UPDATE:I made a correction in the post. There are 10 CDs and one DVD.Just yesterday, Juned shared the news that he won a box set of Eraserheads. So, we went to his home and took a look at it. Indeed, it’s the Eraserheads Box Set! Anyway, Greenwich will be coming up with a promo and you can purchase the Eraserheads Box Set at a lower price. Upon opening the tin can, you’ll see a book first. The cover illustration was done by Arnold Arre while the Graphic Design and Layout was done by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre.

Then you will see the CDs, a DVD and the T-shirt.

In the book, you’ll see lots of photos of Eraserheads.

The book also includes lyrics of Eraserheads’ songs and as well as the history of Eraserheads.

And yes, there are photos of the fans with the Eraserheads.

I guess the fans who have their respective photos included in the book will be more excited for its release in the record bars.

Like I’ve said earlier, there are 10 CDs included in the box set. These are all digitally re-mastered by Angee. Then, the DVD is Pop-u-mentary.

These 10 CDs are:

1. Ultraelectromagneticpop
2. Circus
3. Cutterpillow
4. Fruitcake
5. Bananatype
6. Natin ’99
7. Sticker Happy
8. Aloha Milkyway
9. Carbonstereoxide
10. Dirty Little Treasures

Sha felt really excited about this. You can see the smile on her face.

By the way, that’s how the shirt looks like. We still do not have details on how much it will cost. This could possibly be out before or during September.

Last Saturday, we had a tree planting activity with Sha’s company and with Haribon Foundation for their project Road to 2020. It is actually interesting to learn that it is recommended not to use foreign tree species in reforestation because it won’t bring us the ecological benefits that we need.

The strategy that was being used for this project is called rainforestation, which only makes use of native tree species found in the Philippines.

Tree planting is not an easy task and it is an activity that’s not meant for everyone to do. Those who easily get back pains and arthritis are not recommended to participate in such. I’m glad that I had a chance to partake in this activity.

It feels like that every time I go back to SM City North EDSA, there would be changes. Going to different parts of SM City North EDSA is like traveling through time. It’s like going back to high school days when you’re in the oldest part of SM. When you go to The Block or to the CyberZone, you’ll see the refreshing modern look. And now, here comes the Sky Garden, a combination of the now and nature which I find attractive in the midst of the busy EDSA.

Going out to the Sky Garden from The Block is like going to another dimension. I’m fascinated with the roofs of the walkway. Its shape is modern. The walkway path is tiled with SM branding all over it. And beside the walkway path is the green grass, which is relaxing to the eyes.

There are also some parts of the Sky Garden that would have a mini pond of some stones. By the way, in the above photo, Starbucks will open around that area. And who would think that you’re in the heart of EDSA with that eh?

Aside from Sky Garden’s cozy ambiance, it’s a first for SM to have their own amphitheater. They call it the “Sky Dome”.

The Sky Dome has a seating capacity of around 1,200 people. At daytime, the amphitheater itself is already well-lit with half of the dome covered with glass. I like how they’ve incorporated conservation of energy with the design of the dome.

The Sky Garden at SM City North EDSA’s gave a whole new look to the mall and will give you a refreshing experience. At daytime you’ll see the greens from afar but at night, you’ll see great lighting around the Sky Garden. Too bad I don’t have pictures of it at night.

Awesome Philippines is a project of Department of Tourism and MTV Asia. The website, www.awesomephilippines.com, showcases video remixes by various users that are entries for the contest “Remix your Holiday”. The goal is to create a personal video of your dream vacation in the Philippines. The winner of the contest (and his/her friend) will get to experience a free vacation. In creating the video remixes, you won’t be uploading anything. You’ll just have to choose the photos/videos. Add music to it, add transitions and effects, graphics and text.

The website uses Adobe Premiere Express as the editing tool. You really need a fast internet connection if you really want to make a video remix here. Upon publishing the video remix, other users may view it, post a comment and or give it a thumbs up or down.

