Iceland: Day 4

Day 4: The Golden Circle Classic. This is probably the most popular excursion in Iceland, and I’d have to say that for me, it’s probably the best bang-for-your-buck. If you had to take only one tour in Iceland (although you’d be crazy to visit this beautiful country and take only one tour) you need to make sure you get to see the Golden Circle. It’s cheaper compared to most of the other tours (especially the ones I had already taken), you get to see several very beautiful natural wonders, and it doesn’t take as long as the other trips (this one lasts only about 8-9 hours).

What makes Iceland a very unique country to visit is the fact that a lot of the land is like moonscape, which was created by the volcanic and geological activity in the country. I had seen it already on my first day (heading to Reykjavik from the airport) and on every subsequent tour I've taken, but day 4 was the first time I managed to take a decent photo of it. Here's an interesting quote from this link: The whole of the central highland plateau of the island is a beautiful but barren and uninhabitable moonscape - so much so that the first American astronauts were sent there for pre-mission training.

The first stop is the Nesjavellir Power Plant. A guide from the plant briefly explains to you how power is generated and sent to the city. You are also given a bit of a tour inside.

We get to pass by the beautiful Lake Þingvallavatn…

…on our way to the next stop, Þingvellir. Þingvellir is where the Icelandic parliament Alþingi was founded way back in 930, This makes it the oldest known functioning parliament in the world. Apparently, this is where the tectonic plates meet, providing such amazing rock formations.

Before we left, one of the people on the tour suggested we take a drink from the water flowing from one of the streams there, so we did. The water is so fresh and clean!

We then head towards the largest waterfall in the Western side of Iceland – Gullfoss. Aside from the size of the waterfalls, what makes this such a must-see is the fact that isn’t one big drop but a series of small (or well, relatively small) ones. Kinda like rapids, but on a much grander scale, making Gullfoss very interesting and beautiful.

Even better is that you can actually get really up close and personal to the falls. Here’s a photo I had taken of me standing right next to Gullfoss.

The tour continues to the Strokkur and Geysir hot springs. Geysir very rarely erupts i.e. it can actually be dormant for years at a time, but Strokkur erupts every 4 to 10 minutes. If you want to take a good photo of even video of it, you have to keep a steady hand and have your camera ready. The water does go up pretty high!

We make a brief stop in Skálholt church, the ancient seat of Icelandic bishops...

Before making our way to our final destination: the volcanic crater Kerið. I’m not sure if it’s still active but the crater is filled with beautiful blue-green water.

But my day wasn’t over! Once I get back to Reykjavik, I have a pretty hefty dinner (my first decent meal since I got to Iceland) before I collect my stuff from my hotel and take a bus to the domestic airport. I was now heading to Akureyri, which is in the Northern part of Iceland. It was from Akureyri that I would be taking the Jewels of the North tour (which would then bring me to Dettifoss waterfall).

I got to Hotel Kea (a really nice hotel with an amazing breakfast spread!) in Akureyri shortly before 10pm and one of the guys in the same plane I took apparently was checking into the same hotel. We start talking to each other while in line to check in, and I learn that he is Austrian. I told him it what a coincidence it was because Austria was my next stop. We then decide to grab a few beers. I was running short on funds and was already over-budget, but in all my travels, I never got to experience hanging out in a local pub and having a few beers, so now that I had temporary company I decided spending a few (or well, several) extra bucks would be worth it. I ended up having four pints of Viking, the local beer:

It was a good ending to a long and tiring day, and I rested quite well that night (thanks to the beer!) which I needed for the long day I had ahead.

Iceland: Day 3

My travel books didn’t mention anything about whale-watching so it wasn’t in my radar when I started planning my trip. But reading about the different day trips provided by Iceland Excursions got me really excited about whale-watching and I felt that I would regret it if I left the country without getting to see whales in their natural habitat. So I snuck it in my itinerary, my dwindling budget notwithstanding.

There are two whale watching tours that you can take via Iceland Excursions – one in Reykjavik and another one in Ólafsvík which is about a 3 hour drive from the capital. I saw a thread in forum section of Trip Advisor where someone was asking which place was better for whale watching, and practically everyone said Ólafsvík. So despite the fact that the Ólafsvík tour was a lot more expensive and that it would take a lot longer, I decided to take it anyway.

You are advised to dress warmly since it’s a lot colder at sea than on shore, and when our boat headed out, I wished I had brought gloves with me as well. It was freezing!

I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a Humpback Whale, but my basic requirement for this trip was to see a whale. Probably within half an hour of our boat heading out, we spotted a Minke whale. I had never heard of Minke whales prior to this trip but I believe that these are possibly the most frequently-seen whale in this area. The fact that we spotted several Minke whales that day seems to validate this.

I also got to see several puffins. It’s funny to watch these birds fly – they flap their wings very frantically. And whenever they are sitting on the water like a duck and the boat approaches, the puffins start flying away just above the water. And when they realize that they can’t move faster than the boat, the suddenly dive into the water.

We later on spotted a few white-beaked dolphins. Must have been a group of 4 of 5 of them. Unlike the Minke whales which show their backs for one brief moment before diving back into the cold water, the dolphins kept surfacing so we got to see a lot more of them than the whales.

On our way back to Reykjavik, I ask the driver if he could drop me off at The Perlan (or Pearl) instead of at my hotel and he agreed. I didn’t think I’d have time left to visit this place and I was told that the view here was quite good. The dome is actually a restaurant, and a very expensive one at that. A basic meal could cost you several thousand Icelandic Kroners (several thousand pesos) so I just stuck to looking at it from the outside and taking a few photos:

… and looking at the view.

The driver instructed me how to get back to the city center. He said it was walking distance. Can’t exactly recall how long it took me to get back – maybe half an hour to 40 minutes – but I didn’t mind the long walk.

Next stop: the Golden Circle tour.

Iceland: Day 2

I decided to take the South Coast and Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon tour on my 2nd day in Iceland, which happened to be a Sunday. This tour is offered by Iceland Excursions only on Thursdays and Sundays, with additional trips on Tuesdays and Saturdays from June to August.

