The Old Manila International Air Terminal

This lovely building situated in the centre of the central business district of Makati used to house the first and former airport terminal in the Philippines. From outside, you will not notice it as it just look like an ordinary building. The old sign that say "Manila International Terminal" can only be seen from behind and when you are along Makati avenue, you will think that it is just a house or restaurant.

This building used to be called Nielsen Tower and still uses that name for its building although it is popularly known now called Black Bird. The building was erected in 1937 and was used for commercial and international flights until the end of World War 2. Before it became a restaurant, it previously housed the former library owned by the Ayalas. It is still owned by the Ayalas though. Im just glad that the building have survived and remained a symbol in Ayala triangle. This is such a great example of well preserved heritage building. I wish we could see more of this.

Candi Muarajambi, Abandoned Beauty

We arrived at 8:00 in the morning at Sultan Thaha Airport, the main airport of Jambi City, West Sumatra. The city center is about 20 minute-drive to the city center. But we first went to Candi Murajambi, an archaeological site, believed to be built in early 15^th century, which is situated in the forested area of the town of Muarajambi. These are Hindu temples which are made of similar bricks found at Hindu temples of India. Candi Muarajambi is about 25 kms drive from the airport. O the way, you will find palm tree plantation on the right and rubber tree plantations on the left. There are 9 temples all over the complex. They are quite simple with the highest peak reaching to about 3 floors. These temples, is incomparable to the astonishing Angkor Complex or the majestic Borobudur Complex which were all discovered accidentally by foreign explorers but there is yet beauty in the simplicity of Candi Muarajambi. First thing I noticed was the lack of tourist made the place clean, no traffic and peaceful. You will always find an alone time when you wander around the temples. When you look around all the temples, I could say it was abandoned by the people who built it. But for the reason why they abandoned, no one can answer. The locals may also not have any clue and can only rely on hearsay. Getting around the whole complex took us 3 hours on a bike. An unexpected ride back to main entrance got us toasted under the glaring heat of the Sumatran summer.

As I mentioned, the whole place is not as grandiose as the famed Hindu complex of the neighboring countries but the beauty of being untouched and left in ruins made it more appealing than the other temples I have seen so far. More importantly, since Hinduism never propagated in this area, which is generally Muslim, we can understand why people never really took time to use these places for worship yet they never tore it down.

The Little Prince Handmade Stamps

This is a new project I have been planning to do for quite sometime. I have bought these materials since last year. I only got the time to do this now since I am on a week-long school break. The rubber stamps were handcarved from a Korean-made rubber stamps. I tried to follow the artworks of The Little Prince book and gave it a bit of a twist using different ink pads.

I look forward to doing more of this.