Good morning! Our hotel room has a nice view from the 30th floor.

I was determined to see a volcano in Hawaii. However, going to Big Island will take too much time and money so I psyched myself to be satisfied with seeing an extinct volcano on the island of Oahu. The Diamond Head crater is one of the few reminders of the ancient volcanic activity that formed Oahu millions of years ago. This volcano is at the southern end of the island and two bus rides from our hotel.

Honolulu’s bus system is aptly called The Bus and riding it was an experience. I was amazed just how accessible the bus is for disabled persons. The “kneeling” buses literally kneel to the right at every stop so wheelchairs can easily climb up. The first time I saw a bus do that I thought it punctured a tire! At every bus stop, a recorded voice and an LED screen indicate the nearby landmarks so you will never get down at the wrong place.

Check out the plate number. Neat!

I wish we had buses like these back home

After decoding the route numbers from a large map the bus driver gave us, we finally arrived at the Queen Kapiolani Park that provides a great view of the Diamond Head crater. The extinct volcano had the ridges I was looking forward to see in Hawaii.

The Diamond Head Crater

Just across the street from the field was the Waikiki Aquarium. The entrance fee was relatively affordable at $9. This public aquarium was established in 1904 and is one of the oldest in the United States. The displays were well-packaged, interesting, and informative. However, from my faint memories of the aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences, the Waikiki Aquarium is small.

Waikiki Aquarium

Good presentation but overall, it's a small aquarium

Nice giant clam and corals

You should see these squid ride the current

Clownfish in a meadow

A good presentation of the mangrove community

I think everyone loves watching these jellyfish

Grouper tank

Sea monk

A coral farm? Cool!

An aquaculture exhibit featuring threadfish

This is not a fish. I am just showing that some male restrooms DO have diaper depots.

After an hour of taking photos at the aquarium, we took a stroll to the world-famous Waikiki beach. Upon the grainy yellow sand of that Hawaiian beach I asked “This is it?” If Waikiki is so well liked by tourists, they should really see Boracay and the hundreds of other white-sand beaches in the Philippines.

Waikiki beach

Yello, grainy sand - check out Boracay guys!

Waikiki beach skyline

Now that I got to see some fish and an extinct volcano, it was my mother’s turn to steer our trip. Of all places, she wanted to go to Chinatown!

I didn’t see Honolulu’s Chinatown in any of the tourist or bus maps so I was worried when the bus traveled for over an hour and we were still surrounded by skyscrapers. No sign of Chinatown! Maybe there was no such thing after all?

It was only when the people boarding our bus looked more and more Chinese that I assured myself we were headed in the right direction. True enough, the street signs started having Chinese characters in them and soon the bus display blinked “CHINATOWN.”

Honolulu's Chinatown!

Honolulu’s Chinatown is modest when I compare it to San Francisco. The place was only a few blocks wide and there weren’t too many people walking around. The subtle chaos I was expecting was missing. Filipino stores were everywhere selling familiar items. I was amazed to see “Philippine Bangus” (milkfish) being sold $6 per piece and “Philippine Galunggong” for $2.99 a pound. We bought rice for lunch at $0.75 per cup.

You won't miss Philippine cuisine here

Nor Philippine shampoo... but they're selling at $4.99 a bottle!

Philippine bangus and galunggong fish sold in Hawaii

Coconuts at $2.50 each

Saw a real medical emergency response team in action at Chinatown! Haven't seen something of this sort at home yet. Lol!

After eating lunch back in our hotel room, I slept. I said to myself before that I should minimize my sleeping to maximize our two-day Hawaiian experience but I was just so exhausted from all the walking that I lost control of my body as it gravitated towards the soft comfort of the bed.

I woke up more than an hour later reenergized but remorseful of the lost time. As we hurried to a bus stop to get some last glimpses of Honolulu, we met a lady who was struggling to walk. She was clinging to the wall and her eyes half-closed. When we asked if we could help her she weakly replied “Yes please.”

She said she needed to get to Kona Towers and we had no idea where that was. The lady was much taller than I or my mother so we simply supported her arms from both sides as we trudged back to our hotel to ask some bellboys for directions. Luckily, Kona Towers was actually part of our hotel accessible from the 13th floor. Unfortunately, the queue at the elevators was long and people were already staring at us as we struggled to look as normal as possible while keeping the lady upright. After squeezing in an almost-overloaded-elevator, lumbering through corridors, and rummaging her bag for her key card, I was relieved we brought her all the way to room 1346 without needing to call 911. She assured us she could handle herself from there so we went on our way.