I was picked up at my hotel at 730am and in fact there was a bit of a scare as well – I ended up getting on the wrong bus. There are two touring companies in Reykjavik – Reykjavik Excursions and Iceland Excursions – and bus that came to my hotel had no sign on it so I wasn’t sure which touring company it was for. I ask the driver if it was for Iceland Excursions and he said yes so I got in. Much to my surprise (and slight panic), the bus takes me to the Reykjavik Excursions terminal. Crap! Good thing that the Reykjavik Excursions counter very readily helped me out by calling Iceland Excursions and asked them to pick me up at their terminal.

The tour starts at around 815-830. Our tour guide was a middle-aged woman who not only shared with us a lot of historical and geological information about Iceland (population: 300,000; land area: 103,000 sqm) but also told us several Icelandic fairy tales throughout the entire trip. Iceland has lots of stories about elves and trolls, and I learned from our guide that in Icelandic folklore, when a troll is exposed to sunlight, it is turned to stone.

The stories made sense as we got to see some of the sights on this tour. When we made our first stop to the beautiful Skógarfoss (or Skógafoss) waterfall, she pointed out a very interesting rock formation right next to it that is supposed to be a petrified troll. See if you can make it out. Hint: it’s on the right side.

The day started out with the same murky weather from the day before, and so the roads were covered in thick fog. I guess the drivers are all used to driving with this kind of visibility coz ours didn't seem fazed by the fog one bit.

Finally, we get to the highlight of the tour – the Glacier Lagoon. It’s sometimes referred to as the Bond Lagoon because it was used in the opening sequence of the James Bond flick ‘A View to a Kill’. (Note: The Siberia sequences in Lara Croft Tomb Raider were actually filmed in the Glacier Lagoon as well). When I finally caught a glimpse of it, I was awestruck. It was amazing to see all the huge blocks of ice floating in the water! Having them shrouded in fog provided an even eerier, more surreal feel to it. (I made sure to include a few people in the photo so you can have an idea of just how massive these blocks of ice are.)

The tour includes a ride on an amphibian that takes you from the land right into the Glacier Lagoon.

We stop in the middle of the lagoon and one of the guys from the tour company brings up a small block of ice from the water and hands it to our guide. She then gives us a bit of a talk about the Glacier Lagoon and then we proceed to have our photo taken with the block of ice. Afterwards, she proceeded to break up that block of ice and handed the much smaller pieces to the folks on the boat for us to taste. It was very fresh and pure!

It was around this time that the skies start to clear up. It was great because I got to see the Glacier Lagoon in two different lights: under brilliant sunshine and covered in mysterious fog.

On our way back, we make a few more stops. The first one is at Hjörleifshöfði, a large cape that stands right in the middle of what seemed to me to be barren wasteland. The numerous volcanic activities in this area have essentially left the soil incapable of allowing vegetation to grow.

We then visit the Reynisfjara beach. There are a couple of large rock formations in the sea close to the shore (which are believed to be trolls that were still trying to pull a ship back to shore when the sun rose, and as such were left petrified). But what makes Reynisfjara a really interesting stop are the really cool and amazing basaltic columns on the mountains next to the beach. I don’t know how these columns are formed but they look really beautiful, stacked up the way they are, their clean lines and structured form contrasting with the rest of the jagged, craggy mountains.

Our final stop is the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. There’s a path behind the falls that people can go through, and walking completely around the back of the falls is supposed to cleanse your soul (or something like that). Naturally I walked through. Was I cleansed after that? Not sure, but it was an amazing experience getting to be that close to the falls.

We finally got back to Reykjavik at close to 1030pm. This tour is supposed to last 14 hours and in our case it did. But I have heard from other tour guides that when they do this tour, it normally lasts more than 14 hours, especially when people want to enjoy each stop a bit more. I was knackered when I got back to my hotel, and it was only the 2nd day of my 12 day vacation, but it was such a fantastic experience that it left me eagerly wanting to see more. I was now ready for day three!

Iceland: Day 1

It started off with a bit of a scare. My flight from Copenhagen to Iceland was at 7:50am but the earliest train from Lund to Copenhagen was at 5:30am. I was supposed to arrive at the Copenhagen airport at around 6:40am, which means I had a little more than an hour to check in, which would’ve been okay since the flight was within Europe (i.e. I needed to be in the airport an hour before my flight). Only problem was that the train I was on got massively delayed in Malmö. I actually had to switch trains after waiting for more than 20 minutes. I got to the airport with less than 45 minutes before my flight would leave and I was so worried that I would miss my plane. What was worse was that the queue at the baggage drop in counter was so long (I had an e-ticket so I had already checked in using one of the electronic check-in counters, but I needed to check in my bags.) I asked help from one of the Danish airport personnel, saying that there were major train delays in Malmö and that my flight was leaving really soon. He very nicely agreed to check in my bags for me. I finally breathed a sigh of relief when I got on the plane.

I was really excited throughout the entire plane ride, and when the plane finally landed in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, I kept thinking to myself that I couldn’t believe I was finally there!

I decided that I would spend my first day going around Reykjavik to get a feel of the city then I’d head to the Blue Lagoon to relax. I visited the Hallgrímskirkja, or Hallgrimur’s Church, which was named after the 17th century hymn writer Hallgrímur Pétursson. It was supposed to have been built to resemble a mountain of basaltic lava. (Note: This photo was taken the day I was leaving – I decided I wanted another photo taken of me with the church under brighter sunlight.)

Here’s a photo I took from the top of the church. It was unfortunate that it was a bit murky that day so the skies weren’t as clear as they could be on a bright sunny day.

I made my way back to my hotel shortly after lunch to get ready for my trip to the Blue Lagoon. The great thing about taking the organized excursions in Reykjavik is that you get picked up at your hotel. I actually booked my excursion from the Information Center who got me on the Reykjavik Excursions tour. I was a bit bummed later on because it cost significantly more (ISK 3,800) than the tour provided by Iceland Excursions (ISK 2,500) but I didn't let that ruin my day. (Note: ISK is the Icelandic Krona. 1 Philippine Peso = 1.52203 Icelandic Krona.)

Anyways, I get to the Blue Lagoon and now I was quite glad that it was cold and raining very lightly. There’s something about sitting in the warm Lagoon water while the weather is cool and nippy that feels incredibly relaxing. Made the whole experience a lot better, in my opinion. It would’ve been nice to have my photo taken while I was in the water, but since I wasn’t with anyone, I left my camera in my locker for safekeeping. So I only managed to have my photo taken once I had gotten out of the water.

