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Posted on February 20, 2011 - by Vic

Oakwood Restaurant in Ortigas

A stone’s throw from the Asian Development Bank Building in Ortigas, Pasig City is the new, Oakwood Premier Joy-Nostalg Center Manila which has made a comeback with new and improved facilities including their prime dining outlet, the Oakroom
Restaurant and bar which is open daily catering mostly to the business traveler. This chic new restaurant is the latest addition to Manila’s dining scene, with its clean and modern interiors that’s a visual feast of earth colors and themed furnishings of contemporary artworks. The restaurant serves standout menus including everything that runs from familiar favorites like New Zealand steamed mussels and Caesar salad for appetizers to soups, sandwiches, pizza and pastas to entrées like Chilean sea bass, Blue marlin, meat selections like grilled Berkshire pork chop to healthy choices of Layered lasagna and Veggie Burger. It also has comfort food dishes from Asian selection to familiar Filipino favorites like Kare-Kare to Halo-halo. All these menu offering is also available on their room service according to the amiable Executive Assistant Manager Rayner Simon. One shouldn’t miss out on their daily selection of executive lunch menu highlighted with an
interesting dessert compliments.

To chill out, the Oakroom Bar next to the dining area with its dark brown wood interiors and touches of fine silk and leather furniture, boasts of a fine selection of drinks and spirits including tempting martinis, vodkas and imported wines where patrons and dining guests can socialize in a relax setting while enjoying light jazz music and popular tunes. Local professionals and expatriates here have discovered this new place and love to hang out here for both before and after dinner drinks. The Oakwood Joy Nostalg Center Manila houses what is fast becoming one of the city’s best dining rooms. 17 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City tel. nos(+632)637-7888 or 910-888 www.oakwoodasia.com

Posted on February 12, 2011 - by Vic

Paradise Regained at Amanpulo

This piece of travel story is one of my favorite trips that I made last year and look forward to doing it again soon. As the plane circles the virgin island of Amanpulo in Palawan, passengers look out the window, admiring the coral reef 300 meters from the shore. The waters sparkle in dazzling shades of blue and turquoise, bordered by immaculate white sand. These are just few of the sights that make Amanpulo, a private island in Pamilican and part of the Cuyo Islands, a world class wonder. One of the most popular of the Aman resorts in the world, this piece of paradise offers the ultimate beach vacation. Boasting a pristine beachfront that could put any postcard to shame, Amanpulo allows any lucky visitor to experience unrivaled luxury in a perfectly private retreat.

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Posted on July 28, 2010 - by Vic

Biking around Boracay

There is a saying among hard core bikers that the bicycle is a transport of delight. In Boracay, whether you are easing from one resort to another, through Puka shell beach going down the main road all the way to Manoc-Manoc, there is no better way to travel around the island. In the places that I have rode a bicycle, most especially in China and other places in Southeast Asia, I was frequently amazed at the level of trust placed in me by the local people from the cities, towns and communities that I have crossed, simply because I was riding a bicycle. I think trust leads to hospitality, on a pure practical level, but it is also key to kinship and understanding. And in these modern times, when we can be at least familiar with so much of the area from where we seat, this is one of the greatest goals of travel.

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Posted on February 5, 2010 - by Vic

Laid Back Bukidnon

Valentines in Bukidnon? Why not? Up until we left for the province, I didn’t have the slightest idea how people spent there Valentine holidays in this province. Nor how Malaybalay was, since the last time I came over four years ago on a hurried sunrise to sundown visit.

“Hindi ba delikado dun kuya?(Isn’t it safe there sir?) my trusted and loyal housemate asked when he learned I would be traveling to Mindanao. I guess the situation is similar to foreigners who have never been to the Philippines and have nothing to base their impression on but what they see on CNN. I wasn’t too worried though. Anything can happen anywhere if it is meant. I have to admit that I knew very little about the province. Save for its mountainous terrain and endless trees, the guidebooks nor didn’t the internet travel websites say much about this only landlocked province in Mindanao, 8.294 square meter province in the heartland of Mindanao. Together with my photographer, Robert we flew in to Cagayan de Oro for Bukidnon for a three – day tour of wandering, sightseeing and unguided bliss.

Cagayan De Oro City is your entry point by air to reach Malaybalay City, Bukidnon’s capital and one of two cities that the province has. There are no direct flights to Bukidnon, but the province has several private airstrips used by agricultural and corporate planes. It is about two hours’ drive from Cagayan de Oro Airport. Upon arrival to Malaybalay, we were met by our guide and host representative, Ruth and Juliet, two “motherly” women who saw to it that the visit wouldn’t have any glitches along the way.
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Posted on January 8, 2010 - by Vic

The Mother of Philippine Festivals

ONCE upon a time there was only one festival to speak of in the whole Philippine Archipelago. There was only the Ati-Atihan. And that was only in Kalibo, an old town in northern Panay.

In the sixteenth century, a pious Spanish priest noted that among the Visayan people it was not quite proper to drink alone or to appear drunk in public. The priest would have revised his opinion if he had been to ati-atihan where much of the fervor is fuelled by free flowing locally brewed spirits.

But few Filipinos today know that. Indeed the Philippines of today is not only a country of religious and civic fiestas but also of “festivals”. Check any month in the tourism calendar and you’re bound to find any number of festivals in these islands.
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