Philippines attracts English-eager Koreans

PROMO collaterals from the ESL Center of the University of Cebu, one of the participants in the Korea Student Fair Fall 2007 held in Seoul

by: Cheche Moral

MANILA, Philippines - They’re not coming in just for the beaches; they’re also here for some crash course in English.

Korea, the Philippines’ largest single source of tourists, is now bringing in droves not just holidaymakers but also students who wish to learn the English language.

Students account for 15-17 percent of Korean tourists in the Philippines, according to the Philippine tourism attaché in Seoul, Maricon Basco-Ebron. As of April, 14,400 Korean visitors have arrived here to enroll in language institutions or universities around the country.

“They like the Philippines because everybody speaks English. It’s easier to learn; they get to practice everywhere,” Ebron, who also heads the Department of Team’s Team Korea, said at the recent Korea Student Fair held in Seoul, a biannual event that brings together schools all over the world to attract students who wish to study abroad. The event draws in over 500 exhibitors from the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe and neighboring Asian countries.
Cheaper cost

While the Philippines is not a native English-speaking country, the cheaper cost of English-based education here is a major come-on to Koreans, Ebron said.“Sending a child to the US for one year is equivalent to sending a child for two years in the Philippines—plus the mom,” referring to the fact that Korean parents could easily come to the country to check on their children and enjoy the sights as well.

Hyunsook Oh, who works with the Philippine tourism office in Seoul, estimated the cost of Korean university education at $4,000 per semester, or roughly four times the tuition for the same period in a major university in Metro Manila.

She added: “The Philippines is relatively cheaper than the US, Canada or England. And it’s only 3½ hours away so parents can visit anytime. If they send the child to the US, the parents have to plan their visit.”

Most Koreans enroll in “short-term” or two-month English as a Second Language (ESL) course or study for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) here as preparation for further education in another country.

Younger students come in for language camps, typically two-month courses during their summer or winter break. (Philippine travel agents also offer golf and dive camps, where young Korean athletes learn the sports’ lingo in English before they compete abroad.)

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source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/

2007 Seagames first GOLD

Cycling wins first SEA GAMES gold for RP

GOLDEN BOY. Mountain biker Joey Barba holds the first gold medal won by the Philippines in the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

KHAO YAI THIENG, Thailand -- The Philippine campaign in the 24th Southeast Asian Games finally picked up courtesy of downhill mountain biker Joey Barba.

Barba upended the fancied home bet in the final run Thursday morning to scoop up the first Philippine gold in the biennial event.

The feat of the 23-year-old snapped a nine-day drought for the Filipinos in these Games.

Mountain biker Joey Barba, a carpenter’s son from Dumaguete, ignored the danger posed by the rugged mountain trail in the men’s downhill run to win by almost three seconds at the end of the 1.9-kilometer event.

Barba, his elbows and knees tattooed by scars from spills that are common in his sport, timed three minutes 56.920 seconds as the Filipinos crashed the gold medal rank after the shooters’ winless performance last week in Bangkok.
Read more...
source: http://sports.inquirer.net/ & http://www.2007seagames.com/

French-Belgian surgical team visits Iloilo Province

French-Belgian surgical team conducts surgical mission in Iloilo

The French-Belgian Surgical Team of the Aide Medico-Chirurgical E Au Tierre Monde visited the Province of Iloilo to conduct free surgery.

They were treated with a welcome lunch by the province at Tatoy’s Manokan, Arevalo, Iloilo City.

The team stayed at the Iloilo Provincial Hospital in Pototan for five days unti November 14, 2007.

They conducted their first day of free surgical operation on November 9, 2007 which was witnessed by Iloilo Gov. Niel D. Tupas, Sr. and Provincial Health Officer Patricia Grace S. Trabado.

The members of the Surgical Team were composed of Dr. Isabelle Loeb – Surgeon; Dr. Charles Luyckx – Anesthesiologist; Dr. Edward Boutremans – Surgeon; Dr. Yasemin Deniz – Surgeon; Ms. Kaoma Kilelema – Nurse and Mr. Maxime Vandeputte – Recorder.

