Angels & Demons Movie Review
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On June 24, 2009
I would like to thank TV5 for the opportunity to watch this movie at their special screening. I’m sorry that this post is soooooo long overdue. Got problems with my DSL connection at home so didn’t really have the means to go online (will post about this soon).
I’m more impressed with this movie than Da Vinci Code. Unfortunately though, I fell asleep on most parts as I was tired and I watched this movie alone. I even remember my seatmate asking me if I want to eat chips hahaha ![]()
Still, I was able to comprehend what the movie is about and I’m super impressed with Tom Hanks… he was superb in this movie – wayyyyyyy better than how he portrayed his role during the prequel. Ewan McGregor is super impressive here as well. Pretty good casting, love it.
The movie started with vial of antimatter being stolen and someone getting killed in the process. The Vatican sought the help of Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) to solve this and also the kidnapping of the 4 bishops who are candidates to become the Pope’s successor. Apparently, a secret society called the Illuminati kidnapped the 4 bishops and threaten to kill them 1 by 1 every hour then destroy the vatican after.
So there, Tom’s character was trying to figure out where the bishops might be and save them. There’s a big twist at the end as well, guess who is behind of it all? ![]()
Overall, a movie that is worth watching. I know that most of the theaters dont show this anymore but once the DVD is out and you haven’t watched the movie, go get it ![]()
My Rating for Angels & Demons: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

OFW Illegal Recruitment & Human Trafficking
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 24, 2009
I attended the round table discussion last May 12, 2009. It took me quite a time before I can finally write about this… Knowing & hearing the stories first-hand really is soo hard to absorb… It is just sad that Illegal Recruitment & Human Trafficking is really happening in our country considering that OFWs are actually the heroes of this country.

Several bloggers (including me) were invited so we could meet some of the bus drivers that Blas F. Ople Policy Center helped bring home here from Dubai. They are some of the 137 stranded bus drivers who are victims of illegal recruitment & human trafficking by a licensed (take note) recruitment agency and a private lending company.
It is just sad that only thing the bus drivers wanted is to give a better life to their families. They gave up their day jobs here in the Philippines just to be able to work abroad. The agency offered them a job as drivers with a monthly salary of $1,500 at Dubai. The agency had asked them to take out Php150,000 loan from a lending company (recommended by the agency) & made them sign & issue undated checks worth Php 1,906,123 (that’s like more than 1,000% interest!!).
Coming home penniless, jobless and traumatized from the experience, the bus drivers are now being pressured to pay up by the lending company. How can they pay? While in Dubai, they were all waiting for the 1-month training & immediate hiring by the Dubai Roads & Transport Authority but turned out to be hoax! Because they don’t have money, they ended up eating just tomatoes & rice everyday and sometimes don’t eat at all!

With the help of Atty. Reynaldo Robles & Blas F. Ople Policy Center, A civil case was filed to seek nullification of all financial transactions, loans & written contracts signed by the drivers under duress & without the benefit of proper explanation or an appropriate time for consultation & review.
It doesn’t take a genius to analyze & understand what is happening here. And I just hope we all be informed of this reality. This is really happening… Illegal Recruitment & Human Trafficking even by a CERTIFIED employment agency.
What can we do now to help?
- Spread the word. We need to let everybody know that this is happening. We either blog about it, write an email to friends about it, share stories of other similar cases that is happening. We need to make people aware of this.
- Provide Employment Opportunities. Most of the drivers still don’t have a job and most that have children would be forced to drop out oform school unless their financial burdens are reduced. So while we continue to fight the civil case, let’s help provide them jobs. If any of you are looking for drivers, please do contact Blas Ople Center at blasoplecenter@gmail.com or call +63-2-833-5337 or +63-2-833-9562 and look for Lynn or Estelle Ople Osorio.
Sharing some pictures from the Roundtable Discussion (click here).
A 4D Summer Bloggers’ Day at EK
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 13, 2009
It has been a jampacked day last sunday for us bloggers, we went to Enchanted Kingdom to experience the best of the best from the only world-class theme park in the Philippines.
We were asked to go to Hotel Intercon Open Parking at 10AM to meet since we’re going to take the “Pasyal Tour” Package. This package includes an EK Day pass and a round trip point-to-point shuttle service.

