We’ll be home for Christmas!!! Whoooohoooo.

• Being married to the love of my life and living overseas together changed a lot of my perspective about being miles away from home. I used to be lonely and alone. During weekends, I’d stay in my room all day, standing up only when I’m hungry to buy food. I’d spent a lot of time talking to my family and to habs on the phone (who was working back then in Pinas), and that’s the only time that  I have someone to talk to. I just have my laptop for company. It’s so different now. With everything that I do, I have someone for company. We go to the groceries, walk to the nearest fast food, go to church, go to the malls always together, always holding hands. Every little thing that comes to my mind, I have someone whom I could talk with, even the most trivial. It’s really a nice feeling to fall asleep with someone beside you and not just several pillows in the bed.

• Since we are far from our family and friends, we had learned to survive and rely with each other. We take care of each others needs. I tend to be clumsy and careless, he makes sure that I’m okay. He doesn’t know how to cook or to iron his clothes, I do that for him while he takes care of the laundry. We hang our clothes together… and go on shopping and dining sprees together. It’s the best feeling in the world. Whatever  problem comes our way, we conquer it together. As the saying goes, joys are doubled, sorrows are halved when you get married.

• Of course we have our share of bickering. We sometimes argue with each other…. not in a bad murahan way but in a cute little way where we engage in word wars and try to prove the other one is right or wrong. we have 5 or 10 minutes debate, usually capped with “ang kulit mo” or “ang cute mo” and then we forget about it. After a while a new issue will provoke another debate, we exhaust ourselves with defending our stands then we’ll say “o cge, erase…erase” and then we forget about it. We know each other’s weakness : I don’t know how to sweep the floor properly, he spends a lot of hours playing his xbox games which would cause some nagging from me. But we also know when to stop and when to give way to the other. I guess you could say that after years of being together, we know each other so well and could anticipate what the other one is thinking. And at the end of the day, the thing is … we still love each other. Flaws and all that…

• We spend weekends with our friends, celebrating birthdays, special occasions, eating and cooking and drinking together. These are a few cherished people who accepts us for who we are. After a few years here, I realized that there are lot of friends from the past : from LICS (high school), from UP (college), from previous work, from my hometown and from other circles. I know they’re here through facebook and mobile communications. We sometimes meet up with a few of them. But the real friends who stick around is a small group who became our family here. They were the ones who knew our going ons, who we travel with if there are opportunities, and who share our joys and pains, and who genuinely cares like brothers and sisters as we all traverse this journey away from our homes. To them, we are thankful for the feeling of familiarity and belonging.

• Every work day, we go to work and try to earn money. For 8 hours we stare and glare at our computer monitors and try to accomplish our tasks for the day. I will call him every now and then to ask how his day is going, he will do the same. In the afternoon, we go back home tired.

• I always cook our dinner except on Fridays when we usually dine out. I learned how to cook from the early days when my mom was abroad and I had to take care of my siblings. I used to feel obligated to do it, but now I enjoy cooking. I always cook Filipino food and I want to think that what I can summon from the kitchen are passable enough. Habs always says it taste good and I’d feel good about that. Nowadays, I am trying new dishes every now and then, always pinoy food. Always those that I miss the most.

• We shop for our supplies on the grocery near our block. We usually bring a cart and buy 1 week’s worth of groceries. It’s one of my favorite time, fooling around the big grocery store looking for something to eat, something for the kitchen and some toiletries for the bath room. It makes me feel good that we get to do these things together.

• I spend a lot of time on the internet, reading my twitter and facebook feeds, getting updates for my favorite movies and shows.

• He spends a lot of his free time playing his games: Battle Field 3, Magic Cards, Street Fighter. Sometimes I will nag about his game time, feeling that it’s too long especially during days when we both have to wake up early for work. But I don’t really mind, he has his xbox time, I have my facebook time. We’re even.

• During weekends, we sometimes go out to malls strolling around. But most of the time, we spend it at home, doing some household chores and refilling the grocery supplies. I usually cook breakfast and lunch and we just rest the whole day.

• Relatively, we are not a high maintenance couple. We do not splurge on expensive perfumes, clothes and bags. We do have our weakness and that maybe our gadgets which we continuously make an effort to upgrade when necessary. But we know our limits. I could say that probably, our only vice is traveling.

• We love traveling together and discovering new cities. I love to create travel plans, he loves to navigate in unfamiliar territories. We are always in awe that we are able to get out of the country quite regularly but at the same time manage to have some savings account at the bank. We feel truly blessed. This year, we had traveled to Paris, Italy and Bangkok. Next year, there will be more destinations to conquer. We are very excited about the possibilities.

• A lot of people, especially our relatives and friends ask us if we are planning to get on the baby way. I’d always smile and say “dadating tayo dyan”. In reality, we feel that we are not ready yet. I always have a fear of things happening for the first time and this is one of them. But we do have plans, we will definitely try to conceive in the future. And hopefully, God will bless us with a bundle for joy. As of now, we are enjoying what we have and we’re making the most of our time together and the early stage of our marriage. I think in God’s time, our little child will come. For now, we’re taking our time preparing ourselves to be good parents by learning how to take care and love each other first.

During my first two years in Singapore, I was faced with a reading problem. See, one of the things that I love most in the world is reading books. As long as I can remember, I am always with a book in hand. My favorite shop at the malls had always been National Bookstore where I would spend hours browsing on new paperbacks and looking through the rows and rows in the bookshelves. When a branch of Powerbooks opened at SM Megamall, I was ecstatic. There you could actually read on opened books on couches and specially designed reading areas. It was heaven for me.

