December 8, 2015
I flew from San Diego to Seattle, from Seattle to Incheon, South Korea, and from
Incheon to Cebu.   With layovers, it took about 24 hours.   I arrived at 11:55pm.  

December 9th
I arrived at Lindbergh Field at 7:15am.   The plane left on time for Seattle at 8am.
They say that it is necessary to arrive one or more hours prior to a domestic flight.
This proves that it is not necessary.   Also, although my next flight was an international
one, it is not necessary to arrive two or more hours prior to such a flight.
While I was at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea, I was able to
connect to the free airport WiFi with my Samsung tablet but not with my Dell Inspiron
6000 laptop.   The reason was that the laptop was so old that it had difficulty
connecting with the network, as was the case with other networks such as mine at
home.
The flights went smoothly.   The entire trip took about 24 hours.   I arrived at Mactan-
Cebu International Airport around 2:00am.   It was difficult to find the metered taxis
at the airport.   For future reference, it is necessary to go right when exiting the
airport and walk about 200 yards along the adjacent sidewalk to reach the metered
taxi queue.   While walking to the queue, one private taxi driver said that he wanted
475 Philippine pesos ("PhP") to drive me to my hotel.   I took a metered taxi to the
hotel and it cost me Php 417.   Amazing!   I arrived at the Canberry Hotel around
2:30am.   I was SO tired that I quickly unpacked, took a shower, and went to bed.

December 10th
The Canberry Hotel has positives and negatives.   The negatives were, in no particular
order -- (1) The TV was small (about 24 inches), (2) There was no safety/security box in
the room, (3) The hand soap and shampoo were low quality, (4) The shower had low
pressure, (5) There was no table but a 6-foot bar along the wall with the TV, (6) The
chair was of the plastic outdoor patio variety, and (7) The shower towels and bed sheets
were stained.
I slept until about 7:30am.   I had breakfast at 9 o'clock -- rice, one egg, sausage
(chorizo), two cucumber slices, a glass of juice, and a banana shake for Php 154.   After
brushing my teeth, I created a list of things to buy and went shopping.   I exchanged
dollars into Philippine pesos at a place in the old Robinson's Mall -- at the roundabout
-- at a place on the second floor named MS Money Exchanger.   A person in the money
exchange booth within Robinson's stated that they provided the best rate.   I believe
that she was correct when I got a rate of 47.15.   I'll have to remember this place for
the future.   I bought a pair of shorts, two shirts, a package of three socks, some
batteries, and some toiletries.   I also bought a Globe SIM card for Php 100 including
100 minutes of time for Php 100.   I needed to buy some other things, but would do that
another day.   For example, I needed an electric power converter/transformer because
the electricity and/or voltage was too high for some of my devices to handle (e.g.,
electric shaver and laptop computer).   I ate lunch at a Kentucky Fried Chicken
("KFC").   I returned to the room and took a 2-hour nap.   (Undoubtedly, I was still
tired from the trip during the previous day.)   I started working on this Web page while
watching a movie on the Turner Classic Movie ("TCM") channel.   Afterwards, I ate
dinner at the hotel's restaurant and later went out.   While I was out, I was in a bar and
noticed a large, black rat walk into the place.   I didn't inform anyone and about two
minutes later, a European man (I think) jumped out of his booth.   I knew why.   Ha!
Ha!
I took a taxi to the Beverly Boutique Business Hotel -- formerly, Eddie's Hotel.   The
reason was to check out one of the hotels that I would stay at between January 5th and
12th when I returned to Cebu from my time in Pattaya.   The receptionist gave me a
room price list and a business card.   Their Web site was
http://www.beverlyboutiquehotelcebu.com, email address was
'clover@globelines.com.ph', and their room prices were (1) Standard: Php 1630, (2)
Superior: Php 1930, (3) Deluxe: Php 2230, (4) Family: Php 2500, and (5) Executive
Suite: Php 2900.
Exchange Rate: 47.15

December 11th
I initially woke up at 8:30am.   I decided that I was too tired, so I went back to sleep.
Later, I woke up at 10:25am.   I showered and called the front desk to order lunch.
(I decided that it was a better use of my time to order the food from the room, have
them prepare it while I was working on things in my room, and they would call me
when it was ready for me.)   The person informed me that they stopped serving
breakfast at 10:00am.   So, I ordered lunch.   Meanwhile, I took care of some things
while I waited for the call.   When they didn't call after 15 minutes, I went down to the
restaurant.   Guess what?   I still waited for another 10 minutes until it was down.
