This is the end of Book I. I would like to close with some final thoughts on my journey here before switching to web based blogging for Book II. I really wish I had a camera to capture the kind of snow fall that is happening outside right now. It would be a perfect picture for this post.

I have completed an entire week of training and working out with Victor. My whole body is sore. Of course, I keep this fact from Jerry, because if she were to know that she would surely torture me to know end, squeezing or hitting my sore muscles. She remembers well how sore she was when she first started training with Victor, and was hoping I would be in the same boat. Since she's been through it all, though, she is really good about helping stick to the routine and diet. Victor has me doing seven days of no carbs and the results so far are pretty amazing. If you have ever been into Atkins type of thinking, you should try it the Asian way. I think you would have a totally different perspective.

After training, where Jerry actually goes to golf practice while me and Victor work out in the gym, we usually eat at Victor's mother's restaurant and then go back to the house where Sally and Sunbin are usually still asleep. Me and Jerry usually then prepare to go out about town searching for work. She wants a part time job to save money for a possible trip to Australia. Her plan was originally to go in two months, then it changed to three months, but now she may not go at all. Who knows? Victor and Sally, though, may be going much sooner than planned, even as soon as two weeks from now.

Anyway, I am concerned about Jerry's mindset as far as finding a job is concerned. We went out one day and found her a part time job at a convenience store. The lady there really liked here and asked her back for an interview at 4:00 PM. With time on her hands we went to see her friend Chi-iung. Unfortunately she forgot her telephone number so we had to go to her mother's restaurant to get it. She lives in walking distance from the restaurant so it wasn't an issue. On the phone, Jerry was instructed to the location of Chi-iung's secret stash, which included two types of cigarettes and a couple of cigars hidden in an electric box, and told to bring it to Chi-iung. So we walked to Chi-iung's place and she proceeded to yell at Jerry for being late. Jerry was almost in tears. The real sad thing, though, is that she chose to skip her "sure thing" job interview and stay with Chi-iung.

So we walked down the street and met two other friends. Jerry and her friends all have similar names. Jerry is actually Ju-young, then there's Chi-iung, then we met Chi-yong and finally Kai-young. With each friend we met Chi-iung told the story of how Jerry forgot her number and thus we were late, making everyone mad at her. After everyone took their turns hitting Jerry and making fun of her, we all went to a pool hall to play some billiards. We chose teams by some weird rock, paper, scissors variation and it ended up to be me and Chi-yong against Jerry and Chi-iung, who is called Kobi by her friends, and I shall now use that too since I am tired of writing these names.

Now, Kobi is very good at playing pool, even doing behind the back shots. Jerry had never played before so that balanced things out. I don't entirely suck, but am not good, and Chi-yong was only a bit better than me. We lost most games and, in fact, the only games we won was because Jerry or Kobi accidently hit the 8 ball in the hole. The thing is, Kobi can be loud and obnoxious, but in a way that is funny. Still, it annoyed the hell out of Chi-yong, who I am sure had soon given up on the game. I think the fact that the loser was to pay is the only thing that kept her going. Still, she vanished quickly after the game was done, even though the rest of us went to Karaoke.

After Karaoke, me Jerry got back on the bus to go home. Jerry was clearly unhappy with the day, and regretted missing her job interview only to be annoyed by her friends. I suspect she may not want to meet them again, or if she does, it will be after a long time. She's known these girls since middle school and says that Kobi has always been like that, especially to Chi-yong, always pissing her off until she runs away.

The next day me and Jerry went back to the store, after working out and what not, and she apologized profusely for being late and, I guess, made up a good story for it. The lady told her that the plan was for her to do the interview and then she would be working that day! She had already chosen another student, but said that the girl looked like a fox and Jerry had a much more trustworthy face, so she really wanted Jerry. She said she would call her. Unfortunately, yesterday, the call never came. Now the New Years Holidays begin and pretty much everything will be shut down for a week or so.

I guess that makes this a good time to shut down Book I as well. Things didn't go exactly as planned, and I will be starting Book II on a subject I wasn't expecting to, but then if everything went as planned, it wouldn't be an adventure! Please visit Book II.

One of the things I've noticed is how everyone here in Korea uses entirely web based, or internet based, tools for their online life. For example, many Koreans, it seems, build their homepage on a service called Nate On, which also has a fully featured chat tool similar to Skype or ICQ, but all in Korean language. They also use, for email, a service called hanmail.net, which I am surprised my friend Anthony Han doesn't use, since it would make for a cool address for him. Even many games they play, they never need to store locally, but unpack them from the web at runtime and simply play online. Korea has the fastest internet in the world after all. A full HD movie can be downloaded in just a few minutes, and, on top of that, their media players allow one to start playing the video as soon as the download begins.

Anyway, I am going to start making the switch to all web based tools myself. The problem I have faced since I began traveling is that my website is created in a tool called Rapid Weaver, which runs on my MAC in OS X, and everything is stored locally. I also access all of my email accounts through Mac Mail or on my iPhone which is usually synced to my laptop. Either way, this requires me to find an internet connection, usually wireless, that works on this laptop, on which I am now typing, or on my iPhone, which has a much weaker WIFI ability. WIFI is not as prominent as I expected it to be here, and when I do find it, it is dreadfully slow for me. I asked the reason for this and was told that because wired connections are so fast, reaching true gigabit speeds here, few are interested in slow WIFI. Even many internet cafes don't have it. They expect you would want to use one of the computers already there and have full speed access. This leaves me primarily with the coffee shops which are a bother.

If, however, I used web based tools, like my friends here do, I would pretty much have access anywhere I go. The computer here where I stay has a connection so fast I can download an HD quicktime trailer in a few seconds. There are PC rooms on every corner with super fast connections. What I want to do basically is eliminate the need to use this particular Mac to do all my stuff. I will be able to use any computer I come across. Since I am getting rid of this Mac pretty soon, that only adds to my reason.

I already have a gmail account, but may make another web based mail account specific to this site. The real key is this website, which I am currently thinking to switch to an online tool like Blogger to continue. It would be easier to access and update anywhere and anytime, regardless of what computer I am on. Of course, this doesn't apply in any country into which one might travel. I have heard that in the Philippines, though internet cafes are numerous, many have keyboard mappers or hidden cameras and will steal your passwords and personal information. I have come across a few stories of people who had their bank accounts supposedly cleaned out after accessing them from an internet cafe. Whether true or not, I would never attempt such a thing anyway.

So this weekend, I may be starting book two of this adventure a little sooner than planned, and it will be started on an online web building tool like Blogger. I will also find a good web based email service on which to create an email account for this site.

After two months of traveling and eating who knows what, Victor has been getting out of shape. Even though in his mother's restaurant there are many trophies proving his champion bodybuilder status, he doesn't look it right now. Since being in the Philippines I have lost a ton of weight and slimmed down to where I can where 36" or even 34" waist pants. I still retain a little muscle from the old days of bodybuilding with my brother, but I am pretty soft. The potential, though, is there and obvious. Me and Victor often talked about seriously training together while in the Philippines. Today we actually began.

This morning we woke up early, around 7:30 AM and headed out while everyone else slept. Jerry was supposed to go with us and be dropped off at the driving range to practice her golf, but she was still asleep. Me and Victor went to a the place where he apparently always starts his training. This wasn't some fancy Bally's type fitness center, this was a real bodybuilding gym. Pictures on the wall were huge guys like Arnold Schwartzenegger and Mike Christian and Ronny Coleman. There was plenty of free weights and not a bunch of bourgeois machines. The place was old a dusty like a gym should be. I forgot to bring my training shoes which we bought yesterday at the fake $1 shoe sale, but me and victor wear the same sizes on most things and I often wear his clothes and shoes. He seemed pretty at home in this gym and had extra shoes, gloves and a weight belt.

We trained for, it seemed, two hours or more working only back and shoulders. We did some abs work in the end too. I don't even want to think about how sore I am going to be tomorrow. It's going to suck and I know that if Jerry finds out I am sore, she will torture me all day. We spent about 30 minutes on the treadmill to wrap things up, then looked at some Muscle & Fitness magazines for inspiration.

When we left we trekked off to Victor's mother's restaurant. We ate a huge pork rib soup with kim chi and vegetables. She also gave us some sweet plum tea and soju for later. Victor's mother is extremely nice and always seems to be concerned about how I am doing. She is very generous and I have received much food, new clothes and other gifts thanks to her and Victor. I am extremely grateful to have met such people and have friends like this as I sojourn in a foreign land.

After that mega meal, me and Victor are full, but Sally and Jerry are eating an awesome mixed meat soup with ham, sausage and noodles, from their mother's restaurant. (There are a lot of restaurants here such that you would think every family owns at least one) After that we are supposedly going out again for a day on the town. Who knows what adventures we will encounter next. I might even find some WIFI so I can post this!

I've been here in Korea for almost two weeks now and I thought it was high time I started learning how to move around. Unlike Cebu City in the Philippines, you can't take a taxi anywhere for a buck. Here they cost anywhere from $4 to $10 depending on where you're going. The easiest way to get about is the bus. It's also the cheapest at less than a dollar per ride. Of course, learning the bus system is another matter. Even though I have learned the Korean alphabet, reading it with any kind of speed or understanding is a completely different level of skill. If a bus were approaching me, it's questionable I could read the words on it fast enough to know if I need to take it or not. Luckily, Jerry was with me, as we also planned to visit some friends of hers.

I still don't have internet access, and though WIFI is very prevalent, many are locked or require payment to use. Earlier that morning, me and Victor went to an open market were they were allegedly having a $1 shoe sale, though it turned out to be a marketing ploy, and I did find usable WIFI at that place. I guess if I needed to really bad, I could walk over there with my iPhone and check mail or something. Still, on the whole, this means the best way to access WIFI is still a coffee shop. Last week, when me and Jerry were walking about town, we found just such a shop and yesterday I decided I wanted to go there again before we went off to meet Jerry's friends.

Me and Jerry trekked off to the nearest bus stop, and this time I remembered the location of things and found recognizable signs I would not soon forget. We took a bus to Yong Tong area and got off right across the street from Holly's Coffee, the place we had been to a week before. To get there, though, we would have to cross this huge and busy street. Surprisingly, the way to cross it was a very large bridge. From a distance, it looked like a simple walkway to get across the road, but once we climbed the stairs to the bridge, it turned out to be more like a nice sized park. It is even called a park. It is very wide and on either end has circles with some kind of modern art pieces in them. The view of Yong Tong from there is amazing. I can't imagine how cool it must be at night with all the lights, video screens and signs. It certainly made me wish I had a camera.

In the coffee shop I was able to check mail and upload the previous post to the website, but we were running late to meet Jerry's friend who apparently said that if we don't get there on time, we don't eat. Since we were going to be eating free, we definitely didn't want that to happen. We got back on the bus and went off to the restaurant where we met her friend Chi-iung. There we ate an awesome chicken soup and something like pork cutlets which we wrapped in lettuce along with spicy kim chee or other vegetables. Though the girl's father, owner of the restaurant was there, she secretly got us some "tong tong ju", which I guess is a type of wine. It is similar in taste to Japanese sake, but sweeter and thicker, not being clear. It was very good. Many of the drinks I encounter here are good. Victor's mother gave me a bottle of rasberry wine the other day which was absolutely amazing.

Two other girls eventually showed up and they seemed to go crazy over me. I guess foreigners are more rare here as opposed to in Seoul, the capital city where they are common. They, of course, wanted to touch my hair and ask me many questions through Jerry translating. One girl even told me she loved me three or four times. She also hugged me when she left. After eating and drinking, Jerry's friend got a break, I guess, and we went outside where we met another friend from their school. It was dark now. Being students, who have to keep up an appropriate image, we went into a small alley where Jerry's friend could smoke without being seen. After that we went to a small video game arcade and played and sang some karaoke on the machine there.

All of Jerry's friends were shocked by how different she was. Traveling, especially overseas, changes people. When you experience a new culture or learn a new language you cannot come back the same. One her friends even said she seemed like a totally different person. In the past I guess she never studied and was not a good student, but now they witnessed her really speaking English and hanging out with me, which must be the furthest thing from whatever they might have imagined. Both Sally and Jerry have commented on a strange lack of desire to meet their old friends. They have become different, even after such a short time abroad, and feel that they may not relate to them anymore. Jerry's friend wants us to meet again today and go somewhere, but Jerry feels like it would be a bother or just plain boring.

After leaving her friend, me and Jerry went to Dunkin Donuts and then finally to a small soft ice cream stand. We sat and talked in another coffee shop. All of this was in walking distance from where we were. In the end we got back on another bus, in front of Holly's Coffee again, and went back home. It was empty though. We sat on the computer for a short time before Victor, Sally and Sunbin came home. They were at the PC Room, which I will write about in detail another day. I've been there many times already. Finally Mother and Father came home and we all sat around talking and finished off that bottle of rasberry wine I was given the day before.

Jerry and Sally often joked about kidnapping me and taking me back to Korea with them. Little did I know they were actually more serious than I thought. Granted, they didn't stuff me in their luggage as they claimed, but, along with Victor, they helped me take care of all necessary visa issues in the Philippines and got me a plane ticket on the same ride with them. I am now in Korea staying with them and their family. Unlike the Philippines, it is cold here.

It's been a long time since I posted, partly due to lack of an internet connection, which I still don't have, so I don't know when I will actually post what I am writing now, and a lot has happened in that month, so I will try to give a short version here. As time went on from the last post, I began spending more and more time with Jerry, Sally and Victor. Eventually I found myself just staying with them full time, pretty much never returning to my room. We mostly relaxed, played drinking games and did things similar to those mentioned in previous posts.

New Years was a huge huge deal in the Philippines. I have never seen so many fireworks and so huge a crowd in my life. It was beyond festive and the streets were filled with smoke like a thick fog from all the fireworks. There were the huge professional shows and even regular people shooting off fireworks they bought on the street. Even we bought a few fireworks and shot them off. We also played the biggest drinking games of our lives, including a type of strip poker, and all got more drunk than any humans should. We figured this was the end of a year and that we wouldn't be able to do anything like this again, especially in Korea, where they live with their parents, so why not go all out?

Although they originally had different plans, such as Jerry and Sally's brother Sumbin coming to visit along with her best friend Chi Hi, things didn't quite work out. Chi Hi's parents had heard too many bad things about the Philippines and wouldn't let her go. Sumbin couldn't travel alone, being only 13 or 14, and so that plan was squashed. Having spent more money than planned, it also seemed their original goal of going to Australia from the Philippines was unlikely. Jerry also couldn't get all the necessary paperwork to go with them. So all decided to go back to Korea, build up more money there, and then see what happens. With that, the idea was the sooner to get back in Korea, the better, and I was supposedly going with them.

