Around the World in One Day: The 49th International Bazaar at the PICC Forum

- Nov. 29, 2015, Sunday.

- Bazaars fascinate me, although I don't always attend them because of the big crowds. There are always interesting little (or big) finds in bazaars - from good deals and discounts, to freebies. If there's one bazaar that I always make sure to attend (unless I'm overseas,) it would be the International Bazaar that is always held at the PICC Forum. The one-day bazaar is usually held on the third Sunday of November, but it had to be moved a week later this year due to the APEC series of events that happened last week. To me, the schedule change did not really matter; what mattered most was that the bazaar still pushed through.

Event poster.

- The International Bazaar is perfect for me since the main stalls represent many of the embassies and consulates here in Manila; this event is mainly organized by the spouses of the ambassadors (aka "SHOM," or "Spouses of the Heads of Missions.") Each stall sells traditional products (from food, clothing, handicrafts, etc.) from the countries that the stalls represent. This is what makes it seem like shopping around the world in one day. On top of that, many local traders are also present to sell their unique products.

- I arrived at the bazaar around 10am, and dashed off in no time to the dining area, where, as one might expect, stalls selling international foods are. This is a tactic when going to any bazaar - eating when everyone's not. I was able to comfortably sit on my cushioned chair, with lots of elbow space, and whenever I leave my food on my table to buy more food or drinks, I won't be worried that someone might take my seat away. I had Turkish pastries, an Israeli falafel sandwich, and a box of Vietnamese rice paper rolls. While buying food, I also encountered the Indian ambassador, H.E. Lalduhthlana Ralte, and his daughter Mawi. It still amazes me that they recognize me by face, name, and profession. (It is such an honor. *Insert happy tears.*)

My falafel sandwich with hummus sauce, my Turkish pastres (one with cheese and another with pistachios I think,) and my Vietnamese rice paper rolls.

- After lunch, I moved through the crowd, and realized that this year's embassy participants were less than the previous years (click here for 2013 and here for 2012; I wasn't able to go last year because I was in Taiwan: click here, here, here, here, and here.) Some regular participants like Russia, South Korea, Iraq, and Malaysia were not present. Despite this, I was still able to enjoy seeing some representatives and visitors in traditional costumes. munching on free samples, and interacting with embassy representatives. Speaking of embassy representatives, Ms. Angela from the Sri Lankan Embassy recognized me from our previous encounter last year; former ambassador H.E. S.V.G. Gamini Samaranayake gave a talk on political conflict and resolutions in Sri Lanka in the UP Asian Center (click here) to see. I didn't recognize her because she was wearing a sea-blue Sri-Lankan style sari. She informed me about the recent turnover, and she was also kind enough to introduce me to the new ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Philippines, H.E. Aruni Ranaraja. 

Eiffel Towers. How French.

Italian masks and glassware.

Iranian woman selling Persian rugs.

Of course, wouldn't miss this for the world.

Sri Lanka.

Passed by Japan; women in kimonos.

Colombian gold and jewelry.

Lao sticky rice.

Back at the Sri Lankan stall; a Buddhist (or Vishnu-related) statue.

With the new ambassador, H.E. Aruni Ranaraja.

- I went around and bought myself a box of Sri Lankan tea, a handwoven Lao scarf, a new and better-fitting Kuwaiti agal (headscarf fastener.) I also saw Dutch beer, Swiss and Belgian chocolates, French wines and jams, Cambodian shawls, Indonesian batik, Italian glass products, Norwegian salmon and patchworks, Colombian gold, Burmese jade, Japanese kawaii products, and much more. Finally, I visited the Indian booth again to have a photo with the ambassador and his whole family; they were really friendly and accommodating.

With H.E. Lalduhthlana Ralte, ambassador of India to the Philippines. Look, I have a free goodie bag with Indian travel magazines and travel guides.

Hola Espana!!

The Indonesian booth is usually stunning as well.

Henna services at the Pakistani stall.

One of the Dutch representatives in a traditional costume.

Just before buying the agal (head fastener) I was wearing. Thank you costumed Filipino representative from the Kuwaiti Embassy for helping me with my keffiyeh (headscarf.)

With the Incredible Indian family.

- I still can't believe that I must wait another year for the 50th International Bazaar. I never get tired of coming to this bazaar every year because the bazaar has always been a good opportunity to learn about all the countries in the world.

Whole-day Culture-day: The 47th International Bazaar at PICC Forum and "Mau" at CCP

- November 17, 2013, Sunday.

- My friend Abigail invited us the other day to attend "Mau," (lit., to dance, Japanese) a Japanese-ASEAN dance fusion presentation, held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP.) This free dance concert, directed by kabuki director Fujima Kanjuro, only had two performances - last night, and this afternoon; we opted to go to the Sunday-afternoon show, so we won't have to go home late at night. Finally, Abi, her sister Angellyn, my neighbor Charmaine and I, were all hyped to go.

- Fortunately, I also realized at the nick of time that the 47th International Bazaar at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Forum was to be held today as well. This one-day bazaar (usually from 9am to 7pm,) is annually held on the 3rd Sunday of November, and organized by the different embassies around Manila. Aside from booths of the different countries selling their different local things, food sometimes being sold too, many Philippine booths are also in the bazaar. The food stalls at the bazaar usually have international food too. Needless to say, I immediately asked my companions if they wanted to visit the bazaar before going to CCP to attend "Mau" in the afternoon. Although it meant waking up early on a Sunday morning, they all agreed to go to the bazaar; it was only a one-day bazaar after all, and a chance to seemingly travel around the world in one day. Charmaine's workmate Val also told her that she wanted to tag alone. Great! The more the merrier. :D:D:D:D

Yay!!

