Trip Report Day 3 - D-day for Abi in HKFBF 2014 (prejudging)

This is the day of Abi's first competition abroad, and there's no better stage to display the product of her long training and dedication than in the Hong Kong stage. As I  mentioned on the previous entries of this blog, the Hong Kong stage is the best platform for any bodybuilder, physique, bikini or fitness athlete bar none. The lighting is good, the stage is big, the emcees are professional, it's just a good overall package. But enough of the venue.

In the morning of the prejudging, I saw Abi in the sofa trying to relax. The food has already been cooked, and Abi has been colored.  So I don't know how early they woke up, or if they have every slept the night before.  I hurriedly prepared myself before we went to the venue. All this while coach Dondon was still continuously texting/messaging Abi. In hindsight, i think it would have been easier if we just stationed a laptop in the living room and turned on skype so he can see what's happening in the apartment - a virtual big brother.

While me, Reysan, Ricci and Martin were having breakfast, Momo was touching up Abi's face makeup. I recall she started with some cream last night, so this morning is the real work. Yesterday, Ricci and Abi found a salon that can do her hair and makeup, but it opens at 930. We needed to be in the venue by 11am so it won't work, and decided that Abi does her hair herself.



At this time, the sweet potato that John Ama brought was almost finished. So Jacques and Joseph decided to stay home to buy and cook more sweet potato for the continuous carbo loading that the two would need. They will come to the venue to support Abi at the same time bringing these sweet spuds later that morning.


So off we went to find a taxi to the venue. Some taxis in Hong Kong are not fluent in English and telling them that you want to go to KITEC will just return a blank expression. Good thing I bought a Hong Kong SIM with mobile data, I was able to show the website in Chinese. When we arrived at KITEC, we found a few athletes already waiting outside the hall. Instead of waiting there, we decided to get comfy in a coffee place to have Abi suitably cooled relaxed while waiting. We found a cold spot for her while we had coffee and juice and chit chat with the other athletes that is also waiting for the Hall to open.

When they finally opened the Hall, some people preferred to wait outside as the air conditioner has just been turned on in the Hall and was still quite warm. Around 12.30pm, the instruction to the ladies has been given and some rehearsals for the athletes entrance was given. After 30 minutes, the prejudging started.

The lineup for Abi's category - women's physique under 160cm consists of a very impressive though diverse lineup. There were around 10 contestants in the lineup. You have the usual women's physique that you see in the Arnold's Amateur coming from the Singapore representative and Abi. You see a Women's Figure like body of the Taiwan representative, who incidentally has won this HK title more than 3 times. Then you have Jacky Sweet, who despite being muscled, still retains her feminine form. Then there are those who can be mistakenly thought to compete in the bikini category, but with a bit more muscle definition.


The prejudging happened without a hitch for Abi. Everything worked as plan. At least from what I was seeing. All compulsory poses were done as practiced. They stick to the 4 compulsory vs. the 7 that is done by the men. Her abs, back, hamstrings, biceps and tricips were all present and accounted for on stage. I don't recall any callouts in the prejudging after the 2 sets of contestants (5 each round) were called. I guess the judges pretty much made their decision.

to be continued...

Trip Report Day 2 - Weigh in for HKFBF 2014

After our first night in Hong Kong, today is the scheduled weigh in. When I woke up, I found the guys already in our sala/dining area. Reysan has already cooked the sweet potato from last night, along with broccoli, fish and chicken using the newly bought non-stick skillet as the one that came with the apartment wasn't too non-stick. Most of these are meant for "baon" in the hotel as we won't know how long the weigh in will last.

Before we went off to Panda Hotel for the weigh in, Joseph measured his weight with a weigh scale he brought from Manila to ensure he is within his target weight. This is essential as you have to be within your weight range otherwise you will be given 30 minutes to reweigh, and that time will be very stressful if you need to remove that last ounce of water weight.

We arrived via taxi in the hotel at the appointed time as no one want to risk being disqualified just because of being late. We stayed a few minutes in the lobby waiting for the organizers to call everyone for the weigh in to start. During that time we saw a few IFBB celebrity. Finally after half an hour, they finally called people inside a room.

When I went inside the room, I found the official photographers were already inside and has setup their black background for the initial weigh in photos. I greeted HKFBF president Hugo Chan inside, and got my media pass from the folks manning the table. Found some few familiar faces as well, Stevenson from JRGC, one of the official media and Yan Wei.

There was a neatly arranged chairs for athletes to wait outside the room for their turn. But before the weigh in IFBB President Dr Rafael Santonja called all the athletes to give a speech and explain IFBB. After the short speech, Judges Committee Chairman Pawel Filiborn conducted a judges seminar on the other room. I was not in that seminar but Nicky Tsai of PLBF attended it.

And so, one by one, the athletes came in to be weighed and their height measured. I stayed until everyone was finished as I need to shoot everyone while the rest of the my flat mates went back to the apartment after they had finished. After the photo shoot I noticed there were still guys around. I learned how some were not happy with the hotels that they've booked. This is a very real risk when booking a hotel that you've never really been to. So take care and read the reviews thoroughly before booking a hotel through the net. Hong Kong is a very metropolitan city, so if you get a budget hotel you won't believe how much some of these hotel/hostel/guest house operators will cut corners.

