AKLANONS AT THE VILLA

About a month prior to the arrival of students from Aklan Catholic College, I had been in touch with Ms Portia Robado, who had made arrangements for the tour of Manila and Villa Escudero. Who would have counted on tropical storm Mario battering the country on those appointed dates? I had blocked off the dates of their tour on my calendar 19th-21st of September notwithstanding my other commitment to be at Ballet Philippines' 45th Season Gala opening of Giselle (that's another story in the works). Well... the weather cooperated on the two succeeding days, thank God!  So they were at least able to salvage some fun days out of the entire weekend.

Luckily for their group, they were able to catch the early morning flight from Aklan and got to Manila by around 7 or 8 a.m. After that, all flights to Manila were cancelled. Despite the heavy rains, I managed to meet them at the Mind Museum at Bonifacio Global City. It was nice that the Mind Museum staffed honored their prior commitment to welcome the students to see the museum. heavy rain and gusts of wind didn't dampen their enthusiasm. Ahhh... the energy of youth...

There were 57 students in all, plus two faculty members in the person of Ms Portia and Ms Aiza who dutifully served as mother hens. About half of the kids were first time visitors to Manila. It was quite difficult to make a good impression of Manila for these kids because the terrible weather almost obilterated everyone's view of what they could see from the rented bus.

Surprisingly the areas of EDSA from the BGC to MOA and Roxas boulevard to Padre Faura weren't inundated by floods. No traffic either, From there, after an lengthy check-in process (due to sheer volume of guests) and a skeletal work force at Lotus Garden hotel, they were to have dinner at Tramway where I made my leave to see to my costuming duties at the CCP. Luckily, Tramway was a short walk away from CCP.  I was prepared and dressed for the fowl weather. 

My next assignment for them was to guide towards Villa Escudero in San Pablo, Laguna. This time, the trip was blessed with glorious sunshine all the way. No traffic at the Sto. Tomas area either so we got to the destination in record time. While taking photos at the site, I had the pleasure of meeting Ms Rosalie Escudero (resort director) who requested one of the workers to escort me on the plantation. 

The students had a fun time with the buffet lunch by the waterfall. After which some of them swam in the pool, Some rented bikes, while some were content to take in all the natural beauty Villa Escudero had tried so hard to preserve. All of them watched attentively while the cultural show went on. with authentic costumes and choreography by the late, great Ramon Obusan (National Artist for Dance) performed by workers of the resort and the villa themselves. This is something the Escudero clan is really proud of. Before we even left to bring the students to Terminal 4 to catch their flight home, they bought some native delicacies and some souvenirs to bring home.

On a personal note, a flood of memories came to mind as I was taking shots of the numerous improvements on the facilities as well as taking snapshots of both old and new attractions at the villa. It seemed like ages ago when we brought my sister's family to Villa Escudero. My sister is married to a Brit and their family reside in Batley, West Yorkshire. They had come for a holiday with my young nieces . We had a fun time frolicking in the pool with the kids and made a go out of all the villa had to offer back then. We even took photos of the kids with Pogi and Tisoy (albino carabaos) for posterity. The kids are all grown up now... One is engaged to be married and the other now has a boyfriend and is working for the Royal Air Force. My mom has since passed on and I... well, I became a tour guide. That's the stuff nice stories are made of....

*Thank you to Mesdames Portia Robado and Aiza Nahil for the opportunity to be of service. and Thank you Madam Rosalie for your kindness and assistance.

MGA MUTYA NG JEEPNEY!

Trust Jeepney Tours to come up with out of the box  tour packages for their clients! 

first level of the double-decker jeepney

I recently got a call from their travel coordinator, Kim to do a tour for no less than "Mutya ng Masa" , Ms Doris Bigornia. It was originally for a rolling tour of Manila on board a double-decker jeepney. I was naturally delighted as I had done tours for this company many times over utilizing their not so standard jeepneys. They have three. So this was going to be different on two fronts: 1) it had media mileage written all over it, and 2) it was a maiden voyage of sorts for the double-dutch jeepney. 

the upper deck

Ms Clang Garcia, owner and tour operator of Jeepney tours is the original Mutya ng Jeepney. She related to me how at the start, people in the hospitality industry thought she was nuts when she approached them with the idea of having foreign guests ride in jeepneys. They were lukewarm to the idea at first. It didn't deter her from pursuing that germ of an idea.

now boarding...

