Postcards from Cambodia: Angkor Wat

One of the few things I was willing to wake up at an ungodly hour for was to watch the sun rise over Cambodia's greatest treasure: Angkor Wat, the City of Temples. 
  First a Hindu then a Buddhist temple complex, Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II.  
  It is the largest religious monument in the world and its perfect symmetry is a wonder to behold.
  The main temple of Angkor Wat is composed of three rectangular galleries, each higher than the next.
  Every inch of the walls of each gallery is covered in elaborate bas-relief scenes from Hindu mythology and literature.
  Angkor Wat's Temple Mountain, its central and uppermost sanctuary, is an architectural representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hindu mythology.
  From the uppermost terrace, one can see across the lower galleries to the bridge which crosses the moat around Angkor Wat, and all the way to the outer wall.
  The image of Buddha in the uppermost sanctuary depicts him seated on the coils of a Naga. Legend says that Buddha was so deep in meditation, he did not notice the storm that began raging around him. So the Naga coiled itself under Buddha to raise him from the muddy waters and bent its seven heads (one of which is broken here) over him to protect him from the rain. Of all the temples in the Angkor district of Siem Reap, only Angkor Wat was never abandoned and it is still an active Buddhist temple today.

The air we breathe

"In tough times, some of us see protecting the climate as a luxury, but that's an outdated 20th-century worldview from a time when we thought industrialization was the end goal, waste was growth, and wealth meant a thick haze of air pollution."

~Alex Steffen, American futurist and sustainability advocate

This is the same view of Metro Manila as my post from May 8 but taken early in the morning rather than in the middle of the day. Unless one lives in a building more than one kilometer high, there's no way to escape from that air pollution. The Philippines enacted a clean air law back in 1999 but, like many of our other laws, it isn't fully implemented or enforced.

Kiss

A red sunset at Manila Bay.

17

My husband and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary at the start of June by treating ourselves to a short beach trip to Subic in Zambales. This was the view from our room. That white wake near the bottom was from a jet ski that had just passed by.

Coffee and chicken

There's a new Seattle's Best Coffee and Kenny Rogers Roasters in our neighborhood.
  They're pretty small to have such an enormous sign.
  I like how the sign looks small against the big sky, though.

Moving on

After a light rain shower in Quezon City.

Exchange deal

Two of the Philippines' most popular mobile phone service providers have cell sites inside the Quezon City campus of Ateneo de Manila University, located on a field near the Manila Observatory. Part of the deal is, the observatory gets to place some of their weather and atmospheric instruments on the towers. The spindly tower on the right, as well as the white and brick building beside it, belongs to the observatory.

Willy's Rock

This volcanic rock formation with a Marian grotto near the shoreline in Boracay is nicknamed Willy's Rock because it stands in front of Willy's Beach Club Hotel, one of the island's pioneering resorts (established in 1975, long before Boracay became a byword for summer beach vacations). I've seen pictures of it fully exposed, but during high tide in the southwest monsoon season, it's a wet walk to get to the rock.
  And what do people do when they get to Willy's Rock? Why, take souvenir photos of themselves, of course!

What beach?

The wide, white sand beaches of Boracay are well-known among tourists all over the world, but I have to confess that my husband and I had never visited the island until his youngest brother got married there last June.
  Trust that our first time in Boracay would be at the beginning of the southwest monsoon, when there was hardly any sign of its fabled powder-fine white sand because of the high tides.

But I exaggerate, of course. The waters would recede in the afternoon and we could walk comfortably on the well-packed sand to one of Boracay's equally fabled cafés, restaurants and bars. And I am very happy to report that the sand definitely lives up to its reputation.

East and west

The town of Pagudpud in the province of Ilocos Norte is gaining popularity as a beach vacation destination. However, its coastline is quite extensive and we found out, too late, that it is best to find out which direction the wind is blowing before choosing which beach to go to.
  Saud Beach is the most developed (relative only to the rest of the town, of course) and generates the most results when doing a Google search for "Pagudpud resorts." It faces west and, because we arrived just when the Southwest Monsoon (habagat) was about to start, the wind was blowing sand all over the place and the current was a little too strong for beach bums like us who only stay near the shore. The habagat season in the Philippines is from May to October (or thereabouts).
  During those months, it is better to stay at Blue Lagoon, which faces east. We drove the extra half hour needed to get there from Saud, and it was worth it. The water had the barest of ripples. During the Northeast Monsoon (amihan)—the other half of the year—this part of Pagudpud gets windy and the waters more turbulent, and it is better to stay in Saud.
  I wish we could have experienced Blue Lagoon in the middle of summer when it would not have been overcast. There is a reason why it got that name, after all.

Harnessing wind

The Bangui Wind Farm is the first of its kind in the Philippines. Its twenty turbines are arranged in a single row along a nine-kilometer stretch of shoreline in the town of Bangui in the province of Ilocos Norte, which is at the northwestern-most tip of the big island of Luzon.
  It has become such a popular tourist destination since its completion in 2008 that several bamboo and nipa huts offering refreshments, souvenirs (bamboo windmills, anyone?), and much-needed shade, have been erected on the beach where the dirt roads leading to the windmills end.

Flagpole

The Philippine flag flying high—very high—at the Rizal Park.

Not eternal

A dreary morning at the runway of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport's Terminal 3, exclusive to Philippine Airlines and its low-budget Airphil Express. Only the yellow tail of rival Cebu Pacific Air's plane and its matching yellow hangar evoked the sunshine of the summer just past.