When I came here, I lost the ability to read books. I was too occupied with the internet: watching my facebook timeline to see how my friends are doing, downloading my favorite movies and series, reading news articles online and reviewing amazing photos from around the world. There was no end with what you could discover and read, there was just too much to absorb. After work, without fail, I would be in front of my laptop typing away and looking for new website to devour. For the first time, the world around me was at my fingertips and my curiosity grew with each new discovery of how powerful the internet could be. This was how I lost time. Every single day, my whole attention was devoted to the internet, I was unable to do anything else. During those 2 years, I was still able to buy a lot of books. I would go to the bookstores whether at the malls or at the airport and buy one or two paperbacks that caught my attention. I would try to bring these books around, hoping that I would be able to read them during my coffee breaks or while waiting for the bus. That did not happen. And the reason was, I also had an iPhone with me wherever I go. And the iPhone was always connected to the internet via 3G. Instead of using my time to read when I’m away from my laptop, I would use all of my free time to browse the internet using my mobile. I would endlessly check facebook and twitter feeds, read through my favorite news sites or blogs whenever I’m on the move (either traveling or having coffee). My books remained in my bag, untouched after reading only a few pages.

After a while, I realized that my bookshelf was piling up with books which had barely been started. I accumulated a lot of new items which my old self would have found joyous just sitting on a couch emerging myself in their content. But that was not happening at all. I was consistently ignoring my purchases, focusing instead on internet contents and useless social networking sites. Once I realized what was happening, I felt that there’s a huge part of me that’s missing. And from that time on, I always felt the need to get it back.

The answer came when Den, a close friend of mine, bought a kindle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle). Initially, I thought that kindles would not work in Singapore. I knew that amazon.com do not have a retail presence here. I thought that to be able to use a kindle, you need to be able to buy the books online. That for me was quiet expensive to maintain plus I simply thought that it wouldn’t work here. When Den got her kindle, I asked her how to upload the book on the device. She said that she has ebooks files which she would just transfer to her kindle. I have lots of ebooks files which I got from my previous work. They’re all compiled on a CD. I got so excited that I quickly researched online about the kindle: user reviews, price, the usefulness of the device and how to get one from here. After a few weeks, I finally relented and bought one myself.

Amazingly, this little device instantly solved my reading problem. I guess the problem really is two-folds: 1. I don’t spend enough time for reading 2. The books that I tried to read did not really interest me. Once I learned the ins and outs of ebooks, I had hundreds even thousands of titles to choose from. I used the feedbacks from amazon.com and goodreads.com to select other readers’s recommendations. I perused google to search for my favorite book genre “tear jerkers”, “classics”, “young adult”, “fiction” and chose the best titles from hundreds of lists from different websites. I discovered new favorites and loved them: Hunger Games, The Millenium Trilogy and The Help and the list is still growing. I also got re-acquainted with old loves: John Grisham, Stephen King, Nicolas Sparks. My time was still limited: I read whenever I’m travelling in the MRT and in the bus. From our flat to work and back – it takes one hour each way. So that’s 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. Not bad. My kindle became my constant companion in the crowded MRT lines, during peak hours standing on a bus and during long ride home and during long flights. It never fail to keep my mind off from work and other things and transport me back in time to whatever land I’m currently reading about. Oh the joy of those hours where it’s just me and Kenny (I name my gadget and yes, for the kindle it was kenny) in our own little world.

I think the reason why the kindle works for me while books didn’t was because instead of carrying big bulk of books in my bag, I just have a half inch device perfectly fitted in my grasp. I also have a huge selection of ebooks, I could choose one book, from thousand others and with a little research and preview, I could measure how interesting the story would be. If I end up not liking the storyline after a few chapters, I could easily go to the next book in the queue without worrying that I spent several dollars to buy it. I also love the e-ink technology in the kindle, it does not have an lcd monitor glare. Unlike the iphone which makes me dizzy after a few minutes of reading, I could read and read on a moving train without having migraine in the end.

My review of the kindle: 5 Stars

I have the kindle 3rd Generation wifi version: its really just perfect! Amazon just released a new version, Kindle Fire. After reading about its specs, I am still biased and keeping my original kindle and definitely not upgrading.

I never thought a non-fiction book about one of my heroes would affect me this much. Not until I finished reading Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson did I realize how much I admire this guy.

My love of apple products started when I got my very first brand new laptop – a Mac. It was a hard decision, at that time, not a lot of my friends were using Mac and like everyone else, I was afraid to switch. I thought the OS is complicated – a fear of the unknown kicked in. I had to ask a few Mac users how hard it was and I got some good advice. In the end, I decided to buy a Mac. I had long gone through the apple fan fever: I upgraded my Mac, bought an iphone, upgraded to a newer iphone model, bought an iPad and gave out a lot of ipods to my siblings.

I was glued to Steve’s life…. I was mesmerized at how the story of Apple as a company unfolded before my eyes. And how the invention, decisions, designs and evolution of my apple gadgets was told in such a truthful and honest manner. I admire Steve even more… He’s a genius. I could not relate to him being a rebel, but I could relate to his passion: for work, for perfection, for his products and his company. I got to know this guy who is worlds away from my life but whose designs and taste had impacted the gadgets that surrounds me. I saw Steve as a very determined and motivated person, not someone who is perceived by the media as a mean bastard to work with.

Page after page, my admiration for him grew. I was in tears when he was in the most painful stage of his cancer, and when the author was describing how much he love his son. He’s a billionaire, Apple had succeeded in being the most valuable company in the world, but the simplicity of his house and his family life was described with earnest. Who has a plane and a beehive in the back yard at the same time? I’ve read a lot of reviews online as to how fellow readers viewed this book. Some says it’s lacking in context for some chapters and persona, but come on… It’s 63 years cramped into 600+ pages. Some stories would obviously not make it. But the more important thing is, he was portrayed with freedom : his flaws and character were narrated at the author’s point of view. Not his. Not his wife’s. They gave the author full control of what is to be written.

Asked why he opted to have an authorized biography, he said, he wants his kids to know him. That he was young once. In the process, we –the admirers of his products and company, also got to know him. Everything about Steve Jobs is inspiring. One could just hope to be at least half the person that he had become.