Plans and desires to leave were accelerated by their camera, from which these pictures come (there are more in the gallery), being stolen, by a guy I know well no less. At first we thought it was simply lost in the mess of a room where we stayed, but then Victor asked to see the hotel security cameras from the previous night and sure enough, there was a video of one of the receptionists leaving the front desk, walking around suspiciously and then going to the hallway near our room and shutting off all the lights. The video is all black for a while and then the lights come on and he goes back to his desk. The owner of the hotel saw the video and apparently went to the guy and got the camera back. Unfortunately, all the pictures of their nearly two months adventuring in the Philippines, and all the pictures and videos of our silly penalty games, where the loser would, for example, wear crazy make up and clothes and go the store and buy something, had been erased. He had even changed the camera OS to English, clearly with a plan to sell it.

After this, things became very uncomfortable. We didn't feel good about staying there anymore. Little things seemed suspicious. One time I came from my room to visit them, and one of guards actually asked the taxi driver where he picked me up. Another time, as I was leaving, the guard held the door and asked where I am going. I made up a place and then later told the taxi driver my real destination after we were on the road. Sally also reported similar strange incidents. We decided we needed to make ourselves scarce, especially since we had some big days ahead where we would all be out of the room, leaving all our stuff unattended.



On a previous day, me and Jerry we out and about and happened to be picked up this taxi who had a nice minivan. We got his number that day and we remembered it, so we called him and, in the middle of the night, loaded all our stuff into the van and headed to another hotel, some place close to the comfortable Ayala. This hotel was awesome, more like a nice apartment really. It even had a nice kitchen. Me and Victor though that if we were ever to come back to the Philippines, especially without the girls, we would just stay in a place like this. They are guest friendly.





Like a blur the last two days in the Philippines flew by. After arriving in the new hotel, it was only a few hours until morning and me and Jerry were off to the immigration office to take care of my visa issues while Sally and Victor went to take care of tickets and stuff. Since I had been there over six months, I actually had to get "exit clearance" to leave the Philippines. That day was an adventure in itself, which I will relate at a later time. We never thought it was possible a few days before, but everything fell into place and were going to be going to Korea the next day. The last hurdle was that I had to pick up my ticket, since it was new, and I had to be there by 11:00 AM. The place was far far away in a resort called Plantation Bay.



The next day we made it, at the last minute of course, to Plantation Bay to pick up my ticket. The others only had to change the date of their tickets so they didn't need to do anything special. I called another minivan taxi whose number I had saved, since the guy we used the day before didn't show up, and off we went. Before long, we were actually relaxing in the airport ready to head off to Korea for real. The flight to Korea was short and the plane was mostly empty. Me and Jerry sat together talking, writing or drawing and Sally and Victor moved to another part of the plane and slept. When we arrived in Korea, Victor's father picked us up in his awesome Lexus with multiple navigation and LCD screens and we sped to town. His father has apparently won bodybuilding competitions in his age class too. We was wearing suit, but you could still see he had some thickness to him.

Now I am staying with Jerry and Sally, their mother and father and their brother Sumbin. Victor lives just down the street, but is pretty much always here too. He even sleeps here most nights. Korea is a totally different world from the Philippines, but surprisingly, many things are still just as cheap, and some cheaper. The quality, though, is in an entirely different league. It also boasts the fastest internet in the world. Victor says the internet here in Sally's place is slow, but I can still download an HD trailer from the apple site in a few seconds. I am told one can download a full HD movie in 3 to 5 minutes. I don't have my own camera yet, but will likely get one soon, or a cell phone with an awesome camera. I don't know how the iPhone will ever survive here. They have many touch screen phones, with full video both out and pointing in so you can video chat!

I can already read a bit of Korean and am learning to speak it pretty quick. I will begin relating my Korean adventures soon, especially when I have my own internet connection. For now, though, it's coffee shops and internet cafes.

On Tuesday, Sally and Victor were up and around and, having heard of the goodies me and Jerry experienced in Bo's Coffee Club, had to try it for themselves. They called me to meet them there and so off I went. The plan was to go to Minglanilla, way out in the boonies. The problem, though, was finding a taxi driver that would take us there without trying to hustle for some unrealistic price.

Hustling seems to be standard procedure for some out here in the Philippines. Last week, Sally, Victor and Jerry took a boat to the island of Bohol and apparently many people there, from taxi drivers to shop keepers tried to put one over on them. They were charged as much as 1000 peso for rides that should have cost 150 or so. This type of thing never happens to me, but I guess, being Korean, many locals assume they have plenty of money to burn and, not understanding English so well, make for good targets. Even as we stood outside Bo's Coffee Club I heard drivers asking for 600 peso to take us to Minglanilla, which is nowhere near as far as that film studio I went to on Mactan Island for only 250. Finally I decided to talk to a driver and got him to agree to 200. He even offered to wait for us for two hours while we enjoyed the beach.

It was a long drive out to Minglanilla. To make matters worse, we didn't know where we were going once we got there. Luckily, I remembered that Marifel lives out there and she lived right by one of the well known beach resorts. I couldn't remember the name unfortunately, but I figured I would know if I heard it or saw the place, as I remembered the picture of it from a magazine. When we arrived in the small town the taxi driver asked a couple of people and one mentioned Palm Beach Resort, which sounded familiar, so we went.

Now, to find the pristine picturesque beaches like you see in movies or magazines, you have to leave this island of Cebu. Here, there are only what some call "dirty beaches"; dark sand, rocks and generally not very pretty. Still it was so awesome to be at the sea and the sound was relaxing. If I had known this was the plan, I would have brought my swim wear, but I was wearing long pants. Sally and Victor were content to sit in our booth on the beach, but Jerry wanted to go in the water and look for shells. Not content to go in alone, she rolled up my pants and dragged me out to the water. It was a lot of fun, even though we got completely wet anyway. Any shells which had a good look or a good sound we kept. The rest we threw back.

Eventually we decided to explore the area a bit, but most places only ended up in areas where locals were standing around just staring at us. Remember this is not Cebu City. We were in the boonies. There were cows and chickens walking around. Sally didn't feel we were too safe. As the sun began to set we decided it was time to head back, but we were surprised to find our taxi driver was gone! So now we were out in the middle of nowhere, with no transportation and everyone staring as though they had never seen foreigners before. We went to the hotel receptionist to see if they could call a taxi for us. She said she didn't know any numbers, but that we should walk out to the main road and find a trike to take us into town.

We set out walking, taking note of the goats, cows and chickens, but also being aware of anything else around us. Aside from this little path it was almost like jungle around us. It certainly seemed like a scene out of a horror movie where we were the young crew to be killed or eaten and I would be the black dude who dies first.

We got to the main road and were quickly surrounded by a large group of people, mostly kids. No trouble, just curious smiles and questions. They were very helpful in telling us how to take a trike into town where we might find a taxi. A trike soon arrived and we had another dilemma. A trike is basically a motorcycle with a large sidecar made to ideally hold two people, but could probably fit three or four Asians. With me being a big guy and Victor being a champion bodybuilder, though, it was unlikely we were all going to fit. The driver seemed to think it could work though. We finally decided that I would sit in the front cart, Sally and Jerry in the back of the sidecar and Victor sat on the back of the motorcycle with the driver. We waved goodbye to the crowd of smiling people and the kids and off we went.

At this point we were still on dirt roads with cows and chickens, so it was a rough ride before we came to something resembling a town. We eventually stopped on a busy road and got out of the trike, but some guys standing around on the street said that taxis are rare here so we need to go to the center of town. We all piled back into the trike and off we went. The town center was busy and crowded, and looked more like what we were used to. The trike driver saw an empty taxi driving near us and beckoned him to pull over. We paid the trike driver a total of about 50 peso and transferred to the taxi. Luckily, this guy had no problem taking us back to Cebu City on the meter. Being the only guy around he could have easily switched off the meter and charged whatever he wanted. That's what many hustlers do. This guy was cool, though, and happily took us back, making light conversation about who we were and what we were up to. I guess an American with three Koreans is a strange combination to most here.

Once back in the familiar Cebu City, we went to the amazing City Grill, a place I was introduced to a while back by Alona. We ate like we hadn't eaten in ages. We had two big bowls of Rumi soup, about eight pieces of fried chicken, six pieces of barbeque chicken, a large tuna steak, three orders of pork belly, and 6 or 7 orders of rice. City Grill has to be one of the best places to eat in Cebu. They have some really fresh stuff that you see and choose before they cook it. They have large crabs still walking around in the tanks there.

After that we went back to the hotel and were relaxing and nearly falling asleep. I checked my phone was surprised to find it was only 8:30 PM! Sally said it's because we're sitting here doing nothing. We need to go out and do something. In the past, the girls have, kind of half jokingly, said they wanted to see a strip club. this time we decided to really go to one. So we all got up, went back into a taxi and went to one of the clubs near the hotel.

Going into a club like this with the girls is a very different experience. You get a very different perspective on everything, from the girls to even the customers in the club. Needless to say they pulled no punches in their assessment of things. Granted, there were no super models in this particular place, many of the girls clearly had already had babies and sported the stretch marks to prove it. A couple were pretty hefty as well. Still, you see things very differently through their eyes. Victor seemed oddly embarrassed to be there and sat facing me, Sally and Jerry instead of the stage. A couple of girls did sit down and chat with us for a while, but if guys already have girls with them, they probably don't think things will go very far.

After becoming bored with that place, Sally decided she wanted to see a gay bar. I was happy to report that I had no idea where such a place might be. Wouldn't you know it, though, Sally just happened to pick a taxi driver who just happened to have worked in a gay bar before and knew were one was. When the driver realized we were mainly just "bar hopping" for the night, he offered to be our driver for 200 peso per hour. Since the previous bar only had girls dancing in bikinis, he said he knew where the all nude dancing was. Still it was too early, so we had to visit the gay bar first.

The gay bar was equally boring. There were oiled up guys dancing on the stage who all pretty much looked and danced exactly the same. There were a couple of ladyboys doing lip sync and dancing shows. They ladyboys sat down and chatted with us for a bit. Jerry and Sally concluded they must be rich because, for one, they had completed their operations, and, looking at their show, you would believe them when they claim to be pro level dancers having won many big contests. On the whole, though, it wasn't all that interesting, to any of us.

Finally we went to the club where there was supposedly all nude dancing. Inside, we immediately could see this club was on a whole different level that the first one. Drinks costs three times as much as the other places and here, the girls really did look like super models. No stretch marks seen in this place. Unfortunately, the girls didn't seem too happy that we brought girls with us, and many were shy to take their clothes off on the stage. As the night wore on things degenerated even more, and we started to hear a number of Korean obscenities being hurled at us from the girls. Eventually Sally got angry and mentioned this to our waiter who said he didn't hear anything. Even I heard it, and that's about all the Korean I know.

Finally Sally decided we should leave and so we went outside and back into the taxi. Victor, though, got out of the taxi and went back inside, saying he had to use the restroom. While we waited, I explained the many reasons to never make trouble in the Philippines to the girls. Eventually Victor came back and we left. The story I later heard from Sally, though, was that Victor went back in and demanded an apology from the manager and from the girls. He caused them all to line up and asked them why they are so unprofessional. He asked them if they even knew what the bad words they were using meant, which they did not. He then explained to them what they meant and told them to never use such words again. He then asked them to apologize, to which they mumbled an apology, causing him to yell, "I can't hear you. Sound off!" Then they apologized out loud. Although a very nice guy and usually quiet, if he gets upset, he does this kind of thing. Another story I heard was that back in Korea, some wannabe gangsters were bothering Jerry and he did something similar to them, causing one of them to even cry.

So we went back to the hotel and ate some Ponkan and talked about all that we had seen that day and night. Overall it was an amazing day and we covered a lot of ground. Yesterday, we went for a more simple night of swimming and hanging out in my room eating Ponkan and ramen. I am wondering what they plan to get into today.

A few days ago, on Monday actually, Sally and Victor were down sick. Victor had something like a continuing cold that he brought with him and Sally was affected by some kind of food allergy. Jerry, however, was pretty much recovering from her previously mentioned ailments, which is why she was tasked with a mission. Sally and Victor needed medicine and they all needed their travel visas for staying here in the Philippines. Jerry, however, being young, and not quite yet fit to accomplish such things on her own, was afraid to take on this task, and so she called me. She was using Victor's phone, though, since her own was out of cell phone load. After using up a 500 peso load to call and talk to me for hours, I guess Sally and Victor decided she gets no more.

Anyway, I went to their room and was filled in on the parameters of the mission. We had to go to the Korean Consulate office and get their papers, and then go to Ayala to get medicine. Unfortunately, all the instructions they had written for her were in Korean, so if there was any problem, I'm not sure how much help I could have been anyway. We went downstairs, hopped in a taxi and off we went. Jerry explained where we were going to the cab driver. I was already worried, because if he couldn't understand her, or didn't know the place, I could not help as I had no idea even what it was let alone where it was we were going. They had only told me the Korean name for the place.

When we arrived at a Filipino college campus I was certain we took a wrong turn somewhere. The taxi driver assured us, though, that this was the right place. Jerry also seemed to think it was correct. We went inside the campus and to the information desk where Jerry tried to ask the guy working there to point us to the visa office. The guy wasn't sure what she was talking about and asked to see the instructions she was reading from. He was surprised to see they were all in Korean, but then, at least, he figured out we were looking for. He told us to go up the stairs to the second floor. On the second floor there was a large sign with two directions. One read "Korean Consulate" with an arrow pointing one way, and the other read "Korean Community Association", or something like that, with an arrow pointing the other way. It was written both in English and Korean. Jerry said we had to go the Community Association place, but I was sure that for travel papers we needed to go to the consulate. Since I seemed so sure she decided to believe me and we followed the arrow to a hallway that ended in a dead end.

We decided to try the Community Association and that turned out to be the right place. Yes, Jerry laughed at me and I knew she was going to go back and tell Sally and Victor all about my mistake. Anyway, we quickly got their papers and off we went to find another taxi. Why these offices were on a Filipino college campus, I will never know. Find a taxi, we next went to Ayala. On the second floor, past the game arcade, there are two drug stores side by side. One called Rose Pharmacy and the other called Mercury Drug. We tried Rose Pharmacy first. Jerry asked them for ten tablets of Tylenol, which they didn't have. She asked for two tablets of some unpronounceable drug which they did have. She then showed an empty package of something else she needed, which they also didn't have. We decided to move on to Mercury Drug.

Mercury Drug was bigger and much more crowded, leading me to believe it must be the better place. In fact, I remember having been there before. We took a number and, knowing we would be waiting a bit, decided to look around. Jerry picked up some Shampoo, but we mainly looked at snacks and junk food. Finally her number came up and we got everything she needed. The next stop was the main downstairs supermarket in the Metro part of Ayala. There we were meant to get Ponkan, a type of Chinese orange, and a couple of other things. After we paid and were walking out, Jerry remembered that Sally also needed feminine products.

We went back in to shop for the needed products. At this point I am not entirely uncertain that Jerry wasn't asking me silly questions about what labels meant just to embarrass me while other people were around. She said it's normal for a Korean husband to go and shop for this kind of thing for his wife and that if I'm embarrassed about it, I'll never make it as one. regardless, I was happy when she got what she needed and we were out of there.

