Smartening up the Skyline: Putting Art on Billboards

The urban landscape is a visual riot. Almost everything tends to catch your attention—the gleaming buildings that bristle in the horizon; the shanties with their motley of scraps huddling together; the vehicles that whiz by; the power lines that crisscross over everything; the signs that blink, blink, blink. But nothing catches the attention like billboards, the most effective outdoor advertising tool, because their sheer size and their visual content.

Some scholars believe that outdoor advertising began in ancient Egypt some 4000 years ago with stone obelisks used by merchants to promote goods. Billboards, which were basically large posters on the sides of buildings, began in the United States during the late 18th to early 19th century, when lithography made “real” posters possible, and spread as roads and highways increased. In the Philippines, billboards were first used to advertise movies with hand-painted posters much like today’s vanishing ones. It became the primary medium of advertising in the 1960s and experienced a kind of boom in the mid-1990s with the advent of digital technology, facilitating increased production and enhanced imagery.

Though lagging behind its Asian neighbors, the Philippines’ capital and largest urban center has a substantial number of billboards. According to Benjamin “Dondie” Bueno, chief operating officer of United Neon Lights and spokesperson for 2nd Media, the public affairs arm of Advertising Association of the Philippines (OAAP), there about 2,000 billboards in Metro Manila, mostly with the width of 40 feet and height of 60 feet or width of 30 and height of 50.

Like any other modern cities in the world, billboards have become part of the skyline.

“It’s a daily visual experience,” said artist Tina Fernandez. “People see the same things again and again they don’t look anymore.”

Every now and then, billboards gather attention when a new interesting one is unveiled or a celebrity is featured like the billboards of the local clothing company Bench, which is often used by celebrities as launch pad for a sexier image. Otherwise, billboards have become like paper litter on gray and gleaming grass, usually ignored and, if noticed, usually in the bad light.

There is the concern about road safety. Billboards have been accused of distracting motorists and causing accidents, but it was found to be not true. In 2007, the super typhoon Milenyo toppled many billboards, prompting the government to take notice about their safety. But mainly billboards are associated with the problem of visual clutter.

Architect and heritage conservationist Augusto Villalon once lashed out against outdoor advertising in a newspaper, “how advertising debases our vistas.”

“Ads are everywhere, totally trashing our visual landscape,” he wrote, and further told how one once enjoyed driving through Edsa with a vista, crossing the Pasig at Guadalupe that “was a visual exclamation point where you could look at the water that stretched from Manila Bay to Laguna de Bay.”

He lamented, “Gone is the visual impact of the Pasig as Manila's historic life-giving waterway, even if the choked river has a difficult time surviving these days. Gone, too, is the soothing visual panorama of the adobe Makati-Mandaluyong bluffs, signifying that nearby the highest quality adobe was quarried for building purposes.”

“Nobody did anything to stop its mad proliferation that has blindfolded the unsuspecting eyes of today’s Pinoys who now accept visual pollution as a fact of their modern consciousness. That is sad,” Villalon said.

Haphazardly built and with a dearth of public art, the urban sprawl of Metro Manila has become generally unsightly and frequently chaotic, badly needing beautification. For better or worse, billboards are part of it.

Some feel that billboards can be vehicle for beautification and a little advocacy. Thus, the Manila Outdoor Gallery Art Route was created by 2nd Media of OAAP. Unveiled on October 16, 2008, and run for three weeks, the project reproduced visual artworks on billboards along North Luzon Expressway and Edsa on the Quezon City area, northern part of Metro Manila.

“This will herald a new era for billboards because it has debunked all existing negative perceptions about billboards and the industry,” enthused Frank Abueva, president of the OAAP.
The OAAP has been a forerunner in outdoor advertising in the country. In the advent of outdoor advertising in the Philippines, OAAP was formed, in August 13, 1963, “to promote growth of outdoor advertising by establishing its own code of ethics and guidelines that underscored the different facets of the industry including public safety and well-being and environmental aesthetics.”

From the 15 founding members that made up of its first aggrupation—Acme Neon Lights, Advertising Associates, Hi-Art Reproduction, House of Racor, Luzon Advertising, Manalang Advertising, Manila Neon Lights, Martin Outdoor, M.J. Gonzales and Associates, Modern Advertising, Outdoor Advertising of the Philippines, R. Lunod and Associates, Sierra Neon, United Neon Lights, Universal Sales Promotions—OAAP now has 89 active members all over the Philippines, 63 in Metro Manila, 11 in Cebu City and 15 in the newly-formed Mindanao chapter. Its members have about 160 billboards scattered over Metro Manila.

Priding itself as the self-regulatory body for outdoor advertising practitioners and becoming “instrumental in the industry’s efforts to ensure the safety and integrity of billboards across the metro,” the organization is working with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other government agencies on the current issue on billboards.

Now, they have embarked on Manila Outdoor Gallery Art Route, which has been dubbed the biggest outdoor gallery in Asia and the change that the billboard industry has been waiting for.
“Art throughout history has always inspired change by always going beyond the frame,” Bueno said. “And together with the OAAP, we aim for the Manila Outdoor Gallery Art Route to be a catalyst for change in the metro by pushing the boundaries of what billboards can be.”

