Not Much Online Time Lately...

Wow, I have been to lots of cool places and gotten lots of cool photos, and I haven't even had a chance to log onto my blog in a week. But right now I have a few minutes (literally) before I head to Gen San (short for General Santos City on the island of Mindinao in the southern Phiippines).

It's raining this morning, so it looks like I will have a good opportunity to use my REI Duck's Back 80 rain cover for my backpack set. Also my Red Ledge rain jacket that I brought with me. I already got some good use out of the rain jacket on a couple occasions in the Luzon region (where Manila is located as well as Baguio and Tagaytay).

We are going to Gen San for the weekend to visit the family plantation. It should be about a 3-4 hour bus ride and then another 3-4 hour drive by car or actually a pineapple truck, to be exact.

I'm gonna take my Asus netbook with me in hope that I can get online in Gen San so I can perform a major blog throw-down in which I post lots and lots of stuff.

I just had the chance to upload the photos from my Tagaytay trip this morning, so I'm pretty psyched about that.

But I still need to get the pics from Hagimit Falls from the other day online, as well as the pics of my times here in Davao up until this point. Of course the Gen San trip will give me even more pics to sweat, but that's ok, since there must be SOME point in which I can just spend a relaxing day online, taking care of all that. I'm gonna type up my observations and theories in Notepad while in Gen San at the end of each day, so then as soon as I get the opportunity I can quickly upload them to this blog.

(For some of the photos not seen on the blog click here)

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I've Been Everywhere, Man

One week into my trip, I've already been all over Manila, to Makati where I am staying on Makati Avenue at the Great Eastern Hotel until I fly to Davao in a couple of days; to Quezon City to visit a friend and also where I bought my plane ticket to Davao; to Marikina for the funeral wakes held for an uncle of my friends here; to the Seaside to hang out with my friends;

to Intramuros, the famed walled city from times long ago; to the Lapu Lapu statue, and surely to some other places which don't currently come to mind. And that's just to Manila.

My friend Chris and I went on a bus trip from Manila to Baguio, the Summer Capital of he Philippines as it is referred to here. Baguio is about 1500 meters high, so it's elevation is comparable to Denver and Flagstaff. TONS of scenic places and landmarks there, and I took a TON of photos too.

We left for Baguio on Monday morning, a 6 1/2 hour bus ride, stayed overnight at AJ's Pension House there, and after we finished our touring on Tuesday, we returned on a 7 1/2 hour bus ride.

All that bus time basically killed my back, but I got a nice massage that night, which made me feel better. An hour-long massage for 450php (about $9US), can you beat that? And that was the normal going rate, which I didn't bother to haggle over, since I was just tired and didn't feel like giving myself a headache. In the USA, a massage is usually more like $95US, so I'm looking at this as an exceptional value.

On a side note, I want to point out how well my netbook is performing for me. The Asus 1000HE 10" netbook ("netbook" is industry jargon for a small laptop computer) has thus far been a marathon workhorse in terms of battery life. It will give me 8+ hours without batting an eyelash, even while using WIFI.

Since the 10" screen wreaks havoc on my crappy eyes, I use the Microsoft Wireless Optical Notebook Mouse 4000, to magnify text onscreen, because it has a cool magnifier pane that can be toggled on and off with the click of a button.

It's also nice having a mouse of any kind as opposed to be shackled to a built in touch pad. I despise touch pads on laptops.

Ok, I just added a bunch of photos by linking ones to here that I uploaded to my facebook page (facebook.com/joebogo). Plenty of photos of me with my new friends here in Manila. I already have lots more to post, including lots from Baguio.

My friends will be picking me up soon to take me to Tagaytay, so I need to wrap it up for now. Tagaytay is where Lake Taal is located, with a really cool-looking volcano. I'll surely get lots of photos there too, so stay tuned...

(For More Pics Click Here)

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No rest for the Weary

Wow, what a trip so far. Some nights I only had a few hours of sleep, and some nights I got around eight. And one night I got stuck out in Marikina and didn't get back to the hotel here in Makati until 6am. And when I got back, dead tired, my hotel made me move to another room because there was a leak in my current one. So after packing up all my stuff and moving to another room on another floor, I finally passed out at about 6:45am. Then I slept through the whole day until about 6:45pm. Ironically, there's a leak and also the toilet isn't flushing well in that new room, so things could get interesting pretty fast ;)

Here I took photos of the 3 different travel clotheslines I brought with me for the trip,

as well as the Sea to Summit 20 Liter collapsible sink, which works quite well for hand-washing laundry on the go.

As you can see in the photos, I used clotheslines to hold the travel sink upright while it was full of water.

I just suspended the clotheslines from whichever available points I could find in the comfort room (that's what they call it here, as opposed to 'bathroom' or 'restroom'). It actually worked out sufficiently and held water with no leaks due to the thickness of the material from which it was made.

The problems didn't arise until after I was done washing the clothes and the weight of the wet articles of clothing was too much for a towel ring from which I had attached one end of a clothesline. The thing flew right out of the wall and the situation got out of hand in an instant. So the clotheslines themselves did just fine, but the wall fixture was the Acheilles Hell of my onetime marvel of travel ingenuity. I will get to try it again soon when I am staying with a dear friend in Davao. I fly there on Saturday the 25th.

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Non-stop Rain So Far

Well, there's a typhoon here, so it's been pouring rain ever since I got here in Manila yesterday afternoon. So there is flooding and all that fun stuff. It's all good though, since it didn't prevent my friends and I from going out for a great local dinner and also videoke last night. We had a blast. My friend Jane lives in Singapore, and she arranged for her family here to take care of me in the Luzon region the region where Manilla is located.