The patients (those having clef pallates) who availed free surgery came from the municipalities of Ajuy – 13; Carles – 10; New Lucena – 4; Passi City – 3; and 1 each from San Enrique, Oton, Pototan, Dingle, Dueñas and Sara.

They underwent 25 Unilateral cheiloplasty, 7 Bilateral cheiloplasty, 3 Palatoplasty, and 1 Cheiloplasty with palatoplasty.

In the evening of November 14, 2007, the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen & Professionals, Iloilo Chapter hosted a thanksgiving dinner.

The Province of Iloilo gave them plaques of recognition and token of appreciation.

source: http://www.iloilo.gov.ph/

Active Volcanoes, the Next Tourist Attraction

The Next Tourist Attraction


The Philippines might someday be known as one of the premier locations for watching a volcano in action. A government project is seeking to market the country’s active volcanoes to thrill-seeking tourists and adventurers.

Active volcanoes not only offer exciting, though dangerous, spectacles during an eruption. The thermal activity in surrounding areas is also a prime attraction for developing spas or campsites. Case is point is Mt. Makiling, which supposedly hasn’t shown volcanic activity in eons, but is surrounded by commercial hot spring pools. I say supposedly, because isn’t the activity in Mudspring volcanic? But, I digress.

“We have to appreciate the fact that our country has many volcanoes,” said Perla de los Reyes of the government’s volcanology and seismology institute. “They are beautiful attractions.”

“Volcanos show how dynamic or dangerous they can be, and people appreciate it,” De los Reyes said, adding that the unique shapes of land formations caused by volcanic eruptions themselves also draw people in.

Mt. Pinatubo and Taal Volcano are the first sites to be developed, due largely to their easy access from Manila. Vacation homes and restaurants have already sprouted around these areas. Other, not so accessible, vocanoes like Mts. Iraya, Kanlaon, Bulusan, Banahaw, draw mostly adventurers who don’t shy away from a few days hiking through jungle trails.

I’ve always liked the concept of eco-tourism. There is so much natural beauty in the Philippines that the rest of the world has yet to see. I’m heartened by the involvement of the protected areas and wildlife bureau in this project. Coupled with proper management, which takes the environment as its top priority, such ventures will bring jobs to local areas, and could in fact assist in preserving these sites.

by: Maricar
source: http://www.filipinasoul.com/

Dinagyang '08 Innovations

More innovations in Dinagyang '08

The Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation Inc. (IDFI) will initiate more changes in 2008 Dinagyang Festival to make the affair more colorful and festive.

From changing the color of the body paint of Dinagyang tribes performers, IDFI executive director Ben Jimena said there will also be the infusion of "Hala Bira Iloilo" song during the street dancing, reduction of performance stages and addition of drum and bugle competition.

As of press time, the foundation is also deliberating on the possibility of transferring the Dinagyang tribes competition from morning to afternoon. Traditionally, the tribes competition is being held in the morning of Sunday, the festival's last day.

Jimena said they came up with an idea to transfer the time of the competition from morning to afternoon to avoid a lull after the tribes have performed. He said holding the competition in the afternoon would also force the visitors to stay in the city. It will mean more income to kiosk owners, hotels and restaurants, said Jimena.

He said if it would be agreed that the tribes competition be held in the afternoon, a drum and bugle competition will be held in the morning. In the proposed afternoon schedule, the tribes will start to perform at 1 pm. Presently, 16 tribes expressed intention to join in the tribes competition.

Nevertheless, if it would be decided that the morning schedule be retained, the drum and bugle competition will be held in the afternoon after the tribes competition. The drum and bugle competition is an added attraction, Jimena said.

The performance stages for the Dinagyang tribes competition will be reduced from five to four. The performance area at Plazoleta Gay will already be scrapped.