It was only later that my mother revealed to me that the lady smelt of liquor. She was very drunk! And I thought she needed urgent medical attention.

We rode a bus towards downtown Honolulu to see some historical sites. Unfortunately it was already past five so the attractions were closed. Nevertheless we got some free souvenirs – photos of the Hawaiian State Capitol, Iolani Palace, and the King Kamehemeha Statue among others.

Hawaii State Capitol

'Iolani palace is the only royal palace used as an official residence by a reigning monarch in the United States

King Kamehameha Statue in front of the Ali'iolani Hale

We also passed by some people along the road holding placards. I thought they were staging a protest rally but they were actually campaigning for Honolulu’s city elections. The two parties were basically side by side, waving at passing motorists. A Filipino couple campaigning for one of the candidates recognized us and called our attention. They remember seeing us at the airport being questioned by the immigration officers. They knew we were held because of a lost passport… hmm, I wonder if the other passengers were talking about us.

Some locals campaigning for incumbent mayor Mufi Hannemann and challenger Ann Kobayashi

Next stop was Wal-Mart. The store was full of people dong last minute shopping for Halloween. The event seemed to be a big deal for them. Outside the store, people were walking around as vampires, witches, and fairies. While I don’t support the idea of Halloween, I was happy to grab two cans of glow-in-the-dark spray paint for the price of one - $3. As I write this, I feel like I should have bought that pack of glow-in-the-dark cobwebs too. Mom bought a lot of chocolates for pasalubong. I thought of buying another box but, since I might end up eating a lot myself, I contented myself to the glow-in-the-dark spray paint.

It has been a long day and I was drained. Once more, I glided into a restful doze on the comfort of the hotel bed. It was not yet ten o’ clock and the lights of Honolulu continued to blink outside. Tomorrow, I will be on my way home.

Honolulu at Night

Free to roam Honolulu at last!

After wasting two hours being held by immigration, I and my mother were finally allowed to leave the airport and freely roam US territory.

We immediately felt the pinch of spending dollars when we had to take the bus to our hotel. The fare was $9 per person for the 11-kilometer drive (That same amount will carry me more than 400 kilometers back in the Philippines!) A bold sign in the bus also said “Your bus fare does not include the driver’s tip.” I’m not sure what that meant but since our driver happened to be a Filipino so we gave him a $1 tip anyway. Haha!

For our 2-day visit we will be staying Ala Moana Hotel which is right next to Honolulu’s largest and most popular shopping destination, the Ala Moana Center. It is also dubbed as “the world’s largest open-air shopping mall.”

My body clock says it is still 5 AM but all other clocks in Honolulu insisted it’s already 11 AM, so despite the jet lag, we went out to window-shop.

Indeed all we did was window-shop. Just like in the Philippines, most of the shops in the mall sold clothes and other fashion items. These are stores that I have absolutely no interest in. The stores I actually visited sold toys, books, and electronics, and camera stores. Unfortunately, I saw that their merchandise were just about the same as those sold back home, only much more expensive. I guess globalization makes shopping in a foreign country a little less fun.

The largest open air shopping mall is the Ala Moana Center

Then came lunch. We went to the food court to scout for something to eat. However, after scanning all the stalls, it seemed like the average meal would cost $7 to $9. That’s the equivalent of about ten meals at home! I knew we should really stop converting all the prices to peso or else we would end up buying nothing! Still we continued to scout the vast mall for a cheaper lunch. We ended up in Taco Bell where we purchased a taco, tortilla chips, and soda for about $3.50. We shared that little snack (I wouldn’t call it lunch).

Cheapskate's lunch anyone?

It was time to briefly see the sights around Honolulu. The best way to get around the tourist spots is by trolley. They have tourist-friendly maps and the open-air set-up is excellent for seeing sights and taking photos. They have color-coded routes with pink for shopping spots, blue for sight-seeing, and red for historical sites. The downside is it’s more expensive with a $27 one-day pass and the trolleys can be rather crowded.

