Laguna Ginger Lily: Silang

Showing posts with label Silang. Show all posts

03 December, 2017

Sky & Skyline, Supermoon

December 2, 2017 around 5:30 pm

Supermoon taken 11:47 pm Dec. 3, 2017. It was supposed to have been at its largest at this point.

24 November, 2017

Scenes from "development" in Silang

Hope these trees stay forever....many are gone...

25 June, 2017

Took this photo at the Silang Municipal Hall last Monday, Laguna Day and Jose Rizal's birthday.
This was about a minute after missing an opportunity to shoot(a photo with my phone)...a photo of the Mayor outside her office, chatting briefly with constituents right next to where I stood. It would have been one of those candid shots a la Time, Newsweek or Life (if you remember that mag you are old like me).
I do not know her and did not seek an audience with her, I was there for a transaction. Since I am apolitical and do not have friends nor close relatives in politics, the brief encounter was interesting in iterms of the sensation I felt. From the way an employee waved me aside saying "dadaan si Mayor" to the way those who wanted to talk to her hunched humbly before her (well she is tall so maybe I exaggerate)...it is evident that change in little towns from reverence of their leaders at near-royal status can be...well..tough. The fact is theirs, like many ruling families in many other municipalities, has led this town forever.

I must say however, I left Silang City Hall satisfied that theirs struck me as a decent office. This as opposed to other unkempt city offices where the employees, in dress and manner just reek of...corruption. Yes even out on the streets of Silang town proper, cars--2 different cars at 2 different times that morning, stopped to yield to ours going through! It was surprising because the courtesy was obvious...they didn't have to yield but they did. I don't know if it being Rizal's birthday had anything at all to do with it, but whatever...I salute whoever drove those two (both red) cars.

I would like to know if the building itself is the original munisipyo from the time of Rizal (when was it founded? Climbing its wooden steps feels warm &fuzzy like entering a bahay na bato of the past. Also, transacting with them was fairly pleasant; decent and legitimate.

That was Monday. Tuesday evening, a terrible thing happened in one of Silang's up and coming villages. Wednesday morning, I heard about it. Thieves had broken into a home and shot the father of the family,killing him. By Thursday one of four suspects was caught. By Friday, the other three were arrested. Incredibly, by today, we hear news that the three shall soon be released "for lack of a warrant". Apparently the police report was also bungled, with inaccuracies initially.

So, mayor, mayor in the hall...is your city one of the fairest in the land at all? The frequency of such similar crimes is common knowledge now. Please! Fix it!!

19 June, 2017

The Calax

I am just selfish. A terrible thing happened at 7 a.m. last Friday morning.

About a dozen dump trucks stopped traffic on Nuvali blvd...along the portion behind Santarosa Estates 1&2. This Blvd is heavy with vehicles early weekday mornings... comin and going from Mamplasan...Silang South blvd...and Nuvali.

It was my green road... with trees on the left and green green grass.

I try to ignore the transmission towers.Ere.

Now...I cannot ignore & will have to go through... construction of the Cavite

Laguna Expressway Here

In the words of Darth Vader.... Noooooooooooo!!!!!

21 April, 2017

April Showers Bring Narra Flowers

I know...Narra overload in this blog. But in the past posts they came in March

http://lagunagingerlily.blogspot.com/2011/03/mmm-
smell-that-its-narra-tree.html

, a day after a rainshower too.

These bloomed on April 19.

Oh here is my pineapple in a pot...I do appreciate pineapples more now...never knew they took long to grow...

I woke up to the narra's fragrance, and looked at them in golden sunlight just after sunrise.

Bye-bye Narra tree, after 8 exactly years!

They do bloom at the same time...like these on Inchican Road...and further up, in St. Scholastica's Westgrove campus...

So have you seen/smelled any lately? How about in the UP Diliman campus?

31 December, 2016

Scenes from Two Shopping Malls

Even my own mom shushed me...when I continued to rant about the artificiality (artificialness?) of the latest developments this side of town. Can't blame her...I've been so negative of late. Wasn't too excited to go see it and then did not totally enjoy the lights...the laser lights, the led lights..the beautiful accompanying music (the music did a lot)...on the once grassy lot.

