I was in need of a pair of boxer shorts since we haven’t done our laundry yet as we were supposed to for a couple of nights running. And since we parked our bikes near the market cum bus terminal area where Chiang Rai’s usual night bazaar runs after our Chiang Rai temple run, we decided to take a peek—I just might score me some muay thai-inspired underwear.
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| EARLY CROWD AT THE NIGHT BAZAAR |
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| COLORFUL HAND-WOVEN FABRICS |
Like most tourist hubs in Thailand, Chiang Rai also has its own night market which I guess are targeted primarily for visitors. I’ve been to Chiang Mai’s Night Bazaar, Bangkok’s Khao San Road, and even Phuket’s Bangla Road. What differentiates this one from those is its level of craziness. This one in Chiang Rai is super tame.
Who’s for shopping and who’s for massage? So goes our host’ usual line after all the activities of the day has been done and dealt with. Those two, however, only leads to a single place. For two consecutive nights, the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar was our go-to place to unwind and relax after busily running around the city.
The Chiang Mai Night Bazaar or night market is a kilometer-long stretch of road along the bustling Chang Khlan Road at the east side of the walled city. The place is already filled with shops during the mornings, but becomes even more alive at night with street vendors setting up makeshift stores along the sidewalk.
One thing I really admire about Thailand is how rich and genuine their culture is. I’ve seen a glimpse of their intricate customs from the years past but I never knew how deep it is until watching the acclaimed cultural show, Siam Naramit. And as a tourist visiting their shores, I can’t help but want to bring a piece of that tradition back to the Philippines with me.
The simplest, most uncomplicated way in doing this is through the souvenir shops lining the tourist traps in Phuket and Phang Nga. It may not be as deep as what “travelers” are supposed to bring back home, but it’s enough for me; a simple reminder, a memento, of my first trip to Thailand.
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When do we shop? is a phrase I often hear from my companions in the Tigerair Philippines tour bus. And our tour guide, giving in to pressure, always brings us to souvenir stores at the end of the tour day. The first store she brought us to was the T-Shirt Factory in Phuket’s Patong City.
Twenty minutes she said, we still have a show to watch later! She sternly warned through a strained smile.
►CHECK FOR AFFORDABLE HOTELS IN PHUKET
Everyone scrambled down, counting their bahts as they went along.
It’s the first souvenir store I’ve seen where a staff briefs the tourists first before letting them loose inside the store. He explained how this is where the cheapest Thai souvenir shirts can be bought and how much more it costs in Patong Beach. He then went on how the store is laid out—where to get your key chains, bags, and everything else. Very efficient!
I got myself a couple of ref magnets and a few monk bags.
I’m a t-shirt person, but out of the hundreds of designs I saw framed on their wall, I just can’t find one that I liked. I really don’t dig the usual I Love Insert-Name-of-Place shirts, looking instead for simple but clever designs or those printed with funny local phrases.
I saw one from the stalls along Patong Beach that has this printed on its back: No, I Don’t Want a F*ckin’ Tuk Tuk, Suit or Massage, Thank You Very Much. It comes complete with a Thai translation in front which would really serves its purpose.
I would’ve instantly bought it if not for the profanity included—my mom would probably faint if she ever sees me wearing that. Besides, the typography left much to be desired.
For foodstuff, you can snack non-stop on Phuket’s cashew nuts.
We visited one of the stores specializing in this particular snack, Phuket’s Cashewy. They have these nuts in all the flavors possible; sweet, salty, garlicky, buttered, roasted, plain, chocolate, honey, coffee, fried, herbed, peppered, curried, spicy, really spicy, and wasabi spicy.
And the best thing? You’re free to taste them all without spending a single baht. I had not a few helpings of the spicy one.
For those wanting to bring home a piece of art, Patong City is replete with shops selling canvasses painted with all the usual Thai motifs like elephants, tigers and mythical creatures standing side by side with paintings of Bob Marley and Scarface.
If you’re worried about the shipping cost, there are also smaller suitcase-friendly versions of these masterpieces.
And I of course couldn’t leave Phuket without getting myself the requisite Starbucks Global Icon mugs from Starbucks.
The Phuket mug is printed with the traditional Thai long-tail boat, ruea hang yao. And the Thailand mug is stamped with a jasmine garland or phuang malai, which is commonly given as offerings or good luck.
