Are You Ready for NECRO Tourism?

The Ecumenical Chapel inside the Centennial Garden

This is one of the weirdest things I've covered this year, read on and I'll tell you why.

There's an 8 hectare property over at Macabling, Sta. Rosa in the province of Laguna that we visited a couple of days ago. Right now, it serves as an establishment in the front for Phoenix Memorial Chapels and Crematorium, and the rest of the land serves as the Centennial Garden. It belongs to a corporation that aims to provide unparalleled compassionate memorial service that's available 24/7.

Launched in 1999, Centennial Garden is a Greek inspired memorial park with state of the art facilities in Sta. Rosa Laguna. It's filled with statues of gods and goddesses, with easy and affordable lots. They also built a colombarium and crematory facility in late 2003 to serve as a respectable and solemn place for rest for those who have already departed.

This is OLYMPUS, a fully air conditioned 3 floor facility that houses urns for the dearly departed.

It's their 17th year, and they're making this a little different because they're launching a leisure place, and dubbing this whole area as a tourism spot and not just a memorial park. You heard that right. It's going to be housing a full museum, to show a glimpse of history coinciding with their necro and Greek theme. It's a bit different from the other ones with the same business. You also might think it's expensive for what you think people might have been getting but they say it's going to be reasonable. It's something that they have been working on for the past few years.

Phoenix have walk in packages as low as 25K, it's not that expensive and if you think about the amenities for your family, it's worth it.

Their thrust is, it's not going to be just for the rich and famous. These air conditioned rooms, the large buildings, all will be available for people who have their plans and not only that, they've been doing concerts, events inside the Phoenix memorial park. When the project for an eco tourism facility pushes through, they're going to be some sort of an attraction as they want to be different from other parks. Theirs is fun, a little festive and their current clientele is alreasy appreciating this believe it or not. 8 hectares means a long list of upgrades too so if you're already impressed with what they have right now, you can look forward to more in the future. In the coming months, they are also celebrating Halloween like never before. 

This is the ACROPOLIS. It houses 2 chapels that can fit up to 200 people. It also has a working loft, with 2 rooms, airconditioning and a shower. If you wish to spend a night or two here without going out, or if you live quite far from the property, it's easy to stay here.

The planned museum will also be housed at the bottom of this structure and we already saw some of the items they're planning to put there. It will be like a necro tour so people would know how people around the world take care of the dead.

There's a section of the land dedicated to a full play area, plus an indoor airconditioned one so you can hold parties and sing to your heart's content with the karaoke machines. I'm sure you've never seen anything like this right?

For good luck, and a more Grecian feel, they have this Water Plaza right in the middle of everything. It makes the place more relaxed, and serene.

 

They're going to have a full concert, allow kids to play on their pens and even have several videoke facilities ready for the adults. If you are part of the Phoenix Memorial Chapels and have availed of their services, this can be part of the things you'll enjoy when celebrating the life of your loved ones. It's unorthodox, I know, but who says that you have to be always sad when remembering someone you love right? I've even heard relatives celebrating their birthdays there with kids included. Putting up facilities like that must have only come from those who want to really care not just for the dearly departed, but for those who you have left in the real world. I know tons of people who would prefer it that way rather than the usual. That's what Phoenix Memorial Chapels and Crematorium provides and if you're interested, you may contact them on their channels below!

Email: coo@onephoenix.com.ph

Website: http://onephoenix.com.ph/

Photo Credits: Phoenix Memorial Chapels

For more information about their activities and services:

Phoenix Memorial Chapels and Creamatorium

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http://onephoenix.com.ph

NAIA Terminal 1, Other Ports Now Powered with Smart Wifi

I'm really excited about this big news from our friends at Smart. 

I woke up around 7 ish and braved through the early morning cold, the traffic all the way to the south because I wanted to be part of history. I'm a stern believer in technology and the country's biggest network just put up SMART WIFI on Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1. It's the country's premier facility that caters to tons of international air carriers and thousands upon thousands of tourists and returning Filipinos pass through this particular airport everyday. Internet connection is VERY important in communication and business and without it on these parts of the Philippines, it would make these things difficult to accomplish. 

As a great challenge by the current Philippine President and the Department of Transportation and Communication, they went ahead and put Smart Wifi now in Davao's Francisco Bangoy International Airport, Laguindingan Airport in Misamis, Bacolod-Silay International Airport, Iloilo International Airport, Roxas Airport, Zamboanga Airport, Clark International Airport, Dumaguete-Sibulan Airport, Laoag International Airport in the north, GenSan International Airport and Kalibo International Airport. They also have installed Smart Wifi in Batangas International Port in Batangas City plus the very far Calapan City Port in Mindoro. This means they now have carrier grade internet connection for FREE in these government facilities and it will benefit millions of people in the Philippines.

