Sinulog Is having More Fun In The Philippines

The month of Sinulog descends upon Cebu and the Philippines is more fun than ever!


















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Sinulog 2012 Schedule of Activities

(Fuente Osmena, January 2-31, 2012)

Dec 01 – Jan 31, 2012

Sinulog Street Fair, Osmeña Blvd.

December 11, 2011

2nd Sinulog Cup Baseball Tournament c/o Cebu City Sports Commission

December 12, 2011

Sinulog on the Spot Painting Contest @ Fort San Pedro

December 16, 2011

Launching and Sinulog Photo Exhibits @SM City

December 17, 2011

Sinulog Poster Making Contest @ Emall

December 30, 2011

Sinulog 2012 Fun Run

December 30, 2011

Sinulog Best Dance Crew Elimination

December 30, 2011

Sinulog Musicfest Elimination

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When It Rains... It's Oysters!

This happened two months ago... two days from now. But I’ve just gotta post something mouthwatering as I recuperate from a stubborn bowel condition. What bowel condition, let’s not ruin your lunch.

One of the many perks I’m so enjoying in moving to Cebu is the cheap food. So cheap one can have buffet every week, as many times as you can in each week. And what better way to celebrate such privilege but by gulping down some of the pricy fares in Manila. Oysters!

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Misbehaving in Cebu Taoist Temple

Another place worth conquering in Cebu is the Taoist Temple. It has enough respite to magnify the sound of a dropping pin. Throw in some harmony of colors, revered oriental architectural classicism, ornate murals, immovable Taoist figures, magnificent sculptures... I’m running out of adjectives... and spectacular view of the Queen City of the South (now there’s the cliche)...


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Cebu and Indie Film

Some of the many luck I earned in Cebu is having a cake and eat it, too. More specifically, watch a movie and eat in it too. That’s pleasure after pleasure.

Ok, so I’m being base. This is suppose to be a review on Brillante Mindoza’s film Lola, yet I opened up with food. Sorry, I can’t help it...

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To Pungko or Not to Pungko

What's the word? Famished.

Yes, it's that human condition where one could say "I could eat a cow!" In my case, if I could grab one, I'd kill it in one sweeping decapitation, quarter the carcass with my bear hands, and smear my face with blood and gore at every bite on bovine flesh.  I was in this barbaric state when, thankfully, Cebu City's idiosyncrasy came to the rescue. Not my rescue, mind you, but every living creature's within two feet radius.

This happened a month ago and I was with a friend when I was figuring out where and which of Cebu's food venues I was to stage my metaphysical resolve to give in to my animal cravings.  My friend suggested we head to Ayala Center as we were just around the corner. I violently refused as I was all-out vandal with my unabashed table manners. The friend, noticeably worried that I was about to gobble him up, was quick to suggest a wonderland for my fantasies.

Thus, went the following conversation...

Me:  So saan? Saan ako magpapakawala ng naghihimagsik na gutom? (So, where? Where shall I let my raging hunger run amok?)

Him: Kumakain ka ba sa carinderia? (Do you eat at food stalls?)

Me: Oo naman. Minsan akong naging mahirap... hanggang ngayon. Pero carinderia? Daming carinderia. Gusto ko maiba. (Of course. I was once in penury... now in relative poverty only. But there's always a food stall anywhere. I want some place with a twist.)

Him: Mabuti. Meron akong alam kung saan ang mga pagkain lahat nasa lamesa. Kainin mo lahat ng gusto mo. Sobrang mura. (Great! There's this place where everything once alive is laid out on the table. Just pick anything. Cheap thrills.)

Me:  Pwede ang bastusang kain? Pwede ako magkalat? Pwede ko bang ipakita ang natatago kong talento sa pagnguya at pagsalita nang sabay? Pwede ako manigarilyo? (Can I eat obscenely? Can I drop my trash anywhere? Can I show off my talent in chewing and chanting the Bhagavad Gita all at the same time? Can I smoke?)

Him:  Lahat! Mas maganda pa nga bayaran mo lang kinain mo pag puno na tiyan mo. Sabihin mo lang sa tindera. (All of the above checked! Better yet, you only pay for the ones you ate until your stomach is about to burst. Just tell the caterer. Smoking is the last of your unhealthy concerns.)

Me: Ha? Pano nya malaman kung ilan nga kinain ko? (Really? How would she determine I'm giving the correct number of items I ate?)

Him: Honesty system. (Your guess is as good as hers.)