It just sucked that I wasn’t able to buy the full-sized mugs, there being no more stocks until after I left back for Manila. I made do with the demitasse versions.
And one last thing, before leaving Thailand, I made sure I brought home a few cans of local Thai beers. I’m thinking of a adding these to my souvenir collections too. I’m just touristy like that.
It was the third day of PHILTOA’s Bicol media familiarization tour. We were not even on the our last leg of our trip yet but everyone was already scouring the side streets of Legazpi City for souvenirs and pasalubongs to bring back home.
To perk up the group, our van first headed to the city’s baywalk. The weather, however, remained sullen and where I once witnessed a splendid view of the great Mayon Volcano, now there were only thick gray clouds. We were halfway in the van when the rain started to pour.
My three-day Japan trip wouldn’t be complete without bringing home something to remind me of my journey after time passes. I know not a few people who think that buying souvenirs is kinda kitschy, superficial and touristy, but I really don’t mind, whatever floats your boat as they say.
The perfect place to buy souvenirs in Tokyo is at Asakusa’s Nakamise Street. They have almost everything, if not really everything every keychain loving tourists love. Besides the almost one hundred shops lining its main avenue, there are other side streets I wasn’t able to explore where more touristy junks can be purchased. One of the nicest things I got here were a pair wooden Japanese dolls. It was expensive at ¥1,000.00 but they looked really cute and very Japanese.
My visit to Singapore would not be complete without bringing home a few souvenirs back to the Philippines. And on the top of my list is of course the prized Starbucks Global Icon City Mug that I have been collecting for the past few years.
Being a small country, Singapore has only two varieties of the Global Icon City Mugs; the first one is the Merlion icon and the other, the Orchid icon. It’s good to know though that both of these are also available on demitasse sizes.
One of the more expensive hauls I got from my recently concluded Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao runabout were these ceramic mugs from Starbucks Coffee, one of the most famous café in the world; and Boracay, one of the most celebrated and commercial beach in the world.
I knew that I wouldn’t be hurrying back to Boracay so soon after this jaunt, considering how underwhelmed I was about the place; so I also brought the mini demitasse mugs along with the standard Boracay Global Icon City Mug in one go.
Christmas season is almost upon us and I've been meaning to attend Pampanga's Giant Lantern Festival for the longest time. Unfortunately work always seems hell bent on destroying my plans and this year's no exception.
So... to compensate for another year of lost opportunity, I guess it would be better that I post the closest thing I'd have to the Giant Lantern Festival which is my Pampanga Starbucks City Mug. Sheesh baduy, right? Well, it's definitely better than nothing haha.
I bought this mug months back during my misadventure at the Candaba Swamp and didn't feel like posting an article about it yet since Christmas was still a long way off. I was also thinking I'd time it with my Giant Lantern Festival post which is actually now non-existent.
I distinctly recall having attended a Giant Lantern Festival during my grade school days years back at the Paskuhan Village in Pampanga. I'm not sure if the current festival is still being hosted there or if it even still exists, but the experience was forever etched on my mind.
SOUVENIRS | Netherlands & Amsterdam Starbucks Global Icon City Mugs
[BEYONDPH] Saturday, October 29, 2011
I was looking forward to flying to Cebu this October and get my Cebu Starbucks Mug, but unfortunately my trip to the Netherlands coincided with my Southern City date; I chose Holland over Cebu of course.
The final day came and I still didn’t have my mugs! We were late going to the airport as our bodies finally gave up on us and didn’t let us wake on time. After all our papers were done, the first order of the day was to find the Starbucks Café in the airport; and Schiphol Airport is freaking gargantuan! It’s like Megamall only more confusing.
After almost half an hour of running around, we finally found it.
I paid €12.95 for each mug (it was much cheaper in Starbucks Amsterdam by €3.00) without flinching. It cost Php781.00 in our currency, almost double the price of the Starbucks Mugs being sold in the Philippines.
I was nevertheless very happy with my purchase, I finally got my windmills and Singel Canal Mugs; my trip to The Netherlands is at last complete.
A trip to any locale would not be complete without a souvenir item or two, and after searching and not finding even one ref magnet in Taal, we turned to a more unconventional memento, Batangas’ famous balisong.