The killer was when a flock of birds flew over the lights--were they real?--their wings and bodies glistening white above the field of twinkling wires and bulbs.

So now we do not see as many stars as we did just a few years ago.

From up the Silang Hills, the Light Show's music is heard loud and clear, carried by the wind. The search lights have been, again, diminishing views of stars. If you turn the volume up really high, you can hear the music.

Also in the same direction, a surreal scene...a retailer's nightmare...
I mean, these were peak hours, DECEMBER 16!

So why are there many cars parked out front and in the expansive rear? They are all dining...in The Legend, Denny's, or the All Day Supermarket "Paluto". At one point I stepped out of the supermarket, heard some ''office people" obviously from out of town, asking the guard where the "Dampa in Vista Mall" was. Ha ha. Guard had no idea. Well it's the PALUTO, I butted in. The visitors were grateful...yes! The Paluto! They said. Paluto means "to have cook", and there, one can buy the fresh produce and have it cooked many ways according to their menu.

Apparently, this Vista Mall has been referred to as "Nuvali" by visitors. I guess they refer to this general location as Nuvali....as if it is now a town's name.

(The escalators are moving continuously!)

This was the Paseo Market this morning... sounds of torotots, and the usual morning weekend marketing scene...with maybe a little bit more shoppers.

So my last post for the year ends with a view and sounds of fireworks over Paseo de Santa Rosa, as seen from the hills of Silang, Cavite.

Happy New Year! In my selfish way, I hope 2017 leaves me with still enough clear views of the sky. Because really, it is quickly getting crowded up here.

Paving paradise part nth

So we chose to move up to the hills...far from the highway now regularly jammed on weekends...away from the commercial areas...never mind their convenience...

But now the two big developers have joined together to create even more of the same up there too.

Saw the forest bulldozed...very very very sad.

And yet in the future, I know I will patronize it. Or even be a tenant.

Surely, an asthma attack after twenty years of clear lungs...may be related to the construction around. And what about EVERYONE now having respiratory problems. It's not just the pollen, I say. For former Manila residents maybe it's even being used to the cement dust and THEN experiencing pollen.

I used to hear about "Green Lungs" in the city of Kuala Lumpur every day. Not once have I heard it here. Just because we are not prone to the smog from Indonesia, or are not in a valley like KL is, does not mean we do not need the "green lungs" too.

Bye bye birdies.

11 June, 2016

Museo De La Salle

June 4, 2016

De La Salle University-Dasmarinas Cultural Heritage Complex, Dasmarinas, Cavite. Cavite is huge, and Dasmarinas is not as easy to reach from Santa Rosa as one might imagine.

From the Santa Rosa Silang border, specifically the Laguna Technopark and Paseo, it is best reached (for me at least, let me know if there is an even better route) via the "Cardiac Trail" at South Forbes, bgy. Inchican Silang...the road beside SMC's Wedgewoods. Scenic and quick enough. May get confusing, what with a lack of signages through hills and little barangays, but following a compass and map (GPS) can help. Of course, there are tricycle drivers and sari-sari store owners to ask.

Through to Silang town to get to the Emilio Aguinaldo Highway.

For a trip back up to Tagaytay then,it's just the Emilio Aguinaldo Highway all the way. Well, not really "just" that. Dasmarinas, Cavite is notorious for its traffic jams on the main road. Especially on Saturdays. And this was a Saturday.

Shaded and lovely University Avenue, where one of three DLSD gates is located

Well, photos are not allowed inside much of the Museum, so...snippets of its surroundings in De La Salle Dasmarinas instead.

Beautiful, gorgeous campus!

I do cherish my Jesuit education...but I wish I had it in this campus, with this kind of heritage consciousness. The La Salle Brothers have it, led by Bro. Andrew Gonzalez, from whose family a large part of the museum's collection comes. It was his idea to build it, actually, per the museum guide.