Next she wanted to go to Starbucks for something to drink, but I decided to school her in the ways of Bo's Coffee Club, which rules here in the Philippines. We went into Bo's and she seemed immediately pleased with the choices. I got a mint chocolate chip shake and she got something with strawberry. I tried to get her to follow me in getting a small "Super Moist Cake" but she wanted a brownie. After we sat down, I could quickly see that she was not too happy with that choice. After she tried my cake, I knew I had to get her one too. I also tried this other cake, which, on the outside, looked like the super moist cake, but inside had cream filling and bits f fruit. The fruit inside, though, was fermented! I guess that one had been sitting around a bit too long.

As the day wore on and the sun was going down, I thought, Man, Sally and Victor are probably dying in the room while we're out here having fun. With that, we went back. Luckily they were fine and we pulled out the bag of Ponkan and ate while relating the story of our mission. Jerry was more than happy tell of my mistaking the Korean Consulate office and of our time shopping for feminine products. After that, we ordered a huge hawaiian style pizza and wings from Yellow Cab and watched an extremely violent UFO level movie about zombies in an insane asylum. This was one of our more normal days.

Alona hasn't been around for a while and, for all I know, may not be back. I guess I haven't been around either, though, as I have been spending all my time with Jerry, Sally and Victor. After another night of drinking games, though, now Jerry has a really bad cold and is down sick. She is resting and I am back in my room having realized I am running out of clean clothes. I am so used to Alona doing the laundry I never thought about it before.

Now I could have easily taken the clothes to any of the many laundry services within walking distance from where Jerry, Victor and Sally stay, but my one worry is that I have so few clothes, they may not accept them. I really didn't bring that much with me and I doubt it would even make for a full load in a large machine. I suspect they would scoff at the idea of washing two handkerchiefs or a few pairs of socks, if they have to be separated from the other things I have.

So I figured, how hard can it be? I've seen Alona do it many times. I will try to wash them by hand myself. So I filled the red tub with water and probably way too much Tide and went at it. It wasn't bad actually. In fact, it was kind of relaxing and there was a great since of accomplishment when it was done. I don't know if I did as good a job as Alona might do, or if they will even come out nice, (after all I did have to get Jerry's vomit out of some of them), but I can at least say I did it. Having tried, I think I can better understand what I see on the terraces of this building now. Based on what I see, and now on my own experience washing, I think most people do just a little bit each day, and then hang that little bit out to dry. I remember the first time Alona washed my clothes, she did everything, and hung it all out to dry and it took forever. With only a shirt or two hanging out, though, they dry very quickly.

I think from now on, I might just continue to do a little bit everyday. It would take all of ten minutes to do a couple of items and they can go on the rack and dry very quickly.

In other news, the holidays are fast approaching here in the Philippines and it is a big deal. I hear carols at this very moment actually. At night, I see ships fully decorated in lights cruising the waters outside my window. I see fireworks very regularly now. I can't imagine what it will be like in a couple of weeks.

I've been spending so much time with Victor, Sally and Jerry lately that I haven't had a chance to write. Victor got sick now, though, which maybe he caught from me since I am a bit under the weather too, so they are resting in their room and I in mine. It's been something of journey these few short days, though, and I can't say what it is, but I have never felt so connected to a group of people as these, and they seem to say the same. It feels like we've known each other forever and things just flow. There is a lot more to this flow, however, than meets the eye.

So, as I mentioned before, they were renting a room across from me somewhere and their roommate, though also Korean, was totally jacking them on the price, as much as 3X what I pay for this place which I have all to myself. They made a plan to move into a townhouse, so as to have more space for themselves, but this place was owned by the same roommate. Although they say they have never discussed with her how much money they have to their name, I can only guess she must have overheard them talking about it because she wanted to charge them basically all the money they had as a deposit to get into this house. That's where their day started to spiral downhill, except that it seems there was a power protecting them.

At first they went on to online banking to try and transfer the money to pay this outrageous amount, but their internet stopped working. So next they figured they would go to Ayala, where they could both eat and use the machines there to get cash for their roommate. Upon arrival though, they were surprised to find they forgot all their cash and credit cards! Now they were hungry, upset and heavily stressed and they returned home and began a vicious fight amongst themselves. It is at this point that I surprised them with a call inviting them to dinner.

We went to a Japanese restaurant Chiba-San took me to before and had a great time eating and trying different things. After that, we stopped at a convenience store to buy $1 rum and snacks and returned to my room for drinking games and fun conversation. Jerry wasn't too into the drinking part, fearing a repeat of her previous experience. Anyway, at some point the subject of this house and the contract came up and I asked to see the contract. My eyes went wide when I saw what this person was charging them. Imagine someone simply added a zero to your monthly rent and handed you that contract. You could find nice places in New York cheaper than what they were being asked to pay! I told them under no circumstances, never sign this. I was so happy to find that they hadn't singed yet. That is when they told me the story of all the mishaps that kept them from moving forward on it. They were both happy and relieved.

I proceeded to explain about the pension house I stayed in for two months when I first arrived here, and the rates of that place, which astounded them. So, even though they had moved their stuff to the new house, since they didn't sign anything, they made plans to sneak off into the night, get all their stuff, and vanish like the wind. Realizing how money they were now going to save, they decided to stay a couple of days at a really fancy hotel before transferring to the pension house. I was there with them a couple of days and we had so much fun. Drinking games, card games, watching anime, you name it. The night before last, the last time I was with them, we had finally found something even Jerry could enjoy drinking. They were these Vodka Cruisers or something, a type of fruity drink with only 5% alcohol. The next morning, Victor and Sally went to sleep and me and Jerry went to breakfast, but I really don't remember much of it. I lost a lot of the games.

None of that, however, is what this post is about. It's about shrinking! You see, all my clothes are just plain too big! Lucky for me, while most Americans who come here cannot buy the local clothes and must use a tailor, though still super cheap compared to getting clothes in the west, I can finally buy clothes at a local shop and fit into them. Not everything, mind you, I still buy the local XL sizes, but at least I don't need custom stuff!

So today, after some experimenting on my business site which brought in some decent cash, I decided to go and buy a bit of clothes. I also decided to do a little eating at The Desert Factory. I deserve it! If these experiments on my business site continue to bring rewards, I am back in business! I already have plans on how to expand on this small success so the adventure should be going full steam again soon!

A couple of nights ago I was out with yet another group of new friends. All from Korea, there is Sally, who is also an artist, her bodybuilder/personal trainer boyfriend Victor, who is called Tom, and Jerry, the youngest in the group and Sally's sister. The first time I met them, a few days ago, I was sitting at the pool chatting with an Iranian writer of detective stories, and they were walking around just looking. Victor came up and sat down next to us and introduced himself, and asked some questions about bodybuilding, which he thought I was into. I used to be, a long time ago, when me and brother, also a licensed personal trainer, trained like the pros in the old days. I guess since I lost so much weight now, what remains of my muscle is starting to show.

So we chatted about the world of bodybuilding, Joe Weider magazines, proper foods and other things for a while and then he left. The two girls just smiled and waved. The next day, I was sitting at the pool again, having finished my daily swim, chatting with a couple of MMA fighters from Canada. At that time, the two girls were spotted milling around, but not entering the pool area. Finally Jerry came up and introduced herself. Her English is very limited, but she wanted to talk to me. Eventually the two fighters left, and Jerry's sister came to chat. Finally, Victor came with a bunch of beer and we all drank together and talked about various things, including Korean movies like The Host, D-War and Oldboy. We also talked a lot about food and ended up on the subject of ramen. They said Korean ramen is much better than the Japanese brands, and that since they had a case of it, they would give me some. Jerry then asked me if I Wanted to go to dinner with them the next day.

The next day I was at the pool again and we all met up. Jerry brought me some ramen and we chatted about where we could go to eat. After we decided, we all went to change our clothes and come back to meet again by the pool. They took a long time to change, probably because there are girls in the group, and I sat by the pool chatting about business ideas and pirating movies with Jhun Cordz, one of the guards that works here. Victor and the girls eventually showed up and off we went.

I took them to Abuhan, a fancy Filipino cuisine place that I was introduced to by Michelle back in July. It was not the same one though. I have, in fact, never found that particular one again, but I guess there are a few around town. The one I took them to was found by Grace back in August when we were hanging out regularly. The food there is amazing. Jerry had fried shrimp, Sally had chicken barbeque and Victor got crispy pata, which is like a huge deep fried pig leg. I rounded things out with pancit canton (chow mein) shanghai fried rice and, of course, chicken wings. We all then shared everything Chinese style. The plan was that they wanted treat me, but it turned out they forgot their money in their room. They had some small change, but I had to make up the rest. Lucky me, I actually happened to have a bit of cash.

We returned to their room to get money and then the plan was to hit The Pump disco, where I met the movie producer. They loved it there. At first it was pretty empty, and we just sat drinking our beer and chatting and enjoying the music. Eventually people started to pour in and we graduated to a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila, which we didn't take long to finish. The girls were shy to dance at first, but after that they loosened up a lot. We danced and had a ton of fun. Eventually another bottle of Cuervo came and went and we were all pretty much wasted. Jerry was beyond done, though, and I had to carry her out of there.

We took a cab back to our place, but Victor only had huge bills and I only had 40 peso remaining. Reno, one of the guards I hang with on occasion helped out with the cab fare. We carried Jerry into the lobby while we sorted things out, but she fell off the couch we sat her on, and vomited all over the couch and floor. We carried her up to the room, where she also vomited on me while carrying her, and tried to get her into bed. Sally was at her end too. Victor is a big guy so I guess he was at least as okay as I was. Jerry went in the restroom to continue emptying her stomach and Sally went to sleep. As everybody seemed okay I said goodbye and took off.

Instead of going to bed, I ended up downstairs chatting with Reno and Louis, another guard, until the sun came up. The next day I got text messages from Jerry apologizing profusely. I told her all was okay and that I was going to the pool. It was already evening and swimming time since I was sleeping most of the day. I met them all at the pool where Jerry brought me a hand written letter both thanking me and apologizing. It even had little pictures, from stickers, in it. She didn't remember much of anything so we all had fun filling her in on her exploits. I guess she ended up sleeping in the restroom where I last saw her, rolling around in her vomit. Victor simply sprayed her down with the shower nozzle to clean her up. She apparently asked him to slap her in order to wake her up, so he tried three times. It didn't wake her up, so later, when she did awaken, she wondered why her face hurt.

We had a night of fun in the pool until late. Victor didn't know how to swim so we tried teaching him some moves, and otherwise he and Jerry did their "Tom and Jerry" routine where he would chase her around, throw her in the water or dunk her under. After that we all went our separate ways. Funny thing is, they always say they can see me from their room when I am swimming, which means there room should be right across from mine, in the next tower. I have never seen them though. I wonder which room is theirs. They share it with another Korean girl who I saw briefly during our drunken times, and quickly forgot, and maybe she has terrace access from her room, which is why I never see them on the terrace. I don't know.

So I awaken today with a plan to try this Korean ramen, and go pay Reno back for the taxi fare. I am hoping I hear from the movie producer very soon, as rent is a bit overdue and I have no money at the moment. Of course I have some things cooking on another site, which is starting to pick up a bit of steam. Anything can happen when life is an adventure. It makes me remember a quote I came across which stated that, "Stability paralyses the journey."

A quick storm came in last night with high winds, knocking the electricity out for a bit and slamming windows shut. My clothes rack, out on the terrace, started blowing away. It almost went over the edge just as a grabbed it. Unfortunately, my Grindhouse t-shirt and white swim shorts were lost to the wind. I never even saw them touch down. They just floated away.

Having the electricity blown out isn't always a bad thing. The other night, Alona, Maya and Cristy came over for swimming and drinking Red Horse, extra strong beer. Our swim was interrupted by the quick appearance of rain, high winds and the electricity going out. Having no lights in that situation can be fun though.

Last night, I was standing in a place I would normally never be at an hour I would normally never be awake. I couldn't sleep because of very loud music coming from somewhere near, so I went to try to find out where it was coming from. Yesterday was some kind of holiday or festival and I guess they decided to put a disco in a shack right next to my building. I figured if I can't sleep, then I may as well go and enjoy the disco, so I went to try to find out exactly where it was.

As I was asking for the location to this place, four Koreans who I had met four days earlier, and had been swimming with almost everyday since, came downstairs and saw me. They said they were going to The Pump, a very popular club frequented by Koreans. They invited me to go with them. They even said the magic words, "We treat you." So off I went!

I had a ton of fun dancing and drinking and meeting new people without having to spend one centavo. I even met and danced with 3 awesome girls. As happens on such party nights, eventually one has to go to the restroom. There was quite a queue to get into the small restroom in the club and so I was waiting in line. Behind me there was another American. We got to chatting and it turns out he is a senior producer for the largest film studio in Cebu City. I started telling him about the work I had done in Hollywood doing visual FX on films like Lake Placid 2, House on Haunted Hill 2 and others. He then explained that they have a big action movie in the works that has a lot of CGI in it and they need a VFX supervisor! I mean, really, what are the odds?

Now, Im not saying I'm going to take this gig. While this may seem like a good way to get quick cash to help with "what appears to be" my current financial situation, I see it as a going backwards in every other way. This is the type of work I was doing a year and a half ago. I started my travel adventures in order to build my own vision and escape the 9-5 grind. Things really started to shift for me, a few days ago, when I purposed with faith to follow, as Joseph Campbell writes, my bliss, and build a vision, and it is a huge vision. Taking a gig like this would seem to be derailing that progress completely, seeing as supervising FX on a feature film is often more than double a full time job.

When I started creating this new vision, things started falling into place. A payment I was told was delayed for 7 days, appeared the next day. I got another totally unexpected payment, from an unexpected source the day after that. All things seem to be conspiring to help me grow my vision and see it become reality. The reality is that the money is the only reason I would even consider the film gig. Going back to the "safety" of a 9-5 would seem to be an expression of belief in myself and my vision, and I would be giving up this "uncertainty" and adventure that I am starting to love about life.

Still, it can't hurt to call the guy. Maybe he has the connections that will help me further my vision. Or who knows? Maybe he will leave his 9-5 and join me!

The mist has returned in a big way this morning. I can hardly see anything outside. Does it bring with it another ordeal? Well, I am currently out of money. For some unknown reason, the payment, which usually comes at the first of the month, from work I sell on the Japanese content sites, has been delayed, possible for another 7 days. I will be out of food in a couple of days. Electricity and water bills were due yesterday. And the big one, rent, is coming up. So, could I end up out in the street with nothing to eat? Well, of course , anything is possible. Am I worried? Not at all.

No matter what I have encountered on this adventure, there has always been a solution. Sometimes I had to wait for it and sometimes it seemed like the end was nigh, but the solution always came. Looking back, I see that life has always been like that. Every difficulty carries with it the wherewithal for its overcoming. True I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know, aside from the delayed payment, where the next check or other money is coming from, but I know it is coming. It always has. There were times when things looked bad and then, with no explanation, there was a flurry of sales on my website. Things like that happen all the time. They will likely keep happening, and whatever the future is to bring, it will be an adventure.