Bueno admitted that the project is “different the way we do business,” and that its primary aim is to “change the perception of billboards” and “evolve the use of billboards”— “that billboards can be used for advocacy other than advertising.”

Several advertisers, who have long used billboards for their products, are excited about the idea. “It's a very interesting idea, probably the first of its kind. As a company that's also very active in promoting social awareness, like in this one saving the environment, this is definitely something that we support and commend,” said Suyen Lim, brand manager for Human.

The most noticeable impact is the breaking the visual monotony and inured-ness.

“People are not used to seeing paintings on a billboard. This momentarily takes them out of their daily grind and they start to notice. Can you imagine a better way to drive your message across than to evoke reactions from passersby?” said Bueno.
Fernandez of the gallery ArtInformal, who together with artist Christina Quisumbing Ramilo served as curator for the project, mentioned about people getting used to billboard that they ignored them altogether. She also said that the images on the billboards are the same—beautiful men and women. What was lacking was the imagery of nature.

Thus, the theme of the artworks chosen for the project was an environmental one. Not only are they breaking the usual notion of billboards by putting art instead of ads, they are also sending messages across.

When Fernandez got a call from OAAP about the project, she admitted that she and her artist friends were shocked. They soon sat together and chose a theme on the environment. Fernandez summoned 10 artists, mostly friends, to contribute for the project, and gathered about 20 paintings and photographs.

The featured artists were emerging ones. Bueno admitted that they started with up-and-coming artists because they were intimated by big-name artists who may charge them high. That fear though turned something positive with the idea of highlighting emerging talents.

The artists were Popo San Pascual, Riel Hilario, Eddie Boy Escudero, Jose Terence Ruiz, Mario V. Fernandez, Gari Buenavista, MM Yu, Christina Quisumbing Ramilo, Lotsu Manes and Tina Fernandez herself.

San Pascual’s Mating Call is a celadon-blue entanglement of vegetation and flowers with a monkey hidden in it, looking like abstract from afar or a pattern for a skirt. Escudero’s photograph Rice Terraces to Heaven depicts a lush part of the Ifugao rice terraces with a row of unfinished houses. Hilario’s somber Eternal Return has a tree with falling leaves and birds with human faces. Ruiz’s You Are What You BrEAThe looks like a ad itself with the title printed on the work an human figure showing his lungs. Mario V. Hernandez’s Hayup Ka portrays an Eden-like menagerie. Buenavista’s photo Best Things shows a boy bathing in a small creek with the words The best things in life are not always things. Yu’s photo Red shows a fire hydrant in a sea of grass. Ramilo’s “Mag Resiklo” Daang Bakal shows a collection of recycled things. Fernandez and Ramilo’s Hingang Malalim is a realistic rendition of clouds. Manes’s Hangin shows a child pumping air into a deflated globe.

It is still uncertain what the impact of the project will be, if it will really change people’s notion of billboards and if it will draw motorists to art.

“We want these paintings and photographs on billboards to enrich and entertain people. We want them to engage in discussions about the artwork they saw at Cubao or how they liked the one in Ortigas better,” Bueno said.

The problem lies in time though. Driving through a busy highway, the motorists can only afford a cursory glance and not contemplation as when inside a gallery or museum. But organizers were initially hoping for breaking the humdrum-ness of scenery and debunking usual notions of billboards, maybe to jolting people into seeing and observing their surroundings. For Fernandez, it is okay and she is happy if it only affects one person. She also hoped that project will beautify the skyline and the artists will benefit from it financially.

Many questions and eyebrows will be raised. That realistic painting about clouds: why look at it when you can look at the clouds themselves. Another painting perhaps should be selected. Many will still assert that the way to beautify a city is to eradicate billboards altogether. That point will be well taken. Still, billboards are part of our landscape and are powerful tools for communication and meanwhile they can be harnessed for better or worse.

To see more of the art works and the images available for sale, visit www.outdoorartgallery.com.ph.

Published in The Daily Tribune, November 7, 2008, page 12.

Identify This Manta-Shaped Island

I was just getting out from a wonderful sojourn in El Nido Resorts in El Nido, northwestern part of Palawan when I peered out of the window of our small plane and saw an island. It was shaped like a bat or a manta ray. What is the name of the island? I wondered. Were we still in Palawan? It seemed to have white-sand beaches. It seemed to have a house or something. Anyone help?

Experience Travel and Living Magazine (Volume 4, Number 2) Out Now

Before anything else, I always forget to announce this. So before another comes out late October or in November, grab a copy of Experience travel and living magazine with the Batanes cover. Yep, I wrote the cover story. I was harried so the article was a tad clipped at the ending. Anyway, full version may be read in the forthcoming Area, a new magazine on design and lifestyle, edited by a friend, Carlomar Daoana. It will also appear in The Daily Tribune soon. Of course, I will be posting it here soon. But buy the magazine though. It is good stuff. He he.