He was able to put a dent in the universe. A very well-crafted dent.

Oct 20-23, 2011

Things I learned, saw, experienced and wanted to share from Bangkok (the City of Smile) :

1. Before going to Bangkok, I did a little research about tips and travel advice and it paid off. For instance, there were so many queues for taxis of different colors and variations. Good thing we knew exactly what to look for: a Meter Taxi. At the ground level of the airport, where all the telecom booths are located, look outside and go to the taxi queue where there are counters in front with airport staffs writing on slips of paper. There a nice lady asked us where we are going and gave us a stub and a cab driver approached to assist us with our luggages. I think this ensures that they don’t overprice. We got the hot pink cabs by the way.

2. Tip # 2 get some small bills for the toll fees. When we exchanged money in SG, we were given 1000 Baht bills. We went ahead and bought a pack of chocolate at the duty free shop to change our money. The driver took the skyway (traffic free) route and asked us for toll fee twice. The toll fee was 75 baht in total. It was a good thing that we had change because the driver asked for toll payment 100 meters before the gates and we were caught by surprise – and to think we knew it’s coming. Taxi fare was 300 baht from airport to hotel with 50baht surcharge.

3. We decided to try Singtel’s Unlimited Bridge Roaming plan. It costs sgd 52 for a 4 day trip. This gave us the freedom to be online while roaming the streets of Bangkok. Because of the flooding alert that the city is facing right now, it is important to keep in touch and to have useful timely information at hand in case the situation worsen. Updates regarding the water level at certain areas are crucial at this point. Habs and I have 2 phones but we opted to activate data roaming for only one. One handy iphone functionality is that they can serve as personal hot spots as well. So I get to tweet and update fb using my phone with his roaming data plan too at no extra cost.

4. Imessage is a traveller’s friend. We could chat and send messages to our friends in sg for free as long as we are connected to the internet.

5. Our hotel turned out to be pretty good. We checked in at Holiday Inn Silom and it is in good vicinity of a grocery store, good restaurants around the block and most importantly – a BTS (Bangkok Transport System)station, Surasak. This made navigating through the city fairly easy.

6. On our first day we checked out the establishments near the hotel and picked a nice looking restaurant serving local dishes. The food was good and we did not have to pay a hefty price for it. Plus it was authentic thai which is always love.

7. Learning about the flood warnings even before flying here, we decided to practice extra caution, we changed our itenerary completely to revolve around the hotel and maybe some malls and nearby parks. We wanted to stay inside. We crossed out all the popular tourist attractions : Grand Palace, Ayuthaya (flooded), Floating Market (flooded). We were afraid that most of these sites are at the outskirts and might be prone to floods and we did not want to take any chances. We are just going to relax without the pressure of an itenerary and possibly shop a little and have the famous thai massage on the side.

8. I met my high school friend, Shirley and a couple of her friends at MBK (Mahboon Krung) – the largest shopping mall in bangkok. She’s now working here, but sadly their office was submerged by water and they had to evacuate to a hotel in the city because their village is on the verge of floods as well. They took us to the Fifth Avenue at the 5th floor of MBK for dinner where there are all kinds of food to please the hungry souls. We ordered a seafood platter and some barbeques and mango salad and dinner was absolutely delish!

9. Shirley and her friends offered to go to Grand Palace with us the next day… They do not have to report for work at the moment because they were affected by the flood. Since they had worked here for a long time already, they are familiar with the territory and to know if its safe. They said it is and these people are monitoring the situation closely since the village that they reside at is on high alert. So that puts the Grand Palace tour right back in the list for the next day.

10. To go Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun, we took a ferry from the BTS Saphan Taksin station. These are huge ferry boats carrying passengers around the Chao Praya River. Think vaporetto Thai version. One way ticket to Than Tai costs 30 baht. When we boarded, a tour guide was speaking and explaining the areas along the river as we pass by in both English and Thai. It was a good short ride (around 30 mins total) and the view was worthwhile. At this time, the water current seemed rapid but we did not see any floods. We did see a lot of sandbags though- a sure sign that the locals are preparing for the worst.

11. We travelled by foot to the entrance of Grand Palace. On the way there, we grabbed brunch in a little restaurant shop we passed by. This little hole in the wall served delicious local food without burning a hole in your pocket. Even my cappucino tasted awesome!

12. At the Grand Palace we were warned by our friends beforehand that the guards are very strict about the visitors’s attires. No shorts, no slippers, no sleeveless top, no short skirts. We thought we had considered every loopholes but as it turned out, I was wearing leggings and the guards wouldn’t let me in. I had to turn around and ask my group to wait for me while I buy a pair of acceptable pants. It turned out that there were no stalls selling one inside the Grand Palace premise. I went all the way out of the gates and there, I saw stall after stall specializing for tourist’s needs and selling things such as skirts, malongs, scarfs and kamiso pants. I got a nice pair of white pants with beautiful embroidery for 180baht. The lady was asking for 200 but shirley told me to always bargain. Another good tip.

13. The entrance ticket to the Grand Palace cost 400 baht. It includes tickets to a few museums and attraction. We went to the royal coin museum and the royal weapons museum.

14. I love the temples! They are so magnificent, artistic and classy. The details of the structure, every little fragments that build up the tall majestic buddhist temples are breath taking. The sun was so hot but I didn’t mind at all… I could imagine the people from hundreds of years ago who designed and worked on these monuments…the highlight of the area is the Emerald Buddha where we sat down and meditated for a while. I gave thanks especially to the people of Thailand for preserving these relics and giving us a chance to witness this kind of beauty. Each temple and monuments speaks of their rich culture, tradition, artistry and religion.

15. My favorite part of this day was the Reclining Buddha at the Wat Pho. At the entrance, there was a guy who told us that the temple was closed and that we could only go for massage… Which was wierd as we see a lot of tourist wandering around inside. We ignored the man and walked tothe ticket booth which had a label that a ticket cost 25 Baht. We ignored the booth too and just went inside, there seem to be no ticket gate anyway.. True enough, we walked right into the Wat Pho temple, housing the 3rd largest buddha in a reclining position, without any problem. It was beautiful!