Bathing in the water is supposed to be healthy and very good for your skin (don't know if it worked on me though LOL). If you do go to the Blue Lagoon, bring your own towel so you won’t have to pay to rent one (Iceland is one of the most expensive countries I’ve ever visited). I can't recall how much it costs though because I just took a towel from my hotel (and returned I after, of course).

Next stop: the Glacier Lagoon!

Summer holiday in Iceland and Austria

Last July, I decided to take a week and a half off of work to go on a summer holiday in Europe. My destinations: Iceland and Austria

I’ve always wanted to visit Austria because I've heard such great things about it from so many different people who have been there, including my mom. But why Iceland? (Or well, I guess not a lot of people know enough about Iceland – and prior to 2007, neither did I – so folks would keep asking me this question when I would tell them that I went there.)

Before I left for Sweden, I decided to buy a travel book about Scandinavia. I have all different types of travel books – Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Let’s Go, Fodor’s – and to me they are all equally good. So while looking around in Powerbooks, I find a Fodor’s book on Scandinavia that had a photo of a magnificent waterfall on the cover. I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but since I don’t have a personal preference for any particular travel book and they are all good, I decided to buy based on the cover photography.

Once I got to Sweden, I told myself that some time during the year, I would visit those falls. But I didn’t know which one it was. I tried figuring out what that waterfall was by going through my book. It was only after about a week that I managed to find the (small) text inside the book that indicated that the photo on the cover was of Dettifoss waterfalls in Iceland. But what was really interesting was that there was no other mention of Dettifoss anywhere else in the book. Strange... Anyways, here's a photo:

I never really thought about visiting Iceland prior to my arrival in Europe; my main interest was to go around Sweden and visit Norway and Denmark which were the closest countries to Sweden. But now that I figured out where this magnificent waterfall was, I started reading up more on Iceland, and I discovered that this country had so many amazing points of interest. I discussed Iceland with my colleagues. Most of them had never been there before, but they knew people who had and they also told me that everyone they knew who had been there was not disappointed. That essentially decided it for me.

My initial plan was really to spend four days in Iceland and three days in Vienna (in Austria). But this changed quite significantly. As I kept on reading, I started learning more things that I wanted to experience while I was there. Also, I also started reading up on Salzburg, only a three hour train ride from Vienna, and I thought that it would be fantastic if I got to visit that city as well. So after much deliberation (and some serious number-crunching to make sure I had enough money and credit to take these trips), I decided on the following itinerary:

Day 1 (Saturday)
Early morning flight from Copenhagen to Reykjavik (the capital of Iceland) and arrive shortly before lunch. Go around Reykjavik and visit the Blue Lagoon.

Day 2 (Sunday)
South Coast & Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon tour (whole day)

Day 3 (Monday)
Snæfellsnes, Whale and Bird Watching tour (whole day)

Day 4 (July 10)
Golden Circle Classic tour from 830am to about 6pm. Then take the last flight out (8:45 to 930pm) from Reykjavik to Akureyri, a city in the northern part of Iceland.

Day 5 (Wednesday)
Jewels of the North tour (this is the tour that would take me to Dettifoss) from 8:10am to 9:10pm.

Day 6 (Thursday)
Take the 945am flight back to Reykjavik, spend the entire day there shopping for souvenirs and seeing some of the other sights I missed. Then I head to the international airport at the end of the day.

Day 7 (Friday)
Take the Reykjavik-Copenhagen flight at 1am (arriving in Copenhagen at 6am). Then take the Copenhagen-Vienna flight from 9:05-10:45am. Arrive in Vienna around lunchtime then tour the city.

Day 8 (Saturday)
Take the half-day City Tour of Vienna and spend the rest of the day checking out the sights.
Day 9 (Sunday)
See more of the sights in Vienna then take the 530-830pm train from Vienna to Salzburg.

Day 10 (Monday)
See some of the sights of Salzburg in the morning, and take the Sound of Music tour in the afternoon.

Day 11 (Tuesday)
See more of the sights of Salzburg.

Day 12 (Wednesday)
Take the 11:10am-2:30pm train from Salzburg to Vienna, then take the 6-8pm flight from Vienna to Copenhagen then take the train back to Lund.

Needless to say, after these 12 incredibly full and hectic days, I was wiped out. But it was all worth it. I will of course be writing about this fantastic trip in more detail and share some pictures over the next few days/weeks. In the meantime, here a few more photos I took in Iceland and in Austria:

Beautiful scenery taken from Þingvellir in Iceland:

The amazing architecture in Vienna, Austria:

And a magnificent view that I saw while on the 'Sound of Music' tour in Salzburg.

Stay tuned for more stories on this fantastic European holiday!

Five pounds

That's what I gained over the holidays. Crap. I've been through so many Christmas seasons in the past but as far as I can tell, this is the only one where I gained weight. Or at least that much weight. Must have been a combination of my lack of exercise as well as an increase in number of get-togethers, parties, and meals I had with family and friends. If I recall correctly, I had something going on with friends or family everyday from December 13 all the way til last Thursday. (Then last weekend, I was fully booked so Friday was my first free day LOL)

I decided to do weights again. But since my wallet and credit cards were still reeling from all the expenses, I decided to forego getting a personal trainer and just asked the gym to make a training plan for me.

My first gym session was last Saturday, and two days later, my body still hurts like hell LOL. Anyways, the plan is for me to keep at it and lose some weight before I start running long distances again. I want to be better trained for the Milo marathon this year, which means starting to train several months before the actual event.

Four weddings and a trip to Tagaytay

November to January tends to be wedding season, at least for most of the people I know. In the last couple of months, I’ve attended four weddings. Denise got married to Yong Han in Singapore last November 3. Zarah and Ruter tied the knot in Alabang last December 18. Three days later, I headed towards Alabang again to attend Peegee and Randee’s wedding in Fernbrook. And on December 29, my uncle Tito (cousin of my mom, actually, whom we call Tito Tito… cool ey? :) ) got married to Grace in Calaruega. The common denominator of all these weddings is that I had to travel really long distances to attend them all. And if you factor in Donald and Tisha’s wedding in Boracay on February 1, then it’ll be the first time ever that I attended five out-of-town weddings (okay, technically Alabang is still in Metro Manila but it’s so far away that it may as well be out of town) in three months. Now that’s a first!

