a quick glance of thailand (and the disadvantage of having a dslr)

a couple of weeks ago, after numerous postponements, i finally flew to thailand on a three-day business trip. besides work, i had two goals on this brief trip:

1) to experience the famed-bangkok shopping experience (and buy gifts for my wife syempre 😉)
2) shoot, shoot and shoot with our d40

i focused my free time on accomplishing these goals. kahit saglit lang ako sa thailand, i wouldn’t pass out the opportunity to experience and photograph amazing thailand.

(note: the photos embedded here are downsized for web usage. to see the full resolution photos, visit our multiply site here.)

upon arrival in bangkok, the thing (or things) that really struck me were the cars and the roads. para kasing bago lahat ng sasakyan nila dun. kung sa pinas eh ang mga taxi eh vios, sa thailand, ang mga taxi nila eh altis. 🙂 so kung ang altis eh taxi lang sa kanila, ang parang common sedan sa thailand eh camry. lupit no? 😉 but what was more impressive was their roads… or should i say, their road. man, they have this looooooong skyway that seemed like it had no end. sobrang haba talaga. we asked the thais how long it was and they said it was about 100 kilometers long. imagine 4-5 times the length of south superhighway… lahat yun skyway. ganun kahaba. impressive indeed.



from the airport, we proceeded to the hotel which was located just outside of bangkok. check-in lang tapos dinala kami ng aming host sa mall na katabi lang ng hotel. seacon square is megamall-esque in size but lianas-like inside. 😆 actually, some parts lang naman ang parang lianas… the rest is more like… waltermart. 😀



anyway, we planned in spending the afternoon searching for the perfect pasalubong for our loved ones. pero bago yun, we wanted to try some thai food and the easiest place to get one is… at the food court. 😀



soup ang gusto ng mga kasama ko. so inikot namin ang food court… the problem is, most of the menus were written in thai. buti na lang meron kaming nakita na may english menu so syempre, dun na kami bumili. 🙂 tom yang soup ang ni-target naman. it sounded good… and it looked good din sa picture. we ordered one each but soon realized there was a different payment system in there (thanks to a friendly thai girl na tinulungan si jhay with this 😉). sfter going through the payment process, we then proceeded to taste our tom yang. i love spicy food but this one was freakin’ spicy hot!!! kuha-kuha pa ako ng chili powder ha eh d ko naman pala kakailanganin. 😆 grabe ang anghang. todo tulo pawis namin. i ate only half of mine. darwin managed to eat it all (at sobrang pinagpawisan nga lang 😀). vena ate about 1/4th of his while jhay almost didn’t touch his. mahina pala sa maanghang tong si jhay. 🙂


they have system similar to time zone. bili ka ng card then swipe away. 🙂


eagerly awaiting their tom yang… 🙂


the menu, the condiments and the soup.

after the tom yang experience, nag-ikot na kami to do some shopping. pero, since this was like lianas/waltermart, medyo nahirapan kami maghanap. it’s a good thing there was this korean crafts area where we got a few stuff. kaso we weren’t that satisfied (at least kami ni vena). we continued going around the mall until bumigay na sina jhay at darwin and they went back to the hotel. kami naman ni vena were like energizer bunnies and kept going… and going… and going. yun nga lang, wala pa rin kami nabili. *sigh*



we went back to the hotel and waited for our semthai hosts at the lobby as they were gonna treat us dinner. while waiting… surprise, surprise… we saw a familiar face…



it was duane… a former colleague at samsung. he’s now working for cigi (and mighty successful i should add) and has been to thailand numerous times already. like a blessing from God, he volunteered to take us to the bangkok night market. woohooOoOo! pasalubong problem solved. 😉

we ate dinner at a blue wave-esque place. authentic thai cuisine minus the spices. kasi naman si jhay eh binanggit nya sa mga thais na ayaw daw nya noong tom yang kasi maanghang daw… so d tuloy um-order ng maanghang yung mga taga-semthai. boooo! 😆 nevertheless, masarap pa din… especially the lapu-lapu in garlic and pepper. yum. 🙂



the following day was all work. i’ll just skip this part of my thai trip. 🙂


dinner plus tokens from the semthai president himself.



a couple of after dinner shots. (photos courtesy of vena)

after dinner, vena and i met up with duane at the hotel and immediately proceeded to bangkok night market. we took a cab, the railway and then the subway to get there. here we further realized how efficient public transportation was here in thailand. meron na silang sobrang mahabang skyway, meron pa silang mrt at tapos… meron pa silang 2-level subway. thumbs up to the thais.



