UP Diliman: Lantern Parade 2010

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WALK FLY PINOY:
Travel, Photography, Asia
www.walkflypinoy.com

The holidays are mostly about tradition. One of mine is being able to attend the UP community's annual lantern parade. I attended them when I was still a student in the university and I still attend the event yearly as an alumni.


One thing I noticed about this year's floats and lanterns was that there were less large-scale, grand, colorful group projects from the different colleges, offices and organizations. Save for some lanterns from the College of Fine Arts, this year's lanterns were mostly small held by, operated by or mounted onto one or two people.



Of course, UP would not be UP without advocacy and protest. And the community welcomes them, even those advocating what would be unpopular opinions in a very liberal environment. Think UP students against the RH Bill. You would think that that idea would be unthinkable, but in the case of some students, it is not.



Some colleges, and by that I mean colleges other than the College of Fine Arts, stood out this year, most especially the College of Science with their enormous beaker and test tubes, and the energy-themed, Meralco-sponsored College of Engineering.





Finally, and this has to be said every year, the College of Fine Arts takes the cake with their nautical-themed floats and lanterns. Every student, every class, every organization paraded their own sea-inspired projects.




As with tradition, the night is capped off with Beta Epsilon's fireworks display, something which never seem to disappoint the spectators of the parade. And when the last flare exploded into a colorful frenzy in the night sky, every one knew that the holiday vacation was officially begun. Christmas has indeed arrived.





More photos in my Flickr set: UP Diliman: Lantern Parade 2010.

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Manila: Manila Ocean Park

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WALK FLY PINOY:
Travel, Photography, Asia
www.walkflypinoy.com

When I first heard that the Manila Ocean Park, a marine park, recently opened in my city, Manila, I thought that that was so first world. Parks of this kind that I know of only existed in countries like the US, Spain and Japan. To be inside one of those tube aquariums, I thought, I would have to travel to those countries. Suffice it to say, that no longer applies.


Admittedly, our marine park is smaller than those in first-world countries. And it is. Depending on how fast you walk, you'll probably be able to go through the whole park in half an hour. But then I thought, hey, we got enough biodiversity in our seas to fill our marine parks with.


The park starts off big, literally. The first aquarium is that of three giant freshwater arapaima, a tropical fish normally found in the Amazon. They are big. I mean, Nat Geo Monster Fish big. I particularly enjoyed seeing them up-close because I am a huge fan of the show.


After the freshwater aquariums, you move on to a gallery of smaller ones, with a lot of interesting-looking fishes. Some elegant, some with elaborate fins and spines, some snaky, and some cute. I think this part would definitely be most enjoyable to kids.




Then, there are the ugly and scary ones. A rock fish which you would totally mistake for a colorful sea rock. Unfortunate, really, because they're poisonous. There's thing tank, too, full of sharks. Two or three of those sharks are so huge they can swallow a child whole. Really scary.




After the seawater fish gallery, you come up this huge atrium, the walls of which had huge built-in tanks of deep-water fishes. Some of them, I thought, looked plump enough to make good dinner. Haha. The atrium then leads off to the tube aquarium, which I very much enjoyed. You can tell by now that I am a fan of larger-than-life marine creatures.


The 400-peso entrance fee (350 for children) is not bad, actually. Well, I got in at a 50-percent discount because the company I work for chose the park as the venue for its year-end party. But I'd pay 400 for it. I'd pay a little more if I could actually get inside one of the tanks and be really up-close and personal with the marine life. Fortunately, they do have this activity. Aquanaut Voyage, they call it. One of these days, maybe.

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