What? Rain?

Hurricane Gustav threatens he Southern part of Louisiana, especially the Katrina-stricken city of New Orleans. They’re on alert for evacuation over the weekend since Gustav is expected to landfall early Tuesday next week.

Now, my sister and her husband are driving from Florida to spend Labor Day with me..and you guessed it. We’re booked at a hotel in New Orleans this weekend! We’re supposed to spend Saturday night there and go back here to Baton Rouge (where it’s safer) on Sunday afternoon. We talked so much about doing Bourbon St. and French Quarter like crazy!

Having grew up in the Philippines and witnessed so many typhoon tragedy, I feel like going to New Orleans this weekend is pretty safe since it’s not expected to come this Saturday. But people who knows we’re heading to New Orleans thinks we’re mad!

I’m not bothered about the rain and the wind..hey, I grew up in an island that’s being hit by typhoon all year round! I’m fine with rains..what’s not fine though is the authorities in New Orleans would probably be evacuating the locals there so my guess is: roads leading there would most likely be closed..and I would hate that!

But my sister is already on her way here as of this time so heck, Gustav or no Gustav, we’ll head South! (stop us if you can..hehe)

Good News

Some amazing things are happening in the Philippines. No kidding.

Some weeks ago, there were news of oil search in Palawan. The good (make that great!) news is that, Coron North promises 450 million barrels of oil! I’m not really surprised at this news, you know. I visited some museums when I was in Brunei last December. Most of these museums boast of Brunei’s wealth through oil. A map mounted on a wall in Muzium Brunei showed an oil path that goes directly to North of Palawan. I was told that there could be natural oil lurking in Palawan. It’s just too bad that this oil exploration happened years after so many Pinoys have already left the country for a greener pasture abroad. I just hope that crooks won’t lay a finger on this natural wealth..

Good news number 2: At looooooooooong last! NAIA Terminal 3 will open to public two weeks from now! Well, at least that’s what the news on TV said earlier tonight. Mr. Cusi, NAIA manager, said international flights will soon follow on this airport. NAIA employees hopped on a plane today to do a dry-run of the airport. Aside from aircon malfunction, non-working baggage conveyors and defective airport bridge and lifts, the $640M airport is all set and ready!

Dirty airport (picture taken by him) 

This is great news! The dark facade and old facilities of Terminal 1 are depressing right from the sky down to arrival extensions. An airport is the face of a country–a fresh, newly painted, bright and new airport speaks of a country that is promising. I can welcome any visitors in an airport like that! 

Terminal 3 Facade

Terminal 3—so bright and so new!

Favorite Places

(Not in order)

1. The Farm (San Benito, Batangas)- very serene ambiance. I’ll trade it for any Sonya’s garden in the world. They don’t have cable TV in their room (which I thought at first really sucked but after the trip, I really thought the TV will ruin the relaxed mood of the place), they have limited cell sites (no cell phones!) but they have a library with REAL books that the guests can borrow. Plus the place was really quiet in a beautiful way! Very Zen. You can choose to have a pampering massage under the sky…with candles lit. Very romantic if you will go with your partner. It was hard to locate, though. But the trip was worth it. Perfect getaway!

2. Divisoria (Manila). The haven for shopaholics. Perfect therapy! Haggling is sooo allowed! You can go with just P300 in your pocket and you can surely go home with so much goodies in your (plastic) bag!

3. Window of the World (Shenzhen, China). I was really dismayed when the tour guide said that the Window of the World “tour” included in our tour package only includes a picture taking at the ticket booth! That simply wouldn’t do. So the next day, a few hours before our flight back to Manila, we called our tour guide and asked her to buy us tickets so we could get inside the park. Surprised (many tourist were just content with the picture taking) but happy (commission!), she even accompanied us and looked after our bags! We were not disappointed. Inside were miniature replicas of historical and famous places around the globe such as Eiffel Tower, Pyramids of Giza, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Taj Mahal, and more! It was like going around the world in one day. If I wasn’t looking so bloated in our pictures, I would have posted some of our photos. Ha.Ha. Anyway, enjoy their pictures!

4. Gadong Night Market (Brunei). I was BORED in Brunei but surprisingly, Brunei is the place that I miss most. I like the simplicity of life there. Anyway, Gadong Night Market was fun! Food tripping there is so much fun! Although few shops sold clothes and bags, etc, it was fun getting busily acquianted with all the weird food they sold there.  There was a lot of kebabs, ABC, smoked squid and smoke! It’s true, the place was foggy and smoky. Which is good. Kinda like Divisoria. Plus, when I get too suffocated, I can always run to The Mall (same as Ayala malls in prestige but same as Ever Gotesco Grand Central in size) which is only a few meters away from the Night Market.