And as is usually the case, I had a special role in three of these four weddings. During Denise’s wedding, I was one of three vocalists who performed several songs to entertain the crowd that night. Cheapest wedding band ever, according to them LOL but it was such a pleasure because I got to perform several songs for the first time ever. My repertoire that night consisted of:

• ‘In my life’ by The Beatles ‘All I want is you’ by U2 (second time I’ve sung this in a wedding)
• ‘Through the barricades’ by Spandau Ballet – this isn’t the most appropriate song for a wedding but it’s Denise’s favorite song so I just massacred the lyrics to make them more appropriate (my apologies to Spandau Ballet…)
• ‘More than Words’ by Extreme
• ‘Stand by me’ by Ben E. King (this turned out to be the impromptu first dance – Denise and Yong Han weren’t supposed to have a first dance but while I was singing, they were asked to dance and they did so very gamely)
• ‘Friday, I’m in love’ by The Cure
• ‘That thing you do’ from the same movie

For Zarah’s wedding, I hosted the wedding reception and sang ‘The Gift’ by Jim Brickman with Jenny, the vocalist of the Bernie Pasamba band. (I’m almost certain that I sang a duet with Jenny before, in Nats’ wedding). And during Peegee’s wedding, I sang Eric Benet’s ‘The Last Time’. This was a special request of Peegee, who sent me an mp3 of this song a few months before his wedding so ago so I could learn it. I knew immediately from listening to it that it was difficult to sing. The band (Bernie Pasamba again) was going to play the music and it was only right before the reception that I got to run through the song with them, but I think it turned out okay in the end.

Of all these nine songs, the only one I had performed for a crowd before was ‘All I want is you’ so I was actually quite pleased to have gotten to learn and to sing new songs. (I later on performed ‘Friday, I’m in love’ again during our office Christmas party.)

I didn’t have to do anything during Tito Tito’s wedding. Which was really good for me because I was really tired when I got there - the traffic going south that day was horrific. It took me 4 hours to get from Fairview to Tagaytay (it should’ve taken only 2 ½ to 3) then another 45 minutes to get from Tagaytay to Calaruega. And since I was driving (I was with my grandparents, mom, and 2 nephews), I was immensely tired by the time we got there.

The wedding ended up starting really late. It was supposed to start at 630pm so when we got there at 745pm, we thought we would only make it to the reception but as it turns out, they were only midway though the church ceremony. We left the reception at around 11pm. Our relatives were inviting us to join them partying somewhere but we were all too tired. We had booked a room in T House so that we didn’t have to make such a long trip back that night, and so that we could spend a day in Tagaytay.

T house (website: http://thousetagaytay.com/) is a really good hotel. I was a bit lucky to get a room there because when I called the first time, they said they were fully booked. But they asked for my number in case someone cancels, and a few days later, they called me, asking me if I still wanted a room for 4 adults. Pretty cool!

It doesn’t provide a lake view like Taal Vista or Days Hotel, which also means it’s less expensive. The room was very spacious – 4 adults and 2 kids all fit in one room – and the hotel had a really nice, relaxed atmosphere that makes you feel like unwinding and taking things slow, especially when you factor in the very helpful and friendly staff. They also serve a really good and fairly large-portioned breakfast with great coffee and hot chocolate. The gate to the hotel compound is closed at night which provides an added element of security. And T House also has a very good location – just a few minutes away from People’s Park and Picnic Grove. The only downside is the fact that you can only pay with cash (i.e. credit cards not accepted). However, they charged us for only one extra person even if we had two extra people in a room for four (I guess they decided that two kids count as one adult…) which I thought was a really good thing.

After checking out on Sunday, we headed towards Picnic Grove People’s Park so that my nephews could go horseback riding. We did this once before, when both CJ and Ciera were still very young. This time, they both were allowed to get on the horses by themselves, so I decided to just take pictures of them (and of my mom who also went riding with them).

We decided to enter Picnic Grove to take a few photos of Taal Lake. My nephews then spent half an hour in a playground while my mom and grandma bought a few souvenirs.

Once we were done, we went to 'Breakfast at Antonio's' for some lunch before heading home. It was my first time there and it was okay but a bit overrated I thought. I wouldn't mind eating there again but I guess I didn't feel the 'wow' factor that I've heard from so people who have eaten there before.

All in all a good weekend, despite the difficulties in driving through unbelievable traffic. I'm supposed to attend 4 more weddings in the next month. So I'll guess there'll be a few more wedding singer stories from me soon...

Happy New Year!

It was a great 2007 and here's hoping to more great fun and amazing adventures in 2008!

I still have a lot to blog about that's like months old, but hopefully I get around to it in the next few weeks. I spent a lot of time during the holidays sorting out my photos so I should be able to share them with you real soon.

Back on the gigging trail?

So I finally got to sing in a company event as an employee.

I say ‘as an employee’ because a few years ago, my band was actually booked to play in their Christmas party.

Anyways, our team of about 400 people celebrated our Christmas party at the Manila Peninsula a couple of weeks ago. The event organizers wanted the party to have an MTV awards theme and wanted some live music so they got some folks together to play as a band. Our makeshift band was supposed to (1) play a 10-minute long opening medley, (2) prepare a birthday song to perform live while the names of the December birthday celebrators were being called, (3) play some appropriate background music while the special awards were being given out, and (4) perform three full songs at the end of the event that would then lead into party music.

It took a really long time for us to figure out what we would do, since coming up with a playlist was a bit difficult. I had a list of songs I knew I wanted to perform myself at the end of the show, but selecting songs for the opening medley was quite challenging since about half the songs in the medley needed to be upbeat Christmas songs. Then we had to match the songs with the different vocalists (there were 6 of us) and then arrange the music such that we could play the best parts of six songs all in ten minutes with fairly decent transitions from one song to the next.

