Boracay 2007 - 23-25.02.2007

Photos, updated! including After Bora Reunion Dinner at Pasha and Cocktails at M Cafe

Boracay: The most underrated best global beach in the world

from Beach List website.

World's 'Best in Class' Beaches

1. Ipanema - Rio/Brazil
2. Karon - Phuket/Thailand
3. Waikiki - Honolulu/Hawaii
4. Pink Sands - Harbor Is/Bahama
5. Upper Shoal Bay -Anguilla
6. Warwick Long Bay - Bermuda
7. Source d'Argent - Seychelles
8. Myrtos - Kefalonia/Greece
9. Spiaggia del Principe - Sardinia/Italy
10. Grace Bay - Providentiales


World's 'Best Party' Beaches

1. Praia Pepe - Rio/Brazil
2. Cancun - Yucatan/Mexico
3. South Beach - Miami/Florida
4. Long Bay - Negril/Jamaica
5. Paradise - Mykonos/Greece
6. Kuta - Bali/Indonesia
7. Las Salinas - Ibiza/Spain
8. Pampelonne - Saint Tropez/France
9. Patong - Phuket/Thailand
10. Orient Bay - St. Martin

World's 'Most Relaxing' Beaches

1. Surin - Phuket/Thailand
2. Treasure Cay - Abaco/Bahamas
3. Rawa Island - Malaysia
4. Eagle Beach - Aruba
5. North Island - Seychelles
6. Plaka - Naxos/Greece
7. Jandia - Canaria/Spain
8. Makena Beach - Maui/Hawaii
9. Playa Akumal - Yucatan/Mexico
10. Clearwater Beach - Bermuda

World's 'Most Fun' Beaches

1. Siesta Key - Sarasota/Florida
2. Half Moon Cay - Bahamas
3. Surfers Paradise - Queensland/Australia
4. White Beach - Boracay/Philippines
5. Ala Moana Beach - Honolulu/Hawaii
6. Kata Beach - Phuket/Thailand
7. Rum Point - Grand Cayman
8. Spiaggia La Cinta - Sardinia/Italy
9. Palm Beach - Aruba
10. Maracas Bay- Trinidad


World's Best 'Hidden Wonder' Beaches

1. Whitehaven Whitsunday/Australia
2. Motu Tapu - Bora Bora/Polynesia
3. Cala Soraia - Sardinia/Italy
4. El Nido Beach - Palawan/Philippines
5. Jobson's Cove - Bermuda
6. Polihale - Kauai/Hawaii
7. Black Bay - Grenada
8. Petit Anse - Seychelles
9. Navagio - Zakynthos/Greece
10. Tulum - Mexico



World's Most Exclusive Beaches

1. Bang Tao - Phuket/Thailand
2. Huvafen Fushi - N. Male Atoll/Maldives
3. Jimbaram Beach - Bali/Indonesia
4. Jumby Beach - Jumby Island/Antigua
5. Paradis Beach - Mauritius
6. Pine Cay - Providentiales
7. Sandy Lane - Barbados
8. Tokoriki Island - Mamanucas/Fiji
9. Wailea - Maui/Hawaii
10. Coral Beach - Bermuda

Pinoys most courteous of Asians, says ‘Digest’

FILIPINOS are the most polite urbanites in Asia, ranking 21st out of
35 in a global courtesy test by Reader’s Digest, the magazine said
in a statement.

Surprisingly, New Yorkers scored 80 percent and topped the 35-country
test, while Mumbai in India ranked 32 and dead last—just a point
ahead of 34th placer Bucharest in Romania—though Asia got the lowest
scores overall.

Reader’s Digest sent undercover reporters from its editions in
each country to assess politeness in their most populous city.

In every location, they staged scenarios to see if people would hold
open a door, say “thank you” after making a sale in a shop,
and help someone pick up papers dropped in a busy location. Points were
awarded for polite responses, and the results for each city were tallied
and compared.

“This was the world’s biggest real-life test of common courtesy,”
said Conrad Kiechel, editorial director of the magazine’s international
editions.

