The Red Light District

Here now at Il Terrazzo in Tomas Morato having dessert with Z.

We’re at this place called “Fancy” and they have a really photogenic flourless chocolate cake.

In the words of my Tita Aida: “Izzz good!”

Got to check out the new Marriott hotel in Newport City (in front of NAIA Terminal 3) and the place is awesome. The first thing that caught my attention was the lights at the lobby bar.

They’re so pretty. It makes you feel like you’re in a magical place—away from Manila traffic, pollution, politics, etc etc.

Here’s a photo of its reflection on the coffee table:

We were given the grand tour by the publicist. I love the wall panels here:

They really went out of their way to make the place as grand as possible.

And the food…the food is really yummy. We got to try the Marriott Cafe’s buffet where they featured five cuisines—Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Western, plus an appetizer bar and an impressive dessert counter.

Here are some grill-to-order items from the Western counter. Mostly seafood—

They had really savory starters, which sat well with me because I usually just skip the appetizers and head on straight for the entrees. This time though, I had to pry myself away from the appetizers.

They have really good ebi tempura, too.

And the dessert has much variety—they have filipino favorites and at least four different flavors of panna cotta, which drove me delirious because that is my absolutest favorite dessert. I tried all flavors but wasn’t able to finish all of it because hello, who finishes four panna cottas in one sitting?? *guilty*

I also had to make room for these bite-sized raspberry cheesecakes, and good thing because they were really delicious.

Before Marriott, I also got to eat at Paseo Uno in Mandarin Oriental Manila. Hands down, I don’t have photos but that place has the best dessert selection evaaar. I love love loved the apricot crumble. It was heaven in the mouth. I wanted to get seconds but, well, at the rate I am eating, I’ll probably balloon up after Christmas is over.

Seriously the rate I am eating is, well, alarming. Hehehe. But I’m enjoying it. I just dread the whole going-back-to-the-gym-to-lose-all-the-weight-gained part. Why must there be tradeoffs for everything?

Sigh.

I miss his crazy antics.

Turns out sometimes it comes back to haunt you.

Which is why I’ll just do what I did back in high school—dedma.

There’s a reason why our photographer Brian is enthralled with this woman from our shoot:

She writes well…

…backwards!

It’s amazing. She later told us that this was actually common among kaliwetes (left-handed peeps), but it was the first time Bri and I saw something like that so we were acting like little kids amazed by fireworks on New Year. Haha.

Speaking of amazing, this is amazingly cute:

Barbie’s daughter Stina applying makeup on our makeup artist Lindsay’s face! She’s so adorable. We had a shoot at their house and we were all smitten with her. Cutie cutie.

Came home from work a little after midnight, and instead of sleeping immediately as I am wont to do, here I am blogging about last weekend’s trip to gorgeous Palawan.

I did mention it was gorgeous, right?

Yez I deed.

The adventure actually began in Manila, on my way to the airport. I arrived at the right airport (Terminal 3) early, thought it was the wrong one (it didn’t say “PAL Express” in my ticket so I thought I was supposed to be at Terminal 2, which of course caused great panic) and took a cab to Terminal 2 where the guard (who was a little rude) told me I was at the wrong airport, which of course caused even greater panic but at the end of it all, I finally found myself back at the right airport. Ehehe. Yes, these things manage to only happen to me.

But it was all well worth the combined P200 cab fare because an hour later, my brunas Au and Rica and I finally landed at the Busuanga airport where a shuttle was waiting to take us to the town of Coron.

First thing you should know when you get there: it has no beach. Coron is a seaside town, so if you’re expecting to stay at a hotel by the beach, it’s not going to be possible here. It’s sort of just the gateway to the many gorgeous islands in the area. This is where tourists stay the night, while they spend the rest of the day out to sea, island-hopping or going wreck-diving. Or in our case, wreck-snorkeling.

Check out the Lusong Gunboat shipwreck, one of the three shallow wrecks in Coron.

