what comes around goes around

Two amazing American artists opened a creative wonderland recently just beside our gallery/shop by the Alley West in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Featuring treasures and art culled from recycled clothes, fabrics and haunts from the junkyard, they've created such a trove of earth friendly clothes and accessories that magically defines their name - CIRCLE...


Rachel Faller, who owns KeoK'jay in Phnom Penh, provides jobs and skills for women living with HIV. Lauren Iida, on the other hand, creates fashion from recycled and vintage materials through another enterprise that empowers impoverished women through education and livelihood.


Having met in Phnom Penh, they decided to bring their talents together in Siem Reap to open up Circle...


The store is awash with quirky details and little nooks of art from found objects and scavenged treasures.




Necklaces and bracelets from fabric scraps and buttons...


This box frame with dinosaurs and bingo numbers is cool.


Iida, Laren's brand, is very feminine but each with a twist.


Rachel's style is very urbane with a touch of Boho chic.


Jam, left, is opening an organic cafe right above Circle in a few weeks called Samakki.


Leah, who provided sinful indulgences that evening with her amazing cupcakes will be partnering up with Jam on Cafe Samakki. We definitely can't wait for them to open up what will be our new hang-out!


Leigh, Jam and Don


Learn more about Rachel's work at www.keokjay.org and Lauren's at www.circlecambodia.wordpress.com

cambodian connections

The great thing about living in Cambodia is being able to welcome people you'll probably never have a chance to meet at home or anywhere else in the planet for that matter. I guess it's just a matter of being at the right place at the right time...

A couple of weeks ago, we welcomed the group of Ben Chan, creative director and founder of Bench, the Philippines' largest retail group with clothing stores stretching from San Francisco to San Fernando, Dubai to Divisoria, Beijing to Boni Avenue. He was with Miguel, the head architect of Bench; talent managers Arnold and Rey; Xander Tantoco and Mons, daughter of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.

They visited our shop, Poetry, and did a big shopping spree. Ben got a couple of stuffs and was especially fond of the book I did. He asked me to collaborate on him on some design projects for Bench and Pinoy Lab. My designs will be available on Bench this December!

Had dinner with them on the last night at the Aman House. T'was such great fun.

The next couple of weeks, I got a call from the Philippine Embassy in Phnom Penh to welcome and help out Senator Pia Cayetano on her trip to Angkor. She came with friend Anne who happens to be a triathlete like the senator.

Senator Cayetano was here as a speaker for a United Nations-sponsored conference. A young driven politician, a great mom and a health buff, she is truly an incredible person that it's hard to believe she exists in the flesh... my wife and I have just become a big, big fan.

sundays with sarah

Our Sundays are usually spent at home cooking up some experimental cuisine with friends, reading a book, catching up with blogs or doing marathons of Heroes or CSI. But this Sunday is special... aside from having really cool, crisp weather (the mercury tipped at only 16 degrees!) , it's also the birthday of a dear friend - Sarah, who also happens to be my wife's boss.

She was actually my boss when I first moved in Cambodia as a graphic designer for a hotel, but after a year, I decided to quit and put up my own graphic design studio. But unlike other bosses who would shake you off their lives after you resign from work, Sarah on the other hand, supported this decision all the way and loaned me ALL the money I needed to start up - from purchasing computers, cameras, printers and all! Now where can you find a boss like that?

So on her special day, we all ran our heads and hands together to give her a special bash...


We took advantage of the cold winter winds from China and set up our garden with a neo-Khmer barbecue- themed feast. I bought two ceremonial umbrellas from the market, 10 meters of fabric, and voila! Instant garden lounge!


The debutante - just turned eighteen. Again! :-)

Sarah has actually just recently returned to Cambodia after stints in China and Malaysia. Now, my wife works for her at the Sothea where she is the General Manager. Still looking cool after recovering from a major flu after returning from a weeklong trip in Cannes, France two weeks ago.


Faith, Freedom and Brother Bear


Don, down with a major upset stomach since yesterday still managed to pull his designer pants together to join the celebration. He took care of the cake.



the feast begins!


Fare consisted of grilled seafood, grilled pork, vegetarian elbow macaroni soup, couscous, tuna salad, fresh mangoes and strawberries as well as a plethora of ice cream and desserts.


Freedom had chocolate crispies for starters and had half a tub of ice cream for his entree.


Slam dunking a strawberry whole... my three year old eats anything and everything!


Chilling out after lunch. Sarah went to the orphanage with Olive and Savourn thereafter while Faith and Don went on with their usual vintage shopping ritual at the Psar Krawlajn.

We wanted to invite U2 for a private concert for her birthday but we couldn't afford that just yet.... so from the bottom of our hearts and our Havaianas... Happy Birthday Sarah!

year ender

Although the holidays wasn't as crazy as last year, it was still crazy nonetheless. I was juggling several shoots and last minute design works but was able to keep myself free for Christmas eve to prepare for a "white Christmas" feast.