16. I had goosebumps looking at this Buddha. At first, I was wondering where it was because the immediate area around the temple was under construction. Then I realized that I was staring at it’s huge golden thigh. I did not expect that the Buddha is this big in reality! It covers the whole length of the temple from end to end. Near the foot is a spot slightly open for photo op.

17. At the end of the statue, you will see the Satang Coin pots – these are 108 small pots made of brass. Look for the desk where you could pay 20 baht in exchange for a can of small prayer coins. People place a coin in each pot for blessings to be bestowed upon them. The tinkling sound the dropping coins make is almost musical. This is one unforgettable experience that will leave it’s mark for me and one that should not be missed.

18. We went for lunch at The Deck in Arun Residences. The good thing about having friends who are residents of this country with you is that they know where the good restaurant are. And The Deck did not disappoint – good view, good food, excellent service.

19. On the way back, we got a feel of the Bangkok flood at it’s true form. The ferry station where we took the ride back is submerged into waste deep water. There were wooden planks set up for the ferry passengers to be able to pass. We need to pass around 3 inches of water above the ledge In order to make it to the other end. Needless to say, our shoes and socks needed to get wet with flood water. We crossed the first part of the platform and towards the middle there is a group of aunties selling big plastic wrappers (big enough to cover our shoes and socks until the ankles) with rubber bands to make it hold for 1 baht a pair. Since there were more waters ahead and my shoes are now wet and soaked, I bought a pair. The lady I got it from was so nice she even helped me to get them on properly, it was hard to maintain balance with all the water around and the possibility of falling off was scary. It was really bad… From where we stand, we can see the ground floor of their houses and it did not look good. It looks scary.

20. The ferry back cost half the price going there(15 baht)… One noticeable difference is that there was no tour guide on the way back. I wonder if that was the price diff… This time we did not buy the ticket at the ticket booth but just hopped on and paid the conductor who made rounds on board.

21. One thing I noticed at the streets of Bangkok was that there are street food everywhere: fried sausages, fish balls, fruits, big yellow corn, pickled vegies, noodles, frogs! This made me miss home. Everything looks and smell good. Habsi wants to try them all but to me, the choosy one, they do not look that appealing to actually eat (and certainly they do not look clean).

22. Tuktuks ply around everywhere. We rode one and all five of us (3 guys, 2 girls) fit together although things got squeezed and tight. Cost: 100 baht from Grand Palace exit going to Wat Pho entrance.

23. There is another kind of bigger tuktuk.. The songthaew. These are like our jeepneys only they are made of pick up trucks customized with two opposite benches. They ply fixed route for set fares. We were not able to try and ride one but saw a lot of them around the area day and night. It caught our attention because it looks like tuktuks older brothers, and our jeeps cousins.

24. Its true, the thais are always smiling even from afar. Isn’t that one of the most wonderful thing in the world to see?

25. As planned, we went to the malls in order to stay indoors and on higher grounds. The brands are all the familiar big names especially in the Siam Center and the Siam Paragon. The MBK is one of the largest malls in the city and the things that you see and could buy here are endless. The price is cheaper too compared to Singapore. But one rule i have when travelling is to not buy anything which are readily available back home – so I did not end up spending a lot.

26. There was Krispy Kreme and we eagerly bought a box of 6 for breakfast the next day. We checked out McDo (as part of a habit). One unique meal: the spinach pie. The Ronald McDonald in all branches is different, they are posed in a wat like bow. Pretty cool! We also saw that they have free wifi. I tried to register but the system wont accept my passport ID. I guess this is designed for locals and the IDs accept only certain character format.

27. Speaking of wifi, too bad our hotel does not offer free wifi – not even in the lobby! Good thing we have unlimited roaming … It certainly makes a lot of difference. Around the city, some establishments do have free wifi which in these days is always 2 thumbs up.

28. The King of Thailand (Rama IX) is the most popular figure around. Well him and buddha. Every house and buildings that I saw has a small buddhist altar outside. Similarly, there’s a lot of bill boards and backdrops everywhere with the picture of the king. After a while, he became a familiar figure that I could recognize his pictures from afar and without having to read the labels.

29. Thai food was glorious! It was so good to finally experience the real thing here. To be able to try authentic mango salad, sticky rice with mango and coconut, phad thai, stif fry seafood noodles from the very people who conceptualized them. Dishes which i had always loved turned out to be super duper good in the land of their origin.

30. I especially enjoyed experiencing different kinds of dining adventures and we were successful in this regard as well. We ate at a hole in the wall eatery near the grand palace with the best green curry rice i ever tasted. We had seafood bbq at a food hub, lunch at a riverside restaurant with a wonderful view of the closely watched nowadays Chao Praya river (the deck), had a very classy very elegant dinner at a royal thai restaurant (blue elephant) and we had lunch at MBK’s food court.

31. If there’s one thing that is a must at bangkok, it’s probably having a thai massage! Oh my goodness, I could not even begin to describe the experience: expert masseurs soothing the nerves at all the right spots with just the right pressure, soft music playing in the background and the masseurs talking to each other (i wanna bet gossiping) in that sweet thai voice! We frequently visit saunas and have massages in Manila but the authentic thai massage experience is a far cry from those ones at home. And at 800 baht for a 90 min massage ( we opt for the one at the hotel’s basement ) … It’s money well spent.

32. We went for souvenir shopping at Chatuchak market. This area is so big (and so hot!) that you could probably spend a good half day just walking aimlessly around. The goods being sold are numerous and you could find everything there. What we did not find is a place for breakfast – while habs was willing to try the stalls at the market side I was hesitant because they all look too weird for my picky eyes. So we walked a little more ahead and ended up in the JJMall. This mall is another specialty shop with hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of stuffs. Its a close version of chatuchak in a mall with a nice airconditioning and much cleaner. We walked around and looked for all sorts of things on display.. We bought some souvenirs and headed back to the BTS station to continue our shopping back in the Siam Center area.

