Tourists will find the mall very handy when replenishing resources, getting cheaper laundry, buying food, getting souvenirs, watching a movie and simply eating out. Aside from shopping and eating, tourists with kids like us will find many kid friendly areas and kiddie rides to keep your kids from getting bored. I give the mall a rate of 4 out of 5.

The weird thibg is, a lot of people were staring at the Tuk Tok, it appears that it is not as common as we thought it was. Anyway it was a fun riding on the Tuk Tok through the beautiful city of Tagbilaran. If you stay at the Dao Diamond Hotel, you can utilize the Tuk Tok for nearby travels for free. Quite a fun ride

We have been considering a number of hotels and resorts but what made us finally decide on picking Dao Diamond Hotel over the others was the knowledge that they help and hire deaf Boholanos. It was nice that while we are out vacationing, we are helping out deaf children and an institution with a noble cause.

Dao Diamond Hotel Owners

I was not very impressed when I looked at the pictures of the hotel online, so I was not expecting much when we arrived. However the venue was a lot more nicer in person than the pictures gave it credit for. Here is a picture that I took of its lounge:

Dao Diamond Hotel Lounge

Dao Diamond’s room and everything else exceeded my expectations. There was a also a nice swimming pool in which we took a leisurely swim during our first day of stay. Here are more pictures:

Dao Diamond Room

Dao Diamond Pool

With the staff being deaf, the hotel was very silent and conducive to relaxation and sleep. In fact we never had a problem sleeping, even our two boys slept well.

All the deaf staff were polite and very accommodating, however some of the non-deaf staff are the ones that give a negative vibe, they seem to be unattached and uncaring. There was even an instance where a non-deaf female staff did not address our concern properly, and as I understand it, it is a problem with her character and not the hotel.

The only thing that I think the hotel should improve on is their food. We were not too impressed with what we’ve been served. There was even an awkward incident where we ordered for Mami, and we were served with a bowl of soup without noodles. And when we asked the non-deaf female staff for assistance, she just brushed us off saying she does not know. This is the same non-deaf female staff that we had problems with the other day. To make the long story short, a male staff was nice enough to realize the mistake and after a few minutes later gave us the Mami bowl with noodles.

Another problem we encountered was their Wi-Fi connection, which did not work for a few days, but then again this could be a problem with their ISP.

Other than the above mentioned, everything went smoothly. The place was clean, the beds were soft, the sheets were great, the aircon is working and not noisy, hot water works fine and the place simply looks and feels great. If you are looking for a hotel that is conveniently located near a mall and the airport – I highly recommend that you check Dao Diamond Hotel out. We will surely be staying there again when we visit Bohol again in the future. Even with our little probles, I will still give Dao Diamond Hotel a 5 out of 5.

Since I am working during banking hours, the only time I have left for doing bank errands is during lunch. And so I decided to take take a late lunch – 1pm and use that to run to the nearest BPI bank which was in this case the Dona Soleda / Better Living branch.

I was expecting to at least be able to deposit a check. The first bank that I got into was the Family Savings bank, which oddly enough does not cater to “Commercial” BPI card holders. That bank was almost empty and there were no lines. They pointed me to go to a nearby BPI branch which I hurriedly gone to. To my disappointment, when I got the number, I found out that I still have to wait for 30+ persons.

I know banks can sometimes be busy at times, so I waited and observed why the bank is full of people at a supposedly dead hour. Lo and behold, when I looked at the teller, there was only ONE teller working, the other one was busy counting money, and the other one is still on lunch break at 1:20pm. Each of the 30+ customers will have to wait longer because there was just one teller. Being a manager my self, I looked to see what the bosses were doing, but to add insult to injury, some of them were on their desks happily spending their time talking on the phone – literally smiling – while customers whom their salaries depend upon are inconvenienced and waiting.

To make the long story short, I left that BPI Bank branch and looked for another branch which was nearby, and again – the same situation, 30+ people in line, at least this one has two tellers instead of one, but they see, to have forgotten what the banking business is all about. So the story ended with me heading back home to work without accomplishing anything.

Its a good thing that BPI has their internet banking facility where everything is convenient and fast. I doubt people will stay with them if they see BPI bank branches performing as dismal as these two branches. It even got me thinking of transferring to a competitor bank. I hope the higher ups at BPI gets to see how their branches are doing before they lose customers.

I’m just saying that there are other acoustic guitar players that deserve that title over Don, I would have even preferred the other acoustic performance during the live final. It was more melodic and clean. Maybe the song appealed more when watched live which could be the case, but I’d give my vote to Jon Gomm if he joined. Anyway all of the finalists are already winners so instead of sulking up and just enjoy the Guitar Idol III live final videos.

