Fun Time at the Beach of Tondaligan, Pangasinan

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Pangasinan's beach in Tondaligan will definitely confirm that the Philippines is truly a tropical country. Inspite of the fact that it’s crazy hot in here (especially now that it is summer time), Pangasinan has some beaches to help cool you down and forget about the sweaty 4 hour trip (improved with the access to a new road that shortened the usual 6 hour trip from Manila.

Tondaligan beach is just one of the lesser attractive beaches in Pangasinan. Yup! There's a lot of great beaches with white sands, great views and several other attractions, however most of them are just too far by road, and many would require you to travel by plane.

With grayish sands, and a not really fascinating view, it is good enough for the ordinary traveler who wants to dip into the waters to refresh himself from the summer heat. It is not a “must-see” destination whenever you happen to pass by Pangasinan since the Hundred Island beaches are more popular for the more picky and adventurous tourist.

But we were not exactly in Pangasinan for the beaches. We were there because we attended a family get-together with my mother's relatives, so the fairly satisfactory beach will have to do just to refresh us and feel the cool waters. The visit to the beach was just a side trip to treat our relatives who came with us to Pangasinan from Manila aboard our official transportation provider - Fox Travel Services.

Woven into Being by Kidlat de Guia at Galleria Duemila

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Galleria Duemila presents Woven into Being, a solo show by Kidlat de Guia. Equal parts patchwork and photography, the exhibition takes the form of fragmented photographic tapestry, which wields and merges craft and technology. 

Much like the tactile method of Kidlat de Guia’s practice as a filmmaker, the process in Woven into Being similarly entails cutting, splicing, and weaving, but this time of collected photographs from trips and fieldwork around the Philippines. Transforming the quotidian form of photographs, he manipulates strips of digital prints by either breaking the weave to expose nuances or to continuously overlay to keep something unseen. The outputs are rivetingly composite and texturized layers of photographic images that disclose an alternate reality. Evocative woven images of drivers and their beat up trucks, portraits of loved ones and the spaces they occupied pushes forward through that all memory is social. A saturated feel of human experience pervades in his images and seemingly attempts to structure and approximate the past, loss, hope, and memory.   

Kidlat de Guia completed a BA Broadcasting Communications degree at University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, in 1998. He was the recipient of Award of Excellence at the Aqua Planet Video Festival in Japan in 2003. His works has been exhibited in the Philippines and Singapore. “Woven into Being” runs from May 9-30, 2015 at Galleria Duemila located at 210 Loring Street, 1300 Pasay City. For more information you may reach us at + 632 831 9990; Telefax no. + 632 833 9815, email: gduemila@gmail.com, Twitter and Instagram: @galleriaduemila, you may also visit our website at www.galleriaduemila.com, or like us on Facebook.

50 Years @ Pangasinan: A Double Birthday Celebration

Wazzup Pilipinas!

It was our uncle and aunt’s fiftieth birthday (and apparently also their wedding anniversary celebration - all falling on the month of April). We were supposed to visit them the previous week, but most of us were unavailable and so we decided to change the date. Now that the day has finally arrived, we woke up, grabbed our prepared stuff and left home. Having descended the stairwell of our building and left the village, we hopped aboard the van at around three in the morning. Bags were packed and seats were chosen by each family member. As we left the avenue and drove towards our rather distant first stop, Taguig - where our cousins were supposed to wait for us – we greeted our driver, Mr. Jun from Fox Travel Services - our transportation service, and exchanged introductions. While the rest of the family was talking, I was trying to regain a few more winks of sleep. Finally realizing that the bumpy road and noisy chatter lead me to inevitable failure, I finally gave up trying to sleep. The motion and inertia brought about by the vehicle weren’t helping either.

As we moved on, pointless chatter still went on and I was hopelessly trying to refrain from saying anything impolite. You know how grumpy a person can be without having enough sleep, right? My dad convinced me to transfer seats since according to him and his ego I could catch their “stupidity”, but I refused since if I did I would just become more vexed. With that in mind, I just transferred to the next seat, still in the same row at the back, and watched the passing surroundings through the window. I also checked the time on my phone every now and then.

After a few hours our cousin ate Jennifer, along with her companion, were the next ones to join the van. A few kilometres later, in our point of view were now our aunt and the rest of our cousins. The van was now packed with people, who were surprisingly cheerful even at such an early time of the day. My mom wanted my aunt to sit beside me near the back end of the van. With that, we went onwards to our real destination – to the province of Pangasinan.