My visit to Nayong Pilipino sa Clark Expo is not just about a few snapshots of the sights one can see there but rather a collage of historical and cultural eye candies.

The piano on the left is an antique dated from the time of Jose Rizal and Emilio Aguinaldo during the Spanish colonial days.

Further below is another antique, an old Tricycle from the same period.

It is still not clear though if these were the possessions of the late Philippine national hero Jose Rizal and Emilio Aguinaldo, however these artifacts were inside the houses that were labeled as replicas of Jose Rizal's house in Laguna and Emilio Aguinaldo's in Cavite.




Nayong Pilipino also has a lot of souviner shops where tourists can buy ornaments, wood carvings and different indigenous native woodcrafts that are beautifully exotic and endemic only to the Filipino culture.
There are also picnic spots and cozy Filipino inspired cottages to accomodate guests and tourists for an over night stay. Also, there are function rooms and party venues for different occassions that are readily available upon reservation.

If you want to experience Nayong Pilipino sa Clark expo you can visit their site by clicking here for more information.

A lot of a lot of people would think that Flowerhorns dont get to socialize as much other than when mating, but there are some Flowerhorn owners that would think differently about it.

I was having a good time in my room just watching Sid play around with his new toy. I bought him a plastic fish just to see how well he can tolerate the possibility of putting a live one in the future. I was amazed with how Sid playfully approached the toy. He playfully bit the side of the toy to see if it would react. A couple of minutes after, he then started pushing the toy around. It was such a cute sight to behold.

I have been thinking of adding a "janitor fish" (as people would call it) so that I can get rid of algae and other growing hazy organisms on the sides of my tank but my previous attempts yielded negative results. The story was, I attempted to add another fish into his tank when Sid was smaller. Though that new addition is just about Sid's size, Sid still thought of the other fish as food and before the other fish could die from Sid's bullying, I have to remove it from the tank.

Sid is growing fast, and together with that growth spurt he poops a lot. It has always been my dilemma since the time I noticed of Sid's poops. I have to think of some ways on how to keep his tank clean without having to literally drain out the water just to clean it. I also considered looking into forums for an advice and nothing has helped me as of yet. Maybe buying a new bigger tank and installing a powerful filtering system would solve everything up. I am still open to suggestions though...

I was trying to be all around Luzon when I visited the island. After a nerve wracking plane trip, I found myself enjoying the sceneries in Clark (Angles City, Pampanga) the day after. The trip going to Angeles City from Manila is a 2 to 3 hours drive via NLEX.

Clark Field forms part of Angeles City and is home to a lot of sights and sceneries, duty free shops, Clark EXPO, SM City Clark, Diosdado Macapagal International Airport and Express Ways galore going to different municipalities and cities such as Tarlac, Subic Olongapo, Pangasinan and many others.

Nayong Pilipino gives its tourists a glipse of the Filipino Culture (if you want to visit the site you can click here). Below are some of the pictures I took from my last visit to the place.

A replica of the Barasoain Church


A replica of Jose Rizals house

Clad in Puma as I was waiting for our flight back to Cagayan de Oro City...

I was looking out through the window when I took this photo. I feel a little bit uneasy whenever it comes to traveling by plane. I was trying to dismiss the horrors I got from watching too much National Geographic's Air Crash Investigation.

Trying to tune out some of my thoughts as my mind is being swamped with a lot of things good and bad, the worsening weather outside the plane aggravated my discomfort. The streak of gray clouds made the mid day look like it's dusk. When I took this photo, it might still have been half past 9 in the morning and the flight is scheduled to leave at exactly 9:40 a.m. and already it looks like the sun is about to set.

Aside from the weather, I was a little bit apprehensive with the idea of not choosing Philippine Airlines for this travel. Austerity measures might have been what my mom reasoned when she booked our flights, after all it was her credit card that she used and not mine to process the reservations online.

I envied the people boarding the other plane pictured above, the plane touted as Asia's sunniest.

Mid flight, PAL is known to serve snacks to their passengers, while Cebu pacific is known for its mid flight games and give aways, and a grumbling tummy (my tummy). Out of rebellion (because I wont be able to satiate my hunger while in transit) and boredom, I joined and won a smelly Cebu Pacific Pouch from one of their Mid Flight "show me game".

