My Sweetheart Coco

I've long been watching this superb model Coco Rocha. I love her like she's my sister! Hihihi.

According to her Wikipedia entry, Coco "was born (in 10 September 1988) in Toronto, Ontario, but moved to Richmond, British Columbia at a very young age. She is of Irish, Russian, and Welsh descent. She was discovered at the age of 14 when competing in an Irish dance competition". She first appeared in the catwalks of New York Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2006 and was followed by snagging jobs at the much-coveted Paris runways.

Soon after that, the fashion world saw her meteoric rise in the modeling industry, bagging covers for Numero, W, Vogue Italia, Vogue Korea, and the 2006 TIME Style&Design issue (with fellow top model Du Juan). She also appears in several ad campaigns including Dolce and Gabbana, among others.

I'm crazy over Coco. She has this distinct walk on the runway that long before the camera zooms on her face I would already know that it's Coco on her way. I think her dancing experience has a lot to do with with her elegance. On the pages of the fashion magazine, Coco is a chameleon, making her one of the favorites of legendary photographer Steven Meisel.

Check her out on MySpace and her official site.

Pa-bonus po... look who are together?

Back to the Mat

I went to my first yoga session at this gym inside a mall in central BKK (about 30 minutes by bus from my building). I started yoga about four years ago when I was still living in Davao. And since then I've practiced it on and off, depending on my mood. Yoga is by far the most rewarding exercise I've tried. It improved my posture in a major way, my concentration is more focused, and I'm more in touch with my breathing (thus, helping me to calm down in stressful situations). Too bad though I did not bring yoga any further than just being the dilettante that I am right now, therefore, truly diminishing what effects it has on me.

Anyhoot, last night I signed up for Static Yoga, a style that I'm clueless about but the schedule suited mine. The room was heated and there were about 60 mats on the exercise floor. I chose the mat beside a cute, tall, Chinese-looking guy, for obvious reasons. Then came in the instructor who was pregnant (she did not do any pose). She conducted the class in both Thai and English, the latter being hardly comprehensible to me, so I ended up copying cutie Chinese-looking guy's poses (I love that excuse so I can glance at him every two seconds).

As I mentioned, I had no idea what bleeding Static Yoga is all about. We were doing the Darth Vader breathing (how do you call that again, Sarah? Vicel would kill me for this... was it Uyaji? Whatevs.), which I learned four years ago, but thanks to smoking I have completely lost touch how it's done. Instead, I found my self constantly choking on my saliva (icky!). The poses were quite fluid as well, compared with Ashtanga, the yoga I learned, which holds the poses for minutes on end. I didn't like that aspect of the session coz I'm more used to holding the poses longer and thus challenging more the muscles and allowing you to listen to your breathing and going deeper into the pose.

The heat of the room killed me of course. Water is allowed inside the room, thank god. The poses were doubly difficult coz I had to catch my breath all the time and I was dripping. While I was familiar with most of the poses, I was quite aghast with some unfamiliar ones (I don't even know what they're called). Just as I expected, I did well on the standing poses, especially the ones that require lots of balance (like the Eagle Pose and Tree Pose). But damn, my hamstrings were tight as hell. I could not reach my feet without bending my knees. I was totally embarrassed coz some of the students looked like pros. And there, my competitive side kicked in and I think I stretched my self too far.

I'm definitely going back for more classes; I'd probably go there three times a week. I'm just challenged with the possibility of getting back my flexibility and hopefully I can stand in front of the class in a month's time. Ambisyoso! Hahahaha. And oh, I have to comment about the number of hot guys in the class, which obviously keeps me motivated to come back for more.

Photo Credit: Imports Yoga

Talak

Today I shall blabber. Long post ahead.

One of the first things I did when I arrived in Suvarnabhumi last Friday evening was text PJ that I'm back in rocking BKK. I was still waiting for my luggage to come out when he SMSed back that we should go to Silom that evening. How can I say no after missing BKK like hell? I swear I was kinda exhausted but, sweetie, I don't waste any time when it comes to hedonistic pursuits, do I?

The crowd as so-so... like I've seen a better crowd before. While smoking outside, PJ and I met a group of BKK-based Pinoys, one of which was a fag hag I would love to know. But shortly after introducing themselves, they dashed back inside and I never saw potential fag hag again. I'm sad. Several glasses of vodka later, I was too wasted to go home on my own I had to sleep at a friend's house.

The next evening I met with Kiwi, his Singaporean friend (who was on a visit), and Kiwi's Thai friend (who I also happen to know... more on this later). We had dinner at this pricey Italian restaurant in Paragon (blame the filthy rich Singaporean for this choice; I nearly choked on my food after seeing the price tag) and walked all the way to Lang Suan where a handful of all-Thai gay bars are.