Dinagyang tribes will just have to perform in four stages: Iloilo Freedom Grandstand, Iloilo Provincial Capitol, Quezon-Ledesma and in front of the statue of Ma. Clara near the central market.

source: http://www.thenewstoday.info/

PRIDE OF PLACE

Layers of Ilonggo Reality

The book, “Iloilo, a rich and Noble Land,” launched last week by the Lopez Group Foundation, uncovers the province’s agricultural, civic and social history that interweave to form the multi-layered Ilonggo reality that gives the province and its people such a strong identity.

Ask any Filipino and he will tell you that Iloilo is unlike any other place in the country. She is one of the few places in the Philippines with an identity and image distinct from that of any other province.

Filipinos know Iloilo as the gentle, genteel land of smiles, imagining Iloilo days as unfolding graciously and moving in measured choreography of the rigodón, the outdated, stylized dance ritual highlighting each glittering baile (ball) in moneyed mansions.

Fiesta mode is what Filipinos imagine Iloilo life to be most of the time: laid-back, peaceful, refined and always celebratory.

Another layer of Ilonggo reality overlaps the celebratory layer. Hard-working Ilonggos are vigorously entrepreneurial.

In Iloilo, the moneyed and working classes join in business activities that uphold the province as a vital national economic force, a position first attained with the surge of the sugar industry during the later years of the Spanish colonial era.

The Manila Daily Bulletin reported in September 1907 that the City of Iloilo was “the metropolis of the Visayan Islands, [the] second city of importance in the archipelago and the greatest market for sugar in this part of the world.”

Sugar put Iloilo on the map. In the 1850s, Nicholas Loney, a British merchant, settled there and “fostered the opening up of the sugar lands of Panay and Negros.” Loney introduced new technology, improved yield, and improved the quality of Iloilo sugar to world-market standards.

Read More:

Unrivaled
Mobility, dignity
Romantic view
Heritage surprises

source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/

Layers of Ilonggo Reality

Unrivaled

For many years Iloilo prosperity was unrivaled, reaching a peak when the irritating delay and occasional damage to cargo caused by transshipment of sugar through the Port of Manila was finally bypassed, and from 1865 produce was exported directly to international points from Iloilo.

“The condition of business in Iloilo largely depends on the size of the sugar crop and the price of the staple,” further reported the Manila Daily Bulletin in 1907. When the sugar trade boomed, so did Iloilo. Now known as the Queen City of the South, roads and infrastructure were laid out, hospitals and schools opened.

In 1907, Iloilo was no backwater. “Iloilo has an electric-light plant and the city is well-lighted. There is also an ice factory and cold-storage plant. Among the possibilities of the near future are an up-to-date telephone system and streetcar line connecting all parts of the city.

One institution Iloilo can boast of, that might well be copied in other parts of the archipelago, [is] an up-to-date department store, Hoskyns & Company, a British firm, was established in 1868. In their large store on Calle Real can be found a complete stock of goods at prices, for the most part, far below Manila prices.”

Iloilo prosperity was on the rise and the grand planter lifestyle had to be lived in worthy surroundings. Mansions were witness to the opulent moneyed lifestyle that has now all but died out due to 21st-century economic and social realities.

Mansions built on generous plots of land in quiet pre-World War II outskirts were swallowed up without warning by rapid, unregulated urban growth. Now finding themselves situated on valuable city center properties, mansion owners have been forced to reevaluate their properties and lifestyles.

Some downsized to smaller houses, renting out their mansions to commercial tenants. Others built rental buildings on their front lawns to generate additional income, hiding their mansions behind a layer of nondescript commercial structures built right along the street, changing the streetscape forever.

A few simply abandoned their mansions. The postwar years saw many of the moneyed Ilonggos moving out of their downtown mansions into smaller houses.

source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/

Layers of Ilonggo Reality

Mobility, dignity

Today’s middle- and working-class homes, smaller and more modest, reflect lifestyle conditions of a majority of Iloilo City residents. Instead of projecting stability and gentility as the old mansions once did, the aura of the middle-class neighborhood is mobility, dignity, work and a strong sense of community.