The other bit of a challenge for me was the outfit. The dress code was semi-formal, so my regular gig outfits of short-sleeved shirts would’ve left me feeling severely underdressed. With the help of a few teammates, I decided to go for a Justin Timberlake look – jeans, white long sleeved shirt, vest, skinny tie, fedora hat, and white sneakers. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a vest, a skinny tie, a fedora hat, and white sneakers (or at least I didn't have cool looking ones lol). So I decided to buy all the articles of clothing I didn't have to complete my outfit (yeah, crazy...). When I finally got my look together, I felt it was worth it. Or well at least I thought so hahaha! Here’s a photo of me taken during the event:

We managed to sort everything out, and during the event, I ended up singing a portion of ‘This Christmas’ (Elliott Yamin version of course), a portion of ‘The birthday song’ by the Beatles, ‘Friday I’m in love’ by The Cure, and I closed out the event with ‘Beautiful day’ by U2. All in all, a pretty fun debut performance. And my outfit made it a bit more memorable, too. :)

More on Elliott's Ayala Malls tour: Market! Market! and ATC

(Well as you can probably guess from the lack of new posts, things have gotten quite busy for me these last several weeks. Anyways, with the long weekend I’m hoping to catch up with my blogging. Let me start by completing my stories about Elliott’s Ayala Malls tour in the Philippines last September.)

Market! Market!

On to Elliott’s third show in Manila – Market! Market! He had a great show in Trinoma and an even more amazing show in Glorietta the last two days, and by now we all knew that Elliott had a huge following in Manila and we were used to being amidst fanatical audiences who knew his music and his back-story. That Sunday morning, I fell in line outside Market! Market! at 930 (it opens at 10) with a few other Yaminoys. However, the line didn’t seem to grow much longer than that, and by 1030, there was no more queue at the ticket booth. We left Market! Market! at around 11, knowing that there were about 300 tickets left to be distributed.

When we got back there in the afternoon, not all the ticket stubs had been distributed and we knew that this show wasn’t going to have the same crowd support that the last two shows had. I guess it was coz the throngs of people that go to Market! Market! aren’t exactly Elliott’s target market. It was also a Sunday, which is normally rest day and family day for Pinoys. Finally, most of the Yaminoys had already seen him on Friday or Saturday (or both) and were most likely using Sunday to regain all the energy they lost from Elliott’s previous two shows.

As expected, the crowd wasn’t as loud or rowdy compared to Glorietta or Trinoma. Despite that, Elliott was still amazing. I managed to get another front-row seat with help from the other Yaminoys who managed to get better seats than me that morning and so I got to take videos of practically all of Elliott’s performances. I just missed out on the first one, Find a way, because so many people were coming in at the time and they all blocked my camera while finding their seats. Anyway, here’s a video I took of Elliott singing "Train Wreck", one of the songs from his album. If you took a poll of his fans and asked them which of Elliott's songs was his best, this would most likely win. Elliott himself says it's his favorite song from the CD. So I figured it would be cool to share this song, especially to people who might not have heard it yet.



The main thing I was looking forward to that evening, though, was the meet-and-greet. I was lucky enough to be given a meet-and-greet pass because of my affiliation with the E-train station. I head to the side of the stage, along with the four other Yaminoys who had M&G passes that night. I started rehearsing my line: “Elliott, it’s my birthday tomorrow and you coming to the Philippines is the best birthday gift I could have gotten” and I started thinking of possibly extending the conversation by mentioning that I was the one who requested for ‘A whiter shade of pale’ the previous night in Glorietta. It was finally my turn to have my photo taken with Elliott. I came up and was all smiles and he greeted me with a wide grin himself. We even half-hugged, although I actually forgot about it until I saw the photos later on. The excitement had apparently gotten to me, because when I started to talk to Elliott, all I could say was “Elliott, thanks for coming to the Philippines” hahaha. He responded with a very gracious “Thank you for having me!” So much for all that practice LOL.

Anyways, I had my photo taken with Elliott (you’ve seen it) and I left the stage incredibly thrilled! A year ago, I was wondering if Elliott would ever come out with a CD and if I would ever get to see him perform live and here I am, shaking his hand. Pretty cool, don’t you think?

Alabang Town Center (ATC)

This was the last hurrah. No more shows in Manila, at least this time around, after tonight. And the Yaminoys all knew this, so despite the fact that it was in far-away Alabang (faraway to most of us, at least), we all decided to leave work earlier (some Yaminoys even took a day off!) to make sure we made it to the show. And with knowledge that the audience reception in Market! Market! wasn’t as good as it had been in previous shows, we were hell-bent on making sure Elliott left the Philippines with a bang.

And that’s exactly how it turned out. The dozens of people in I<3ey shirts were buzzing with excitement in their seats, waiting excitedly for the show to begin. And when it did, the support from the crowd was unmistakable. The band stepped out on stage first, and when they did, they kept looking at each other with these “whoa!” looks on their faces, almost like they couldn’t believe how intense the audience reaction to them was. And when Elliott got on stage to begin his concert, the crowd erupted in unbridled joy.

The exhilaration never really waned throughout the entire show. The fans raised their arms, cheered him wildly, sung along to Elliott’s songs, and made sure he know how much he was appreciated in this part of the world. You could tell Elliott felt it – his big smile never left his face throughout the entire show and of all shows he had in the Philippines, he was most animated and energetic in ATC.

I was lucky enough to get one more meet-and-greet pass with Elliott. This time, there were seven Yaminoys who came up on stage at the same time. Then the organizers decided to let practically every Yaminoy go up on stage at the same time to have our photo taken with Elliott. It was unfortunate though that not everyone was able to go up (some folks got stuck minding our stuff) but the key thing is that in the course of Elliott’s mall tour, all the Yaminoys managed to get to meet Elliott. (photo taken from my friend Meg's camera)

There was one last thing that the Yaminoys did that night. We all waited around the stage exit for Elliott and his gang to leave. The plan was for us to sing ‘You are the One’, one of the songs from his album that he wrote but he never performed during his mall tour here. We were in fact thrown off by security – we thought he was coming out in one side of the stage and we were all staked out there, but we realized that Elliott and his gang exited from the other side. There was a mad scramble from people to catch up to Elliott, and we did as he was on his way out. There was still enough time for us to sing the chorus of ‘You are the One’. He actually didn’t see us anymore, but our voices were so loud that we were certain he still heard us. We actually confirmed that he did hear us, and according to his road manager, he was actually bummed that he wasn’t able to take a video of us singing it.