Me:  Anong pangalan ng lugar? Sabik na ko. (Identify the prey. I am out for the kill.)

Him: Pungko-pungko. (No English equivalence. Sit-sit?)

SFX: Crescendo from Handel's The Messiah rendered by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus in an impossible concert with The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

According to Friend, there's a proliferation of such places across Cebu. We headed to the one beside JY Square in Lahug. There nestled in one corner is a dirt-floor eatery with tents and tables laden with everything delectable. Water containers, cooking arrays, and tools of the trade strewn everywhere.  They serve as fascinating pieces of decors. This place is not for the faint-hearted (read faint-stomached). In segue, a place for adventure but reservations on fear of gastric infection as precaution, otherwise, Diatabs and Lomotil may not be enough to fix a raging vowel.  But for a cheap thrill, this is what I was talking about!

There's puso (quintessential Cebu rice in coconut fronds) for three pesos, bulad (dried fish) for eight pesos, and ngohiong (Chinese style lumpia)/chorizo/fried egg for five pesos each. Now, the piece de resistance of this meal of an adventure is ginubot (chicharon bulaklak, crispy intestine) for ten pesos.

Pardon me hyperventilating, but ten pesos?! Ten pesos!  Correct me if I'm wrong but a serving of chicharon bulaklak in Manila can be had at an average price of Php200.00++!

This was a months ago and I did not have my ever-reliable documenter, Casio Exilim I lovingly call D'Bull's Eye because I'm the Bully, right?  So last Sunday I went back with two other friends, Brylle and Aika, who were equally excited to grab a feast of everything fried, therefore high-fat, and low-cost. (supply Carl Orff's Carmina Burana here)

So here are some visual documentations. This entry makes me hungry. Famished.  Not to mention that I am in the throws of dementia trying to configure the algebra involved in a ten-pesos chicharon bulaklak.

Grab a tissue!

Pork chop or chicharon bulaklak? Choose the greater evil. It's worth it.

This ten-pesos chicharon bulaklak should be declared the 8th wonder of the world.

Look, Ma, everything's within reach! Especially the price!

Eating at pungko-pungko is the practical application of  Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

For all three of us, the bill came to an unbelievable Php174.00. Don't ask me. Your guess is as good as mine.

Choose your poison.

Another marvel of pungko-pungko is how it brings everyone into a harmonious community. There should be a lot of this all over the world to promote world peace.

By the way, I heard JY Square hides another food destination to goggle over. All-you-can-eat dimsum  for less than Php200.00.  But that would be another story.

Cebu Beckons to Dare Colon

First, a disclaimer:

This blog is suppose to promote Cebu as a travel destination. Well, this blog still is. But as one may read in this entry, I would have to be honest with what I could say about our latest subject, Colon. It's filthy. It's crowded. It's extremely pedestrian and reeks with pirated merchandise, not to mention street urchins, pimps and their wares. Hooligans and thugs are just some of the likely attractions. Ok, locals refer to it as a dangerous place, not so less at night. Colon, despite its historical significance, is hardly a tourist destination such as Shangri-La Mactan but, hey, I believe that there is always  a market for anything and everything including obese ladies prancing in a peep show. No, they don't have that there. Wait... I will check.

Going to Colon is a feat. Some local friends here have warned me of the many risks that could be had on a trip to Cebu's version of Escolta, and the Philippine's oldest street.  One local told me that anyone could be knifed in the streets for a measly ten pesos; suffice for me to contemplate distributing twenty pesos to every thugs there and become Colon's kingpin. But my friend alleged that there is a long line for that job. Another local told me that she is afraid to venture in the area blamed on snatchers and their minions. I must agree. One time, after a shoot at Fort San Pedro, we were having a post production refreshment at AA's Barbecue fronting Plaza Independencia. Suddenly, a passing Korean tourist had her cellphone snatched. People simply looked and, as if an endemic bird has just flew by, continued with their business. The tourist and her companion quietly walked away. I had the impression that, in Colon, a haggling scene between a customer and a Muslim vendor is more interesting than the one we've just witnessed.

Haggle or get snatched? Whichever comes first, pick your attraction.

Every time a photographer/friend/lawyer/college classmate comes to Cebu for a hearing, he invites me to stay with him in his hotel so I could help art direct his photo shoot. Yes, he always stay in a hotel right at the heart of Colon. At night, the street lights were off save for the hotel's front, grizzly shadows lurk the side walks, taxis were afraid to stop... get the picture. I would not be surprised to see tires burn incessantly in the middle of the street and homeless people warming their palms by a fire from a trash can.  Robocop patrolling.

