Whistler Ziptrek

On arrival back to Vancouver Aimee and I each had a list of things we wanted to do and see. Obviously seeing friends and family were the top of that list. Other things on the list included drinking the local beers I miss and Aimee was craving the bellini cocktail from Milestones Restaurant. Also, we both were oddly craving veggie burgers since it's difficult to find them in Manila. But beyond the family, friends and food plans we decided a trip to Whistler for a little skiing was also in order. Once we got there, however, we altered our skiing plans to something called 'ziptrekking'.

Ziptrek is 10 ziplines spanning over 2.4 kms and 8,100' across the Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains. Your starting point is near the top of Whistler Mountain and each zipline you attach yourself to zips/speeds you closer down the mountain towards Whistler Village.

Here's Aimee and her motley crew of ziptrekkers.



Our friend attempts the first Ziptrek.



Now it's Aimee's turn to bravely go where no Filipino has gone before (maybe!).



Aimee's zipline brings her to the other side.



Finally it's my turn. I'm the one using the camera so obviously this is my point of view.

Each zipline brought us closer and closer to Whistler Village. The final zipline was the most fun. On this line we were allowed to be strapped in upsidedown if we wanted. I chose upsidedown obviously. I unfortunately don't have a photo of this but picture in your mind an inverted cross zipping across a wire down a mountain. That was me. The last 20 seconds of this zipline went over a ski hill. Imagine yourself skiing happily down a mountain when suddenly an upsidedown man zips over you. Would this frighten you? Confuse you? Or shock you to the point where you stop watching where you're going and smash into another skier. Well, some unfortunate skier did just that. Kenn flies passed him upsidedown and WHAM, he smacks into another skier. I found myself laughing at this until I reached the end of the zipline and the breaks where applied. The unfortunate thing about the way they strapped you in upsidedown is there's one strap that went between your legs. The brakes were applied and this strap tightened up. You can use your imagination with the rest of this but I bet the skier who crashed because of me felt it was good karma when I squealed like a pig in pain. Damn karma, it always comes back to bite you in the butt.

Meow Supplies

You may remember a blog from the past about cat supplies - or the lack thereof - here in the Philippines. I have been able to locate a few necessary supplies for our kitty but for the most part, the pet supplies in Canada are far superior to the ones you find here (I'm sorry to admit that Philippines ... really I am. I love you and all but it's the truth). So during my three week Christmas holiday in Vancouver I stocked up on as many cat supplies as I could find. Not only did I buy almost a year's supply of cat food (no, you can't find her brand name here; and yes, she's spoiled), but I also bought play things, scratching posts, vitamins, and pills, powders and creams for illnesses she may, or may not acquire in the future. That's right! I bought medication for presently nonexisting diseases - how's that for cat owner insanity? With all these supplies I'm wondering if I should open up my own pet supplies store. A store dedicated to the well-being of cats only (hey, there are stores here specifically dedicated to dogs; shouldn't cats get there time in the spotlight too?). Although, if I do that, poor Daphne (yes, my cat's name in Daphne) will have to share her supplies with the tiny Filipino cats I see hanging out everywhere. Hmmmm, sharing or hoarding, sharing or hoarding? I'll ask Daphne!

Daphne says hoarding. Sorry Pinoy Cats, this Canuck Cat doesn't want to share!

Driving

I just got back from driving myself to a haircut. In normal driving conditions the time frame from home to salon should only take 10 minutes. But since the Philippines doesn't understand the term 'normal driving conditions' this haircut adventure can take - and has taken - close to an hour in the past. I'm happy to announce that today's haircut drive was the 'normal driving condition' time of 10 minutes. 2008 is looking good so far!

Speaking of driving I'm reminded about a thought I had when I hopped into our rental car in Vancouver. I wondered to myself what my driving skills were going to be like back in Canada. You see, my 4 months in the Philippines has twisted my driving skills into something that can only be called Filipino Chaos. Within 4 months I drive like 'they' do: I cut people off. I swerve in and out of lanes. Swerve? Forget the lanes, who needs lanes? I drive between lanes while I swerve. I'll even drive towrds incoming traffic. I drive at night without my lights on. I honk my car horn for no apparent reason. I'll switch lanes without using my turn signal or when I do use it, I'll leave it on for a few blocks just to annoy people. The worse thing? I caught myself driving without a seatbelt. These are bad bad things - at least in the land of the Canucks. Here in Pinoy World it's considered acceptable. So considering my new unique driving style I was wondering if I'd have issues once I got on the road in Vancouver. The conclusion? I'm happy to announce that my driving style is alot like my "Pause" and "Play" analogy from before. When in the Philippines my "Philippine Driving Switch" is clicked into the 'ON' position. And when I'm in Canada my 'Canadian Driving Switch" is clicked into the 'ON' position as well. Thankfully these two ON switches cannot be switched at the same time. I do fear, however, that the day may come when I get the switches mixed up. A Canadian driving style in the Philippines would leave me stranded on the side of the road with my turn signal flashing in the hope someone will let me in. They won't; I would be stuck there forever. My Philippine driving style in Canada would leave me, well, pennyless once I paid for all the traffic violation tickets. In either case, stranded or pennyless, I prefer to keep the two driving worlds separated.

