There is much to be said about returning to a hotel you’ve spent the bulk of the last 7 months at for an extended stay. After the mess of the last 24 hours (the amazing experience of travelling business class not withstanding), it’s nice to see a familiar face in the middle of the night to welcome you as if you were a long lost friend.

Of course, anyone who’s willing to try and figure out why your TV set is randomly changing from the Hallmark channel to a porn channel at 2am in the morning is always going to rank high in my books. At least now I have a nice “omg! porn” story to match mom’s Ontario motel story 😉

Update: Apparently the TV was set to a test remote signal so everytime someone at the hotel was working on testing whether or not the TV remotes or systems were working properly, my TV randomly jumped channels to match what they were doing. What’s really disturbing about this is that they never seemed to be testing the random cable channels or standard pay-per-view movies.. the testers seemed addicted to checking the “adult movie” section. Now that the embarrassment of talking to everyone at the reception and concierge desk about my random channel surfing TV is over, I have to double-check that none of the pay-per-view moments I was exposed to show up on my bill. On the bright side, they’ve reprogrammed my TV to only accept signals from the remote in my room, so I should no longer be plauged by TV testers in the housekeeping department!

Technorati Tags: travel, hotel, tv remote, broken tv, random channel surfing

I think I have been going about my Manila travel journals the wrong way. I have been so fixated on how much the Philippines ressembles North America or Europe in culture that I haven’t not really paid attention to the differences. The wonder and awe that I belive runs through the journals I kept while in India seems to be missing from my log of my travels to Manila. It appears I’ve had blinders on that I wasn’t able to see past. I am hoping to rectify that with this trip.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again before I leave – the Filipino’s and Filipina’s I’ve had the opportunity to meet are incredibly friendly and happy individuals. They have recently been voted the 17th happiest culture on earth. Interestingly enough, Canada ranked 111th in comparison.

General information about the Philippines.

• Official Country Name: Republic of the Philippines
• Also Known As: The Philippines, The Philippine Archipelago
• Capital: Manila
• Total Area: 115,830.65 square miles (300,000.00 square km)
• Population: 82,841,518 (July 2001 est.)
• Estimated Population in 2050: 153,913,427
• Languages: There are two official languages in the Philippines: Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English. In addition, there are eight major dialects spoken on the various islands: Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocan, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinense.
• Literacy Rate: 94.6% (1995 est.)
• Religion: Roman Catholic 83%, Protestant 9%, Muslim 5%, Buddhist and other 3%
• Life Expectancy: 64.96 male, 70.79 female (2001 est.)
• Government Type: Republic
• Currency: 1 Philippine peso (P) = 100 centavos
• GDP (per capita): $3,800 (2000 est.)
• Industry: textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, wood products, food processing, electronics assembly, petroleum refining, fishing
• Agriculture: rice, coconuts, corn, sugarcane, bananas, pineapples, mangoes; pork, eggs, beef; fish
• Arable Land: 19%
• Natural Resources: timber, petroleum, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, salt, copper

More Information can be found at the following sites:

• Government of the Philippines – Official web site
• Philippines – CIA World Factbook
• Philippines Archipelago
• Philippines – Wikipedia

There was a time when I wrote continuously. It was as if I was driven to put words on paper. I’d bring scratch pads and pens with me almost everywhere I went just in case a thought struck that I need to capture before it disappeared. Lately, I’ve found that the driving need to write doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

I’m feeling very lost today.

Technorati Tags: writing, lost sense of self

You know, I have some pretty cool friends who often have some of the most amazing and off-the-wall ideas. Consider Nikki’s IM message for the last few days:

“What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it’s all about?”

On the surface, it might seem to be a silly comment. If you really sit down and think about “life, the universe and everything”, who’s to say that she isn’t on to something? Unlike religion, the Hokey Pokey isn’t some far off concept. We can see it, dance it, sing it, etc. It’s as real as the rays of the sun shining off a lake, or the wind blowing through poppies.

Better yet, the Hokey Pokey evokes memories of a simpler time. At it’s most basic, the Hokey Pokey is all about (children) singing and dancing for the sake of having fun. There is no real winner or loser. There is no “us” against “them”. It just is.

As we become adults, we often put away childish things. Perhaps that’s why there’s so much angst, worry and pain in adulthood. We’ve forgotten how to have fun for the sake of fun alone. We’ve forgotten how to laugh loudly no matter who’s paying attention..

Technorati Tags: hokey pokey, reflections, adulthood

I’m spending Easter in Manila. Seems to be an ongoing trend this year. Holiday’s spent in Manila to date include:

• Anniversary
• Christmas
• Boxing Day
• New Years
• Valentine’s Day
• Family Day (Alberta)