Beijing Mission - Postponed By Request

Visa and tickets were already issued. Our hotel was booked, and I already reserved a room at a quaint hostel called Red Lantern House at the Xicheng District (I was advised to avoid central Wangfujing if I wanted real Beijing) so I could extend and see the Forbidden City and hike to the Great Wall of China. Then four working days  before departure, the meeting was postponed.

Thankfully, I didn't make any other preparations aside from the ones above. I knew who to ask about a good operator but didn't make the effort to ask. The only thing I read was a page from a Turkish Airline booklet that featured their destinations all over the world.

I've never been interested to go. This time, I bothered because it was work, and more than $2,000 was going to spent on me for five days just to be there. So why not?

But I'm still thankful it got postponed, to at least July this year. I would rather go to Taipei. No, I would really like to go to Taipei!

This is not the first trip this year not to have pushed through. There was a meeting in Bangkok last February to negotiate a cross-border agreement that included Afghanistan, and there was a a trip to Donsol last March, which was my 3rd attempt since last year to see the sharks. This meeting should have happened this week. I could have said tonight, I just came from the Great Wall of China! 

Sometimes, you never know it is for real until you're already on the plane. 

Foreign Language # 4

In college, I took up basic Spanish and followed up with a module with Instituto Cervantes when I came back to Manila after a year spent abroad. I stopped because our teacher spoke with Guatemalan Spanish instead of Castillian. And while lost in San Sebastian a few years later, I still managed to find my way around to the best restaurants without a word in English.

After University, I moved to the Czech Republic to primarily learn Czech. About 35 hours a week of intensive Czech. Cviceni a tak dale. Years later and without practice, it's still useful when I haggle when shopping in Prague, especially when a local tries to rip me off.

About three years ago, I also completed two modules of French at Alliance Francaise de Manille. I decided to take up French not because I was fond of it but because it is the language of diplomacy (international relations), development (majority of the poor countries in Africa and Greater Mekong Subregion are French speaking), and of course, the kitchen. Gastronomy is just simply French. Although I love to cook and eat, I don't remember a single french word, except oui but that does not count.

So the fourth language is German. Although the language seems easier than the above three combined, the learning method seems to be challenging me. My ancient brain seems to be rattled with the combination of books, CDs, interactive online modules with forums, chats, videos, matching exercises etc. It's only day 2 and my brain is fried. 23 more months to go!

Women and Afghanistan

I blame my dad for influencing my fascination for spy, investigative, suspense shows shot all over the world or at least, have a cross-border twist. In the past few years, we've been hooked on NCIS. It's one of our bonding sessions.

On this steady Saturday morning, we saw an NCIS episode from Season 9. It was set in Afghanistan (AFG), to rescue a Marine held hostage by an impostor teacher who was actually a terrorist who believes that the proliferation of American ways, especially the freedom of learning and how it is empowering for women and children, should be limited.

It was quite an appropriate episode to watch this March, women's month. Even more appropriate to watch as I saw an opportunity this morning that could further a dream in the form of funding and mentorship.

I am no stranger to AFG although I will not say I am an expert on it. I have not even been there. But I have been schoolmates with one when I was in the Czech Republic, and more recently, I have been working with Afghans on cross-border transport and trade facilitation. The more people, goods, and services traverse territories safely, the more development is likely. The more opportunities for an improved way of life is possible.

My Microblog: World Bistro at Tumblr

This is the reason I have been quiet a bit:

http://worldbistro.tumblr.com/

Yamazaki Grocery and Restaurant

Was at my favorite hole-in-the-wall value for money Japanese eatery at Little Tokyo -- Yamazaki.

I discovered it through a high school friend who lived in the area a few years ago. It's a great place for the happy tummy, happy wallet combo, with take home groceries too.

Tonight, service was even better than the last few times I was there. I had dinner with two friends who haven't eaten there before and the waitstaff were very patient in explaining all the dishes and inclusions. They usually give a menu in Japanese and just provide the menu with pictures when requested.

As usual, I ordered my favorite grilled salmon, which came with miso soup, rice, tofu, cabbage and pickled chicken and root vegetables. All of that for 195p. I also couldn't skip the gyoza (75p) and all three of us shared a cup of green tea ice cream (95p) from the grocery.

My friends are definitely coming back!

Ma Maison in Manila

Ever since I saw construction begin at Greenbelt 2, I've been looking forward to the opening of Ma Maison. It claims to be a western Japanese restaurant.

The entree usually featured in their posters is the Tonkatsu, which is a breaded pork cutlet. It is traditionally served with brown sauce and a cabbage salad with sesame dressing.

I've always liked Tonkatsu. As a child who treated Sanrio as a saint, my parents often took me to Tokyo, Tokyo, where I had my favorite triple T: Tonkatsu, tempura and tofu.

As I got older, I ate healthier and forgot about Tonkatsu until I ate at Saboten in Bangkok recently. Saboten specializes in cutlets but serve more than just pork. They had several pork cuts and even had salmon and beef if I remember correctly. If there's salmon, I forget everything.

