It’s been a while since I’ve stayed longer in the Philippines. It’s been a while since I felt this lazy summer breeze. I’m not adjusting. I’m secluded, still. I’m in a place where I should be. The thought of returning to the place where I don’t belong lingers and it’s what bores me. If I could, I would retire now. No, not here, but to the place where I was born and spent half of my life.

Never to come back to New York is fine with me. Should I act on it?

I’m currently aboard a 14-hour flight from New York to Incheon, South Korea – my stopover to the Philippines. The first couple of hours was very rocky. I almost puked, but luckily I was able to hold it in. It was a first time for me to feel like throwing up in the plane. But then again, it was the first time flight where I felt the plane going down. It was rough.

The flight is not full and I have plenty of seats for me so I was able to sleep around aimlessly during the flight. It doesn’t matter if I have the row solely for me, sleeping in the plane is not as comfy as sleeping on the couch. At first I couldn’t sleep upright because I was trying to hold in my puke, so I was in a breach position. I wasn’t even able to eat my first meal (a dinner) properly because my stomach was pushing the food up. When the flight went sailing smoothly, only then that I was able to sleep upright and eat my breakfast properly.

I’m taking Korean Airlines and I haven’t taken this fleet for about a decade now. I wasn’t into Kdramas then, so I wasn’t well versed with their culture and whatnot. Now I’m in a stage where I can experience even a tiny bit of what I only see in dramas. Don’t get me wrong, I had plenty of Korean friends in college, but the reality of their culture is not apparent there. Here I get to hear announcements in Hanguek, listen to their music which I adore, and most of all understand what they are saying or doing first hand – not completely understand of course, but I can make out a few phrases here and there.

Anyway, I’m signing off now as we have less than 3 hours to touchdown and I’m going low on battery…and mother nature calls ;)

It has been a while since my last post…and my first sentences have been this way. I’ve started my blog about our weekend, but too lazy to finish it off.

Everyone’s back. The vacationers have come home. Reality for them has kicked in. Now it’s my turn to plan our next trip.

This time around, I’m pushing for another cross-country on AmTrack. Driving is so much of a hassle, but that’s not the main reason why I want to go on train hopping to central US. I want to concentrate on Frances during our travel and commuting would pose the best possibility for me to do so. Furthermore,I’d also like to experience unpredicted troubles we could face during commute (i.e. delays).

There’s also a plan of going to Alberta — Edmonton and its neigboring cities. I also want to visit Saskatchewan, so we’ll see if that’s possible if we ever decide a Canadian cross-country.

The trip may come a month or two from now, giving us enough time to decide and save. Whatever the decision may be,I’m pretty sure to post that here.

The South Trip (Set 2)

140 Photos

The South Trip (Set 1)

87 Photos

INTRODUCTION

Before December begins, I should have used all my vacation days from work. It was the last two weeks of November. Usually, I spend my vacation in the overseas, but this year, I opted for a domestic trip with Frances.

I did not plan the trip ahead of time like I usually do things. Planning a trip most of the time does not work for me because things happen in between. I’ve been irking to go south this time, especially to Texas. It has been in the back of my head. Only financial burden and fear was pinning me down. That’s another thing why I don’t plan my trips; I get over the fear. So during the weekend when I picked up Frances from the airport (she came from Las Vegas, but originally from Vancouver, BC) I was thinking about the trip while driving. From there, I decided to do it. Face the music later.

So, we’re all set. We have the destination, now what? I wanted to go by land so that I can see other states on the way to Texas. I need to at least map my path before heading to the dungeon, right? Well, if I’d let Mapquest do everything for me, then the purpose of the trip would be nullified. I don’t like “sight-seeing” museums or tourist attractions per se, but I need something that’ll point me there. Then it hit me, why not taste all the good burgers that America can offer? Not the chains, but local or regional burger joints. The Burger Trip was born.