I realize how great an opportunity it is to "step into uncertainty". I mean, realistically, sitting in a "stable" job in that cubicle, with the house and car is, in reality, no more certain than what Im doing. It only feels that way because of how we are conditioned and educated. I've seen that all ripped away from people in an instant too. When you step into uncertainty, though, life not only becomes a true adventure, but the possibilities become immense. How far you can travel, how much money you can earn, how big your ideas can get, these things are unshackled when you leave that so called "security" most people cling to. In the world of "security", you probably know exactly how much you will earn, how much vacation time they give you and how things will play out in the next few years, with little raises and a few extra days of time off here and there. For the adventurer, though, the sky is the limit.

I have been given some amazing ideas for this site that I hope to start putting into action in the near future. There will be more travels and I will start incorporating video, interviews, music, nightlife and many other aspects that will really bring this space to life. It's amazing the possibilities that come with a little freedom and time to just think. Very cool things are already beginning to happen!

As luck would have it, Alona brought two more friends, each more beautiful than the last , for another day of fun in the pool, and my iPhone camera is not working! This time she brought friends Christie and Maya, one of them being a former classmate, to enjoy frolicking in the water and consuming $1 rum. That's right, unlike last time, where we went all out with the tequila, this time we went for good old Tanduay. Alona and Christie went to get the rum and coke while Maya stayed to admire the view from my window and try to teach me some Visayan language. There was no major cooking involved this time, so Alona simply bought some snacks and off to the pool we went.

For some reason, the table where we sat last time was gone and there were quite a few Koreans in the pool already. No matter though, as we found a spot to set up our drinks and chips and went to town. We had a lot of fun swimming and drinking and this time we didn't go overboard with two bottles. I only wish I could have pictures.

After the girls left, though, things didn't end there. I was walking in the parking lot and ran into Jon and Mac, who work security in my building. They were going to the little restaurant across the street for some beers. I told them I didn't have any money and they said no problem, so off we went. I spent the rest of the time talking to these guys and getting some amazing stories. I also met Jon's cute cousin who I have seen around before. She asked if I was looking for a girlfriend.

The conversation with these guys was very interesting, though most seemed to revolve around fighting. UFC, boxing, Mark Dacascos, Jet Li, Sammo Hung and even whether or not Bruce Lee could really beat Chuck Norris. They were interesting characters. Jon and one of the other guys, whose name escapes me now, both claimed to have fought against MILF (which I am sure stands for some kind of liberation front, not what you were thinking) in muslim Mindanao. We also talked a lot about music, especially hip hop and the plethora of fake, wannabe crips and other gangsters in the Philippines. Since we were drinking Red Horse, extra strong beer, it didn't take many to put me on the path the hangover land.

As always, the girls made a big mess in my place. A whole roll of toilet paper looks like it was sunk to the bottom of the ocean. I don't know how they do it. Anyway, Alona claims she is going to clean all that up today and wash my clothes. I guess I won't have pictures of that either. I really need a new camera.

It's hard to believe I am already entering my fifth month here in Cebu City, Philippines. I wanted to do a story about the trials of getting curtains up in my room, but with myiPhone seemingly dying, I wouldn't have the pictures needed to do the story justice. I have some pictures from day one, where me and Alona took turns using a hand powered drill trying to make the holes in the wall. That didn't last long. A couple of days later, maintenance came in a broke two drill bits on the wall, only to discover there was steel running through the area where I needed the hole. Anyway, the maintenance guy brought out this huge Matrix: Revolutions style drill, made a huge hole and somehow stuffed it with wood, then screwed the curtain rods into that. Whatever works, right?

Unfortunately, aside from that, nothing is really happening. I am in the slow lane again for the time being. I have a gig to work on that will cover bills when finished, and I have a couple of good ones lined up, but strangely it seems like some really good ones, even perfect matches for me and my skills have fallen through the cracks lately. Who knows? Maybe it's just my imagination. Either way it is a bit frustrating since there's so much to see and do. There's so much I want to see and do, it seems a shame to be stuck in front of a computer all day, no different than my life in California was.

I thought it was extremely interesting that when I got here, I hardly ever saw the internet. I mean, I went from being on almost 24/7 back in California, constantly checking mail, reading forums, downloading movies and consuming media to maybe getting on the net once a week, and even then for only 30 minutes or so. Real life was calling and it had far more interesting things to show me than the computer. Now, realistically, I could still do that. Most locals are out having fun daily and they don't have any money. So it really is my mindset alone that has me sitting in front of a computer screen. In fact, I've notice that when I get away from that screen and go do something fun, stuff just seems to happen or fall into place. Kind of like how a watched pot never boils. When I stop looking for the jobs, the emails or whatever it is I am craving, and go out and just enjoy life, the jobs and emails just flow in.

You know what? I think I'll make it a point to get out and do something fun everyday, regardless of money or not! Who knows? Maybe I'll trip over a digital camera!

Last Monday, Alona and her friends Charmaine and Sheila Mae came over for a day of fun in the sun and the swimming pool. Even though I have been here over a month, and stood by while Alona and Miriam (who is now married and moved away, but that's another story) swam, I had yet to actually take a dip in the grand pool here. So this would be my first time, not only going into this pool, but swimming at all since my family had a pool in the house in Glendale Arizona, almost twenty years ago.

That's not the only reason I reference the term "For The First Time" though. The same is the title of a hugely popular romance movie that came out here last month, starring Richard Gutierrez and KC Concepcion from Star Cinema Film directed by Joyce Bernal. As with most Asian cinema, the film must come with a hit pop song, usually sung by the main characters in the film. Because of its popularity, the girls were constantly singing that song throughout the day.



So things began with the three of them cooking up a storm. As usual I handled the rice, and had to put Alona on hold because she always dives into cooling and then finished everything before the rice is ready, then we have to wait. As I was preparing the rice, Alona asked "Why so small?" I had forgotten there were four of us this time and had put in the usual amount as though I was cooking for just Alona and myself. So I added three more cups of rice, did the usual washing, and then set it up in the rice cooker. After that, the girls went to work.



As you saw in a previous post, I have many interesting canned goods that are pretty much "heat and eat" type fare. I also keep many packs of ramen type noodles on hand. The girls decided to go with a can of corned beef, a can of lechon paksiw and some noodles. Sheila Mae chopped up half an onion. They conveniently left the other half out for the ants I guess. After that, they went through the items in order. Alona cooked the corn beef and then followed with the lechon. Normally, when I cok the lechon fo rmyself, I put onion in it, but I guess some people prefer it without. I must admit I have on occasion seen Alona picking the onions out of her food. Anyway, next they had to wash the wok (remember we have but one burner and one wok) so they could move on to the noodles. Alona filled the wok with water but otherwise sat out on that one.





After we ate, it was time for phase two of our plan, for the girls brought with them lemons and salt. Me and Alona ran out to the convenience store to get a bottle of tequila while they finished cooking. Now the plan was to take out plate of lemons and salt and head to the pool. Unfortunately, when we arrived, many Koreans were there and two were sitting at the only table, a guy named Peter Oh and his wife. We sat on the side near the empty hot tub for a few minutes, and eventually Peter and his wife got up and offered us the table.



So now it was time for the great drinking to begin. I have this Effen Vodka shot glass that I picked up in Metro Ayala in Cebu City. Its really cool looking. So we basically went around in a circle from me, to Alona, then Sheila Mae and finally Charmaine, each taking a shot. We had more than enough lemons and salt. I guess the idea was that somewhere between rounds we would take a dip in the water. At this point, though, many Koreans were still around so the girls weren't to eager to get into their swim gear. Still, Sheila Mae, foolishly, choose to at least go and see how cold the water might be. She dipped one foot in to test and, of course, Alona and Charmaine pushed her in. Unfortunately, the sun was going down at this point and my camera needs a lot of light, so the pictures of her coming out wet and chasing them around are little more than blurs.



Eventually the Korean crowd thinned out, and the girls were not as shy about being themselves and jumping in. They were jumping around in the water as though it was freezing, which made me somewhat wary of going in. Like most things, though, I know it is better to just jump in and get it over with. I put one foot in to test it and was surprised. The water was really not that cold. Why would it be? It's very hot here. Maybe it's just cold to them. I jumped in and the water was fine. So we had a lot of fun drinking and swimming. Surprisingly I still knew how to swim, though I remember it being easier to stay afloat. I guess I just need to practice. Already I want to go again. Anyway, before we knew it, we had gone through a bottle of tequila. Nobody was drunk. Alona said from the beginning it wouldn't be enough. So me and Alona trekked off to the convenience store to get another one. We came back and went through the second bottle, swimming in between rounds. At one point, the security guard had to come tell the girls to keep it down, but for the most part we just had a lot of fun.



The second bottle did its work. Sheila Mae was the first to be done in by the strong drink. So much so that we let her skip a round. Alona, I guess is something of a mean drunk as she was kind of pushing the girls around as the night wore on. She kept saying Sheila Mae wasn't keeping up. Personally I think Sheila Mae was on the verge of vomiting and needed to be given a break. That didn't stop continuing fun in the water though, and the girls swam on. Eventually though it was late and time to call it a day. Everyone had drank too much. The girls had to go home. It wasn't quite the end for me though. I remember meeting an Iranian girl and chatting about Islam, the movie 300 and the Ottomans taking over Constantinople. Then I ran into Peter Oh again, which is why I know his name, and we sat and drank beer talking about who knows what for a very long time.



Finally I dragged myself off to bed. The hangover I had the next day, meaning yesterday, was legendary. Alona seemed perfectly fine for whatever reason. Makes me wonder how many beers I drank with Peter. Anyway, I don't know if my iPhone got wet or if anything weird happened to it, but I notice it is not taking pictures today. It otherwise, is working fine and I see the screen, it clicks and makes camera sounds and I even see the image slide into the folder. Unfortunately, the images in the library are blank. I have seen this before though, so maybe it will go away, or next time I sync it will be fine, I don't know. If not, there may be fewer pictures in future updates.

Yes, this is as cheap as it gets. A 3 peso egg, a 2 peso, or so, onion and probably about 5 peso worth of rice. Basically a meal that costs less than a quarter in US money. The funny thing is, fried rice also happens to be my favorite. I suppose the only thing cheaper would be a single pack of ramen, but is that really a meal? What strikes me is the level profit some Chinese food places must be making, especially in Burbank where a plate of fried rice might cost as much as $10.00. Some places, like Wokcano, it costs even more than that. Granted their Singapore Fried Rice is leagues better than what I made, but it is still just fried rice.

Of course, not everything is about being as cheap as possible. Sometimes I want to go out and taste the goodness of some of my favorite restaurants. I miss the wings at The Dessert Factory, which are still super cheap compared to getting similar in the west, but they are probbaly expensive by local standards because it's in the mall.



Speaking of malls, while Ayala is much closer to me, such that some might dare to consider it walking distance, and so I spend a lot more time there, sometimes it's good to venture out further and see what the other malls have on offer. The other day I went to SM City, which I wrote about very early on this blog. I didn't really get a chance to explore the place, as I was on a mission to get connected to the internet at the time. I had been back a couple of times since, but was usually on a mission. This time, I went just to look around. There is some cool stuff in here. Unlike Ayala, which seems to be all shopping, SM City seems to actually host events. The car company Kia seemed to have some kind of car show going on in one area. I don't know what was special about the cars, although I think one had fire painted on the hood, but people were milling around and some were even getting inside them to check them out.

I can't imagine why anyone would by a car here, unless they lived out in the boonies. A taxi here costs nothing, and you would spend more on your own gas than it would cost to take taxi everywhere. Also, like any major city, parking isn't exactly abundant. A car seems like an unnecessary hassle. I wouldn't buy one under any circumstances. A motorcycle would be far more practical, but the way people drive out here, you'll never get on one of those either.

While in SM City, looking at the cool sites, including one of thos kiosk type things where they take a widescreen HDTV and turn it on its side, I decided I wanted to try some eats not prepared in the home. I first went to the all powerful Jollibee. Whoever started this chain is a genius. I think it was created by a Chinese guy, but I am not sure. Still it is the Asian version of McDonalds. Even though they have typical fast food items like burgers, they have quick and easy Asian items on the menu. They also have better crispy chicken than KFC. Unfortunately, on this trip, I ordered the spicy chicken and it was spicy! On the whole, Jollibee isn't be best food in the world, but you can eat well for $2 and it is always crowded, with plenty of eye candy.

Later, having been at the mall so long, I decided to eat at Chow King. I think I wrote of this place before, and how I saw a cool TV commercial about it once. One thing I did not know is that Chow King also has crispy chicken. I guess fried chicken is just that popular here. Chow King is Chinese fast food done pretty good. Not the best by any means. Chen & Wok chains in the US are far far better, and just as fast, but still Chow King is pretty good, and very very cheap. You can eat for just over a $1.

So I just got paid for the last gig I did, and with good timing since I had about $1 to my name and was running out of groceries, so today I am off to the mall again. I already have a pretty big gig lined up and a couple of big looking possibilities in the queue. Remember I said I was working on something that Book II on this site will be about, and I can say it is starting to kick in. The adventure is going to grow.

Last Thursday, on October 9th, Alona had plans to take me on another cooling adventure. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but it is amazing that even though it sometimes looks like we are making a buffet, this stuff costs maybe $3 or $4 to do. Even eating out you can't get so much so cheap. So we returned to Metro Ayala and into the supermarket to get the goods for her next cooking attempt. She wanted to do some kind of soup this time. We got the vegetables pictured above. One was a huge squash for a few peso and another was some type of cabbage I guess. It was also 20 peso or so. She also got some nasty root looking thing called gabi, which after she skinned it and chopped it seemed kinda like a potato.

We then went on to the meat section where we decided to get some pork. They had every kind you could imagine. We got pork adobo, which is pictured left, in cubes. She also decided, at that time, she wanted to try some pork chops using her special technique of marinating in soy sauce and lemon. So we got the pork chops pictured in the center in the image above.



So when we got back, unlike last time, I remembered to get the rice going first. This way, since it takes its time to cook, we wouldn't have to wait for it. Alona chopped up all her ingredients and set to work to make her soup. She started by frying up the pork adobo. She likes to cook things on a high fire with a lot of oil, but that's another story. For some reason, I always have this expectation that the meat would turn red or brown upon cooking, like beef, but it doesn't. It turns white. Anyway, After some time, seeing as we have a somewhat traditional style wok, she moved the pork up to the sides and added the onion and garlic she had chopped up earlier. Of course, she also added quite a bit more oil for this. Still, things were really starting to smell pretty appetizing at this point.



The next step was to get the rest of her vegetables in there. Her weird gabi root and the orange squash thing. At this point she found herself wishing we had a lid for the large wok, but she made do by taking the lid off the rice cooker, which was done with the rice at this point, and making the best of it.





