Sky Ranch.

A shot from the train I couldn't even see on the screen. Turns out to be an interesting metal landscape.

  I'd never wanted to enter the Sky Ranch.  Having seen the crowds within, and having gotten stuck in traffic outside it, I swore I would not have to set foot in it.

  I did want my daughter to experience riding the horses there...horseback rides existed next to the Taal Vista Lodge from as far back as the seventies.  At least some things remain.

     Well, as it was an ordinary weekday--not so ordinary--it was a holiday in Calamba, which might have accounted for at least a quarter of the visitors that day...I agreed to let the kid at experience the place at least once, with conditions. After I pointed out that the ferris wheel's cars were enclosed, everyone agreed we were not to ride it.  I will stick to Enchanted Kingdom's, thank you.  The horseys were the highlight and the best for her.  

    These are just snapshots taken while riding on the train.  If they look familiar, it's because they're the same trains as in SM malls.  Sky Ranch is SM-owned after all.  

     I have to say, the staff is very warm, welcoming and attentive.

     Some young adults going on the zip line provided entertainment.

     As for food...it was still down to the usual fast-food joints.

I Have Chalk Paint

I love chalk paint. Why? Because I do not like having to sand pieces of furniture first, and the chalky look can be distressed for a vintage, shabby appearance.

I've mixed up some of the lime and powdery blue colors I used on a child's table and chair (table leg pictured at bottom)...and I am selling them in these boxes that are actually decorative box frames (with loops at the corners for hanging).  

FOR SALE!

"Sun Sea Cottage"

Chalk Paint sampler size decor box kit

Php 365.00

Here are parts of what I've painted with chalk paint...

note I did not bother to distress, and I waxed only the first piece. I've largely been unable to take proper photos and log on to my blog the past month, so took detailed photos from a phone camera instead:

Concha's Garden Cafe

     Maybe last year...I cannot recall exactly when, I posted photos of Mother Earth's Garden.  I may have fantasized aloud about the location being perfect for a cafe...

     This has been the story of my life for the past decade...witnessing others fulfill some "crazy" idea of mine which I could not have implemented myself.

       However, I would have capitalized on this view of Mt. Makiling and built a second level with big picture windows, or just an open balcony.  (Unless that is in their expansion plans).  Sniff, sob, I guess I am still reeling from the loss of King Bee's Makiling view...

  Here is where Concha's is located.  Next to the Petron in Puting Kahoy, Silang. For Manilenos and other non-Silang/Sta. Rosa residents, this is on your way to Tagaytay.  Right across the Adventist University's (AUP) fence and grassy field.

   Now I don't know the owners, though the owner/chef was there the times I dined.  She is not one to introduce herself to customers, or even smile at us I think.  The man, while also being discreet in a corner, is the more welcoming one.  

   Finally and the most important detail: her food is good. It's a full-blown restaurant, to my mind, not just a cafe.  Everything we've ever order was...yummy...lovely presentation, flavorful, and matches the cozy Spanish-influenced Filipino home ambience, and of course, the garden.  The last dish my taste buds still recall is...the Sinampalukang Manok.  Go and try it.

Moving to Cavite...

  The subject line had been drafted some months ago, but I never had the time to actually post about this subject. Heck I have not had the time to post anything period.

   Still none now, except to maybe post this photo of Buffy's buffalo milk and ice cream store's porch wall*.  No direct connection to the subject other than Buffy's being located in bgy. Lumil, Silang, Cavite (on the road to Tagaytay), and my childhood fascination with bamboo and interior design, added to the interest in cottage/flea market/vintage coming together in this place.

   

    Buffy's sells fresh carabao milk and really delicious carabao's milk ice cream. They also have pastillas de leche ...one of the best I have tasted. I have made my own pastillas using carabao's milk and I love my own, but I bought theirs rather than mix up a batch. Again, I have little time (or poor management of it), and if you know how to make pastillas, you know how long and how much arm muscle it takes.

     Back to the porch wall, and Buffy's interiors in general.  I especially noted today, that Buffy's Lutong Bahay Filipino restaurant on the second floor actually is able to combine style elements I have had percolating for some time. That is...  

       ...it has their basic white, white wooden tables and benches, picket fence, farmhouse, cottage, dairy look...but upstairs, bamboo-lined walls, Filipino windows, and bamboo vases on the same white wood tables and chairs.  

      The only thing I'm not sure about is the plastic greenery, flowers, and random little plastic birds lining the walls...but really, they're consistent all over, that I can overlook the fact that I prefer real leaves and flowers.
It gives the place a lot of originality anyway, and hey, less upkeep all around!
Their flourescent light bulbs are bordered by bamboo, too.

      I've always felt it seemed a quaint place to take little children for ice cream...   

      Now I see how I might be able to achieve those two design elements after all---whitewashed cottage and natural color bamboo/native materials.  It is doable.

      Their milk and ice cream are enough for a stopover or ultimate destination.  But it is nice that the owners still took care to make the place pretty too.
     
*  Those birdhouses? They are sold along the road to Tagaytay too by one seller...

Drive through Nuvali Blvd August 6

Views from Seda Hotel Nuvali

The Monochrome Events hall far right; Mt. Makiling in the background

Nuvali blvd.; Tagaytay ridge on the horizon; Nuvali's playing Fields;
construction of more commercial spaces on the right

Southern Luzon Hospital in the background; two hours later, visible flames, fire trucks, and thick smoke in the Greenfield Development area AGAIN.  As in every holiday and weekend in the summer.

Yes their windows need washing; will forgive them this at this time

Easter Sunday sunset over Solenad 2

Crown Asia's Valenza village; Cathay Land's South Forbes Chateaux de Paris village in Silang in the background

Lounging by their poolside in the morning is refreshing...cool, breezy

If only I could post photos of the hotel staff...they were all friendly, accommodating, professional... and I have to make special mention of the Night Supervisor who actually spent the next day going around checking on guests in his very perky, sincere manner.  Its people are most important...and this hotel's went about their duties in nothing less than we expected of an Ayala hotel.  Hopefully it's not just because they just opened last month. The lifeguard on duty was vigilant, looking out for the safety of guests as some dangerously traversed the higher edge of the pool, and strictly requiring the proper attire. I observed how staff treated the other guests too.  This is probably why I am forgiving this place the imperfect finishing on the interior walls...the dirty windows...

Bucal, Calamba

View from main entrance of Sol y Viento resort

IMHO only, a waste of mountain, space & spring water pool opportunity; design?! while awesome in size, position and certainly unique, the man-made waterfall is...well...too man-made for my liking I guess

Well, couldn't this town have been much more...quaint

Okay...adequate showers & they look alright imho; but do swimmers use them pre-plunge?
at least they, the guests, weren't in cotton t-shirts and shorts unlike in most resorts here

along the national highway

Oops why is this photo here...Tom Yum Goong made by Indonesian neighbor; two weeks ago, surprise Kimbap made by Korean neighbor. I don't ask! They give :-)  All masarap 

Pho Hanoi restaurant along the way to Los Banos

simple, clean, straightforward, so you know focus is on the food, which must be good; note palochina furniture of which there are many along the road. The pho and some other dishes we ordered were delicious, fresh, in a home-cooked Vietnamese way; but we were slightly put off after realizing the special Pho Hanoi did not contain the ingredients as pictured...and we were only told after we asked about it (and after we had eaten it all, in hunger) that it was all beef, and with added beef as the other ingredients were out of stock. Sadly, the cold dessert (Three Colors--bean, gelatin, with shaved ice and milk) was not available as the gelatin imported from Vietnam was out of stock. Oh prices are alright too. Reasonable.