My friend had picked me up at the lodge I was staying at so we can have lunch at another friend’s house in Capayas. We spent the afternoon hanging out at Cabu Beach. We were on scooters and in going to Cabu Beach, my hair had gotten all tangled from the dust. I could not comb it afterwards. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful quiet time by the beach.

Cabu Beach, Coron, Palawan, April 2008

Cabu Beach, Coron, Palawan April 2008

Cabu Beach is not a white-sand beach but it provided a beautiful view of the sea, particularly the route that Super Ferry takes to get to the Coron town port in Busuanga Island.

A bench on Lambingan Bridge

I asked my friends to take me to the best place in Coron town for a view of the sunset and they took me to Lambingan bridge.

One of my favorite boat photos

Lambingan on the bridge

The sunset in Coron

How beautiful the ripples were on the orange and black water...

My friends prepared dinner for us at the Siete Pecados Bar that my friend Jeff owned. Here is a photo of my friend Hope and me hanging out at the bar, which now, in hindsight, is so much better than my bar now. Hahaha. But it was all good times, good times. I miss these guys so much.

Angku and Hope at the Siete Pecados bar, Coron, Palawan, April 2008

Travel Factor Friends at CWC April 15, 2011

Travel Factor Friends at CWC April 15, 2011

Locals!

The guys were staying over at Nagaland Hotel, a walk away from the bar, so I made them come over.

Kevin Roy of Razorback

Razorback at the old Wharf Galley Rock Cafe

To see the rest of the photos from the Razorback event at the old Wharf Galley Rock Cafe, click here.

By the aquarium downstairs

Outside! By the street! (Yes I was wearing shorts under that shirt :p)

I love you guys. Thanks for all the support! Rock on! See you soon!

The UP Repertory Company Alumni Association and the UP Repertory Company presents its first joint offering for 2009: Hello Philippines!

Hello Philippines, a one act musical, is a humorous take on call center culture. Team leader Tiffany tells five agents from his team that one of them is going to get axed. The twist, however, is that he will leave that decision to the five agents. So now, it’s up to ex-tibak Anton, clueless rich girl Berni, the slutty Toni, the probinsyanong Brichi, and the overly religious Elsa to do whatever it takes to keep their jobs. Whatever it takes.

Hello Philippines is viciously funny and holds nothing sacred as it skewers the “call center lifestyle”, a life cycle born out of fast money and desperation, shifting body clocks, and too much coffee, beer, and cigarettes. It attempts to put into perspective all the sacrifices one makes to stay in such an environment, albeit in an entertaining manner.

The Story behind “Hello Philippines!”

Before “Hello…”, there was Chupacabra

Hello Philippines! traces its origin from the play Chupacabra, written by UP Rep alumnus Abet Cruz.  Chupacabra was written as part of a minor productionback in 2007 that saw the play staged at UP’s dormitory circuit.  The dorm tour, centering on call center lifestyle, was a smashing success thanks to the sheer hilarity of Chupacabra.

Even at its earliest incarnations, Chupacabra was a powerful, rollicking, laugh-a-second satire that got the message across.  Since those stagings, there has been talk of restaging Chupacabra due to the overwhelming popularity of the play.  The interest flagged down a bit though; with UP celebrating its centennial, UP Rep decided to do a more UP-centric production for AY 2007-08.  And so, Chupacabra was shelved.

But you can’t keep a good play down.  When the UP Rep alumni started talking about what play they could stage for their inagural offering, quite a few suggested we take a look at Chupacabra again.  Two years since its last staging, Chupacabra was still every bit as funny and irreverent as we remembered it to be.  But, if we were serious in staging this play, we would need to make changes to the play.

Pimp my play

We all loved Chupacabra, but the play needed work.  Chupacabra was very raw and experimental, and we needed to give it a bit of a polish.

With that, Abet revisited his script and started retooling everything.  We also agreed to make the play longer by turning it into a musical.  And we also felt that we couldn’t keep the old name Chupacabra anymore.  That title, more than anything, was an inside joke.  We settled on calling it Hello Philippines!.

***

Watch HELLO PHILIPPINES at Aldaba Hall Dance Studio, UP Diliman on August 12, 13, 14, 15, & 16, and at Tanghalang Julian Felipe, De La Salle University РDasmari̱as on August 27 and 28!

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