Discovering the Soul of Manila

“Where does the soul of Manila lie? At a landmark, a building, or a place? Or is it with a person? Ten passionate teams recently signed up for the Nokia N95 Wireless Adventure race that took them around Manila in the quest to discover the soul of the city using the Nokia N95.”

I was reading one of Anton’s entries in March/April 2007 and someone commented on that entry inviting Anton to join an event. I clicked on the link that was posted there and read the guidelines. The question was: What is the Soul of Manila? I sent out my answer, personal details, and a photo. I actually forgot all about it until almost a month later, on a Monday morning, I got a call from the organizer of the event. She said I was chosen as one of the ten participants. I was delighted but nervous at the same time. She asked if I could make it to the press briefing and orientation at Embassy Cuisine at 6pm. Short notice but I said ok. I filed for a half-day leave and took the whole afternoon off. Why? Because I already planned to go gym after work which is 6pm and being an OC that I am, I just have to follow my plans. So I dropped by the gym first, had a 30-minute run in the treadmill and another half an hour to lift weights. It actually took longer than that because in between I had to work too answering calls from GXTV China and negotiating while in my sweats. I hit the showers and dressed. On my way out bumped into an old friend.

Hurriedly I went to Cuisine and was one of the first few there. The organizer told me that they’ve been trying to contact me the whole weekend on my mobile but I was the only one they couldn’t reach. If they weren’t able to contact me at the office that Monday morning, they would have picked somebody else. They chose 10 entries out of the 800 entries they got. I met Jennifer Juco, who is one of the participants there. We were both so hungry since the event started late. Jennifer ordered a plate of fiesta Nachos and treated me too since it happened to be her birthday. I think I ordered the Mozzarella sticks or the Buffalo wings. Imagine, a treat from someone you just met!

At the press briefing, a product presentation of the Nokia N95 phone introduced us to the newest family member of the Nokia N Series. Product managers tutored us while I was stuffing my mouth with the aperitif served. The 10 participants were partnered with 10 celebrities/personalities making 20 teams of two each. I was partnered with Jaime Daez, proprietor of Fully Booked and Bibliarch. He was the only one not present at that time so I didn’t really meet him that night. We were Team #4. Everyone was getting acquainted with their respective partners (the n95 AND the actual human being) and I was just sitting pretty gorging on food, my mind already flying to an out-of-the-county trip with my family. Then the host said the date of the event, which was that following weekend, I jerked upright from the couch. It was a 2-day race. It happened to be the very same weekend of my Hong Kong Disneyland trip with the fam. Geesh. We had a short photo op as teams and as a group.

May 26, 2007. 7 AM. Makati Shangrila. Buffet breakfast at Circles. (Ooh yum!!! The jewel of events… the food!) I finally met Jaime at breakfast. Short and awkward. I just concentrated on the (you guessed it!) food. We were briefed the guidelines of the adventure event. The survival kit (included shirts, Nokia jugs, belt bags, and face towels), N95 unit, PHP 5,000 and our task cards were handed to us. As stylish as the Nokia N95 is, each team was provided with a shiny luxury car and a driver to go about town.

We looked at the tasks. There are regular tasks with a specified time and bonus tasks too. Plus whoever team gets first to each “task” venue and checked in with the Wireless Adventure agent will get an additional 5 points each time. Different areas in Metro Manila. We had to map out our plan.

Task 1 -Go to Salcedo Market and find the Wireless Adventure agent who beamed to our N95 phone an excel file with the ingredients of chopsuey. Jennifer and Jay Server (Team 1), the first team there, got the bonus points. Then everyone searched for the vegetables and had it weighed. Using the N95 Converter, we converted the weight in pounds to kilos. The Task 1 10 points goes to the team with haggling skills and paid the lowest for the items in their basket.

