Smoggy afternoon in the city

From another balcony on the other side of the Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila, a view of the City of Manila with the small white yachts docked at the Manila Yacht Club. The concrete bunker in the foreground is the Folk Arts Theater. Its formal name is Tanghalang Francisco Balagtas, after one of the Philippines' greatest poets, though no one I know has ever called it that. Imelda Marcos had this covered amphitheater built in 1974 especially for that year's Miss Universe Pageant, and since then has been used mostly for concerts and religious gatherings. In more recent years, however, it has been quite neglected and ignored as a concert venue.

Unknown jungle

A view of Pasay City from a balcony of Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila. Except for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, I rarely have reason to go to Pasay and know next to nothing about it.

The Tent

Here is another view of the still mostly empty lands of Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City, including part of the parking lot of the posh dining and shopping center that is Bonifacio High Street. Except for the first few buildings constructed in the area soon after much of the army's land was sold to the highest private bidder, almost all the buildings in BGC are high-rises. One of the most notable exceptions is the NBC Tent, which you can see a bit to the right and two blocks away. It's an events venue that can be rented and it really is just a tent, though a large and air-conditioned one. It is most notable for hosting the (more than) monthly Shop@The Fort bazaar organized by Karl Edwards International. I've only gone once but that one trip helped me understand why the bazaar has been around for years. Export over-runs, original, unique and locally-designed clothes and accessories, home-made spreads and baked goods—let's just say that that one trip left a pretty big hole in my purse, and I am both dreading and looking forward to my next Karl Edwards bazaar experience.

City of lights

I posted a similar view of Metro Manila from Timberland Sports and Nature Club in the past, albeit during the day. I've also revised my previous estimate—there's more than three cities that one can see from up there. It's amazing though how the metro looks so flat from the Sierra Madre's foothills. It was a cloudy evening but Venus still managed to shine through.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

City in a valley

A view of Marikina City and the mansion-like homes around the Capitol Hills Golf & Country Club under a bright blue noon sky filled with puffy little clouds. The city of Marikina is built in a valley between the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range and the ridge which marks the boundary of Quezon City. My father used to tell me how this fertile valley—a river runs its entire length—used to be nothing but rice fields. During the worst of our annual typhoons, the Marikina River always breaks its banks—good for paddy field agriculture but not for human settlements. In fact, Marikina City was one of the worst hit cities in Metro Manila during last year's devastating Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana).

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

High and low

Looking out across the rooftops of some of the upscale residential subdivisions around Capitol Hills Golf & Country Club from the roof deck of Dencio's Bar and Grill. I've already posted a photo of the building being constructed on the right, which will become the tallest building in Katipunan Avenue when it's done. The cluster of buildings on the left is the residential and commercial condominiums of Eastwood City. These are all in Quezon City, but the farther buildings in the middle are already in the Ortigas Center of Pasig City.

---

Calling all City Daily Photo bloggers! Our theme for June 1 is Funny Signs. That should be fun! And don't forget to vote for the July theme!

It's a jungle out there

SM City North EDSA has a fun and educational exhibit going on until the middle of the month. Titled "Safari Adventure" and running the entire length of the mall's Sky Garden, the exhibit features animals found in an African savanna ecosystem. Some displays have animatronics and audio narration, and all have informative banners. This is definitely not my clearest photo of the various set-ups, but I love how the display contrasts with the lights, billboards, buildings and Metro Rail Transit System in the background that I just had to use it.

Lazy day with a view

For our office's annual summer outing, we spent one day in Timberland Sports and Nature Club in the town of San Mateo in the province of Rizal. It is on one of the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range and has a spectacular view of Metro Manila.




Timberland is a members-only club and is 45 minutes away from Quezon City. It has a wide range of sports and leisure facilities and except for a few small details, it seems that the developers have remained true to their vision as presented in the scale model.




Can you locate where this garden is in the model?




I'm sorry I don't have more photos of the club, but it's as my title says: I decided to indulge my lazy side that day. Swimming pool, whirlpool bath, steam bath, sauna—and my camera isn't waterproof.

There will be darkness

SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City is currently the Philippines' second and the world's fourth largest shopping mall, with a floor area of 390,000 square meters (4.2 million square feet) in 42 hectares of land reclaimed from Manila Bay. Tonight, this whole area will be plunged in darkness, at least for an  hour, for Earth Hour 2010.

8:30 P.M. • SATURDAY • 27 MARCH 2010

See what's reflecting what at James' Weekend Reflections.

Green strip

I've already posted a picture of Bonifacio High Street before, and here's another, this time taken from the roofdeck of Fully Booked. If you enlarge the photo, you can see that large spider of a rock (Reg Yuson's "Specific Gravity") and some of the shopping and dining promenade's other water features. Unlike the other side, this side of Bonifacio Global City is more densely built up. I really hope it doesn't get much worse than this.

Empty isn't always bad

Bonifacio Global City in the City of Taguig is one of the fastest-growing mixed-use land developments in Metro Manila. It still has large tracts of empty land but almost everywhere you look, you'll see high-rise buildings going up. BGC is named such because the land used to be the location of Fort Bonifacio, the home of the Philippine Army. That in turn was named after Andres Bonifacio, one of the leaders of the Philippine revolution against Spanish colonial rule in the late 19th century.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

Across the street

Taken around noon from the roofdeck of the Loyola School of Social Sciences of Ateneo de Manila University looking east towards Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City. The clouds are just beginning to gather in preparation for the rains that we experience every afternoon. Some of the university's roads and parking areas can be glimpsed through the acacia trees. The tallest building in the photo is Xanland Place, a residential condominium. It's the same building in my Evening sunlight post back in February when summer was just beginning.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

Across two cities redux

The same view of the Ortigas Center skyline from the top floor of Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street as the photo I posted two weeks ago, but at night. The huge cloud looming over the city had dispersed by then.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

I breathe it everyday

The view of Metro Manila from Timberland Sports and Nature Club which I posted for the City Daily Photo theme day on Tuesday was just one of several which I took that day. The club's pool is located one level below the dining room and has the same magnificent view. If you enlarge the photo, you can just make out a large body of water in the distance. That is the La Mesa Dam reservoir, which supplies most of the metro's water. The area has also been developed into an ecopark, but I have yet to visit it.



The club is only one part of the mountain development that is Timberland Heights, which offers lots for residences and farm estates. Here we see some of the homes that have already been built and a section of the hill nearer the clubhouse that is still being developed. Unfortunately, the trip to the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range made it quite obvious just how polluted Metro Manila's air is. Just look at that pall of thick smog over the metro!



The pollution became even more pronounced when the sun hid behind some clouds. I wish I could say that this was just rain but it didn't start pouring until late in the afternoon and I took this mid-morning.



I don't know why it was so, but by early afternoon the sky over Metro Manila, though still a bit hazy, was much clearer. Like the sun had burned off some of the smog.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

A tale of three cities

THEME DAY: BIG • Is three cities big enough? This is the view from the deck of the dining room of the Timberland Sports and Nature Club which is located in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range in the town of San Mateo in the province of Rizal. Metro Manila, with its seventeen cities and municipalities, is too big to be encompassed by any single view (unless you're up in an airplane) and my friends and I figure that we could only see three cities from Timberland: Marikina, Pasig and Quezon City.



Size is relative so it'll be interesting to see how City Daily Photo bloggers around the world will define big. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Across two cities

Looking north from the fifth floor of Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City, I saw this cloud touched by the late afternoon sun rising high over the tallest buildings of the Ortigas Center in Pasig City.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.