Raffles Rising

Despite political uncertainty and a sluggish economic improvement in the Philippines, high-end real estate and the tourism industry have seen lively development with a number of investments in resorts, residences and hotels. Some are already in construction. The Shangri-La group of hotels will be opening its Boracay Resort and Spa by the end of 2008 and has broken ground at Fort Bonifacio, a former military base transformed into a commercial area in Taguig City, for a new hotel, set to open in 2012, adding to its two existing properties.

Now joining in is Raffles Hotels and Resorts, which already has several properties worldwide. The name itself connotes an illustrious history of hospitality and luxurious service, which began in Singapore.

The Raffles Hotel is, of course, named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the British founder of Singapore and prominent historical figure of early 19th century Southeast Asia. It was established though by four Armenian brothers, Martin, Tigran, Aviet and Arshak Sarkies, and opened in 1887, then a plain, old bungalow called the Beach House. Over the years, the hotel evolved, patronized by dignitaries, celebrities, artists and royalties. It was declared a National Monument in 1987. In 1989, the Raffles Hotels and Resorts company was formed to restore, redevelop and manage the hotel. It is owned by Fairmont Raffles Hotels International Inc., which has over 85 hotels worldwide under the Raffles, Fairmont and Swissôtel brands. After restoration, Raffles Hotel reopened in 1991. In 1996, the company began building Raffles Hotels in other parts of the world.

Through the years, Raffles has earned a reverent reputation and has been regarded as among the best in the world. It has earned a kind of legendary status. Writer W. Somerset Maugham stayed there and called it the legendary symbol for “all the fables of the Exotic East.” Writer Rudyard Kipling also stayed there, as well as a host of prominent people.

“Patronized by royalty, beloved by all,” said Jeannette Ho, vice president for marketing and sales of Raffles Hotels and Resorts.

This kind of legend Raffles is banking on. “We don’t consider ourselves as a company that just manages hotels and resorts,” Ho stated. “It’s our responsibility to create legends.”
Along with legends, they also create journeys, not just a place to stay in, “a journey of discovery,” Ho said, and “magic.”

The magic and experience can be roughly attributed to the hotel’s qualities of being steeped in culture and refinement, and being heartfelt and gracious. Ho said that they try their best to bring the culture of the destination in their hotels. Artisans from villages and families, who traditionally do certain crafts, were employed to handcraft some details of some of their hotels like Raffles Beijing in China and the newly opened Raffles Dubai in United Arab Emirates.

The entire staff of the hotel is known for their service and attention that are heartfelt and gracious, Ho further said.

These will be experienced by travelers to the Philippines and by the Filipinos themselves when Raffles opens its hotel in Makati City’s business district in 2010.

Partnering with Raffles for the project is Kingdom Hotel Investments
(KHI), a hospitality real estate investment company based in Dubai. It already has ownership interests in 34 properties in 21 countries.

“Kingdom Hotel Investments is proud to be playing an integral role in the growth of Raffles Hotels and Resorts, renowned for its legendary service, innovative culinary concepts and cultured luxury,” declared Jeff Tisdall, vice president for real estate of KHI.

“Kingdom Hotels is focused on emerging markets where we see tremendous opportunities for growth,” he further informed. He mentioned the strengths of these markets lie in tourism, business travel and overall investments.

He also announced during a press conference in Manila the three new Raffles developments, which include the one in Makati City. The other two are in Seychelles and Vietnam.

The Raffles Resort in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, is set to open also in 2010 and is located the northeast tip of Praslin Island, the second largest island of the Seychelles. With 300,000 square meters land area and 500 meters of direct beachfront, Raffles Resort Praslin will have 23 private residential villas. The site close to one of the Seychelles’ UNESCO World Heritage site, the Vallée de Mai, a forest once believed to be the original site of the Garden of Eden, with about 6,000 coco de mers. Praslin also has some of the worldfs best beaches like Anse Lazio and Anse Georgette.

On the other hand, the site in Vietnam, also set to open in 2010, is in the city of Da Nang, in the central part of the country, and is close to three UNESCO World Heritage sites—the remains of ancient palaces of Thua Thien in Hue, the old village of Hoi An and the complex of religious relics of My Son. Raffles Da Nang will have about150 suites and 15 private residential villas on the famous China Beach.

In contrast, the development in Manila will be in a modern urban setting, a “strictly urban experience,” Tisdall said, in which guests will enjoy the amenities of a modern city.
Tisdall said that Manila is a place they long have seen they needed to be, but has found the right opportunity just now. There is limited supply of luxury hotels here, he said. It took time for them to choose the best site. He said the one they have chosen is the best location in Metro Manila as it provides convenient access to malls, good restaurants and other urban amenities. For this, they found a good partner with Ayala Land.