It really fascinates me how BKK's gay scene is classified as either all-Thai or mixed (meaning, some-Thais and some-foreigners) or even mostly-foreigner places. This is not only true among gay clubs or bars but also with saunas and massage places (I heard lang naman coz I haven't been to any of these places... uy defensive!). Until now I still have to make sense of this seemingly rigid classification.

Anyhoot, in Lang Suan... we invaded the first bar in the stretch, which was quite empty on a Saturday night. Whoever was inside, including the waiters, was busy watching freaking Academy Fantasia (Thailand's version of American Idol) on the couple of TVs hanging from the ceiling. Nobody was dancing or flirting in the bar. They were simply stuck to the TV, obviously a major disappointment for us four.

We then chose to move to another bar, very close to the first bar, brimming with gorgeous guys. Despite the stock of mesmerizing men, the music, mostly Thai pop songs, was atrocious enough to drive us out of the bar after an hour or so of desperately trying to withstand the repertoire. Now I remember that PJ and I used to go there quite often but we were eventually fed up with the music and afterwards we always opted for Silom instead.

**

Lately I've complained how I feel that my world in BKK has been rapidly shrinking. Like everybody I know seems to know the same people I know as well. This happens very often between Kiwi and I. He would say something like... "Oh I was just MSNing with this nice guy who went to New Zealand to study film..." and I would finish his sentence with... "... and who is looking for a job right now?". And he would say, "How the fuck did you know that?". You can figure out the rest of the story.

And this has not happened only once for both of us. (Also, this has happened with some of my friends as well ha.) Kiwi even remarked last night that he wouldn't be surprised if we are actually sleeping with the same people after all. Like, I know, right?

Last night I signed up for yoga classes and gym membership with my friend ADHD (as in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). The receptionist who talked to us was amazingly stunning, I swear I could hardly speak when I saw him (and not many men have this effect on me ha... choz!).

After scanning through my registration sheet, which was damp with drool from my own mouth (hahahahahaha), he asked me if I'm from Las Islas Filipinas. And of course I said I'm from Brazil di ba? NOT. So apparently he was in Manila last year, blah, blah, blah, he talked for what seemed like ten minutes... the fag was mesmerized looking at his gorgeous face; I swear I could not remember what he was saying coz I could already feel my ovaries doing somersaults.

In the cab on my way home I told PJ about my latest find and gave him Mr Receptionist's name. And PJ casually said: "Oh, that's the ex of our Pinoy friend Jatujak. They just broke up a month ago. No wonder Mr Receptionist has been to Manila".

I heard "It's a Small World Afterall" playing in the background.

Jollibee Isdatchyu Vah Talagah?

I'm on my final hours in HCMC. Tonight I'm finally in BKK and I could not be happier coz I badly miss BKK.

My stay here had been very uneventful. I met a couple friends of friends (one is Vietnamese and the other is a Filipino); and the rest of the time my colleague and I went around Saigon in the evening after we were released from the workshop. Yesterday afternoon, after the workshop closed, we went around the museums and some landmarks.

HCMC's architecture is grander than that of Hanoi (I cannot help comparing the two), but the latter is obviously more charming. HCMC, as the financial capital of Vietnam, has gleaming buildings rising all over the place and more are scheduled to clog the skyline. I'm afraid it's going to become another chaotic Asian city... hopefully not. There are magnificent colonial architecture in one section of the city though (fortunately close to my hotel), and we focused on those spots.

So I'm dumping a few pictures of my days here in HCMC.

Oh my gawd... HCMC has seven branches of Jollibee. That really drove me crazy with excitement. And what's a Pinoy to do in the midst of Jollibee but gorge on its burgers? Damn, for lunch today I felt like I was back home.

Saigon at Night

My colleague and I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon) tonight. The flight was delayed becuase Air Asia's system went down, which was a good thing coz I had barely a couple of hours to catch my plane after I arrived in Suvarnabhumi from Krabi.

After checking in at our oh so unimpressive hotel, we walked around Saigon. We realized that our hotel's location is quite right in a posh area, with gleaming department stores and hotels just outside our doorstep. God, how ignorant can I be? I thought HCMC is just a notch better than Hanoi. I am quite impressed at how way taller the buildings and how wider and saner the streets are. I have a strong feeling that the bitch is going to love HCMC as well.

We immediately found ourselves in front of the wonderfully lit People's Committee Hall, undoubtedly HCMC's main landmark. A few blocks from it is the river, where we saw a few gaudy boats with diners on board (reminds me of the similar boats in Chao Phraya, ugh). The rest of the evening was spent on sipping beer and smoking.

Oh, the workshop starts tomorrow. I'm thrilled (rolls eyes). I'm looking forward to exploring more of HCMC in the evening in the coming days though.