“Our researchers conducted more than 2,000 separate tests of
actual behavior, producing results that were both revealing and thought-provoking.”

The test was not a scientific survey, but it provided a fascinating
snapshot of behavior in the countries tested, the magazine said. It
gave a score of first to the most courteous and 35th for the least courteous.

For the purchasing test, Manila scored 65 percent with a global ranking
at 23rd.

But don’t expect a door to be held for you while in Manila as
only 25 percent of the people tested bothered to even slightly hold
the door ajar, giving the city a global ranking near the bottom at 33rd.

If you drop papers on a street in Manila, chances are someone will
help you to pick them up. Filipinos scored well at 55 percent, giving
them an impressive global ranking of 5th place.

“I wanted to help but I was hesitant because I was thinking what
if it was just another modus operandi of swindlers or pickpockets,”
says Elizabeth Yap, a self-employed 37 year-old.

Albert Magbagay, 18, a student who passed the dropping papers test,
says: “It’s innate for me to be helpful and courteous—there
was even a time when I helped an elderly cross the street. It really
matters when your parents raised you up with the proper values.”

But in Asia, eight out of nine cities finished in the bottom 11. Every
city except Hong Kong finished in the bottom 10 in the rankings for
holding doors open, and no door-holding test had a success rate higher
than 40 percent.

Many Asians don’t include door-holding in their notions of courtesy.
“How can we measure someone’s value simply by whether they
hold a door open?” asked a student in Manila.

“The three tests each looked at a different aspect of how people
relate to each other, with the door-holding test designed to see if
individuals are aware of the people around them,” said Jim Plouffe,
editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest English Asian magazine.

“Throughout Asia, we found that people were oblivious to the
fact their actions affected those around them.”

Courtesy in shops was particularly lacking in Mumbai. When a female
reporter bought a pair of plastic hair clips at a convenience store,
the sales assistant turned his back on her as soon as she paid. Asked
why, he said, “Madam, I am not an educated guy. I hand goods over
to the customers, and that’s it.”

Moscow and Bucharest ranked as the least polite European cities. When
a woman failed to hold a door in Moscow, she replied, “I’m
not a doorman. It’s not my job to hold doors. If someone gets hurt,
they should be quicker on their feet.”

Zagreb residents were the world leaders in helping with dropped papers.
One man insisted on helping despite having arthritis and a bad back.
“I always help someone in trouble,” he said.

Shop assistants were especially polite in Zurich and Stockholm. In
both cities, they thanked the Reader’s Digest “customers”
in every store where they visited and made a purchase.

In Sao Paulo, even petty criminals were polite. As Reader’s Digest
bought a pair of cheap sunglasses from a trader, shouts rang out that
the police were coming. The market turned out to be illegal. The merchant
gathered up his goods to flee, but not before saying “thank you.”

For more info- Click Here

Manila Exhale. Series 1.

What is this painful urge?
That overwhelming desire, setting my veins on fire?
That inescapable breathe of flaming insanity
caught between the parting of your lips
and the trembling touch of your hands?

It is the passion of a forbidden and camouflaged
obsession,
a pocket of bitterest tears locked
in the most clandestine echoes of the human heart.

It betrays the most hardened steel-
the angry fires of love that screams of total surrender.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quelle est cette envie douloureuse?
Ce desir accablant,
mettant mes veines en feu?
Cette inevitable respiration de la folie ardente attrapee
entre le debut de tes levres et le contact tremblant
de tes mains?

C'est la passion d'une obsession interdite
et camouflee,
une poche des larmes les plus ameres fermees
dans les echos les plus clandestins
du coeur humain.

Il trahit les plus durcis a l'amour
qui crient une reddition totale.

- Manila.Manille. 2007. 2. 20
**Thanks to my friend Claude for the French translation.

Global Cities List - Manila as a Gamma City

GaWC - World
Cities List

Think you live in an important
city? Have arguments with your friends about which city is the best?
Probably not! Well, I do. After all it is important to know what
cities are great to visit and how your hometown baby fairs against
other major cities.

