Blog Title: kurokuroatbp

Bali High (and Bali Low)

Three nights and four days in the beautiful exotic island of Bali in Indonesia ought to bring me to heavenly highs. Unfortunately instead, I was pulled down to earthly lows as I spent most of my time there cooped up in long boring meetings in a conference room. ...

Sunday Market with the Well-Heeled

So it's a market. In the Philippines. Thus, it's scorching hot, the floors are muddy, the narrow aisles are teeming with a sea of humanity, and there are stalls and stalls of fresh produce, food, dry goods, kitchenware, garments and other little tidbits of things to buy. But wait. There's something ...

Getting My Driver’s License

For the first twenty-three years of my life, I had a perennial headache. I thought that I was simply frail or delicate (Frail or delicate? Moi? Hrhrhr). Then suddenly, my headaches stopped? Why? I learned how to drive. I realized that the culprit is the ...

A Very Jologs but Funny and Special Love

Honey will not be caught dead watching a Filipino movie. But he is still in Cambodia and I and my three old friends had nothing to do one Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago. Perfect timing. I can be as jologs as I want and I have ...

Good-Bye Cambodia

In my last week in Phnom Penh, Honey and I were driving to work on our usual route. On the way, we passed by the Royal Palace on our right while the great Bassac River (which connects to the Mekong River just a few miles away) was flowing serenely ...

Spirit House in Cambodia

I am not afraid of ghosts. Except when I’m alone. At night. In Cambodia where millions of people died of genocide in the seventies. Last year, when Honey had to go to the Philippines for work for almost two months, he left me in this kingdom far far ...

Letter from a Future Filipino Tourist to Cambodia

I've received letters from a businessman on a business trip, a future teacher, and a future expat in Cambodia. Here's one from a future tourist: Dear Toe, Hi! I found your blog via Kristene's blog and I think you're one of the best writers in the blogosphere (hindi kita binobola!). I ...

Turtles Don’t Keep Junk in Their Closets

So six years of married life, all of those spent in Cambodia, and heaps and heaps of stuff, both junk and precious (mostly junk), managed to sprout out like mushrooms. And now that it’s time to go back to the Philippines, like turtles, we have to carry our entire ...

Farewell Koro Filipino!

Note: this is such a long-delayed post... it's almost moot. In the middle of our last choir practice before of our performance, I made a little impromptu (okay, okay... it was quite long and drawn-out) speech to the choir. I said it mostly in Filipino, and this is more ...

The Bridal Truck

Most dreamy-eyed brides go to their grand Cinderella-weddings in flower-laden long white limousines which goes by the name of "bridal car." Myself, I had no such luck. Instead, I went to my wedding in a "bridal truck". I also dreamed of going to my wedding in an elegant posh ...