The trolley at the Ala Moana Center

We got on a pink shopping trolley since it was the only line passing the Ala Moana Center. To save on expenses, we decided to just go one loop on the pink line and get off where we started. Interestingly, while riding the trolley around Honolulu’s shopping zones and beaches I saw that Asians were everywhere, possibly half of all the people I saw. Most of the other passing trolleys were also occupied by Japanese on chartered trips.

Asians everyhere!

Later at night, we went to the home of my aunt’s friends who invited us over for dinner. I thought their house at Kapolei was just a 20-minute drive from the hotel but it took us over an hour on the expressway! The traffic was heavy but I entertained myself to the sea of red lights that was the swarm of cars ahead of us. At the back of my head I was thinking of just how much fossil fuel this little island consumes everyday.

They prepared a lot of food and I will give special mention to the steak and the seaweed.

Since the steak was beef and not pork, I made the most out of the free meal. I actually thought those thick slabs of red meat were very delicious. Believe it or not, it was my first time to eat steak.

Just how many calories do these slabs of meat carry?

Gilling steak. I want mine well done.

They also served a certain seaweed I failed to identify. They said it was locally grown in Hawaii and they call it ocean veggies. I don’t know if it was the seasoning or the seaweed itself but eating it reversed my frustration over the lack of taste and plastic-like texture I encountered when I first ate seaweed in Tigbauan last July. I wish we had those available back home.

Some mussel and delicious seaweed

The night was cold at around 20 degrees Centigrade. We spent a while inside watching Wowowee at TFC and The Correspondents over GMA Pinoy TV. I miss my country already.

Security personnel kept an eye over passengers as they entered the airport as if someone would dare sneak out of the tube. Inside the airport, security reiterated each passenger should have their passport in their hand. Behind my head I was wondering why they can’t just wait until we get to the immigration counters. There were at around six immigration officers checking passports.

I stepped ahead with confidence and handed my passport to two immigration personnel with the visa side up. I was thinking the worst thing with my documents is the picture on my visa which was taken almost 10 years ago. They looked at my visa, then scrutinized my passport, and asked me to step aside for some questions. It turns out that all the immigration officers were specifically looking for me!
Yes. The reason why they set up a passport check for our flight is because they wanted to intercept my entry into the US. To summarize their many questions, they said my passport was reported to be lost and they needed to make sure that I am who I claim to be and that I am really the owner of the passport which I just presented.

I did lose my passport but only at home. It took me and my mother a few days only to find it in a bookshelf, but we never officially reported it to be lost! They asked if we ever told anyone that it was lost. Yes, we told my father, my brother, and my grandmother but there’s no way they’re going to bother executing an affidavit of loss or anything close to that. It’s my passport and I should be the only one qualified to state that it is lost, right?

Then it dawned on me that I once announced in the chat box of my dorm’s blog that I lost my passport. While the chat entry was only identified with “Rex”, it included a link to this blog which happens to contain my full name. Could their intelligence network have picked up that chat entry and placed my name in their passport watch list? Besides, a terrorist might have incidentally found my passport and replaced the picture. I, the bearer of the supposedly lost passport, was a threat to national security!

Is US intelligence monitoring online chat? Are they getting too smart? Then why didn't they detect that I already found my passport?

For once in my life I had two security escorts to another building where long lines of incoming passengers went thru the immigration counters. We zigzagged our way ahead to an empty counter where the officers checked our passports, visas, and fingerprints. They looked at each other as one nodded again and again, “Verified!”

I thought they’d finally let us go, but we were told to wait in another room. They said they needed to confirm my passport with the Philippine Consulate which doesn’t open until 9 AM. It was already 8:45 AM but I was crossing my fingers the Philippine diplomats come on time. We will be in Hawaii for only 2 days and this is definitely not the best use of our time.
More than an hour later (!), an immigration officer told us everything seems to be okay but they still need to do a few more checks. He advised me that to protect my identity, I should get the new machine-readable passport because a mistyped passport number at the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) might be the cause for all this trouble.

So they weren’t snooping at my chats and blogs after all? Does the DFA report stolen passports with the passport number alone without a name to match?

Out of boredom I almost started taking pictures of the room and surf the net on my laptop until I realized they might suspect me of spying or communicating with some accomplices in the airport.

Another hour passed (!) before an immigration officer came and said they needed to check with the DFA office in Iloilo because that’s where my passport was issued. For a second I was terrified because it was only 3 AM in Iloilo!