Manilla Street Map

Her brother Chris has a car, so he is my wheel man during my stay.

Chris and Me

Last night Chris and his sisters Guia, Cecille and I enjoyed a fantastic dinner with all the seafood you could shake a stick at, for much cheaper than it would have cost me back in the states.

Joni, Glenda, Cecille Two, Cecille One, me and Guia

Videoke was great fun too, although each time it was my turn to sing I usually peppered my rendition with strings of obscenities due to the fact that the random videos running behind the lyrics on screen made it hard for me to read the song lyrics. "She's got eyes of the blue-est skies and SH*T-F**K-DAMN...". I still had an awesome time though.

In my hotel they have free wifi but only in the lobby cafe, so any time I need to get online I don't have the luxury of doing it in my room. But that's fine with me, since it's nice here in the cafe and I can get fresh coffee and food, too. I will be uploading some photos soon, so check back and there should be plenty of photos.

I'm staying at a nice hotel right on Makati Avenue for p1800/night. The exchange rate is about 48 PHP to 1 USD, so it amounts to around $38/night, including tax. Dinner last night included crab, shrimp, oysters, mussels, clams, baby squid, and lots of other good eats, and with tax and tip, the total for feeding all 4 of us was about p2500, so great value there. I got a couple of pics while we were in the restaurant and I'll upload them soon.

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Tokyo Total Debacle

Here's my dinner at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Tokyo where I spent my layover night. The meal had a very spicy sauce, it was a pleasant surprise.

Here's the control console located on the right arm rest of the toilet in my hotel room. It had all kinds of crazy tech in it...

Here's a shot of my room from the doorway. In the background on the chairs you can see the only bags I packed and took for the trip.

My hotel room in Tokyo was actually nice and roomy, and it had a splendid bathroom, too :)

I thought this was a Coke, but I got psyched out when it turned out to be unsweetened black tea. I blew my whole $10 voucher they gave me from my first delay on this, because I was thirsty and I just didn't care ;)

Ok, I'm typing this from a hotel room in Tokyo, actually at a Crown Plazy hotel. My connecting flight (NW81) from Tokyo (NRT) to Manila (MNL) was supposed to be at 7:30pm local time Wednesday, July 15 2009. First they delayed it to 10pm, then pushed it all the way back to 8am Thursday, July 16. Well, last I heard they already pushed it back another 2 hours to 10am. That last delay is fine with me though, since I'm going to appreciate another 2 hours of sleep. I already flew for 14 hours, and I'm sure I can use the extra rest .I didn't take any really decent photos yet, since none of us were in any mood as we waited in line for Immigration & Customs to enter Japan for an evening.

On a positive note, I didn't forget anything at home, and also my new bags are working great for me. Also, I listened to a LOT of music during that first 14 hours of time on the plane (2 hours from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis/St. Paul, then 12 hours from MSP to Tokyo). Still didn't kill my phone's battery, and it even still had 15% remaining before I plugged it in here in my hotel room (which Northwest payed for, and it's very nice).

One cool thing about this big layover ordeal is getting to meet some really cool people who are in the same situation as me. I'm not sure how many people were scheduled to fly to Manila with me, but my guess is over 200. The guy who sat to my left on the flight to Tokyo is from Kentucky. He's on his way to attend a wedding in Hong Kong. The guy who helped me fill out my customs and immigration forms while we stood in line is from Minnesota, on his way to Manila for a job interview. Yet another American, a nice young lady who I was talking to in line, now lives in the Philippines and works as a teacher there. It's always nice meeting interesting new people, and like they say, getting there is half the fun.

I'm going to make more of an effort in my next post, after I finally arrive in Manila...

I just had the greatest hot shower of my entire life, and it alone was worth the debacle at the airport.

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Welcome to my new blog.

Hello, my name is Joe. I'm 32, and I come from a small town called Avella, Pennsylvania. I have a hereditary eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa which is taking away my eyesight over time. Now I am "legally" blind, which means I can't see well enough to drive anymore, and I can no longer read newspapers or magazines without great discomfort. I decided to take a long trip to the Philippines (46 days), to see some of the different areas and hopefully find a place that's suitable for me to move to for a longer period of time next year.

I want to do the whole trip without checking a bag for my flights, and so far this has been a worthy challenge. I got a High Sierra luggage set which includes a 22x13x9" wheeled backpack with a smaller zip-on daypack. I bought a lot of clothing and gear for my trip, and I plan to use this blog as a way to tell others how all this stuff performs during 6+ weeks of wet/rainy/monsoon season in the Philippines.

I got products from REI, Gander Mountain, Dick's Sporting Goods, GoldenGadgets.com, Eastern Mountain Sports, BluCigs.com, and various other places for odds and ends.

The PC I'm typing on right now is an Asus Eee 1000HE 10" netbook, and it's going to be torture-tested by the insanely humid weather just as much as everything else I will have with me on the trip.

I got an Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 from BuyDig.com, and it's supposedly one of the toughest digital cameras on the planet. Well, I guess we'll see how that works out, eh?

I wish my Blackberry Bold phone had the same kind of seals and gaskets to help protect it from the elements, but I'm just going to try my best to protect it, since it's the only phone that I can comfortably read text on. Basically, if my Bold dies on me I might have issues if I have to replace it on the fly with the cheapo special wherever I am ;)

I am flying from Pittsburgh to Manila roundtrip on Northwest Airlines. I got an external battery to charge my Bold maybe 2 times during the 25 hours of flying. I put a 16GB micro-SD card in the Bold and loaded it with music, so I should be fairly well-entertained, with all that classic rock and hair bands :)

Please come back periodically to see plenty of photos and reviews of each and every thing that I will be using during my trip...

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