- This morning, we arrived at PICC around 10am. We decided to have an early lunch to avoid the big crowd at noon. On the way to grab some food, one booth stood out so much that I had to stop, look, haggle, and buy. The booth was Alfonso Fashion, and manned by Mr. Alfonso Guino-o, a gracefully-aging designer based in Davao, and a former Bayanihan Dance Troupe member. (We can't believe he's almost 80, when he seems to look like he's just in his late 50s.) Because of his background in Philippine dances, his designs are ethnic-Filipino inspired, tweaked and modernized. The best part about his clothes is that aside from the good quality, they're all cheap, or at least, very very VERY reasonable; a normal ethnic coat/chaleco or ethnic barong costs 500-700php. I bought some clothes from him, and got a big discount. A more ethnic coat that I bought from him was a bit more expensive, but not as expensive as the ones I saw before. The big cherry on top of that is that the coat came in with a free T'boli beaded necklace-with-headdress set; I'll be giving the necklace to my mom since she's been dying to find something ethnic like that these past few months. After getting big discounts, he finally gave me a necklace made of beads and wild-boar (baboy-ramo) tusks as a gift for being a good customer. I felt like I had the best bargain of my life.

Wearing my newly-bought coat-with-bonus-necklace-and-headdress-set.

Mr. Alfonso had my respect at once. I'm officially a fan of his.

- I let Val wear the T-boli necklace and headdress, so it'll be easier to see her in the crowded bazaar. It was also an excuse to "convert" her, quoting my neighbor Charmaine, to become multicultural as I've done with many of my other good friends.

Charmaine trying (very) hard not to laugh while this photo was being taken.

- We went to have lunch, and proceeded with all the international booths. I also came across the Iranian ambassador, H.E. Ali Asghar Mohammadi, who was personally manning the Iranian booth together with other familiar Iranian faces (been seeing them in Iranian and other international events.)

H.E. Ali Asghar Mohammadi. :D:D:D:D Such a nice person.

- We braved the crowds until early afternoon, having some chances to have photos with some participants wearing their national costumes. I even had to change into my more formal violet suea praratchathan, my attire for CCP, when I took a photo with the nice Lao woman from the Lao PDR just so I'd be more "consistent" or at least close with the theme.

Little Japanese girl doing origami boxes.

A Japanese and Spanish lady in red-and-white.

The mandatory India-booth photo.

VAL!! YOUR FAMILY!!

OMG YOU FIT RIGHT IN!! Hahahaha.

I thought their 2011 booth looked a lot better than this year's, but oh well, a nice booth nonetheless.

China and the Chinese.

Sabaidee from Lao PDR booth.

Israeli booth.

Feeding some kimbap to Abi who had a little too much to carry, so she doesn't have any free hands.

Yay!!

Abi handling my Japanese fan well.

Val and her impromptu Japanese headdress, courtesy, of course, of me.

PLaying around with the (supposedly) female haddress and necklace, and doing a pangalay pose.

With Val. 

Tsaminamina e-eh, waka-waka e-eh, tsaminamina zangalewa, this time for Africa!!

I could also be a T'boli mummy or something.

- At around 2pm, we walked from PICC to CCP, went inside, and took our seats inside the little theater.

My Southeast-Asian-with-a-hint-of-Japan attire for CCP.

- "Mau" featured Japanese kabuki dances, Philippine kappa malong malong and pangalay dances, Malaysian joget, zapin, and mengadap rebab song-and-dance numbers, Balinese legong dances, and Chinese Tang-style dance-dramas (the dancers that did this were from Singapore, thereby staying true, technically, to the Jap-ASEAN friendship theme.) The finale part was a dance number exhibiting dances of all five countries. The mini-story showed a monster that looked like a normal person (kabuki standards that is,) but was supposed to be a spider-monster, which explained why there were times when the monster would theatrically spew out some spider web out of his hands. The five nations (still including Japan, the "good guys" from Japan that is,) would dance around with weapons, in hopes of defeating the spider monster, which they of course, did. I felt the last part was a bit corny, but in the spirit of east-Asia unity, then fine, it was nice to watch. Here are some videos that I found in Youtube. I do not own them, and they were taken from the Jakarta dress rehearsal of "Mau." Photos and videos were not allowed during the performance, so these two links can fill those up for me. These are exactly the same as the ones that we watched earlier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K010oe075T8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmlKCEqhfGU  (Here's the one with the spider monster.)

Sorry, no photos during the show, took these during the curtain call.

The scary spider monder in the middle. the other kabuki performers to his extended arm, and the Chinese performers wearing white. 

The Filipinos.

The Balinese with the three Malaysian singers and instrumentalists.

The Balinese with the two Malaysians to the right (and half of one of the 3 Malaysian singers/instrumentalists.)

- We had the chance for a meet and greet with the performers, but we could not go to them personally since ropes were barricaded around the performers. The foreign performers left immediately afterwards, but the four Filipino dancers remained, since many of their friends, relatives, and family members were there to chat with them; this gave some of us opportunities to have photos taken beside them. Of course, I didn't miss my chance to do my pangalay pose with the dancers who are memebrs of Airdance Philippines.

Meet and greet!! :D:D:D:D

Oh hi Jeannette!!

With Airdance Philippines.

- We were all definitely tired after everything, and most of us had work tomorrow (or studies as far as I'm concerned.) We just thought that this two-in-one-whole-day-cultural-day would only happen once in a blue moon. (The moon tonight was big and full, not blue though, but still made the evening all the more special.) However, it's things and events like these that make us more knowledgeable and understanding of the world around us through direct experience, even without leaving the country. Fun, right?

Yay!! :D:D:D:D