Update: Plane delayed. Missed connecting flight by 10 minutes. Begged. Nope. Door’s closed. One passenger drunk. Door’s opened. Two policemen in. Drunk man out. Yuga in. Saved by the booze!

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As one of our Egyptian delegates would jokingly say “Here in Germany, they don’t have sun!” Well, that’s true during winter. I think for the entire week, I only saw some direct sunlight about 30 minutes in total. The rest of the week, it’s either dark or gloomy. The sky doesn’t light up until around 9am.

We’ve got people coming in from all over — Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Turkey, Honduras, Panama, Argentina (Joaquin Vocos), Brazil, Serbia, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Malaysia (Khay Peng Koo), Indonesia, Thailand (Orarick), Cambodia (Sokunthea Kung Keo), Germany and India (Seppi Sebastian). That’s why we got flags to waive around — easier to remember the countries than their names.

Loved the food. Buffet table is always packed with interesting menu, though half the time we always had salad and cold cuts. When the main menu is fish, I automatically become a vegetarian and head over to the salad bar.

No need for ice since everything gets cold on their own. Instead of turning on the aircon, I turn on the heater which I always forget and often wake up in the morning with brain cells freezing. It snowed the other night too but they’ve melted down by morning.

We went out to Cologne City yesterday afternoon to do some shopping and have a look around. The Cologne Cathedral is huge and just amazing.

Inside the cathedral, facing the center. The stained glass are magnificent. (German: Kölner Dom, officially Hohe Domkirche St. Peter und Maria)

Everything is expensive in Germany. The euro is 40+% higher than the US dollar so that’s another bummer. They had a Christmas Market beside the cathedral. Had a bratwurst for €2.50 and a glass of Coca-cola for €1.50.

Most of the shops are the ones with name brands and price tags are just crazy. Even the electornic/gadgets are more expensive. Got tired of doing the usual peso-euro conversions– it’s no use, I just can’t afford them.

Luckily, I found this one local shop running a holiday sale. Got that parka for a low €17.95 at 70% discount.

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First time to go scuba diving — Paradise Island, Samal, Davao. I think I’m going to do this more regularly.

Then, there’s the Orchid Boys of Samal Contest which was participated by Marc and Jayvee.

Of course, there’s the Davao food one can’t do without.

And I’d like to add, Marco Polo Hotel there is one of the best hotels I’ve stayed around the country.

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I have two destinations in mind — Paris, France and Rome, Italy. The objective — climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower and visit The Vatican in Rome in just 7 days. That should give me time to get back to the Philippines by the 20th of December (leaving for Cologne, Germany on Dec. 1).

The budget – €1,000 euros. That should cover travel (train or airplane), hotel and food. If time permitted, maybe an overnight trip to London (I have cousins there) first before going to Paris?

I’ve been doing some Google Maps searching, reading travel sites, and looking into train and place schedules.

Any tips, suggestions or recommendations (especially with transportation and sleeping accommodations) will be highly appreciated. Thanks!

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I can’t believe this is happening. I checked out of my hotel in Karachi last Thursday and it’s already Saturday and I haven’t reached Manila. I spent the night at Jinnah International Airport (Karachi, Pakistan) waiting for another flight to Bangkok as the scheduled one was canceled and I was not informed. I’ve also resolved to the thought that I will also miss my connecting flight from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Manila the following day.

After waiting for 13 hours, I was able to finally check in with another Thai Airways flight but to my surprise, it wasn’t going to Bangkok but Seeb Int’l Airport at Muscat, Oman. The damn plane was going the opposite way! From the plane, I saw the entire city devastated by what seemed to be lahar flow. Turns out there was a powerful cyclone (Cyclone Gonu) the day before and all flights thru there were affected.

Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Sleeping at the airport is no fun.

After spending almost 8 hours in the plane from Karachi to Oman to Bangkok, we landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport greeted by Thai Airways staff with some more bad news. My alternate connecting flight was also fully booked. They got us a new sked from another airlines, Kuwait Airways, for a later date.