Raffles Manila is at the corner of Makati Avenue and Arnaiz Avenue (formerly Pasay Road) and will feature a 30-storey glass tower. It is actually two hotels in one—the Raffles at one side and Fairmont Hotel at the other. Guests and residents will have convenient access to the Greenbelt malls and other business, shopping, entertainment and recreation facilities in the area.
There will be limited residences at the upper storeys. Two-hundred-twenty one-, two-, and three-bedroom residences, which sell for about US$200,000 and up each, will occupy the top 20 stories of the Raffles Hotel, including two floors of penthouse apartments, which sells US$1.5 million and up each. Aside from that the hotel will have a swimming pool, a fitness center, a business centre, direct access to spa on premises, Mediterranean and Japanese restaurants, and a private owners’ lounge with concierge service. A main attraction will be The Long Bar, a contemporary interpretation of The Long Bar of Raffles Hotel Singapore, where the famous cocktail drink Singapore Sling was born.

The rooms are promised to offer spectacular views of the Makati skyline, the Manila Bay and the Laguna Bay. The hotel itself will be “a dramatic addition to the Makati skyline,” Tisdall said. Leading and award-winning US-based firm Arquitectonica, whose projects on several continents include mixed-use developments, universities, resorts, casinos, hotels, luxury condominium towers, retail centers and office buildings, will the design the tower, while US-based Bent Severin design company, which designed the refurbished Raffles Hotel Singapore as well as Marriot Hotel in Nagoya, Japan, and Hyatt Regency in Burlingame, California, among others, will do the interiors.

Sarmad Zok, chief executive officer of KHI, said, “Raffles Manila is a perfect example of our ability to create spectacular lodging and residential ownership opportunities in high growth emerging markets. Complemented by the renowned service of Raffles, our distinctive building, designed by architectural firm Arquitectonica with sleek interiors by Bent Severin, will make Raffles one of Manila’s most sought-after addresses.”

“All three of our current Raffles development projects, which include China Beach in Vietnam and Praslin Island in the Seychelles, demonstrate our commitment to developing unique world class hotels and resorts in the most sought after and rapidly growing destinations,” Tisdall said. “Our premium Makati location for KHI’s first urban Raffles development, combined with the designs by world renowned architecture and design firms, will attract international and domestic visitors.”

Other Raffles hotels and resorts in development are in Konottaa, Maldives (2009); Tianjin, China (2009); Marrakech, Morocco (2009); Jimbaran, Bali (2010); Cotai Strip, Macau (2010); Saint Lucia, West Indies (2010); Tortola, British Virgin Islands (2010); Taimana, Tahaa, French Polynesia (2010); Jakarta, Indonesia (2011); and Phang Nga, Thailand (2011).

The Boracay Regency: Reigning Over the White Sand

There was more than the usual buzz at the center and most happening portion of White Beach, whose powdery white sand has become almost legendary and made the resort island of Boracay in Western Visayas famous. Resorts and restaurants huddle together and jostle for space to get a piece of the precious white-sand area. Above them the Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Convention Center rises, a clean structure recognizable for its size, its nautilus logo and grand staircase with cascading water.

In mid-April, in the middle of the Philippine summer, the resort was extra busy but not with the usual tourists, who flock to the country’s topmost destination. Its cafes and restaurants were constantly filled with delectable dishes for its special guests—an assortment of celebrities, businessmen, socialites, diplomats and journalists—as they went through the resorts’ events. Passers-by stopped and took photos of soap stars Kristine Hermosa and Diether Ocampo, known for their unpredictable love affair, as they basked in the sun on the resort’s beachfront, the longest on the island. At the open-air café, singer Pops Fernandez, the main entertainer for the main event, appeared and was introduced to a group of diplomats. Johnny Litton, the emcee for the main event, introduced them to each other: This is the ambassador or the consul of this and that country, said Johnny to Fernandez, and to the rest, he said with a grand gesture, this is the Philippines’ Concert Queen.

But the biggest royalty that day was the resort itself, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary. On the night of April 11, 2008, the anniversary was celebrated with the most delicious food and choice entertainment. Throughout the day, they were announcing developments and inaugurating new features.
At the beachfront, a new café was opened and the old ones showed some refurbishment. At the new wing, inside the resort, a spa was unveiled. Further inland, a short walk from the resort and along the island’s main road, the resort executives broke ground for the construction of another resort.

“I didn’t expect it to be like this today,” intoned the mild-mannered owner of Boracay Regency Henry O. Chusuey. “It was just for fun and a little business.”
We were at the spanking Zhu Asian Cuisine Restaurant, which was to be inaugurated later in the day. The name of the restaurant came from the Chinese spelling of his last name. Chusuey’s grandfather migrated from China to Iloilo, one of the commercial centers of the Visayan group of islands in central Philippines, about 140 kilometers south of Boracay. He had no idea from where in China his grandfather came. Our talk took a bit of tracing the past and a bit of anticipating the future.

In Iloilo, Chusuey was engaged in the financing business and real estate development. He owned the neo-classical Regent Theater, a known landmark in Iloilo City and the oldest existing movie theatre in the province of Iloilo, having been built in 1928. Owning and managing a resort was not in his plans. Then he went to Boracay Island in 1983.