So that pretty much sums up my experience during Elliott’s Ayala mall tour in the Philippines. That his first international show, or series of shows, was set in the Philippines was such a blessing to his multitude of fans here. And the amazing reception Elliott got here proved that he made the right choice. :)

More on Elliott's Ayala Malls tour: Trinoma and Glorietta

I've posted in great detail about each of Elliott's shows. I am guessing that you aren't all that interested in that much detail (but if you are, click here) so I'll just do a bit of a summary. (Please note though that this summary is still not that short LOL. Come on, how do you expect me not to write a lot about this once in a lifetime experience? =) )

Show #1: Trinoma

This was on Sept. 21, a Friday. Early that morning, I find out that the ticket stubs for the seating area were gone 40 minutes after Trinoma opened. That was unbelievable! I didn't realize Elliott had that many rabid fans in Manila. Anyways, I didn't want to drive through crazy Manila traffic during Friday rush hour so I decided to take the MRT. Since I didn't get to line up for a ticket at 10am, I figured I would just stand outside the cordoned off area. But one of the other Yaminoys actually had an extra ticket and she gave it to me, so I got to sit with the rest of the Yaminoys. That made it a lot more fun (save for the fact that there was this woman who was unreasonably upset that we were all having a great time - she was enraged by the fact that we were standing up and having our photos taken when in fact Elliott wasn't even on stage yet!)

Anyways, when Elliott came on stage, he got a massive reception from crowd. He ended up singing about 8 songs from his album, including 'Wait for you' and 'A song for you', the song that got him through to the top 3 in American Idol, plus 'In love with you forever', one of the bonus tracks from his itunes album. He encored with what seemed to be a very impromptu 'Moody's Mood for love', another song that put him on the map during season 5.

The meet and greets followed, and Mel and Jo managed to give Elliott the Yaminoy welcome gift - a mini-me doll of Elliott. He apparently was so pleased with it that he put it up as the main photo in his myspace account.

Show #2: Glorietta

Sept. 22 actually started way too early for me for a Saturday - I headed to Glorietta at 930am before it opened to make sure I got ticket stubs for me and my mom, who is also a fan and was going to watch with me that day. I managed to borrow Joh's Ayala Discount Card because discount card holders would be given 2 tickets instead of 1, and the first few discount card holders would get a meet and greet (my mom wanted to get an autograph and well of course so did I). I pulled in my friend Anne, just in case they wouldn't honor that rule, in which case there would give only one ticket stub per person.

I missed the free meet and greets for the Ayala Discount card (they did give me two tickets though in the front-most area) and so I had to buy 2 CDs to get ensure my mom and I both got autograph-signing passes. We made the cut this time, and I treated Anne to brunch in Heaven and Eggs (she did have to wake up early on a Saturday and oblige my craziness). I head back to Glorietta where I met up with my mom. Yam had fallen in line early and saved us seats, so we ended up in the front row.

Now if we thought Trinoma was fantastic, Glorietta took it up a couple of notches. The audience reaction throughout this show was incredible. He opened with "I'm the man", which was one of the three songs from his album that he didn't perform the day before. One of my favorite moments that night though was during one very short lull in between songs. Elliott was quiet, the audience was quiet, and I was in the front row. So I used that opportunity to shout out my request: "A whiter shade of pale!" That was one of his other bonus tracks from the itunes album, and he sings it really well. He hears me, looks in my direction, smiles, points towards me, then he says "That's a good one" then he puts his hands together in front of him, bows a bit and says "Thank you." Woo-hoo! My first conversation with Elliott LOL. Another highlight of the show was his performance of "A song for you". Some of the Yaminoys will say his rendition in ATC was the best, and maybe vocally it was, but there was something unmistakably magical about his "A song for you" that night that I felt wasn't captured to the same extent in any of his other shows. I managed to take a video of it - it includes his opening spiel wherein you can hear the amazing crowd reception he gets even while he's just introducing the song.



(sorry for the video quality, I used the wrong resolution setting in my point-and-shoot digicam).

After the show, the autograph signing went a bit too quickly. I think there were way too many people there and not a lot of time. I'm not sure if my mom got to talk to Elliott but I wasn't (the guards take the CD jacket from you and pass it on to Elliott while you aren't even there yet, and by the time you are in front of him, they are passing you the jacket and moving you along).

But an amazing thing happened after that. We ended up giving Monet, his road manager, a Yaminoy shirt and we had our photo taken with her. She then walks backstage, walks back out, and tells us that Elliott will take one photo with us. We were ecstatic! She goes backstage again, and a few moments later, Elliott comes out wearing the Yaminoy shirt! We all screamed LOL. He makes his way towards us and we start shaking his hand, saying stuff like "thank you for coming to the Philippines". Some of the Yaminoys even got a hug. Monet then took a photo of us using Marie's camera, and then another one with Elliott's camera.

Coming soon: tales from the Market! Market! and the Alabang Town Center shows!

Elliott in Manila!

Hi folks. Sorry for being quiet for the last few weeks. As you might have realized, Elliott was just in the Philippines for his 5-show Ayala Malls tour. As a dedicated fan, I managed to watch all four shows in Manila:

• Trinoma on Sept. 21
• Glorietta (with my mom) on Sept. 22
• Market! Market! on Sept. 23
• Alabang Town Center on Sept. 28

And let me tell you, if you thought he sounded fantastic on TV while watching American Idol, or while listening to "Wait for you" on the radio, he sounds so much better live! Elliott coming to the Philippines was truly the best birthday gift I could've gotten. The icing on the cake? Check this out:

(photo courtesy of my friend 'Wandergirl'. Thanks a lot for this!)

