Downtime At Bacolod

During my stay there, I maximized the time staying at home. Yes, I'm not there often and I enjoy the lazy days there. That's not to say that I just stayed at home though. Apart from that I've gone to a few interesting places with dad and my brother. Here are some of it...

Monochrome Terminal

"Monochrome" and "Terminal" paints a different picture that comes to mind to IT folks. It reminds us of green/gray text on black computer screens from days of old. It's also rather similar to Photography. Before pictures came in color, a lot were in monochrome (black and white commonly, but it also came in sepia, among others). The difference is, though, monochrome persisted.

Monochrome has always been a fascination of mine. In this age of overwhelming bleeding edge technology where newer technologies lead to more vibrant colors, I tend to step back every now and then to regress to basic black and white, and all of the two hundred fifty-four shades in between that my camera can muster. Though I imagine it'll be much fewer shades than that due to the mixing I do for contrast.

I had the chance to play with it when we traveled to Hong Kong. I had the time and luxury to experiment so I rendered some images in monochrome. More of the tones and textures here...

The Colors Of Hong Kong International Airport

Hong Kong International Airport is a marvel of engineering. It is among the most amazing man-made structures I've seen both in scale and in elegance. The whole airport is practically a small city in scale and I pretty much tired myself out exploring just the passenger accessible areas in Terminal 1 departure. 

More sights of this monumental marvel in here...

Going Home - Taxi Ride To the Airport

Time surely is fleeting when you're having fun. While not everyone may agree considering that we didn't exactly go to the usual tourist attractions, I still think it was awesome that we got to see a piece of Hong Kong. Just like that it was time to go home. We checked out at the hotel and grabbed a ride to the airport.

Short but sweet, here are some sights we saw along the way...

Strolling To Harbour City - Through The Subway

Second day in Hong Kong. Yesterday we had a long hot day, and today was no different. What is different though, is we know better now. Today we had the whole day to ourselves.

We're off to a long stroll today. Lots of sights to see, coffee to drink, food to eat, pictures to take... Did I mention food?

Afternoon Hong Kong Tour 2 - Lights In The Sky

This is a continuation of our tour that started here.

After a few turns on the Observation Wheel, we hopped on a bus to be showed around places in Hong Kong.

Just being in Hong Kong give a look and feel of being in the Asian Movies. It's as every bit awesome as it was in the films.

A portion of this story was updated as it happened on Instagram, but a lot of the sights can also be found here. Captions can be found on the Flickr page if you're interested to read them. Just click on the image and you'll be redirected there.

Afternoon Hong Kong Tour 1 - Fresh Off The Boat

This is a continuation of the previous entry.

Hong Kong is amazing. After lunch and shopping, we had a chance to take some rest. At four in the afternoon we got ready and went on to an adventure I'd not forget- An afternoon tour of Hong Kong. 

With Hong Kong being a vast place though, we picked the least stressful tour. We didn't want to spend the afternoon running a marathon playing catch up with time and the tour guide.

A portion of this story was updated as it happened on Instagram, but a lot of the sights can also be found here. Captions can be found on the Flickr page if you're interested to read them. Just click on the image and you'll be redirected there.

Delectable Gratifcation And Where To Find Them

There are days when you just want to go on a food trip. No, not go to some buffet and gorge down on the goodies, but I mean just go places and give the taste buds a treat. I may not regularly have days like those, but in between the chores and errands, opportunity sometimes presents itself allowing me to do just that. Here's a collection of the dining stuff I've stumbled across every now and then, here and there...

There's an adage that goes, "Take a picture, it'll last longer." This holds true to some of the memorable ones.  These are a few of the sights I've seen from places I've been in. I won't have much commentary in the captions here - Imagine that I'd be too busy eating. Yes, this post is about shameless food p0rn, and clues where to find them!

Rainy Day Roadtrip

It was a weekend, I had plans to attend a birthday celebration. Attending a birthday in Tagaytay was potentially jeopardized by inclement weather, but by some fortune, the weather seems to have cleared up enough for me to go there. Going there was relatively uneventful (Which for me, means not too many things went awry), but the view was breathtaking, even surreal as it was in a different weather condition.

This one's taken from the place. I've never been here while it was heavily raining. I think it's really surreal. I stayed mostly indoors, but I still had a really good view.

2014 San Diego Beach - Revisited

I don't usually go to the beach... But when I do, it's in San Diego, California...