“Everybody was talking about Boracay,” Chusuey related. “At that time, there was nothing here, no electricity, no telephone, nothing. There were cottages, like squatter, small cottages. You have to bring everything with you—ice, canned goods….”

He remembered that going to Boracay entailed driving for six hours from Iloilo on rough roads, and negotiating for a boat ride in Caticlan. He liked the island though and decided to build a vacation house.

“I just wanted to have a place of my own,” he said. “Later, I thought that if I had a house and had to maintain it, I might as well build a small hotel and maybe have some income along with having a place to stay.”

Being a businessman, Chusuey admitted that having a business in Boracay gives him reason to return. “You are forced to go every two or three weeks with this business,” he said.

Chusuey opened Boracay Regency in 1998 with 43 rooms on a 3,700 square-meter beachfront property he leased. With the assistance of an architect and designer, he designed the resort itself, drawing inspiration from resorts he stayed in and saw in his travels to Bali in Indonesia and Phuket in Thailand. Although having no prior background, designing the resort did not prove difficult for Chusuey.

“It was just common sense,” he said. “You think of the best shape and that all space must be useful, like for swimming pool, garden and even the open space.”

The difficulty lay in the construction itself.

“Everything had to be imported from the mainland,” he related. “Even the sand and gravel, we had to bring them from the other side.”

There were other resorts built ahead of him, mostly having 10 to 30 rooms. At the time it opened, Boracay Regency was already the second biggest resort after Club Panoly, which had 55 rooms.

“Our resort became one of the first in the island to have international standard luxury rooms, an air-conditioned restaurant, a crystal clear swimming pool, and a function room,” Chusuey said. “In the same year Boracay Regency was the first resort in the long beach to receive a Triple A rating, the highest rating in the resort category given by the Department of Tourism.”

Regency kept growing. It added an additional 85 rooms, its second phase, in 2001. In 2004, it opened the third phase with 110 more rooms and a staircase leading to the beach. It also opened a convention center, which can accommodate 700 people, the biggest and the only one in the island.

Two years later, 90 rooms were opened in the fourth phase of the resort’s construction. The rooms now total to 285, spread over 18,000 square meters of property, making Boracay Regency the biggest resort in the island so far. The new rooms are in the posh Garden Wing of the resort with a new reception and lobby and encircling two swimming pools, gleaming with its turquoise tiles.

“Ten years and 285 world-class rooms later, Boracay Regency is a resort with no lean season,” declared Chusuey during the resort’s anniversary celebration.

During the occasion, he awarded loyal employees while guests dressed in summer chic enjoyed a sumptuous buffet of grilled seafood and roasts, salads and cheeses, and hot dishes and desserts on the beachfront. He also revealed his secret for success.

“One of the reasons why this resort was built was to provide luxury rooms and service to tourists at a fair rate,” Chusuey said. “Through the years we realized that our objective of providing our guests with quality rooms and service as well as value for money has paid off. This would then manifest in the number of arrivals each year even on the so-called off-peak seasons.”
He further said, “Our business’s success is mostly credited to our mission of satisfying our guests’ expectations. We give them an experience to remember in this beautiful island without charging them too much….Our resort is probably number one in room occupancy because for us value for money for our guests is important. We keep on improving our services and very often we renovate our rooms for our guests comfort and satisfaction. I guess it’s safe to say that we have satisfied all our guests because most of them keep on coming back.”

And he is giving more reasons for guests to come back. The sleek Zhu restaurant adds to the dining options of Boracay Regency with its Asian menu. Already there are the Sea Breeze Café, with its international cuisine and view of the sea; Café Christina, a fine-dining restaurant with a selection of wine, prime cuts of beef, seafood and a menu of Italian and Filipino cuisines; and Regency Food Plaza, an open-air dining plaza with a choice of Chinese, Japanese or Korean cuisines. There is also the Mexican-inspired MO2 Wave Bar, deemed as the first and only underground bar in the island, which features live music, a dance floor and five KTV rooms.
Along with Zhu, the Kai Regency Spa, at the third level of the Garden Wing, was inaugurated. Conceptualized by spa consultant Cathy Velez, the spa has different themes for the each room but has an overall Asian vibe, using materials like stone, wood and bamboo. Aside form the regular menu of treatments and massages, Kai offers its own pampering packages like the Romantic Paradise, which lasts for five hours, costs Php13,500 and treats couples to a candlelight rose petal milk bath, an aromatherapy stone massage, a Choco Lovers souffle gommage, a purifying facial and a romantic dinner at Café Christina.

But the biggest development is the Regency Lagoon, boasted to have 120 luxurious rooms with terraces and direct access to the pool, which will be the biggest in the island. Chusuey earmarked P250 million for the construction of the Regency Lagoon on a 7,800-square-meter lot along Boracay’s main road, which began in May and will finish on November 2008. One-thousand-two-hundred square meters are reserved for the pool, which will feature white sand and artificial waves, perhaps to compensate for its distance from the beach. But the new resort promises to be secluded and intimate, “away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds,” and “slightly cheaper than Boracay Regency because it is not beachfront,” Chusuey said.