Tired, sleepy and cold, I’m waiting to check-in for our 12 noon flight to Manila. I’m praying really hard nothing unfortunate happens again.

Now, my only worry is whether I’d get my luggage when I arrive at the NAIA airport. Will all that changes in luggage tags, I sure hope I don’t end up losing another one.

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They also made me chew paan which is betel leaf filled with half a dozen weird concoctions. I almost threw up, until they said it was okay to spit it out. I swear, after a few seconds of mixed sweetness and minty flavors, I smelled shampoo in there. I forgot to bring my camera so no shots here. Some of the guys here tell me to be careful when taking pictures, especially of women, or else I could get into some trouble. Thus, the camera is always tucked in the bag or stays in my hotel room.

Karachi is the most commercial city with, I was told, over 14 million residents — one of the biggest in the world. The metro is along the coast of the Arabian Sea and I was able to visit one of the public beaches (Clifton Beach). I would have wanted to take my first camel ride but I guess the horse was good enough.

That’s 14 million people and I rarely see any foreigners. It felt a bit weird noticing when people gaze at me — well, a bald man in a hair-loving society sure does attract some attention.

We also dropped by one of them burial shrines of their saints. I had another picture of me beside one of the carpet-covered coffins but it was a little odd standing in there smiling at the camera while people around you are praying and making offerings.

I’m supposed to fly back to Manila last night but there are no available flights so I will have to wait until Friday morning. I didn’t want to go back to Lahore for an earlier schedule for fear of losing my luggage again.

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Right after I came back from Singapore last week, I had to go to the Pakistan Embassy to apply for another visa. Since I got my invitation on a very short notice, I wasn’t prepared with the right documents. Now, I needed a new NBI Clearance with DFA authentication. I thought, what’s that and why do I need that? I never needed that the last time I applied for a Visa.

So, I went back to Carriedo at the NBI head office to apply for another one. Since it was for travel abroad, it takes about 3 working days to process it (and I thought you can get it in a day now). I already used up all my NBI clearance including the personal copy so a renewal application is no use. I had to pull some strings to fast-track that. A friend of a friend who works there helped out and I was able to get it the following day.

Turns out the one I got still needs to go thru the Department of Foreign Affairs for authentication. I called in another friend/client who works in their legal department to help out. I got it a day after. Off to the embassy that Wednesday.

But, I’m leaving on Thursday so I was hoping for a miracle and a little gift to the officers inside would do the trick of an overnight approval. To my dismay, it didn’t work this time.

A few phone calls from my sponsors in Islamabad did the trick and before end of office hours yesterday, I got my visa.

Phew, why do I always get into such trouble all the time? Read my previous encounter here. Ok, there’s the boarding call now.

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Free wifi hotspots everywhere I can even sniff out a couple from the 22nd floor of my hotel. Starbucks is just at the ground floor and they have free wifi hotspots too.

The places, people, hospitality and food are great. Well, except the for the curry spiked ones. The beaches are just a couple meters away but never had to time to check them out. Still, Penang is one state I’d be glad to come back to in the future.

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So, while spending some quite time at my hotel room, I did a search on which ones I can apply online and in a jiffy.

Singapore Airlines has their own Krisflyer membership program which is also a part of the Star Alliance. From my past travels abroad, I’ve been taking Singapore Air so it was the most logical one to sign up for. Now, if I can only retroactively add those earlier flight miles I incurred.

Anyway, I might still be able to log in the miles when I get back home and a couple more trips to Lahore & Karachi the week after so it’s not really all for naught.

Note: You can apply for Krisflyer online too. You automatically get your member ID and they’ll mail you your card once you reach a certain amount of points.

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During our return trip, I was told I can opt to stay in Singapore for a day or two. Of course, I will be the one spending for that side trip but it’s something I am heavily considering. Will an overnight stay suffice to check out the city? Where do I go? What’s the best thing to do while I’m there?

The closest I got was at the Changi Airport last year so I thought it’d be nice to really get off the airport and see the city. I haven’t really decided yet. Any recommendations?