33. We went back to MBK and bought some pasalubongs : spicy sweet tamarind, candies and elephant magnets. We strolled a little more going around Siam Center and Siam Paragon and completed our shopping lists. One thing noticeable in the malls: there’s a lot of sales going on everywhere. And I mean a lot!

34. We had lunch at the MBK food court. I had Chinese food while my more adventurous husband got some braised pork and intestines. It was difficult to understand the food attendants, I did not understand how one was supposed to pay for their food. The staffs do not speak English and no matter how i ask, they just smiled and pointed me to the entrance! It turned out that you have to exchange money for coupons at a cashier in front then hand over the coupons at the food counters.

35. Going around is not difficult in Bangkok, the road signs and bill boards mostly have English translation. The locals understand a little English but most of them seem not comfortable speaking the language. There are some notices and bill board ads though which are all in Thai. There are also numerous alert signs about the floods (We know because of the pictures in them) which I would have liked to understand. Pictures abound about flood victims, what not to do during floods, monks getting wasted, emergency procedures, donation drives all over the streets but none of them are in English. Too bad… I was quiet impressed about their disaster handling actually.. I could not help but compare and be sad – these things does not manifest in Manila on, before, during or after typhoon season. It would have been nice to learn to be prepared and help each other out as well.

36. The washrooms in malls usually come with payment. The ones in mbk cost 2 baht while the ones in JJMall was 5baht. You’ll be able to see if you need to pay if an attendant is acting guard outside with a drop box stating how much it takes to use the toilet. Make sure to always have loose coins at hand.

37. We see sand bags everywhere. People here are listening when their govt tell them to brace for incoming water. The grocery stores are almost running out of stock.. I guess deliveries are impacted. The hardest thing to find towards the end of our stay: bottled water. We had to get sparkling because we did not have any other choice.

38. Surprisingly, Coke is not the IN thing here… Pepsi is. Even in ads, we only hear about fanta and sprite (no coke!) this is I think the first place id been to where Pepsi is the ruler of the beverage battle.

All in all, this is a trip I would never forget. I learned so much from this experience … I know I’ll be coming back to Bangkok… It’s charms had captured my heart and I would certainly like to explore more of Thailand. In the meantime, I will be praying for Bangkok and it’s people, if it was scary for a tourist like me who was only in town for four days, imagine the people who work and live there. We were lucky to return to home base with all the happy memories of this trip, they on the other hand will have to continue to wait and endure the flood scare and aftermath for weeks until the water totally subsides in the affected areas. Although we left the city sunny and dry, any more rain would cause flooding. May Mother Nature be good and may God bless this city — so that people here would never run out of reasons to continue smiling.

For the record, I had always been checking weekend flights out of Singapore since our last trip in June.

Every long weekend or time off opportunity would see me browsing through airline sites and looking for the best deals. I am on the look out for flights to Bangkok, Bali, Phuket, Delhi or Beijing. Often I would suddenly call habs on the phone and plead with him to take a time off so we could go somewhere. You could say that I’m bored with staying at home at doing nothing out of ordinary during the weekends.

So on Oct 18, i was caught off guard by a series of events that would lead me to book a flight for a 4-day weekend in Bangkok. First, we decided to take a trip since I am on time off from work for a week and habs managed to have a leave approve for 2 days. Where… We were not sure. So armed with a mission and ample time on my hand I began searching for flights and created my power excel trip planner. Bangkok turned out to be a nice option flying on Jetstar or Tiger but it was nOt on top of my list. It was second only to Phuket for having the cheapest fare at that time (around 50 sgd difference from BkK).And then I checked Singapore Airlines…. I found out that they had a sale going on for round trip tickets to bangkok for the same weekend that we were aiming for. And the flights are even cheaper compared to the budget options(Jetstar and Tiger)! I had a panic attack and called habs immediately if i could book. In fairness to him he called out NO immediately and asked me to read the news about bangkok flodding. Being the makulit and determined person that I am, i reasoned out with him until later into the night showing him how good the deal is. And i told him that the floods happened last week anyway. So to make the long story short, he eventually agreed and I booked the flight that night. It was a Super Sweet Deal… Who could say no to that?

Day 2 – The Nerve

Next morning I woke up happily excited about the trip ahead. Planning for a a destination always makes my day. I started doing my usual research and itenerary and lists (i have a template, yes!) and the day went on… Until I sent an sms to my friend asking her about how to activate global data roaming service. I told her that we’re going to bangkok on the weekend and that we got a promo fare thru sq. she told me “wow, alam mo bang bumabaha dun ngayon? Magbasa ka ng news.” that was my first queue to be nervous. After dinner, i googled every news about bangkok floods that I could get my hands to. The pictures of flood and the news that I got was not encouraging… It seemed that the city was hit really bad by the monsoon rains. I suddenly remembered that I know a friend from high school who works in Bangkok… I sent her an fb message and asked how she’s doing and about the current situation there. She told me that their area had been hit really bad by the flooding and the plant she’s working at had temporarily stopped operation because of the water that got through their building. They are 30 mins away from the city. She advised me to cancel the trip when I told her we are going there for the weekend… At this time i was at the edge of my seat with panic. The seat sale was not sweet at all! I thought hard for a moment… With habs at my side with an annoyed i told you so look in him. I decided to try and see if we could cancel the flight. I called the airline and talked to a customer support rep. The guy on the other end told me that NO i could not rebook my ticket because it was on sale and NO I could not cancel because if I do, it is non-refundible. Oh no! Now I am in big trouble. Habs was starting to be furious with me as well and I dont blame him. I was disappointed with myself too. I then called my credit card company and ask them to not approve the purchase since when I checked Online I saw that the statement did not contain the ticket price yet. The nice lady I talked to told me that NO once the tickets are issued, the transaction immediately gets sent to the airline for approval. I asked her if i could ask the billing dept of the airline or if it’s too late for that as well. She said i could try but there’s a small chance that they would cancel. I thought that she’s probaly right … So i hang up dumb founded. That night, i was so worried about our flight and how dangerous it was… I hardly slept at all. I also began praying for the people in bangkok now submerged in flood waters and for God to send me a sign whether to cancel our trip…

