On Sunday night, I hooked up with Cherice, Renee Renee and his absolutely stunning wife Shar to grab a spot of dinner at Felix, a fusion cuisine fine-dining restaurant located at Greenbelt 5, a swish mall near the hotel.

Jeremy brought me and the skate team here the night before and I thought it was fucking amazing so I recommended it to Cherice and Re Re.

Re Re just flew in from hugely successful DC X SBTG events in Taipei and Tokyo.

I had heard a lot about him and I love his goofy brand of humor so I was really looking forward to meeting him.

Re Re is warm, funny and such a nice guy. He has a type of charisma that is infectious and immediately lights up any room he walks into.

Cherice is the person who hooks me up with all the cool gear/kicks that you always see me wearing so I was glad to have an opportunity to thank her in person.

Re Re ordered some maguro as an appetizer, and I’d have to say that the maguro at Felix is a LOT better than you can find most Japanese restaurants.

However, I wish they had real wasabi instead of the shit you squeeze out of tubes!

Cherice ordered this spicy tuna sashimi “salad” dish called the “Gen Ma” which was mind-blowing.

It was soft, succulent and the tuna was crazy mixed with some crunchy nuts and a wasabi salad dressing.

The textures and flavors were quite unlike anything I had ever eaten before.

Cho oishii desu!

This was a delicious looking oyster platter with oysters cooked four different ways.

I think this looks pretty fresh.

Shar ordered a delectable grilled lobster au gratin, which she generously shared with the rest of us.

The cheese managed to enhance the flavor of the lobster instead of overpowering it as is normal with most lobster/cheese dishes.

Re Re, true to his style, ordered a dish on the menu called the “Bum Claws” – king crab claws drizzled with ginger sauce.

I couldn’t take a proper photo of this dish because Re Re kept making me laugh and my hands were shaking so hard.

For her entrée, Cherice decided on grilled salmon on a bed of buttered rice which made rethink salmon as a cooked dish.

Normally I’m not a big fan of cooked salmon because it’s really hard for flavors and marinades to soak through all the way through the fish so the center of the fish is always pretty tasteless but somehow the chefs at Felix have managed to sort that problem out.

I ordered braised pork ribs in chestnut sauce and served with buckwheat noodles.

This dish TOTALLY KILLED ME. I have no words for how awesome this dish was.

I think I could probably eat this every day and not be sick of it.

The pork was so tender and juicy I thought I was eating marshmellows!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh … Felix is my favorite restaurant in Manila right now.

Posted on March 9th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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On Sunday night, the “big guns” started arriving in Manila so you could randomly walk around the hotel and bump into people like Mark Ong aka SBTG and Cherice Fredricks from DC.

Mark of course is the star of the circus we are all a part of and one of the main reasons we are here in Manila.

Cherice has been featured on my blog more times than I can remember so now you can put a face to the name!

Cherice also has the most awesome ink on her feet ever.

Things are starting to heat up here in the Philippines!

Posted on March 9th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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Greg, Buchi and Shin wanted to go out on the the first night we arrived in Manila so I said why not.

I asked Dino from Primer which was a good club to go to and he recommended a place called Amber.

And what a great recommendation it was. Amber is a cozy little club with friendly staff (including the bouncers) and great music.

Dino even got us on the guestlist, which made the experience even better.

After getting wasted, we stumbled outside and saw an Impreza so the boys decided to pose in front of the only Impreza I’ve seen here so far.

Why why why can’t clubs in Malaysia play music like those in the Philippines???

Posted on March 8th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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On Saturday, we had to leave Cebu for Manila.

All the Cebu locals had been super friendly to us and we had some great times – I’ll miss the place so much.

I will try to come back as soon as I can!

Greg Myers discovered the “Airport Guitar Center” at Cebu Airport and promptly hooked himself with a mini Filipino Les Paul. Hahaha

I was looking forward to checking out Manila because I had heard some great things about the city from a lot of friends.

I’d been there once before, but it was like 20 years ago and I was only in transit for one night.

Hopefully this time I could really experience the city.

We arrived at the Makati Shangri-La and I was blown away by the grandness of the lobby. I’ve seen a lot of really grand hotel lobbies before, but this one is definitely one of the illest ones I’ve seen.

You see the yellow, red and green flower arrangement in the center? Those are REAL flowers and are changed once a week (every Sunday) and it takes a team of workers about 7 HOURS to do it.

There is an army of staff waiting on your every whim and I think there were about 5 people just helping us with the check-in.

The Makati Shangri-La is one of nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed in.

DC is balling!

