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Been a long long time.. how are ya?

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

To all the readers (yes I can count with my one hand)…. I stopped writing a while back… so here’s a summary of where I’ve been since October ’07? After Jordan, I went to Syria, then to Turkey, to Iran, then back to Turkey all by land.  After Turkey, I flew to Dubai.. then to India.  I did some meditation and yoga there.  While in India, I got bad news and I had to go home for a family emergency which I did.  My flight home went like this – Kolkata-Bangkok-Tokyo-Los Angeles.. Yes, long long flight.  Stayed in LA for a bit, then used my return flight to Bangkok.  Missed my return flight since the line at the airport was really long.  I then got on another flight via Hong Kong.  I met up with couple good friend’s from LA in Thailand (this was suppose to happen back in January 08, but I didn’t get there until February).  Partied it up in Thailand for a month, then came to the Philippines.  Yes, I’ve been here in the Philippines since early March. 

I suppose I should start blogging again.  Why? Because while I was on an eight hour bangca ride from El Nido to Coron here in Palawan, water got in the luggage compartment.  Yes, my backpack got soaked… all my clothes wet. AND MY JOURNAL SOAKED.  Once I checked in my room, I had to rip all pages, yes all ten months worth of pages so that it won’t stick together.  Oh well.  It is what it is. 

 I’ll write about the Philippines, and I suppose what I have been up to lately and previously soon.  Stay put.  I’m back in this blogging business though. 

 Happy?

Seattle-Vancouver-NYC & Pics: End of North America…..

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

From the time I checked in my backpack in Los Angeles Airport from the time I received it in Seattle took approximately 24 hours. And, the time I got to LAX from the time I arrived in Seattle-Tacoma Airport took 16-hrs. Ahh!!! In between I lost more money in Vegas. At the end, it’s all good. Although I was furious with the airlines, I got to my final destination. With all the chaos getting to Seattle, I missed my Dad’s 55th birthday. We were supposed to celebrate it when I get there, but I got in the following day. I tried and it was not my fault.

This segment of my trip is with my family. My first day in Seattle, my parents, sister Mimilanie and I drove to Seattle’s famous Public Market. The place is very lovely. In the market, fresh flowers, fruits and vegetables, handicrafts are being sold. In addition, there were fishes being tossed in the air towards the person making the purchase. It was quite a show.

After we enjoyed our seafood lunch at the market overlooking the bay, we walked towards the monorail to go to Seattle Center where Space Needle and Experience the Music Project are located. I’ve always been scared of heights. I always believe to get over once fear, one must face it. That’s the reason I did skydiving. I thought my fear of heights is history, apparently not. The elevator ride to the observation deck took about 40-second (up 520-feet). Once on top, I braved going outside the observation deck. Even though my knees were shaking, I needed to see the 360-degree view. The view was stunning. From afar, I saw Mt. Rainier and its snowcaps, as well as Seattle’s skyscrapers looking like legos. What a view. While in the O-deck, we run into other relatives.

Experience the Music Project is a stone throw from the S-Needle. EMP is a museum made for music and its history. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft founded the project and the structure is designed by Frank Gehry. If you are a music lover, you will definitely appreciate EMP. Once you have passed through the lobby and into the museum, structure of hundreds of guitars welcome visitors. From there, you can indeed experience the music first hand. If you want to learn the history of guitar, prefer watching The Beatles old performances, or want to see Jimi Hendrix’s hand writing and his lyrics, or just want to make your own personal album EMP is the place to be. I was fortunate enough to come later in the day. I found out, live concerts are performed at night. As I exit the museum, jazz tunes vibrate though my ears.

To end our day in Seattle, and before we drive to Canada we opted to get freshly brewed coffee at the first Starbuck ever located at the public market. For some reason, Starbucks in Seattle is made stronger than what I normally get from other Starbucks. I suppose, Starbucks employees in this city cannot afford to mess up my coffee since they pride themselves with the name.