Amazing!
While waiting for my food, I asked one of the hotel personnel where I could buy a
transformer for my laptop and electric shaver.   They told me that there was a store
named Spark Electric that sold them.   They called the store and informed me that
they had one that cost Php 350.   It was five blocks away, so I walked there, bought a
transformer (It could handle 6 watts.), walked back to my room, and hooked it up with
the laptop.   After 15 minutes, it died.   How did I know?   Because it "popped" and
then billowed smoke.   Damn!   And wow -- what a terrible smell of burning metal!   So,
I continued updating this part of this Web page after hooking up my laptop directly to
the electric outlet.   Later, I returned to the store.   I told them what happened and
after about 15 minutes, including them having their electrical expert join the
conversation, they gave me another converter/transformer.   This one could handle 75
watts of power.   (I need to get more educated about electricity.   In particular, amps,
volts, watts, and how they are related.   I studied it in high school and college but I
forgot.)   I had much more confidence in this converter/transformer ... because it
weighed a lot more.   Ha!   Ha!   Seriously, it probably contained lead and higher-
quality materials and could "do the job".   After all of the activity, I felt tired and took
a nap starting at 4:10.   Two-and-a-half hours later, I woke up.   (I must have still been
experiencing jet lag plus having been out late the previous night.   I then tested the
converter/transformer by hooking it up to an electrical outlet, hooking up my laptop's
adapter, then hooking up my laptop.   (I was careful to hook everything up in that
order because if the converter/transformer blew, then it might take my laptop with it.)
So far, so good.   (Knock on wood.)
After taking a shower, I went down to the hotel's restaurant (which is located in the
hotel's lobby; it was a VERY small hotel) to have their buffet.   It cost Php 198 and one
of the employees had informed me about it earlier that day.   It turned out that this day
-- December 11th -- is the first day of two festivals that the Filipinos celebrate related
to Christmas.   (Maybe it was only a local -- Vesayan -- tradition; I'll have to check it
out.)   When I arrived in the lobby, their was a parade of people walking down the
street.   They were carrying candles, some were beating drums, and some were
carrying floats related to the Virgin Mary and others.   I asked about how many people
were in the parade and one of the employees guessed that there were thousands.   Wow!
It continued for about ten more minutes after I arrived.   The Filipinos obviously are
serious about religion and Catholicism!
Ants!   They're everywhere!   Well, I exaggerate.   But it's annoying how they're so
small and you don't realize that they're crawling on you until there are several of them
crawling on you.
After dinner, I had planned to go out.   However, I got involved in taking care of to-do's.
So I ended up working on them SO late that I decided to just stay in my hotel room that
night.   One of the things that I did was to get on the Internet/WWW and learn more
about electricity and electronics.   In particular, how many watts my laptop produced
and how much voltage it could handle.   It's a good thing that I brought my tablet
because, as was the case with connecting to a wireless network in the airport in
Incheon, I could not connect to the wireless network in my hotel.   So, I studied about
electricity and electronics and determined, hopefully correctly, that my laptop
produced 90 watts.   The converter/transformer that I purchased could handle 75 watts.
So, it was questionable if my laptop, actually, the laptop's power adaptor, would blow
out the second converter/transformer.   Still -- so far, so good.   When I finished, I ended
up going to bed at exactly midnight.   On a side note, earlier that night, I had asked one
of the desk clerks where I could walk to exchange dollars into pesos.   The clerk stated
that she wouldn't walk to a money exchanger on the street in front of the hotel because
it wasn't safe at night.   She recommended taking a taxi somewhere else in order to do
it.
Exchange Rate: Unknown

December 12th
Obviously, my system had not adjusted to the time zone change.   I woke up at 5:30am
... instead of my normal 7:30am.   That was okay because I could then take care of
things.   One of the things that I wanted to take care of was that my laptop was
performing much slower than usual.   I examined the background processes that were
running and using up a lot of CPU time and memory (via Task Manager).   I shut down
a couple of processes and the laptop performed much better.   It pays to be a computer
nerd!
Regarding breakfast, I learned my lesson from the first two mornings.   I called the
front desk from my room, ordered my breakfast, and they called me when it was ready.
