Journaling & Field Notes

Document a Day in Marikina: A Field Notes Itinerary

One notebook, one day, five stops. A slow Marikina itinerary built for writing things down: river, breakfast, shoes, coffee and a studio afternoon.

This is a day plan for people who would like to remember their day. Bring a notebook. The Marikina Field Notes was made for this, but any notebook will do.

Stop 1: The river, early

Start at Marikina River Park while it is still cool. Walk for twenty minutes, then sit down and write three lines: what the water looks like, who is exercising, what you can hear. Page one, done.

Stop 2: Breakfast

Find a bakery or a breakfast spot nearby. Write down exactly what you ordered and what it cost. Tape in the receipt if you have tape.

Stop 3: Shoes

Marikina is the shoe capital of the Philippines, and you can see why along the older streets. Visit the Shoe Museum or simply window-shop. Pick one pair and describe it as if it were a person. This is usually the funniest page.

Stop 4: Coffee, properly

Now the main event. Choose a café from the Marikina coffee shop directory, or follow its café hopping itinerary if you want two or three stops. Not sure what to order? See the best coffee drinks in Marikina, ranked. Give the café a full page using our coffee journal method.

Stop 5: A studio afternoon

End somewhere you can spread out. If you have arranged a visit, come by our home studio, add colour to the pages you wrote, glue in what you collected, and look at the Rizal mountains from the window nook. Visits are by message, so ask us first.

Before bed

Write one last line: what you noticed today that you would normally have missed.