Jamos the Explorer

No. I don't drink tea, with jam and bread. I drink tea while reading, watching TV or toying with my android phone. Sometimes, I drink tea when not a lot of customers visit the shop. But most of the time, I drink tea when I feel cold, or to ease flu and the chills that you get when you have fever. You can say that I drink tea for health and medical reasons.

Drinking tea originated from China. That is where my ancestors came from. My father is a 100% tea addict. He never ends a day without drinking cups and cups of his favorite tea. His current favorite is the one packed by Unilever not Lipton, but the other brand with a chinese chariot logo. Way back before when commercialized tea bags are not readily available, my parents used to buy tea in Manila's Eng Bee Tin. But most of the time, our tea stocks came from our relatives in China who brings them here in the Philippines when they come and visit my grandparents. But lately, given that tea is becoming an expensive product, gifting of tea is not the trend anymore.

I have just bought an unusual tea from an unlikely shop inside the mall. I got two variants namely a "Ginger and Citrus Fruits" tea and a "Cranberry and Ginger" tea. I tried the Cranberry variant, and it is good...not the best, but a good taste for flavored tea. I've tasted Twinnings and Dilmah brands when we stayed in hotels. English Breakfast variant of Twinnings is one of the best in the tea-bagged commercial teas. But nothing beats the classic natural dried tea leaves with Jasmine blossoms and Green tea variants. However, the best-selling and most famous of all natural tea is the Oolong Tea. It is the Black of Teas. If we have Black Coffee, then we also have Oolong Tea. In China, they have chilled Oolong Tea and Oolong Milk Tea. This is how Oolong tea is considered as the classic of all classic teas.

Photo: fotohunter/shutterstock c/o www.mnn.com

The traditional tea drink is derived from the infusion of tea leaves. The plant of the real tea comes from the genus Camellia. The top leaves are dried, then roasted/heated to a perfect and ideal grade. From there, the roasted leaves are infused in hot water to get the drinking tea. Technically, there are different ways to get and produce the different types of traditional tea from tea leaves. But I am not an expert on the topic, the only thing I enjoy is drinking tea and trying out different teas in the market. The non-traditional teas are the ones that use other natural fruits, plants and other ingredients. Most of the time, these teas are collectively called as Herbal Teas. The most popular herbal tea, in my humble opinion, is Ginger tea. It is a favorite of mine especially the one produced by Gingen. However, in the Philippines, ginger tea is not a foreign tea. Ginger tea in our country is called Salabat. It is naturally done by boiling ginger in water until the desired taste is achieved. You either drink it pure or you add sugar to make it sweeter. In more sophisticated version, you may add Honey instead of suger.

A lot of herbal teas are now scattered in the tea market. Chamomile tea and Chrysanthemum tea are also gaining popularity. The two herbal teas are marketed as a soothing and relaxing teas. But the natural dried chrysanthemum flowers sold in chinese stores around Binondo Manila are used for medicinal purposes as emphasized by traditional chinese medicine. My mother used to give me Chrysanthemum Tea when I was a child, especially when I had fever and cold. And the taste is good, but again, not as good as Jasmine tea for an aromatic type of tea. hehe.

If you ever get a next time to visit the Philippines, do not forget to drop by Binondo Manila to get your naturally processed dried teas. Majority of these shops are along Ongpin street. But you may find other streets in the area interesting given that Binondo is one of the oldest Chinatown in the world. For other teas, don't forget to try our local salabat or ginger tea if they are offered in you hostel or the place that you visited here in the Philippines. But the best thing in returning from a trip, is to bring tea samples for you to enjoy after a Philippine vacation. Remember, tea is not just a drink with jam and bread...but it is a drink for all seasons.

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I've been planning to visit Antipolo City before, but the time was not fit for the adventure then. But in May this year, I won gift certificates from an online contest that gave me the opportunity and the "need" to visit the bakasyunan city of yesteryears.

From Angeles City, I rode a bus and a jeepney to reach Antipolo City in the province of Rizal. A bus left Angeles City and dropped me in Cubao Metro Manila. From the drop off point, I had to walk towards Farmer's Market and rode a jeepney. The trip was quite long. It was a two hour ride on the bus, and another 2 hour jeepney ride from Cubao. The long travel time from the jeep is mainly caused by the Metro "traffic" in Manila going to Antipolo. Finally, I reached Antipolo at 10:00 in the morning of a Saturday. Lucky is what I am because a good samaritan offered me a ride to get to Bosay Resort, the GC sponsor. The kuya wore all black from his jacket down to his shoes. Thank you again to kuya if he ever reads this post.