The shuttle service provider is International Travel Exchange (ITEX), exclusive partner of EK. They would take us from Hotel Intercon to EK and when the time that we want to go home, they would take us back to Hotel Intercon. If you are interested in their rates, here they are:
- Tour Package Rate (inclusive of EK day pass & roundtrip shuttle)
- Pasyal Pinoy – Weekdays (Php680), Weekend (Php765)
- Buy 4 Get 1 Free @ normal rate – Weekday (Php800), Weekend (Php900)
- Shuttle Fare (departure from/to SM Intercon Open Parking, Makati City)
- Normal Rate – Oneway (Php200), Roundtrip (Php400)
- All Year Round Promo Rate – Oneway (Php180), Roundtrip (Php360)
Upon arrival, we were greeted by an EK representative and shared with us our schedule for the day… We would experience the 4D adventure, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” … wow promise from all the 3D/4D offerings by EK, this one I most loved.

Just to be clear, this presentation is not included in the EK day pass, we will have to pay extra Php60 (day pass holders) & Php100 (carousel special holders). I think it is worth it. We can really feel like we’re there.. technology really is fast… We can almost feel the slimy thing from the monster is pouring on our bodies hahahaha! At the end of the presentation, we can choose to purchase the picture.
Next in line is our LUNCH! EK treated us with their fried chicken with gravy, rice, ice cream & drink… yummy… look at this:

While we were having lunch, EK showed us some videos/presentations on the different EK offerings. One of them is MAGICALYMPICS which we experienced and enjoyed sooooo much (see my post here).
After the great magicalympics, we were given enough time to go to wherever we want.. We decided to just ride “Raging rapids” over and over. I remember we rode that thrice! Right after, we rode flying fiesta and lastly, rode the mini roller coaster twice. So cool! I love the experience especially because I love the company of my fellow bloggers, they are soooooooooo cool to be with!!

Wizard money was also given to us (Php200 each) and we used that to buy our dinner… I had mine at the hotdog stand hhehehe… but before we went for dinner, we watched the special presentation “Enchanté Summer Special: An Under the Sea Experience” (see my post here)

Last, but not the least…. we watched the fireworks!!! I love fireworks, I don’t know, I just feel that watching it is soooooo romantic (though i’m loveless hehehe) but it’s really such a treat to be able to watch fireworks. I took some videos:
So that ends our memorable EK day…. but ofcourse, I was contemplating the whole day if I should already get the EK pillow… I’ve been wanting that for what? 6 years? ahhahaha It is just too expensive (Php400) in my opinion so I didn’t get it…. but last sunday, I wasn’t able to control myself.. I bought it and I’m happy! hehehhe.

Thanks again Enchanted Kingdom for this wonderful and memorable experience. I hope others could enjoy it as much as we did. Till next time!
Magicalympics at Enchanted Kingdom
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 12, 2009
This is an offering by Enchanted Kingdom for corporate teambuilding events.
We were given this rare opportunity to take part of this as a blogger, we were a group of 50 who attended the event. We were divided into 5 groups (see picture above-those were our group leaders) – green, yellow, orange, purple & blue teams. I’m part of the purple team (love them!).
You can see in which team the members belong through the color of the bandanas (handkerchiefs), here are the teams:





The game has 10 pitstops just like amazing race but the thing here is… we were able to enjoy the theme park’s facilities while playing the game. It’s really cool promise! I just hope our company would choose this as one of the company events coz it’s really fun! Believe me! ![]()
All teams started on a different pitstop. Here is just the series of events our team (purple team) experienced, enjoyed, loved! Thanks Enchanted Kingdom!
- Rialto Studio (Lego The Racers, the Ride). After we finish this, we’ll have to correctly answer 6 out of 9 questions or else, we’ll have to face time penalties. Our team was only able to answer 5 out of 9, so we kinda failed on this leg.

- Anchors away is the next. I really always had this fear of riding Anchors away because I tend to tremble whenever I do. But since we need members to ride this in order to win, I decided to do it for our team’s sake. This is really fun! 3 of us needs to ride on the farthest side of the ship holding tomatoes (real ones!) while the other 3 rides on the other side holding nets to catch the tomatoes. There were about 25 tomatoes and we have to at least catch 15 of them. hehehee We were only able to catch 6 tomatoes, so got another penalty on this one.. but this was really FUN!!