Unlike the genteel streets of the moneyed class where nobody is seen outside of their fenced gardens, streets in middle- and working-class districts fill with everyday life. Residents live their lives on the street.

The local barangay hall spills out into the street, bringing governance to the people level, as it were. The street is where men hang out, drink or play basketball tournaments. The street is a social center, where the overflow of guests at a neighborhood christening, wedding or funeral is seated.

On the other hand, the rural landscape, dotted with bahay-kubo clustered in barrios and agricultural land, tells another story. To Filipinos, the bahay-kubo are generic, and the Ilonggo house is no exception. But the high level of outstanding bamboo craftsmanship sets the humble Ilonggo kubo far above the typical and generic.

For many generations, Ilonggo craftsmen embroider not with needle and thread but with bamboo. Their bamboo work achieves a play of texture by mixing peeled and unpeeled strips or combining dyed and natural-colored strips handwoven into repeating diamond patterns for the “lowly” sawali matting.

Bamboo sections are scored, flattened and framed for wall panels. They are cut into slats for above-the-ground flooring and stripped into ribbons thin enough for weaving. Absolutely amazing are bamboo slat patterns, grilles of most delicately plaited bamboo lacework executed in fine, hand-embroidery quality.

Ilonggo architectural bamboo craftsmanship, totally unknown and unappreciated, is naïf Ilonggo folk art at its finest.

Iloilo bamboo houses, solid but fragile, enclosed but transparent, embody the observation that the Philippine bahay-kubo is in essence a “basket for living.”

source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/

Layers of Ilonggo Reality

Romantic view

There exists a romantic view of downtown Iloilo remaining in a time warp, woven around blocks of superlative, intact 1920s-’40s commercial structures, heritage that gives Iloilo one of the most elegant business areas in the country.

What a graceful, outstanding heritage ensemble, it is probably the best, most extensive remaining collection of heritage commercial buildings in the country.

Buildings of the same height, size and of similar design line streets, a rare but vanishing example of urban unity of architectural scale and style in the Philippines. Building layouts are similar—shophouse-type, two-story rental spaces connected by an arcaded sidewalk.

The style of embellishment indicates the date of construction. Structures from the 1920s are decorated in the feminine, lacy Iloilo wedding-cake style.

The next generation of buildings designed in Art Deco geometry of the 1930s is followed by a post-World War II generation of structures in the robust, no-nonsense 1950s International Style.

Not all downtown buildings in Iloilo are of heritage quality. New shopping destinations coexist with the traditional stores that have always been in the city center, heightening the commercial counterplay between old and new.

An architectural “read” reveals the Iloilo story. A walk through Iloilo today reveals so much more to the city behind the scenes.

Behind a generic-looking commercial building may stand a grand old mansion. Step back (if Iloilo traffic won’t run you over) to discover that a covered sidewalk is part of a sagging heritage commercial building, a redoubtable dowager whose better days can once again be relived after a simple nip-and-tuck operation.

source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/

Layers of Ilonggo Reality

Heritage surprises

To really know Iloilo today, one must look beyond the overlapping layers of decay, congestion, chaotic architecture and pockets of wealth existing almost side by side with pockets of poverty. Peel back the multiple layers of architecture, bad architectural facelifts and urban blight for the surprise of your life.

Layer after forgotten layer of the Iloilo story comes to view. Uncover revealing evidence about the city and what her people were like, culturally, socially and economically during key epochs of Iloilo city’s rich history.

Walk the downtown area to the point of sensory overload. Suddenly come to the old, majestic Customs House by the Iloilo River, a monument to the former Queen City of the South.

Around the corner, step farther back to a vanishing era. Find a Spanish colonial-era warehouse where young women still twine abaca strands by hand into rope as they have done for centuries.

Iloilo is at a cusp. The city has to deal with the ill effects of progress, traffic, congestion, uncontrolled development, urban sprawl from the conversion of neighboring agricultural land into middle-class subdivisions.