I left my baggage at the resort's office given that my stay will only start at 5:00 in the afternoon. Therefore, as suggested by my friend who hails from this city, I went to Pinto Art Museum. A tourist destination that is not quite far but has a quite pricey transportation cost just to reach the place. So if you plan to tour around Antipolo City, please do bring extra budget for your transpo expenses as the tricycles here will charge visitors more than what is required by the local city government.

The Pinto Art Museum is located inside a gated subdivision. The entrance is very miniscule in comparison to the museums total land area of responsibility. When you enter the small entrance, you are required to pay the entrance fee of 200.00 per head as of this date of posting. Not too small for the budget traveller. hehe. But since it was THE only place that I have planned to visit in Antipolo, I nevertheless paid the fee and enjoyed the best ever Art Museum experience I had in my life. The National Museum is the other museum that I have so far visited since 2010. I have yet to visit the place again given that it's almost a decade since the first and only last time.

Pinto Art Museum is a grand exhibition of all kinds of Artistic Works in the Philippines. It showcases living Art legends and not so living ones too. But what makes the Museum memorable, is the landscape and the series of interconnected buildings and structures that houses the great works of art. Aside from these, Pinto Art Museum is a big garden to explore, although not into a full blown garden with different flora species, but a very good presentation of garden landscaping as an art form of its own.

The buildings and structure of Pinto also showcases Architecture as an art form too. From the external design of the houses and building, down to the internal execution of structures and design including the furnitures and fixtures, the Museum truly maintains and greatly emphasizes its essence as an Art Museum wherein you will discover that there is Art in every step that you take inside its perimeter. The best and most memorable works of Art that I encountered in the Museum are the metal sculpture of a pregnant woman, the collage of paintings on canvass in the first gallery, the paintings with bubble-wrap overlay design, the stone structures scattered around the garden and definitely, the Rollete Artwork by Leonard Aguinaldo that is made from rubber, the orangy rubber that we use in rubber stamping. So if you intend to visit the museum, don't forget to look for the Rollete and try your luck. I got "Kuripot"...that is stingy in the english language. haha! But still, people say that artworks displayed in the Museum are rotational. They don't stay forever in their places in the museum. The artworks are changed after a period or two. Nevertheless, you will definitely find and see interesting artworks at Pinto Art Museum.

Untitled artwork made in Rubbercut material by Leonard Aguinaldo

Early in the morning of Sunday, the next day, I woke up to leave Antipolo City. I went to Binondo Manila to visit my nephew and niece. Luckily, my brother was there to allow me to see them and play with the kids. Linus and Lilo are the best pamangkins in the world.....that is because they are the only ones I have. yeehah!

🌼Advance Happy Mother's Day 妈妈。Unahan ko na dahil baka matabunan lang sa Sunday.🌷 妈...kahit wala na kayo, sinisikap kong makita kayo sa lahat ng bagay na nakikita ko, nararanasan ko at nakakausap ko. Minsan kapag may customer na mabait na lola 👵...inaalala ko kayo.....minsan naman kapag nadadaan ako sa Palengke ng Pampang 🍅, inaalala ko yung mga Sabadong sinasamahan ko kyo nung Grade-6 pa ako at dun ko natutunan na dapat mapula ang gills ng isda at malinaw ang mga mata...."kah geh geh geh" 🐟...inaalala ko din nung mga taong 2012-2014, kapag tapos na tyo mamalengke eh ililibre nyo ko sa McDo at ipaghahalo ko kayo ng kape. ☕ At syempre naman...excited na akong punuin ng mga halaman, lalo na ng mga rosas 🌹, ang bago kong hardin. 🌿 Ginagawa ko yun para sa pinangarap nating garden na hindi natin magawa sa family home. 妈...siguro, sa inyo ko din ipapasalamat yung patuloy na blessings sa business, dahil kahit papaano eh naaalala ako ng ating mga suking customers. Marami ding nagsabi na sa lahat ng Fil-chi na nanay sa syudad...eh kayo ang pinakamabait. Hindi masungit, mapagbigay at siyempre, ang ating family "heirloom" na Smiling Face! 😁 妈妈.....Maligayang Araw ng mga Nanay. 我想你。我爱你。谢谢妈妈。

📸 circa 2016 ✌️😄

#mothersday #mama #妈妈 #missyou #jamosisforever

Post, originally posted on my Instagram account:

www.instagram.com/jamosthexplorer

I decided to go and see this year's Hortikultura plants fair in Quezon city. The event is organized by the Philippine Horticultural Society at the Quezon City Memorial Circle(QCMC). For a non-Manila resident like me, I had to ride the bus from Pampanga and reach Manila the other night. To help you know how to get to Quezon City Memorial Circle...here's the way i did to get there. First, from Sta.Cruz Manila, walk to Quiapo Church and pass through the underground junction leading to the other side of the road facing Quiapo Church head-on. From the roadside, ride a jeep with the Philcoa route. As of this writing, jeepney fare is 17.00 pesos to QCMC.