Seriously, one may ask, "Why the damp?" Urban ecologists and theorists would be out of job if I have the answer.

So why go to Colon?  Again, for a culture vulture (the sociologist kind, not the pretentious snobs frequenting Republique in Pasay and what-used-to-be Embassy in The Fort), Colon is a melting pot of so many curiosities, though not for the squeamish.  First, one cannot claim to have toured Cebu without a visit to the Sto. Nino Shrine, and this Cebuano's most sacred of places is smacked right at Colon's periphery. Then there's, of course, the gamut of cheap merchandises you'd be happy pirates exist in this world. While looking for prepaid load for my cellphone, I ended up in an electronics shop.  There I found some fancy speakers that's worth Php6,500 at a local Mac store. These are sold for only around Php1,500 and still could be haggled with.  But I dared not buy a second hand.

Rich countries spent billions to find life in outer space. Aren't we glad we have such thriving organisms in Colon that other planets lack?

Lately, I have developed a new vice - HD DVD in cute tin can packaging! Hehehhehe... And in one of my trips to Colon to satisfy my craving for fancy HD DVD packaging (not for the movies they contain), I noticed the facades of some of Colon's edifices, particularly one where I buy my DVD (again, I insist, for the packaging). Man, Carlos Celdran should put up in Colon a branch of his city archi-tours! 

Here is a treasure trove of architectural interests that could only be considered a blast from Cebu's glorious past, rivaled only by Manila. Other than historical landmark Sto. Nino Shrine, here is Colon's offering of urban edifices that should keep a conservationist nervous.  For tomorrow threatens this particular past.

Behold why I dare Colon in spite of the threats:

Just one of the third-run theaters that jot this side of Colon. I know, this is so Recto Ave. in Manila reminiscent of my college days when entering Eastern Theatre is like a trip to Disneyland. Sorry, inside joke.

Art deco innovation: a finely lined edifice with columns that punctuate its facade, lending it a classic feature on an otherwise flat geometric surface. 

One sorry state for Colon's historical buildings. Another art deco edifice being sacrificed in the name of change.  I love the signage of the mall. Reminiscent of American 50's burger joints.

This is definitely not Collegio de San Sebastian. Influenced by the contemporary architectural style of  the era when it was built, the definitive design was obscured by masonic emblems that's quite gothic and a broken arch that's quite baroque.  At any rate, still a safe mix. As one character in Disney's Beauty and the Beast suggested, "If it ain't b'roque, why fix it?"

This modernist design must have been inspired by Zaragoza's Meralco headquarters in Ortigas.

Architecture such as this makes me teary-eyed and prompts me to genuflect. That's because I am a fanatic of everything camp and art deco facades are always campy.

The crown jewel of Colon's architectural curiosities. Though an untrained eye might fail to recognize its being ersatz, I give credit to the Italian designer for coming up with a fine imitation of Italian classicism.

By the entrance of what-used-to-be a theater turned pirated DVD mall is a historical marker being eaten by grime. A dramatic juxtaposition of ironies: a rundown theater turned pirated DVD mall exalted in sooty historical marker.

"THE VISION THEATRE"

(BLOCK 35)

Still a significant landmark in Colon which featured a grandiose classical design and nude sculptures by the Italian Architect Dante Giudetti, it was inaugurated in the 1930's by the owners Agustin and Beatriz Jereza.

The Vision Theatre should be declared a historical landmark not only because of the strength of its foundation (sometime in the mid 1940's, many people tried to chip off the concrete wall in order to get the steel rods but they were not able to get through) and also for the grandeur of its design.

In 1953, a Cebuano film Kapintas sa Kinabuhi, written and directed by scriptwriter Eugenio "Gen" C. Labella was shown there.  His wife Estrelina Colina was its leading lady and Bert Nombrado was the lead actor.

Before I end, I must admit that my architectural appreciation of Colon has been both enkindled and blurred by my interest in HD DVD cute packagings. In fact,  it is the ultimate reason. Suffice to say that the penultimate is still about architectures and facades, particularly one that follows:

Built in the glorious era of ABS-CBN's Talent Center, Gaisano's facade is emblazoned with Michaelangelo's quintessential idea of a perfect human form. In obscure architecture, this feature is simply called "My Baby." 

Please, don't be gullible. I beg you.