The city of Ferdinand III

From May 12 to 24, my husband and I went on a road trip through the Central Luzon and Ilocos Regions, stopping at cities and towns that we've never visited before. My Manila goes outside Metro Manila for the next few days. I hope you enjoy the trip.

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Home base for our tour of the coastal towns of the province of La Union (Agoo, San Juan and Bacnotan) was Sunset Bay Beach Resort in San Fernando City, the capital of the province. The resort is just outside the city center, with a great view of the little finger of land called Poro Point. If the monsoon rains hadn't decided to come a few weeks early, the view of the sunset would have been great too, since the resort is on the western coast of Luzon, facing the South China Sea (or the West Philippine Sea, if you ask our government and media).


Sunset Bay has big rooms, free wifi, good food, friendly staff, and the casual atmosphere that we like in beach resorts. Our trip to La Union was not for its beaches, but we liked Sunset Bay so much we decided to stay there again on our way back home, still more than a week away.


San Fernando officially became a city only in 1998, but its history reaches back much farther—back to 1786 and the Spanish colonial times. The church of San Fernando, named after Saint William the Hermit, was first constructed then too, but, like many of the other churches in the region, the original structure was damaged during the 1892 earthquake and the 1898 Philippine Revolution, then destroyed in 1945 at the end of World War II. The current church was reconstructed in 1947–49, and St. William Parish Church became St. William Cathedral in 1970.


The facade of St. William Cathedral is almost nondescript, looking like any one of thousands of Catholic churches around the Philippines. The church is also difficult to visit, located as it is in the very busy and heavily-congested center of San Fernando City. I think the small but magnificent sanctuary is worth the bother though.


The resort that has placed San Fernando within the radar screen of Manila's weekend getaway-seeking crowd is the Mediterranean-themed Thunderbird Resort Poro Point. We just had to see it for ourselves, so we decided to have lunch at its restaurant, Olives, which has a wonderful view of the pool and the ocean. For those who are not fond of swimming and water sports, Thunderbird also has a golf course and a casino.


Thunderbird Resort is also the closest one can get to the Poro Point Lighthouse, at least until its rehabilitation is completed and the Poro Point Freeport Zone developed. In anticipation of this and to encourage tourism this early on, a festival centered around the lighthouse was created just this year. Called Sillag (Ilokano for "moonbeam"), the Poro Point Festival of Lights was launched on April 28. We missed it by two weeks!


The weather on our return trip a week later was better, and we were able to put in a few hours of pool time at Sunset Bay Beach Resort. Yes, the ocean's just a few steps away, but even at its calmest, the waters of La Union have too strong an undercurrent for my peace of mind. My photo makes it look like just a wet wall, but the pool's waterfall is strong enough for a vigorous back massage.


Then an early dinner at the resort's restaurant and bar… 


where I discovered the yummy Tanduay Ice while we watched the sun set—behind yet another gathering thundercloud.  LUZON ROAD TRIP SERIES #5

Mid-day impressions

At La Luz Beach Resort in San Juan, Batangas.
 
Cabanas for day-trippers. If you're willing to rough it, you can stay here overnight too, falling asleep to the sound of the waves. (We stayed in a beach-front air-conditioned room—we're wusses.)
 
Small rocks…

lead to a big rock at the end of the cove which make up the beaches of Laiya and Hugom. The big rock also marks the end of La Luz's property.
  Lady Jane. The bangka is the most common fishing boat and water transport in the country-archipelago that is the Philippines. It is an outrigger canoe, and the outriggers are usually made of bamboo. The roof is optional, and, for smaller boats, so is the engine.
  A floating platform for swimmers who have no fear of deep ocean water.

Will I recommend La Luz Beach Resort? I guess it depends on what kind of accommodations you like when at the beach. Me, I like to constantly feel that I am at the beach, not in a fancy hotel that can be in any city. When I walk out the room, I want to feel sand between my toes after a few steps. And I want to be able to walk around anywhere in my swimsuit, dripping wet and trailing sand, and not have to worry about messing up furniture or carpets. If that sounds like you too, then yes, I highly recommend La Luz.

Kids.

The dogs of the small villages around the area use the beaches of Laiya and Hugom in San Juan, Batangas as their early morning play and exercise grounds. When resort guests wake up and start arriving on the beach, they head back home.

It's going to be a wonderful day

5:40am at La Luz Beach Resort in the municipality of San Juan in the province of Batangas, about 115 kilometers south of Manila, where my husband and I spent four lazy days last week. The beaches of Laiya and Hugom are on Tayabas Bay, like Bellarocca Island Resort in the island province of Marinduque from two years ago.

Cloudzilla

Seen while walking out of the Ateneo de Manila University campus on our way home at 6:00 in the evening a few days ago.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

Golden path

It wasn't until I tried taking pictures of a sunset from start to finish that I realized that the sun's reflection on the water lasts for only a few minutes. Taken at the Manila Bay looking towards the hills of the Bataan Peninsula.

See what's reflecting what at James' Weekend Reflections.

High and low

Looking out across the rooftops of some of the upscale residential subdivisions around Capitol Hills Golf & Country Club from the roof deck of Dencio's Bar and Grill. I've already posted a photo of the building being constructed on the right, which will become the tallest building in Katipunan Avenue when it's done. The cluster of buildings on the left is the residential and commercial condominiums of Eastwood City. These are all in Quezon City, but the farther buildings in the middle are already in the Ortigas Center of Pasig City.

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Calling all City Daily Photo bloggers! Our theme for June 1 is Funny Signs. That should be fun! And don't forget to vote for the July theme!