he other week, Chyna and I took on the conquistador/tribal reins  of our Sino-Fili-Spanish heritage and set out to explore Fort Bonifacio. Ten minutes away from the sleek but hurried atmosphere of Makati is this promising sprawl of sculptures, shops, condos, and unfinished buildings. It’s a quiet place but it’s humming with coming soons: the Mind Museum is going to be launched this year, High Street South is being constructed, and countless more developments are ongoing. I live here but I’ve been mostly scooting around in my car, so us girls decided it was time for some urbanlife exploring.

Our first discovery was Psychopomp’s Reef, a wriggly orange art installation by Leeroy New. I believe he’s the same artist who brought the Balete Tree to Ateneo’s campus last year. I interpreted it as an animal with arms bursting out of the ground like tendrils. The Psychopomp looks like a protest against structures and an invitation to let loose.

We did a bit of shopping before take-off, and I was so excited over my new Desigual romper that I decided to wear it immediately. I also wore my favorite Charles & Keith sandals, a peacock bracelet, and a pair of wide eyes.

From this angle, the Psychopomp looks like a wayward elephant (hug the poor elephant to make it feel better!). The installation also functions as a mind-reading device for aliens to decipher our thoughts:

We also passed by a space age playground that’s still being constructed. It looks partly like a science teacher’s attempt to make Chemistry look fun and partly like a yaya horrorhouse. Imagine all the kids crawling all over those structures — I wish I had a playground like this when I was a kid!

A couple blocks onward, we passed by this sign proudly proclaiming, “ARTS”. I think BGC is an art-friendly city, and hopefully we can encourage a cultured and colorful atmosphere here, with plenty of design, music, and film fests.

See the things you’ll never notice if you stay inside your car? Exhibit A: a sculpture of headless birds scattered around an empty water fountain. Exhibit B: a handy-dandy post map.

This is the Mind Museum, which promises to be the country’s “first world-class science museum”. I love the Philippines and how my Philippine heritage has influenced my art style; but I do think we lack museums. Back in Chicago, my family spent countless hours traveling time and space in the Field Museum, the Adler Planetarium, the Museum of Science and History, and other magical places. I am quite looking forward to stepping inside this building once it’s finished. In fact, Chyna and I couldn’t resist a sneak peek and we looked inside a convenient gap in the wall:

After that, we found ourselves much closer to Burgos Circle, which is a hidden group of bars, dessert cafes, restaurants, and late-night haunts. Here’s a clue that one is getting closer to Burgos Circle:

This is called The Trees and it’s supposed to signify stability. This is actually a pleasant place to have picnics and it does feel like a 21st century elven sanctuary between the intertwined metal branches.

We discovered a Hello Kitty store! They sold Hello Kitty luggage, slippers, backpacks, wallets, jackets, watches, and even some Ugg-type boots.

These kooky trash cans are all over the place! This red one demands food. Be careful when you try to feed it non-biodegradable materials.

This is a time machine. The buttons read “stop”, “go”, “run”, and “trip”.

After an entire afternoon of strolling around the Fort and running up to sculptures, we decided to top everything off with Japanese food. At this point, the skyscrapers suddenly formed the walls of a labyrinth because we could not find the restaurants we were looking for! However, we soon found two nestled at the foot of a office building. Honeybee is a dessert place and it shares a space with Tokyo Bubble Tea. I think both have the same owners. They’re bright and happy restaurants. Check out the honeycomb shelves of Honeybee.

Bubble Tea specializes in milk tea, but it also has really good Japanese food! Chyna had a scrumptious curry ramen and I had chicken teriyaki gooped with copious layers of yummy cheese.

Afterward, we walked back to Burgos Circle for dessert. We found Bar Dolci, which sells gelato and macarons. The flavors were really surprising too: white chocolate wasabi, for example. I had a salt caramel macaro and a salt caramel ice cream scoop. Chyna tried out the wasabi, which was actually pretty good (after you get used to the bite).

When we were done exchanging stories and comparing notes about the day’s discoveries, we walked back to Serendra. And that is the account of how Chyna and I spent a day as earth-o-nauts, surveying the farthest corners of Fort Bonifacio! I do love living here and it’s nice to see how the open spaces are curated. I just hope that they keep parks and sculptures scattered all over the Fort: art is part of this city’s charm.