if life is a car transmission...

On our last trip to Phnom Penh, we took our 1992 Toyota Camry for a supposedly 6-hour spin from Siem Reap to Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh on an almost 400 kilometer stretch of good road. We've done the road trip countless times already so we know that before each trip, a complete car check-up is necessary. So we did, and off we went! With me were the Spoolworks Team (my design studio) - Brewster, our graphic designer who was on the wheel and KC, our creative sales director who was our beat boxing specialist at the backseat.

But an hour to the trip, we keep on losing our speed until the clutch couldn't hold it anymore...


Turns out our transmission finally broke after all those years of hard work. So what do you do when you have more than 300 kilometers to go?

Well, you start pushing of course!



Or better yet, sit back and inhale the best of the Cambodian countryside...


Or savor those seemingly dilapidated towns which seem to be trapped in the 60's...


Make friends with the brown-eyed locals...


or perhaps ride the moto with some monk brothers....


maybe settle down the pavement and enjoy a bite of green mangoes...


or stop by some houses for a drink or two...


Maybe enjoy a smoke or a puff by the roadside...


or do a full-scale fun streetfighter-inspired photo shoot...


or finally concede that we needed a new transmission afterall!


So for 35 bucks, we were pulled by a rickety Khmer Rouge - era truck to the nearest town which was another 30 kms away. We managed to find a decent hotel, had some dinner and woke up early the next day to find a car shop. A day and 400 dollars later (roughly 20,000 pesos), we got back our car and raced to Phnom Penh with a "brand new" second hand transmission tipping the 130 km/hour scale...

Then the radiator leaked and overheated. But that my friends, is another story of course...

yearning for china

Was browsing through my China photos and couldn't believe that it's been two months! I really had a blast, and two weeks is not enough. I've been bugging Faith and Don to go back and this time, do the Trans-Siberian Railways... China - Mongolia - Russia. Might be next to impossible but hey, there are tourists now in space!

I simply miss China. Even without the olympics, I think I would have still fallen head-over-heels with it. Getting back to Beijing is enough...


I miss its hutongs and lively streets...


I miss the sea of faces... a billion and a half of humanity...


I miss street culture and the beat of China's youth...


I miss its mad rush to modernity and its priceless heritage...


I miss seeing nostalgia creep in like yesterday's papers...


I miss its daring contrasts...


I miss its love affair with its poetic past, its aching history...


I miss the vulgarity of its authority...


And I miss the rhum ice cream in this cafe! Yum!

I have almost a million photos of China awaiting to be uploaded, so it will be a hundred years of posts like this!

freedom's home for imaginary friends

Raising a three year old is like unveiling a JR Tolkien soul on a teaspoon of butter.

Lately, we have been becoming master storytellers to put our son Freedom to sleep or to keep his relatively short attention going. Being so totally engrossed with the series Thomas the Tank Engine, we are also trying to give him a variety of toys to play by as not to stagnate his imagination... and this is the best we can come up with. It's not much but hey, we're trying to be creative parents here!

So ladies and gentlemen, we bring you our collection of bears and stuffed creatures... amassed through the years and brought to life by our futile efforts to entertain the dragon emperor of the house!


Panda Bear is a scholar on Chinese literature and communist idealisms propagated by the late Mao Tse Tung. Brought from China by my wife's former boss Donald, Panda Bear is the serious one among the brood. Here he is trying to compare the Chinese version of Mao's revolutionary little red book into the newly released English version sold for dime-a-dozen in front of Tiananmen Square...


Bear Lao (no pun intended for Beer Lao) is a gift from Freedom's cool designer ninong - Don. Like his donor, Bear Lao is a cam whore (a trait he also got from mommy Kawadjan) and is an avid subscriber of Vogue - Paris. He also loves designing (a true fashion vulture) and is supposed to show his latest collections in Bryant Park for the New York Fashion Week!


Kroma Bear is a true blooded Cambodian bear from the kingdom's most luxurious residence - the Amansara. His other brothers and sisters were adopted by a doting couple named Brad and Angelina and were given to their three children - Maddox, Zahara and Shiloh. They now live in hollywood but they still write to Kroma Bear and remit money back home to support several foundations for the betterment of the lives of Cambodia's cotton weavers.


Best friends BaaBaa Sheep (a gift from my buddy Karl) and Kiwi Bear (another gift from Donald) both hail from New Zealand and are the adventurous backpacker types. One morning, you see them prancing around the grass, and the next morning, they are clambering up the steps to the studio. Although notorious for finding only dirt cheap haunts and restaurants, they know how to differentiate a trying hard Australian Chardonnay from an opulent New Zealand Shiraz.


Polar Bear was a creature rescued from the harsh effects of global warming when the polar ice caps melted somewhere in Alaska. Given as a bday gift from Freedom's tita Wena, he survived the rising waters by clinging on a floating Louis Vuitton Neverfull bag which got dropped from a passing luxury cruise liner one summer. Eats only prime Norwegian Salmon and Japanese Wagyu steaks.