To better appreciate how good these two players are, I would recommend that you use a good speaker system or a sony mdr. Good headphones reproduce the sound faithfully which in this case is Tony and Martin’s playing. With it you can hear all those small nuances that make the difference between amateur and master. Looks like I’ll be hooking up with more Jazz standards. I didn’t care much about the interview, I would just rewind to the jam. This video gets an easy 5 star.

It’s a classic revenge story, where in a man avenges the murder of his family. The twist however is that he is not satisfied with just killing the killers, he wanted to take down the entire justice system that betrayed him when the murderer was put on trial. Its not the typical revenge story found on kindle books, the good guy here turns into a real bad ass bad guy.

Because of lousy technicalities the real killer was let off with a lighter punishment, sadly these injustice very much prevails – just look at the Vizconde Massacre and the Maguindanao Massacre – justice has not been served due to various invented technicalities. If only there was a real life Clyde that would hunt poeple in authority that denies justice.

To keep it short, this movie is a must watch. I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

It shows a few OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) that have been staying for years abroad and were given the opportunity to return home for free by the famous softdrinks company. Working abroad is a popular “goal” for Filipinos, lured by the promise of better pay – aspirants would apply for IT jobs, ERP Jobs, Medical care jobs and any job that would give them better pay.

Sadly, I felt that the video was an obvious ploy to use real life emotions to promote an unhealthy product. I would call it a semi-reality TV commercial which just like the product it endorses, hides the ugly inconvenient truth.

What the video did not show is how many OFW families are being broken everyday just for the sake of that imaginary financial stability. The video also failed to show the children who are growing up without the much needed guidance from their parents.

What use is the house that they are paying for if they don’t live under one roof? How many of these unguided children will grow up to be good productive citizens?

The video also seem to neglect the many opportunities within the country that intelligent Filipinos could have been cultivating instead of going the easy route of working “abroad”.

My definition of true “family” love is staying with your family and trying to make ends meet without sacrificing your time together. A family should stay together, but sadly in this modern “relativistic” times – even the definition of family can change to whatever is more convenient. It was heart warming to see the reunions, but it is heart wrenching to think that these OFW had to wait many years for a silly softdrink product to give them free tickets when they can, if they REALLY wanted, to go back home with their own money.

It would have made a big difference if the OFWs on the video were given business or job opportunities within the country so that they can stay “happy” with their families. Unfortunately, the happiness that is promoted in the video is much like what Coca cola gives us, temporary and unhealthy happiness, which eventually turns into disease.

In fairness, the video was well made and have left many in tears, but sadly the video didn’t change anything, it didn’t even change the minds of the OFWs about leaving their country and families in the first place.

So now we have the irresponsible guy(Mitch) driving the family RV and doing things that he have never done, like going to the grocery, taking care of the babies and checking the rv insurance quote. Most of the comedy revolves around how Mitch is having a hard time living the life of a family man.

The other guy (Dave) was then able to live a life with little worries and was pretty content until he found out that Mitch was working as a porn actor. So the summary of the story is that these two guys lived out the life of the other and realized that what they originally had was the best. Aside from the unnecessary nudity, it was OK. Warning this film is not for the kids.

I gave it a higher 3 out of 5 ranking, just because Olivia Wilde was in the film.

I waited for my excitement to die down before I attempted to write an objective review of Jason Mraz concert in Manila last October. Looking back, we truly enjoyed the concert, fan or no fan, you will simply be amazed at Jason Mraz’s sheer vocal prowess and musical talent. Jason and Toca confidently confronted thousands of screaming fans that filled the gigantic Araneta Colliseum.

Jason and Toca sang their hearts out, they sang all of my favorites including Butterfly and Dynamo of volition from Jason’s latest album. The concert was a major success, save for a few minor qualms. Most of my complaints will fall under technical difficulties or venue related problems.

First complaint is the lousy sound system. There was too much echo and there was not enough power to fill the stadium. Although as a fan, I am familiar with his lyrics, but newbies will probably have a hard time understanding what Jason was singing about. Next complaint is the decision to do an acoustic set at a giant venue like Araneta. Jason should have gotten himself a full band to back him up complete with sax and wind instruments – it would have been much more fun.

Still acoustic sets have that feeling of intimacy which die hard fans probably preferred, sadly these die hard fans only know Jason’s popular songs like You and I both, I’m yours and Lucky. Overall it was a great concert experience and was well worth the dread of traffic and the hard time we had parking our car.