14Four Cafe

Cozy and artsy are 2 words that could describe 14Four cafe. 14Four is a cafe cum furniture showroom and one couldn't help but admire the  chairs in the cafe. I particularly liked these chairs:

I also loved this accent wall:

But everybody would love the garden and the outdoor part of the cafe. I loved the bench surrounding a shady tree. This would easily be a favorite place to hang out. Pets are even allowed in this area. 

I loved spending the afternoon there..and loved their (huge) pancakes too:

14Four Cafe is located at 144 Magnolia Lane, Gregoria Heights Subdivision, Taytay, Rizal. 
Telephone: 0999.888.0144

Pinto Art Museum- Antipolo's Pride

Pinto is the Filipino word for "door".  True to its name, Pinto Art Museum opens the door to contemporary Filipino art.Owned by Dr. Joven Cuanang, Pinto has become a venue to exhibit creations of homegrown artists.

Museum entrance

Situated in a one hectare garden, and with spacious galleries, the claustrophobic me appreciates the very relaxing ambiance of this museum, as opposed to some stuffy old museums. 

Paintings and mixed media arts depict contemporary Filipino life and culture.  There is "Liga" (or basketball league) , basketball being the favorite sport of the Filipinos. "Liga" is more than basketball game, it is a community gathering, a way of life.  

 "School Service" is a rural version of school "bus".  I see this scene everyday in Antipolo and it disgusts me: 8 or more children cramped in 4-passenger tricycles. A total disregard for children's comfort and safety.    

"Pag-asa" shows the high value Filipinos put on education.

Visitors would also see sculptures/art objects in and out of the museum galleries, in between pillars, in the gardens and even by the fence. These are some favorites:

We did not expect the museum to be huge and to spend hours in the museum- but we did. We needed to cool down at the Pinto Cafe.

It was time well spent.  Pinto Art Museum is definitely one of Antipolo's pride.  Too bad I discovered it only 10 years after moving to this city.

Pinto Art Museum is located at:

1 Sierra Madre St Grand Heights

Antipolo

Telephone: (632) 6971015

Cabbages and Condoms

"Oh by the way, I had dinner at Cabbages and Condoms", one of my friends told me. Cabbages and what?! Yes, I heard right. And no, it was not any of those sleazy places in Bangkok.

Cabbages and Condoms is a restaurant owned by a non-government organization (Population and Community Development Association). The restaurant both aims to provide financial support for the programs implemented by PDA as well as promotes the use of condoms for family planning. 

A very unique restaurant, C and C is artistically decorated with condoms, such as this:

Dressed in colorful condoms.

Walls, trees and lamps are likewise bedecked with..of course..condoms.

There are air conditioned rooms, but we opted to sit in the open air area when we visited. They serve mostly Thai food and I specially enjoyed #76 Pla Ka Pong Nueng Ma Nao (or steamed whole sea bass with chilli, lemons and vegetales). Complete set of menu, including prices (in Thai Baht) can be found in this link.

With my friends Rino, Fer and the yummy sea bass...

To support a good cause and for a good dinner, I will recommend Cabbages and Condoms any time. 

But hey, they do not give out free after-dinner mints.. only after-dinner condoms.

Cabbages and Condoms is located at 10 Sukhumvit Soi 12, Bangkok.

Floating Market at the 75th Floor

Ever been to a floating market? What about a floating market at the 75th floor of a building?

The Baiyoke Floating Market, is located on the 75th floor of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.  The restaurant recreated the "Siamese bygone days" and life as they knew it. They have a wide selection of Thai and international dishes displayed on boats. 

I enjoyed tremendously all the seafood dishes , the Pad Thai (or the stir fried rice noodle) , and of course the varied dessert selection.

Thai food galore.

Desserts,desserts!

Souvenir items are also available for sale.

Keepsakes!

The fee includes both the buffet at the Baiyoke Floating Market as well as the Observatory Point at the 84th floor.  The revolving view point will give a 360 degree view of Bangkok. Which is quite nice...especially at night.

A very interesting dinner...and we all had fun.  It was a good night.

Baiyoke Floating Market is located at:

Baiyoke Sky Hotel, 222 Ratchaprarop Rd. Ratchathewi, Bangkok, Thailand

Telephone:: 66 2656 3000

Exploring Ayutthaya

 We were in the mood for some cultural exploration. Ayutthaya , the ancient capital of Thailand, and one of  the "World Cultural Heritage"-s , was our next destination

Only 45 minutes from Bangkok on a minibus, it was an easy (and cheap) trip.  When we reached Ayutthaya, a tuktuk driver approached us and offered a tour for the whole day, to 9 tourist places. 550 Baht per person sounded good enough (on hindsight we could have just rented bikes since the places were quite close to each other, except for the 2 temples).

