Inspirational murals and ceiling art for commuters in Dela Rosa pathway

Like any business center, Makati area can be a bit empty during the weekends, especially on Sundays. Although I would have been interested to compare the pedestrian traffic of incoming workers versus going home workers, I was glad I didn't need to go through it. However seeing the murals and ceiling paintings on this highly used pathway made me curious about the pace, attitude of commuters.

The pathway is a long elevated, roofed walkway that spans between the Legazpi street to Greenbelt mall. A long part of it is along Dela Rosa Street, and also serves as parking lot and office building access. It is a convenient alternative to walking along the high car traffic Ayala Avenue, and has convenient stores, vending machines, ATM machines, several food joints, and green plants to enhance the landscape of glass and metal.

Bougainvilliers, cactuses to make a parking lot preppy

Some greens to line up the grey buildings

Small garden area to stroll by

The green plants would probably lower the stress of traffic below, as well as the sights of dreary buildings around. What caught my interest and enthusiasm though was a the colourful paintings on the ceilings and walls on some parts of the walkway, mainly on the Dela Rosa street portion.

The first time I saw them it excited my sight, leaving me entertained by the variety of shapes and colours. It made me wonder if the commuters would see them. Walking this path every day in a catatonic state in the morning and evening, some commuters would not even remember seeing anything but grey walls. But on this section, they would catch colours and weird shapes here and there, between crowds, and may be curious to look up and come back to life.

Upon watching closely, most of the murals had inspirational and encouraging messages. They could make you smile, you could agree with them, or just admire the art. I am truly grateful to the artists who painted those delightful scenes.

Smile more!

Hustling nine to five

Be well

In this age of digital information overload, it was refreshing to see messages that conveyed messages that touched the heart and soul by its richness and effort put into making them: simple messages, but truly heartwarming  in its composition.

Makati astronaut

The pipes, the utility boxes were all part of the paintings, and it was a challenge sometimes to distinguish them apart from the walls or ceilings.

Goooood morning everybody

Floating lotuses

We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time

There are many more on the walls (#delarosamurals) and it makes for a nice walk on Sunday to check out creativity get a new eye on things. There are also underpasses in Makati, and I will make sure to look up and check those out once I have seen all the ones on the pathway. In general though the walls are quite entertaining with ads while the ceilings are decorated with artfully painted graffiti. It made me want to pain walls as well, in a catharsis like dance of paint splashing and smudging...

Climbing a volcano, a small one in the middle of lake Taal

Climbing a volcano can be on one of those lists that can be daunting to do. But I got brave when I read it would take about 1h to climb. So I settled to trek the Taal volcano, which last erupted in 1977.

I booked a car with driver (Anthony) with a local travel agency online (Filipino Travel Center) 48h before the trip. It was convenient because it was last minute and I still had time to get security clearance. On Sunday 7:50am  the driver arrived to pick me up from the trip. I wanted to start at 8:00am. The day was fresh and blue skies were disagreeing with the weather forecast (cloudy with thunderstorms).

We drove fast out of Makati and out of Manila, underneath the expressway, passing multiple shopping centers and their epty parking lots. We passed by Santa Rosa Laguna,  and drove up through Talisay (province of Batangas), to reach Tagaytay around 9:15am. After a dizzying drive down a steep road, we arrived at our resort, where after check in, a boatmaster (Nato) gave me a lifejacked to embark on his boat.

Interceptor

We sped on water, bow up in the air, flying on a motorized fishing boat for about 30min, on a glass mirror lake. The first mountain evoked an extincting volcano, hiding the fact that there are 3 volcanoes on the island.

Taal lake and volcanic island

Boatmaster Nato at the helm

The lake had many islands but the volcanic island was the most popular.

View from Tagaytay

On the island, a small community of 5000 inhabitants and growing are living without electricity, depending on what the land grows, tourism and fishing. As soon as the boat moored, I was invited to stay on the boat to take a picture, which they printed within 5min. Then a horse ride was suggested, which I refused since the whole point was to walk. The horses were small pony sized horses. The trail was dirt trail but as it was early and it rained the night before, there was no use for the face mask they brandished around.

The fresh air and fresh manure accompanied me along the trek up, with little shade to shield from the sun. A hat, sunscreen, umbrella and water are the best accessories, along with a camera. My guide Nato wore flip flops and walked so fast we barely exchanged words at the beginning. I finally asked him to slow down when we arrived towards the top, as the slope got steeper and we were passing through volcanic activity with fumes coming out of the warm ground.