Meanwhile, I could catch up on to-do's.   It worked perfectly!   After eating and
brushing my teeth, I went out to both (1) Exchange dollars into pesos, and (2) To buy
some things for breakfast.   The reason for the latter was that my flight to Angeles City
left the next morning at 4:50.   So, I planned to not sleep that night, eat breakfast in my
room, and then catch a taxi to the airport.   Regarding the former, the security guard
at the hotel suggested that I go to a Western Union office to exchange money.   (I didn't
go to the MS Money Exchanger booth at the old Robinson's Mall because I could walk
to the Western Union office.   I went there and their dollar-to-peso rate was pretty poor
-- for me -- at 46.75.   I asked if there was someplace nearby where I could get a better
rate and she suggested a different company.   I went there, their rate was 46.85, I filled
out the paperwork, and they couldn't do the exchange because their Internet
connection was down.   Really?!   The clerk suggested that I go to a money exchange
booth in a mall located two blocks down the road.   (I certainly saw the REAL people
and their lifestyles during that walk!)   With the help of a grocery bag check-in
attendant, I found the money booth.   Their rate was 46.85 and I took it.   I returned to
the room and "took a breather" prior to going out again to catch up on more to-buy's.
One thing that I'd like to point out is that it pays to tip.   I tipped the waiters and
waitresses in the hotel's lobby-restaurant after each meal.   For my last breakfast there,
I followed my new procedure of calling the front desk from my room, ordering my
breakfast, and then they would call me when it was ready.   They called me, I went
down to the restaurant, and there was my breakfast, waiting for me at my favorite seat
on my favorite table. Exchange Rate: Unknown

Summary: Most of my time in Cebu was spent doing "administrative tasks" --
Purchasing things, arranging a hotel, fixing things (e.g., converter/transformer), and
preparing things (e.g., looking for potential retirment area).   When I would return to
Cebu on January 5th, I would be (at least, I hoped to be) ready to "take care of
business" and also to have more fun.   And about the converter/transformer, it would
heat up when charging my laptop.   So, I had to watch it and disconnect it as soon as
the laptop was fully charged.   I hope that the converter/transformer survives!

December 13th
And now for the first sleepless night last night out of two during this trip.   As I
mentioned above, the reason is because I had a flight this morning at 4:50 and if I can't
get at least four hours of sleep, it's not worth it.   So, I caught a taxi from the hotel at
about 2:15, got to the airport in about 15 minutes (There was no traffic at that time,
obviously.), and caught the on-time flight.   It was interesting that the taxi fare was Php
230 whereas the previous fare going from the airport to the hotel was Php 417.   There
was a "hickup" prior to the flight.   Cebu Pacific Airlines has a carry-on weight limit
of 7 kilograms ("kg").   My bag, with my laptop in it, weighed about 17kg.   So, I had to
check in my bag.   That involved removing the laptop from the bag (because I didn't
want it to potentially get damaged or destroyed by the luggage handlers), putting my
bag tag on the bag, securing the bag with my TSA ("Traffic Safety Administration")
lock, and paying Php 672 for checking in the bag.   Wow, it cost a little bit more than
$14!)   The ticket agent was helpful and pointed out that I could significantly reduce
the cost of checking in my bag during my return flight by going to their Web site and
checking in the bag that way.   Oh, I'll DEFINITELY be doing that!
The plane ride was "interesting."   The man sitting in the middle seat and to my left
put his arm on our shared armrest in a manner where his elbow extended over the
armrest and into my seat area.   Maybe I'm being "overly sensitive", but why don't
people respect other's people's space and not do things like that?   Not only was his
arm over the armrest but when he placed it there, his elbow was touching my elbow.
He moved his arm into his "space" when I didn't retract my arm -- which was well
within my space.   As a finishing touch, he fell asleep during the flight and just prior to
landing, his head fell to the right, hitting me in the shoulder.   Classic!   I name thee
"The Elbow Man".
I took a minivan taxi from the airport to the La Teresita Hotel.   It cost Php 500.