Sec. Ace Durano of DOT

Aside from the video remixes, this coming May, virtual Philippines may be explored in Second Life. We were able to see the beta version of it last Thursday and it is truly awesome. The game came as a surprise to me since prior to the event, I was able to take a glimpse of the website already.

By the way, thanks to Melo for the mention of the Facebook app, IveBeenHere to Sec. Ace Durano. It was a pleasure meeting the DOT secretary and for having recognized our efforts in promoting RP tourism through our Facebook app (me and Melvin) for this.

SEAIR celebrates 14th anniversary with up to P100,000,000 in discounts

In celebration of SEAIR’s 14th anniversary on March 25, 2009, it is offering a very special treat online. All online ticket purchases from March 25, 2009 to March 28, 2009 get P1400 discount per way, for all fare classes, for all seats, for all routes, and for all flights from June 15, 2009 to September 15, 2009. Just visit www.flyseair.com and type in the promo code iloveseair14 in the promo code field.

To avail of the SEAIR 14th anniversary promo get tickets online at www.flyseair.com

SEAIR offers daily flights to Batanes this summer

SEAIR now flies daily to Batanes to serve tourists to this beautiful northern paradise. Visitors now have full flexibility on their itinerary and have more options on what day they want to go to Batanes and return to Manila. The flights utilize SEAIR’s Dornier 328 planes which take vacationers comfortably to Batanes in just 1 hour and 20 minutes.

For bookings please call SEAIR reservations at (632)8490100 or book online at www.flyseair.com. For packages please call SEAIR Leisure Escape Packages at (632)8437308

It was my first time at Island Cove and thanks to Yehey and Island Cove for this. Island Cove is located at Cavite and the place has become a venue for the ala Amazing Race dubbed by Yehey as Detour: Island Cove Adventure.

I was not really that physically prepared to participate in an event filled with adrenaline rush to think that I just had only a few hours of sleep. I’m estimating that I only had 2 and a half hours of sleep. I can’t believe myself that I was still able to run and hop around Island Cove.

We finished the race in a span of 1 hour and 7 minutes. The hardest part of the race is where we should find a mask and it’s other half. We spent a long time on it hopping from one pavillion to another and still, we could not find the other half of the mask. Still, we proceeded to the next stop since we’ve already looked at every corner of the pavillion.

Starving Monkey needed to drink water that bad lolz

Letting us feed the monkeys in the morning seemed to be a trick for us since when the time came for us to feed the monkeys and take a picture of a monkey eating a banana most of them are full. It’s a good thing though that there’s one hungry monkey who ate the banana.

Anyway, my favorite part in the tour is the Animal Island where I was able to take photos and I was able to test the zoom of Canon SX110is (10x optical zoom yay!). We saw a cassowary there and one of the zookeepers showed to us the eggs of an ostrich and a cassowary (egg is color green). And also getting to take photos at the Fishing Village is a really great experience.

For me, this is my best travel photo. The photo was taken at Carabao Island, Romblon (summer of 2007). I just love how the trees lined up that way just like the way we line up for the assembly when we’re still in either grade school or high school. The beauty of the place has been captured showing its white sand, pristine waters and the magnificent blue sky. The boat on the photo has added more drama to the photo since it’s facing towards the sea.

Braving the strong waves of Romblon was all worth it indeed. I hope that Carabao Island won’t be that commercialized.

By the way, this is my entry to Nina’s travel photo contest. You can visit JustWandering.org to check out the stuff you could win in this contest.

Here’s the contest mechanics:

1. This contest is open to all Justwandering readers, either in the Philippines or overseas.
2. Create a blog entry in your own blog with a photo you took yourself while traveling. Give a short background about the photo.
3. Be sure to indicate in your entry that the post is your entry for this contest, with a link to Justwandering.org.
4. Leave a comment or a trackback to this entry, so I know that you have joined my contest. No comment/trackback disqualifies your entry.
5. Deadline for submission of entries is at 11:59 pm of December 19, 2008. Winners will be announced on December 25.