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Team Kiko cordially invites you to join us on the K Na Express, a journey of thanksgiving, renewal and expression of reforms across the country. Senator Kiko and Ms. Sharon Cuneta-Pangilinan,will be joined by many special guests, friends, family, and supporters.

Dubbed KKK or Kasama si Kiko Karavan, it will be led by a special “K Na Express” bus carrying Pangilinan and his family. It is slated from May 7 to 9, visiting key towns and cities from Ilocos, the Cordillera region, then down to Central Luzon before finally capping the trail in Metro Manila with a big concert-cum-rally. Gary Valenciano, Christian Bautista, Judy Ann Santos, JEANS or the Jericho Rosales Band, Kamikazee and Parokya ni Edgar will be among
artists and bands expected to join Pangilinan and his wife Sharon at the different stops.

Our 3-day itenerary from Monday to Wednesday will bring us from Laoag to La Union, Baguio City, Dagupan City, stops at Urdaneta City, Tarlac City, Olongapo City, Bataan, Pampanga, Bulacan ending in Quezon City.

If any of you are from these cities and have time, maybe we could have some meet-up in the evenings, grab some coffee/beer and chat with the rest of the BoBs (and hopefully do a BoBCast!).

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The Band of Bloggers in Bohol.

[tags]tagbilaran, bohol, chocolate hills, tarsier, floating restaurant, dumaluan beach, shell museum, loboc church[/tags]

P.S.
If you want the Band of Bloggers to visit your place, call anyone of us in our contact page and maybe we can arrange something. We’ll soon launch our official website and open advertising for a Sponsor a BoB Trip package.;)

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We spent the night at Cebu City thinking we could burn the night away at some bar (Tapas Lounge) without sleep then head on to the SuperCat port for the first early morning trip.

We also met several Cebu bloggers.

We yielded to several rounds of beer and mai tai so a quick nap at Queensland Hotel was the best thing we could think of. More coverage and pictures when we get to Tagbilaran.

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More breathtaking pictures tomorrow. Globe Visibility has HSDPA coverage but I could not connect to Smart 3G (there’s a signal but could not connect to the network). Fortunately, we’re enjoying the free wifi around the area (maybe some neighbor had a wide-range open WLAN).

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An old officemate and her friends tagging along after they read about the trip over at Pinoy.Travel.Blog.

From left: Markku, Jobarclix, Sasha, Marc, Gail, Jayvee, me, Alet, Trisha, Minnie (Rico, missing in picture)

Experimenting with red/orange filters.

Didn’t get any good pictures, partly because I was too busy cleaning off that dirt off of the lens (or was it the sensor? *waahhh*)

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So here we are…

Won’t be back until Sunday. I have Smart 3G/GPRS with me and Mobile GMail so you can reach me easier via email instead of calling or texting (as if I know how to answer my phone or reply to emails promptly).

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This is prolly one of the nicest airports I’ve ever been and shops are all over! It’s also the first airport that has free wifi everywhere, which allowed me to do some email checking and a little blogging. They also have PC terminals where passengers can use to surf the net or play games though the sign says to limit usage at 15 minutes per person.

We won’t be boarding until around 6PM so we have several hours ’til we fly again. Will be in Manila just before midnight, I guess.

It’s also good to talk to people who are good in speaking English. So, ok, I’m off to do more gadget shopping here.

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The running exchange rate is $1 = 9170 but the bank’s rate at the airport is $1 = 8,800 rupiah. So, if you have $115 US dollars, you’ll get just over 1 Million rupiahs with it.

There’s no worry having to carry around bundles and bundles of paper notes since denominations are in the 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 and 100,000.

Still, one needs to get to use with it. I still automatically convert stuff into US dollars when looking at prices. Imagine paying Rp 180,000 for a taxi ride from the Soeharto-Hata Soekarno-Hatta airport to the hotel? *heh*

What’s funnier is the reaction I got from the bellboy after I handed him a Rp1,000 tip. That’s like just 5 pesos!