All that was left now was to add her broth, and then wait and let it cook. Or so I thought anyway. She actually hadn't added the cabbage like thing at this point. Still she claimed to know what she was doing so I just enjoyed the show. From the beginning she was worried about it all fitting in that wok. As the soup grew, I must say I started to wonder myself. Looking at the size of that pile of cabbage type stuff on the plate made me wonder how it was ever going to end up in that wok. I started to think that maybe she was right about getting a real pot with a lid. The thing is, when we first went shopping for supplies for this new place, I don't think either of us ever considered soup being on the menu. As things were going, she also cut the end off some chiles and threw them in to spice it up a bit.





The next great task was adding the cabbage type thing. Somehow she managed to get almost all of it in there. I guess it was added last so as not to get too soggy or something. Anyway, now it was all in the wok and surprisingly not flowing over the edges. There was, however, yet another problem which plagued us. Aside from not having a pot with a real lid to cook something like the soup in, we also only had one burner to cook on at all. The pork chops still remained. The question became, where do we put the finished soup so she can cook the pork chops, which have been nicely marinating all this time? The answer came in the form of taking the rice cooker and emptying its contents onto a plate. She was then able to put the soup in the rice container, clean the wok and have it ready for the pork chops.



And so the time came for me to try the soup. I have to say it was amazing. I already knew she could cook, of course, but this was a cut above. She even seemed surprised herself when she tried it. I kept joking with her about opening a restaurant called Alona's Kitchen, but she doesn't seem to believe in herself too much. She doesn't even cook like this for her family! I asked her why she doesn't cook like this for her mother or her brothers and she said she would be embarrassed and worried that they wouldn't like it. She didn't seem to think I was being all that honest about how good her soup was either. I think if she hadn't tried it herself, she might think I was making it up. She seemed extremely happy with the results though. Still she wasn't finished yet. There remained the pork chops that had to go in the fire.





So the pork chops went deep into a wok full of oil and later came out very nice. Her special mix of soy sauce and lemon marinade really has an interesting taste. It worked for the fried chicken too. Not the healthiest thing to eat, of course, and even she knew about the risks of high cholesterol, but it was very good. I don't know if she would ever consider really doing Alona's Kitchen. Unlike in the west, restaurants are easily one of the quickest and most profitable businesses to have here. She could sell one bowl of soup for half the price of what we paid for all the ingredients for the night. She could make ten times her money back on those ingredients in no time. Also, here you have advantage that a local can open up a roadside stand anywhere there's free space. I know this much, if she does decide to do it, I will definitely be eating there!

$1 Rum! Yes it does exist. Now, I had known about this for quite some time, though I never tried it before. Okay, I may have had a shot or two in the ghetto area with the milling around in the story of Grace, but I never bought my own bottle and really drank it. This is stuff is hugely popular. There's a billboard for it on the corner where I live. I hear commercials for it on the radio almost anytime I'm in a taxi. And let's face it most Filipinos could never afford a bottle of Cuervo or some other expensive alcohol.

Now, you may remember in my previous post that I had found a little convenience store just up the street, which I had never noticed before all the times I went by in a taxi. They have just about everything there. They even have individual eggs you can buy for 8 peso each, great if, like me, you don't have a fridge and want a couple of eggs to make fried rice with. I'll have to remember that. So me and Alona walked over there and got some Tanduay, which is the name of the $1 rum. It cost 40 peso, which is actually slightly less than a dollar these days. We also got a big bottle of coke and some corn chips.

Interestingly, we didn't mix the rum and coke as most might expect. That's not the way she and her barkadas (that's like a gang) did it back in the day. We drank the rum as shots and simply had a tall glass of coke nearby for a chaser. With that, the great drinking began, and we finished about two thirds of the bottle. Unfortunately, Alona also spilled a good amount of coke on the table which later brought a considerable number of ants to visit. I started to get worried because I couldn't even work on my computer without some ant walking across the screen.



Today, however, Alona would take care of the ant problem. When we first went shopping, we bought two of most things, so that we would have one to use while the other was in the wash. So she changed the table cloth to the other one we bought and set out to wash the original cloth, by hand, along with some of my clothes and things. She didn't stop there though. Since the rest of the place was getting kind of dirty, she decided to clean it up too. First she swept the place up, throwing all the dust, ashes and naps of my hair into the dustpan and out to the trash. After that, she even mopped the place clean. It looked as good as the day I walked in!



After that, she came out of nowhere with the idea to make crispy fried chicken. That she wanted it was not surprising as we used to eat it all the time at restaurants. That she suddenly claimed she could do it, was pretty surprising. So we trekked off, in a taxi of course, to Metro Ayala and into the supermarket where we got the chicken and some crispy breading mix. We also decided to get some chocolates, but that's no relation to this story. After we came back with all the stuff, she proceeded to mix the breading, which I thought was too thin at first, and I cooked rice and started heating a whole lot of oil in the wok. She thickened up the breading and in the first batch went.



The first was a little too high the first time around. The place got a little smokey and the chicken came out a bit dark. There was also blood inside. Luckily we tested it on only two pieces. Now with the temperature of the oil down we were able to continue. Alona, however, wanted to show me something else. She had her own way of doing fried chicken, without the crispy breading but marinated in a mix of soy sauce, lemon and Aji-no-moto spice. So we did about half the chicken breaded and half her way. The rest came out good. We won't be putting KFC out of business or anything, but it was good, both the breaded and her special mix.

So now here I am writing this update, contemplating the remaining bit of rum or other future adventures. I have been working very well on the couple of freelance jobs and money is coming in, so things are cool and seem to be picking up. I'm about to start creating some things that will lead to what Book II on this site will be about, but that is another story. As for my adventures, as things seem to fall into place and I get a bit more stable, I expect there to be a lot more exploring. There are still many other islands here, 7000 or so I hear, and there's still so much of this city I haven't even begin to see by hitting the streets. It's time to start seeing what I can find next!

Well, I'm still here. So the storm didn't blow me away. It didn't even hit this island. In fact, another storm came by just a few days later, but also missed us. I guess it's that season. I don't really have anything cool to report. I just noticed it was over a week since I posted and didn't want anyone to think I was dead. I am mostly sitting at home trying to get my freelance on so I can make some money to keep adventuring here in the Philippines. There's always a little something that seems to come just when I need it, but I want to get back into the big time. I got a pretty good size gig, and have two seemingly good possibilities lined up, so I am not worried. Still, money is tight at the moment, such that I even tried to avoid using a 60 peso taxi. And that meant hitting the streets.

I said I would do it in a previous post. The only way to see the real Philippines was to get out and walk through it, or take the jeepney as the locals do. I still haven't taken the jeepney, but I did head out to do some walking. It's amazing what you find, even right by where you live, if you just walk around. Google Maps just doesn't work here. They have, like, three places listed for the whole of Cebu city. They have their own version using Google's satellite image data on Wikimapia.com, but being a wiki, you have people entering stuff like "good ribs here" instead of the name of the place, or "my teachers neighborhood" over a whole area instead of listing individual places. I still have found the cool Japanese karaoke place I went to on there. I guess I can never go back unless I find someone who knows it.

So walking around I found two cool little restaurants and a cell phone shop right around here. There's also a bank close enough to walk to (well the mall is close enough to walk to by some people's standards). This means I might be able to go there and use the machine instead of spending taxi money to go the bank I used to go to or the mall. The best thing about walking around, though, is the girls. You see the girls you probably would never see in the mall. The real local beauties. In a big city like this there are going to be different levels of westernization. In a fancy mall, you're probably only seeing the more westernized and well to do people on a regular basis. Walking the streets, though, you see everyone else, and they are polite, smile, wave and maybe even strike up a conversation. People in the mall might walk by you like you're not even there. It's a world of difference.

So that was my small excursion hitting the streets. Once I get a little more comfortable with my freelance and feel a bit more stable, I will start exploring regularly. I might even buy a super cheap digital camera to take along with me (cuz some places I ain't taking my iPhone). Who knows what treasures are to be found around some corner?

For the past few days we have been having some exceptionally high winds here in Cebu City, Philippines. This is likely due to the passing of the tropical storm Hagupit, which is allegedly becoming a typhoon to be named Nina. Although the storm is not really near the Visayas where I live, you can see from the map that some wisps of its edges are touching the Philippines. The island of Luzon, on the other hand, may not be so lucky. It does appear that it will pass through there. This just after the major typhoon which hit the day before I arrived just short of three months ago.

Wow. Nearly three months already. Not much is really happening now. I am settled, somewhat, into my new place and trying to work out how I will bring in the bacon to pay for upcoming bills. I spent most of my time in the last few days trying to update my sites and promote my services on the freelance job sites. I even found a new and bigger freelance job site that I just recently joined. Once I complete my service profile on that one, I will be able to bid on jobs there as well.

Speaking of internet business in general, I think this whole concept of "free" being the future of business is coming true. Even in the webmaster forums there is talk of how hard it is to get anyone to pay for anything. A number of indie rock bands have begun doing well using their music, which is available free to promote other things, tours, merchandize and the like. I thinking I will do the same with my next big personal project, creating a show, free to view on my site, that will basically promote the other services I offer. I really feel like I am wasting my time on my sites anyway, so I will just stop doing them. Not this one, of course. This site has no business prospects. It's just here so that people can follow my journey.



This morning I went to Ayala to stock up on a few more grocery items. I am starting to notice, by watching some of the locals shop, how to really save money. Granted, compared to prices in American grocery stores I was saving a ton anyway, but I knew I was still spending more than most locals even make. First thing to strike off the list is the imported stuff. Sure, you can find Doritos, Planters Peanuts, Pringles and M&M's in this store, and it will be much much cheaper than buying it in the U.S., but when you look at the local stuff, things change considerably. I got a big bag of local corn chips for 15 peso. That's like a quarter. They were good too! The same goes for other items. When I first shopped I bought prepackaged bags of fruits and veggies, because they were cheap. If you go to the open bins, though, and throw, say, a bunch of onions in a bag, it once again costs about a quarter. I also notice that I had been buying Dole brand bananas, which is still cheap with a big bunch costing around 60 peso, but the local bananas cost about 30 peso and you get a bit more. Canned goods are also cheap, though the cans are smaller (remember they don't eat as much here, or anywhere in the world for that matter, as in the U.S.). While you might pay $2 for a can of something good in Safeway, here a can is about 20 peso, or around 35 cents.

Speaking of eating too much in the U.S., I am going to need some new clothes soon. I am dropping weight like mad. I truly don't understand how these other Americans come over here and maintain their girth. To me it seems so easy to just get into the local pattern. I mean, I know there are plenty of restaurants where you can eat totally American style, with extra large portions, ribs, burgers and all that, but it's expensive! Why come here and do that? It's like going to China to eat at McDonald's! Of course, when I was in China, the other American with me did just that, but that is another story.

There's one item, I guess, that is probably almost impossible to get any cheaper no matter where you are in the world. That would be ramen noodles, here called bachoy. I didn't see every brand available, so there may be cheaper options out there, but this particular brand I bought this morning costs about 6 peso for a pack. That's about 13 cents. That is cheaper than I have seen ramen in California, but even there I know they still have sales where it is ten cents per pack.

So, if I never post again, you know hurricane Nina got us. Otherwise, not much is happening until I get a bit more settled in and get the cash flow worked out. Then I might get into some exploring of other islands here and there. There are 7000 islands in the Philippines and most of them are inhabited, by something...

Yesterday Alona hand washed my clothes. The first problem encountered was that we had no way to dry them. Many people in the building across from us use their terrace with some kind of clothes line or rack on which to hang items outside to dry. Some also hang then inside just in front of the main windows on the back wall of their place. Whichever way we were going to go, we didn't have the line or rack needed to do it. We also didn't have hangers on which to hang anything. Thus, which she washed, I was sent to Ayala to get these things.

I don't like to go to Ayala and go shopping alone, unless I'm, uh... shopping for something besides items in the stores. You see, when I am with Alona, she can do all the talking. The people working in the stores seem to respond to her better and they can speak their own language. If I am alone, the people wrking in the store, though they can speak English, are likely a bit more shy to do so, thus they often avoid making eye contact with me perhaps in the hopes that I won't ask a question.

I looked all over the Metro Gaisano section of Ayala, covering five floors and couldnn't find a simple rack on which to hang clothes. For that matter, I couldn't find hangers either. Both items did exist, though, they just weren't where one might expect. Unlike the Metro Gaisano in Colon downtown, this one didn't really have a complete home department. Things were scattered about in different places. I found a small area that had some home items and they had, next to a ladder for whatever reason, one clothes rack. This was the only clothes rack they had and it was 689 peso, which to me seemed expensive for a couple of bars. Granted, that's only about $15.00 US, but the more you start to think in peso, the more things start to seem overpriced. I am sure there must have been a simpler rack for 200 peso somewhere, probably in Metro Colon.

I wanted to ask if there were any others, but it took some time to get anyone to help me. If Alone was there, she would make one these weird hissing sounds she makes that gets one's attention and someone would come ask if she needs anything. I can't bring myself to try that because it seems a bit aggressive, but I have noticed that's the norm in both stores and restaurants. I finally asked a guy working in a nearby section about the rack and was told this was the only one. I also asked about hangers and he said they were on the fourth floor, a floor I had already scoured and found nothing.



I went to the fourth floor again and this time just asked the counter girls where the hangers were. They pointed to the plastics section where items like Tupperware might be found. Sure enough, hangers were in there. At first i thought these were too expensive too. 3 hangers rubber banded together for something like 149 peso. I remember in Metro Colon hangers were 99 peso per kilo. That probably would have gotten me 10 hangers. Eventually, as I kept looking, I found many more types of hangers, one with a bunch of 8 for 109 peso. I got two of those and I got this item called a Dream Hanger, which is like a hanger with a circular clothes line on it full of clips for hanging smaller items. I went back to the second floor, then, and, no longer caring about the price because I just wanted to go home, picked up the one rack they had, payed for my items and left.

When I returned home, Alona was still washing. I put the rack together and she started hanging clothes outside to dry. She then asked me to cook because she was hungry. After we ate and she finished washing everything, it was all done, and all was nicely hanging on the rack outside on the terrace. That was yesterday, a dark and cloudy day.

Today they are still not dry, though getting close. The sun is out, which is cool, but I need to go do things and I have no clothes. I am running low on cel phone load and wouldn't mind getting some more fruits for breakfast tomorrow. Hopefully, with the sun out, they will be dry before the day ends. Makes me realize why, on other people's terrace, I see only a few items, different items, out each day or so. Wash a little at a time and dry a little at a time. Putting everything you have out to dry at once can make getting around a little difficult.

There's really not much to report, so I just decided to update the gallery a little bit. I made it past the ordeal and finally got a decent gig to work on, and some money to go with it, but I wouldn't say I'm exactly out of the woods yet. I have other clients in the queue and so if I reel them in all will be a well for a while. I have been working on my own original projects, but they have to be completed and put out for sale for anything to become of them. In the meantime, I am mainly working and relaxing with Alona. This time we decided to go shopping.