Day 3 – Decisions, Fears and Factors

I was monitoring the news early in the morning. I consulted travel forums and found out that a lot of travellers inbound for bangkok this week have the same dilemma that i have… What is the current situation of the floods and is it safe to continue with the trip? The replies and advise that I got was on the positive. Bangkok being a tropical island is experiencing it’s monsoon season at this time of the year. It was hit by the biggest flood and rain water fall over the last 50 yrs and there were bad flood situations in the area. The good news is all flights in and out of the airport are operating as normal. Some tourist attractions are affected such as ayuthaya and the future park but most of the city area are Dry and safe. The government are optimistic that they could control the city from being submerged in water and the people there are moving to control the flood gates by building flood walls. The bad news is that the city continue to be on alert for possible flooding and folks are continously evacuating from the impacted areas. A lot of countries such as the UK and Singapore had issued travel warnings to their citizens planning to go there. I checked the rain graphs which confirmed that most of the city area are not impacted. I also found a really helpful site (http://www.thaitravelblogs.com/) where writer Richard Barrow, a journalist and british expat provides up to date news and situation from Bangkok. On Oct 16, he took a bike tour of the city and took photos of the situation. From his account and description, it seemed safe to proceed. He also wrote some very useful tips on what to remember during emergencies and useful contact info. I resolved to myself that should something alarming break out during the day, we will cancel. Thankfully, nothing of that sort happened and according to Mr. Barrow’s twitter acct, the skies were clear during most of the day though it rained for an hour or so in the afternoon.

This was quiet an experience for me… I have not planned for a trip before this with so much apprehensions and nervousness! I swear if nerves could kill, i’d be long gone by now. But along with it came some important point of realizations that no other travels from the past brought. I learned so many things and to think we have not arrived to Bangkok yet:

1. Plan… Plan and plan! Be it a short notice trip or one that involves months of preparations… You should plan accordingly and don’t jump into seat sales without knowing the basics first (even if it’s Sing Air who’s offerering the cheap flights). It is very important to consider the basic things before booking a ticket: the situation in your destination is on top of the list especially now a days when political rallies, natural disasters and other distabilities abound. Check for airport and transportation strikes, the local weather and forecast, protests and rallies going on specially in the area that you would likely be staying at. Be aware that these things would impact your trip and it is better to be prepared than to be caught off guard and sorry.

2. Listen to your husband or your friends if they warn you about something! I take all the blame for this flight and habs has every right to be mad at me. In the end It is amazing how understanding and supportive he is.

3. Read the terms of the tickets before clicking the confirm button. I know that our nature tells us that anything with the words “terms and conditions” is boring but this could make a lot of difference. Understand if the flight could be cancelled and rebooked. If the airfare is cheap it usually comes with a price which played a huge role on why we could not cancel the trip. Book only if you are absolutely sure of going and if all things from #1 checked out.

4. Do not panic. Instead be prepared. Watch the news before your flight and don’t hesitate to cancel despite the monetary loss should the situation worsen. Safety should always a top priority. Proceed only if you feel secured that the area you will be going to is okay.

5. If this is the case, don’t ponder on far off tourist destinations. We are planning to use this time to relax and unwind and we are not aiming to hit every tourist landmark in bangkok. We decided to go only to use the time off to de stress at the hotel, have a massage, eat at authentic thai restaurants near our hotel and possibly go to a mall or 2. And we would make absolutely sure that we are together at all times. We bought extra clothes should we get wet, umbrellas, flashlights and we changed our itenerary to ignore the usual destination but instead to stay indoors and near our accomodation.

6. Pray! I had always believed that disaster could strike anywhere, without warning but this did not make me feel better knowing that our destination is under flood threat. Praying for it did. I trust Him to keep us safe in this journey and I know that with God with us… We will be alright.

Now I am in the middle of deep research… spending time in rainy Bangkok. May God keep us safe during our 4-day trip. I know it’s gonna be an adventure!

There’s an on-going MEME in facebook which asks: “Taga UP Diliman Ka Kung…”. The Page currently has 30,000 + members who shares via wall posts their most memorable experience in UP. I became instantly addicted to the page, reading through posts and comments every chance that I got. The topics were hard to follow due to the tremendous page activities at any given point in time. 

This new facebook fad serves as an inspiration for this blogpost. I want to reminisce some very personal special memories from my college days. I dont want just to post in that wall because I don’t know most of the people there and I don’t think they care. These are cherished memories from my past… I want to share only with the chosen few who still reads this blog.  

- I met one of my best friends on our first day of school during our freshman year. There I was, in my promdi maong jeans and oversized polo shirt looking for my first subject’s room. It was Soc Sci 1 – 8:30 am class in PHAN 1 building. I was very early (very excited!) and the only girl I see in the building who looks as new and as lost as I was, was Abby. We made introductions to one another and from that moment on, we became inseperable. In my third year, Abby helped me in the most challenging part of my college life and for that I will forever be grateful. We are bestfriends not just through college but even after graduation: we were housemates for three years before she got married, I am her maid of honor in her wedding and her son is my godchild. We treat each other’s family as family. Abby is one of those friends whom I think would be my friend until we’re old and gray. 