bangkok night market at lumpini park is, simply put, 1 gigantic tiangge. 🙂 duane told us that the market will be open until 2 am so vena and i were confident that we will find the perfect pasalubong here. ikot-ikot kami and saw the usual stuff… until we came into this stall that was selling contemporary wall clocks. perfect! tagal na namin naghahanap ni selle ng wall clock eh. pumasok ako at nagtingin-tingin hanggat may nakita akong magandang design. then dumating si vena at may na-gusto-han din sya. ang problema eh parehas kami ng gusto. 😀 we were still hours away from 2 am so instead of arguing who gets to buy the clock eh we decided to continue looking around and just come back later kung wala nang makitang iba. so naglakad uli kami at si duane eh mas marami pang nabibili kaysa amin. 😀 we then reached a sampaloc stand at syempre nagsi-bilihan kami. while doing so, we noticed that some of the stalls were closing shop already. teka, teka… baka magsara na din yung nagbebenta ng wall clocks ah. nagmadali kaming bumalik and guess what? sarado na sya. 😦 sabi nga ni duane, “sabi ko sa inyo, eh… binili nyo na dapat, eh.” 😀

somewhat defeated, nag-ikot na naman kami but this time, pag may na-type-an na kami, eh automatic, bili na. we’re quick learners naman. 🙂 wala kaming tigil kaka-ikot hanggang halos maubos na ang mga bukas na stall so we called it a night. we decided to take a cab back to the hotel and experienced something so pinoy… ang na-ngo-ngontratang taxi driver. uso din pala sa kanila yun. 🙂

the following day, we were scheduled to go the “king’s palace.” that’s what we heard. d namin sure kung ano tawag sa place eh. bad trip nga ako kasi comfy na ako in my shorts and sandals tapos bawal daw pala ganoong attire dun. grrrr… hindi sinabi agad eh. nagpalit pa tuloy ako. byahe na naman kami past bangkok and to another province hanggang nakarating din kami sa palace. eto naman parang nayong filipino. 😀 akala namin we will be riding golf carts around the place pero we remained in the van at umikot. medyo bad trip nga kami kasi d naman na-hinto yung van so we could take some pictures. we just had to shoot through the van’s windows.

finally, the van stopped and we strolled around this mini-floating market… and even beyond.




i was shooting pictures like crazy as seen here. (photos courtesy of vena)





a few images around the floating market.


i found this footbridge interesting especially in black and white.


the guys striking a pose. the one disadvantage of having dslr is you don’t get to be in the pictures.


here’s one of the few photos that i get to be in. i’ve been practicing my post-processing skills and tried to recover this photo. check the before and after comparison. (photo courtesy of darwin)


there was a part in the market where you can feed these tilapia-sized fishes. i took this sequence of shots and turned it into somewhat of an abstract art.

afterwards, we were off to view a crocodile show at samutprakan crododile farm…



…home of over 100,000 crocodiles. that’s a loooot of crocs.





we can’t even imagine how they manage to feed all of them. sobrang dami talaga. we strolled around the place and after a while, went back to the van because, one of the korean expats told us, “dyoks, after 5 minutes… we have to go.” yun pala, what he meant was, after 5 minutes, we have to go to the crocodile show. 😆 it’s a good thing we realized this or else we would’ve missed the show.



the show was amazing but, at times, nerve-wracking. sabi ko nga kina vena, ako yung kinakabahan para dun sa mga crocodile wrestlers. watch these and you’ll understand 🙂



(videos courtesy of vena)

after the show (actually d na namin tinapos 😀), we went straight to the airport. checking-in was a breeze… so unlike in the philippines. 🙂 we had time to do some duty-free shopping so that means more pasalubong for my wife. 😉 we boarded the plane and, thanks to vena and jhay, we got window seats… and was able to get off these shots.




darwin even took these takeoff and landing videos for kicks. 😀




overall, it was a nice experience but a short one. we didn’t get to go around much (nor ride an elephant which i wanted to experience 😀). but it was just a 3 day trip so we didn’t expect much really.

is thailand worth visiting? definitely. but i’d rather visit the many more wonders of the philippines first. 🙂

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charice: can’t help but cheer for this girl

selle, heard about this latest charice guesting on oprah on tv and then hurriedly searched for it over the web. we then waited for all the videos to finish buffering and it was all worth it. 🙂

(note: harpo inc has been taking down charice youtube videos. as of last count, we have had to change the embedded videos because they suddenly became unavailable. 😦 please, drop us a comment if the videos here are unavailable again and we will try to search for new ones over the net.)



sobrang natutuwa kami kay charice because besides the powerful voice, she has a captivating stage presence and a cute, bubbly personality to boot. no wonder she’s making waves over at the states. check her performance… and watch how proud david foster was as she sang the big note. 🙂



catch the rest of the show here including her touching life story:
part 1
part 2
part 3

now, who wouldn’t want to wish anything but the best for this girl after watching all of that? 🙂

this just in… charice and celine’s duet at madison square garden:



spine tingling, isn’t it? and did you notice how the superstar celine dion just stood back and let charice have the spotlight? ain’t that such a nice gesture? and check out her introduction for charice… nakakatuwa. 🙂



way to go, charice. nothing but the best for you. galing talaga ng pinoy! 🙂

videos courtesy of youtube.