Although there is a general
consensus on which are the leading world cities, there is no agreed
upon roster covering world cities below the highest level. So an
Inventory of World Cities was made up by a team called GaWC Globalization
and World Cities - Study Group & Network
- At Loughborough University in the UK. The inventory of world
cities based upon their level of advanced producer services.
Global service centres are identified and graded for accountancy,
advertising, banking/finance and law. Aggregating these results
produces a roster of 55 world cities at three levels: 10 Alpha world
cities, 10 Beta world cities and 35 Gamma world cities. These are
found to be largely geographically concentrated in three
'globalization arenas', northern America, western Europe and Pacific
Asia.

For Methodology and Taxonomy Click here

A. ALPHA WORLD CITIES (full service world cities)

12: London,
New York,
Paris, Tokyo

10: Chicago,
Frankfurt, Hong Kong,
Los Angeles,
Milan, Singapore

---

B. BETA WORLD CITIES (major world cities)

9: San Francisco,
Sydney,
Toronto,
Zurich

8: Brussels,
Madrid, Mexico City,
Sao Paulo

7: Moscow,
Seoul

---

C. GAMMA WORLD CITIES (minor world cities)

6: Amsterdam,
Boston, Caracas,
Dallas, Düsseldorf,
Geneva, Houston,
Jakarta, Johannesburg,
Melbourne,
Osaka, Prague,
Santiago, Taipei,
Washington

5: Bangkok,
Beijing, Montreal,
Rome, Stockholm,
Warsaw

4: Atlanta,
Barcelona, Berlin,
Budapest, Buenos Aires,
Copenhagen, Hamburg,
Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur,
Manila, Miami,
Minneapolis,
Munich, Shanghai

---

D. EVIDENCE OF WORLD CITY FORMATION

Di Relatively strong evidence

3: Athens,
Auckland, Dublin,
Helsinki, Luxembourg,
Lyon, Mumbai,
New Delhi,
Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro,
Tel Aviv,
Vienna

Dii Some evidence

2: Abu Dhabi,
Almaty, Birmingham,
Bogota,
Bratislava, Brisbane,
Bucharest, Cairo, Cleveland,
Cologne, Detroit,
Dubai, Ho
Chi Minh City, Kiev, Lima,
Lisbon, Manchester,
Montevideo,
Oslo,
Riyadh, Rotterdam,
Seattle, Stuttgart,
The Hague, Vancouver

Diii Minimal evidence

1: Adelaide,
Antwerp, Arhus,
Baltimore,
Bangalore, Bologna,
Brasilia, Calgary,
Cape Town,
Colombo, Columbus,
Dresden, Edinburgh,
Genoa, Glasgow,
Gothenburg,
Guangzhou, Hanoi, Kansas City,
Leeds, Lille,
Marseille,
Richmond,
St Petersburg,
Tashkent, Tehran, Tijuana,
Turin, Utrecht,
Wellington

GLOBAL CITIES

Well rounded global cities

1. Very large contribution: London and New York Smaller contribution and with cultural bias: Los Angeles, Paris and San Francisco
   
2. Incipient global cities: Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Toronto

Global niche cities - specialised global contributions

1. Economic: Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo
   
2. Political and social: Brussels, Geneva, and Washington

WORLD CITIES

Subnet articulator cities

1. Cultural: Berlin, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Munich, Oslo, Rome, Stockholm Political: Bangkok, Beijing, Vienna
   
2. Social: Manila, Nairobi, Ottawa

Worldwide leading cities

1. Primarily economic global contributions: Frankfurt, Miami, Munich, Osaka, Singapore, Sydney, Zurich
   
2. Primarily non-economic global contributions: Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Atlanta, Basle, Barcelona, Cairo, Denver, Harare, Lyon, Manila, Mexico City, Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai

World's Best Skylines- Manila scores number 13

Click on the Photo for a clearer view.
a 90 degree Panorama of Manila Skyline (from wiki) including Makati and Ortigas buildings



World's Best Skylines

Ranking
[old] Points

update 2004, 2005, 2006 Country Buildings
>90 m highest scoring building
(height)



[1] 1 85285
Hong Kong China 2939 International Commerce Centre (484m, u/c)

