Taiwan Flora Expo 2010, Update on the Philippine Exhibit, Finally Complete

My cousin Jerome who took my place to help the designer's team in executing the Philippine exhibit just arrived early this morning (October 28).  The exhibit has been completed finally and he generously shared the photos he took two days ago.

Jerome with Expo promotions

He, together with the rest of the remaining filipinos working on the exhibit, left Taipei a little past midnight and arrived in Manila just before dawn.  

Tomorrow, a new set of designers would be leaving to work on the indoor exhibit competition.

For now, just enjoy some of the shots of the Philippine Exhibit that Jerome shared with me this morning.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is the bell tower so let us take time to look at it from several angles.

The back of the bell tower as seen inside the exhibit

Front view of the bell tower

The bell tower as you enter the main exhibit entrance

The pictures whose captions are highlighted in green were taken by Enteng, our interpreter who took them October 28.  They were shot a little farther from the subject as compared to the ones with yellow highlighted captions, and thus afforded us a wider view of the individual windows as well as the bell tower.  Hopefully, the addition will increase our appreciation of the work done by the team lead by Baby Spowart, her son Mark, designers Kelvin Manubay, Tony Padilla, CV Lazaro, Tata Montilla, Cyrus, Jerome and myself plus a whole lot of others who worked on the exhibit that the photos captured.

A shot that gives a wider view of the belltower

Entrance to the exhibit

The individual window exhibits were created with slight differences from each other.  The six windows below show a wealth of props that were sourced in Manila. They also feature a number of garden ideas as well as the variations a tropical garden may take.

Underground River, Palawan window

Palawan Underground River window, long shot

Boracay Island window

Boracay window, long shot

Banawe Rice Terraces window

Banawe Rice Terraces window, long shot

Mayon Volcano, Bicol Region window

Mayon Volcano window, long shot

Chocolate Hills, Bohol window

Chocolate Hills window, long shot

Vigan, Ilocos Region window

Vigan window, long shot

Due to quarantine regulations, most of the plant materials were sourced from Taipei, with only the bromeliads flown in from the Philippines.  However, since the weather in Taipei is similar to certain parts of our country, one can expect to see the same plants in most filipino gardens.

This exhibit should help showcase the creativity of filipino garden designers as they create side by side with their counterparts from different parts of the world given the constraints under which they have to work.  

Given the millions of visitors that are expected to visit the expo in the next six months, hopefully, it could create considerable interest in the beauty that our  country can offer so that these visitors would want to personally visit and experience the Philippines.