The age of super modernization has set in. Iloilo now boasts of a mix of heritage architecture; modern buildings; up-to-date malls; new inner city and suburban land developments; and, at long last, a brand-new state-of-art airport in neighboring Canatuan.

Iloilo is alive. Nothing is dormant about her. History and heritage anchor her. They give her an image so singular and unique that no other place in the country has. Her economy provides income-generating activities for anybody in search of it.

Iloilo’s layered existence embraces everyone, old or young, moneyed or working class, educated or uneducated. She democratically offers something for everyone.

source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/

2007 Iloilo Kawayan Market Week

Celebrate Kawayan Week

Fashion show of dresses made of bamboo.

The Department of Trade and Industry, provincial and city governments of Iloilo, DOST, TESDA, DENR, School of Technology-UP Visayas, Municipal Government of Maasin and WESVARRDEC open the doors to the fourth bamboo resource and fashion fairs.

The 2007 Iloilo Kawayan Market Week, a fair that will place the focus firmly on bamboo and hablon design that hope to bring out the ‘must have’ urge in every buyer.

The Bamboo Resource Fair showcases furniture and designs in the limelight, make new contacts and reach a new, international public.

The event has proved to be the ideal showroom for high-end bamboo furniture.

The Iloilo Kawayan Market Week is a promotional event with government agencies and private sector working as partners and sharing a common interest of promoting the sale and recognition of bamboo furniture, related bamboo furnishing products and hablon fabric.

The events’ exhibitors represent more the 80% of Ilonggo bamboo furniture and handloom producers, which through their annual participation obtain a large number of advertising mileages and strengthen their competitiveness.

The event is acknowledged as an effective platform not only to tap into the national furniture market but also to reach out to the rest of the world.

Iloilo, known to many as the design capital of the region, is a key point on the national design map.

This will be a strong contributory factor in positioning the Iloilo Kawayan Market Week: Furniture and Fashion Fairs as emerging of the country’s leading design fairs in the coming years.

As home to many of the region’s most promising and popular furniture and fashion fairs, Iloilo has long since established itself as a design capital.

source: http://thedailyguardian.com/

Gold Medal in the Light Welterweight

GOLDRuben Zumido to show off his gold medal in the light welterweight round of the Macau 2nd Asian Indoor Games.

source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/

Miss Earth 2007

Final Result

Miss Earth	Miss Air	Miss Water	Miss Fire
CANADA	INDIA	VENEZUELA	SPAIN
Jessica Trisko	Pooja Chitgopeker	Silvana Santaella Arellano	Angela Gomez
Finalist
GEORGIA Nana Mamasakhlisi	PERU Odilia Garcia Pineda	SWITZERLAND Stefanie Gossweiler	THAILAND Jiraporn Sing-ieam
Semi-Finalist
CZECH REP Eva Ceresnakova	DOMINICAN REP Themyaleska Febriel	LEBANON Amale Al Khoder	MARTINIQUE Elodie Delor
NIGERIA Stacy Garvey	ROMANIA Alina Gheorghe	SOUTH AFRICA Bokang Montjane	SWEDEN Ivana Gagula

Special Awardees:
Beauty for a Cause: SOUTH AFRICA Bokang Montjane
Miss Friendship: LEBANON Amale Al Khoder
Best in Talent: LITHUANIA Monika Baliunaite
Miss Photogenic: PHILIPPINES Jeanne Harn
Best in National Costume: THAILAND Jiraporn Sing-ieam
Best in Long Gown: VENEZUELA Silvana Santaella Arellano
Best in Swimsuit: VENEZUELA Silvana Santaella Arellano

source: http://www.missearth.tv/

A New Queen Has Been Crowned

Jessica Nicole Domingo Trisko of Canada MISS EARTH 2007

Jessica Nicole Domingo Trisko of Canada is the newly-crowned Miss Earth for 2007. Trisko bested 89 other contestants for the title at the climax of the awards ceremony Sunday night at the University of the Philippines Theater.

