three countries, one calamity

You've probably seen it in the news, or you've probably been one of those affected ones brought bu what is now dubbed as "Asia's Katrina" or the storm that broke records. Typhoon Ketsana will definitely be on everybody's books and until now, countless people are still picking up the pieces. I was "unlucky" enough to experience its wrath... in three countries nonetheless.

It started on the morning of the 25th of September, when I was still in Manila. I was preparing for my trip home to Cambodia, so I went to Greenbelt and Glorietta to do my final shopping as my trip is not until 2:30 in the afternoon. I left at around 8 am and the rain has already stopped. At around 10:30 am, the rain was absolutely beyond control and it was impossible to get a cab. After an hour of trying, I was able to find myself one but when we reached San Lorenzo Village in Makati to get my luggage, the house where I was staying at is already flooded to the waist. I was able to get my 40-kilo luggage from the flood waters all the way to the waiting taxi almost a kilometer away (the driver wouldn't plunge his car to the water even of I paid him a million bucks) and off to the airport we go. I was drenched to the bone. My Issey Miyake sneakers were squishing and I was shivering from the cold. I told myself I'll change when we get to the airport.
But as luck would have it, 80% of Manila was already underwater and we were stuck in traffic trying to find our way out in a little more than 4 hours. At 3:30, I gave up and asked the driver to take me to any hotel in Makati.



This is the scene right after the rain subsided, but it was just total havoc in the city.


The next day, I was able to get myself to the airport and was able to finally board the plane. The flight though was delayed for 4 hours as there was no electricity in the international airport. All baggages have to be loaded manually as the conveyors weren't working.

When we arrived in Bangkok, Ketsana has caught up on us and we were on standstill at the runway for an hour because of the lightning unfolding. I got out of the airport at almost midnight and Silom road was drenched to its knees.



When I went back, the airport was almost a ghost town. I finally made it to the flight the next day and was home in Cambodia at around 9 am.

But I was on for another surprise. Ketsana made it to Cambodia. This is the first time this ever happened as Cambodia is literally typhoon free. Everyone was caught by surprise when rain poured like crazy for 2 days. The river overflowed for the first time in history and this monk was trading the East River Road where theOrient Express Hotel is located.

Waters reached an alarming level and this motorcycle almost didn't make it.

Pub Street was still littered with toursits, but was also virtually a canal.

The Old Market Area is almost impassable and my car almost stalled in the middle of it this morning.

Don, my wife (both still toting Marc Jacobs and Vivienne Westwood in the middle of the calamity) and myself have to go out to shop for supplies as we have no electricity in the house in the past 2 days. I also had to get money from the bank to pay for my staff's salaries, so we had to brave the raging flood waters... in style...

Our fashionable New Yorker friend Eliz was still in vogue in the midst of it all. She deserves to be n the next cover of the September issue.

The biggest drawback here is that the Cambodians were totally unprepared for this storm. This has never transpired here and that was actually one of the reasons why we moved from the Philippines to here. I guess we all have to brace ourselves for global warming...

in search of a pearl

Woke up one day and found myself in Makati where I started working 8 years ago. The next morning, I found myself waking up with the sound of the lapping waves, birds and an eerie silence - marooned in a series of islands called the Pearl Farm Beach Resort...


I'm here on the island's rustic arms - beaches fringed by coconut trees, impossibly emerald green waters and quaint traces of its Maranao roots. When I got a call from my former employer weeks ago to help him redo the brochures, photography and corporate identity of Fuego Hotels, it took me only a second to think and say yes.


So now, I'm on the lap of pure luxury, shooting the resort's many facets and charms. Its beaches and natural beauty are nothing short of captivationg, but sadly, the resort in itself needs an enormous facelift...

It's rooms and structures were breathtaking a couple of years ago, when I first came here, but of course, time and age takes its toll among everything created by man. At least, this room at the villa of former Miss Universe winner Margie moran is definitely not bad...

Pearl Farm's resident parrots were definitely a riot to tourists and were absolute charmers. They should be on the payroll too and should receive hefty tips.

And the Ylang Ylang Spa was still gorgeous, but like the resort, it needs touch ups in a whole lot of ways. Took me time to make it look like this on the camera.

But no matter what state the resort falls into, the most precious pearls you can find there are its amazing, warm people. They were there always to lend a helping hand, make you feel welcome, feed you a huge buffet of tuna sashimi, deliver a tuna melt sandwich on another island in 10 minutes, open the blutique at midnight so you can buy a pair of Havaianas, extend bar hours from 11 pm to 2 am so you can enjoy drinking more San Mig Lights, bring you to the airport on a speedboat at 4 in the morning in the middle of a storm so you can catch your flight (I can't believe I made it alive and I'm writing this), and among others, still smile wholeheartedly after all this.

I am definitely coming back. And hopefully next time, not for work, but with my wife and son... and yes, with flights in the afternoon so I don't have to have raging seawater get in my Louis Vuitton luggage again.