I was especially inspired since we renovated and repainted the kitchen firetruck red and my wife came back from Australia with a treasure trove of holiday recipes and inspirations - thanks to Donna Hay!


Since everybody else was working on Christmas eve, I was left alone with Nanie and Olive (my office manager) to conquer the kitchen. We were able to whip up a little Grilled Salmon, Ham with Spicy Mango Confit, Steamed Garlic Scallops, Green Noodles with Seafood Brisket, Lentil Soup, Buttered Veggies (turned out to be a disaster but Don rescued it from oblivion) and Raspberry Cake with Caramelized Fresh Berries on the side for dessert. For a little Filipino fare, Olive cooked her famous embutido and leche flan which was truly sinful!


While waiting for everybody to come, we had some chardonnay, blue cheese and crackers which Freedom tried with his chocolate Smarties!


The gang after the feast... we gave our gifts at the struck of midnight. Freedom got a mini drum set (our sleep will never be the same again) among many other things while I got a travel folio and a full collection of Woody Allen films!


Come new year, it was just me, Olive, Don, Nanie and Freedom as everybody else had their own parties to go to, but by midnight, we were all together to greet 2009. The fireworks display was short, but the sight of hundreds of candles on paper balloons floating on air was a truly magical sight.

At 1 am, we were all shuttling our way between the street party at Pub Street, the revelry at Linga Bar and the live band at Cafe Central.

By 4:30, we were hungry as wolves from all the partying, so we went home to raid the fridge.


By 5:30, we made our way to Angkor Wat to catch the first sunrise of 2009. The freezing cold didn't deter us as we came prepared with our own thermos of coffee and tea! By now, the pack was now reduced to me, my wife, Olive and Don.


Then slowly, at around 6 am, a hazy blue sunlit sky made its way to the horizon... revealing Angkor Wat's distinct spires...


I have seen it a million times, but it is still a magical, exhilarating sight...

Happy New Year everyone!

journeys with yesterdays

I have been blessed with so many great friends - but these are two who are definitely worth blogging about... For my art exhibit in China last August, two long time friends who also happened to be my classmates since kindergarten all the way to primary school and high school (in college, we all went to the same university as well, but different departments) went all the way to Beijing to join me in my exhibition... We had been out of touch for a long time after moving abroad, but when I broke the news to them of my olympic invitation, they all found a way to meet up!


Karl, one of my best buddies, traveled around 10,388 kilometers from Auckland, New Zealand to Beijing and spent almost a day on the plane. He took time from his work in the land of Frodo and Middle Earth where he has been living for the past three years. Among us, Karl had the most relaxing journey to China - flying with ease onboard Air New Zealand bringing with him a bagful of exotic cheese as pasalubong for us!

Karl has the least possibility among the two to come because he had just came from a month-long vacation in the US and his boss is definitely not giving him another break from work... but with much persistence and convincing, his boss agreed and he even extended his China trip to a couple of days in Japan! Details are sketchy of what he did to his boss to get an approval, but he made it!



Elaine on the other hand, traveled from Iloilo to Manila, then Manila to Hong Kong - covering around 1,561 kilometers. From Hong Kong, she journeyed by train to Guangzhou, stayed a day, then took another train again going to Beijing. The train ride alone covered a distance of 1,887 kilometers and took her almost 24 hours! On the way back, since most of the train seats were fully taken because of the closing of the games, her trip had to take twice that long because she had to do stops in a couple more cities around China!

Among the three of us, her journey was the most gruelling and nerve wreaking (not to mention plucking heaven and earth just to get a measly 7-day Chinese visa in Cebu!) - and I truly admire her for that... think of it as a field training for her as she is preparing to move to the United States in a couple of months...

After my own gruelling journey of crazy flights (Siem Reap - Phnom Penh - Hong Kong - Beijing) covering around 3,490 kilometers, we met up in Beijing in the hotel and spent a couple of days roaming around - reminiscing how we used to take these crazy trips together back when we can only afford weekend trips to Boracay, Tagaytay or Manila!

Two years ago, when I started working in Cambodia, these two also took an arduous journey from Iloilo to Manila to Bangkok. Then, they took a seven-hour bus and taxi ride to the Cambodian border and all the way to Siem Reap to see me and my family (my baby was just born then)!



Since this has become quite a tradition for us, we are saving up for a trip to Vancouver in 2010 for the Winter Games and in London in 2012 for the next Summer Games! Since I ALWAYS pay for their hotel, Elaine has "promised" to buy our airfares to Vancouver and Karl has also "offered" to take care of London. Right, Karl and elaine???!!!

Now where do you get friends like them?