Posted on March 8th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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Don’t ask.

Posted on March 8th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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We decided to have the last meal of the Cebu trip in the hotel since everyone was pretty tired and beat down from all the hectic activity since arriving.

The Marriot had a nice poolside barbeque going so that seemed perfect.

Normally I’m pretty wary of hotel food, but the barbeque buffet was so dope!

I couldn’t get enough of the barbequed pork ribs and calamari.

I also couldn’t get enough Mango Madnesses … hahaha …

Oh man Cebu I will miss you!

Posted on March 7th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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The day after the skate contest/demo, Primer organized a meet & greet/autograph session with the skaters at the DC store in Cebu.

Primer had actually set up a complete installation/exhibition just outside the shop and they were playing the video footage from the contest for everyone to see. How they managed to get someone to edit all the footage into a super dope clip in just one night is still beyond me.

Hundreds of kids turned up to get up close and personal with the DC skaters and it was awesome to see how enthusiastic everyone was.

Jeremy gave a short speech and thanked everyone for coming to support.

Trophies were awarded to the winner’s of the skate contest and the DC riders came onto stage too for a group photo with Jackie and Paul from Primer.

Check out the crowd! It was crazy, so many people crowding the boys, trying to get autographs and photos.

One thing I must mention is that even that there were so many people there, everything was very orderly and all the kids waited patiently to meet the skaters. The politeness and courtesy of Filipino people still impresses me day after day.

If this happened in Malaysia chaos would have already ensued.

The boys were super friendly and obliged every autograph/photo request.

This girl queued up for about 20 minutes just so Bjorn and Kieran could sign her kicks:

Another couple of kids had Ts with loads of skater autographs on them and on this day they managed to add another four to their collection:

It was really dope to see so many kids who were genuinely happy to meet and greet the skaters.

I know the boys all now have loads of new fans in Cebu and if they ever come back, they will be welcomed with open arms.

The DC store in Cebu is owned/operated by Primer and is one of the 3 concept stores they have in The Philippines.

The store staff are friendly, helpful and not to mention incredibly good-looking/beautiful.

I can’t stress enough how friendly EVERYONE from Primer is. Everyone from Mr. COO Jackie to the store staff is so friendly. Jeremy told me that the company is like one big family and everyone is tight, which is amazing considering it’s a pretty big company!

This is Eldrich, DC’s filmer. The backpack he has on weighs about 15kgs (with the camera inside) but he makes is seem so light. I thought his backpack was really light until one day I helped him unload it off the tour bus and I was like WTF? I don’t know how he manages to lug that ton of bricks around all day/every day without breaking his back or breaking a sweat.

This is Shin Inoue, editor-in-chief of Transworld Skateboarding Japan.

He’s covering this skate tour for Transworld so look out for the feature/article in the next issue of Transworld Skateboarding Japan!

Yes, Mr. Johnston is still ultra-popular with the ladies.

Loads of media attended the event and the boys were pulled in all directions by reporters/journalists but of course Kieran handled all the attention like a pro.

Bjorn was the featured athlete on one of the shoe displays and Jeremy thought it would be a good idea for him to leave his mark on it.

I’m sure the DC store in Cebu thanks Bjorn for coming too!

In Australia, the slang for Aborigine is “ABO”

Kieran is actually half-Aborigine, which makes his board so rad.

Kieran also has “ABO” tattooed on his leg, which makes HIM so rad.

The autograph session was a complete success and I think everyone was super happy – DC, Primer, the boys and of course all the kids who turned up to meet their new skate idols!

Posted on March 7th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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I’ve been spending a lot of time with Greg Myers on the DC skate tour and I have to say he is a really cool cat – always up to try new shit, fun, easy to get along with and genuinely psyched to be travelling around the world and spreading the spirit of skateboarding everywhere.

Not only that, he is a fucking awesome skater – fast, clean & smooth plus miles of styles for everyone.

Haven’t seen Greg skate before? Don’t worry. Watch the clip below and you will know what’s up.

Posted on March 7th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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To celebrate the huge success of the Cebu skate contest/demo Jackie, the COO of the Primer Group, took all of us out to dinner at a modern Australian restaurant called Canvas in Ayala Mall (where the DC store in Cebu is located)

The food was delicious and I will definitely come here the next time I come back (oh sorry, didn’t I tell you I’m moving here to live coz Cebu rocks so much? Hahaha)

After dinner the boys wanted to go out for a drink so Paolo Mendoza, who owns the ONLY house music radio station in The Philippines, generously offered to take us to a couple of spots.

We ended up in an area called Mango Square and sat down at a mamak stall-looking cafe.

