A Beautiful Memory written and photo by Stephen Wong
the memory, july 1989
the photo essay, mar 2012
I remember I had breakfast like this at 1989, same good eggs.
I remember I stayed in Pension Natividad in Jul, 1989, had coffee
in this garden.
I remember I saw lovely girls here, nearby Pension Natividad had an
old house, it was a red light district.
I remember drinking apple juice here, people had personal typewriter at that time, walkman was tape.
" There is an engine defect, sorry the flight delay. " the pilot announced in Vancouver Airport. It was July 1987.
I was waiting, I saw a young man reading charts. He introduced himself as Alex, a Canadian Peace Corps.
His father was an aircon engineer, he was helping him the caculation of ratio between room heat and aircon power.
In the next 5 hours flying to Montreal, he told me his project in Palawan, Philippines, invited me to see him.
We kept mailing for two years, he booked a dormintory for me in July 1989, I remember it was 100 peso a night with good aircon.
Since then, I love this country.
I left Hong Kong, the place I lived for 34 years, settled in The Philippines in 1997.
I have no intention to move back.
Last time I saw Alex was 2003 in Makati, he also stayed in th ecountry he loved and developed a career.
Alex was waiting for me here.
The lobby hasn't been changed much till 2012, I remember the same old oil painting on the wall.
Pension Natividad hasn't been changed much till 2012, I remember the same white gate.
few houses have stone steps
very few houses have long wood steps
Idea new is good; house old is better.
I have a passion to old houses.
In 1960's, the population of the world was half less, there was not much thinking of " save space ".
Houses were bigger, ceilings were higher and people have more time to brew good coffee.
Pension Natividad was a missioner house. Missioners do not have money to buy things, it was the style of simplicity.
A lovely style which do not need much money to achieve, I follow that to make my house,
Isolation, on the country I loved since 1989.