If its your very first time to go to the park, you may ask the tsuper(jeepney driver) to tell you if you have reached QCMC. The jeepney driver will let you alight at the roadside just opposite of the park. Look for the Underpass sign and follow the steps leading to the underground passage. Upon exiting the passage, you will find yourself at the QCMC. It is as if you are in a distant island at the center of the sea, facing the main island. Ask the roving guards for directions leading to the event.

The Hortikultura event area consists of several plant booth sellers and a few food stalls. On the side, you will find the seminar area where speakers are invited to give a talk on popular and interesting topics in Horticulture and plant care. Some of the topics are "Staghorn Propagation" and "Landscaping with Native Philippine Trees". I forgot the original and complete list of seminar titles since I did not attend any, given that I have to go back in Pampanga in the evening.

Most of the stalls sell cacti & succulents. And these items are the cheapest plants sold at the fair. Other sell Bougainvilleas and flowering ornamentals, while some stalls have native Philippine Tree seedlings. I was able to buy one Crab Cactus plant or Schlumbergera species. You will also find famous Plant Traders like Purificacion, Wilson's and King Louis Garden. In my opinion, prices of plants are above average compared to other plant fairs and plants traders. It is a good event for plant enthusiasts like me. However there are some points for improvement that I would like to share. First, the stalls are arrange in a one-row format. I believe that having two rows or more is more enticing for the buyers and this will project more traffic in the selling area. Second, the provided streamers & banners are insufficient in my opinion. More presence and more visibility will attract more visitors. Lastly, there is no music being played in the event. Music in events give life to the shopping experience. It will brigten up the mood and the surrounding area.

Unsatisfied with my loot, only one Schlumbergera seedling, I went around asking people how to ride a jeep back to Centris or Edsa corner Quezon Ave. From that journey, I stumbled on the permanent plant traders in the park. There, I was able to get a Passion Flower Vine. It was a good find given that its the purple species with fragrant blooms.

Riding a jeep back, I stopped and looked around in Centris Market, yet another Plant fair that happens weekly at Centris Sunday Market. I ate Baked Macaroni, Takoyaki and drank a papercup of Lemon Cucumber drink. My loot at Centris is far more than what i got in Hortikultura. I got a Coelygene orchid, a Sanggumay, yellow sanggumay and native Cymbidium.

Got home in Pampanga at around 6:00 in the evening. It was a nice and fulfilling plant shopping experience. I'll definitely go back to Centris for a Paphiopedilum orchid and others.

I am inviting you guys & girls to visit Hortikultura at the Quezon Memorial Circle on or before February 10, 2019. Then fill in the gaps by passing-by on to Centris Sunday Market. Remember, the Hortikultura is only until February 10 while Centris Sunday Market is a weekly event.

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Woodworks, furnitures and wood artcrafts are famous in Pampanga, particularly in the areas of Guagua & Lubao. However, in Angeles, small entrepreneurs of this class have also opened shops in the city. While waiting for Kuya who went out of his shop, an old lady came to talk to me and started a small-talk conversation. In that convo, she was able to tell me the jist of her entrepreneural journey, from her start-up to the challenges of having a family while running the business. From that short and simple conversation, I learned things from Ate who is a Bamboo craftswoman. But the best things do come last. Before we parted ways, she asked me our family's business, but was not familiar. So I spoke of my grandfather's business in the past, and she almost jumped when she heard the name of my grandfather's bakery. This experience emphasized the point that we don't have to talk and listen a lot, to know a lot. Sometimes, we learn more from deep, impromptu and personal conversations with other people. Here's my original post on Instagram.

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Woodwork & Sash Factory: Pampanga's Old Art & Craftmanship. Habang naghihintay kay kuya na gumagawa ng mga pinto, upuan, cabinet at iba pang muwebles...nakipagkwentuhan si ate na kapitbahay nilang gumagawa ng bamboo crafts. Kinuwento niya kung paano nya naitaguyod ang negosyo nya, kung paano siya niloko ng mga kamag-anak sa negosyo, naikuwento din niya kung paano sinayang ng anak niya ang biyayang binigay nya. Naitanong ko kung ilang taon na siya, 70's na daw...aba kasing edad ni daddyow ko. Tinanong naman nya kung anu negosyo namin, eh hindi niya kilala......dahil naman sa edad niya binanggit ko na ang negosyo ng LoLo ko dati ay ang GoldenCity Bakery....*boom*....."putragis!" sabi niya..."eh nung bata ako naglalako ako ng tinapay nyo!" ahehehe. Minsan sa ganung small talk, malalaman mong small world nga ang mundo.

#adulting #conversationswithmorrie #bondingwithseniors #townfolks #aintgettinyounger #jamosisforever