Monday, June 30, 2008
Flight
I'm writing this from the NAIA Centennial 2 Terminal, although I'll probably be posting this later when I go online. There's a wifi signal that I'm able to access, but there's no Internet connection.I'm here because I'm going to Negros on business, and the reason I have some time to kill is because I was booked on a Philippine Airlines flight, and predictably, the flight is delayed for about an hour. I don't know if it's just my bad luck or if this happens all the time, but this is such a cliche. If it were up to me, I'd never go with PAL, but I wasn't the one who booked (and paid for) the flight. Like most everyone who travels domestically and who has constant access to the Internet, I use Cebu Pacific.
Of course, the terminal is much nicer than the old Manila Domestic Airport terminal that Cebu Pacific uses; actually, it's looks exactly like the new terminal at Iloilo's airport (or probably more accurately, the new terminal at Iloilo's airport looks exactly like this one). It's uncanny. With the people at the next couple of tables speaking in Hiligaynon, I might as well be back.
The prices at this terminal are ludicrous, as I guess they are with most airport terminals, but this is much worse than at the old one (a can of Coke costs Php50 while a bottle of C2 is Php70), and they're probably making a killing with all the delayed flights of PAL. Between that and the traffic to get here, I think I prefer that ratty old terminal. Also, and I'm probably alone in this, I like the fact that in the old terminal, you still get to walk on to the tarmac before boarding.
I'll be landing in Bacolod (the old airport, I think, not the new one in Silay), but I won't have much time to roam around; I probably wouldn't even get to have some chicken inasal this time, which sucks, because that's probably my favorite Bacolod memory. I really wish I had more time, I would have liked to swing by Iloilo just to see how everyone there's doing after the typhoons.
I wonder if PAL has nice planes for its domestic flights, and if they're nicer than Cebu Pacific's airbuses. When I was a kid, they still gave newspapers and served snacks during flights, but with PAL trying to match Cebu Pacific's prices, I doubt if that's still the case. We'll see.
UPDATE, after the flight:
Turns out the we did land in the new Silay/Bacolod airport, which was nice, but a good thirty minutes away from Bacolod (like Iloilo's new airport from the city proper). The PAL plane I boarded was from the same series as Cebu Pacific planes. Unlike the Cebu Pacific planes though, the PAL plane was mixed-class, with LCD monitors for the business class. There were also a handful LCD monitors that provided the flight instructions at the start of the flight as well as flight information in the overhead panel.
They did serve snacks (no newspapers though). When I was a kid, they used to serve sandwiches during flights (while Cebu Pacific served biscuits). Now, PAL serves biscuits while Cebu Pacific serves no snacks at all.
The oddest thing about the flight was the flight attendants; they were mostly male. The few female flight attendants were in their traditional PAL stuffy outfits, and weren't as cute as Cebu Pacific flight attendants. So given that, and the prices, and the convenient online ticketing, and the lack of delays, John Gokongwei totally drinks Lucio Tan's milkshake.
Labels: bacolod
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
More Bacolod food
Pagbalik ko sa Iloilo, tinanong ako ng tita ko kung anong ginawa ko sa Bacolod."Kumain," sagot ko.
Sikat yung giant cheeseburger ng Bob's. Ok naman siya.
Pag may burger, dapat meron ding fries.
Tapos nung gabi, pagkatapos kong okray-okrayin yung Calea nung isang araw, bumalik kami dun.
Nag-order ako ng Reuben sandwich. Hindi rin masarap.
Tapos strawberry ice cream shortcake, ok lang naman. Weird lang yung lasa ng strawberry jam nila.
Nag-aantay na lang ako na may mag-comment (probably si Karl), "Jaemark, taena naman niyang blog mo, puro picture ng sandwich."
Labels: bacolod, food, longvacation, photos
Drama king
Gusto ko lang ikwento, nung isang gabi, nag-ha-hapunan kami ni Pon. Kinekwento niya na sinabi niya sa nanay niya, bago siya umalis sa Iligan, na makikipag-meet siya sa isang kaibigan na blogger (ako) sa Bacolod bago umuwi ng Manila.Dahil nagbabasa rin ng mga blog yung nanay niya noon, nagtanong ito, "Ano yung blog niya?"
Sagot ni Pon, "Yung Pancit Canton."
"Ahh," sabi ng nanay niya. "Yung ma-drama."
Labels: bacolod, longvacation
Monday, January 07, 2008
Again, Bacolod pictures
More shitty amateur photography from yesterday:
Had lunch at a place called Calea, which Bacolod natives say has the best cakes in the whole island. The bratwurst and kraut I ordered was so-so.
The ice cream cake was a better experience. Then again, how can you put together ice cream *and* cake and not get something that's fucking awesome?
Afterwards, I went to the Negros provincial capitol, mostly to walk off my heavy lunch:
There were a couple of carabao statues, which was odd because (a) Negros takes a lot of pride in its sugar industry, not in their rice fields; and, (b) the dude walking with the carabao is naked.
Butt-naked.
The statue on the other end of that lagoon, on the other hand, features a girl, who is not naked. Neither is her carabao.
Between the carabao statues and the palm trees, the plaza is very UPLB.
There was a cool sculpture on display at the plaza's front gate, created by a renowned Bacolod sculptor whose name I stupidly did not bother to remember.
The Negros Occidental capitol in Bacolod.