Pinoy Bear on the other hand is a devout Roman Catholic. He has worked one time as an engineer in Saudi Arabia, as a waiter in Dubai, as a cultural performer in Tokyo, as a teacher in Thailand, as a caregiver in London and a manager in a restaurant in New York. These diverse experiences have taught Noypi Bear invaluable lessons in life and so far has given him enough savings to put up his own convent back home. He also drives a jeepney during weekdays.



Greenie Bear is a certified alcoholic and party animal. Always a fixture in the hottest parties, Greenie used to be BFF's with Paris Hilton and the Olsen Twins until her parents, the Vanderbears, moved their steel factories to Cambodia. Greenie has also recently released her own lingerie and perfume line.




Angel Bear is a distant cousin of Pinoy Bear. Also deeply religious, they promote only natural conception and family planning methods for the ethnic minorities of Southeast Asia. Young as she is, Angel Bear is the chapter president of the Catholic Women's League in the upper Cambodian region... Her favorite perfume is tea-rose.




Yellow Bear loves spending time in the bathroom. Came free from a spa product set that mommy purchased from U-Care Pharmacy a few years back. Always mistaken as a scrub by dad, Yellow Bear lives in the presence of water an was formerly a pearl diver on a pearl farm somwhere in Vietnam... a true Pisces in every sense of the word.




Ranger Bear, a certified naturalist from Chattanooga, Canada was a gift from Ninang Sarah, probably on one of her trips from North America. Current president of the World Wildlife Federation, Ranger Bear is lobbying people here to turn him into the official mascot for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver... also a die-hard vegetarian...




Huggie Bear and Nappy Bear were both freebies from packs of diapers. They love to snooze around and simply sleep the day away. This is because of a curse endowed on them by their evil stepmother who thinks they are more absorbent than her.



Brother Bear bears the most beautiful story of all. After Freedom was born, we used to go to the Old Market on weekends to buy our food. While browsing around a sea of tomatoes, fresh prawns and imitation underwear, we found Brother Bear on a pile of second hand toys, with such droopy eyes that seem to scream "Adopt me!". With Brad and Angelina's exploits reaching far and wide, we decided to adopt Brother Bear for a cost price of 2,000 riels (US$0.50)! Brother Bear has since become Freedom's loyal sibling until Thomas and Friends came along...

coffee with supermodels

Having spent twenty three summers of my life in a suburb in Iloilo, I always thought living in this provincial threshold meant you are left out from the rest of the world. I remember the time when even newscasts were broadcast a week late on our tv sets and the only sign of civilization you find in the city is the rickety SM department store (Iloilo had the 1st SM outside of Manila in 1979) and a Dunkin Donut store.


Living in a lazy, middle-of-nowhere former Spanish colonial outpost, who would actually think that I'd be rubbing shoulders and spending coffee breaks with future supermodels and super designers who will eventually grace the face of global catwalks? And what more do their first photo shoots?!

Grendel Alvarado, originally from Bacolod City, won the Robinson's Iloilo Fashionista Search. A year later, she tried her luck modelling in Manila and was eventually chosen as a finalist and grand winner of the hit reality tv show The Philippines' Next Top Model - hosted by Ruffa Guttierez.

She is now a regular face on most fashion magazines in the Philippines and globally.


This shoot was for my friend Don's magazine called OWN where we tackled musings and inspirations from the final last days of the Berlin Wall. Pieces by visiting designer Gian Romano who a year before had won the MEGA Young Designer of the Year Award and had just returned from New York on apprenticeship from the fashion collective AsFour.


Military-tinged dresses by barangay-kagawad-turned-jetset-designer Bo Parcon, uber cool and devil-may-care finalist to the Philippine edition of Project Runway in ABC 5. Episodes can be watched via You Tube. Apparently, he is one of the most memorable charcters in the show... and in real life, he really is!


Pieces here are by Yohji Yamamoto and the unimitable Don Protasio - otherwise known in the blogosphere as fuchsiaboy. Don has been designing art (he doesn't design clothes, dear friends - he designs wearable art pieces!) since we were in college and has grown into a fashionable monster since then - regularly showing and capping great reviews in Philippine Fashion Week and has even showed a full collection in Cambodia by invitation from the Kingdom's Silk Forum. Although he is now based in Cambodia like me, he goes home every season to showcase his work. Grab any copy of Mega or Preview and you'll sure to bump into his name!


The team during the Berlin-inspired shoot: Nonoy Mosquera, Bo Parcon, Shoebe, Grendel Alvarado and Don Protasio


Another supemodel who is a familiar face in Philippine and international fashion is Ria Bolivar who Don discovered in a Salbakuta concert in Robinson's Iloilo. Standing out from the crowd like a sore thumb at 5'10 and with an unbelievable body frame, Don asked her to model for him. The rest as they say, is history.


Ria first broke into the Manila scene after winning one of the top prizes in the MTV Fashionista Search and representing the Philippines in Turkey. Now, she is a regular face in Philippine Fashion Week and Fashion TV.