My UPCAT Application picture

- My most memorable professor in college? Abstract Layug and Romeo Manlapaz. Abstract taught Philo 1 and our block was under his class during our freshman year. His first question during our first day in Philo? “Does God exist? Explain.” And he spent the rest of the class defending his belief: that God does not exist. I was a freshie coming from a Catholic school which held mass every first Friday and prays the rosary almost everyday during morning assembly. To be told that God does not exist seems blasphemous in my mind, I wondered at that time why this is allowed to teach such nonesense and to preach his aetheism. Later on, I learned that this is one of the things that UP Diliman offers – opening your mind to different beliefs and cultures the society have. For our mid term exams: we had to watch Notting Hill at SM North. For our final exams: block swimming sa Pansol Laguna. Our papers are usually marked 1.0 and this is also one of the subjects where I had 1.0 in my classcard. Our lectures are usually discussions. We are required to write a question in an index card, then he will draw from the cards what question we would discuss. Questions ranged from “What is reality?” to “Is 1+1 really 2? Prove or disprove.”

Romeo Manlapaz on the other hand is my professor in my second sem, freshman year. He is one of those ancient brilliant math teachers and he taught at that time Statistics 101. We had to use 5.25in floppy disk for his spreadsheet program. He has a lot of “quotable quotes” during class, he smokes during breaks and he has this rugged look of a taxi driver and always talks to the utility manong in the Math building everytime that I see him. Our exams are 1000% and I remembered getting my blue book marked with 450% and staring at it with remorse. He drives a brand spanking new Starex.  Habs also had him as a professor for Math 101 and we always fondly talk about how wierd sir Manlapaz was. 

- I was a nomad (no org, no frat, no soro). This meant that my friends are mostly classmates or blockmates or fellow CS majors. Our bonding time were spent in the library or doing group works for our classes and walking from one class to another. This also meant that I never learned to drink or gamble or cut classes. My passion at that time revolves about only one thing: to graduate and to work afterwards. And all of the things that I do are focused towards that goal. 

- I was studying through a scholarship and I didn’t want to ask my parents for money to buy clothes. My sister was also in college at that time and I had two brothers in grade school. That means that our family budget was rather tight. UP did not have school uniform so we could wear anything in the campus. My clothes are usually from Christmas gifts from aunts and uncles. My sister and I swap clothes sometimes until I grew a couple of sizes larger than her I could no longer borrow her clothes. I also borrowed my tatay’s jeans and polos and came to classes with them (honestly!). I had this phase where I was most comfortable with colared polo shirts and jeans and would wear oversized shirts and sneakers. We did not live with my mom who was working in Taiwan at that time and I kinda did not have much choice. My classmates seemed to be all well off and wears different and new clothes all the time and I usually did not have anything new and I do not give a damn. All I care about is that I pass the exams and get my stipends on time, nothing else. This might also be the time when I learned not to care about what I wear. UP tolerates even the pambahay look so it was not really a problem.

- I met a couple more of my best friends during college and both had beautiful kind souls. The both reared from the same background that I did: poor parents, unkind relatives doing all kinds of pang aapi. Mabel and She shared my innermost angst about life and family and school in general. I could talk to them for hours and I know that they will understand everything that I say. They became a big part of my education and my life, we learned and accepted our fate together: to help our family strive through poverty. Through Mabel, I learned that despite the imperfection of my parents and siblings, I am still very very lucky. Through She, I learned to dream the impossible – to travel, aim high and to work hard to prove my worth. Mabel was my housemate for 3 years and we never had any problem with each other. I was also maid of honor in her wedding and until now even if I’m in Singapore and Mabs is in Aussie, I know that if every one of my friends disown me and refuse to talk to me, Mabs will be there. They’re two of my best friends that I know I would always love and would always love me – through time and despite the distance.

- I regularly attended a Christian bible study group which  helped me build a close relationship with God and understand the Christian belief. I was raised and schooled a Catholic but I also believe in the Christian faith though not as devoted and as faithful as the friends that I earned during these years of bible study. 

- I enjoyed my PE classes more that anything else. I took duckpin bowling, tenpin bowling, aikido and philippine games. I am not a sporty person. I’m afraid of sports that requires running, physical activities and throwing a ball. I never at any point in my life engaged in these activities. So I opted for the safe PE’s. All we needed to do to pass these classes was play and I was happy to know that I could do these sports activities. 

- I learned to smoke due to pressure at home and at school. There was a difficult time during one sem where I was having trouble both academically and at home. At the end of that sem, I had INC in all of my subjects having missed the final exams. The next sem, I had a hard time keeping it together and I resolved to smoking cigarettes at the lagoon. Yeah, I did it to calm my nerves and it helped me to think. I had trouble concentrating that time, I was afraid I would not be able to compose it together and I was really tuliro. For one semester, everytime that I think I’d lost focus, I’d buy a cigarette, I’d go to the lagoon alone, and puff away and think. Smoke relaxes my mind. Good thing I was not hooked. It would be a very bad habit had I let it become permanent. 

- There were times when I don’t have enough money for baon to go to school. I am a DOST scholar during the entire duration of my stay in UP but usually our stipends are late most of the time. Sometimes, it would take 2 months before it arrive. I don’t have any other source of baon so when this happened, I usually have to ask my tatay for baon. Most of the time, tatay does not have enough money to give me. So I have to ask for baon from my lola just so that I could go to school. This is such an embarassing affair because my lola would start scolding me because of how irresponsible my tatay is and how hard is it to earn money and that it’s not something that you could just ask for. Everytime this happens, I force myself to smile and just be grateful because at the end of the scolding, she would give me money. And then after I get it, I will cry my way to school. 

- During my first day in my first computer class, I did not know how to turn on the PC. This is especially embarassing since I am a computer science major. But what could I do? I do not have a computer at home and the computers that we had at high school are dos operated. The ones in the computer lab are windows powered. I looked so helpless and I was afraid the whole block would laugh at me for my stupidity. 