Woohoo!!! Imagine. A year and a half ago, I could only dream of getting to see Elliott perform live once. Now, I've done the following:

• watch him perform live FOUR times
• get him to autograph my CD (my mom got an autographed CD as well)
• meet him, shake his hand, and have a quick chat with him on FOUR separate occasions
• have my picture taken with him
• be part of TWO group photos with him along with the other Yaminoys

I'll be posting more about Elliott's visit to the Philippines over the next few days. But in the meantime, let me leave you with this video I took of Elliott performing my favorite song from his album, "One Word". (This is slated to be Elliott's next single in the US. Hopefully they start playing it in radio stations here soon; they are currently playing "Movin' On")

(Something's wrong with the image display so just click on the play button in the center of the video to get it to work)


If you haven't gotten his album yet, it is now available in the Philippines so make sure you get a copy! :)

Capping off my Dutch experience

One final note about Amsterdam, it is the bike capital of the world. There are practically just as many bikes as people in this city with a population of 750,000. Amsterdam with all its canals and narrow streets wasn’t built for cars, and having a radius of about 5 kilometers makes it perfect to travel through the city by bike. The many bike rental companies make it very easy for tourists to get in on the action. Anyway, here's a photo I took of one of the most massive bicycle parking lots I have ever seen in my life! (I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually was the world’s largest.)


And while we’re still in the topic of Holland, I’d like to leave you with a very funny video I found on the net. Apparently, some Dutch Idol wannabes were asked/told to perform Tina Turner’s ‘Simply the best’ during the half time of some football match. I don’t think the people in the crowd knew what they were in for.

Uploaded in youtube by user Haenf

There are so many things that go wrong here that I don't know where to start LOL. It always cracks me up each time I watch even if I've seen it so many times already. The youtube user who uploaded this video entitled it 'Pop Idol losers torture football fans'. Quite appropriate, don't you think? :)

More on my Amsterdam trip

Here are a few more anecdotes and photos from my weekend in this Dutch capital:

Perfect weather for touring... NOT! :)
You can't see the actual rain here, but the sight of cloudy skies, umbrellas, jackets, and raincoats should indicate that the weather conditions were not the most ideal for traveling. My friends Daniel and Marieke did tell me though that at least I got to experience Amsterdam the same way that most Dutch people. Apparently rains there all the time.


Getting lost
I got massively lost looking for Hotel Wiechmann the day that I got there (thanks to Glenn for letting me know about this hotel. Since I decided to go here a bit late, virtually all of the budget hotels I could find online were fully booked already). I had an option of spending €10 to get on a special bus that would bring me to the doorstep of my hotel, but since I had the I Amsterdam card that gave me free bus rides for 48 hours, I decided to find my way via public transportation. I get off at Princengracht, check out the house numbers (I was at around 400) and I checked my hotel address – it had house number 1016 (or so I thought…). I figure that I’m fit enough for the long walk, so I start heading towards 1016.

I keep walking along Prinsengracht, until I get to the end of the street which was the Amstel River. But the house numbers were still at 900. I probably have to go over the river, I thought. I walk to the nearest bridge a couple of hundred meters away to get across and when I do, I see that the street name was now New Prinsengracht, and the house numbers had changed. I was confused. So I call the number of the hotel to get info. Apparently, what I thought was the house number – 1016 – was the postal code. The house number was 332. F*ck!!!! That was practically where I got off the bus! This meant I had to walk all the way back, and then some. Argh!! By the time I got to my hotel, I had spent about an hour and a half walking with all my stuff, and I was tired and soaked in sweat.

So when I got there at around 130pm, I check in to my room (for which I had to walk up three flights of stairs) and fell asleep for about an hour or so to recharge.

What I found quite charming about this hotel, and I would find out later on that a lot of budget hotels in Europe had this setup, at least the warmer months, was that they had an electric fan (in lieu of air-conditioning which was more expensive and not really needed for maybe three quarters of the year).

Freebies with the I Amsterdam Card
I also availed of some freebies and discounts that my I Amsterdam card provided: I got 20% off for a raw herring sandwich in Jonk’s Herring Cart which I had for lunch (taste-wise it was good but texture-wise was certainly not my cup of tea), after which I had free coffee from La Place market-style restaurant. Later that evening, on my way to my final canal tour that day, I availed of the free croquette roll from Van Dobben. And I have to say, even if you don’t have an I Amstedam card, you should try to find this eatery and try the croquette roll. It is really really good!


The I Amsterdam card also offered free entrance to the Holland Casino. I had never been to a casino before so I thought it would be a good experience to go inside. However, after falling in line, I was told I needed to have my passport with me. My I Amstedam guide book said I just needed a valid ID so I thought my driver’s license would be sufficient and I left my passport in the safe in my hotel room. I thought about whether I should back to my hotel to get it. To help me make my decision, I asked one of the security guys there if it was allowed to take photos inside. He said it wasn’t. Since I wasn’t going to be gambling (no money…), the only reason I would want to go in was to have my photo taken inside. And since it wasn’t allowed, I figured it wasn’t worth it for me to go back to my hotel and get my passport.

Right next to the Casino is this large chessboard (it's quite interesting that the chess set is complete. If this was in the Philippines, it wouldn't be very long before the chess pieces started disappearing one by one in quick succession). Each time I passed by this area, there were people playing. The couple playing here actually had to abandon this game they were playing because they had a boat to catch.


Which Canal Tour to take?
The difference between these tours, aside from the starting point (Holland International begins near the central station while the Rederij Noord-Zuid tour kicks off near Holland Casino), is the way that the commentary is made: Holland International has a recording that is timed perfectly with the boat ride while the Rederij Noord-Zuid tour has live commentary given by the guy operating the boat. I’m a big fan of live commentary since it is more personal, so I have to say that I enjoyed the Rederij Noord-Zuid tour more. If you could take only one canal tour, I recommend this one. Of course, if you avail of the I Amsterdam card, you don't have to make a choice since you get a free pass to both.

Dutch treat

Even heavy rain couldn’t stop me from having a blast in Amsterdam. I mentioned in a previous post how it was storming during the weekend I spent in this Dutch capital, but I checked the weather report prior to my trip and so I was prepared both physically (jacket and folding umbrella in tow) and psychologically (I knew what to expect so I was definitely not going to be upset if the weather didn’t cooperate).

Before I got there, I had only four points of interest – the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank house, and going on a Canal Tour. But after going to the tourist information center upon arrival at the airport, I found out that it would be much better for me to get the 48-hour I Amsterdam card, which would give me free entrance to almost all museums there (save for the Anne Frank house) as well as free rides on public transportation and even a couple of canal tours. If I couldn’t spend time outdoors, then I would milk this card for all it was worth by visiting as many museums as I could.


