going places

some of the places i'm lucky to still have photos with...

here's with sis & bro-in-law when they visited me right before christmas in pattaya, thailand...i brought them to hopf brew house where one finds the best wheat beer in town...then we went joy-riding via the traditional 'tuk-tuk'...




this one's in singapore, when i attended the asean tourism forum...the only place i've ever visited where you get receipts on ticker tape for every taxi ride...




a popular shrine somewhere in the eastcoast of thailand where you'd get to sit down with monks and hear some words of wisdom which is supposedly going to guide you in making the best out of your existence (unfortunately, they only speak in thai and all i did was simply nod)...



photo below is in another part of the eastcoast where locals/buddhists worship a mountain which houses the image of an icon...one story i heard was that the tribes in the area refused to have that mountain demolished (supposedly to pave way to infrastractural projects) so they asked a wealthy devotee to have the icon lasered like a permanent tatoo - lasered in gold no less!...in thai practice, it is absolutely a no-no for anyone to desecrate an icon, thus the mountain remained preserved and nothing, not even for the benefit of progress, can touch it thereafter...



below is the first catholic church i've visited in bangkok, where priests saying the masses are all foreigners...

this one's somewhere in the outskirts of bangkok...a shrine housing the pure-gold lying buddha, apparently the biggest in the country...i was told that if you whisper a request or favor, it will be granted...also in photo is a family friend visiting from davao...

these photos were taken onboard the mabuhay sunshine cruiseship, when the entire family sans moi, took a 5-day cruise to cebu, boracay, negros and palawan...an aunt and cousin joined them...the formidable group, as expected, had the priviledge of being invited to the captain's table during the gala nite...shown with the family in the second photo are the very hospitable captain and his crew managers...partly hidden at the back is eldest sis who organized this trip...

here's when i joined my sis and a couple of friends for a 2-day roadtrip from manila to batangas, stopping in every possible historical or cultural destination along the way...we actually did this for the benefit of our visiting friend from california...

another favorite getaway is puerto azul, a beach resort with its own golf & country club which we've always gone to over the years...it's a natural haven where one can feast of numerous beach coves, a 27-hole golf course and a huge forest reserve with various living species...i never even thought i would one day get to work there too...