That's not even it, they're also planning to put up the same in even MORE ports like the one in Caticlan in Boracay, the lovely Puerto Princesa in Palawan, Tagbilaran Airport in Bohol, plus all the MRT and LRT stations in Metro Manila. Aside from that they will also provide connection in public offices, parks, hospitals so everyone would enjoy a connected life.

I personally tried it out and uploaded about 2 days worth of video from events I covered that time. The event there wasn't even finished yet but I got all my video interviews on Youtube uploaded in just a few minutes. You've got LTE on mobile phones, you've got Smart Wifi in selected areas. Now how's that for starters? 

Remember, this is just the beginning!

KUMAGCOW

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Contadina Set To Conquer Philippine Kitchens

It looks like the lives of the Filipinos will become so easy this year as one of the world's most recognized food brands finally lands in the Philippines. I'm sure you've seen Nigella Lawson in several blogs and TV programs and she was here for the same reason. Have you heard of Contandina?

It's a brand that's pretty well known in the US because that's where it started in World War 1. Three immigrant families found themselves in a situation where there was a shortage of tomatoes in America. That's when they found the soil in California apt for growing an even better harvest of these lovely fruits. They started making these products and thought of home. Now they have different sauces, canned tomatoes, rich olive oil and pasta, and a woman in the fields is representing them on the packaging. That's exactly what it means in Italian.

Trying Contadina for the first time had me thinking, why hasn't this been released in the Philippines when we're one of the most pasta loving people in the world? Even if we have our own sweet version, we have tons of people in the country who prefer the more conventional, herby and classic sauces right? Like me for example, I love Arrabbiata. The Contadina Arrabbiata Sauce is a little on the sour spicy side as it's got tomatoes, garlic and chili as it's main ingredients. It's lovely on Penne pasta and only needs a little heat when making as it's ready to serve on these handy dandy bottles which Contadina comes in. Aside from that, they also have Napoleatana which is made from vegetables mixed in with the usual ingredients like the Trinity in Italian cooking (onions, carrots, celery). The Aglio Arrostito on the other hand is made from tomatoes and the wonderful roasted garlic. I can already imagine having a hot bowl of it looking at my bed side window while the rain pours. Perfect comfort food.

I love antipastis and these olive oils would really make it special. They have Pure Olivr Oil which you can use to cook and the Extra Virgin Olive Oil for just dipping with bread or your salads, or just on top of slices of parma ham and prosciutto. I can go on and on and we'd still be hungry haha! I'm imagining things already! 

For those hearty stews, Contandina also have these canned tomatoes that'll be perfect for that. Imagine baking chicken topped with cheese and spending a few minutes on the stove, but we don't really have to wait for hours and waste precious time stewing because the sauce is already good to go.

The Linguine and Penne pasta stayed firm and al dente as we cooked it at home. I overcooked the penne a bit actually but it didn't become mushy at all. The convenience, the flavors, all come easy in a bottle or a can, plus a very competitive price range if you compare it to the existing local ones. It's hearty, homey and definitely reminds you of the Italy and how it's made by the Italians.

Are you excited about Contadina?

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Louise Delos Reyes Celebrates Birthday With Loving Fans

The lovely actress from GMA's stable just celebrated her nth birthday. Louise Delos Reyes, star of afternoon soap Magkaibang Mundo (Different Worlds) and lovely new ambassador of GTW by SM (congrats!) wanted this year to be a little different and chose to celebrate it with her closest fans. She's been so blessed this year and her previous shows rated quite well for pinoy audiences so they did it in a local coffee shop that pretty much followed Louise's aesthetics.

 

If you look at her Instagram account, she's done some real good work curating every post so it would look clean, effervescent and what she feels is her mood. She's also fond of music, we've seen her go to music festivals, she's got love for everything pretty like clothes and shoes. She also puts a lot of work on her personal blog www.loudelosreyes.com but also mentions she might not be updating as much because she's got a lot of work right now. She doesn't want it to be half hearted entries, which is totally understandable. 

Here's our short interview with Louise before we started the program.

Louise will be working on future projects but they are still in the pipeline. You can also expect more travels from her because she's really excited to do it every time she's not doing anything or between projects. She schedules it with her handler and it's a good thing, she's spending a lot of time with the people she loves, and loves her back.

Happy birthday Louise! Thank you for being so nice and down to earth as always!

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