[2] 2 35610
New York (inc Jersey City, Fort Lee, Guttenburg) USA 849 Freedom Tower (541m, u/c)

[7] 3 19409
Dubai UAE 268 Burj Dubai (810m, u/c)

[3] 4 18932
Tokyo (inc Kawaguchi, Kawasaki, Ichikawa) Japan 572 Mid Town Tower (248m, u/c)

[4] 5 18628
Shanghai China 549 Shanghai World Financial Center (492m, u/c)

[5] 6 15454
Chicago USA 321 Sears Tower (442m)

[6] 7 13756
Bangkok Thailand 382 Baiyoke Tower 2 (304m)

[13] 8 8955
Guangzhou (Canton) China 233 West Tower (432m, u/c)

[10] 9 8557
Kuala Lumpur (inc Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya) Malaysia
215 Petronas Tower 1 (452m)

[9] 10 7431
Singapore Singapore 296 Republic Plaza (280m)

[8] 11 7401
Seoul South Korea 273 Tower Palace Three, Tower G (264m)

[11] 12 6885
Shenzhen China 199 Shun Hing Square (384m)

[14] 13 6864
Manila (metro inc. Makati, Mandaluyong, Ortigas, Quezon City) Philippines 183 PBCOM Tower (259m)

[12] 14 6706
Chongqing China 232 JW Marriott International Finance Centre (377m, u/c)

[15] 15 5499
Toronto (inc. Mississauga) Canada 207 First Canadian Place (298m)

[19] 16 5463
Moscow Russia 150 Federation, Tower A (448m, u/c)

[25] 17 5212
Beijing China 234 China World Trade Center Tower III (302m, u/c)

[20] 18 4907
Miami (inc Miami Beach) USA 109 Four Seasons Hotel & Tower (240m)

[18] 19 4787
Osaka (inc. Sakai, Amagasaka) Japan 124 Osaka World Trade Center (252m)

[16] 20 4653
Houston (inc Pasadena) USA 109 JPMorganChase Tower (305m)


What are the rules?

This list is an attempt to rank the impressiveness of city skylines. The score of a city is equal to the sum of all building heights (in m, without spires) after substraction of the minimum of 90m/295ft for each building. Freestanding towers (i.e. thin structures with no floors over most of their height) count for half their height.

Why this algorithm?

It measures a mix of height and breath of a skyline which seems to be honest as they are both important for the WOW! factor. Of course, people may think differently about their favorite skylines - see new! this poll or Luigi Di Serio's Top 15.


Egbert Gramsbergen and Paul Kazmierczak
used by the Almanac of Architecture and Design 2006

The new cool: Manila Rocks!

Travel December 20, 2006 Curious where travelers are headed in the coming year? We took a look at the most popular searches on Yahoo! FareChase to see which cities folks are flocking to in 2007. On the domestic list, perennial travel favorite Las Vegas shows no signs of ceding the top spot, while sunny Florida dominates the rest of the list, with five out of the top 10 searches.We did note a few surprises on the international list, including the appearance of Frankfurt and Manila (Makati Skyline on the Right; Dance (Above: Party in Manila's Hippest Superclub Embassy; Right: Makati Skyline; Below: A Rave Party) in the top 5. Visitors rave about Frankfurt's shopping and architecture, while Manila attracts budget travelers looking for beaches and nightlife. Of course, more traditional travel destinations like Paris and Rome made the list as well, placing at 7th and 8th respectively.



Top Domestic Travel Searches - 2007
1. Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Orlando, Florida
3. New York City, New York
4. Honolulu, Hawaii
5. Miami, Florida
6. Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
7. Los Angeles, California
8. Tampa, Florida
9. Phoenix, Arizona
10. Ft. Myers, Florida

Top International Travel Searches - 2007
1. London, United Kingdom
2. Cancun, Mexico
3. Frankfurt, Germany
4. San Juan, Puerto Rico
5. Manila, Philippines
6. Bangkok, Thailand
7. Paris, France
8. Rome, Italy
9. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
10. Amsterdam, Netherlands