Trisko, is 22 years old, is a first-generation Canadian of Asian and European descent, and was raised in Vancouver. But she's actually Half-Filipino and partly Russian, partly Ukrainian. A Political Science student, Jessica wants to focus on educational programs to achieve her environmental platforms.

Last year's winner Miss Earth 2006 Hil Hernandez of Chile, passed on the crown to her successor amid enthusiastic applause.

The Miss Earth candidates officially began their quest for the crown two weeks ago, embarking on goodwill vists to various destinations in the Philippines and Vietnam. In keeping with the pageant's purpose and theme, all destinations highlighted the beauty of the environment and the importance of its protection.

It is the only major global beauty pageant that promotes care and preservation for the planets environment and ecology and requires its candidates and winners to embrace the cause.

Jessica, walks in her swimsuit during the Miss Earth pageant final being held at the University of the Philippines.

Jessica Nicole Trisko (R) of Canada is crowned as the new 2007 Miss Earth by Miss Earth 2006 Hil Hernandez (L) from Chile during the Miss Earth pageant final being held at the University of the Philippines Theater in suburban Manila.

Winners of the Miss Earth beauty pageant (L-R) Miss Water Silvana Santaella Arellano of Venezuela, Miss Earth Jessica Nicole Trisko, Miss Air Pooja Chitgopeker of India and Miss Fire Angela Gomez of Spain smile to the crowd during the coronation night in Manila.

source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com & http://www.missearth.tv/

Miss Canada as Miss Earth 2007

Miss Canada wins Miss Earth 2007 crown

Miss Earth 2007, Miss Canada Jessica Nicole Trisko, second from the right, flanked from right, Miss Earth Water, Miss Venezuela Silvana Santaella Arellano, Miss Earth Air, Miss India Pooja Chitgonekar and Miss Earth Fire, Miss Spain Angela Gomez during the coronation night Quezon City, Manila, Philippines late Sunday November 11, 2007.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/

Discovery Undocks From Space Station

Shuttle Discovery heads home after ambitious, risky mission

Image Above: The space shuttle Discovery as seen from the International Space Station after undocking. Image credit: NASA TV

The US shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station on Monday, wrapping up a complex mission marked by a daring spacewalk to repair a torn solar array.

After saying goodbye to their space station colleagues and closing the hatches, Discovery crew members smoothly sailed away from the ISS at 5:32 a.m. (1030 GMT) before a scheduled landing set for Wednesday at 1802 GMT in Florida, the US space agency said.

Before heading back to Earth, the shuttle steered by co-pilot George Zamka performed a fly-around to allow crew members to collect video and imagery of the repaired solar antenna on the ISS and to document the latest construction work to the orbiting outpost.

During their 11-day stay at the space station, the Discovery astronauts delivered the Italian-built Harmony module, which will connect US, European and Japanese science labs on the ISS, and installed a massive truss as well as a pair of solar arrays.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration had made repairing the solar arrays a top priority because without it there was a risk the tear could spread and render the crucial power-generating wing useless.

sources: http://www.nasa.gov/ & http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/

FHM goes environmental

FHM goes environmental with Miss Earth Canada- Riza Santos.

Last Month, the undisputed number one men’s magazine in the country goes environmental with the first FHM cover of Miss Earth finalist Riza Santos. Half Filipino Half Canadian was FHM Philippines October 2007 Cover Girl.

Riza, a full-blooded Filipino, was born to folks hailing from Malolos, Bulacan, and Mariveles, Bataan, and raised in Canada. Since competing for the Miss Earth tilt last November, Riza’s return to her parents’ homeland has made her busy campaigning for the environment.