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We’re off to Jakarta via Singapore Airlines in an hour but will have an hour stop-over at Singapore.

Must have spent a fortune on new shoes, clothes and stuff. Hopefully, my luggage won’t get lost in translation this time.

I can’t make it to the Philippine Web Awards but my fellow bloggers at PinoyTechBlog and PinoyTravelBlog will be there, just in case we win an award (and solidify that lifetime PR7 link). *heh* If anyone is going to the PWA, you can hook up with Migs, JAngelo, Jolo, Anton, Karla or Arnold.

Again, you can reach me via SMS (international roaming) but if it’s not urgent, an email would do. That is, if I get some internet in my hotel room.

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I was staring at the luggage carousel and my beloved luggage never came out of the hole. Argh, the dreaded time has come. When I reported it to the airport authorities, they said mine could have been misplaced during cargo and it might have ended at Karachi, with a flight around that same time.

Well, I’m heading back home now and was fortunate to find free wifi at the waiting lounge of Suvarnabhumi (pronounced su-war-na-boom) Airport in Bangkok. All I have with me is my backpack which, luckily, contains my laptop and my camera but a week’s worth of clothes is lost somewhere in Pakistan.

I will be flying to Jakarta next week and if that luggage doesn’t reach Manila in time, I will be doing some really heavy shopping (pray not!). *huhuhu*

Hay, such is the life of a lonely traveler. Sh*t happens.

P.S.
Got all your messages. I’m on it. Ok, time for boarding.

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Ones is constantly challeged to maximize the usage.

• Check emails and reply to very urgent ones.
• Download all RSS feeds into local client, FeedDemon.
• Opening 3 dozen pages for reading later on when disconnected.
• Compose blog entries offline (via Notepad) and publish them once connected.
• Type faster!

I just learned from talking with guys here that you can actually buy pre-paid SIM cards and use it access the internet. I didn’t think of doing that before. I was actually expecting to at least be able to access Mobile Gmail via my phone on Smart International Roaming. Another lesson learned here…

Years ago, when I was still enjoying dial-up connections, there was this software that enables you to download entire websites into your hard drive and then brose it offline. Are those kind of services still available now?

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We flew over Calcutta, India and the top view of the huge city at night is breath-taking. Reminds me of the planet Coruscant in Starwars.

I will be flying to Islamabad in 4 hours so I won’t have enough time to check out the city. It’s cold outside and when I went up the rooftop swimming pool to take pictures of the city, there wasn’t enough to see because of the fog.

Breakfast was okay and most have curry or some spice. I found some insect (was that a cockroach?) in my coffee. I asked them to replace it and the second cup I got still has one leg floating in it. Oh, well. I skipped it.

Good thing the hotel had free internet in the room but it took them a while to look for data cable I could use to plugin my laptop (note to self: bring data cable next time). The net is a little unreliable (keeps going on and off) so if you’re wondering why I haven’t responded to your emails, it’s because GMail wouldn’t load but yeah, I can see about a dozen or so unanswered emails already.

Hopefully, I will get some decent connection when I get to Islamabad. I’m on international roaming (SMS only) so you can text me for urgent stuff.

Note: Pictures taken using my N6233’s 2MP built-in camera.

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I don’t have anything else to do right now but sit tight and wait for my next flight. I exchange about $50 into Thailand Bhat which got me around THB1,780 (1THB = 1.36PHP).

First thing I saw was an internet cafe here in the airport so I checked it out and how things are — just can’t help it. *hehehe* Anyways, they charge THB100 per 20 minutes or Php408 per hour. Damn, that’s expensive. The speeds are good though — 2.34 Mbps on 2Wire (1.4Mbps via PLDTPlay). Is it really that expensive here or it’s because I’m at an airport?

My phone’s roaming service is working but I don’t know if I can use it to check Mobile Gmail.

Oh, I got this really cool Samsonite laptop Backpack last night at SM Dept. Store and it’s a great catch, though a bit pricey. I’m able to carry both the 14″ Presario and the Rebel XT with this one with much more room to spare. Will post about more this one when I get back.

