The image below is very third world. We find it amusing, but it does reflect the economic conditions of the people in a country. The shot was taken in Vietnam. Though seeing something like it won’t be very unusual here in the Philippines, such an image is commonplace in the neighboring Vietnam where there are a few cars and more than 5 million motorcycles!
But the Philippines is on the way of being a motorcycle country too like China, India & Vietnam. With the rising price of gas, the steady increase of fares in public transportation, and the affordability of motorcycles (installment terms go as low as P1000+ per month); any minimum wage earner could now afford to have one. The downside is a lot are hopping onto one without the proper know-how or awareness on how to be a responsible rider hence the increase in motorcycle-related accidents in the past four years as reported by MMDA(there were 2,092 accidents with 51 fatalities in Metro Manila alone just from Jan-May 2006). But I digress, so let’s go back to these photographs.
Here’s a sample.
good thing he’s riding automatic! hehehe.
That one’s a gate in what I assume is made of wrought iron. You can just imagine what else they can carry on two wheels? The succeeding images have these bikes of burden carrying anything from multiple passengers, livestock, trays of eggs, construction materials, and even a shark! But what takes the cake for me is the one carrying a mirror for delivery in a barbershop. Take a look at these other fascinating images of riders. Read the rest of this entry ?
Been wanting to blog about this “Road to Lisbon” Adidas ad for quite some time now. The spot — shown in 2004 with a 2-minute running time — features numerous Vespas, Lambrettas and other EuroScoots. The concept depicts the football greats as they leave their respective home countries for the European Soccer Championship. The treatment is an epic-like journey, where the players and football fans ride their scooters and grew in droves as they headed to Portugal’s capital city. The commercial was shot various European cities (Paris, Madrid, Seville and Lisbon), cost €4.5 million, and took six months to complete. Here are more info about the ad from adidas-group.com:
Of course, I didn’t actually write some grafitti on a wall just to deliver my personal Christmas greeting. I’m not that crazy! The image was generated automatically by a cool website by simply inputting my text on a box. I simply added my Vespa (actual scoot & logo), capiz windows and parols for a more personal feel.
Before I give you the link to this unique website, I’ll share here first the other images I’ve came up with as a result of the site’s free/trial service. Read the rest of this entry ?
There’s a red Vespa in the ad immidiately below. But that’s just my convenient excuse so I could blog about some of my favorite Coke ads which actually make this post mostly off-topic.
Anyway, about two years ago, Coca-Cola came up with this global ad campaign that shows a girl who ‘magically’ dispenses Coke from out of her bag. Nope, I’m not talking about the TVC that shot the then unkown Nikki Gil to celebrity-dom; but the original ad from the UK which was also shown in the US. If you haven’t seen it, watch it here.
Bet you forgot to look for the red Vespa. Well, play it again!
I know you’ve heard the Tagalog version “Sana” (which literally means “I Wish”) in the past. But doesn’t it sound like you’ve heard that English version before? That’s because it’s a song from the 60’s remade by many artists, the most recent of which is by Lighthouse Family (”Free”).
Isn’t it amazing how the whole concept is exactly like the local TVC shown here yet so different? Makes you wanna see the Manila-version again. Well, check this out! Read the rest of this entry ?
Last month, I got a heads up from my sister-in-law about a mini-Vespa being sold at the newly re-opened S&R (formerly PriceMart) at The Fort. We were told about it’s price tag but I still checked it out with my wife and daughter that following weekend to see the toy for ourselves.
Here’s what we saw:
It’s really quite cute. Wanna know how much this mini-scoot is? Check out the next photo. Read the rest of this entry ?
Since last weekend was devoted exclusively to activities during Vespa Attack II, the beginning of the week has been crazy. I had a newspaper deadline to beat, emails to reply to, contract to review and regular website chores to attend to. On top of that, last Sunday’s Sierra Madre ride resulted in a flat tire (that experience is another blog entry in itself!) so I also had to get my spare tire vulcanized. Had no choice but to have this Vespa blog take the pillion seat for the past few days.
