10 things that are more fun in the Philippines

Inspired by the recently launched Department of Tourism campaign, I looked through two years worth of photos (without the help of Google, all of them are mine) to come up with my own list of things that are more fun in the Philippines. I've put up only 10 here but the possibilities are endless.

Can I just say, this was so much fun to do? Can the Negative Nellies out there please give it a try? It's better for your heart and your wrinkles, I promise. Although may find it difficult if you are devoid of humor—a rather rare and life-threatening condition for a Filipino.

But wait, there's more!

A (birthday) gift that keeps on giving

My wonderful husband has once again proved that he knows me so well. How? By getting me a birthday gift that I absolutely love.

Want to know what Marlon's gift was? I'll give you three clues. These three pictures all have something to do with it.

Any guesses? See if you're right after the jump!

Trains on the brain

It seems I've been in this train-obsessed phase as of late. It may have started with a short film that I watched in my very first screenwriting class (yes, I'm taking a class! More on which later). Strangers by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv is set on a late-night train (in what looks like Paris) and I liked it a lot (so clicky the linky!).

For reasons that are apparent if you've seen the film, it stayed with me. So for my first screenwriting assignment, one of my three short drafts was set on a train. Following the age-old advice to "write what you know," I wrote about a routine (commuting by train) and nestled it in a memory (the Paris metro). It went over quite well, and it's going to metamorphose into a short screenplay over the next two weeks.

My final assignment for photography class was due the same week. I was cramming, with just one afternoon before the class to shoot a series of photos on a single theme. It was a debilitatingly hot day, I had zero ideas for themes or subjects, and all I wanted was to stay indoors. I thought I would just hop on the train, wait for ideas to come to me and get off wherever something fired up my wilting imagination.

Then it hit me. I didn't even have to leave the train station!

Thanks to my sister, who sent me this great article on the best places to practice motion blur shots, I achieved my two-pronged aim of completing my photography assignment AND beating the heat!

A reversal: still train, moving people. By the way, all these long exposures were taken with no tripod. My teacher was amazed and said I must have an iron grip.

I stayed for a good twenty minutes without realizing it was bawal to take photos in the MRT station. Wala namang humuli sa akin. 

Finally I stepped off the platform and into the train... where I was lucky to sit right across from this adorable little girl. Who by the way was both eating and drinking in the train.

Then I transferred to the green line and off at Kallang station, because I remembered that I had been there once before and found it very striking.

Motion blur is fun! Wheee!

And THEN I realized I had always been curious about the old railway station at Tanjong Pagar. It's a train that actually takes you all the way to Malaysia. Built in the 1930s, the station stands on property that's recently been turned over to Malaysia by the Singapore government.

Diba, parang Grand Central lang? My thought bubble upon seeing the station for the first time was: Meron palang ganito sa Singapore? I was really sorry I didn't have a wider lens to capture the whole interior. There were many, more accomplished (or at least better-invested) shutterbugs there the same afternoon with bigger lenses than mine.

I was happy to have visited while it's still a fully operating train station—operations will be shifted to Woodlands, closer to the Malaysian border, starting July 2011.

A significant proportion of the crowd at the station seems to be old-timers who go to the station to kill time and grab a bite. 

In fact, I've heard more about the authentic Malay grub at the canteen from people I know than about them actually taking the trains.

The mood seemed a lot more slow and sleepy than any of the other train stations I normally pass through.

But no matter how many things change, I guess there will always be someone rushing to catch the train.

Food for thought

Back in college, Food for Thought was that little sandwich shack with two rickety benches, right beside Colayco Hall. It was one of my favorite places to go for a quick lunch or a snack, and I always ordered the same thing: a salami sandwich with a pack of Zesto.

Years later, another Food for Thought has become a favorite of mine—this time, in Singapore. This one is a nice little brunch place on Queen Street, right beside the Singapore Art Museum. It's walking distance from VHQ, where I work on some days, and from Raffles City, where I do yoga.

The location is so perfect and the food is so good that I ended up going there five times in less than two weeks! And the airy, contemporary ambience is not bad either.

I especially love the bottle installation as lighting fixture. That's a total of 540 bottles of Leggo pasta sauce! The owners and staff repacked the pasta sauce and gave it away to charitable organizations for Christmas. This restaurant professes to be all about "good food for a good cause" (as part of the proceeds go to charity) and the lighting is a striking, visually appealing reminder of that.

I took Talbot to brunch with us so I could complete my first photography assignment, which was to shoot a variety of photos from one vantage point. Brunch was the perfect opportunity to park my ass in one place and just click away!

Chai spice-crusted salmon with risotto and mango-ginger chutney. Yummers!

This super cute little girl wandered up to all the tables to say hi. Then she made a beeline for the desserts. 

Nobody beats my brunch date in the cuteness department though :)

Talbot & I

One of my goals when I resigned from my full-time job earlier this year was to free up more time to learn and try new things. So I felt a wonderful sense of achievement when I signed up for, and completed, a three-week basic photography workshop at Objectifs on Arab Street. I had Talbot, my new Canon 550D, and Marlon had a semi-DSLR Fujifilm Finepix generously bequeathed to us by my sister. 

The first class was pretty confusing for me as I attempted to absorb the basic rules of how things are related to each other, retain the knowledge that a bigger aperture number actually means a smaller aperture opening, train my fingers to push the right buttons and turn the right dials, and remember why you don't need a shutter speed of 400 to shoot a can of Coke. 

We headed out into the Kampong Glam area right after the first theory class to practice our newfound knowledge. These are some of my favorites from that first shoot. 

One of my very first photos, taken during lunch break. 

Objectifs is located near the quasi-hipster hotspot called Haji Lane, but also near the Mosque. I really like this area for the small, quaint feel and the many Muslim (both Malay and Turkish) eateries around.

Shawls for sale!

Coffee break!

One of the cafes in the are was really cozy and full of daybeds, which were in turn full of Caucasian backpackers.

Shisha, anyone?

That first afternoon was all about simply getting the right exposure relying entirely on manual settings. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but the span of a few hours, I realized how much fun you can miss out on by just going on Auto all the time! 

I really got how pictures could go beyond just a record of an experience to a form of communication and expression when our instructor would constantly ask, "Well, what did you want to achieve with this picture?" And how, by choosing not just your subject but what you want to highlight about that subject, you can actually say something; a statement about the world that is completely your own.

Don't get me wrong, I still love my trusty little Lumix, but Talbot and I... well, this could be the start of something beautiful.