“Ideally, you should have a passion for the environment,” Riza explains about being a Miss Earth candidate. She has gone on to head the Coastal Protection Foundation, partnering with the Philippine Tourism Authority to promote eco-tourism, environmental responsibility, and poverty reduction. Riza says that traveling all over the country is a good opportunity for her to explore her roots as a Filipino.

image source: http://www.fhm.com.ph/ & http://chuvachienes.com/

Torch to Mount Everest during Olympics

China to relay torch to Mount Everest during Olympics

The Mount Everest, also called Mount Qomolangma, is 8844.43 meters above sea level, the highest peak in the world. China is confident to relay the torch from Olympia, Greece, the cradle of the Olympiad, to the Mount Everest, which was promised when China applied to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

The games, which feature in 21 medal sports and four demonstrating events, attracted 7,450 athletes from 164 countries and regions, a record in the 39-year history of the games.

Some 20,000 delegation officials, coaches, celebrities and family members of the Special Olympics athletes also came to Shanghai while more than 40,000 volunteers, most of them students from China and overseas as well, served the games and the intellectual disabled athletes with passion and love.

The Special Olympics World Summer Games are held every four years. The next edition will be hosted by Athens, Greece in 2011.

source: http://www.chinaview.cn/

Miss Earth 2007 Host City

Host City: Manila, Philippines

Fascination is an understatement of the feeling that one gets by visiting Manila, a lively metropolis commanding a magnificent view of the world-famous Manila Bay and its golden sunset. Historic, bustling, awe-inspiring, the “Philippine Cosmopolitan Capital” is a blend of cultures and flavors that offers an endless serving of places to see, sights to behold, and experiences to never forget.

Right in the heart of Manila is found the “Walled City” – Intramuros. Constructed in 1571, during the period of Spain’s colonization of the Philippines, it comprised of European buildings and churches that have been replicated in different parts of the archipelago. It had been one of the world’s best preserved medieval cities. Here, dungeons and old churches share space with art galleries, theaters, a nature park.

At the center of Intramuros is the grand Manila Cathedral, the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Manila. Then there is San Agustin Church, the oldest stone church in Metro Manila and one of the four Philippine Baroque Churches inscribed in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Marking its entrance at the northwestern tip is Fort Santiago, one of the oldest fortifications of Intramuros. Built in nearly 150 years through Filipino forced labor, it now houses a lush park with flowering trees, homing pigeons, and rides aboard horse-drawn carriages.


Manila is home to Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the highest chief executive of the country and one of the most historic structures in the Philippines, and the National Museum of the Philippines, the official repository and guardian of the Philippine cultural, historical, and natural heritage. Along the northern bank of the historic Pasig river is Chinatown, a symbol of the long history of Chinese presence in the Philippines long antedating the arrival of the Spaniards. Today it is an important trade and business center, and a primary bargain shopping destination.

Five-star hotels and restaurants, some of them housed in historic buildings, make the perfect party place in the city. The nightlife offers everything from dazzling cultural shows to futuristic discotheques, lively casinos, sensational entertainment lounges, and fashionable cafes. The popular districts of Malate and Ermita showcase a wild variety of restaurants, clubs, bars, cafes, art and antique shops – truly, the ultimate cosmopolitan paradise.

Manila is geographically advantaged. It is an hour or two away from full-day excursions to Cavite and Corregidor Island, Batangas, and Laguna, replete with exceptionally beautiful beaches, stunning views, and local color. The city is over 17 hours away by air from Los Angeles, less than five hours from Tokyo, and seven and a half hours from Sydney. Wherever you are, you are less than a day away from one of Asia’s greatest cities – Manila.

source: http://www.missearth.tv/
and

Miss Earth 2007 Fashion Show

Fashion Show

Miss Slovakia Barbora Palovičová shows off her fashion sense and style in a mini-fashion show, as one of the activities for the ongoing Miss Earth 2007 Pageant in Manila, Philippines.

Miss Switzerland Stephanie Gossweiler

Miss Taiwan Sonya Lee

Miss Zambia Sphiwe Mutale Benasho

Miss Thailand Jiraporn Sing ieam

Miss Belgium Melissa Cardaci

Miss Belize Leilah Pandy

Miss Martinique Elodie Dolor

Miss Netherlands Milou Verhoeks

Miss Sierra Leone Theresa Turay

source : http://www.missearth.tv/ & http://mykiru.blogspot.com/