Ria has also appeared in countless ads and fashion spreads in several publications from home and abroad. Her catwalk stints range from shows for Inno Sotto, Monique Lhuiller and even as far as Hongkong. The last time we had dinner with Ria, she was being courted by agents for the Milan Fashion Week.


I did these shoots with them right before they hit it big time - way before when I was still doing my photography on a borrowed analog film Yashica camera...

Now, it's just overwhelming to go back to these and say "Whew, I used to drink coffee with them!"

saigon 101

I was in Saigon to buy a birthday gift for my wife, and going around Vietnam's dynamic business heartland gave me a brand new perspective of how lucky I am to be living in this part of the universe - Southeast Asia - where a bus ride for six hours can take you to another world. It has been almost three years since I have last been here, and the changes you see around is utterly remarkable.

First and foremost, Saigon is not known as Saigon anymore - it has been renamed Ho Chi Minh City since the country was reunited in the late 1960's. But for a hopelessly romantic travel nomad such as I am, it will always be poetically-correct named as Saigon.


I roamed its streets again and was taken aback with an overflowing sense of nostalgia, from the vestiges of its French colonial past, to the American War, even to my personal connection to its history...

The gothic-spired Notre Dame Cathedral is a significant reminder that despite the country's solid stance on communism, it is still largely deeply rooted in Catholic faith - a gift of the west via France.


The Reunification Palace used to house South Vietnam's government before the Fall of Saigon. Now, it seems to be haunted by ghosts of the past.


The park facing the Opera House is also an outdoor art gallery - housing exhibitions of images and visions from around the country.


The iconic Opera House featured the Vietnamese Army Band outside when I came to Louis Vuitton to buy my wife's bag. I had a live music background while at the LV store in Opera View which conveniently faces the Opera House (hence the name). It was like they knew I'll be there to shop for love.


Coffee culture, a remnant of France's heritage in Vietnam is everywhere... Trung Nguyen Coffee is considered king.


The Vespa is also king of the road in Saigon...


The humble Cyclo comes in close second...


The Vietnamese are extremely skin-conscious people. I know the Chinese are notorious with their skin care but they cannot compete with the Vietnamese obsession in protecting their skin from going tan.


It's streets are littered with women (and even men!) who cover themselves from head to toe to escape the scorching heat, but not the overflowing perspiration!


And like an apple lost somewhere between a haystack and a peach tree, love exists in Saigon in unexpected corners... from the lovers French-kissing on a tree by the park or through a newlywed couple starting happily ever after outside of Gucci. Yes, love will always be in fashion anywhere you find it...

forevers and louis vuittons

Four years ago, I married the girl of my dreams.



Being a penniless, starving artist that I was then, I had no means to give her the wedding of her dreams – a flowing white Vera Wang or a Vivienne Westwood dress, a sunset ceremony on a deserted beach, wedding rings by Cartier or Tiffany, a theatrical reception with a string orchestra, chocolate fountain, free flowing champagne and designer canapés and a dinner whipped up by three-star Micelin chefs from France.


Instead, I married her in our little house garage in Iloilo. She wore a fifty peso ($1) long skirt which she converted into a dress from Landmark in Makati. Our rings were bought for 200 pesos ($4) from Divisoria’s Tutuban Mall and our reception was catered by my own mom who cooked everything from scratch. Our entire wedding cost us 10,000 pesos ($400) which I got as payment for designing the uniforms of Club Noah Isabelle in Palawan. Our plane fares were free, as we’ve accumulated enough points from the loyalty program of Cebu Pacific, back when they still had the Summit Club. I also got some extra money from selling two paintings for only 5,000 pesos ($100).


Since that was all I could offer her at that time, I vowed to myself to MAKE IT UP to her as soon as I am financially stable. Through time, I have learned to keep myself abreast with the thing that has gripped my wife’s fancy into a growing obsession since time immemorial… LOUIS VUITTON.


I remember seeing her face light up every time we pass by the LV flagship store in Greenbelt IV when we were still living in Manila. Her cheeks would gush at the sight of the monogrammed canvas, and when Marc Jacobs, creative director of LV, took bolder steps in collaborating with more artists in designing new bags and reintroducing the classics, the fire became unstoppable. Being introduced to the blog of another LV fanatic Cecile Zamora Van Straten (chuvaness.livejournal.com) didn’t help at all.

So after a successful exhibition in Manila last April, I took her LV shopping. But as much as taking Cocaine and a woman’s Louis Vuitton obsessions are the same, they will always crave for more. Lately, my wife has been bombarding me with not-so-subtle hints (see a comment on my last post!) of what she wants for her birthday.


So as my love for her is growing and getting stronger each day, I have no choice but to translate that love into a silly, materialistic, consumerist, capitalistic symbol of desire to spend forever by her side…. I AM EMBARKING ON A JOURNEY OF LOVE – a long, six hour drive from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (it actually took me 23 hours on the road as my rickety Toyota Camry's transmission system broke down!), and a seven hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Saigon (the nearest Louis Vuitton store) to buy another LV bag for the woman I am dearly enamored with.

How far will you go for love?