Then we hopped into the luxury car as soon as we were done with Task 1. I’m glad that Jaime did Track and Field in High school. We can both run to save time. We read Task 2 –Café Bola, Greenbelt 3, Task Window is 1– 2 PM. Since it was only 1130 AM, Jaime and I decided to risk and get the bonus task in Café Bola, Araneta Coliseum. Gamble was on the traffic and missing the entire Task 2. At Café Bola Araneta, we were the first ones there. The bonus task was to get the secret ingredient of Margarita Fores’, chef and restaurateur, breakfast dish, which turned out to be Muscovado Sugar. It was in a small red bottle. Jaime wanted to take all the bottles so when another team gets there they wont find any. He said it didn’t say anyway that we’re only supposed to get one. There’s no rule too inhibiting us from taking more than one. But I decided against it. I told Jaime it didn’t feel right taking more than one. After much deliberation and we realized we’re wasting time thinking about that sneaky strategy, Jaime obliged to let the other bottles stay. Before leaving, we took a photo of the Big Dome, Araneta Coliseum.

From Cubao, we told the driver to floor the gas and Schumacher our way back to Makati. Saturday traffic slowed us down and we were afraid to miss the start task time. Lucky break that we were able to make it just in time. We arrived at 1250 PM. 8 teams were there for an hour already except us and Manu and Michelle’s team, Team 2. Everyone asked us where we went and we said we decided to get the bonus point from Araneta Coliseum already, while others planned to do that before Task 3, located in Cubao area too. We surmised that Team 2 did the same but got caught in the traffic.

At 1:15 PM, Margarita Fores emerged and started cooking a dish, which one of us had to videotape using the N95. Everyone scrambled to get a good view. We had to videotape it so we can list down all the ingredients and the procedure in N95’s Notes while replaying the video. Margarita asked for the secret ingredient and Jaime yelled out that he has it. Margarita granted us, the only team who had it at that time, our Bonus Point (10 points!).

Off we went to Vintage Pop in Cubao X. I’m familiar with the area since I frequent Bellini’s restaurant located in the same compound. Our driver wasn’t too fast, since 4 other teams were there before us and the task can only be completed one team at a time. Task 4 – The Vintage Pop catalogue in PDF format was beamed again to the N95 phone, and through the race, I started to get more acquainted with the features of the phone. It was really indeed a Multimedia Computer on the palm of my hands! This time our creativity was put to the test as we had to rearrange certain objects shown from the photo file found in the store and make a window display, take a good photo of it, print it and have the judge score your glossy. Jaime gathered the items while I designed the display. Guest judge is Miguel Rosales, a well-known interior designer.

While waiting for our turn, another special task was underway. We wanted the bonus points so when the clock hit 4 PM, we tuned in to RX 93.1, using the phone’s build-in-radio, plugged our earphones. The DJ played Manila and we had to record it while my partner sang to it.

Since we still had some time to spare while waiting, we took another roll of the dice and sprinted off to Sencillo Bar in Quezon City to get the bonus points for being the first one there. It was quite tricky to look for the bar as there is no signage outside. We had to go back and forth along Esguerra to spot it. We finally found it. Much to our dismay, the Wireless Agent was not there. We trekked back to Cubao X just in time because we were next. If we missed our number, we had to be at the back of the line again.

After Vintage Pop, we went back to Sencillo Bar At Esquinita compound. Rumor has it that it’s co-owned by James Yap, Kris Aquino’s b-balling hubby. Sencillo Task opens at 6 PM, but the catch is that only 7 teams can perform this task. The rest will not get the points from this task. We were #6. While waiting, we made most of our time getting the other bonus points. After taking a photo of the ABS-CBN signage (another special task), Jaime decided that we should eat dinner first at Kitaro. It took us 10 minutes to gulp down dinner. We returned to Sencillo and artistically videotaped the singer there.

Finally, our last Task Card of the night. Task Window: 8 PM –12 MN. The objective is to capture the night happenings in two locations, M Café and Saguijo, on video. Both have different vibes but I made the video concept of the two similar and tie it into one appealing video. 10 PM, we headed back to Makati Shangri-la. Jaime had to drop by his place for a bit. I was at the lobby editing the video using the N95 (can you believe the functionality of this phone??? Edit a video!) and I had a hard time editing and saving and editing and saving. The bulk of this task was on me since I gathered the video and had to come up with the whole product. It takes a while to save then you need to edit some more, it takes time to save again. After an hour, Jaime was back and I was still not even half way through it. We went to the room where we’re supposed to show our video and lined up. We were 2^nd to the last. I sat on the floor in the hallway and still kept at it, not relenting. I was really on the verge of tears because I wanted to do a special effect but I couldn’t merge the two videos. I was already saving it when the phone hung. Good thing they extended the presentation since the rest were still presenting to 1 AM. At 1250 AM, I surrendered and just did what I could and presented to Lino Cayetano our video output. The features of N95 again amazed me, we had the unit connected to the TV and viola, you have a wide screen for your phone.