Philippine Christmas Talent Show

I wrote a previous blog about a talent show I had to judge. Just so you get a sense of the crazy performances I was forced to watch, take a look at this video:













These crazy big heads won! All bow and appreciate the Mighty Pinoy Big Heads (I discovered later that they were actually girls in the costumes; I guess that would make them the PINAY Big Heads!).

Pause Button

Well, I'm back! Back in Manila that is! I've been away for three weeks; did you miss me? I was back in Vancouver! I had every intension of continuing my blog writing while in Vancouver but without internet (we cancelled our internet before moving to Manila and sadly none of our neighbours were 'nice' enough to offer an unsecure wireless network for us to 'borrow') the blog writing was impossible. So for the next few days (or weeks, depending on my motivation) I'm going to write about my brief three weeks back in Canada.

But for now, I want to write about an observation I found myself pondering while there. The main question I pondered? Quite simply, "has 4 months in the Philippines changed me?".

I first came up with this question while sitting in the Milestones restaurant on Robson Street sipping back a Granville Island lager (how many Vancouver references can I throw into this blog?). From my vantage point in the restaurant I could see the good old Vancouver folk rushing on the street below trying to finish their last minute Christmas shopping. How different am I from them now I wondered? I must be different in some way. Any experience in life that takes you outside of your comfort zone must change you in some way. Has the 4 months changed me? In an answer, why yes, it has changed me. But how exactly? Well ... that's the part I can't answer. Can anyone really analyze their personality to the point where they know the profound impact every experience has on them? I can't. I know my time in the Philippines has made me a stronger person but how so, I have no idea. But I can tell you this, changes in me or not, it's amazing how after 4 months away from Vancouver I find myself restarting that life like the 4 months never existed. It's like I have two lives: a Vancouver life and a Manila Life. While in Manila my life here has its "Play" button pressed but once I leave the "Pause" button gets used. Once I'm back in Vancouver it's the same thing, "Pause" and "Play" buttons. Each place gives me unique experiences that alter who I am but it's easy to live in both worlds independently. So when I left Vancouver after Christmas I pressed the Pause button. Today I landed back in Manila and I pressed the Play button. I know it's an odd analogy but it seems to be what life it like for me now: Two worlds, and two lives loosely connected.

So now that I've freaked you out with all this psychology nonsense I'll get back back to my normal blogs. The Kenniverse has officially returned!

Pinoy Christmas Party

Last night I attended Aimee's company Christmas party. This party was quite different than what I'm used to from a Canadian Christmas party. At the office Christmas parties I've attended in Canada there's usually dinner, drinks, some hired entertainment and various speeches thanking the staff for all the hard work they did that year. This recent Filipino Christmas party had the speeches, the food and the entertainment but in this case, the entertainment wasn't hired, it was supplied by the staff.

The staff were broken into 7 teams and each team had to put on their own show. The shows could be singing, dancing, acting ... basically anything. The shows were judged and the 3 top teams would win cash prizes. This year the judges were management (Aimee and her family) and special guests (myself and two others). Now imagine yourself being a judge for a Filipino variety show. It's really not that easy when you think about it. I don't understand the language so anything involving spoken comedy won't work on me. Anything that involves Filipino pop culture like current to old television shows will also make no sense to me. So I was at a bit of a disadvantage as a judge in this competition. Judging was organized this way: Creativity 30%, Originality 30%, Costumes 30%, and Audience Impact 10%. So the competition started. Each team put together a 20 minute show. I won't bore you (or excite you for that matter) with the details but it was pretty much what I thought: all in tagalog, and all cultural references I didn't understand. So I had to judge on how the entertainment effected me even without understanding most of it. Most of the employees are men so cross-dressing seemed to be quite common among all the team's shows. One team did a spoof on "Deal Or No Deal" (finally, some pop culture I understand), and all the 'beautiful models' were men in dresses. One team did a beauty pageant, once again, men in dresses. There was even a cheerleader team, once again men in dresses only this time, miniskirts. Pretty much every team had at least one man in a dress. So finally all 7 teams performed and it was time for us judges fill out the points. I added up my points and based on that picked my 3 top teams. I was happy to see that my Team 1, and Team 2 ended up being the winners with the other judges as well. Oddly though, my last team ended up being Team 3 with the other judges. I actually thought their performance was terrible. But hey, I'm a Canadian, I didn't understand the language nor the cultural references, so maybe Team 3 really was that good. To me though, I just didn't get it!

