My friend Oak visited Siem Reap and dragged me to try Beaches at Wat Bo road. It's the same people behind Reflex, the quirky off-shoot of kitsch-y Reflections in Bangkok.
Oak did the make-up of my first show for Cambodia Fashion Week. He also did the one for my Experiment show and we also collaborated on some editorial shoots for magazines. He's the nicest and easiest guy to work with.
I also got to meet his friend Tawan who owns a salon here in Siem Reap.
I think this is the 3rd time Tito Butz visited Siem Reap.
He likes soup so I brought him to Lucky Shabu House for an eat-all-you-can buffet. Needless to say, he enjoyed it so much.
Franco is one of my best friends here in Cambodia. We clicked it off because we're both uncomplicated and easy-going. It's not often he is here in Siem Reap so it was nice to bond with him. Here we had desserts at AHA because he was craving for honeycomb ice cream.
I went to the last exhibit of the Arts Lounge featuring the works of dear friend, Eric Raisina. Entitled, 'Emotional', it featured Eric's wonderful vocabulary of texture, fabric manipulation and color. The show was executed seamlessly except for an embarassing and uncought behaviour of one of the hotel's top management. Many were shocked to say the least! I feel so horrified for Eric but good thing everyone was there to support him and to fete his amazing works.
A model wearing one of Eric Raisina's textured silk creations.
There was a good turn-out of people who came to support him.
Franco of F Magazine with Eric.
Philippe
The rest of us had some noodles later in the morning. Soap and Rothany.
Ciaran, Franco and Onin.
Rathanak and his cousin.
I love collaborating with friends. There is a different energy that comes out of it because it's a hybrid of ideas from different individuals. One of the most talented collaborators I had the pleasure of working was Onin, more popularly known as Style-Anywhere. We grabbed the opportunity to shoot an ed with the help of my photographer friend, Inal, as model. We shot it on the way to Angkor Wat. I can't wait for the final edits to be published.
Visit Onin's blog at http://style-anywhere.com/
For her birthday, Tita Love prepared a wonderful feast of Vegetarian Batchoy, Fish Embutido, Sweet&Sour Fish Balls, Seafood Chopsuey and fresh fruit salad for lunch. My diet was ruined but it was totally worth breaking it!
I'm seriously backlogged with my blogging duties but it's a shame not to post about these important moments just because it happened a few moons ago.
Anyhoot, this was from the dinner at Takezuno that I treated Ate Cielo and Kuya Blady for Ate's birthday. They left the kiddos at home so the adults can have some time to bond. I'm always with the Perezes all the time nowadays and I've gotten closer to them.
They've never tried Takezuno so it was a perfect venue for my treat.
Apres, we went down to Nest to have some desserts and cocktails. I had this seriously delish chocolate martini. Yum!
Over Valentines my friends Louis Claparols and Bobby Carlos visited Siem Reap. I'm happy many of my friends are discovering my 'town'. Louis is a popular fashion designer and Bobby is an expert make-up artist in the Philippines.
I toured them around town. They checked out Poetry and the pub street area. I became their tour guide in Angkor Wat.
We had a delicious Valentines dinner at Il Forno. I'm so glad they really enjoyed their time here in Siem Reap and they promised to come back end of this year.
My friends from Phnom Penh, Toefi and Eng, came in town briefly to accompany their friend...
...Garnet and her husband. The couple were visiting from Manila.
They arrived the day after I came from Bangkok and they toured Angkor Wat for most of the day. We met up in the evening for dinner and I toured them a bit at the Alley. They checked out Poetry and the Bar Street area. I showed Toefi and Eng my apartment and we had a little night cap. Too bad their visit was short because the next day they are back to Phnom Penh. Next time they are here I promised to bring them to check out the thrift shop.
Rex, host extraordinaire, (the one in stripes) promised to treat me a "wine&dine" experience in Bangkok and so finally it happened last time I was there. The venue of choice, after careful deliberation amongst the experts, was Wine Republic at Thonglor. Rex invited Julius and George...
and Kawadjan, moi and Norly for an evening of free flowing wine, assorted pizza, plates of cheese and salads. I was deeply honored and impressed, ha! It was a lovely evening of fun conversation that ended with everyone trooping to the nearest 7/11 store for an impromtu weight recording. Why you may ask? Everyone agreed to lose weight by March! How it ended up that way I can't remember now but what I'm sure was all of us had a blast. Thank you Rex for your generosity!
I found this lovely Burberry trench in the thriftshop and they were selling it for a very low price. It's impossible for me not to get it because it's so cheap! I decided to cut off the sleeves and shorten it a bit so it turned out to be more wearable for Siem Reap. Now it looks like a Marni-esque house coat I can wear when it's a little bit damp. I really like it so much because it's unlined and very light.