Thesis Lab

- The first time that I applied to be a member of an org, I got rejected. This was the sem after I got all the INC grade, I figured that to be able to move on, I need to distract myself from my family troubles and decided that it’s time to apply for an org. The org that I was applying to was where all the cool CS people were. I thought it’s probably a good time to meet new friends. I was such a loser during the application period and I don’t have any talent to show during the talent night and I sucked during the interview because I was intimidated by the members that me and my friend Carlos both got rejected. That was the first time I think that someone got rejected during org application. It was embarrasing. 

- I was not a dormer, I was a boarder. I never tried to apply in any of the UP Dorms. I thought that these dorms only accepted applicants who are from the province and I studied in Pasig and my father lives in Mandaluyong at that time. Instead, I was always residing in boarding houses. My first room was really nice located at Krus na Ligas. My roomate was a law student and other dormers were BAR reviewers. I remember watching the 9/11 attach with them in the dorm TV. I also resided inside the campus at Area 1 and Area 1. I spent 2 sems in a very disgusting messy old dorm where everytime that the landlady cooked food the whole house would smell like talaba. There were 6 of us in the room and everything in it was “malibag” for lack of better term. The house was not clean and the condition of the children of the land lady are all bad. The youngest was malnourished and his diapers are always dirty. But I met a lot of nice friends there. What’s really nice about this boarding house was the proximity to the campus. It’s a short distance away from SC. The other dorm a few doors away from the first one was so much better. Here, I met rich friends from the province – two of them from Davao. You could tell that they came from buena familia from the way they talk and the stories that they tell. 

- I was not good at computer programming. I don’t know how to compile codes, how to make program run. Even if sometimes I successfully create my programs for class requirements, it’s by trial and error. So how did I survive and graduated in time as a computer science major? I was good in logic and in Math. I love Algebra and trigonometry and aced our Math 17 midterms while most of the block failed. I did not love calculus as much but I understand most of the logic and I get by during the Math 54 series. For fear of ruining my scholarship, I drop any subject which seems like I would fail after the midterm exam and then enroll in the summer class after that. And also, most of our major subjects have written exams as well and I study really hard to pass those exams. For my programming projects, I was lucky to know very nice friends. I will not forget one of my blockmates who helped me a lot during MPs and MEs. He allowed us to go to his house and we would all work together to create programs in his computer. Most of the time they would work together, and I will try to understand how they do it. They also let me copy their algoritms and i’d tweak it a little before submitting. I really hate programming. During our mini-thesis years, my groupmates are all good enough to do most of the programming work. I was incharge of the logistics, the pictures, the ideas of what to name our project and the folders and anything that does not involve making VB work. It was really hard actually, how could I program if I don’t have VB installed or powerpoint in a working PC? For our thesis, I learned the power of resourcefulness. I had google at my finger tips and though I could not write codes from scratch, I have a talent to make pieces of it work together and to modify them as we require. I thank God for these angels that helped me survived CS. 

- I met HABS during our STS class together. We were classmates who ended up sitting together during classes and talking. Enough said, the rest as they say is history. Read our wedding blog for more info.

- My happiest memory of college was during our thesis year. I think this was the only time when I could say that I was over the inferiority complex and insecurities. I became somewhat popular because I befriended everyone on our thesis lab. I became a little more talkative and a little less introvert. I spent a lot of time during my last year of college in our thesis room, we had free internet connection there and for the first time in my life I had free access to the internet. I learned all the cool things: friendster, games, mirc, yahoo messenger, peyups.com, etc. Suddenly I was one of the gangs and people talked to me. It was a great way to end my college years. 

Grad Pic

- During our college graduation ball, I rented my gold gown from a gown supplier in Lipa. I think the gown looked okay but my make up was not so nice. I went to a saloon beside my lola’s store and asked them to apply make up. It was thick and at the end of the night it was blotched. I hated it and also how it appears on pictures. I also hated my grad pic creative shot. While my friends have really good ideas for their creatives for the grad pic, mine is not so nice. I don’t know what came to me but I tried to throw away a bunch of classcards and floppy disk. The result was really not good. And it appeared in our year book beside the best creative shot recipient who was a member of the UP Pep Squad. Ang pangit talaga. 

Engineering Gradball at Manila Hotel Batch 2003

- My siblings followed my footstep, probably because they couldn’t hear enough of my school while I was there. I also tell them stories and made them dream about passing the UPCAT. My sister one of my brother studied and graduated from UP LB and my other brother just graduated from UP Diliman last year. Without meaning to, I had started a family legacy and I could not be any happier.

- Now that I’m married, habs and I live our lives by the virtues that I learned from college – I married a fellow from the same school and who shares the same wavelength. We are never maarte, we could get by with whatever life throws at us. We always have arguments and all kinds of discussions about everything, but we always end up lauging our hearts out. We love adventures and travelling and we explore things and places. And as early as now, we already have a goal for our soon to be child/ren: “Dapat UP Diliman din sila.”. Pressure it is!

I just finished reading a wonderful book and I can’t get over it. Should you find yourself looking for a good book to read and if you like me enjoy children’s lit, I highly recommend that you pick this up in the bookstore.

It’s a story of childhood, a very challenging one where Jeannette’s parents are non-confirmist and they lived like nomads in the dessert, in the outskirts of towns and pack their bags to have long drives to the new destination in the middle of the night. The Walls’s four children are brilliant self sufficient broods that had to fend for themselves, often go hungry and played in the wild dessert while growing up.

The reason why this book touched me the most is that somehow I could relate to the hardship – though at a very different level. I also realized that though my father is a certified alcholic, we are still far luckier compared to children of other alcoholic dads. Rex Walls made my father look tame and responsible. This also reminds me of two other novels with similar stories and themes of growing up very poor and surviving : Angela’s Ashes and A Child Called It.

This is such a touching and empowering novel. And Jeannete fulfilled my heart’s innermost desire: to be a writer / journalist and live in NYC.

(typing this post using an ipad keyboard given to me as a birthday gift by one of my friends. ang cool! nakakatuwa… )