Butterfly knives, fan knives and click clacks are just some of the names that have been associated with the peculiar knife that hails from this province.
The knife originated from the French fan knife and its first local incarnation was handcrafted from a small barrio named Balisong in Batangas. It was said that the term balisong came from the term baling sungay (broken horn) since the first of these kinds were made from carved carabao horns.
I’m opening a new segment in my journal about my favorite collectibles during my trips around the country. Besides Starbucks City Mugs, which are superlatively expensive as souvenirs, I also collect ref magnets.
Some may be wondering why ref magnets instead of the more popular keychains. Well, since I only have one key and a few bags to hang keychains at, I don’t know how or where to display them. Our refrigerator on the other hand has lotsa space where I can stick my magnetic mementos, so its ref magnets for me.
Without further ado, here’s my latest haul from my Southern Luzon escapade last summer.
MARBLE DOLPHIN | Banton, Romblon
I got this at Banton’s Poblacion. There were only a few souvenir shops in town since it is really not a touristy location, I guess most of these shops cater more to the returning locals from the metro than to tourists. Most, if not all of the wares being sold here are made of marble, which is the industry Romblon is most known for. There were lots of keychains and all sorts of gift items but I was unable to find any ref magnets. What I did find was a nicely designed keychain with a flat back where I can glue a magnet over for an instant ref magnet souvenir.
The keychain cost me Php20.00, the engraving was an additional P15.00 (I also had other items engraved, so I’m really unsure how much it would be if it was just the keychain). The finished product turned out pretty well.
MORION CENTURION | Boac, Marinduque
Painted on a chopped piece of wood, this was the second ref magnet I got for the trip down south. The painting shows a colored profile of a Morion, which were then roaming the streets of Marinduque; I was just in time for the annual Moriones Festival. I also saw a few ref magnets with more intricate designs but they were too big for my liking. The size of this one was just right for me and the price was extremely cheap too at Php10.00. This is the most inexpensive ref magnet I have bought to date.
WOODEN TURTLE | Caramoan, Camarines Sur
I was having a hard time finding magnets in Caramoan. Most of the things they have are the generic fish-types stamped with the locale that you can find almost anywhere you go in any touristy place in the country. I was lucky to find this small wooden turtle with a real shell back on one of the shops there, it was the only one of its kind left and I snagged it immediately. Got this for Php35.00, not bad.
BLUE DOLPHINS | Caramoan, Camarines Sur
I found this at Bed & Dine’s restaurant while we were having our almost-midnight kinalas and Bicol Express. It looked pretty and was quite hefty being made of clay (I think). The price was quite hefty too at Php45.00. I found later after opening the plastic that it was made in China, the Caramoan brand was just added to the thing (I felt ripped off hehe).
CAGSAGWA RUINS | Naga City, Camarines Sur
I was looking for a Mayon Volcano magnet at Mayon’s Skyline View Deck, I was thinking since we were at a tourist hub right at Mayon Volcanon itself; they would probably have cool ref magnets depicting the famous volcano. I was totally disappointed though upon finding their gift shop bare of almost everything. They could have made a killing here selling souvenirs, but sadly their gift shop was totally a devoid of anything (you can hardly call it a gift shop).
I found this great looking magnet at the Naga City market. I was hunting for a Naga City magnet and was having a hard time finding one (I actually didn’t find one) when I saw this huge Cagsagwa Ruins magnet hanging on one of the shops fronting the street. I’m glad I didn’t go home without a Mayon Volcano keepsake.
One reason I was so excited in revisiting Naga City was because of the (gasp) Starbucks City Icon mugs that I collect. It was gonna be my 8th mug in the series, and there were only 11 of them. Just three more mugs to completion and I can almost hear Tyler Durden say never be complete, haha.
So before going back to Manila, I, along with my cousins dropped by the local Starbucks Coffee in the city after filling our stomachs full of Kinalas (Bicol’s version of Mami) a hole in the wall near the Naga Cathedral.
The mug rack was the first thing my eye hunted for as I entered Naga’s Starbucks. And there it was, a rackfull of orange-colored coffee mugs printed with Naga’s delicacy, the pili nut. I grabbed three mugs like there was no tomorrow before heading to the counter to order some fraps.