Anyway, during last Saturday’s Vespa Attack party held at the Streetscape of the Shangri-La Plaza Mall, an important announcement was made by the organizers. Finally, the Philippines has it’s own Vespa Club! Woo-hoo!
The following day — before & after the out-of-town ride — I got the chance to chat with Rico (the club prexy) and learned that the group still needed a logo. The following day,
I submitted to him these two studies and he asked me to share it with the rest of the members as we wait other submissions for consideration. I’m sharing my two designs here.
FINALLY! I’ve been wanting to upload this head banner here in my blog for quite some time now. But for some reason, WordPress auto-converted the animated .gif file into a steady .jpg image so I eventually gave up.
Just this morning, I’ve noticed something in my Dashboard (that’s how WordPress calls its user’s control panel) that I haven’t seen before. On my Upload Directory, it says: Used: 26% of 50MB. buy more. WTF?!! The reason why I had this blog hosted here is to avail of the service for free; then they’re going to ask me to pay eventually?!! NO WAY!
In protest, I began to delete some unused images which I’ve uploaded before to clear up some space. It the process I saw my header image again and this time it’s already moving! I got excited and tried to change the header image once again and BOOM! It was there!
I got so happy that I just had to push back the other post in my draft and blog about this instead. Read the rest of this entry ?
I recently got a gig as a regular MCP contributor. Woo-hoo! It’s not a paying job but getting one’s mindless chatter and blabber exposed to a wider audience is always a welcome treat! The comments I got from the readers have been really awesome! I’ve got Bimbo Isidro (aka BoyG in Motorcycle Philippines or Vespinoy in blogging circles) to thank for giving me the opportunity. Read the rest of this entry ?
No, PYKE is doing okay; it’s actually my blog and my logo which somehow got ‘heated’ and ‘burned.’ If that sounded ridiculous, then its probably because it really is!
Yournameontoast.com is a site that offers advertising spaces by having some text, doodle, logo or basically anything you want to see on your toast (as long as it’s not offensive!) which they will especially prepare for you. Sounds like a silly idea, is it? The people behind this website seems to feel that way too. But they also know that silly ideas usually get talked about over the ‘net. Look here, I’m blogging about it! And that’s not the end of it all; it gets worse… Read the rest of this entry ?
I heard Bimbo call it “Vespa Atat!” It’s a funny way of putting it, but it’s largely accurate. ‘Cause really, when you think about it, Last Saturday’s City Ride was actually just a convenient excuse to ride on the date the actual Vespa Attack II was suppose to happen if it hasn’t been postponed. The anticipation and momentum didn’t wane despite the postponement so the Pinoy Vespa riders just had to do something about it.
The call time was 3PM and we were suppose to take-off a little after that. But Dennis (DMF 8888) arrived at the meet with a broken clutch cable and the guys were more than willing to share a helping hand. I’m seeing first-hand the bayanihan spirit of the Vespinoy community in action. I was there with nothing much to offer, but THERE nonetheless… hahaha! Dennis got a steady flack (all in jest, of course!) for being the cause of delay, but the man is a great sport and even treated the guys with a few rounds of beer later that evening. Below is a posterity shot while waiting for the new cable to arrive. (Btw, the images in this post are courtesy of Yeyey Yatco (direkyey) — a Vespanatic and a noted TV commercial director)
Dennis (with the Italian patch) & his scoot with the rest of the guys
Been wanting to blog about this “Road to Lisbon” Adidas ad for quite some time now. The spot — shown in 2004 with a 2-minute running time — features numerous Vespas, Lambrettas and other EuroScoots. The concept depicts the football greats as they leave their respective home countries for the European Soccer Championship. The treatment is an epic-like journey, where the players and football fans ride their scooters and grew in droves as they headed to Portugal’s capital city. The commercial was shot various European cities (Paris, Madrid, Seville and Lisbon), cost €4.5 million, and took six months to complete. Here are more info about the ad from 
; and the 1969 crime caper, 