I went to Macau last November 21 with my Dad, Kuya Jay and Claudia. It was the first time for us to be together to travel to an international destination. We went there to celebrate Dad’s birthday. Upon arrival at the hotel, we had dinner at some Chinese restaurant which is around 2 blocks away from Casa Real (the hotel where we stayed at).

We went to Macau Fisherman’s Wharf wherein we reached there by walking. It’s about 0.5km away from the hotel. Most of the stores are already closed but there are some restaurants and bars that were still open.

The Venetian

The next day, we went to the Macau Ferry Terminal where our tour guide picked us up. We headed to Taipa Island to pick up other Filipino tourists at the airport and toured around. We passed by The Venetian which is one of the well-known hotels and casinos in Macau. Our first stop is a shop where we bought some almond cookies and nougat.

Then, we had a buffet lunch at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf at Miami Foodcourt which is located beside Babylon and Miami Fashion. The good thing is that we were able to go here since we didn’t get the chance to reach there at our evening stroll there since it was getting really late already.

View from Macau Tower

Skywalk

We went to the Macau Tower. There’s an entrance fee for both adults and children to be able to reach the 61st and 58th floors. It’s around 85 MOP for adults and 55 MOP for children. The entrance fee is not inclusive of other activities at Macau Tower like Bungy Jumping, and Skywalk. In addition, the Macau Food Festival was being held just in front of Macau Tower where we weren’t able to go because the tour guide discouraged us and kept on saying that it’s expensive there. I guess she doesn’t have a commission there.

A-ma Temple

We headed to A-ma Temple. The temple is dedicated to the Goddess of the fisherman (A-ma). Its original construction was from the period just before the arrival of the Portuguese. Then, we headed to another store that sells clothes for bargain. Well, yes some are on sale but most are not. Then, we headed towards another souvenir shop which is Filipino-owned and operated. I bought there a couple of magnets for pasalubong.

Macau Souvenir Shop

Ruins of St. Paul

Then, we walked towards the Ruins of St. Paul which is walking distance from the souvenir shop. It was originally the Cathedral of Saint Paul where the only remaining part is its facade. The cathedral was built by the Jesuits. During the time after it was built(c. 1602), it was the largest Catholic Church in Asia.

McDonald’s at Senado Square

Then, we left the Ruins of St. Paul and headed for shopping. I was not really able to buy so much there except for a couple of shirts and a pork chop burger. Dad treated us over at Starbucks where we took a rest after a long walk.

Grand Lisboa at day time

Grand Lisboa at Night

After a bit of resting, we walked again towards Grand Lisboa. It has a unique architecture because of its shape. It’s nice to look at it both day time and at night. During day time, you got to love the reflection of the sun because of its color. I guess the best time to take a photo of it at day time is between 4 to 5pm. At night, you’ll see the dome changing its colors from time to time and the chasing lights on top outlining its shape.

Sands Casino

Afterwards, we had dinner in another Chinese restaurant and headed back to the hotel to rest. We then went to Sands Casino (just me and my brother) since Dad and Claudia does not have the energy to walk towards there. We went there to try out the slot machine but it did not push through because of the minimum charge of 100 HKD which we find impractical since it’s just the two of us who will be playing.

The Venetian

The food court at The Venetian

The next day, we took the free shuttle ride to The Venetian from the Macau Ferry Terminal. It’s a humongous hotel and casino with stores, a food court, Duty Free and even a Starbucks Coffee inside. The food court at The Venetian is impressive because of the variety of food selections and also because of its interior design.

Gondola at The Venetian

A gondola ride could have completed ones experience at The Venetian but hearing the driver of the gondola sing is already enough.

MGM Grand

We went to the MGM Grand Hotel via a free shuttle bus ride at the Macau Ferry Terminal where we had photo ops. The casino inside MGM Grand is not as many like that of Sands Casino and The Venetian.