It's amazing what a shopping experience can be in the Philippines, even at a supposedly "expensive" place like Ayala Mall. Still, you're looking at getting a nice designed t-shirt for $2.00 or so. While looking around, I found Alona a nice t-shirt of her favorite singer, Avril Lavinge. A nice pair of jeans might cost $5.00. Don't get me wrong, they do also bring in the high price American brands like Lee and Levi's but even they cost maybe $25 for a pair of jeans which would surely be $50.00 or more in the states. In the end, I got Alona 2 pairs of jeans, a blouse, an Avril t-shirt, and two sets of bra and panties for about $20.00 total. You'd be lucky to walk out of a mall with one item for that price in California.



I still want to keep up with getting out and seeing the real Philippines, and meeting more new and interesting people. I read a lot of internet sites and forums about Cebu City and the Philippines and many foreigners claim that Ayala is actually a difficult place to meet folks. Must because it is somewhat high class. According to them a better place to go would be SM Mall or something called Calendarias (spelling?) or something. I don't know if that is a restaurant, coffee shop or what, but I guess it is near the University. I'll have to look into it. So for my next outing I think I will actually spend some time in SM and just see who I meet.

The real way to see the real Philippines, though, and meet interesting people, is to hit the streets. That means just go for a nice long walk. Malls are always going to be malls. By hitting the streets and just walking you run into little pockets you can't even imagine and meet the real people living their real lives, and likely those who have no reason to be in any mall. There is also the jeepney, a local mode of transportation popular here. It's like a small bus made by putting a large back onto an old jeep. It's extremely cheap, around 10 peso to ride compared to taking a taxi everywhere, and they are everywhere. I have yet to ride one but many foreigners say it is the way to go. One day I was going to Ayala and I saw a white guy walking out of the building where I stay. I got into a taxi, but he went walking down the street. When I got to Ayala, that guy was there. I am guess he walked out to the main road and hopped on a jeepney. It's definitely something I will have to try.

It's amazing what just getting out in the world can show you as far as difference between your home country and a new place. I have heard it said that if you go to a coffee shop in America, you will likely see many people in their own world, often hurried or very busy and no real socializing going on unless they came in a small group. These groups are, then, very cliquish and keep to their own. Sitting in Bo's Coffee Shop in Ayala yesterday I saw a stark contrast to the experience as it might be in California.

People actually talk to each other! It goes beyond just being freindly and saying hello too. They talk as though they already know you. You feel like you are part of their group or circle. While there I met a few different people and learned of varying experiences. One such person was a woman named Joan who had worked in Japan previously. She was actually there the same year I was last in Japan. She had pictures of herself all dressed up in a traditional kimono with a traditional Japanese hairstyle. She apparently lives out in the province, but was visiting her cousin in the city proper. If I had thought about it, I should have asked to hear her Japanese, since she claimed to be fluent. Maybe she could do voice work on my projects!

I also met a really nice and beautiful Korean girl, who seemed to be really into me. We tried to talk, but her English ability was next to zero. There were two others, a guy and another girl with her, and even though communication was difficult, we were able to laugh and have a good time. It's amazing how many people will just smile, say hello or ask you where you're from.



Communication happens on many levels. I was in Bo's Coffee Shop to use the internet. I, otherwise, pay for use on my 3G modem, which I wrote about back in July. I went to Bo's a couple of days earlier and couldn't connect to the network. I assumed it was just me. This time, though, I noticed a couple of old guys, likely businessmen, with a Macbook Pro sitting near me and they couldn't connect either. Maybe it was an Apple thing since others with laptops were doing fine throughout the place. One of the old guys went up to the counter to ask for help and so I went to. I asked him if he was having trouble connecting and explained I had the same problem. He then noticed my iPhone and starting talking about that. The counter guy said someone would be around to help us.

Jojo was the guy sent to help us. He seemed to know his network stuff, but didn't know Macs. He helped me manually configure my WIFI connection for Bo's Coffee Shop with a static IP. After that I was on and it was working full speed. Since he didn't know Apple computers, we both helped the old businessman get connected through Airport, the Apple WIFI system. It was somewhat new to me too, but I have a Macbook and so at least knew what panels to go to. After that, the old guy was up and running and browsing stocks and trading pages.

There was another girl, who seemed like she might be a mix of Korean and Filipina, very tall and quite cute. She also had a macbook and was using it to do some kind of presentation. I forgot the name of that popular Apple presentation creation tool, but I knew it when I saw it. Looked nice and easy too, like all things Mac. Anyway, Jojo asked for my help to get her up and running, so we went to her table to set her up. Now that I had been through the process on the other guy's Mac it was easy to do it again. After she was up and running she was very thankful and I was able to chat with someone new.

That was all just a couple of hours in a coffee shop. I remember a similar experience at the small coffee shop next to the hotel I was in. There I met a beautiful nursing student and talked about anime for over an hour and also met a woman who was a MLM pro. Imagine if I really get out in the world. It has been recommended to me to just get out and walk around, or ride the jeepney, the local transportation, and go to the place one normally wouldn't go to. That's where you really meet the interesting people and see the real Philippines. I will make it a point, from now, to really get out there more and just experiences people and places, both around my new location and throughout the city. It will just add to the adventure!

The veil has been lifted. The mist has cleared. The ordeal appears to be over for the time being. As I mentioned previously, I contacted the buyer who put the "unauthorized claim" on my Paypal account, causing them to freeze those funds, which made my account very negative. He said it was merely a software problem with their payment system and that they were fixing it. His words apparently rang true, and sometime yesterday I checked my account to find the dispute was removed. I had access to my funds again. Since I had put the contents of my main site on a 50% off sale, I already had a bit of money coming it.

A friend of mine, who doesn't trust Paypal as much as I, possibly foolishly, do once said that when you get money in Paypal, you immediately move it to another account, and then move it again to an account not linked with Paypal. I see the logic in that now. In this case, I went to Ayala mall, here in the Philippines, and withdrew everything from the ATM. I have to say it felt good to be back in business. Now, of course, it would have been nice to go out and have fun, and me and Alona certainly considered taking a quick trip to The Dessert Factory where we enjoyed some great food previously. After a bit of thought thought, however, Alona said it is better to save money and cook in my room. We did just buy all those groceries the day before after all.



So, after we got home, Alona set to work making something quick while I handled the rice end of things. I may have missed those incredibly good wings at The Dessert Factory in Ayala, but it's probably better to play it safe for while and not fall back into any problems. Luckily that veil being lifted and the mist clearing isn't the only good thing to happen. As I mentioned before I had two potentially good gigs that I was working to reel in. Earlier I did a bit of "proof of concept" work to show the client I meant business. It seems to have paid off. It seems the project is going to move forward and I expect a nice deposit payment on it today. I also have another client who seems to be itching to get a project going. I may get a nice safety net of funds in my account very soon, which is good because I expect electricity bills and monthly dues in this place to roll around any day now.

All that remains is one thing... my own work. As I mention in my post about Mars Ravelo, I want to be a creator and tell my stories. In what time I have beyond taking care of these clients, I need to get some of my projects done and up for sale in Japan in this month of September in order to see a hefty reward by November, when my next rent is due. So I am back in business, but I will also be quite busy now. Still, it feels good to see things work out. It feels good to continue the adventure!

For the next couple of days, the mist continued to hang low and heavy. The ordeal was far from over. Food was running low and tensions were running high. This is not to say, though, that there was no light at the end of the tunnel. People in the Philippines deal with hard times on a regular basis, and never let it get them down. I contacted the buyer who put the dispute on my Paypal account, making it over $1000 in the red, and asked him what was up. He claimed that it was a mere software problem with his company's patment system and that they are working with Paypal to fix it. He said the fix may take up to 48 hours. I have no way to confirm whether or not this is true, but I there's little I can do besides wait. But that little, I am doing.

I put the items I sell on my main website at 50% on September 7th. Sales started to come in, but of course into my negative account. At least that got it down to -$925 or so. If the fix that the original buyer speaks of be true, then I will be back in business. Not to leave it at that, though, I already started setting up other means to make money. With other accounts I began prowling the freelance job sites and picked up two very good potential gigs. Both will pay more than enough to survive the storm until my other internet efforts kick in. It will still take a few days for everything to fall into place, but the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to look brighter.



None of this, though, helped with the immediate needs for food and water. To that end, I did some checking online to see the value of the Sony PSP here. I brought mine with me, primarily thinking I would use it on the 15 hour flight over, but I haven't touched it, not on the plane or since landing. It sat collecting dust for months even before that. I thought it might be time to let it go.

Alona and her friend Miriam, whom she lists as Shumai in her phone, due to the fact that they always eat Shumai (those little Japanese dumplings) together, knew of a place where I could pawn the PSP for quick cash, but also potentially get it back with very low interest. Before the journey out to that place, though, it was time for a swim. This place has a pool, a gym and a nice outdoor lounge area on the 4th floor. We saw all this when Angelo was showing us around, but had yet to make use of it. I still have yet to use of it, having no trunks to swim in, but that is all about to change. For yesterday, though, I was content to simply relax and take pictures of these two beauties as they swam. Since it wasn't the sunniest of days, the water was very cold. I could clearly see Miriam shivering at times, though Alona took to the water very quickly.

After the swim, the girls decided to do a little cooking. Alona prepared some kind of corned beef mix while Miriam handled the rice and dishes. We all sat down to a nice meal before their trek across town. Once they were out the door, I had only to wait. Now one might imagine they could take the PSP and run, but it's not like it's really worth that much. Besides, who'd give up that awesome pool?! Conveniently, the pawn shop was in the same general area as the girl's favorite Shumai joint, so after they got the money from the shop, about 3500 peso, they went and got some Shumai, but that wasn't the only surprise. When they got back, Alona surprised me with a nice new pair of swimming trunks! Only 30 peso at that. I haven't used them yet, but today might just be the day. Yesterday still had things that needed doing though.

After enjoying some very spicy Shumai, we had to return to Metro Ayala to stock up on groceries to weather this ordeal. I was out of smokes for two days. Now any sane man would just quit at that time, but the first thing I did upon entering Ayala was buy a carton of smokes. Yes a carton, and that's about $7 compared to what you might pay for it in the U.S. (especially California where one pack is nearly $5) In the grocery store we got another large bag of rice, plenty of nice canned foods and more bananas, grapes and oranges. I also got a larger bottle of cooking oil as Alona seems to use a lot in her cooking.

On the way out, we stopped in Junrex, the cell phone shop I wrote of before, and I got a 300 peso load card for my phone. I didn't have enough to also get internet load for my Smart Bro wireless modem, but another ray of light shone through the mist to help with that. I was surprised to find numerous wireless signals in this building, and some probably from nearby buildings. Some expect you to pay to use them, but I have found at least one that is free. I haven't tried checking on my laptop, but if I stand by the window with my iPhone, I can check mail, browse the web and do any other net things I like to do on a fast wireless connection from I don't know where. This is good as my internet load is running low and it's something of a waste to use it just to keep checking if this Paypal issue is resolved.

So today, the sun shines a bit brighter. I am currently working on one of those potentially great gigs I wrote of earlier and have been emailing, back and forth, the other potential client to find out if we can come to a nice agreement. I believe this ordeal is almost over and I will be back in the swing of things. Of course I am not forgetting my ultimate goal to be like Mars Ravelo, the comic artist I wrote about in July. I still have to get some good products done and out for sale in Japan this month for my long term plans to take effect. I am already halfway done with one and have good ideas for the next two. If all three get done and up on the Japanese sites this month, I should see a nice chunk of change in November, when my next rent is due!

I awoke yesterday to find a strange mist hanging over the city. Little did I know the ordeal the day of mist would bring with it. The goal for the day was simple, get the essentials and make the place livable. With that in mind, me and Alona went to Metro Gaisano, this time in Ayala, since I didn't want to go all the way downtown again, to get started. We got those things that were considered "must-haves". A broom and dustpan, mop, wash basins, plates, forks, knives and other everyday items most rarely think about. Already my money was low, so I was looking for the best bargains around. 4 plates strapped together for $1 was my kind of deal.

It seemed as though the Metro in Ayala was still slightly higher priced than the one downtown, but it was much closer and I wouldn't have to deal with the downtown crowds. The one downtown in a madhouse. Luckily, the Metro in Ayala also happened to be having a 3 day sale, so even if the prices were normally higher, we found many 50% off items and others "buy one take one". We wanted to get more groceries this time too, but already we had too much to carry. I decided it was best to return to the fort, set some thing up, and then come back.

This turned out to be a good idea since there were a couple of other essentials that needed dealing with. One was drinking water and the other was gas for cooking. Water turned out to be no big deal. We already bought out own dispenser, we just needed to get setup to have the big five gallon jugs delivered. I was lucky enough to find out that all we had to do was go downstairs and ask and they would have a guard bring one up. It costs about 50 peso. Gas, however, was another issue.

Alona really outdid herself cleaning the place up with all our new cleaning supplies. I was on top of the gas issue, and this is where the problems began. First, I tried many times to call the gas company whose lines were always busy. When I finally got through, I was given the lowdown on getting setup. The gas cylinder would be 1000 peso... empty. The contents would be another 700. After that there is the 500 peso regulator valve and the hose. The total was nearly 2500 peso, and most of what I had left. I began to question whether cooking was really that important. Alona assured me that it was. After all, this was only the startup costs and the cylinder would probably last a month. After that refills are only 600-700 peso. The gas man arrived about two hours later, unfortunately tracking a boot print or two on Alona's freshly done floor, and set things up for us. He even hooked it up to our set top gas stove. We were in business, though my wallet was near out of business. All that was left now was to stock up on groceries.

I still don't have a refrigerator so we couldn't buy things like eggs or other perishable items. We bought more fruit, of course, but also stuck to bulk things. Most importantly, a big sack of rice. 460 peso for 10 kilo of rice, which is great, but I wasn't too sure I could fit everything in with what I had left. I switched to a five kilo bag for 230 peso. We also got plenty of cheap canned goods and vegetables that don't necessarily require a fridge.

When we got home, Alona set to work cooking, preparing our first real meal in the new place. It was night now and we could finally relax. I don't know why I didn't think to take pictures of this first meal, but I guess we were both pretty much done for the day. The day was done with us too. I went online to check and I was pretty much out of money. Unfortunately, that's not where the ordeal ends.

This morning I awoke and checked email, hoping I might have some freelance work to do or some sales on my website. What I found instead was an email from Paypal saying there was a dispute on a sale I had made back in June. I sold my desktop computer and large screen TV to a guy in California before I came here. There was no real information about what the dispute was, but Paypal had already put a temporary hold on the amount of that transaction. That basically made my account over $1000 in the red! It's not final, until the dispute is resolved, but if it is not resolved in my favor, that red becomes very real. I tried a few times to call the guy and sent an email as well. I can only hope that it is all just some sort of misunderstanding.

Whoever said adventuring was easy? No one as far as I know. Besides, without adversity is there really an adventure? As usual, I don't know what's going to happen. I am in front of the computer only today, trying to bring in work, promote my own products and do anything else I can think of. Worst case, I have to do enough work or make enough sales to cover that negative and then I can get some money. Still, I will survive. I have, easily, over a week of groceries and that's plenty of time for things to turn around!