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sbl champs

it was almost four months ago when i witnessed my departmentmates steadfastly sweeping and drying a wet basketball court so that they can play basketball against newly-hired employees. our company’s sportsfest has just concluded back then and there they were determined to play some ball. biruin mo naman, talagang ni-mop nila ang court para lang patulan ang mga neo. 😀 dun ko na-realize that besides these guys, there were still a lot of other guys who want to play basketball but were unable to do so due to the limited slots in the annual sportsfest. it was then that i realize that playing basketball with actual officemates as teammates is an effective teambuilding tool. it was then that support basketball league started…

the following day, i began selling the idea around fellow support group members and, thankfully, they were all open to it. i initially forecasted that four teams will join the mini-tournament but the positive reaction was overwhelming and we ended up with six teams having up to 18 members each. yup… you read that right. 18 players. walang player limit kasi gusto namin bigyan ng chance ang lahat nang gusto maglaro… which is the reason why sbl was created in the first place.

being the coach of the support team, by default, i coached my department, equipment group. to be honest, i was not that confident (unlike when i coach the support team) going into the tournament because i didn’t know the abilities of half of the team. but i was confident nonetheless because i had a system and i had a few players (geri, cesar and radie) who knew the system very, very well. para makilala ko yung ibang players, i planned to play every single one of them during the eliminations. this helped me establish my player rotation… something that i put prime importance in my system.

and everything went according to plan. we swept through the elimination stage… notwithstanding the hiccup of a loss to logistics on a no-bearing game. 😀 going into the playoffs, i already knew my players… and i already knew the competition. i have a solid rotation, the players have grasped the system and i was extremely confident we will win it all.

we knocked off ps warehouse during the semis but suffered a casualty in the process. paul, our tallest guy and a key member of the rotation, went down with a sprained ankle making him unavailable for the finals. that instantly made our road to the championship a little bit tougher… a little bit bumpier.

with paul out, i had to change the player rotation but the game plan remained intact. the plan was simple: use our speed and depth. run as often as possible. maintain fresh legs on the court through frequent substitutions. disrupt their halfcourt offense by applying pressure defense. yes, the plan was simple… but the game wasn’t that simple.

logistics lived up to the hype of being pre-tournament favorites and gave us a fight during the finals. in a classic size vs speed matchup, the game was tight throughout. employing our game plan to the hilt, we managed to hold a slim lead going into the 4th quarter. as expected, logistics made a strong push midway through the final quarter to grab the lead and even threatened to pull away. inserting back my starters, our team slowly chipped at their lead until we eventually tied the game on a radie genteroy steal leading to a breakaway layup. it was our game from there on as not only did we have momentum, logistics was suffering from fatigue also. buti na rin lang kasi d nila na-capitalize yung mga missed free throws namin during the last minute. whew. 🙂

the buzzer soon ended and, despite being short-handed, we got the 1st ever sbl trophy. 🙂




this team was unique and was loaded. we had geri, the best point guard in the history of semphil basketball. he’s big for his position yet pushes the tempo; scores yet passes really well; and plays sticky defense. if semphil had a draft, i’d pick him number 1 overall.

then we had cesar, the perfect weapon for my system. ultra-fast; a finisher and a sniper; and doesn’t tire at all.

we also had the aforementioned paul, our third guard in a size of a center. knows the game extremely well; exceptional passing ability; and fits like a glove in our trapping defense.

speaking of defense, there’s radie, the known defensive stopper, and then there’s toks, the unknown defensive stopper. they are there to prevent points but they’re sneaky on the offensive side and can put up points too.

then we had our trio of big men: jhay, garry and dhelle. jhay’s a rebounding monster and a shot-blocker to boot. garry and dhelle are veterans and act like immovable walls… plus their mid-range jump shots are money.

we also have a trip of guards: johnver, allan and mike. johnver is a complete package: he can score, he can pass and he can steal the ball. allan is the proto-typical wing man: deadly from the outside and slashes to the basket. mike is a veteran combo guard who does what is needed to help the team.

then there are the role players: jeff, rj and sonny are lengthy forwards; christian, aids, terence and sir charles are bulky big men; biboy and norman are pesky guards.

twenty players. twenty champions. 🙂

now for some post-season awards:

duty foul award: biboy
perennial crowd favorite/best low-post move award: sonny
physical-an award: sir charles
nice pass award: paul
save the best for last award: norman
d ko alam pano ko ipapasok sa support team award: johnver
mabuhay miles award: allan
one game only award: terence

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2008 uaap cheerdance: chalk one up for creativity

the uaap cheerdance competition is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, event in the uaap calendar. each year, the araneta coliseum is packed to the rafters as students and alumni for all eight universities come in throves to shout, cheer and support their respective cheering squads. i didn’t know this was such a big event until i have already graduated (ang lousy no? 😆) and got an opportunity to watch the event live. the energy was so dense throughout the competition. sobrang nakaka-pump ng adrenalin especially when your alma matter is performing. i have yet to watch the event live since then but i still remember how it felt and it still gives me an adrenalin surge every time i think about it.

this past weekend, up once again won the competition and successfully defended their championship. always known for their creativity and innovativeness, up wowed the judges and the crowd with their ethnic inspired performance. sure it wasn’t a clean performance as some detractors point out but the level of difficulty and creativity more than made up for the minor slipups. i especially liked the peek-a-boo, magic effect they introduced this year with the maroon and green banners. 🙂



congratulations, guys. lupit talaga ng up. 🙂

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