The show at Wynn Hotel

We walked towards the Wynn Hotel and Casino at Macau which is just a walking distance from MGM Grand. We were able to catch a show there. We were impressed with the show. I took a video of it and I’ll upload it via YouTube soon.

It’s my first time in Batanes and talk about forgetting to print the e-ticket the night before our flight. Pfft. Anyway, I was not really sure if I have to print my copy since all of our names were listed in one ticket except for Eric and Dino. Luckily, Melo was able to print a copy for me.

We met up at the old airport at around 5am. Melo and Nina were the early birds. After that, when Marc and Gail arrived, we lined up at the check in counter that has a sign “Caticlan” since there’s no counter yet for Basco. But then, when the counter opened, the sign was changed to Basco. Eric and Dino arrived just in time too.

Basco Airport Terminal Building

After checking in our baggage, we had breakfast and waited for our turn to board which was late since they were checking the weather in Batanes and that the person assigned goes there at 6am. I was asleep throughout the flight except merienda time. The flight was about 1 and a half hour long. After landing in the Batanes airport, I saw Mt. Iraya and the Basco Terminal Airport Building that has stones around it just like the stone houses.

Then, we walked towards Novita House. It’s not a hotel but it’s a house where you can cook and also enjoy cable TV. The place is good for about 8 to 10 people. Thus, I would recommend this for groups.

We then went to SDC. It’s a canteen in town. I had spaghetti there. The prices of the food there are affordable. You should try visiting there and have your lunch or merienda.

Lighthouse in Mahatao

Then, we headed to the lighthouse in Mahatao. It was really cloudy that time that instead showing you the colored version of this photo, I post-processed it to become black and white instead. Anyway, when I walked towards the lighthouse, I saw the picturesque door with a stone wall. I went up the lighthouse and marveled at the beautiful scenery.

Japan surplus bike

A japan surplus bicycle is a common sight there in Batanes. You’d usually see people use this as their mode of transportation. There are jeepneys and tricycles around though.

Valugan Beach

Followed by our photo op at the lighthouse in Mahatao, we then went to Valugan Beach. I’d like to share to you an excerpt of the sign board at Valugan Beach:

Valugan beach manifests volcanic effusions from Mt. Iraya that is an important geologic formation in the archipelago…

We also went to the Tukon Radar Station in Batanes. It was interesting to see the locals play a game of basketball. After some photo ops there, we went to Sitio Diura in Mahatao to have our lunch. Our rice was cooked the old way using chopped wood.

Marlboro Country

We went to Marlboro Hills (also known as Payaman). We enjoyed the splended view where we found some animals grazing.

Most photographed woman in Batanes

We also visited Songsong Ruins and the Honesty Coffee Shop. We were able to visit the oldest stone house in Batanes which is located in Ivana. Then, we tried catching the sunset but the cloudy skies somewhat failed us.

Stone Houses in Sabtang Island

The following day, we went to Sabtang Island by boat (Faluwa). We were lucky enough that the waves are not yet that strong when we departed from Batan Island. There are also stone houses to be found here. It’s also interesting to see the locals play a game of softball. Instead of using a bat, they used a flat piece of wood. We met Mang Ano who makes “salakot” for a living.

Lunch at the beach

We had our lunch at Sabtang in front of the beach and enjoyed eating coconut crabs. It was my first time to try eating one. On our way back to Batan Island, the waves were stronger. Thanks to Dino’s Sea2Summit Dry Sack.

On our third day there, we were just bumming around the house since the weather was not good for traveling around.

Big thanks to Seair for covering our airfare.

I also like to visit the picturesque oldest stone house in Ivana, Batan Island. And as a food tripper , It would be fun to experience eating at Casa Napoli. I heard about it from Melo and he says that the pizza is really good.

Planning to go to Batanes too? SEAIR now flies to Batanes 5 times a week. Book now at www.flyseair.com . Get 15 percent discount with this promo code rwkr88aa.