Philippine e-Business Review: Online Flower Shops

We all have relatives living abroad and if chances are we don’t, we know someone who does. If they intend to send flowers to the Philippines chances are their only option is to go with an online florist. Now I know there are a lot of players in the market and with so many companies to choose from, the selection process can be very gruesome.
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Please support the Googlebomb campaign to bring the best of the Filipina-related websites to the top of the Google SERPs. Vonjobi over at Filipino Librarian has launched the Yan ang Pinay banner campaign. I’ve added the banner to my site and chose to link to the Purple Rose Campaign, “the global campaign against the sex trafficking of Filipinas and Filipino children”. Do your share! :)

Welcome to the Philippine Travel Blog - Covering the Best of the Philippines One Blog Post at a Time!

I was looking for information about a certain travel destination in the Philippines but grew tired of getting the same commercial information day in and day out. I wanted to see real travel reviews from real bakasyonistas.

I did manage to find a few blog posts about the travel destination I was searching for but they were all just posted in their own blogs. Then the idea came: put all these travel posts under one roof and categorize them by travel destination. That way, we have a definitive site containing honest reviews of the many travel destinations in the Philippines. Think Pinoyblog, only this time it’s a showcase of travel posts.
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I admit it. I’m scraping the bottom here. I’ve really had nothing interesting to blog about for the past few weeks. Days have gone by without a single post, which is completely opposite to what I had in mind when I first thought about starting a blog. I thought I would be deluged with topics left and right, that brilliant thoughts would just rain down and consume me. Yet now I find myself at the bottom of the philosophical pit, scraping, wishing for the juice to flow. What’s even more painful is there’s no shortage of material out there. Forget about the outright profound and thought provoking topics…there are practically hundreds if not thousands of uninteresting stuff which you can repackage and write about daily. From the early morning drive to the office, to the asshole driver who thinks he’s king this early in the morning, office politics, lunch menus, the weather and carpark thieves. Then jump over to the major dailies online and pick a topic. It’s that simple, pick a topic for the day and rant. Rant like hell. Inject something deep, throw in a photo or two and presto. I’ve tried all that and I’m still dry as a desert.

As an alternative (nay a last resort), I’ll be writing about Ortigas, the way writers write about New York and Paris. I will attempt to occupy myself with topics bound by a common thread: that they all happened or are happening in this cramp, urbanized space. Maybe that will help start the juice flowing again.

If that should fail, perhaps it will be just a matter of lowering one’s expectations. The pressure will be off after I learn to reject and brand as silly and futile the temptation to play Socrates.

While checking my Yahoo! Mail account the other day, one particular email caught my attention. The email was from mktgteam@yahoo.com.sg and it was about my being picked as the winner of the Ideas 2005 promotion they ran a few weeks back. Yahoo! Southeast Asia was looking for the best online marketing concept to help promote Yahoo! products, e.g. Photos, Mail and Search in the region. My sister forwarded me the link to the contest page and thinking I had nothing to lose, I went ahead and submitted my entry. The real reason for joining the contest is this: the frustration of not being able to have a substantial say in the way online initiatives are conceptualized and deployed in my present corporate existence. I thought it would be a blast for a traditional IT professional to win a marketing concept formulation contest. Somehow I thought that would validate all the concepts I’ve proposed and were rejected by all the marketing gurus I’ve had the chance to work with before, in the most likable “in your face” way.
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Note to self: visit Caramoan, Capones Island and Punta Bulata this year.

And if resources permit: Sagada, Polilio, Pagudpod, Vigan and Pamalican. The Philippines is really one beautiful country.

Happy Mother’s Day to the bestest mom in the wholest widest world! :) Love you!

If you’re looking for a hotel in Singapore, be smart. Find the best deal, compare prices and read what other travelers have to say about the hotels in Singapore.

I’ve read the earlier emails about Tiger Airways’ budget trips from Clark to Singapore but the Tiger Airways’ website is deceptively clever in putting all the hidden costs off its pages. I’m curious how much the airport taxes (here and in Singapore), surcharges and fees all add up. I also would like to know how smooth the plane ride is (hell, I hope they didn’t scrimp on the safety gadgets on board to qualify as a budget airline), how exquisite the food they serve is, how long the trip took, the hassles encountered, if any, at the Clark and Singapore airports, and any other travel tip you could share.
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People may be familiar with the story of Jennifer Carol Wilbanks and John Mason - her being the “runaway bride” who decided to disappear, and him being tagged as a possible suspect in her “disappearance”. Already people are second guessing the reasons for her last-minute brush with commitmentphobia. On one side you have the general public who think that Wilbanks simply got cold feet. On the extreme side, you have mental health professionals already pointing to a host of mental disorders: borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder.
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A view of the ocean from inside the beach house.

Note: The complete Cabangan, Zambales photo gallery can be viewed here.

There are still quite a few spots that hold that old-time charm and Cabangan in Zambales is one of them. Cabangan’s rolling topography is dotted with mango farms but the main attraction would have to be its sandy coastline. The 4 towns of San Antonio, San Narciso, San Felipe and Cabangan all face the South China Sea and are certified surfing destinations for both local and international waveriders.
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