We started driving towards the Canadian side at around 8PM and the sun was barely setting. The sunset was impressive – Pacific Northwest’s green landscape highlighted by the setting sun and clear blue sky. It was perfection. It was really nice doing a road trip with my parents and my sister (though other sister is missing). It reminds me of the times when I was younger. Only difference – I was driving and my parents were in the backseat.

We arrived in Vancouver at 2AM since we made a bathroom break in one of the casinos along the way, and we got lost going to the hotel. Yes, that’s right I am staying in a hotel not a hostel mind you! At 2AM, Vancouver was asleep. The following day, we visited Capilano Suspension Bridge. Again, Heights and Me head to head. But I must cross the bridge. As the bridge sways back and fort as I go forward, I couldn’t look down what is below me. I held on the rail so tight my hands hurt afterwards. Mission accomplished. My mother, another person who is afraid of heights didn’t even cross the suspension bridge. At the end of the day, we were invited to eat dinner at my Mom’s first cousins house whom I have never met before. My family is already big, it seems like its getting bigger.

There are other cool things that we did and saw while in Vancouver such as Granville Island, Chinatown, Gas Town, Richmond Night Market to name some. However, the main purpose was for my parents to attend their High School reunion and picnic of my old town of Morong Rizal in the Philippines. Although I didn’t attend the formal dinner and dance event since I was not an alumni, I attended the picnic that was held at Stanley Park. It was really awesome to see and reintroduce myself to my nursery school teacher and my 5th grade teacher (yes they were alumni of the same school my parents attended).

After our 5-day stay in Vancouver we headed back to Seattle. Me and my sister will go to New York, and my parents, other sister Hershey, brother in-law Alfred, and beautiful niece Amanda will go back to Los Angeles. It was sad saying good bye to them. I probably won’t see them until next year when I return home (when I’m ready).

I arrived in NYC via Denver on August 8, 2007. Rain and humid weather welcome me to the big apple. It was almost disgusting. I took the bus to my sister’s apartment in Elmhurst at 7AM. I was so beat, right when she left for work I passed out until 2 in the afternoon.

I’ve been to New York few times and have done the touristy stuff. Hence, main purpose is to hang out with my sister and to meet up with some friends. I did one touristy stuff which was visiting to the Metropolitan Museum since I know it’s $1 to get in (donation or pay full price of $15 – I made $1 donation!) Every night I meet my sister in the city after her work for dinner. This past weekend, I met up with my friend Chester, Toi, David and their friends to party. I got so trashed one night I keep passing out in the train on my way to my sister’s apartment. The ride that normally takes 30 minutes took over 3-hours. I kept going back and forth. After I finally made it to my stop, my stomach started to feel funny and started vomiting. Yuck, at 6:45AM, people who were already going on with their busy day have to pass by the vomiting traveler. Good Morning!!!! The following day, me and my sister were invited to have dinner at our Aunt’s house. Ah, I will definitely miss good Filipino food…

Shoutout to my sister Mimilanie for welcoming me to her apartment, and being such a nice host. And to friend Chester, David and Toi for hanging out with me in NY. Thanks.

Anyways, it’s been a long post. If you made it this far, I have a treat for you. I loaded my Seattle-Vancouver-NYC photos. Here is the link:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtXLNq1cMWE6

I leave for Europe later tonight. First stop is London. Since I’ve been to London numerous times, I decided to leave for Amsterdam the following day. From the Netherlands I will go to Germany then to Spain. That’s as far as my itinerary goes. My itinerary is still not final. I will decide as I go. Everything is tentative. My new found motto in life, “Relax.. it’s not a race…”

Los Angeles: My Sister Didn’t Kill Me…

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
I came back to the sunny Los Angeles late Thursday night 7/26 via Houston from Cozumel, Mexico. Before I started my trip, I asked my eldest sister Hershey if it would be okay if I am not home for my ... [Continue reading this entry]