She had a fleet of jeepneys customized, changed the seating configuration, installed air conditioning and videoke and had them painted yellow and designed with different themes. She applied for accreditation with the Department of Tourism and opened shop. She never looked back! It created a stir in the industry and even now, foreigners get wowed when they see a jeepney rolling up the hotel driveway to pick them up.  They start taking selfies and photo ops before they even take the ride.

fun on the upper deck

She's at it again! Together with SkyJeepney Coachbuilders, Inc., they hatched the idea of doing one better by amping the current Jeepney tours coaches with an upper deck. Mr.  Mark Bautista (no, not the singer) who happens to  operate SkyJeepney, says the idea was taken from provincial jeepneys that take on passengers on the roof whilst holding onto baggage railing for dear life . Why not offer a safer ride for more people? Thus the double decker jeepney was created. 

the lower deck with the dining/meeting tsables

Think of it as a jeepney on steroids! It's got everything that the original fleet has and more. This 41 seater has dining tables, a refrigerator, CCTV cameras, and a GPS system.  They can actually track where the double decker is located at any given point in the tour. Only thing missing is wi-fi. Being a prototype, this 80 foot (or is it meter?) ride is still in development mode. In the works is a 90 footer(again, i can't recall) that will have a washroom on the lower deck.

Groupie with Ms Bigornia

The call time  for the tour was at ten a.m. but knowing how media "runs" after their stories, I knew it was going to be a long day. I was right. The staff and crew of Mutya ng Masa arrived near lunch time. Doris Bigornia arrived at two p.m. Soon enough the cameras went rolling and as any TV, show there were numerous interviews and calls of "cut" and " action" so it wasn't really a normal tour. 

Mutya ng Masa staff and crew

As the other Mutya ng Masa ng Jeepney gamely inter-acted and interviewed and exchanged banter with some of the guests, the camera crew were taking valuable footage of guests having fun, singing videoke and waving to crowds. Doris Bigornia even sang an entire song taped as live on videoke which riled everyone up. You'll even find her eating ensaymada and bananas provided by jeepney tours on a regular basis. 

Eileen and the  Skyjeep Coachbuilders  

The shoot was high-octane and lots of fun. By the end of the shoot, Doris Bigornia; the TV host, Mutya ng Jeepney and all around "kalog" obliged us with selfies and groupies and even her crew got into the act.  This is why I love my job!

LUGANG CAFE

Lugang Cafe

I know, the name doesn't sound so appetizing! What's in a name, anyway? I was mildly surprised, though that despite the apparent lack of imagination on nomenclature, the food was rather sumptuous. It was a lazy afternoon which was a nice way to spend the time meandering through stores in the Mall of Asia. 

After a few hours, my companion and myself got hungry. We haven't experienced dining at Lugang and found the name quite odd. So, in we went and decided to experience the food they had to offer. There were only two of us, so it didn't make sense to order everything they had on the menu. but from what we tasted, it was enough to conclude that their food was savory.

Yang Chow fried rice

The service wasn't shabby either. Their staff were friendly and corteuous, taking the time to explain menu items that were unclear to us. We then decided to settle for the asado pork and the sweet and sour fish and a small serving of yang chow fried rice. We were not disappointed!

pork asado

I'm actually quite glad we held back from ordering too much food. The servings were more than enough to be shared by two persons. Either that, or we were too strict on food intake. We managed to finish the food, though. So i guess it wasn't any indication that either of us was on a diet.

sweet and sour fish

The pork asado was tender and  well complimented with the plum sauce dip... or was it oyster sauce? I can't recall which one it was now. It was really good with or without the sauce, though. While the fish was flaky, with bits of tausi (black bean dip) and the tofu that went with it was firm. The gooey sauce was flowing over the large cast iron sizzling bowl. Towards the end of the meal, we felt that the money we spent was well worth it. Don't get me wrong, their prices are mid-range, not too expensive at all! The umami was great value for money. Lugang Cafe is on the ground floor of SM MOA right beside Kultura. You can't miss it.