FINALLY, I went to my room and retired for the night. We were given a room each person in Makati Shangri-la. A letter was on the huge King bed from the Nokia Team congratulating us on Day 1 and as a token of gift, we can order room service from the selection of good food on the menu that was with the letter!!! YUMMY!!! I ordered a FEAST!!! Christian met me in the room 20 minutes after and we had such a gastronomical experience with the great spread in front of us. An hour later I was dozing off.

I woke up at 6 AM since it’s an early day again for Day 2. We were served breakfast room service again and 5-star hotel food is always the bomb!

DAY 2

In the car, Jaime and I planned out our strategy in getting all the bonus points like the previous day and not miss out on any task. Most of the tasks are also graded through creativity and artwork of the photos and videos. The second leg concentrated more on the Imaging feature of the N95 phone.

Task 1 of Day 2 is already heavy duty as we had to climb the oversized Manila Clock Tower and take photos from the top of the City of Manila. Going up was difficult as it was same to climbing a lightbouse. The stairs were steep and was missing a few steps. The old dusty historical tower felt like it might collapse like a paper house. But like climbing any mountain, it’s a surge to finally reach the top. I loved the view of Manila from the dingy clock tower. I was so inspired to take pictures. Me and my partner went down and had the picture printed.

Off to the next stop, Hit Productions in Mile Long Compound (near Pharaoh, yes boys, I know you know where that is). The task involved a recording session with Rico Blanco. This time, the first 7 teams are the only ones allowed to do this task. We were #2 in line. My partner urged me to do the singing task. I vehemently opposed since I can’t carry a tune for the life of me! He conceded to do it.

Surprisingly, my partner had a deep, resonant singing voice. Rico gave him a few pointers as the person who gives the most “soulful” rendition of their chosen OPM hit will get the highest score. Another set of points for videotaping the recording –that was my job.

On the side, we had to take photos of Greenbelt 4, laughing children, balloons in Luneta, the Rizal shrine, Sunday traffic and the Agustin Church

After that brief Makati stint, it was unearthing Manila all the way. We haunted various items (such as The Eye anting-anting, toy jeepneys and bakya) in Quiapo sold by different stores. Each team was provided with 2 muscle men acting as our bodyguards in the busy and engaging streets of Quiapo. The pictures had to be presented to Carlos Celdran, Quiapo Walks connoisseur, in a slide show using N95 with the acapella version of “Limang Dipang Tao” song. My picture of the Quiapo Church is one of my favorite outputs.

Malate. There was an on-going Biker’s race/parade at the time we hit Malate. I’m not sure if the other teams went to that part of Malate. Here I decided to get my action shot which is also a bonus task. My favorite part was, although hurriedly, was the time I had with the children. I thought of treating the children there with Ice Cream and taking photos of them. Much as I wanted to stay and bond with them, Jaime reminded me of our last task situated in Intramuros.

The final task is to head to Fort Santiago and do your own documentary of Jose Rizal’s “Famous Last Walk.” We surrendered all our phone files to the organizer at the end of the day including the Task Cards. Announcement of the winning team will be at a culminating event at Ayala Museum the following Wednesday. The organizer announced that we could keep the phone. Everyone was so ecstatic. The cost of the N95 then was at PHP 40,000.

I meant to write another entry for the culminating party. To let you know the results, the beautiful Cat Juan of Studio 23 and Ed Capulong won the PHP 50, 000 cash prize and the trip to Amanpulo. But everyone emerged victorious as we acquired a new phone each and new friends. More than anything, during the two-day adventure, where we were thoroughly pampered, we saw Manila on a whole new different light.

Walking the familiar streets of Metro Manila, I discovered the beauty of each city that is fertile with history and grandeur. Manila has evolved into a new city, still tainted with the old, enriched by the colorful people and effervescent culture. I took a new breathe of Manila.