The Bitch... este, Beach

I'm on my third and last night in Krabi, and I have to say that I'm loving this place more and more. Of course I had a better time now than last March when PJ and I spent a night in Krabi. That was one rush of a trip. This time around, we dragged L with us and we're having a ball exploring more of Krabi and, what else but camwhoring (I'm glad I was on a diet a month before this trip).

We weeeerrrrrked Krabi, we really did.

Yesterday we boarded a speed boat and saw the Phi Phi Islands, famous for the film The Beach, and some other islands. We also went snorkeling, which was ok except that I've seen better in good old Las Islas Filipinas.

And today we invaded Hat Pranang, which, as I said in a previous post, is my fave beach EVAR. Fab, fab, fab! I'm crazy over my tan.

More pictures to come later (and I mean MORE!).

We are flying back to dear BKK tomorrow at noon and a few hours later I'm heading off to Saigon for five days for werk (yawn...). I'm missing my lovely BKK already. Sigh.

Get Me Demarchelier

While I was walking around Kinokuniya last weekend my eyes landed on the June 2008 issue of Vogue UK, shot by Patrick Demarchelier. Well, well, well, look do we have here?! Damn, Agyness Deyn always takes my breath away. I've previously written about her here, here, and here.

Time to get some peroxide no? Bagay kaya?

Image Source: Style Frizz

For the rest of the contents of this issue, click here. The Deyn doesn't have an editorial though, but her ferociousness Catherine McNeil has (god, I love her to bits), as well as Amber, Angela, Elise, and Stam.

This Got Me Stoked

Oh. Em. Geee. Oh. Em. Geee. Oh. Em. Geee.

I was in the cinema last weekend and this trailer was on. Orgasm right on my seat.

I swear I grew up watching Sex and the City *wink, wink*. I've seen every freaking episode of this MAYJAH show. It's like my Bible in life or something.

I can't wait, bitches. (When is this opening in BKK? Does anyone know?)

God, may this film meet my very high expectations. Ok, at least I will not expect too much from the story. But please, God, I want to see ferosh outfits. Amen.

"Life doesn't always turn out to be your fantasy, that's why you need friendships that are real to get you through it all."

*** Quick Update ***

Ana Wintour I love you!

SJP + Vogue = FIERCE!

Arrrrgggghhhh... I can't wait for June.

Haler Bangkok!

I'm finally back home in Bangkok. I swear I couldn't be more relieved that all the constant moving for the past couple of weeks is over. Finally I can settle in my bedroom, and my toiletries are happily ensconced in their old places in my bathroom after getting a good beating in my backpack.

But then let me wrap up a few things from my Vietnam trip, which I should say is one of the most memorable experiences I've had so far.

***

Traveling alone was the best part of it all. I wouldn't have done it any other way. I enjoyed my freedom of mobility, of doing whatever I want to do whenever I want to. I had a better time appreciating the sites coz I could move at my own quick pace. I took advantage of my solitary moments to contemplate about the experiences that swamped me incessantly. I met people along the way, mostly tourists, travel agents, and guides, as well as locals. But honestly, I don't care so much for them and I found my self avoiding any prolonged interaction with them. I simply wanted to spend time with my self; and doing just that, the past two weeks were cathartic in so many ways.

Of course the disadvantage of traveling alone is that nobody would take my pictures. Thank god for the kind strangers who were willing to be bothered by my vanity and snap me a photo here and there.

***

I had roughly seven nights in Hanoi coz it was my base for hopping from one spot to another. I couldn't express more how I fell in love with the city, especially the Old Quarter where I spent most of my time. Mainly, I love Hanoi's cool weather. Also, the narrow and crowded streets that were shaded by tall trees just grew on me. I love getting lost in them and finding a stunning old building at the end of the alley. After a few near-death experiences in its streets (charing!), I eventually felt pretty comfortable fighting my way among the suicidal drivers of motorbikes, bicycles, tourist shuttles, and cars. I had countless of hours sitting in street-side cafes, watching people, and smoking. I also spent a good amount of time around Hoan Kiem Lake, which is a refuge from the chaos of the city.






Needless to say, Hanoi is my favorite part of the trip. Of course, I shouldn't be comparing the spots I visited coz they have their individual charms. Ha Long Bay is jaw-dropping; Sapa is special because of its weather; Hue is just grand; and Hoi An is charming. But nothing is more endearing to me than Hanoi.

For some of the travel pictures, check them out here in Multiply... Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Perfume Pagoda, Sapa, Hue, and Hoi An.

***

Oh, while I was complaining about the bland food in Vietnam, I actually found a good dish in the most unlikely place. I was biking around the citadel of Hue and of course too much cardio made me hungry, right? Since I could not be maarte anymore, I stopped in this street-side food stall that sold fried spring rolls and roasted pork. I had one serving of both, which goes with some vegetable salad and some dips. I swear, I had an orgasm right on my first bite. I have no idea what they're called. I only found them in Hue and nowhere else in Vietnam (I did not search hard enough).