Other highlights of the trip include “Finding Nemo” at the Siete Pecados Marine Park—

Spending around an hour swimming at the freshwater Kayangan Lake, which is an ancestral domain of the indigenous Tagbanua people—

Swimming again, this time at the  Twin Lagoon where we had to swim underneath a small gap of the island, which I found really amazing (later, we found out from our guide Ricoh (with an “h”, yes) that this was where they shot Dyesebel)—

Having an entire beach to ourselves—

Seeing spectacular views like this one—

This aerial shot from the plane—

There’s plenty more to rave about, really, but one thing I can say about Palawan is that it’ll inspire anyone to be more conscious about doing one’s part for the environment. It’s just so beautiful—and the amazing thing about it is that it’s all natural. I remember being impressed by the man-made attractions of the places I’ve traveled to here and abroad, but this is the first time that I was just really blown away by a local destination. Palawan, at least this part of the big island, is really carefully preserved by the people. And I really hope it stays that way because I don’t think this will be the only time I visit the place. There’s still a lot more to uncover, and most of them underwater. So I am really REALLY itching to get myself a license to dive.

This was the vacation I badly needed. It’s one of the main highlights of my year.

More photos at my multiply site: imthewicked.multiply.com. Been trying to upload in Facebook, but it’s gone completely wacko.

Ever since I heard this from Glee, and later finding out I had a copy of Dave Matthews Band version, I’ve been playing it on and on and on. Found out now that it’s by Neil Diamond. Love it.

Sweet Caroline

Where it began, I can’t begin to know when
But then I know it’s growing strong
Oh, wasn’t the spring, whooo
And spring became the summer
Who’d believe you’d come along

Hands, touching hands, reaching out
Touching me, touching you
Oh, sweet Caroline
Good times never seem so good
I’ve been inclined to believe it never would

And now I, I look at the night, whooo
And it don’t seem so lonely
We fill it up with only two, oh
And when I hurt
Hurting runs off my shoulder
How can I hurt when holding you

Oh, one, touching one, reaching out
Touching me, touching you
Oh, sweet Caroline
Good times never seem so good
Oh I’ve been inclined to believe it never would

Ohhh, sweet Caroline, good times never seem so good

I am back from my short but sweet Palawan retreat. It was way better than I expected. I don’t think any camera (even the best of the best of the best) can perfectly capture the natural beauty that is Palawan. You HAVE to be there. And I strongly recommend you guys visit soon.

I don’t have my photos uploaded yet, because I came back just in time for a really hellish work week but I can’t wait to show everyone what a fabulous place Coron island is. My friends and I went wreck-diving (okay, wreck-snorkeling) at the three shallow wreck sites in Coron island, swam at a gorgeous freshwater lake, island-hopped, and even took a dip at the Maquinit Hot Springs. It was sublime. I thought that with me leaving in the middle of deadline week at the magazine, I wouldn’t get to enjoy the vacation because I’ll be worrying about work-related things. But the moment we left the town of Coron and visited our first snorkeling spot, it was vacation all the way.

The place is majestic. Nature at its finest. I swear, it made me realize how truly beautiful our country is and it just inspired me to actually take a step to helping save the environment. There were no skyscrapers in Palawan, but every single one of the rocky islands we saw during our visit will outshine even the prettiest buildings in the world. There is nothing like good ‘ol nature. Panalo. Panalo. Panalo.

I can’t wait to go there again. There were still a lot of places we didn’t get to see because, well, they were pretty expensive; but what we did see impressed us all the same. Next time, I’d like to have a different itinerary so I can fully explore the place.

And I’d like a diving license too. Because I think the best of Palawan is found way below its pristine blue waters. Can’t wait!

Photos and full story after this week!

Back to my old RED layout!

Sorry no posts lately—I’ve been really busy at work. Our deadline got moved earlier so it is crunch time to the highest level.

I am also Palawan-bound tomorrow. When we booked it, I thought I’d be having a worry-free vacation. Hope it’ll still be that way.

Have a productive day y’all!