2012 San Mateo, CA - Revisited

Back in 2012, I was given the good fortune of being assigned for training for our work in the USA. I was working in San Mateo, it's a not-so-often-heard place that I haven't heard from any Hollywood movie. It's located around 20 miles south of San Francisco. Unlike the crowded 'Frisco though, it's actually very peaceful and quiet. It is by far among the best surprises I ever had. The town is very upscale and folks are friendly. This is one of the few places that I'll definitely remember. 

I got a good chance to take evening walks and a nice camera at the time. Here are some of the pictures I've taken around town. There are a lot of parks here, this one in particular is in the residential area. 

Strolling Around BGC

Pictures from last year (2015), given different post processing treatments. These were either from weekends when I was on call, all while having bad Internet connection, or on idle weekends when I felt like taking afternoon and evening strolls. Yes, I don't really wander too far at times, but I still wander here and there. Don't be shy to say hi if you find me.

Don't forget to let the captions load. Those may take a while on slow Internet connections.

Ola Taal Vista!

It was my cousin's wedding. My family and I had the opportunity to go to Tagaytay. It's been over a year since I've gone to the place and I somewhat missed the scenic view. Driving there was a bit challenging for me and the car. Mostly for the car, traveling uphill while carrying three overweight adults and their bags. 

We arrived at the hotel the day before the wedding, with all our fancy clothes in tow. But no, this isn't about the wedding. This is about the interesting place I've found with a lovely view.

Our Home Away From Home

This cozy place is called Marriott Residence Inn. It's our home away from home. This album showcases some interesting spots in it. I think it's a homely and cozy place. It looks more like a compound than a hotel building. The rooms are complete and have generous spaces too. Uh, no, I won't have pictures of what my room looks like.

An Evening At The Town Center

This is the fourth of my Alabang series. I first got lost in Filinvest and had lunch there. After lunch I regained by bearings and went to my errand. After my errand was done I found Alabang Town Center and marveled at the rather artsy sculptures. After that I took an afternoon stroll and admired the unique architecture and I had an awesome mozzarella dinner. The sun is now setting...

After I had that meal I stepped out yet again...When was the last time you admired the sky?

Orange Clouds. It starts to get crowded as sunset approaches. Lots of folks doing the shopping after work. I glanced overhead and saw the sun sinking to the west. The clouds glow a fiery orange that gets more vibrant as the moments pass by before it gets dark.

Afternoon At The Town Center

How time flies... It's already been more than a month since I've been there. I've posted earlier the Stallions as a separate entry because I found them to be unique and I had more than enough pictures of them to make a separate entry. I haven't seen any mall with such decorations. At least not yet. But they're not the only ones I took a picture of. It was a lovely afternoon after all and there were lots to see. At least for me.

Stairs Towards Interesting Things. It was around mid afternoon at the time. It wasn't too bright nor the light was any dramatic. These unassuming stairs don't look like much but it's after going through them that I found some fun things. Horse sculptures, among others.

Steel Stallions Of Alabang Town Center

Horses made of wire, roaming around the place. I watched them all afternoon to my heart's desire.

Playing In The Shrubs. These steel sculptures almost look alive when shot in monochrome.

Fiddling With RAW Meat

It seems I have tendencies to word things a bit differently. Oh the puns I play with. No, I'm not playing with food. Nor meat for that matter. No meat was fiddled with during the creation of this entry... But there were some cooked meat that were consumed.

Waiting For The Order. My buddy explores the whole room while we wait for the goodies we ordered. Yes, I have scary friends. He will cut you. Beware. LOL just kidding, he's a nice guy.

Memories Under The Starry Night

If you've been following this from the start since Nuvali, you're awesome! Thank you for spending time with me on this journey.

The day has been long, the thoughts heavy and the memories dragging. I found some temporary respite when I went to Sky Ranch being able to somehow keep a broken vow. I now am homeward bound. But it's not as simple as going straight home. My last stop in this journey-- Starbucks Tagaytay.

Overlooking The Lake. This was taken last November 2010 on the second floor balcony of Starbucks Tagaytay. This was the first time I set foot in Tagaytay.

The Big Wheel At The Cliffside

I've seen that beautiful place and I found some temporary silence as I went on. But the mind wasn't at peace as some questions lingered on. Perhaps further towards the mountains I may find, not necessarily answers but some temporary respite to the boggled mind. And so I went to visit that big wheel on the cliff side. Yes, this is where I went after I wandered off to Nuvali.

And so I ended up here. Because reasons. I once promised a girl we'd go here. I'd never make a girl a promise I know I can't keep. Then again, I never had the chance to keep this promise.