5. Mushroom Burger House (Tagaytay). Although there is a Mushroom Burger House in West Ave., I don’t really understand why I don’t enjoy eating burgers there as much as I enjoy eating in Tagaytay. Probably the ambiance. Anyway, whenever we would go to Tagaytay, Mushroom Burger house is definitely a pitstop! Not only are the burgers drool-material but they come cheap, too! Love that place!

6. Marcos Island (Hundred Island, Alaminos, Pangasinan). Mixture of awe and dread. The sand is fine and white, the shore isn’t too long, the crowd isn’t too big (about 3 more other fisherman), plus there’s a small hill that you can climb too if you feel like stretching those muscles a bit. On top, you’ll see a dark cave where bats live (eerie). Our tour guide asked us to if we want to go snorkling. He’ll charge us free. He offered to even take us “down there”, he was the expert…accroding to him. Down there? Thanks but no thanks! I’d rather not know what lurks underneathe!

7. Punta Baluarte (Calatagan, Batangas). They said they closed it down now. Too bad because I really liked their rooms. Modern yet far from being urban. Sad

8. “Books for Sale” (University of the Philippines, Diliman). Funny because the store has no name. It only has a dilapidated signage near the Shopping Center that says “Book for Sale” and an arrow pointing to this quaint little shop. Why I like it is because I always find bestselling books there at a price so cheap I always end up buying more than I planned! I found 3 of Fulghum’s books there (I’ve searched Book Sale, Powerbooks, NBS, etc and I’ve never seen a single copy of  his Uh-Oh and It Was On Fire…). I can get lost in that 30sq. m shop!

9. Intramuros (Manila). I’m a sucker for anything ancient so aside from museums, good ‘ol Intramuros is perfect! My college classmates and I would used to go down the barracks (where the sign clearly says NO ENTRY) and hide from the Guardia Civil. We tried not to get caught but it was hard with all the giggling and scrambling we made. Anyway, being in Intramuros is like being transported back to Maria Clara era. Noise pollution as an added attraction! 

10. NAIA Arrival (Pasay City). Need I say more?

 

Personal Summer Philosophy

I now know that one thing that I had to give up after getting married is blogging. It takes no genius to realize that I haven’t been blogging as much as I used to (and want to). But like an itch that wouldn’t go away, I guess I cannot live without telling the blogosphere what goes on in this little meat in my head called brain.

Aside from being asked to turn off the lights even before I could turn on the computer, I’ve been tied up with a lot of things. My relatives who came from abroad for the wedding have, one by one, left to go back to Canada. So, new hubby and I had been asked to do a lot of errands, go to the airport and attend little farewell parties. And then, after everybody has left…there goes my birthday. Yup, turned 28 last April 10.

Because that birthday was probably the last I’ll spend here in the Pinas, I wanted to treat the family into something different.  I made them choose which they like to do…to go swimming or to go to this theme park in Laguna. All expenses paid.

If you were to ask me, I hate swimming. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love to swim. But after an hour or so, boredom will start to set in and I would start wishing I was home and dry. There was a time, when I was a teenager, when swimming is the highlight of my summer vacation. Well, that was the time when walking around the pool in (what I know was) my skimpiest attire for all the boys to see was fun. Being married and a layer of belly fat after, swimming is totaaal boredom for me! And besides, to go swimming doesn’t really mean to go swimming. For instance, the resort I had in mind had a day swimming from 8am-5pm and a night swimming from 6pm-4am. Now, that’s a lot of swimming if you’ll ask me! Imagine yourself doing laps back and forth for 9 hours! Even Eric Buhain can’t do that! So, what people do is to stand there in the pool and bask in the scorching heat of the sun and get a tan (or cancer if you’ll ask me). Not fun at all. Night swimming? Same thing. The only difference is that in the absence of the sun for a tan (or cancer), people would stand there in the pool and would try (some, like me, successfully) to get a nap. A dry bed is much better.

So, it was obvious that I didn’t want to go swimming. I wanted to go to the theme park and get into those crazy and scary rides!  When I gave the options to my family, I was like, “Do you want to go swimming and get sunburned and develop cancer? Or would you like to go to the theme park and have fun and ride in those silly roller coasters and watch a concert and fireworks and see all those foobaz?”

Collectively they said…”SWIMMING!!!!!!!!!!!”

3 kids and 3 kids at heart versus 1. I had no choice but to pack my bathing suit and head for the resort.

My skin and hair are still dry from all those chlorine. I should have just forced them into the car and headed for Laguna. Hmp.

15 Minutes After

Ahhh..it’s good to be home. Back to blogging business.

Today’s sing along song: Home by Chris Daughtry