At the top, the pretty sulfuric lake was brightly shining and glistening in the midday sun, contrasting with the lush green vegetation surrounding it. In the shades, it was good to rest and fan myself with local craft, while debating whether to get fresh coconut juice.

I didn't debate long and forgot myself in the scenery and the fresh coconut juice. Did you spot the island in the middle of the lake? I was on an island, which had a lake with an island volcano, which also had a lake and a tiny cute island in the middle...

There are still some fumes on the edges of the crater, and water can be seen boiling below in the lake, enough to make one sweat again. The sulfuric lake was pristine, without boat or fishing activity.

Strangely enough, there were vendors calling out for golf players, as if there were a 18-hole golf course nearby. I suppose a mini golf and a pose with the lake as background would be a nice photo op. But it was time to walk down as the sun was starting to burn, and there were a lot of tourists coming up on their valiant small steeds.

The ride back to the small resort dried my t-shirt, and gave me another view and lighting on the scenery.

And a meal in a nice wooden gazebo was the perfect pick me up from the heat and exhaustion: steamed tilapia, chop suey vegetables, chicken adobo, and rice.

 It was the perfect time and place to have a nap, but the tablecloth got invaded by thousands of micro ants, which became visible as soon as the waiter took away the plates and food. After a bit of rest I wanted to drive back leisurely while admiring the landscape of pineapple farms and side roads stalls. The region was known of its pineapple farms after all.

Taking the expressway from Santa Rosa Laguna, we quickly arrived back to the hotel mid-afternoon, and gave me enough time to enjoy the rest of the day resting and enjoying the stormy skies over Manila. It was an enjoyable day trip, providing fresh air and mental rest out of the city. And I learned a few more words in Tagalog.

Salcedo market, food fest etc...

This market was highly recommended by colleagues and guidebooks alike, and I am glas I visited it whenever I manage to wake up early. It is a parking space during the weekdays, and filled with stalls selling foods, goods from independent grocers and farmers, nearby restaurants, etc...

One entrance with a guard doing bag check

Surrounded by high rise buildings

There are a lot of freshly grilled and fried food, but also proper cooked meal that can be enjoyed in the middle of the market.

Grilled seafood and fish

Grilled meat

Of course there are butcher and fresh fish produce as well. But the fun of it is discovering local specialties.

Rice cakes with sometimes stuffings, wrapped in leaves

Salted eggs and dried fish

Pigeon dishes

Something to quench your thirst in the heat

There are some local crafts as well but mainly it is for food and maybe spices and grains etc. I got some pancake mix with 'ube', which is purple sweet potato (vomanga in Malagasy). It was fun to check out the fruit stalls as well, and I got myself some papaya.

Strawberries and durian, pineapples

Papayas

Dragonfruit and soursap

Pretty grocer's display

It will take many visits to taste all the stalls, and I hope I can come over when I am not traveling.

Tita Bambi is sooo right

And with that a Saturday morning is well spent.

'Ber' months in the Philippines

ALl Saints day was quite a big holiday and there were lots of advisories about traffic that i received by SMS. As soon as midnight struck though, it felt like the Christmas decoration fever was fully unleashed and the street lights and building decorations multiplied.

What I discovered though was that a good place to enjoy the Christmas tres and decorations are the home section of department stores. So I went out chasing out after decorated trees.

SM City mall, Makati

It was quite pretty seeing the way they were decorated. I particularly enjoyed the oeverloaded trees, as they showcased different themes in luxurious ways.

My favourite decoration

 I specially loved the flowers decorating the trees, inciting you to sniff the fragrance of the tree and flower, which is obviously missing since everything is made of plastic and fabric. A suggestion tot he shop would be to add room fragrance...

Almost Easter tree

And then there is the preppy colored ones which turned the tree all sorts of pastel colors, ready for the Easter bunny.

Candy tree

And my guilty pleasure was the hunger inducing tree with all breakfast and sugar food. Something for the sweet tooth in us all.

Rainy season tree

The good thing about strolling among those trees was that it felt very flowery and summery, and it felt like I was indulging in a bit of escapism from the boring skyscrapers and construction sites all around me.

With that, it felt like a painting, and rather peaceful to look at.