- Next stop: Bump cars! Wow… the game goes wherein we’ll need to get all 5 flags via relay.. so the 1st car will get the flag then there are also blockers (ride attendants) who will try to stop us from getting the flags… we’ll need to complete this in 2-5minutes. This time, our team got this right! We got time bonus on this one!

- Wheel of Fate. In here we’ll have to answer 10 questions (landmarks that we can see when we’re riding it)… so we’ll have to pay attention on all the places that we can see during the ride… we’ll have to be able to answer 15 out of the 20 questions. We got a perfect score on this!

- Next is the puzzle game. but before we can solve the puzzle, we will need to ride flying fiesta first. Flying fiesta is my favorite ride in EK. I don’t know, I just feel so relaxed whenever I ride it hhehe.

- We went to the arcade next…. guess what we need to do? SING!!! We sung our hearts out with the song, Gold! The goal is to reach at least 98 and we got 99! wohoo!

- Grand Carousel is next… we were given pictures of the horses that we’ll need to ride into. The challenge is…. there are still other guests in the park, so if ever someone else got into the horse that we were assigned to, we also need to use our communication skills ehhehe. We got this challenge right too as well.

- Raging Rapids but we were not asked to ride it but we were asked to divide into 2 groups and have to do “guess the movie” game. We got this round as well… the 2 movies were “Fast & Furious 4” and “Star Trek”

- This one is another favorite, we were asked to ride the Log Jam ride wearing a headband with a paper cup full of water with it… so we have to strategize on how we will prevent water from pouring out of the cup at the same time conquer the fear of the ride itself. We got this too! hahahaha. There’s a trick but I won’t tell you


- On the final round, we’ll have to use our things to form a very looonng line. Some of us including me even removed our belts just to be able to form a longer line. We got this too! bonus points!

We finished first but incurred too much penalty that the 2nd team won 1st place. As 2nd placers, we won T-Shirts. Winning is just a bonus here coz it’s the experience that really counts. This experience is memorable… I had the greatest time!!!
If you want to inquire about Magicalympics, you can contact Myla Miranda-Cammayo at mylacammayo@gmail.com or call Enchanted Kingdom at (02) 830-2111 to 16. I tell you, this is definitely worth it, truly enjoyable.. truly memorable. ![]()
Enchanté Summer Special: An Under the Sea Experience
Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 12, 2009
Enchanté Summer Special: An Under the Sea Experience
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This was just one of our activities when we went to EK last weekend. It is a free admission show being presented by E.K. employees and some GMA 7 talents.
Watching it is like watching a live variety show. I’ve always loved watching ASAP (a channel 2 variety show) every sunday and watching Enchante Summer Special made me feel like I’m watching it live… now I know how it feels… So cool, I wish we can dance with them hahahaha it has been going on at the back of my mind heheheeh ![]()
The props, costumes, dance numbers, song numbers were superb! The bubbles are not just falling on the stage but in the whole tent! I didn’t know how they came up with it but I was very impressed.
I recorded several numbers in my camera and I uploaded them in my YouTube account… sharing the videos here so you can have an idea what the numbers are:
Be sure to catch them when it runs May 3 to June 7, 2009. I think the show runs for 45minutes.
Here are the other show offerings from Enchanted Kingdom:
Celebrity Storytellers (allows celebrities to invite 30 kids from their chosen beneficiary institution to come to the Park for free in exchange for their token appearance) – 4PM Eldar’s Tent
- May 3 – Meryl Soriano
- May 7 – Tessa Prieto-Valdes
- May 9 – Tweety de Leon
- May 17 – Giselle Sanchez
- May 23 – Jinggoy Estrada
Events
- May 9 – MYMP serenade moms on a Mother’s Day Weekend to be presented by PLDT Touch Card
- May 16 – Summer Fashion Show “Colors of Summer” featuring Manila Prince of Avant Garde Junjun Cambe’s 2010 Summer Collection. Ogie Atos will direct the fashion show.
- May 23 – Ai Ai Delas Alas will bring the house down with laughter and music with her concert “My Mother, My Best Friend”. Presented by PLDT Touch Card.
- May 30 – Flowers of May – Parade around the Park will have wonderful ladies wearing Junjun Cambe’s gowns & colorful flowers sashaying at the Park