I arrived on Friday mid-afternoon and decided to study my I Amsterdam Card Guidebook to see which places I had free entrance to, which of them I would like to visit, what their opening times were, and where they were located. I then mapped out my sightseeing plan. Since there wasn’t a lot of time left on that Friday, I opted to see three places: the Houseboatmuseum (which was just down the block from my hotel), and both the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum, which on Fridays remain open until 10pm.

There are about 2,500 houseboats in Amsterdam. The Houseboat Museum gives you a bit of an idea of how it is to live in one of these houseboats. It was actually quite cozy inside, but I have to say that I don’t think I could live here – every time another boat passed by, it rocked the houseboat a tad bit, but enough to make me slightly seasick (or, well, canal-sick).


I then headed towards the Rijksmuseum. I strongly recommend a visit here when you are in Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum houses mostly paintings, although it also has some historical artifacts and sculptures as well. What made my trip here very memorable was the free concert I managed to catch inside. At around 6pm, I heard an immaculate soprano voice singing operatic solos while accompanied by a piano. I head over to the adjacent hall where the music was coming from and I learn that there was a concert there at 730pm (actually, there was one every Friday night of June), and museum goers could watch it for free. It would last about an hour, so that meant I wouldn’t have time to visit the Van Gogh museum that night, but I decided that the concert would be worth seeing and I could just head to the Van Gogh museum the next day. It was a great concert (I felt so cultured afterwards LOL). I also have to say that the acoustics inside that museum hall were magnificent.

The next day was one of the longest touring days I’ve ever had. I got up fairly early, around 8, had a hefty breakfast, then I ran through the following itinerary:

• De Nieuwe Kerk, which is the second oldest church in Amsterdam, dating back to 1414
• De Oude Kerk, which is Amsterdam’s oldest monument dating back to 1250. You can’t really tell from the outside, but this church has a very high ceiling. You are also warned when you come in to take care when walking around because the floor is a bit uneven. Additional interesting piece of info – behind this church is the red light district. Talk about your ironies.

• Ons' Lieve Heer Op Solder, or Our Lord in the Attic. If I remember what I read about the museum correctly, in the olden days when Protestantism was the predominant religion in Holland, Catholic churches were “prohibited” from being built. However, the Protestants were a bit more tolerant and thus allowed Catholics to build churches as long as the façade did not clearly indicate that it was indeed a Catholic church. As such, this Chapel in the Attic actually has a gable house exterior.
• Foam Photography Museum (FOtografiemuseum AMsterdam). During my visit, the galleries displayed photo exhibits from four different photographers: Lise Sarfati, French street artist JR, Jacques Henri Lartigue, and Rob Van Der Nol.

• Museum Willet-Holthuysen. This beautiful house, located on the bank of the Herengracht canal, used to belong to Mrs. Willet-Holthuysen, whose last will was to turn her home into a museum so as to keep the family name alive.
• The Van Gogh Museum, which contains hundreds of paintings, drawings, and even letters of Vincent Van Gogh. There were also works from other artists. It was during this visit that I realized I am not one of those people who appreciate Van Gogh’s art style. I do like some of his earlier works, but for the most part, his art doesn’t really reach out to me in the way it does with most other people.
• Rederij Noord-Zuid Canal Tour. By now, most museums were closed. But the two canal tours were still open so it made sense to get on these canal tours at the end of the day since all you had to do was sit on the boat and see the sights.
  
  
• Holland International Canal Tour. My I Amsterdam card gave me a free pass to both canal tours so I decided to take both. Holland International operates until 10pm during the summer so I took this last.

I got back to my hotel at around 1030pm before I realized that I hadn’t seen the Red Light District yet. I asked the night-shift receptionist (a really tall, friendly, and pretty Dutch woman) how to get there (30 minute walk), and if it was safe to walk there (it was). I decided not to take any photos since I wasn’t sure if I would get in trouble if I did. But it was certainly an, er, unique experience walking around in this area. I finally get back to my hotel at half-past midnight, cleaned up and fell fast asleep.

I was planning to visit two more places on Sunday morning before I had to head back to the airport at around 12 noon. But after doing tourist-y stuff from 10am until past midnight the day before, I was so tired that I decided to sleep in a bit more on Sunday morning and just visit Anne Frank Huis (or the Anne Frank House). I read in my book that you need to make your way here right when it opens at 9am to avoid the long queues. I didn’t make it by 9 – I got there about maybe 45 minutes later – and true enough, the queue was already around the corner. It took me about half an hour to actually get inside. But when I did, it was worth it.

So after two churches, seven museums, and two canal tours, I bid farewell to Holland, bringing with me lots of wonderful memories. At least now I can say that I have been to Amsterdam, and not just the airport (through which I have had to make dozens of connecting flights in the past). Would be nice to pay a visit again in the future. Hopefully with better weather. :)

Gearing up for Elliott's arrival

Few changes with respect to Elliott's concert schedule here:

• Sept. 21, Fri - Trinoma (7:00pm)
• Sept. 22, Sat - Glorietta (7:00pm)
• Sept. 23, Sun - Market! Market! (6:00pm)
• Sept. 26, Wed - Ayala Mall Cebu (6:00pm)
• Sept. 28, Fri - Alabang Town Center (6:30pm)

(image courtesy of Marie. Thanks, Marie!)

This is the same image you see on Elliott's huge billboard advert along Edsa.

It's too bad that his ATC appearance is now on a Friday instead of a Saturday. It means that if I want to catch that last show, I need to leave the office early and brave Friday evening traffic - on payday no less. To make matters worse, I believe that there is work being done on South Super Highway. Maybe I can just work really late on Thursday night so I can leave a lot earlier on Friday. Anyways, it's still a few weeks from now, so there's time for me to figure out what to do.

Thriller, Cebuano-style

This video has gone viral, making its way into so many people's inboxes and being blogged and written about by so many people, whether Pinoy or not. It has in fact been featured on both CNN and BBC. The originally uploaded video on youtube has more than 6 million hits already. If you haven't seen it yet, then here it is for your viewing pleasure:



Video uploaded in youtube by byronfgarcia

Apparently, the purpose of this is to aid in the rehabilitation of these prisoners. What impresses me here is the fact that about someone (or some people) managed to organize about 1,500 prisoners and get them to learn and perform together. And this "Thriller" performance is not the only dance they do. Click here to see other videos on youtube.