Chusuey has another property at the other side of the island, in the barangay of Manoc-Manoc, with half kilometer of beach, but there is no plans yet of building a resort there. What is more concrete are his plans for building resorts in other parts of the country, particularly in Bohol in Central Visayas and Palawan.

By the end of 2008, after Regency Lagoon, Chusuey will start constructing Bohol Regency on a five hectare property near the tourist strip of Alona Beach on the island of Panglao in Bohol. He expects the completion of a 300-room resort in two years. Only 25 percent of the property will be reserved for the structure while the rest is open space.

After Bohol, he will tackle Palawan. He owns an island in Coron in the northern part of Palawan, where he plans a high-end and private resort, much like Amanpulo in Cuyo.

Nowadays, Chusuey, who is also the president of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Panay, is as busy as ever. Most of his time now is spent in managing the resort.
Things changed fast for Boracay Island and Chusuey. Boracay still remains much-talked about but now in national and international scopes. The island sees more than half a million tourists arriving in a year, and the number increases every year. Resorts have cropped up almost everywhere, and amenities and conveniences are readily available. Before, Chusuey had to endure six hours of rough road. With developments, it now only takes only four hours from Iloilo, and transportation facilities are adequate. But Chusuey now takes his own plane, which takes about 35 minutes from Iloilo.

Chusuey said that Boracay has “probably the best beach in the world,” but ironically, “I don’t enjoy now the beach,” he said. “I’m here for business. I didn’t expect that. I was supposed to come here to enjoy.” Now, he has to go to Bali or Phuket to have a vacation. But he has no regrets. He is busy thinking about how Boracay can compete with Bali and Phuket.

Getting There
Boracay Island is about 315 kilometers (200 miles) south of Manila and two kilometers off the northwest tip of the island of Panay in the Western Visayas . Airplanes fly frequently from Manila to Kalibo, the capital of Aklan, and Caticlan, a barangay of Malay. Flight time is about 45 minutes. From Kalibo, there will be a 90-minute road trip to Caticlan. In Caticlan, there is 15-minute ride on the resort’s private boat, which will take guests to the rear of the island, where they will be picked up in a private car to Boracay Regency.

Contact Information
Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Convention Center is at Station 2, Balabag, Boracay, Malay, Aklan, with telephone number (63) (36) 288-6111-117, fax number (63) (36) 288-6777 and emails main@boracayregency.com, regency@info.com.ph and regency8267@yahoo.com. Its Manila sales office is at U5B, 5th Floor, W. Deepz Building, 1033 M.H. del Pilar Street, Ermita, Manila, with telephone number (63) (2) 523-1234, fax numbers (63) (2) 523-9790 , (63) (2) 521-7529 and email rsvn@boracayregency.com. Log on to www.boracayregency.com.

Back From Batanes: Images of Batan Island

It has been awhile since my last post. So much has happened: love, heartaches, work and more travels. One of my most recent travel is Batanes, the Philippines' northernmost province, a place of heartbreaking beauty. I was smitten by the landscape, the people, the community, the weather, etc. I love Batanes. As a prelude for my essay on Batanes, here is a preview, selected photographs of Batan Island, the main island of Batanes.

Laidback Basco, the capital town of Batanes, viewed from Pension Ivatan.

The undulating landscape of Batan, seen from a Mahatao idjang where the wind turbines are.

A santacruzan culminates at the Basco Cathedral

A lighthouse in Basco

The fishing village of Diura in Uvoy, Mahatao

Dolphin fish beaing dried in Diura. Here, it is caught by a fisherman specializing in catching dolphin fish or dorado.

Road from Uyugan to Ivana.

A communal pastureland colloquially called Marlborough Country is famed for its beauty.

A spring bursts forth in Uvoy, Mahatao, and flows to the sea. Pools have been built and a grotto with the image of the Virgin Mary placed. It is called the Fountain of Youth.

The beautiful church of Mahatao.

The rolling hills characterize the landscape of Batan Island.

Sunset at the pier in Basco.

Valugan Beach in Basco.

Fundacion Pacita Abad

Viewdeck between Basco and Mahatao.



The church of Ivana.

Boy bathing at the Fountain of Youth.

Goats are a vital component of Ivatan life, as illustrated by the Adolf Alix film Kadin.

Men loading cattles on a boat in San Vicente Port, Ivana, on the way to Sabtang Island.

In a Swirl of Spices: Cursory Dining in Kuala Lumpur

Food, especially the ones with strong, heady spices, can jolt the travel-weary senses. For some first-time visitors among a group of Filipinos who arrived near midnight in Kuala Lumpur, the food during a late dinner at the Lotus Restaurant proved to be a sharp introduction to Malaysia. That and the shining Petronas Towers, of course.