Fortunately, he added “We’ll do that from our end. We’ll let you guys in.”

To US Intelligence: I know you’re reading this!

Finally!

So far, everything is going as planned and we’re now 10,700 meters above the Earth and 6,800 kilometers away from the island of Oahu. The temperature outside is -43°C and we’re traveling at over 900 kilometers an hour. The flight will take a little over 10 hours and I’m trying to enjoy every moment of it.

We left Iloilo this morning onboard the 6:30 Cebu Pacific flight. Me and my mother availed of the Go Lite promo to save 200 pesos on each of out tickets. It was a good idea to take this cool promo. I had a trolley bag and a backpack but both fell within the 7kg limit for handcarried luggage.

I forgot to ask for a window seat but I got one anyway. Too bad the skies over Iloilo were cloudy and I didn’t get to spot Mayon Volcano. Nevertheless, I got to identify Mt. Makiling and Mt. Arayat.

Mt. Makiling and Mt. Arayat (inset)

We disembarked at the new(ly used) NAIA Terminal 3. The place was big, but not so impressive. My standards are a little high with the still sleek Iloilo Airport. Haha!

One advice I could give to those on a tight budget is to avoid the yellow metered taxis waiting outside the arrival area. They are metered, but their meters are pricey! Flag down is 70 pesos good for the first 500 meters and every succeeding 300 meters will cost you 4 pesos. It might be a better idea to go up the departure level and take the regular taxis. Just make sure they will use their meter!

Expensive yellow taxis

I feel like I need to mention the delicious and surprisingly cheap 22-peso cheesy tuna sandwhich and 15-peso ice cream we grabbed at Ministop for a quick breakfast. It was a relief after an expensive taxi ride.

heap but delicious cheesy tuna sandwhich and ice cream at MiniStop

By 1 PM we were at NAIA Terminal 2 for our 3:35 PM flight to Honolulu. I wondered why the terminal fee for international flights was 750 pesos and only 200 pesos for domestic flights. It’s just the same terminal! There were several ‘free’ wifi networks available but I could only connect to one and it was rather slow. I was disappointed because Mactan International Airport has much much better free wifi services running up to 3Mbps.

NAIA T2

On the other hand, the service from Philippine Airlines has so far been excellent. There were lots of empty seats on our flight and we were very lucky to be seated in Mabuhay (business) Class. This is a first for me. I’ve had some fun tinkering with the on flight entertainment system as well as the extendible foot rest. The seat and the pillow provided are very comfy too. Most of all, the dinner they served was excellent.

I loved the fish!

Dessert

Now I’m looking forward to breakfast. I think I shall be getting some sleep now to minimize the jet lag.

If everything turns out right, I’ll be on the island of Oahu tomorrow. Unfortunately, I’ve been so busy at work the past weeks that I didn’t have time to be excited about this trip. I haven’t even planned how to spend my 4 days there yet!

For sure I want to see some lava flows and the observatories on Mauna Kea. Unfortunately those are on “Big Island” which is another plane ride from Oahu and I’m not willing to shell out $500 for that! Perhaps I’ll be contented with the museums and aquaria on Oahu, and since I’m going with my mother and aunt - spend a lot of time (window)shopping.

Well, who knows? I might still find a cheaper way to touch the snow on top of the world’s tallest mountain and see some real lava flowing.

For now, lunch break’s just ended. Better get back to work so I can have peace of mind tomorrow!

One by One

After two months of practice, we finally went onstage to challenge the congregation. It was the Missions Musicale and we were the Missions Choir.

It was last August when we started our practices. Althea was invited me to join the choir and while I was in the process of explaining “I don’t sing” and “I’m not sure if I have the time,” she has already introduced me to ten choir members including the conductor. Before I knew it, I was standing right beside the grand piano learning the notes of Go Forth and Tell! With that song, I knew I had to attend the next practice.Before our first song that night, the children from Sunday school sang a medley including “Jesus loves the little children.” I recall about 10 or 11 years ago when I sang in the Christmas Cantata. Back then, our choir pieces only contained words and we simply sang the melody of the song. That was my only choir experience prior to this. Interestingly, little fragments of the songs  we sang a decade ago still ring in my mind from time to time, like a case of LSS (last song syndrome).