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I thought I’d like to wrap things up before moving on with regular blogging:

• It’s not very relaxing to stay in a hotel for an extended period, even if it’s a 5 star one. Just doesn’t feel as comfortable as your own bed at home.
• I was real cultural immersion having to be with people from different Asian countries — Burma, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Japan. You get to learn a lot of things first hand from these people, mostly politically related though.
• Don’t expect good weather always. I thought it would be cold out there but it wasn’t (31C). Most of the time, it was raining really hard so tours were very limited and short. We had an afternoon visit Radio Taiwan International (RTI) and found out that they’re also broadcasting in Tagalog, one of about a dozen languages they cover.
• It’s not cheap to go around. Buses, though very comfortable and new costs about Php100 and taxis must have double/triple our local rates (flag down is Php110). One very interesting thing is that all their taxis are brand new — Camry, Vios, etc.
• Everything (almost) is similar to Manila so shopping wasn’t really enjoyable. They weren’t cheap or any better because they’re mostly commercial stuff. Okay, maybe just some boxes of tea for gift-shopping.
• An 11 or 13 course meal could be very heavy, though I was only able to eat about 2 or 3 of them since they’re either seafood/vegetable-based or too exotic. No Nestea, just original/local iced tea. Everything is spot clean, not a single fly even in the street food stalls. With an almost all-Chinese meal everyday, I never imagined I’d love eating at McDo there.
• There’s always one universal topic wherever you go — politics.

Anyway, I’m back to work and catching up on things. If all goes well, I will be off to Pakistan in October/November this year for a similar workshop (there’s also a possibility with Indonesia and Malaysia as I’ve gotten standing invitations from them.) Good times.

I have tons of picture at the Photo Gallery.

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Btw, according to their website, both the Cathay Pacific Lounge and the Singapore Airlines Lounge at the NAIA Terminal 1 are the busiest hotspots nationwide.

Just turned Smart’s Roaming Service on, hoping it gets activated before the plane leaves Philippine airspace.

More on this when we arrive at the hotel later this afternoon.

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Photography tips were shared in between cheesy love stories.

At the end of the day, I brought home Markku’s Sigma 18-125mm lens to add to my stable. It wasn’t cheap but I think it was worth it. I don’t have huge budgets for camera lenses like he does so I’ll settle with hand-me-downs.

View complete gallery here.

We aptly call it the “The Band of Bloggers” and we hope to do one every month. Next stop, Enchanted Kingdom.

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Picture above is a Vigan house figurine given to me by the Vice Mayor of the city along with commemorative plaques/decors from the Mayor. I stayed at the Vigan Plaza Hotel, prolly the best place to stay in town, which by the way was owned by Chavit Singson (that guy must have owned half of Vigan).

Since we brought the car (my brother and 2 cousins), we were able to make stop-overs along the way, albeit we got lost along Tarlac-Pangasinan (I should have brought a better road map). I didn’t have much time to go around, by whenever I get an hour or two before dusk, I’ll go to the nearby plaza and take some shots.

See the gallery here.

I never got the chance to get a good sleep since I had to rush to the DFA this morning to process my passport then I’m off for a blog meet-up with Frederick Saurat of Mobile Monday later this evening.

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The picture below may be the best shot I ever took during the entire trip:

The Face of Pampanga

The kids here were selling me bamboo flutes. I would buy one but I gave them a Php10 talent fee for posing so candidly. *hehehe* Will do detailed posts over at PinoyTravelBlog during the week.

Bespren Genesis Abe delos Reyes

More pictures in the gallery.

Check out the Pampanga Food Trip 2.0!

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Just got back from the Southern Island of Mindoro. =)

No Wifi, no net cafe, no internet. Disconnected form the net since Friday night. Both liberating and worrysome. *heh*

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Been up for more than 36 hours already trying finish some stuff before I leave. I did a couple of future posts while I’m away so you can still check back from time to time.

See yah around!

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