri-la Plaza. It runs from July 14 to 26, 2010.

Super convenient,there’s lots of parking available, and there’s hardly ever a line.

You just bring your envelope or postcard, have it weighed, then pay the postage fee.

Makes it more encouraging to send real  letters to friends and family abroad, who am sure will welcome the change from texts and emails to old skool snail mail!

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The Meralco Post Office is along Ortigas Ave., right by the entrance gate to the Meralco compound fronting MC Home Depot.  There’s a Meralco paying station next to it.

It is open on Mondays to Fridays from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm.  The sweet old man who mans the office told me he’s there even during lunch break, yay! Cut off  for same-day postage is at 12 noon.

I’ve always wondered what the Manila Ocean Park was like,but people advised me to wait until everything was open before I went to visit.  Three years have passed since its grand opening in 2007,  but yey I was still an eager beaver to go in for the first time last month!

For a random Tuesday afternoon, I was surprised to see it packed, and not with school kids on a field trip, but with regular families with children and even seniors in tow.

Lots of interesting animals to see, this eel was among the first to greet us…

Such a menacing look from this ray! Doesn’t he remind you of Sebastian in The Little Mermaid…?

Have you ever seen a fish so cute? Or nagpapa-cute? Wonder what those teeth are for!!

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