The rich and piquant flavors were an assault to the somnolent senses of some, but they were delightful overall. The dishes were laid out buffet-style in trays much like those in cafeterias. The colors were an indication—bright red, deep yellow, shimmering orange. The choices were so numerous and varied I was at a loss where to start and what to get. My knowledge of Malaysian food was meager. Thrust into Lotus Restaurant, I was giddy, wanting to taste them all.

Located on Binjai Street, Lotus Restaurant is just next to the Hotel Nikko Kuala Lumpur, where we were to stay, and a few blocks away from the Petronas Towers. Open for 24 hours, the restaurant is a convenient stop for anyone craving food and local flavor. At midnight, the restaurant, a down-to-earth affair, is abuzz with people, mostly young ones who might have come from nearby bars. There is an al-fresco strip where people watch television. Nearby are the tandoori and noodle stations. Inside, the restaurant is divided into the dining area and the buffet area. There is also an a la carte menu. The overhead menu indicates the variety on offer: Malay, Indian, Thai, Chinese and Western dishes.

They may well sum up Malaysian food, which is a confluence of influences of the different races that have come to this Southeast Asian nation, plus its own indigenous cooking and recent additions. The Chinese, always prevalent in Asia, is a significant influence. There are noodle dishes and recognizable Chinese dishes.

Another distinctive influence is the Indian. Malaysia has had contact with India for many centuries, but the presence of Indians here is mostly attributed to the British colonials who brought them to work plantations. Naan, puri, roti canai, thosai and idli are common breads of Indian origin. Curry is also readily available.

Beef, poultry, mutton, fish, seafood and vegetables are staples. Being a predominantly Muslim country, pork is rare except in Chinese restaurants. The meats and vegetables are cooked in curry, coconut milk or chili sauce, with an intoxicating array of spices. Lemon grass, screw pine (pandan) leaves, kaffir lime leaves, daun kemangi (a type of basil), daun kesum (polygonum or laksa leaf), nutmeg, turmeric and wild ginger buds (bunga kantan) go into the cooking of Malay dishes. Cumin and coriander are of Indian influence. From the Chinese, they have pepper, cardamom, star anise and fenugreek.

For food lovers going to Malaysia, the resort island of Penang is recommended. Here, Chinese and Malay intercultural marriages produced the Peranakan and an interesting cuisine. But Kuala Lumpur itself, being the county’s capital, is always a convenient start and offers ample dining options.

At Lotus, which appears to be more Indian, I started with biryani rice of Indian origin. It is a tasty mixture of spices, basmati rice, meat, vegetables and yogurt. I chose shrimps in sambal sauce to go with it. I also got hardboiled eggs swimming in coconut-milk sauce flavored with curry and turmeric. I had naan bread to be dipped in three spicy sauces. One was lentil, I presumed.

The buffet spread had section where one may assemble the popular Malaysian dish nasi lemak. It is rice cooked in coconut milk and accompanied by crisp anchovies, peanuts, cucumber slices, chili paste and a meat dish, usually beef rendang or chicken curry.

I could have dined in Lotus the whole time I was in Kuala Lumpur. The prices were reasonable and the array ample. But we were on the move, and we dined at different places around the city and beyond.

We tried a Chinese seafood restaurant, a tad upscale, in the new administrative capital Putrajaya. The Putaraya Seafood Restaurant sits by an artificial lake inside the Putraraya Botanical Garden with a view of the lake and the beautiful pink-domed Putra Mosque. The dishes were quite familiar: sweet and sour fish, mixed vegetables, tofu and chicken curry.

At the Nelayan Restaurant in Titiwangsa, near the Eye on Malaysia, we savored more Malay dishes. Nelayan is a sprawling restaurant with a pond in the middle. Apparently, the restaurant aims to host big occasions. The day we were there, there was a birthday party.

The Nelayan buffet spread reminded me of Lotus: ayam masak Bali, kari kambing, ikan pari asam pedas, sotong cili karing, among others. As expected, most were hot and spicy. I discovered nasi minyak and some native sweets.

Nasi minyak is also called Malaysian festive rice. It is long-grain rice cooked with evaporate milk, pandan, ghee, ginger, shallot, cardamom, clove and star anise. Truly delicious! On the other hand, the items on the dessert table resembled Filipino sweets, although subtler. Most are made from rice and coconut. I had lopes, bubur kacang huair, bubur pulut hitam and sri muka.

At a mall near the Batu Caves, we had Kentucky Fried Chicken, a concession to some Filipinos who by the time had had their fill of Malaysian cuisine. We also had Western food before attending the grand Chinese New Year celebration. Izzi is a trendy restaurant that serves surprisingly delicious pasta, pizza and selected Asian fares on Sultan Ismail Street in the posh Bukit Bintang area. Nearby is the Bintang Walk where there is a concentration chic cafes, bars, hotels and boutiques.

Izzi actually is an Indonesian-owned restaurant. It opened in 2002 in Jakarta and now has seven outlets in the Indonesian capital. The Kuala Lumpur branch opened in July 2006, its first outside Indonesia.