The main difference between a real mamak stall and this mamak-looking place was that it served booze! Woo hoo! This is another reason why The Philippines is so fucking awesome. Hahaha

Someone asked me whether I had ever eaten a Philippine “delicacy” called “balot” (not sure how to spell it) – whch is essentially a duck egg just before the duck hatches so you eat an almost formed duck embryo.

I said no fucking way but this chick that we met was down for it.

That shit was SO nasty. Bjorn was filming the whole thing and I wanted to just puke.

Damn I wonder what else that girl will put into her mouth. Fuck I almost puked when she showed me the inside of the egg.

Hey check this out … for those who think Red Bull is weak as piss and doesn’t do shit for you, there is always Red Bull SUPREME.

We drank 2 bottles of vodka and someone let me drive their car back to the hotel – it was my first time driving left-hand drive!

Damn I was up for 24 hours straight but it was such a good day.

Cebu rocks so hardddddddddddddddd!

Posted on March 6th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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The sun was blazing down hard as we made our way to the Visioneri Skate Plaza for the skate contest/demo.

Our tour bus was tuned in to a local radio station and we heard them talking about the DC and the skate tour. The station was actually doing a live broadcast from the skate plaza so we could hear everything that was going on which made everyone super psyched and eager to get there as soon as possible.

When we arrived the place was packed to the brim with a few hundred kids who were eager and anxious to see the DC skaters do their thing.

Greg Myers was positively roasted from his trip to the beach and everyone thought he was drunk because his face was so red. Hahaha

Even though he was suffering from heatstroke, he still gave 100% at the demo and managed to pull off an insane kicklfip to 5-0 grind on the handrail, much to the delight of the locals.

Bjorn Johnston killed every obstacle he tricked on at the skate plaza.

Fuck they should rename the Visioneri Skate Plaza to the Bjorn Johnston Skate Plaza because he totally owned it yesterday.

I’m still in shock and awe at how smooth he was.

Kota Ikeda sprained his ankle 2 days before coming to Cebu, but he STILL managed to pull off a bluntslide down the rail. Insane!

He was hurting so much after that he had to put his foot in an ice bucket but I hope he gets better before the skate demo on Tuesday in Manila.

Ganbatte Kota!

Hirotoshi Kawabuchi skated like someone who had been locked away for a year without a skateboard and just released.

He attacked every stair, rail and ledge with an intensity that was almost scary.

I’m sure his relentless attitude and massive bag of tricks won him a LOT of fans at the demo.

Kieran Reilly is only 16 and has been sponsored by DC since he was 8.

He has a really relaxed style and all his tricks look totally effortless. Seriously, if you watch Kieran skate, he will make you think that the trick he just did was so easy YOU could probably do it. I was standing near a flat rail and he came along and did a feeble grind along it and he looked like he was just floating on the board. I turned around to Jeremy and said, “Holy shit! Did you just fucking see that?” and his reply to me was, “That’s just Kieran,” followed by a knowing smile.

Kieran skated by and did another effortless trick to show us that yes, gravity bends to his will when he wants it to.

One thing that I found amazing at the skate plaza was most people were wearing DC.

You can really feel a love for DC amongst Cebu locals which made me proud to be associated with the brand as well.

Without a doubt, DC owns skateboarding in Cebu. Most of this is due to the effort of the Primer Group, DC’s distributors in The Phillipines.

Primer really put a lot of thought/planning into this skate contest/demo and it showed. All their hard work paid off because the event was a success beyond everyone’s imagination so much respect to them.

Maybe one of these kids will be a pro skater in the future?

Is it just me or are the skies in The Philippines bluer than anywhere else?

The locals mobbed the skaters all day. Here are Bjorn and Kieran paying the price for being incredibly talented skateboarders.

One thing I have noticed during my short time in The Phillipines is that everyone is really friendly. People are courteous, thoughtful, respectful of others and well-mannered.

Being here makes me so ashamed of Malaysia.

Malaysians in general are a positive disgrace when it comes to manners/etiquette and are so fucking rude.

There are a MILLION things Malaysians can learn from Filipino culture.

The event went on until evening and when it got dark the plaza was lit up like a stadium which I thought looked really cool. By this time the local kids were so psyched from watching the DC skaters and they all wanted to skate too. Watching 300 kids skating together is quite an awe-inspiring sight.

We left right after the award ceremony as we were all pretty knackered and hungry.

Jeremy said that this was by far the best skate demo DC had done in Asia and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to see it for myself!

Posted on March 5th, 2010 by BadBoyBen
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