Pili (Canarium Ovatum Engl.) is a tree indigenous to the Philippines and it is in Bicol where it is abundantly grown. Most of its produce, the pili nut, are made into snack delicacies and can usually be found in pasalubong (keepsake) shops in the city centers.
I was actually surprised at the icon showcased on the mug, as I thought it would showcase the Penafrancia Festival which is really what Naga is more known for (well, at least for me hehe). Nevertheless, the pili nut, is still a pretty good icon for the city, I guess.
Starbucks Coffee Naga City
Address: Magsaysay Avenue cor. Dayangdang Street
Naga City, Camarines Sur
Bicol Region
I was surprised at the printed icon of Batangas’ Starbucks City Mug. I thought they would probably use coffee beans (kapeng barako) which Batangas is known for, or maybe balisong (fan knife) which is another uniquely Batangueño product, and then there’s also tawilis, a freshwater fish endemic to Taal Lake; but none of my guesses were correct, instead, they have jusi printed on the mug.
I actually had a hard time guessing what the print was; was it a carpet, a tea bag, a trellis in an orchard, perhaps? After much research, it turned out to be jusi, the fabric used in making barong tagalog.
It found later that Batangas, ignorant me, produces one of the finest barong tagalog in the country. With the abundance of pineapples in the area, it should have been a no-brainer.
Every Baguio getaway eventually leads to the Baguio Public Market.
From the usual officemate pasalubongs of peanut brittles, ube jams, choco flakes and lenguas; to mom’s fresh fruits and veggies, dad’s strawberry and rice wines, aunt’s carved home decors (huge spoon and fork anyone?), and sibling’s request for t-shirts; everything Baguio is here, and yes, that includes the infamous Barrel Man too.
I’ve been here for a number of times and the alleyways were always dark and somewhat dingy. It was a surprise then that on this last visit, we saw a new face to the market. The usual dark corridors are now gone, replaced by a huge span of curving translucent green roofing. Everything glows green! The place now feels very airy, a big contrast to the once stuffy market.
This is the mug that started it all, Baguio City was my very first Starbucks Global Icon City Mug.
I first saw this at Camp John Hay’s Starbucks branch some years back but hesitated in buying it. I was torn; it looked so nice but I have too many coffee mugs already and at Php425.00, its hefty price tag was not helping at all too. 
I definitely know that once I bought this, the collector completist in me would surely emerge and I would have no choice but to buy each Starbucks Global Icon mugs in the country.
Manila, the capital of the Philippines is where the action’s at. And to get there you’d have to ride the city’s king of the road, the indomitable Jeepney.
These flamboyant public utility vehicles traces its origins from army jeeps used by the Americans during the Second World War. It has since been transformed into a mass transport; the body elongated to accommodate more passengers, the seats upholstered with colorful leather, the interiors filled with all sorts of knick knacks, and the exterior decorated with richly colored decals. A blaring stereo and a few metal horses on the hood completes Manila’s iconic transport.
Before leaving Bacolod, we dropped by the local Starbucks Coffee, not to have coffee, as we already had one at Café Bob’s, but to get a special coffee mug.
Priced at Php425.00, it was pretty expensive but it’s just so beautiful.
Out front, the mug depicts Bacolod’s old iron dinosaurs, the steamrollers that once plied the city transporting tons and tons of sugarcanes on its carriages. At the back, a field of sugarcanes is printed. The mug is made from ceramic and is quite hefty.
This was the mug that made me decide that I will collect all the Starbucks Global Icon City Mugs across the Philippines.
As customary for every Filipinos, we never leave a place before buying some pasalubong for our relatives back home. So we went right at it after having our breakfast at the Bacolod Business Inn.
There were quite a few souvenir houses in Bacolod City, but since we decided on just bringing home foodstuff, out list was shortened to three; Bongbong’s, Merci’s and Virgie’s. We went with the latter, having tasted their napoleones before. We actually didn’t have a hard time choosing where to get our pasalubong, it was always Virgie’s for us.
The store is named after its owner, Virgie Chua, who has been baking goodies for 37 years now. That hobby had now turned into one of the biggest brands in the province of Negros Occidental.
Being a t-shirt junkie, Kuweba was the very first shop I looked for after alighting in Coron, following an article on the airline magazine about the custom-printed shirts they make. I got a few custom printed shirts from Baguio City and Sagada and they were among my favorites from the piles and piles of shirts stacked at my closet.