Later, I went back to Calea to meet up with Luz to pig out again. I left my camera at the hotel, so I had to use my mobile phone to take pictures:
She had a pastrami sandwich, which she wasn't particularly happy with. Our pastries weren't much better-- we both found them too sweet. I hate to say this, but Calea's in Bacolod? Totally overrated.
Also had dinner with Pon last night, at Bacolod Chicken House, and I forgot my camera again. I liked the inasal from Lion's Park from the other day better.
Labels: bacolod, food, longvacation, photos
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Bacolod pictures
Spent the afternoon running around Bacolod. Because everyone loves shitty amateur photography on the Internets, here are some pictures:
This is the San Sebastian Cathedral, which is in the middle of the plaza. It's nice, but personally, I think there are a lot of churches in Iloilo that are much prettier.
They took down the belfry sometime in 1976, and the bells are now displayed in the yard behind the church.
Bacolod's city plaza has a cool memorial tomb for the unknown soldier. I couldn't get any closer because there were hobos hanging out at the base.
There are four fountains in the city plaza, all with a marine theme. The figure on the lower part of the photograph is a mermaid. I couldn't get closer because I was getting drenched.
Here's a billboard showing Bacolod City's mayor, Groucho Marx.
Now we're talking! I'd always thought that inasal was a little overrated, that there was nothing special about this certain type of grilled chicken (except that it was very dry). I sat down for a meal at Lion's Park near SM, figuring that at least I would be able to take a nice picture for the meal. Their menu claimed that they had the best chicken barbecue in town, a bold claim for a city full of inasal places. And it was fucking awesome! I'm going back there tomorrow.
A couple of hours later, it was dinner with Luz at a place called Lord Byron in a subdivision called Homesite. The ribs were great, crunchy like Lechon Kawali, and the sauce was nice too.
Labels: bacolod, food, longvacation, photos
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Unlucky in cards...
I'm posting this from my room in a hotel in Bacolod's Golden Fields compound called Kundutel. Golden Fields is an odd place; inside, there are a couple of hotels, a casino, the city's hottest night spots, a couple of pizza places, and a cluster of beerhouses and KTVs. There are even pimps running around in the street just outside the hotel. It's hard to describe, it's... actually, when you think about it, it's kinda like Timog. The only difference would be, Timog has gay bars.Anyway, I arrived in Bacolod last night, and after checking into my hotel, met up with Luz for dinner. She's been here for the past couple of days for a turn at the Bacolod branch of the animal hospital she works for. After dinner, we were looking for a cafe, but the only cafe that was open was a place called Nice Cafe, and from the outside we saw that they had a videoke screen going, so it was probably not the type of place we were looking for. We ended up just hanging out in my room, where we took in a movie (Kahit Konting Pagtingin on Cinema One, if you must know). She had never seen the film before, and was pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed it. I told her she didn't know what she had been missing.
Luz had to leave after the movie, but I wasn't ready to call it a night yet. I checked out the bars, but I didn't feel like staying, even for a couple of beers. I decided to go to the casino to play a couple of hands of blackjack, with a firm budget in my pocket. When I got there, the lone blackjack table was half-full with a fat jolly guy doing the dealing. Shortly after I took a seat, a bunch of Koreans filled up the table.
I kind of felt like the jackass who was taking up their cards, because everyone else at the table were playing two- and three-thousand-peso hands, while I only kept betting the minimum. I was still treading water at this point before they changed dealers and this stoic guy came in to deal.
The rest of the table cleared slowly as everyone started losing money. I started going on a mini-run, all the while trying not to get too worked up about it because stoic wasn't showing any emotions either.
Then it was time for another dealer change, and fat guy was back. It started well enough, with me splitting kings and winning big, but it went all downhill from there. I ran into a spate of bad hands, and to make matters worse, the dealer started being vocal and reacting to the play--the fat fucker was feigning sympathy when I got shitty cards while the house got 21.
There were a couple of hands that, before I started playing, I'd told myself I'd get up off the table if I encountered them. In the first, I had an ace and a nine, with the dealer showing a king, so naturally the dealer drew an ace for a blackjack. In the second, I had a king and a jack, and the dealer drew a six (nice!), a four (shit!), another six (yeah!), and a five (motherfucker!).
I'm also annoyed because when I had to get up, I also had to give up ogling the hot chick who was playing five-card stud at the next table. When I was on a mini-run, I'd had visions of me carrying off my pile of chips and her being impressed and joining me back up to my hotel room. Of course, we'd probably end up watching CNN and talking about Obama's surprise win in Iowa, but whatever.
There's also a joke here I'd been meaning to write, but I'm afraid this post is dirty enough as it is. Ah screw it, here goes: if I'd known that I was getting screwed tonight anyway, I'd have kept half that money and just paid for a handjob.
(I really don't know why I'm still so annoyed; I mean, I came in there with a budget, knowing that I could lose that money. It's probably because I'm hungery and I only have enough cash on me to take a cab and the nearby ATM isn't working so I've had to order in room service. I'm such an idiot.)
So yeah, I got cleaned out again, just like a couple of nights ago at poker. But I guess I could just take comfort in what they say, "Unlucky in cards,..."
(In my case, the adage would continue, "...unlucky in cards!")
Anyway, I'm off to explore Bacolod while the sun's still up. Luckily, I'll still be hanging out with Luz tonight, but she'll be going back to Iloilo tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to find something better to do (and I won't end up losing my shirt). Fortunately, Pon will be flying in tomorrow as well, so hopefully we'll be able to meet up and I'll have some company for the next couple of days before I go back to Iloilo.
Labels: bacolod, longvacation