Izzi served spaghetti carbonara, which was one of the best I ever had; chicken wings basted in a special sauce; Vietnamese spring rolls; mee goreng, local sautéed noodles; and pizzas. For dessert, there was a pyramid of cream puffs, in plain and mocha-flavored fillings. The puffs were the best I ever had.

But the high point of our gustatory venture was dining at Restoran Rebung Chef Ismail, tucked in the quiet residential area of Bangsar Park. The restaurant has a homey feel. It may actually be a home converted into a restaurant. The alfresco dining and the buffet area looks like a former garage. At one end is a little stage, where weekend performances are mounted. The small restaurant is tastefully decorated, painted in deep colors.

But the most interesting thing about the restaurant is the owner himself, the celebrity chef Ismail Ahmad. He personally welcomed us when we dined there and gave us a crash course on Malay food by cursorily going through the offerings of the buffet spread. It was a very colorful and interesting spread. Aside from the curious dishes laid out on trays, there were a laksa station, where one could concoct his own laksa; a popiah station, where a staff member prepared freshly-rolled popiah; a gado-gado station; and an ais kacang station. The stations were made of bamboo and dried grass for the roofing.

The restaurant offers about 35 dishes, most said to be authentic Malay food. Chef Ismail said that authentic Malay is “poor man’s food,” that is, food prepared and eaten by farmers and fishers, made from produce and catches, using simple ingredients and spices.

Chef Ismail said that many of the dishes here are home-style, which he learned from his grandmother while growing up in the small village of Chengkau Hulu, Rembau in the state of Negeri Sembilan.

“Like all kampung boys, I played in the paddy fields, fished in the river, plucked fruits from our neighbours’ trees and scampered like all village imps would when chased by the owners of the plucked trees,” he wrote of his childhood in the restaurant’s Web site. “This is where it all began. Like the taste of the forbidden fruit, my passion in the fresh produce of the orchards and the paddy fields, and my efforts in trying out the herbs and spices growing in such abundance around me has led me to cook, cook and cook.”

He eventually left his hometown and studied to be chef. After stints in hotels and restaurant, he hosted several television cooking shows. He also traveled the world to promote Malaysian cooking. In October of 2004, he opened Restoran Rebung in partnership with Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Al-Masri, a handsome orthopedic surgeon who became the country’s first and only astronaut.

Sheikh Muszaphar’s images adorn the restaurant. He is attired in astronaut suit in many of them, flashing a winsome smile. He could have been a movie star. More pictures and magazine covers bedeck the cigar room, where there is a fine selection of Cuban cigars. At the cashier, Chef Ismail’s cookbook is displayed. Aside from running the restaurant and catering to different functions, Chef Ismail holds Malay cooking classes in a building next door.

After the introduction, Chef Ismail left us to attend to a private dinner with friends in a small private room. And we explored the gastronomic wonderland, delving into different flavors that represent the paddies, the sea and the neighbor’s orchard of Malaysia.

“The food served in this restaurant is a tribute to the wonderfully varied tastes in food that I inherited from our forefathers,” Chef Ismail relates. “I vouch for the food and its traditional origins and the comforting taste of kampung fare from past memories.”

We found little kinship with the food, having different food traditions and flavors. But I was not looking for familiarity and commonality with our childhood only. I reveled in the newness of it all, something that made me a curious child again. On that plane, we met. Perhaps, one must be a child again to play on a new field drawn from others’ childhood.

On our last night in Kuala Lumpur, I revisited Lotus. I ordered laksa, the popular Malaysian and Singaporean noodle soup. The restaurant offers Assam laksa, a Nyonya variety with thick white rice noodles swimming in a broth heavily flavored with shrimp paste and tamarind. It was different from the laksas I had before, which were rich and spicy. In my soup, I found fish meat, basil and slices of cucumber and pineapple. It was a gustatory riot—sweet, spicy and sour—a confluence of Asian flavors in a bowl, much like most Malaysian food.

Contact Information
The Lotus Restaurant is on 2 Jalan Binjai, Kuala Lumpur with telephone number 03 2164-5181, fax number 03 2164-2181 and email mail@lotusgroup.com.my.
Restoran Rebung Chef Ismail is on No. 4-2 Lorong Maarof, Bangsar Park, Kuala Lumpur, with telephone number 03 2283-2119, email enquiry@rebung.com.my and Web site www.rebung.com.my.
Putaraya Seafood Restaurant is in Taman Botani Putrajaya, Presin 1, Putrajaya, Wilayah Persekutuan, with telephone number 03 8889-1188, fax number 03 8889-1189 and Web site www.ttrb.com.my.
Nelayan Titiwangsa Restaurant is on Jalan Temerloh, Off Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur, with telephone numbers 03 4022-8400, 4022-0748, 4022 0749 and 4022 0756; fax number 03 4021-3070 and Web site www.nelayan.com.my.
Izzi is located at 44-2A, 44-3A and 44-4A, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, with telephone numbers 1-300-88-5555 (delivery), 03-2141-5808 (reservation), 03 2141-4111 (head office); fax number 03 2145-4002; and email contact@izzikl.com. Log on to Web site www.izzikl.com.