The famous floating restaurant from Hong Kong? Here?!?

I did a search and came up with this excerpt from the Filipino Reporter:

A floating restaurant sailing into Manila Bay just before zero hour struck in the last day of the last century.

Stanley Ho, the Macau casino king, was yet again signaling in dramatic fashion his entry into the country’s entertainment, leisure and gambling industry.

The $600-million Jumbo Palace Floating Restaurant, which used to be a tourist feature of Hong Kong, has moved to Manila just as Macau, the Portuguese territory at the mouth of the Pearl River, reverted back to China.

So it has been here for five years already! (Assuming it’s still here.) Further article search reveals that it’s both a restaurant and a casino. According to this (March 29, 2005), the floating casino never opened, but it remains moored in Manila Bay.

I wonder if it’s still there…

We were supposed to celebrate with our respective friends but since there were five deaths in the family this year, my father made us all stay home and celebrate with the family. I obliged because I was really tired and not in the mood to party it up and get drunk.

I’m pretty sure the air in Manila was ridiculously thick with smoke on New Year’s Day. Breathing in this kind of stuff tends to make you woozy and worse, turn your boogers black. We stayed in Laguna instead to avoid driving while trying to avoid things exploding under the car. I swear whoever thought it was a good idea to set things off on the streets while there are still people driving on it should be shot.

Happy New Year, everyone.

TIPS
1. The first Christmas celebrated in the Philippines was in 1565, when Spanish colonizers brought the holiday to the islands.
2. “Maligayang Pasko” means “Merry Christmas” in the Philippines.
3. Traditional foods served for Noche Buena are ham or roast pig, cheeses, spring rolls, noodle dishes, chestnuts, and hot “tsokolate” (a native chocolate drink) and “salabat” (ginger tea). “Biblingka,” a pancake served in a banana leaf and topped with coconut and brown sugar, is a favorite dessert.

WARNING
There are more than 30 ethnic groups in the Philippines, so Christmas traditions are quite diverse and cannot be generalized. While most of the population is Catholic, making the Mass an important part of the Christmas celebration, the local traditions listed may or may not be appropriate for your personal celebration of the season.

Very, very fresh fish! You know it’s fresh because you can’t taste anything distinctly fishy. All I tasted was the tartar sauce slathered on top and the lemon juice I squeezed on it from the slice that came with the dish. The puzzling thing is that it came with fries. I was expecting potato chips, duh, but I’m guessing it’s an English thing and the Brits call fries “chips?”

The whole thing came in a pan it was cooked in. I thought it was an ingenious idea. They could save on dishwashing soaps since there’s no extra plates to clean.

I ordered strawberry lemonade to wash it all down with and it’s fuckin’ delicious! And the best thing is, it’s refillable. I must have had 8 refills and can imagine the waiter privately cursing me to perdition. Eh. I think I had too much of a good thing, though. My stomach keeps on reminding me of that.

And that is all, ladies and gentlemen. No pictures, sorry. I forgot my camera.

Ever since I could remember, working in a library is one of those things I can see myself doing in my old age. It’s still amazing to me, in this money-hungry world, how you can borrow anything for free. Being surrounded by walls of books and reading in solitude, tucked away in the cool quiet of a well-lit corner, is heaven.

So imagine my disappointment when I visited a few libraries in our fair capital and found several crimes against books. Clearly, some people don’t think books are all that. The National Library of the Philippines (Pambansang Aklatan ng Pilipinas) is, for lack of a better term, dirty. Some sections are poorly ventilated and on really hot days, the combined odors of unwashed bodies, canal water, and decaying paper can be suffocating. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to curl up to read in a corner. At least, not in comfort.

The UP Main Library is slightly better, if only for their wider and more varied selection of books. I like how they have whole rooms dedicated to books classified under a particular, erm, classification, like Social Sciences and Philosophy, Filipiniana, etc. What more, the university offers a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Information and Library Science. Eons ago (okay, a few years ago), I had enrolled as an MLIS student and left abruptly before the first semester ends due to medical reasons. I’m quite eager to go back again next year and hope they’ll have me, though I’m not sure about their policy regarding AWOLers.

The Rizal Library has to be the most well-funded among the libraries I’ve mentioned so far. The UP Library has it beat in terms of selection range but you can practically live in the RL; the facilities are cleaner, more well-lit, properly ventilated, and not understaffed. Donations by prominent Filipinos, mostly Ateneo alumni, are showcased in the special collections archives which are a treat to check out if you’re into that sort of thing.

I’ll be waiting for the day when a library that could rival the Cambridge University Library will be built in Manila. If that day comes. Hope it’ll happen in my lifetime.

Excuse the giddiness. I finally have a copy of Anansi Boys! It’s a limited edition, meaning if you buy one now, you may also get a letter from Neil which will be inserted in your copy at the cashier’s. I have letter no. 158 of 1000 and, if I ever feel unscrupulous enough, I might put it up on e-Bay, but… I won’t. Hee.

It’s only the first chapter and I’m already smiling and chuckling softly at witty parts. I hope I don’t finish it overnight as I did Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince…

So who haven’t been to a Cafe Breton yet? It seems to be everybody’s favourite cafe these days. If you’re a regular customer and have tried everything on the menu or want something just a little different than what is offered, do try my favourite: Order regular crepe. From the toppings section, select chocolate syrup and a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice cream. I think it’s like La Pinay, but without the fruit slices. I’m positively craving one right now…

So Halloween is coming up in a little more than a month and I thought of possible costumes for my dogs to wear during the Halloween dog parade at Eastwood. Then, I remembered the dismal turnout last year and decided against it. Rockwell Powerplant might hold their own dog parade later this year and we plan on participating in that. Meanwhile, we’ll just take our usual stroll along Roxas Boulevard, my own neighborhood, or the outside of Powerplant mall. Might try walking them around the Ateneo campus and take a look at the zen gardens Anna D. mentioned.

Anyone have good ideas where I can take my dogs for a walk in Manila? It’s rather hard to find places with fresh air in this city.

Where in Manila is this?

01. Ride the calesa (horse-driven carriage). Some people may argue against it, animal cruelty and all, but nothing beats the experience of clip-clopping your way along the narrow Binondo streets with the wind in your hair and the smell of fishballs wafting around you. Unless I’ve been overcharged, a trip starting from a Binondo street, going ’round the post office, over the bridge, passing Binondo Church (actually called San Lorenzo Ruiz Minor Basilica), one of the oldest churches in the Philippines, and back costs 100 pesos only.

02. Visit Buddhist temples. It’s good for your soul. If nothing else, the huge golden Buddhas are pretty impressive to look at.

03. Just walk around. You get the feel of the town better that way. And there are lots of stuff selling on the streets and in shops that you won’t get anywhere else. If you need wonder herbs, exotic fruits, desserts, reasonably priced gold jewelry, joss sticks, Buddha statues, funeral candles with elaborate dragon design, firecrackers, snake soup and placenta soaps, you know where to go. If you still have time, you can stroll through the marketplaces of Divisoria for crafts materials in dirt-cheap prices. Not all of them are the best quality, though. You just have to look hard for great stuff. Be sure to have your valuables hidden somewhere safe.

04. Eat at one of the many superb restaurants serving authentic Chinese dishes. I’d recommend President, Tasty (delish dumplings), Masuki, Golden Fortune, and Hapchan. These are the ones I can personally vouch for. Consult this forum thread for more suggestions.

05. Take pictures. ;-)