It goes without saying of course that I went crazy over those Vietnamese drip coffee with sweetened milk. Damn, I can live on those!


***

But then, I'm not done with Vietnam yet! I'm still going to Saigon slash Ho Chi Minh City less than a couple of weeks from now. I actually still have a few Vietnamese doung so I have a few bucks to spend when I'm back in the land of Uncle Ho.

***

So where's my next stop? I'm going to say hello to Sushmita Sen! Namaste!

Under the Kulambo in Hoi An

Horror of horrors. My hotel lost power last night. The generator was on for a few hours but it was turned off at around midnight. Without the fan on, the mosquitoes feasted on my frail body. Needless to say, it was also freaking hot. Not knowing what to do, I went out of my room, wrapped only in a towel. I found some candles in the reception area and went back to my room, finding that there's actually some mosquito net around. For the first time in years I slept under the kulambo. It is not funny at all!

After having a terrible evening, I visited the Japanese Bridge at the edge of the Old Town. This is one of Hoi An's main landmarks.

The actual order of the day was to find another hotel. When I checked out of my first hotel I was refused a discount even if the service was crappy. I also found out that all of the other guests, who were checking out one by one, were not given any rebate. I wish I can burn that hotel down. I found a very decent hotel not far from the old one and settled there the entire day coz the heat was just oppressive outside.

Oh, I finally got my finished suit after a few alterations in the morning. For the price, the suit came out quite well naman. Dior Homme idatchyu? Charing!

At just about sundown, I wandered around town and stumbled into the handicraft house where locals were producing colorful lanterns, pottery, embroidery, wood sculptures, and paintings. I felt that the whole place, with the artisans working on their craft while tourists watch, was a show though. Another zoo moment for me. Enough of this please!

More rampa rampahan under the heat of the sun. I eventually ended up on the riverfront, sipped beer, and smoked. At least it's cooler near the water.

The heat of Hoi An is really killing me. Oh, add to that the dust. I'm beginning to miss cool Hanoi. Fortunately I'm going back there tomorrow afternoon on a 16-hour bus ride.

Scorching Hoi An

The drive from Hue to Hoi An was scenic. Tall mountains rise on one side and the sea spans on the other. I was amazed at the 6-kilometer tunnel that we passed through; I swear that was the longest tunnel I've seen (wala sya sa Surigao). The ride also took us through Danang, said to be Vietnam's third largest city. I was quite impressed with the long stretch of white sand beach found in Danang; I bet it would become a major tourist destination soon having seen a number of resort and condominium constructions all over the place.

We reached Hoi An at about noon. Hoi An is a major trading post in the 16th and 17th centuries, drawing a large influx of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and European merchants, thus establishing the city's unique architecture. Fortunately, it was spared of the devastation of war as well as mindless urbanization. The old buildings, mostly composed of congregation halls, old houses, temples, bridges, and shops, are well-preserved and height and building restrictions are well enforced. The old town serves as a centerpiece of the World Heritage Site.

However, my first impression of Hoi An is its humidity. Damn, I was sweating like I just came from an orgy. Add to that the dust that just pervades the air as a result of its location (pretty close to the river and the sea) and the massive road construction that is taking place all over the town. I found a hotel by the river and close to the central market. Save for its nice location, the hotel has nothing to brag about and it is expensive. I've had better rooms at cheaper prices.

I wasted no time exploring the town despite the scorching midday sun. After lunch, I went to a tailor to have a two-piece suit made... for only $50 dollars. Yes, you read that right. Hoi An is also famed for its quick made-to-order clothes. I already have a scheduled fitting at 10 am tomorrow! Ugh, Hoi An is such a shopping quick sand. Cheap shoes, lanterns, paintings, ceramics and all over the place, I had to hold tight to my wallet otherwise I'd go on a spending spree.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on visiting the old houses, temples, congregation halls, and museums. I truly admire how they preserved these historical masterpieces. They don't appear Disneyfied at all. The preservation is not over the top and I can still feel the authenticity of the place. In fact, most owners still live in the buildings, on the second floor of their shops.

The interiors of most cafes and restaurants in the old town are also to die for. I was hopping from one cafe to another not for their food or drinks but just to check out their decor.

Later in the afternoon I checked some hostels and guesthouses if they still have available rooms as I could not really stand my hotel. But then, all of the places I could afford are fully booked. So two nights at my current hotel then. Ugh.

Tomorrow, I'd explore more of the old town and if I actually have some extra time I might head off to the beach.

(P.S. I'm honestly missing Bangkok now. I wanna go home na.)