Our first song in the Musicale was One by one. It was the last song we learned. When I decided to regularly attend choir practice, I thought we will be singing only one song. I immediately entered the notes into Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 so I could learn the song at home (and in the office). To my  surprise, we were given a new song piece the next week. Then came another, and another, until we had a total of four songs to learn. I promptly entered these into the computer so I can listen to the MIDI files once in a while. Weeks later, I converted these MIDI files to audio CDs and shared it with some of my comrades in the bases who were having difficulty with the songs.

Towards the last part of the worship service, we sang our three remaining songs, Put Your Life into the Master’s Hands, Here am I Send Me, and our finale was the first song we learned - Go Forth and Tell. The first shall be last and the last shall be first eh?

It felt absolutely terrific to belt out notes of praise knowing you couldn’t be singing a better song for a better purpose. I later listened to a video (embedded above) that my father took with his phone and I was amazed that we did sound like a real choir… errr… we are a real choir!

On the other hand, I told myself I shouldn’t be doing this because I feel good doing it or because I just enjoy being in a choir. There’s nothing wrong with those, but they shouldn’t be the reason why I go to practice sessions despite my workplace being 25 kilometers away and school 40 kilometers away. This is not a leisure activity nor a source of entertainment. I should be doing this to bring glory to God and let the world know of his grace that brings salvation.

I would like to extend my thanks to Ma’am Connie, our conductor, who patiently and cheerfully guided us through all the songs. I consider ourselves blessed to have a very encouraging teacher. Thanks also to the other choir members especially Althea who invited me with extraordinary determination. The choir’s voice was at 97.6%  theirs. My sincere appreciation also goes to my grandmother and father who came despite my (very) short notice. It meant so much.

Wait, why do I sound like I’m concluding the choir experience? This is only the beginning!

Since I think I’m not ready to be a missionary yet and personally reach out to all the needy souls outside of my own country, I’ve agreed to join the Missions Musicale. With that, I am inviting anyone who reads this to attend the evening service at Doane Baptist Church on October 26, 2008 at 5:30 PM.

This isn’t the first time I’m singing in a choir. Ive sang in the same church — about 10 years ago! I never thought I’d ever sing again, but when I was presented with the first song they (we!) were going to learn, I felt like I had to do what I thought I couldn’t do. Here’s a teaser - Go Forth and Tell!

Thank you Althea for invitation and for your powerful convincing powers (I’m sure someone was behind her).

Let’s send out the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ! See you there!

At the Blood Compact tourist site in Bohol, Philippines.

However, the terms summer break, summer vacation, summer job, etc. are deeply ingrained in our subconscious that I find it a hassle to substitute them with technically correct terms each time. I am therefore making this blog post so I can just link to it everytime I loosely use the term “summer”. For the record: technically, there is no summer in the Philippines.

The Philippine dry season lasts roughly from December to May and the wet season for the rest of the year. I’m not sure though if this still holds true given the recent climatic anomalies. Rain and sun seem to be all mixed up now.

Alright, alright… I got the banknotes - already shredded - from the nearby Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas branch. More than a dozen sacks of them were waiting for disposal but the kind security guards, allowed us to tow away one of them. They said I could use it for school projects. Hahaha..

The sack was heavy, about 30 kilograms. We didn’t have a car but I decided it was worth hiring a taxi just to bring the shreds of wealth home. The curious taxi driver kept asking what was in the sack but we couldn’t give a straight answer. It was an undertaking bordering on lunacy.

I have no figures on how heavy a piece of banknote is, but assuming 5 pieces will weigh 1 gram, 30 kilograms will be 150,000 pieces of banknotes. If all of them were 500 peso bills, I would have taken home 75 million pesos! Too bad they’re shredded.

Also makes me curious how it’s like to work for BSP. How do they know all the bills meant to be shredded are actually shredded? Not that I don’t trust the BSP guys, but it just sounds easy to get away with a bundle or two especially if you’re shredding billions of pesos worth of money.

So what am I going to do with a humongous sack full of torn money? Tape them back together? Make pillows? Sell them? I’ll worry about that later. For now, learn more about shredded money over at my Philippine Money blog.

P.S. Okay, maybe I’ll sell it. I know not too many are as crazy as I am to want to own worthless shreds of currency, but in case you are one of those very few, I can send you some but you will need to pay for freight and packaging cost. Just contact me for details.