Being a confused judge is a perfect way to start off the holiday season!

First Friends

My first friends to come to the Philippines and visit us have come and gone. Evan and his girlfriend Aleessa arrived here a few days ago and only stayed in the Metro Manila area for one full day. Their goal is to spend most of their holiday on the Philippine island Palawan enjoying all the awesome diving sights they have there.

During the day it was shopping for bargains (like fake name-brand bags) at a place called Greenhills. Greenhills is notorious for its pirated DVD sellers. They're not allowed to sell them but they'll go up to any tourist and whisper in your ear, "DVD Sir, DVD". If you say, "yes" they will lead you off to some secret location in the mall (or outside the mall in a Shanty Town) where you can buy them. Evan and I thought it was so funny having these guys whispering these "DVD" sweet nothings into our ears that we decided to start a running count of the number of times these sellers came up to us. By the end of our stay at Greenhills the count was up to 22! I always thought it was funny when DVD sellers came up to me trying to sell pornography when Aimee is staying right beside me. It's also amusing to note that most of these pirated DVD sellers are Muslims. So daytime was fun! By night it was dinner, drinks and fun at the restaurant and bar spots Serendra and Greenbelt 3. At Serendra we had snacks at a restaurant called Chelsea's. Although the service there is always deadly slow the food and atmosphere more than make up for it. At Greenbelt 3 we took them to our favourite Thai restaurant People's Palace. The weather was perfect, not too hot, and definitely not cold. We sat on the restaurant's patio on huge confortable leather couches. To end the evening we went to Martinis bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the city of Makati. Apparently there was a dress code there because the waitress made an issue about Aleessa's footwear (standard woman's open-toe shoes), she didn't notice Evan standing there wearing beach-style flipflops. Dress code or not, we were finally allowed to stay.

Te next morning we all awoke at 5:30am; tired and hungover. Evan and Aleessa's flight to Palawan was at 7:30am.

But now they are gone. Although it was a short visit it was nice having two friends from Vancouver coming here to see us. I hope next year more of our friends can find the time. Like Evan and Aleessa, we'll treat you like the Kings and Queens you are. Pinoy Kings and Queens of course!

Smeg

A good friend of mine, Evan, is coming to the Philippines in a few days with his girlfriend. When I saw this sign I immediately thought of him.

Smeg is a brand of kitchen appliances from Italy. They have a few stores here in the Philippines. The word 'smeg', as Evan and I know it, isn't kitchen appliances but a playful swear word used in the British TV show Red Dwarf. It's interesting that Smeg products are shipped to the UK as well. I wonder what the British fans of Red Dwarf thought of these Smeg-named products?

But yeah, I know what you're all thinking; why is this funny? Well, it probably isn't funny to you, but it's funny to Evan and I and that's all that matters! :)

A Day Touring Metro Manila 2.0

Yet another Metro Manila touring day! Look at the sites my cousin Richie and I saw this time around:

We started our day at the Coconut Palace.

The Coconut Palace is a palace commissioned by former First Lady Imelda Marcos for Pope John Paul II's visit in 1981. However, he declined the offer, saying that it was too ostentatious a place to stay while in the poverty-stricken Philippines. The Palace's architect Francisco Manosa, later claimed that the Coconut Palace - a showpiece on the versatility of the coconut and its viability as an export - was planned long before the Pope even decided to visit the country.

The Coconut Palace is made of several types of Philippine hardwood, coconut shells, and a specially engineered coconut lumber apparently known as Imelda Madera.

This decorative lighting system in the main dining room consists of a combination of Philippine hardwood and coconut shells. The light bulbs/lamps are sitting on coconut shells cut in half and then overturned like a plate.

The huge table in the main dining room has seating for 22 guests. Our guide at the palace sounded proud when she said, "the detailed shapes in the table are polished coconut shells that have been cut and then placed into the table's top by children. We used children because their hands are small enough to do the work.' My cousin and I looked at each other and you could tell we were both thinking, "isn't that called child labour?"

A closer look at the table's 'child designed' detail.

Leading up to the second floor...

Each of the suites is named after a specific region of the Philippines and displays some of the handicrafts these regions produce.


The upstairs has 7 guest rooms.

The swimming pool in the back of the property is shaped like a coconut that has been cut down the middle then opened. The star shaped decoration in the forground is called a parol. It's a Filipino Christmas lantern. It's a popular decoration you start seeing all over the country as early as September 1st.

If you were to continue up to the third floor you would find several offices as well as Ferdinand Marcos's Office.