What set Saboten different from Ma Maison is that the former had unlimited cabbage salad, miso soup, rice and tea together with the cutlet. At Ma Maison, there was no soup, they only had one kind of pork cutlet with a literal siding of cabbage and potato salad. Yes, the drink is separate too. All of that for less than 500p.

What's good about Ma Maison is the size of the cutlet. It's huge. Think serving size of Italliani's or Krazy Garlik since they are all part of one company. Taste is fine. If you haven't tried Saboten, you'll like this one.

There are lots of other interesting dishes that do not seem French nor Japanese to me but are worth coming back for.

Travel 2011

Since last month, I've been itching to travel all because my birthday's coming up, my weekends are supposed to vanish, and my last trip was August 2011. But I don't have any companions, those who are free don't have money, and I was not free when those who had money were going to travel.

About a month on, no surprise trip coming along yet. About four days ago, a friend said we can meet up in Milan for a weekend, another just sent me a message today that I can spend a few days in Bratislava, and the following weekend in Prague with friends. But dear friend can't go to Milan anymore so there's no point going to Prague and Bratislava. All other destinations seem to be too expensive or I've been there already. I do not want to travel alone.

So to pacify my deprived soul, here are a few snapshots of the places I've been to outside Manila this year. For others, it may seem a lot, but for people like me, this list needs to be longer. Not to sound ungrateful but, who said it's wrong to make the most out of life?

Coco Beach, Mindoro

Nagsasa Cove, Zambales

Typhoon Bebeng-ed Out in Donsol, Sorsogon

Endless stopovers in Istanbul

Dubai, United Arab Emirates 

Baku, Azerbaijan

Prague, Czech Republic

Frankfurt, Germany

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Somewhere in Viet Nam, I forgot. I'm a bad traveller. :P

Mekong Delta, Viet Nam

Bangkok, Thailand

And that's all for now, as of August 2011. Rest of the year, surprise me with a trip, please? I've lowered my standards. A local trip would suffice. But please, not alone. 

Japanese Fine Dining

My family loves Japanese food and we can eat at Japanese restaurants consecutively every time we're out. This weekend, we went to Kimpura, one of the oldest traditional Japanese restaurants in Manila. It's been around for more than three decades.

During this visit, we had the sirloin and seafood teppanyaki, a sashimi platter, a mango and kani salad, some soft-shelled crabs, and cold green tea noodles.

It's generally pricier than most restaurants but what you get at Kimpura is absolute service by a real institution. :)

Brunch

It's a lazy rainy Sunday and we're all just hanging out at home. We bought bacon for the first time in years yesterday and brunch was a great excuse to have a little luxury.

We prepared homemade wheat waffles with bacon bits, smoked Edam and some fruit jam.

Simple joys!

Southeast Asia by Rail

I've always been a fan of trains may it be intra-continental ones, within a country, the classic tram or the modern metro above or underground.

Been through a number of train rides across Europe and now that I am trying to think of the most memorable one, each one seems to stand out. What I remember most between the ride between Vienna and Prague was the extreme change of scenery from the "wild" looking plants in the Czech Republic and the suddenly seemingly "orderly" flaura growing along the tracks in Austria. Then there was this beautiful border town along Usti nad Labem between Prague and Dresden. Just love little villages along the river. And once on a train between Berlin and Amsterdam, I remember how industrial and flat the view was. Just seemed to be an endless view of meadows with the occasional factory until you slowly see the windmills and irrigation tracks. Then there was the underground tram ride in Budapest -- the oldest of them lot for posterity purposes.

Yet one trip I will not forget is the one between Antwerp and Rotterdam. It had the dullest scenery of all train rides I've had yet the most luxurious seats. Cherry and purple velvet cushions with tables like that of a first class plane ride. I was on the way to Rotterdam to have dinner with a friend after killing time in Antwerp for a few hours. I was so excited and eager to go to Rottderam that I boarded the wrong train -- the Thalys train from Paris. And I don't remember the ride because of the velvet seats. I remember it because of the EUR 55 fine I had to pay for a trip that lasted less than an hour for boarding the wrong train. Too much excitement is bad! Thankfully, my dear friend treated me to a Japanese buffet in Rotterdam. :)

So there it is, my occasional brush with trains. A few weeks ago, I did some metro rail exploring with my sister around Manila and was surprised with the convenience of going around the city. We have about three rail lines in Manila, all of them awkwardly connected requiring long walks among them. I often take the line along EDSA -- the city's main road but rarely the latest line -- LRT 2 and never took the oldest line -- LRT 1 until a few weeks ago. LRT 1 goes to all the historic districts and it's amusing that all the stops are marked by landmarks within the area. It's too bad though that it's only plastered on the train's ceiling and not found on the website nor distributed as a rail map at any of the stations. When the weather is good, I want to come back and explore.

But what really got me excited today is finding out that Southeast Asia is pretty much connected by rail and I can go all the way to Bangkok from Singapore and see a few Malaysian cities along the way. Yay! (See this link.) Despite my airline background, I love travelling by train. It always goes through scenic routes, there's no traffic, you can walk around and it always begins and ends at the city center. All those good things make me forget that I have to carry my things up and down platforms.

I've never travelled in Southeast Asia by train nor alone and knowing this fact gives me a slight comfort that it can be done safely and enjoyably!