MATERIALS

These are the things we had to execute the trip:

• Sport Utility Vehicle
• Cooler
• Baseball bat for protection (I don’t need a permit to carry it)
• Clothes (4 seasons)
• Cash (ATM charges are expensive)
• Sunglasses
• iPod
• Blanket
• GPS navigator
• Flashlight
• Pen & paper
• Tissue & sanitized wipes
• Few cans of Red Bull
• Snack

SUV — The vehicle had to be an SUV for me because I didn’t know the terrain. I rented a Jeep Wrangler which really was a perfect vehicle for the trip. It was brand new, so I had minimal worry during the 4,000 mile trip.

GPS — Prior to the trip, I bought a NavTour from Buy.com for $100. It wasn’t able to find new roads, but it was good enough for the trip. I had trouble with it when I entered Houston area because there were many new roadways as well as North Carolina.

Red Bull — It was not of great help, but it did help a bit to keep me awake during a few segments of the trip.

My trip [with the girlfriend] to the south has concluded. The southernmost destination we reached was Pearland, Texas (a few minutes south of Houston). We drove down south and we tapped 15 out of 50 states (total of 19 for me all-time). During the trip, we were able to briefly observe and extract the differences between these states (in order of path): New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tenessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia.

A more thorough recap of the trip will be published when my head has cleared. Right now I’m still a wee sleepy and tired because I’ve just finished a 30-hour driving trip back. It was a fun & educational trip. Though we had to adjust the orginal planned path, the trip was still worth it. 31 states left for me to venture.

I’m officially unplugged from further inter-networking and computing in the next two weeks effective as of this hour. All of my electronic communication devices will be turned off. I will be unreachable. I may be travelling during these weeks so expect new pieces from me.

Later alligat’r

There’s not much to say because I have pictures to show. Saturday morning we headed to Six Flags Great Adventure to visit the park (duh!) We started off with Wild Safari which is a basically a zoo. We weren’t allowed to leave the car, so the photos we took had reflections of the windshield and windows. I had to select a few to be published here.

Afterwards, we went to Hurricane Harbor. I didn’t ride any except the The Big Bambu and Reef Runner. The file was long in most rides that we lost interest so we spent the bulk of our trip in the Taak It Eez Ee Creek.

Later in the afternoon, we headed to Sicklerville, New Jersey to spend time with a family friend. There we spent the night and the whole Sunday.

Wild Safari, July 2008

28 Photos

Wild Safari, July 2008 (Set B)

59 Photos

Hurricane Harbor, July 2008

34 Photos

Tomorrow I’m supposed to join the whole family to go out of town. The destination is New Jersey and the first stop is Six Flags. I haven’t been in the said theme park. This weekend is supposed to be my first time. We will be at the Hurricane Harbor because of it being summer and all. I’ll try to ride everything, but I’m guessing I won’t be able to handle it. I have a serious fear of height and most of the time not because I’m afraid of falling and dying, but it’s the fear that I might jump. I’ve always been curious of how free fall feels like. I should go sky diving, right?

Going away also means I’m going to miss the greatest performance night of Pinoy Idol. I’m really excited to see the performance because I saw Ram’s rehearsal and it’s amazing. I hope the weather won’t act during my absence so that the DVR behaves properly and I can watch the recorded show when I come back.

Today, I saw someone riding my Ducati bike. I really need to get my driver’s license before the summer ends. I’ll start reviewing so that next Friday I can take the exam for a permit. Then schedule a lesson at the end of August.

My silence starts here and I will end it with a recap of my weekend getaway.

Stupid.

I think what the city has done is stupid. The water falls are all ugly. Yesterday while I was on the ferry, I saw three of them. The one at Brooklyn Bridge is the biggest, but still ugly and it’s not subtle. The one by the expressway is uglier because the strong wind was blowing the water away from its path. It looked like water from sprinklers being blown by a blower. We also passed close to the Governor’s Island and the falls made the island horrible. They should dismantle these things immediately. It’s not successful, rather it made the city look weak and unable.

I’m back in New York. It feels like I’ve been gone for more than six days. Now I’m in my comfort zone. I have nothing left to say, except a few pictures I’m going to parade below. Visit the photos page for more. I didn’t capture much. I’m a lazy bummer when it comes to photography.

The Rockies (British Columbia)

The Prairie (Manitoba)