The palace celebrates the coconut as the ultimate “Tree of Life”. From the coconut's roots to its trunk, bark, fruit, flower and shell, the palace's design, form and ornamentation echo these elements.

The Coconut Palace has been a guesthouse for many guests, including Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, Brooke Shields and George Hamilton. Now, it is a museum, with a butterfly garden and an orchidarium.

On leaving the Coconut Palace I stopped by to say hello to an old friend.

Our next stop is the National Museum of the Philippines. The museum houses many artworks of past and present Filipino artists. The world famous painting The Spoliarium, a painting by Filipino artist Juan Luna which he completed in 1884, is displayed at the museum.

The Spolarium measures four meters in height and seven meters in width. The canvas depicts a chamber beneath a Roman arena, where bodies of dead gladiators are being dragged into a shadowy area, presumably to be put in a bigger pile of dead bodies. But sadly, no cameras were allowed in the museum so you can't see the painting here. You'll have to travel to the Philippines to see it for yourself!

Outside the National Museum is this statue of Manuel L. Quezon, the second President of the Philippines.

Our final stop for the day was at the Paco Park Cemetery. This sign pretty much sums up what makes this cemetery famous. Jose Rizal is a Philippine national hero and leader.

Jose Rizal was buried here from December 30, 1898 to December 29, 1912.

In 1912, burial or interment at the Paco Park ceased. It had been the burial ground for several generations and descendants of those who were buried in the park had the remains of their ancestors transferred.

The body of Jose Rizal is now buried in Rizal Park, under a national monument.

Behind me is Chapel of St. Pancratius.


During the Second World War, Japanese forces used Paco Park as a central supply and ammunition depot. The high thick adobe walls around the park was ideal for defensive positions of the Japanese.
The Japanese just before the liberation of Manila in 1945, dug several trenches and pill boxes around and within the Park with three 75 millimeter guns to defend their fortification against the charging 148th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Battalion of the United States Army.

Paco Park’s grandeur was slowly restored after the war.

The park was converted into a national park in 1966 during the term of President Diosdado Macapagal.

Besides being the first resting place of national hero Jose Rizal, Paco Park has recently become famous for another reason. Last week's episode of The Amazing Race Asia had its Pit Stop right in front of the Chapel of St. Pancratius. One of the Filipino teams came in first! The contestants ran where I WALKED!! So exciting!

Subic Bay and Avilon Zoo

As you can tell by this sign we went to a place called Subic Bay Freeport this weekend. Subic Bay is a former US Navy base that has been transformed into one of the country's most successful industrial and tourism centers. It was a 2 and a half hour drive from Manila. On entering the Subic Bay zone the first thing I noticed were the drivers actually obeying the traffic laws! Unlike other areas in the Philippines, Subic Bay is very strict with their traffic offences. There are many things to do and see in Subic but since we were only there for a day trip, we only saw one thing: The Subic Bay Yacht Club!

Here's me posing at the Subic Bay Yacht Club. We don't own a yacht so this is the best photo you're going to see. There are yachts to the right of me; use your imagination. After my model shoot we had lunch and drove back to Manila.

The next day the family and I stuffed ourselves into a car and headed over to the Avilon Zoo. The Avilon Montalban Zoological Park is the largest zoological park in the Philippines, to date. The 7.5-hectare of the zoo lies in the picturesque valley of Barrio San Isidro, Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal, Philippines.

My impression of my zoo? It's a nice zoo although I found it odd that they didn't offer maps to the park at the entrance. The zoo is a little confusing without a map to guide your way. Once we started walking, I discovered the zoo has quite a nice assortment of animals. Some from the Philippines, and some from other countries. Oddly, the monkey section of the zoo didn't include any monkeys from the Philippines. I've always wanted to see the Philippine monkey, the tarssier. Look at the photo below that I 'borrowed' from the net:

Monkey? Or alien? Either way, wouldn't you want to give these little guys (smaller than your hand) a hug?

The animals we DID see are below:

Leopards.

Cougars.

Hyenas.

Tigers.

Plus hundreds of other animals. The zoo offered various 'photo locations' where for a small 50 peso fee you can get your photo taken with an assortment of animals.

Our first choice was the miniature horse! Oh, by the way, my brother-in-law on the right isn't a mutant with tiny arms and legs growing out of his back. The photographer unfortunately omitted most of my niece from the photo.

My next animal of choice was an eagle. Then a hawk...

Finally, an owl. I love this guy! Look how he's posing for the photo! Most humans can't even pose as eloquantly as this! I wanted to take him home but the zoo wouldn't allow me. I had dreams of putting a little saddle on my cat for the owl and watch them run around the yard together. But alas, this is one dream that will never see reality.

All in all, a fun filled day at the zoo! The Avilon Zoo: Celebrating Life (but not maps!).