Allow me to relate to you the harrowing tale of "Movin' on Up!" As I mentioned previously, one of the places I looked at, the only one I really liked, was a high rise condo which allows rentals like any apartment. It was closer to Ayala than the hotel where I was staying and the view from the room was astonishing. It was also quite expensive by local standards, though cheaper than the pension house I was in for two months, and in typical apartment fashion, they required a deposit equal to one month's rent and two months advance rent. Add to that the fact that it came unfurnished, meaning I had to put stuff in it, and just getting into the place becomes an ordeal. Luckily I had Alona to help me navigate these rough waters. It didn't help, though, that I just didn't have the money.

So last week I decided, of all the places I looked at, that the high rise was the one. I just didn't know how I was going to pull it off. Originally they wanted a deposit equal to two month's rent and they wanted two month's rent in advance as well. No amount of juggling I could do was going to make that happen. Alona called our very helpful agent Angelo (Ahn-Hay-Low) and somehow got him to talk the owner of the place into only one month deposit. That was a start. I still didn't have the money though. Upon further discussion it seemed like it would be possible to pay only the deposit up front, and pay the two months advance rent when I moved in. That I could do. It wasn't going to be easy though.

Note: As I write this, some place appears to be burning up somewhere behind the big church in the picture. Maybe I'll have more on that later.



So I began the juggling. The goal was to get enough money in one place so that I could pull it out of an ATM machine and pay cash to move in on September 1st. Since I work online, money can exist in a number of different places and some of it is not exactly "real" yet. But I starting moving it. Me and Alona, then, went to the high rise to make the deal. We found out, though, that things didn't happen at the location of the property. We had to go to some office deep downtown where a, not so nice, secretary of the owner awaited. She didn't seem aware any agreement to only do one month deposit and pay the two months advance later. After much back and forth, though, everyone came to an understanding and I payed the deposit and signed the papers. I really didn't like this place, and I certainly didn't like being deep downtown carrying a lot of money. Anyway, everything was taken care of. I made them aware that I was waiting for some funds to transfer and the rest would go down on Monday. It was time for a drink.

Monday, September 1st rolled around and I waited and waited for my transfer. I got calls from Angelo, our helpful agent, saying the secretary at the downtown office, was getting very impatient. I knew there was a time zone difference to consider. I expected that by 3:00 PM here, it would be midnight in America and transfers would start moving. So while waiting, me and Alona decided to go to Metro Gaisano, a huge mall downtown, which I wrote about in the previous post, in the thick of city action, to start looking at things with which to furnish the place. We reserved a bed frame, mattress and dining table, saying we would return later that evening to pick them up. Unfortunately I was wrong. Monday was Labor Day. Nothing happened.

Tuesday, September 2nd rolled around and I was sweating. Still no money. We had to call everyone and say that things were pushed back a day. Alona didn't want to make those calls, so I had to do it. As the day rolled on, it started to look like it was all going to happen again. I started searching to see if there was anything I missed. Did I do the transfers wrong? As 4:00 PM rolled around, and I was still searching, I noticed suddenly that the funds were there! I think I should have hit the refresh button! Just being there wasn't enough though. I now had to be able to pull it from a machine without trouble.

Went went to the nearby bank where I usually get cash. You have to go inside to use the ATM and there's plenty of security around. Surprisingly, every machine was either out of order or only had small bills. Even if it had enough I would have had boxes of cash. Where do I go now? I knew there were other banks around and plenty of street machines, but I do I dare pull large amounts from some machine in the street? Alona suggested we go to Ayala, where there are plenty of machines and they are all inside. Once in Ayala I went to my favorite machine, one I call "The Hidden Machine" because it is placed strangely under an escalator. I knew I had to make multiple withdrawals because the machines limit what you can take in one go. The question was whether or not I would be able to get enough.

Two withdrawals from my favorite machine went off without a hitch. On the third attempt, the machine froze. I waited. Did it capture my card? What's it doing. Without explanation, after a long wait, it said the transaction was cancelled, "Except for transfer.." What the hell does that mean? Did it pull the money from my account and then not dispense the bills?! Yes it actually did! I wouldn't find out until later that the machine was at least nice enough to put it back. Still I was standing there without enough to pay for this room! I had no choice but to try another machine. I went to the next machine and made another successful withdrawal. I really wanted to do another, but I didn't want to push my luck. With what I had in my luggage in the room, I knew it would be enough. We went back to the hotel.

We called Angelo and rushed to the evil downtown office, where the secretary said that if we're not there by 5:00, she's gone. We didn't get there by five. Luckily, there was someone there to accept the payment. I handed over the money and got my official receipt. I was in, but it was far from over. Remember that we had pushed everything back one day, and that included the bed and dining table we reserved. Me, Alona and Angelo went to Metro Gaisano to take care of that. It was a good thing too, since only Angelo knew the address where it would all have to be delivered. Still it was not to be. In order to get it delivered that day, it would have been 9:00 PM. We already held Angelo up enough, so we opted for delivery the next morning. No time, however, was given. Still, with everything pretty much in the can, we all decided to go to Lemon Grass, my favorite Thai food place in Ayala, to eat. The food was great as always, but something didn't sit quite right. Alona started to feel sick and even I awoke at 3:00 AM with my stomach kind of bubbling.

Wednesday, September 3rd rolled around. Me and Alona had only to wait. We were watching some strange Tarzan movie made in the Philippines. It was an old movie and was done as something of a comedy. We didn't know when Angelo would call to say the delivery folks were there. Eventually, though, he did call and we went to the room. The delivery guys were already there building the table and bed. They didn't take long and soon everything was ready. Now we had to go and get everything else, especially the essentials, set top gas burner, rice cooker, water dispenser, fan, table cloth, towels, soap, bath tissue, you name it.

We came back to start setting up, but all was not right yet. Even though they said the water was turned on, Alona discovered that we had no pressure in the kitchen and the toilet would not flush. We had to wait for the plumber to come and fix this. He toyed wit things for a while and then called two other guys. What seemed like it should be simple, ended up taking hours. Alona was still not feeling well, yet she setup most everything else while they worked. Then she slept as they continued on. It was almost evening by the time everything was working. We still had a few more items to get. This time we went to Ayala to get, among other things, groceries. I don't have a fridge yet, so I am limited in what I can get for a while. There's still a long way to go. It was time for my first night in a new place. Sleeping was rough. Every sound was something to be checked out. Eventually, though, I dozed off.

Thursday, September 4th rolls around and Alona is home sick, with her mother. Here I am in this new place getting adjusted. This is where the real trial begins. My money is now dangerously low. I have one potential gig in the queue, which should tide me for a while, but it's time to seek out and find more online work and fast. I guess I should be glad I payed 2 months advance rent. Still, there's no telling what's going to happen from here. I will say this, though, it beats "working for the man" any day! On top of that, if it was easy and I knew everything that came next, it wouldn't be an adventure!

Let's face it. That cloud looks so fake. You know there's a UFO in there! It's amazing how many strange cloud formations I see in this tropical paradise. Sometimes I bet they are raging storms off in the distance. Some look like huge nuclear explosions out on the water. None of them, though, have anything to do with this post.

So here I am beginning my third month in the Philippines and it's time for things to change. I am trying to get a new place so that I can live both better and cheaper than staying in a hotel or pension house. I looked at a few places. Even though there are nice places that can be found for around $100 US per month, they are usually too far from the city center for my tastes and they are not such that I could walk outside and hail a taxi. I would maybe even need my own car or motorbike. Places near Ayala, the great mall I wrote of some time ago, are more expensive and some can even reach an amazing $400 US per month. Keep in mind, though, that's a fortune out here.

One of the places I am looking at is a high rise condo unit with a view to die for. It's in that super expensive range I spoke of, but I think it would be more than worth it. I would still be saving money over a hotel and after some startup costs, life would be cheaper. I'd be able to buy groceries, have a refrigerator, even cook, thus saving more money. The downside is the place comes completely unfurnished. That's fine though. My place in California was unfurnished and pretty much stayed that way for three years. I had an airbed, two card tables, pretending to be a computer desk, and a cheap chair. I might do little more with this new place, though, if I get it.



Thinking along those lines I went to a place called Blim's Fine Furniture in Ayala. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me take pictures. Still I made a list of things and their prices. Some things I thought of as essentials and others as things that would be nice to have. Like I saw this awesome bedroom set, which included everything, even the pillows and sheets, a night stand, tall mirror, dresser and side table for PHP 64,998. That's about $1400 at today's exchange rate, where the peso is weakening thanks to the fighting with muslims in the south. I also hear the dollar is finally making a come back. Anyway, I found just about everything I would need, even a set top gas range for cooking, in this store. Some things, though, were certainly expensive, even approaching American prices. This was the mall after all.

I showed my list to Alona and she was not happy. She decided to take me to a place where things could be had much cheaper. Yesterday I had my first experience in Metro Gaisano downtown. I had heard the name many times, and seen the shopping bags from there, but had never visited. This is not exactly a place where you want to pull out an expensive cell phone and start taking pictures, so I have none. There was so much activity downtown. It was amazing. Huge crowds of people everywhere. There are street markets here too. We chose, however, to go inside the huge plaza.

Immediately on the first floor, of this huge five level cube, I saw computer desks, chairs, bed mattresses and other useful things all in the $20 range. I could get a decent rice cooker for about $12 or so. They even had a juicer! The true essentials, though, were where prices really shined. Things like plates, silverware, bowls etc. were in a big pile and they were 99 peso per kilo. Basically you grab a bunch of plates, cups, or whatever and put them on the scale until you have one kilogram, and you pay about $2 for it! The same with coat hangers and other little things you don't normally think about, but have to have when starting in a new place from scratch. Towels, soap, bath tissue and other things were also extremely cheap, yet all very nice quality. This is not 99 cent store quality stuff here. Sometimes it pays to have someone who knows where to shop. Even high quality clothes, though not likely to fit me, could be had for $2 or so per item.

So today it's all about actually getting this awesome place. Rumor has it the owner might even be willing to let it go, so if I really enjoy staying there, I may just consider buying it after a year or so. That could be my base of operations as the adventure continues in other places like China or Japan. I will be sure to post pictures of that amazing view if I do get it. It has to be seen to be believed!

I have been trying to slow things down a bit lately in my travels here. While I did a lot of playing, going to clubs and fancy mountain restaurants and the like, I also have to remember that I have a plan overall. Originally I wrote, "...I could conceivably sustain myself on my internet endeavors and have some real adventure to boot. Since I am doing my work in the wired, it shouldn't matter where in the world I am at any given time, as long as there's access. It would appear as though I can't lose." That only holds true if I actually do something as far as my internet endeavors are concerned.

While most of the time, lately, I am just hanging out with my friend Alona and eating way too much at different places, tonight it's a Friday. I am not in a bar. I am not in a club. I am not at Juliana dancing the night away. I am here in my room sitting at the computer. Sometimes that's okay too, right? Well, it has to be if I want the adventure to continue.



Not to say I have been only doing this. Last week Grace came over with her friend Rose and we went to Sunflower Disco. It was a nice place with a couple of live bands that were pretty good. It was all cover tunes, but even on some old school Earth Wind & Fire they did a great job. The problem was that the place was just too damn expensive. Drinks were double the price of what they might be at The Pump or Juliana, other discos I have enjoyed. Going out like that is a good way to run out of money and end up in the street selling bananas.

So I remembered, as I wrote in my post about comic artist Mars Ravelo, "The guy has a list of published works a mile long. I guess what intrigues me is that he has done what I really want to do. Many of his works have been adapted into TV shows and major motion pictures over the years. He has also written movies himself. Looking at that list makes me realize just how much I really need to devote to my own dream if I really want to be successful at what I do." I have started a new comic, but I haven't worked on it since Monday or Tuesday. It's time to get it finished and ready to hit the Japanese market. The real key is after that. I need to do it again, and again and again.

So while I might miss the bars and discos to some degree. I do need to get something done. After all, this may be the first chance I have ever had to do what I really love doing and actually make enough to not only survive, but live well in a place some see as paradise. What more could one want? I have seen the snowball effect starting in Japan. My works have always gone over well with audience, but more people need to know about them. Naturally, the more I create, the more fans I can build. Each work points more people to the previous works. It rolls like a snowball down a steep hill. I want to keep on rolling.

I met Grace at a mega popular disco called Juliana last Friday night. This disco seems like the place to be Friday and Saturday nights in Cebu CIty. It seems like everyone goes there. I even ran into some of Marifel's friends there that night. There was blasting loud music and much dancing and quite a bit of drinking. The next day, I told Grace what had happened to me the day before.

The day before that, meaning Thursday, I met this Japanese guy named Chiba in my hotel. He's an interior designer brought from Japan to do up some new club in the town center. Apparently he had a friend who went back to Japan the day before, leaving him no one to really talk to since he spoke no English. He told me about what it was like working in an environment where he needs a translator to explain everything to the staff doing the actual work on the club. He also told me that the team was planning a Saturday trip up to a place called Mountain View, which houses some very famous dining spots about an hour out of town. He invited me to join them, which I thought would be very fun.

On Saturday, me and Grace went to Ayala Mall to see The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which was a lot of fun. When we left the mall, we realized it had rained. That's fairly common in Cebu so I thought nothing of it. Grace wanted to stop off at her place before our plan to meet up with Chiba and go into the mountains. She lived very near the mall and so we decided to walk. Before this, I had always stepped out of the front door of the hotel and into a taxi. This was my first time to really see the place. Just minutes walking from the mall, we entered into the area where Grace lived, and it was something of a shock. I don't have pictures. I wouldn't pull out a cel phone or camera there even if I had one with me.



I had heard many times before about rich and poor living side by side in the Philippines, but now I actually saw it. Run down shacks surrounded by run down vehicles, rust and garbage. The buildings often had no running water, no aircon and no CR. People were just hanging around, playing cards, drinking $1 rum and generally milling about. Now everyone in the area was extremely nice. They were interested in who I was and wanted to talk to me. I met a lot of cool people I would otherwise have never seen, had a couple of shots of dollar rum, and generally had fun. After Grace changed clothes, we went to meet Chiba.

I knocked on Chiba's door and asked him about the trip to the mountains. He said because it had rained, they cancelled the trip deciding to do it another day. I was somewhat disappointed, but Grace asked, "Why not just go anyway?" So we did. We got in a taxi and he agreed to take us up there and even wait for us, for a fee of 700 peso of course. So off we went into the mountain paradise. It was an adventurous winding trip up. EVen saw a motorbike accident. We stopped at a bourgeois restaurant/hotel called Chateau de Busay and there we ate. It was pretty amazing. It was night now and from there you could see the whole city in all its lighted glory. Only a big expensive camera could come close to capturing the beauty of what we saw up there. The place we were in felt like a palace and the view was astonishing.

Going from Ayala to such a poor area and then to this mountain palace type environment made me realize just how different a world I am in. Still, I love it and can't wait to see more. Now, though, after too much sightseeing and partying, I really have to get down to some business. I will be busy writing paid articles and doing freelance graphic gigs this week. Still, I am certain more adventures lie ahead. There's always something new to see!

