My wife left for the US on March 6th on Hawaiian Airlines because Hawaiian Airlines is cheaper than Philippine Airlines. What we discovered is that cheaper doesn't mean you get the same thing at a lower price.
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While my cousin (my wife's cousin is my cousin, if you know what I mean) Sean was visiting from the US last month, he asked me whether the old Subic Bay golf course was open. I put him off because I didn't know the answer and I didn't want to find out. He asked once and never again, probably because he had a lot of other things planned for his vacation. You see, I don't play golf. I never have (except for the Leaderboard Golf I played on a C64 years ago) and I never will.
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My wife, Josie, is considering a trip back to the US with money she saved for just that purpose. She normally travels using Philippine Airlines, but the current fares are averaging $1000 each for one-way trips from Manila to Phoenix, with more than one stop. I know there are cheaper flights than that. It turns out that Hawaiian Airline flights are at $766 right now, but going up in mid-March to $866. The only stop is in Honolulu, Hawaii.
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Near the end of our 25th wedding anniversary, my wife and I chose to eat dinner at the Xtremely Xpresso Cafe aboard the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. Since we went there late (but not quite as late as they remain open, which is until midnight), it wasn't overly crowded. Me, my son and a brother-in-law had previously eaten there on a mid-afternoon Saturday and it was overflowing with people on that occasion.
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I spent my entire Sunday at Crystal Beach in San Narciso, Zambales. I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, because I really don't care for going places when I have more important things to do. Since I value communication with my wife, however, I relented and attempted to enjoy myself despite a nasty head cold I've been trying to get over. I don't have a dog house to sleep in.
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For the past week, I've been suffering from a case of the doldrums. Yesterday was the first time I'd written anything in a week, anywhere (but not here). This morning, my spirit was lifted when my doorbell rang and a representative of Forex Cargo told me he had two packages to deliver. Filipinos call them balikbayan boxes and I don't think there's an American expression that quite conveys the same meaning. In this particular instance, I had a brother-in-law push them into a corner of the downstairs living room because I know there's nothing in either one intended for anyone but my own family.
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Being the curious type, I wanted to find out what people searched for in relation to the People's Republic of China, also known as just China or even PRC. I used "Google Insights for Search" to find out. It's an amazing tool, even though it isn't perfect (it only analyzes Google's search results — and there really ARE other search engines available). Anyway, I'm not going to tell you the criteria I used because that would just make you lazy. In my opinion, the results were astounding.
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One of the most annoying questions I've been asked during the last three years and some odd months is "Why are you living in the Philippines?" My answer is always something along the line of "because I can".
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I was going to start by giving a brief history of the Philippines, but I decided against it. The best way to learn about the Philippines is to read the Wikipedia article on the Philippines. What I'm going to do is to relate some of my own history and thoughts about the Philippines. Please be forewarned, if you're a regular reader, that I've deleted some old articles and recycled some of the information into this one.
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On September 24th, I took the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) to the Northern Luzon Expressway (NLEx) en route to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila in order to drop my wife off for her flight on Philippine Airlines.
As you can see if you click to enlarge the image, it starts at the Tipo Junction on SBMA (Subic Bay Management Authority, more properly titled Subic Bay Freeport Zone) and heads northeast to the Clark Economic Zone. The length of that stretch is about 50 kilometers (about 31 miles). The speed limit on the expressway is 100 kph (about 62 mph), so it only takes about a half hour to traverse.
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