The Soundtrack from our trip to the Philippines

I'm back home in good ol' (cold) Switzerland since Friday evening! A proper recap from my almost five weeks in the Philippines will follow shortly (when I recover from this flu...yes, I already managed to get sick, oh brother). Until then, here the songs that played over and over again on MTV Philippines and other Pinoy Music channels, and on the radio. Enjoy !! The Filipino artists are marked in yellow.
And BTW (to be pronounced as bee tee double u, as heard and seen in the Disney channel movie Camp Rock ("It so can't compete with High School Musical!", according to Sara Jane and Yves), which we watched twice at different hotels...Yves would call this "Shocking!!", haha. Yes, I have degenerated into a twenty-seven year old watching movies and listening to music for fifteen-year olds - ah but it's too much fun).

When I grow up (Pussycat Dolls)
* This is real (Camp Rock OST) - also in Bonus section
Spotlight (Jennifer Hudson)
Daylight (Kelly Rowland)
7 things (Miley Cirus)
One step at a time (Jordin Sparks)
That's not my name (The Ting Tings)
Shake it (Metrostation)
That's what you get (Paramore)
Miracle/Last night (Fragma vs. P Diddy & Keisha Cole)
Forever (Chris Brown)
Leavin' (Jesse Mc Cartney)
Always be my baby (David Cook)
Yugto (Rico Blanco)
I kissed a girl (Katy Perry)
Penge naman ako nyan (Itchyworms)
Disturbia (Rihanna)
We rock (Camp Rock OST) - we mainly laughed at it ;-)
Akala ko (Parokya ni Edgar)
Here I am (Nikki Gil)
Greenlight (John Legend)
Viva la vida (Coldplay)


Bonus Material:

You're so gay (Katy Perry), hehehehehe
Sana/I wish (Nikki Gil - Coke commercial in the Philippines)
Home (Aiza Seguerra covering Michael Buble)
Vic & Acoustic Chicks - Yet another proof of the musical talent in the Philippines


Various cover versions of *This is real (who would have thought !! :-))

This is real (Filipino version - Julianne and Miguel Escueta)
Suki Siapaku (Malaysian version)
Etre moi (French version - Sheryne)
Sono io (Italian version - Ariel and Stefano Centomo)
Oto ja (Polish version of This is real (Ewa Farna & Jakub Moleda)

In the Philippines No. 1 !!!

Apologies for the overdue update.....here in a nutshell: I have arrived in Manila on Sunday, 7 September, at 4.00am (!!!) and was picked up by my Mom and sister at 6.00am. Flew via Doha and killed my almost nine hours layover time in the Oryx Lounge, even took a shower, pretty cool. Spent the day and the day after in Manila, met up with two of Mom's cousins (but I was so tired, basically sleepwalking...the inflight entertainment system of Qatar Airways is too tempting, didn't wanna sleep with so many new movies available! I totally recommend the movie Smart People with Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page and Sarah Jessica Parker. Also watched two chickflicks, haha. Maid of honor with Patrick Dempsey aka Mr. HAIR and What happens in Vegas. I gotta have me some Ashton, you know) and had loads of great food. All you can eat buffet at the MegaMall, baby. Luckily we're walking and swimming a lot here, we don't want to come home looking like the Michelin man, right?

Last Tuesday we (my Mom, my sister and her best friend) flew to Boracay, a beautiful tiny island, where we will stay until 19 September...at first we weren't lucky with the weather, it's Typhoon season after all. We killed the time by watching loads of Filipino MTV and other music channels (they have some great artists here!) but now, we're having gorgeous weather! We rented a boat just for us yesterday, did some island hopping, some snorkeling, had a meal cooked for us at the beach, and discovered paradise: Puka Beach, on Boracay. White Beach is too commercialized already. Puka Beach has gorgeous sand and crystal clear water, and we were there almost alone. Today we rented a Filipino style sailboat for a hour, it was so much fun. Taking lots of photos, but it's taking forever to upload them to our travel blog....fingers crossed we can do so soon. We can't download a plugin that would make it faster.

What songs are on rerun on the music channels that we L-O-V-E?

• Disturbia (Rihanna)
• Spotlight (Jennifer Hudson)
• Kissed a girl (Katy Perry)
• Daylight (Kelly Rowland)
• Shake it (Metro Station)
• That's what you get (Paramore)
• Everything by Colbie Caillat and Jason Mraz of course
  

Check out some pretty cool Filipino music here, and Rihanna's Umbrella song in Tagalog here, haha.

Will post again soon, tootles! Am having a great time....

WOW

Isn't this just the coolest photo in the world? :-D My brother and his girlfriend in the Philippines (here, Chocolate Hills in Bohol)

My bro and his girlfriend in the Philippines

Ah, I wish I could be travelling too now.....they will be in the Philippines for about two months, then continue on to (I think) Thailand, Laos ...... Take care you two! :-)

Discovering the canton of Grisons (Switzerland) ... or hundreds of kilometers in trains

I've been travelling through the canton of Grisons on Sunday and Monday (yesterday), in very good company. I've never been to this part of Switzerland except for two Summer camps when I was in elementary school, of which I cannot remember all that much, unfortunately. The weather was gorgeous, and I tell you, I'll be back, for it was extremely beautiful! Also, I highly recommend a visit to the Therme Vals (see down below) for relaxing, it's really worth it, and the scenic ride with the Postauto from Ilanz to Vals is breathtaking. My Switzerland, quoi!

Swiss train in the canton of Grisons (Rhaetian Railway)

The famous Swiss "Postauto"

Coat of arms of the canton of Grisons

St. Moritz

Therme Vals (for free thanks to connections :-))

The small village of Vals

Another panoramic picture of Vals. This is where the Swiss "Valser" mineral water originates from. Has always been my favorite Swiss mineral water ;-)

We aged well

In the middle, two of us in Spring 1998 (we count the anniversary from the beginning of our year abroad, which was in 1997. This was already towards the end) ...

And here all of us again, in Summer 2007 :-D

Like good wine, we aged well, don't you think? Yes yes, maybe with some additional kilos, haha, wonder what we'll look like in another ten years from now...we're already planning our 20-year reunion! All this somehow reminds me of the quote I use all the time:

"Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, sometimes wine improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place."
(Abigail Van Buren)

And I think it's fair enough to say that we were good grapes, hehe. Who would have thought, after all these years we're still in touch. We have managed to see each other once a year or once every two years since 1997/1998, the year we all spent a high school year in the USA. First, we spent ten days at a so-called "cultural preparation camp" at Ramapo College in New Jersey. We flew over the Atlantic Ocean in the same airplane, all either sixteen or seventeen years old, about to begin a very shaping journey away from home. Remember, that back then we had no cell phones, hardly any internet yet (my hostfamily didn't have a computer, for instance, and my family back home didn't have internet yet), so there was no "cheating": I called home maybe once a month, sometimes a bit more, and wrote letters. Lots of snail mail, being on your own, and I wouldn't have wanted it to be any different. Okay okay, I know this may sound like coming from the memoirs of a seventy-five year old, haha. However, even though ten years isn't that long a time period, things were quite different back then compared to now.

So here's a toast to us, to the REAL Fantastic Four, hehe, to friendship that will hopefully last a lifetime !!! Love and miss you all, I really do :-D