Cable Car Ride to the Great Wall

Took this Cable Car Ride to the Great Wall of China... This way taken back in 2009. The ride scared the sh*t out of me haha..

Ramblings in Beijing

November 10, 2009

It snowed in Beijing on my last day. Perhaps a fitting tribute to my five-day stay here. I’ve been to China many times but it was my first time in Beijing. I had the chance to finally see the Great wall and I’m immensely grateful that Jazz, a good friend since High school days, who’s based in China’s capital, was gracious to tour me around. The man-made structure looming atop the jagged mountains was indeed a testament of man’s incredible power and ingenuity. I am guilty to admit though that while I had a intimate moment with the wall, the most unforgettable part of that visit was actually the toboggan ride on the way down.

I didn’t explore much of the city. Partly because am tired. And partly because there’s that part of me that wanted to explore the city once again on another time.

I love my job (though I am inclined to believe am a bit underpaid for it) because it affords me to travel and visit remote sites and get a glimpse of the world from another perspective. At times like this I get to be humbled because it makes me realize how my world seemed non-existent from another part of the planet.

My mind rambles as I get to see the world from a different lens. I get bothered by the fact that people here go on with their daily lives without an acknowledgement of the existence of a Supreme Being. Am I considered lucky to have been given the privilege to be aware of His existence. Or maybe I am the one deluded. For convincing myself into thinking that there’s a supreme being so that I won’t feel alone, so that there would be purpose on the daily things that we would.

There are so many questions and journeys like this in a foreign place makes me ponder more about life, about existence, about destiny.
Sometimes I get to thinking that ignorance might be bliss.

Shanghai Solar Eclipse Video Tribute

Made this video as a tribute to Team Shanghai of UP Astronomical Society that set foot in a foreign land to document the longest Total Solar Eclipse of our lifetime. The overcast spoiled what otherwise would have been a spectacular view of the corona. On the other hand it felt surreal experiencing 5 min and 58 seconds of darkness in the middle of the morning. Go Team Shanghai ! I miss all of you!

China Musing

While still waiting for my creative juices to kick in again I decided to post blogs from not so distant past.. So sue me...It's all in the spirit of recycling as well hehe.

Every time I go to China I couldn’t help but feel insecure. Out there, a billion people go on with their routines without even the slightest idea that my world here - the world as I came to know it- ever existed.

The very things woven into the fabric of my daily life – peso devaluation, monsoon rains, Simbang Gabi, Hello Garci ring tones, Friday night traffic, ChickenJoy- they are all unknown and meaningless in that part of the globe. The very things that define my reality, things that revolve around my universe- they have all been reduced to nothingness. Out there, my world and I are non-existent.

Nothing can be more unsettling. How can it be that the only world as I’ve come to know is not what it is?

Nothing can be more humbling. How can I be the center of the universe when out there I am nothing but a mere scrap of creation?

Despite this sense of vulnerability, I realized that there are things I have taken for granted.

No matter how insignificant to the eyes of others, my own world, along with all its aspects - the mundane and the magical, the banal and the beguiling, the excruciating and the exhilarating, - is what makes my existence real.

Suddenly the thought of the never-ending political bickering, the horrendous Midnight sale traffic, the incessant fuel price increase, even the alligators in the congress couldn’t stop me from yearning to go home.