The last thing I was wishing to find while I was fidgeting on my seat is a good old suggestion box. Maybe I can shed a light on Cebu Pacific's quest to dominate the domestic aviation market. I could perhaps suggest that, in exchange of free meals, they can beat out PAL by stepping up their amusement section and have their own version of "Deal or No deal" on board with one of the co-pilots as the banker. The lucky winner should get to own one of the company's Airbus A320.

Cebu Pacific used to come in as a second class next to PAL (Philippines Airlines). "Used to" because currently its no longer the case as CEBU PACIFIC is proving to be every bit a competition to PAL. PAL accommodates it's passengers in Ninoy Aquino International Airport when in Manila (NAIA), while Cebu Pacific would have to just settle with the old Domestic Airport adjacent to NAIA. As the situation for Cebu pacific is improving unexpectedly, about last year the Ninoy Aquino Terminal 3 (adjacent to the old domestic airport and the international airport) already started its operations. This new terminal brought about something like a "HOME COURT" advantage for Cebu Pacific as the company banks on the beautifully constructed terminal.

Terminal 3 is big and quite clean, a class to reckon. There are 20 gates that can accommodate medium sized jets like the Airbus A320. The hall way is clean and is filled with escalators to ease out the long walks from the arrival area to the lobby of the airport.

The passengers wouldn't have to suffer congestion in the hallways and waiting lounges because the departure area is a floor separate from the arrival area.

The Terminal 3 windows are facing towards the skylines of Pasay which provides a nice scenery for the passengers on the waiting lounge in the departure area while the other side of the building shows off the runway and the international Airport right across.

Surprisingly, or so because all of my phobia was just merely a product of my paranoia, my trip to manila wasnt as bad as I though of. At the airport, Me and my two moms were greeted by my uncle who had just flown in from the US to spend christmas with us.

I know through research and from experience that FLOWER HORNS are solitary animals, though it doesn't mean that they are anti-social. I have seen quite a few Flower horns swimming together with other big fishes like Arowana's, red Oscars and sometimes other flower horns and they get along pretty well with each other.

Anyway, my tanks is big but with Sid swimming all over, I am slowly resigning to buying a larger one, perhaps fifty to a hundred gallons or so.

Putting him on a bigger tank would mean that I wouldn't have to worry about Sid's poop. As Sid grows on a daily bases, so does his fervor for eating which also translates to a lot of poop. Sid's tank right now requires a little bit of attention as compared to having swords tails and goldfishes. I have to make sure that the water in his tank is filtered every night with activated carbon to prevent the water from keeping high levels of nitrate and ammonia which is bad for Sid.

Even if I have a good filtering system, still I would have to scrape out Sid's poop manually. The poop he produces is big for the filer's pump to suck out as it sinks down to the bottom of the tank.

I have some snap shots of Sid, these were all taken before I left for my Christmas vacation to Manila. I only have a point and shoot so I invested much on finding the right angles and lighting to come up with the effects I needed.










I still feed Sid with Ocean Free Ever Red. I tried varying his diet but the problem with live or fresh food is that it gives Sid a hard time pooping. What usually takes a minute when he poops after feeding him fresh or live food would only take seconds when he is on an Ever Red diet. I would suggest that before even feeding your flower horn try to check the contents and see if it is all packed with the necessary nutrients for the fish' growth so that you wouldn't have to go through the hassles of checking whether the live food your giving is good for them.

Flower horns in general are hardy types of fish. They thrive well on perhaps any conditions but however careful watch of the waters Ph levels is a must do. They eat almost anything but again caution must be observed. I have seen people feeding their flower horns with house lizards and even cockroaches, but i guess that's gory and gross for me to do. Just don't over feed and don't starve your Flower horns after all a happy and healthy flower horn is a good view to watch...

I had the chance to celebrate Christmas last year with some good friends before I flew to manila for a vacation. I was especially thrilled to note that I brought with me my point and shoot just in case I don't want to miss some important snap shots.

As expected I was able to mingle with Francine as she strutted her way during our Christmas party last year.