On the way home, we went to Tsuen Wan MTR station. This is actually further from the hotel than Tai Wo Hau, but they found a more affordable sushi place than what they found in the local grocery store. So off we went in the winding footbridge that spans across buildings. Think of Tutuban mall that is connected in the scale of Glorietta. Then we finally found the station and the sushi place aptly called Sushi to Go.

And in the usual bodybuilder fashion, pinakyaw ang salmon sushi that they even got fresh made ones from the back. Needless to say the staff were pretty happy of the good sale they had that day. There was a promo of a free Coke for every 50HKD, so it was a pretty good deal. The name on the Coke cans was Gag, which is a weird name even for HK.

So off we went to the MTR each of us had a plastic bag of sushi plus the free coke. Me, Aze and Jivan dropped off at Jordan station while Jayzel, Jerome and Arwell went further on to Causeway bay. When I was about to exit the Jordan station, lo and behold a familiar sight. Pinoys lost in Hong Kong - Ricci and Martin were in the station confused on which exit to use to get back to our apartment. For those new to HK, each station has at least 6 exits which leads to very different neighborhoods. This is how they manage the human traffic that goes through the station everyday, but serves as a confusing labyrinth to unsuspecting tourists.

After we got out of the right exit, it took about 20 minutes walk to reach our apartment. So I had my round of cardio for that day. I even think this was a fasted cardio as I had skipped lunch as well. So after we've arrived at the apartment. 2 packs of sushi was gone in 5 minutes. :)

After some rest I processed and uploaded the weigh in photos in the musclepinoy facebook page here ->  Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4. Thanks to the good backdrop, there was minimal post processing done, so this very rare same day edit was achieved. By this time, Reysan was already putting a few coats of tanning solution on Abi and Joseph. During that time Jacques was out buying foods for tomorrows meal.

Later that night, a few message from coach Dondon to see Abi's condition and some last minute instructions for tomorrow's competition. Abi practiced a few of the mandatory poses and received some tips and suggestion on what can be improved from both Reysan and Joseph.

Above is a picture of the two discussing how to better show the hamstrings. While this was happening, Ricci was out buying dinner for us mortals.

We see a single person on stage, triumphant or defeated, but the truth is there's a whole bunch of people in the background that  tirelessly support to have that person ready for the stage.

to be continued...

Trip Report Day 1 - Arrival for HKFBF 2014

Before I forget what transpired in the historic moment for Philippine bodybuilding, let me record down the days running up to that unforgettable episode.

Aside from the bodybuilders who really planned to compete, a couple of people were "accidentally" forced to witness the history in the making event. I was unaware for the need of a return ticket when travelling out of the Philippines as a tourist, so had to book a ticket on the spot in the airport for a next leg of my trip to be able to depart out of Manila. Reysan was also chosen the last minute because coach Dondon had commitments that came up and thus cannot make it to Hong Kong.

As Jacques and Joseph has had prior experience in competing in Hong Kong, they were aware of the importance of a kitchen in the run up to the competition. Jacques searched for an apartment  and found one that could comfortably fit all of us. We were 8 in the group, Reysan,  Jacques, Joseph, Momo, Abi, Martin Ricci and me. For those of you who believe in Chinese astrology, I guess yes it did bring some luck as all the competitors brought home medals.

As we bought our tickets separately, and coming from different countries, we arrived in Hong Kong at different times. Reysan arrived first, taking the first flight out of Manila that Sunday morning. He waited for the others in the airport. The instruction was to wait in burger king, but since he couldn't find it, he waited in the next best thing - McDonalds. :)

The next group to arrive was Joseph, Jacques, Abi, Ricci and Martin. They met a few other Filipino that will be competing  in their fligh, including John Rey Prado, to Hong Kong. Also in the flight was Nicky Tsai of Ensayo Gym, and who is also a PLBF official that represented organization in the event. He also attended the IFBB Judges seminar while in Hong Kong.

After they found Reysan, they took the airport bus to Panda Hotel for the registration. They were assisted by Nelson Condez who facilitated the registration for the pinoy athletes in the event. They waited for Momo in the hotel and went back together to check-in the apartment. I arrived later that afternoon, and after getting lost due to the wrong information, I finally found them in our temporary home in Hong Kong.

The apartment building is huge, but was under construction. It looks like one of those buildings used in the typical stunt scenes in a Jacky Chan movie with bamboo scaffolding and netting to protect from falling debris. The interior of the apartment though was clean and functional. We had to thank Jacky Sweet, who lent us a rice cooker to cook the rice, sweet potato and pasta for the carbo loading of the Abi and Joseph.

After a few hours rest, the 3 decided to do their final workout before the competition, so we searched for a gym. The nearest ones seems to be in California Fitness Mongkok. It was a challenge to converse with the taxi drivers we had. Don't know if it was illegal to drop us at that location because both our taxi dropped us at some walking distance from the actual building.

We met a few pinoys at the gym. John Ama brought some sweet potatoes for Joseph and Abi, and Aze Cruz who was also competing. So while the 3 were doing their workout and Reysan assisting them in the gym (yes they need assistance as don't have their strength due to their zero carb protocol), the four of us went to dinner. Nom nom nom nom :)

To be continued...