Ironwulf.net: En Route – The Philippines, Travel, Photography Blog

First let me greet you all a blessed Christmas. It’s been a crazy year with a lot of highs and lows. But Christmas is here to remind us to count our blessings instead and see the world in a different perspective. I can’t say that things have all been good seeing the tragedy that happened to our brothers in Mindanao. But it shows that there is hope for humanity seeing the great outpour of support from people giving what little they can offer. This season, I revisit Simbang Gabi on some of the popular churches in Manila to capture a Filipino tradition.

Manila is a city of dichotomy. It’s both ugly and beautiful. Modern and old. Friendly and dangerous. It is a battered city suffering from identity crisis after being colonized by several nations like Spain, Japan and the USA. But despite this hotchpotch in our history, Filipinos now remain proud that it’s pouring into our fashion. Team Manila called it Fashionalism which they have been doing years ago and to launch their new line of T-Shirts, they get Carlos Celdran to walk us through the launch and better appreciate manila through his Intramuros Tour.

To all my visitors, regular blog readers here or everyone who stumbled here, wishing a sincere Merry Christmas to ALL! May each one of you have a joyous celebration with families and friends. And don’t forget that CHRIST is the heart of CHRISTmas who always reminds us to GIVE. With that you can send your gifts to this address…. hahaha kidding. Just enjoy the holidays, so eat, drink and be merry!