Last night my friend Marifel had a big birthday party. I got her a cake care of the boyfriend of Gina-san, another friend who is fluent in Japanese. It was an all out party and much drinking ensued. I didn't have my iPhone on me so I didn't get pictures of the cake or other aspects of the party. The picture to the left is from earlier, where me and Angel took Marifel out to eat. We went to Lemon Grass, the Vietnamese and Thai place I wrote of earlier. I had those amazing ribs again. Actually, we all did, pretty much just ribs and rice. Being quite the funny character, when we were done, Marifel asked the waiter for, "Take out, inlcuding all the plates and siverware." I would have remembered to take a picture of the plates of ribs, but I was distracted by the cute poses Marifel was doing.

Interestingly, I was supposed to meet Marifel and Angel at Bo's Coffee Shop. I like this place because it has free WIFI for my iPhone. Now I knew there was also a Bo's Coffee stand in the middle of the mall somewhere, but compared to the main shop, I didn't see any chance for a mistake in where we would meet. What I did not know, however, is that there is another huge Bo's Coffee Shop just outside the mall and Angel, having arrived early, waited for me there for almost two hours. I got a text from Marifel, who didn't even wake up until an hour after we were supposed to meet, which said, "Where r u? Angel is waiting u in Bo's" I replied, "I've been sitting at Bo's for over an hour." That's when we figured it out.



The party was a lot of fun. We also went to a Japanese karaoke joint where Gina-san amazingly sung traditional Japanese music called Enka. Marifel convinced me to sing a Japanese song and so I went for one of the songs of my youth, in the days when I worked at a Japanese karaoke bar in Tucson Arizona (go figure, huh?). My reading of Japanese text on the karaoke screen was so rusty, though, that Gina-san had to help me with the lines. I need to start practicing again. Although it was a very fun night, the wild and crazy Marifel drank way too much, vomited on the floor of the place, and passed out. Gina-san had to take her to her place. Luckily I got a text from her just minutes ago and she is fine now and back at home.

Who knows what adventures lie ahead?

Ever since I got here my iPhone hasn't really worked at all, except as an iPod or WIFI device. No phone and no SMS. SMS is everything around here. Even to activate my Smart modem, it is assumed you have a phone capable of SMS in order to do so. I had to have someone do it for me. As I may have mentioned in another post, phones are cheap here. I have seen phones which boast greater features than the iPhone, although without the cool touch screen, for $89 or so. They even have full video recording. A simple phone would cost me a mere $30 if I just wanted to be up and running. I was all set to do it, but then a new question came to mind.

If my iPhone is serving no real purpose here, what have I really got to lose by trying one of the many software hacks to jailbreak it or unlock it? If successful, I could pop in any $10 local SIM card and have local phone and SMS service just like that. I went to Junrex, a popular cell phone store, to ask about it and to buy a cheap local SIM. When they knew what I wanted it for, they said they could unlock the iPhone for me, but it would cost P2500 and take 3 days. I figured I could do it all myself. So off I went.



Finding the right software to do it is another story. There are so many, and some seem downright complex. They talk of reverting iTunes to older versions, and then reverting the iPhone firmware to older versions. After you jailbreak it, you apparently have to upgrade the firmware and then do it all again until you get to the latest. This was all starting to make me think I should have just let Junrex handle it. Eventually, though, I found Ziphone. This tool promised one click operation no matter your iTunes or firmware versions. On top of that, it's free!

I put my new SIM into my iPhone and naturally the Phone and iTunes both complained. Still, with it connected, I clicked the button on Ziphone. A bunch of numbers flashed across my iPhone screen and then all went dark. After a moment, the Apple logo appeared. When the phone booted up this time, it said SMART in the corner next to my four signal bars instead of AT&T. I went to the store next door to put a P500 load on my new SIM card and then decided to text someone to see if it was all working. When she responded, I knew I had it made. So I spent the day texting up a storm and will continue to do so from this point!

Well, if you read of my internet ordeals yesterday, you may know that they are all over! Having finally figured out how things work with this SMART BRO wireless modem, since they weren't exactly explained in the documentation, I was able to get everything worked out and I am finally online. The solution, as I mentioned yesterday, had me returning to Ayala Mall, which I confirmed is, in fact, five levels of shopping goodness. I learned yesterday that a company called Junrex was an authorized reseller of SMART products and that they would be able to put the load on my SIM card. Turns out it was an amazingly easy process. Almost a shame that I let something so simple and so small stand in the way of my being online earlier.

I walked into Junrex and, at first, decided to be amazed for a while by the many different cell phones available. I will talk about that at length in a moment. After browsing the phones for a while, I finally went up to the front desk to ask about loading my SIM. She simply asked for my number which, even though I had it memorized, I had on the card that came with the SIM. She took my card and punched a few numbers on her phone and then turned the phone to me to show me the confirmation of my 1500 minute load. I paid my P500 and it was done. It was that easy, and will be for all future loads.



At that point I could have come home, but I remembered that there was this place I wanted to eat at. The night before, I saw a commercial on TV in the downstairs restaurant, during some type of karaoke game show, for a Chinese food joint called Chow King. The commercial was really cool showing a super skilled chef throwing rice around with lots of fire everywhere. So, in Ayala Mall, I walked past the huge dine-in KFC and the nearby Pizza Hut to enter Chow King. On the wall was a large poster for Chow Fan (fried rice) including spicy chicken and beef and, my favorite, Yang Chow. I ate Yang Chow fried rice the other night so I walked up to the counter, like in a fast food joint, and ordered the spicy chicken and beef. They said it wasn't available. I went with regular beef fried rice. For a mere 20 pesos you can add what they call a topping. I chose something called Lumpiang Shanghai, which looks like egg rolls, but are filled with pork like a pot sticker. Altogether the meal as about $2.00 with a bottled water, and it wasn't bad. It wasn't China by any means, but still pretty good.

Satisfied with my meal, it was now time to find my way out of this maze. As I searched for an end to the bright and busy corridors, I ran across something I had completely forgotten about. It was the Ayala Mall Mac Store. I remembered finding their webpage just a couple of days before going to the Philippines. I went in and was surprised to see it was no different than the many Apple stores in Los Angeles. They had everything I might want should I need to expand my Mac gear. I got a price sheet from them just to see how things compared. Now, while most things are incredibly cheap in the Philippines, imported, western technology, especially from America, seems to be very expensive, more so than buying it at home. Now I knew about this from the forums I have read about the Philippines, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't nearly as bad as some made it out to be. Even though I have read claims of things being as much as double the price of their American counterparts, most items were only $200 - $500 more than the Apple store list price. When you're talking about a $2000 or $3000 item, thats not an outrageous price increase. It does, however, bring to mind a serious question.

What will become of the iPhone in the Philippines, or Asia in general? I can now totally understand why Apple lowered the price of the new 3G iPhone, but because of the import taxes that appear when these items go to Asia, it will go up in price on this end. The problem is, when I looked at phones in the many mobile stores, I was surprised to find that, while the iPhone may be a top contender in the U.S., in Asia, it's just another phone. Sadly, there are phones that cost less than half that price that have the same features, not counting the innovative touch screen. What may spell trouble for the iPhone, though, are what the higher caliber phones can do. Phones in the iPhone price range come with, not a mere 2 megapixel camera like Apple's flagship mobile product, but a 5 megapixel camera, and many can shoot full video. They have the same internet and web features with the advantage that 3G networks are actually available all over Asia. Many phones are clearly made to watch TV and pick up radio, aside from having storage enough for music and video on board. They have real GPS in their map systems and many boast some pretty big and high resolution screens. I think Apple will be given a run for their money by companies like Nokia, Samsung and Sony in the far east.

Anyway, now that I am back online, it is time to get down to some serious writing. I got a few freelance writing gigs while offline during my trip, and so there's work to do. It's time to make some money to keep the adventure going!


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Ayala Mall is huge! I don't remember if it was four or five stories. I got lost in it on numerous occasions. But why was I there? I remember hearing rumors that there existed wireless 3G modems, not much larger than a credit card, that you can plug into a USB port, giving you cellular internet access anywhere you can find a signal. The 3G standard is alleged to reach speeds of up to 2 Mbps, which would explain why people in Japan and Korea are already watching live video broadcasts and doing video chat on their cellphones. So I woke up today with a mission to prove the existence of these modems, and if it were true, and in a reasonable price range like most things here, I would get one, forever solving my internet woes.

I hopped into a taxi and took the trip down to Ayala Mall, for a price just over a $1.00. I walked into this mega structure and immediately thought to myself, even if these things do exist, how will ever find them in here? This place was beyond belief. Multiple levels, Bright Lights, a huge food court, KFC, Pizza Hut, Shakey's Pizza, McDonalds, they were all there. Now there are probably places just as big or bigger in L.A., I just didn't make it out to see them. I remember The Galleria was pretty amazing. The mall fresh in my memory, though, is the Fashion Show mall in Sherman Oaks, which is where I bought my iPhone. That mall is a corner plaza compared to Ayala Mall.



So I searched around this place looking at all manner of amazing sites. The mall seemed mainly fashion oriented, but there were some technology stores. Plasma screens, video games, cellphones, computers, there was a lot to look at and sift through. Finally I decided to ask someone, and he explained that they don't have that type of thing, meaning the 3G modem, in this place and that I would have to go to this other even bigger mall. (He was wrong, though, but that's another story.)

So off to the, even bigger, SM Mall I went. I passed by this one on the drive in from the airport so I knew of its scope and scale. Seeing a huge building from the outside, though, is no comparison to getting lost multiple times on the inside. Eventually I found a huge area called The Cyberzone. This was where all the geeky stuff was to be found, even though this mall, on the whole was much more technology oriented than Ayala Mall. In here I found the SMART store I was looking for, SMART being the company that I eventually discovered to be the maker this rumored modem. It was real. It cost about $89 and so, after much hassle, I bought it and took it home.

By the time I arrived at home I was starving. I had to eat something. I went to the downstairs restaurant and they were taking a "time out". One thing to note about the Philippines is that it is very laid back. I guess if the cook has something better to do, there's no cooking going on. The lady at the front desk directed me to the restaurant next door. So I walked outside and around the corner to this little cafe next door. Inside, I see numerous people on laptops and hand held devices. Some are even doing Skype and streaming video. Sure enough, this place has WIFI and apparently very fast WIFI too. They're also open pretty much all day. If I had known this, I could have simply taken the couple of steps next door and had high speed internet yesterday. If it wasn't raining, I'd go there right now and upload these two posts. But wait a minute! What about the modem I just bought?

Well, I plugged the modem in and it worked! I didn't find a 3G signal to connect, but I did find a signal and I was on the internet! I went to speedtest.net to see just how fast it was and I got the results you see on the left. The 384 Kbps range ain't bad for cellular that will work anywhere and anytime. But the story doesn't stop there with a happy ending. You see, like many such services here, this was a prepay cellular service. You basically buy "loads" to put on your SIM card and then talk or surf until you use it up. I bought a 900 Minute load card to go with my modem, which came with 30 free minutes, probably to give you ample time to set it up. Sadly, I neglected to ask how you activate this load card. Reading the instructions on the back of the card, it is assumed that you have a cellphone. My iPhone, being locked to AT&T, doesn't work here except as a WIFI device. To activate the card, I needed to send an SMS message to their activation service.

I experienced it. I got to play with it! I got to feel it! All for about thirty minutes. Then my time was up. Tomorrow I must return to Ayala Mall because, while there is no SMART store in there, I, at least, learned there is an authorized reseller called Junrex. There I will get my load card properly activated, and this story will, hopefully, be at an end, a happy end.


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Yesterday, I finally arrived in Cebu Philippines and got settled in my quaint little room, but that's not the beginning of this story. After landing, I took a nice, big, black SUV from the Mactan Island airport to the joint I was originally planning to stay at. This fairly long SUV ride cost me about 475 pesos, which equates to about $10.00 USD. For comparison, I also took a nice, big, black SUV from my apartment in Los Angeles to the airport there. That cost about $80.00 USD. As to why I am not at that first stopping point, it all boils down, once again, to internet. The internet speed there was excruciatingly slow. Luckily for me, I didn't prepay my reservation, so I decided to move on.

I researched quite a few locations to stay at before leaving L.A., and even though I didn't have access to my list, one of them stuck in my memory. Something about their website caught me and said, "This is the one," yet for some reason I chose to ignore that still small voice and go somewhere else. Well, now was my chance to correct that mistake. I went to the place still tugging at my memory and checked into the room pictured above. They had internet! They even had high speed internet. Unfortunately, thanks to the recent storm, it was down at the moment. I thought about leaving to continue my search, but something still said that this was the place. I chose to stay.



When I got settled into the room and ate at the downstairs restaurant, I knew I had made the right choice. Of course, eating a great meal for just over $1.00 will do that. Still I knew I like the place. That just left the solving of my internet issues as the final hurdle to totally settling in. I already had a few ideas on just how to do that, but as usual, in this place, there's a solution around every corner.


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Life is too short to leave things undone. In this day and age, I can't even begin to imagine being that guy who grows up, works himself to old age and dies without ever leaving his home town. I've already done some traveling in the past, but I have always dreamed of bigger. That's why, when things started going bad in my town, I decided to become The Adventurer. So what exactly does an adventurer do? Well, an adventurer must travel, and I mean travel far and wide around this amazing planet. That's what I intend to do from now on, and that is what this site will chronicle.

So back to "things going bad in my town" as I mentioned earlier. For nearly fifteen years I have worked in some facet of the entertainment industry. I worked on video games in Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas before ending up in sunny, Southern California to work in the TV and film industry. Earlier this year, the industry was hit hard by the Writer's Guild of America going on strike. A lot of people lost their jobs and some even packed their bags and headed for the hills. Now, the Screen Actors Guild has a contract coming to an end. There is talk of another strike or, at least, intentionally extended negotiations. All this has made it very difficult to get work. I saw the inevitable, and decided it was time to make a move.



Now I've been working online for some months, but with the high rent and outrageous cost of living in La La Land, there's no way I could sustain myself. It seemed I had two choices. I could go down in flames, or take my chances out there in the wide, wide world. I chose to take my chances, hop on a plane and head to South East Asia. With few exceptions, many places in Asia have a cost of living as low as 20% of what it might cost to live in Southern California. There I could conceivably sustain myself on my internet endeavors and have some real adventure to boot. Since I am doing my work in the wired, it shouldn't matter where in the world I am at any given time, as long as there's access. It would appear as though I can't lose.

The reality is that I don't know what's going to happen. This may all work out or I may end up becoming a rice farmer in some unknown village. Whatever happens, you'll read about it here. One thing that really did it for me was looking into the future. I realized that if I stay here, I know exactly what is going to happen... nothing. Nothing will change. That's not how I want to live my life. That's really not living at all. Pass or fail, good or bad, I'd rather go out there and give dreams a try. I say let their be surprises. I mean, if I knew everything that was going to happen, life wouldn't be an adventure!


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