Our first stop was the Wat Maha That, which was constructed in 1374 AD. It was said to be a royal monastery. Wat means monastery or temple, in Thai language.

At the Wat entrance

The big Buddha and the countless small headless Buddha figures -or "Buddhitas"- as my
 Spanish speaking friend calls them

Our second stop was the elephant ride...which I will never ever ever do again.  I dislike how the Mahot (or the trainor) treats the elephant and will never understand the need to constantly hit them with stick close to the ear! The ride made me sick.

Adorable creatures - in a cruel industry

Our third stop was the golden Buddha image known as Phra Mongkonbophit. It was located pretty close to the first wat we visited. It was surprising to see a number of monks, not on their knees, praying to their Buddha , but were instead very busy taking digital pictures. 

Me at the entrance of the Wat housing the Buddha

My friend Fer and the monk photographers

The Wat Phrasisanphet was our next stop- which was right beside the Phra Mongkonbophit. It was the former location of the royal palace in 1350 AD but a wat was built on the site in 1448 AD, which became the royal chapel.

Behind me are pagodas (chedis) which houses the remains of an ancient king
and his brother

Our next stop was my favorite among all the temples in Ayutthaya--the Wat Chaiwatthanaram. The locals call it Thailand's Angkor Wat (a very famous and grand temple in Cambodia).  Chaiwatthanaram is an ancient monastery established in 1630 AD.

As grand an entrance as can be

Our nth stop is the 37 meter long Buddha image called Phra Buddhasaiyart, where Buddhist offer prayers and flowers, and light their incense sticks.

Last stop was the Wat Phu Khao Thong-which was quite a climb but will give you a very nice view of Ayutthaya at the top.

What? Me? Climb? Nooooo!

And that concludes our Ayutthaya exploration.

Note to self: No temple visits again for the next 3 years. I had enough today to last me that. 

  

A Day in Beach Garden Cha Am

I badly needed a break in June, as one would after a grueling first half of the year.  And since I have a workshop in Thailand at that time, and my Ecuadorian friend is coming over for my workshop, we made arrangement for a pre-workshop vacation.

We wanted to see the beach.  Phuket was out of the question because June is a stormy month and storms usually affect Phuket, as warned by our Thailand office security officer. We had to settle for places closer to Bangkok so we went for Hua Hin/Cha am-for some beach getaway and Ayutthaya , for some cultural exploration.  

Having did our research before travelling, we know our way-well, kind of. The mini bus station is located in Victory Monument, which can be reached via the BTS (train). Coming from Asok station, the terminal is at the left side exit of the Victory Monument station (Exit 2), right beside Century Cinema Mall. There are different booths for each destination- most are written in Thai. Luckily , the Hua Hin/Cha-am booth is in English.  

The booths at the mini bus terminal

We paid for our fare, got our ticket for 180 Baht each, and got confused :-D.  We were asked to wait for the minibus on one side-but it did take some time and the lady does not speak English. 

my "confused" friend

When the minibus finally came, we were expecting to board first since we were the first in the queue..which did not happen. So we ended up getting the most undesirable seat at the back-beside the luggages. It was however a fun 2.5 hours ride, with us talking all the way- which could probably have annoyed the other passengers. :)

We finally reached Hua Hin- and looked for a place to eat before boarding a taxi to Beach Garden Cha-am.  

Street food!

We reached the Beach Garden resort- and since we were booked for the cheapest room, we got the garden view, not the beach view..which kinda sucks because we went there for the beach. And so..we rushed to the beach, not wanting to miss the fun. And it was a clean, very nice beach...better than the beach at Amari Hua Hin hotel, where I was in March.

So nice that we stayed on until its dark...and had our Amarula drink, which came all the way from Africa. We had fun catching up, enjoying the wind and the sea, and trying to catch some pictures of lightning just for the heck of it.

And then it was dinner time at beach garden's restaurant.  We called it a day after dinner. We realized how badly we needed to rest.

Early morning was for catching the sunrise..we were surprised to see a bunch of young kids racing to the beach to do the same thing.  

Had quick breakfast, some time at the beach, a dip in the pool and then were off again to Bangkok to get ready for our Ayutthaya adventure the next day.