Makati Skyline

I'm staying at the Renaissance for 4 nights before heading back to China. Here are pictures that I took from my room and from the concierge lounge. Click on the pictures to view the full image.

View from room towards NAIA


Familiar structures: Landmark, Shangri-la, PLDT, The Peninsula, Mandarin Oriental, Pacific Star


The pool (Greenbelt 3 is the building the across the street)


More skyline

One More Trip

Here I am at LAX, waiting for my flight to Tokyo. Took a picture of a Boeing 747 right beside our gate.


The 747 that took me from Tokyo/Narita to MNL.

Unrelated: Food and Non-Food Topic

Carving a Beijing Duck


Everytime I go connect through the Tokyo/Narita airport, I go to this small place the serves Japanese noodles ("udon"). After being confined in an airplane for many hours, a hot bowl of udon is very refreshing. Here's what I ordered today - udon with thin slices of beef. If you're wondering if the beef was trimmed of the fat, this is Asia so the fat is there. You should taste the broth. Highly recommended. If you are a vegetarian, be a carnivore for a couple of minutes and try it.


Nothing to do with food. These are some of the Japanese ground staff at NRT. It's about 2:30 pm on a Saturday and they are on the airport tarmac exercising. Of course, they do this in-between arrival and departure of airplanes. That would be so annoying to wait for a long time for your luggage only to find out that the baggage handlers are doing jumping jacks.

Snow

It has been snowing for the past 2 days and will continue till tomorrow. Northern China has not had any rain in a while so any precipitation is welcome. There's not a lot of accumulation but the locals are totally fine with it.

View from office window


Office grounds

Beijing Duck and McD

"Beijing" is the Chinese name of Beijing while "Peking" is the corresponding English name. So "Peking duck" is the same thing as "Beijing duck". If you are in Beijing and you ask people where you can get "Peking duck", they probably will say, ah.. you mean "Beijing Duck". Anyway, here it is just before it disappeared within 30 minutes.


Tried McD for the very first time in Beijing


The selection


And I was told not to take pictures. Too late.


Big Mac

Signs

I went to a bookstore today and you can't miss this sign on the door. A timely reminder to the millions of people who have difficulty opening doors in places other than home.


Name of a store


And they do have a branch here

Visiting the Summer Palace - In Winter

Despite having a partially frozen lake, the Summer Palace is still worth a visit in this cold weather.

Click to see Pictures

The Water Cube

I also went to the Water Cube today.

Click to see the pictures

Bird's Nest

Earlier, we went to Beijing's National Stadium, a.k.a. "the Bird's Nest" , the site of the 2008 Olympics.

Click to see some of the pictures

More Pictures

Here are some pictures that I took while walking around the downtown area.

Click to see the slideshow

Guitar

I probably need to bring one of my guitars here - or I have to buy one here in Beijing. I've been itching to play for a while now. Anyway, here are a couple of songs that involve Dominic Miller (a favorite guitar player), Chris Botti (trumpet) and Sting that I enjoy playing, alone or with friends.

Small USB drives... really small

USB drives (a.k.a flash drives, thumb drives, jump drives, etc) are small. When I saw one of these mini-USB drives, I knew I had to get one. They're smaller primarily because it's just the part that slides into a USB slot and does not have the silly, bulky case that we all know. Today I went to that part of the city that specializes in selling computers and all things related to it.

I bought 3 USB drives (capacity 2 GB each): one for myself, one for my girl, one for my boy. They'll be using these for their school work. The white one has a panda design and the red has an ox design. The bottom picture shows the drive in its "pouch" when not in use. The size is not obvious from the picture so I need to compare it with something else.


The USB drive beside a passport


Compared to a pen

Hotel Switch

I'm now staying downtown. Previously, I was staying at a hotel that was much closer to work. However, there was hardly any life in that location. Downtown means more options for restaurants, shops and proximity to the subway so we can go places without having to deal with possible communication problems with cab drivers. Here are some pictures:





Sitting Area


Welcome Gift


Nighttime view from the room

Pictures

These pictures were taken when I left Beijing for a 1-week stay at home because of the Chinese New Year.

The hotel was decorated with fruit-bearing plants. Not sure if these are clementines, oranges or calamansi.


Waiting for check-in at the Beijing Airport for my flight to Newark.


One of the books that Marlene gave me on my recent trip to Manila.