That's pretty expensive ... for Philippines standards.   I forgot that I could have taken a
much less comfortable tuk-tuk ride for about half that price.   For an extra $5, is it
worth it?   At the hotel, as expected since I arrived at about 6:15am, they didn't have a
room available for me.   So I took some things out of my suitcase and briefcase (Yes, I
took my briefcase -- a new one -- on the trip.   The reason is that I can put valuables in
it, lock them in there, and I don't have to put valuables in either a safe(ty) box in the
room or in a hotel's front lobby.   Note that hotel lobby safety boxes have been robbed
of guests' belongings.), checked them in with the hotel personnel, and went out into
Angeles City to bide my time until I could check into a room at 2 o'clock.   (Note that I
gave them my phone number so that they could call me if a room became available
prior to 2 o'clock.   One didn't.)
I walked through a neighborhood along the back of Fields Avenue.   I reached a main
road, turned left, and turned left again onto Fields Avenue.   I hopped onto a stool at an
outdoor restaurant -- Kokomo's -- and drank a couple of 7-ups while I determined
what I would do ... for about seven hours.   While I was there, women, children, and
both would walk up to the restaurant and beg.   In another situation, a Filipino (man)
stealthily walked into the bar with a half-drunk beer bottle in his hand.   The staff
finally saw him sitting three seats away from me, hustled over, and escorted him out of
the bar.   He was SO-O-O drunk that he could barely talk.   Beforehand, an American
was sitting a few seats away from me.   He was in the construction industry and was,
for a while, helping to build roads in The Philippines ("PI").   We discussed it for a
while and then he informed me that there was a hotel named Pacific Breeze Hotel and
Resort that held an event every Saturday.   The event was called Scorebirds and they
had a pool party that cost Php 500, a person got two drinks with it, it started around 1
o'clock, and there was a complimentary buffet available at 3 o'clock.   (I'll have to
research it further.)
Eventually, I resolved to go to the nearby City SM Mall and peruse it.   I bought a
charger for my camera's battery and an ankle brace.   I had purchased an ankle brace
prior to the trip.   I had only gotten one because it seemed somewhat expensive at $11
and I planned to buy a second one in PI for less money.   Well, it turns out that the one
that I bought at this mall was indeed less expensive at $7, but I would learn the next
day that things wouldn't turn out as planned.   (By the way, that was a teaser to get
you to continue reading.)   I then went into a Pizza Hut restaurant inside the mall and
ate lunch.   When I finished, it was about 12:30 and I decided to return to the hotel,
hoping that they would have a room ready.   (Maybe a guest with the same type of
room had an early-morning flight like me and would have to check out prior to noon.)
Before leaving the mall, I noticed a store selling many different types of items including
TVs and cell phones.   I went in, examined what they had on hand, and took a couple of
pictures of item placards.   For example, they were selling a 70-inch UHD TV from
Samsung for Php 249,900 ($5,317).   Cheap!   And if a person paid with cash, the price
was reduced by Php 24,990 ($532).   A salesperson came to me.   I asked if they sold
LED/LCD TVs because all that I saw were UHDs and LEDs.   She said that she had
never heard of an LED/LCD TV.   Interesting.   I then asked her if they had Samsung
S6 phones for sale.   She walked me over to one of them.   The placard read that it sold
for Php 31,570 ($672).   Last was an Acer laptop selling for Php 15,290 ($325) with 2GB
of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a 14-inch display, a Webcam, and MS-Windows 10.
Cheap (part II)!   I think.
What do you know -- They had a room ready for me!   So I got my things out of storage,
went to the room, quickly unpacked most of my things, and took a much-needed nap.
"Interesting" Notes --
1) What is common practice with waitresses is that, when bringing a bill, they say "It is
only ... pesos."   Funny -- "only".   "Okay, if it is ONLY ... pesos, then you can pay for
it."
2) While I was taking a break in the mall, a woman sitting on a bench and about four
feet away from me was nursing her baby
I slept for about 3-1/2 hours.   So I took a shower and walked down to Fields Avenue.
One thing that I did was check the value of the dollar versus the peso at money
exchangers.   The average rate was 47.20 pesos per one dollar.   At that time, 'xe.com'
had the value at 47.48.   I exchanged one of my $100 bills and then walked to Kokomo's
where I had dinner.   Note: Kokomo's menu is VERY extensive including Western
foods and dishes from virtually every country in Asia, Southeast Asia, and the South
Pacific.   I had Kung Pao Chicken.   It was okay.   After I finished, I returned to the
hotel, brushed my teeth, changed my clothes, and "went out on the town".   And it was
a late night!   One thing that I did in a couple of places was to give the waitresses fake
$1 million bills.   Funny stuff!   But one of them didn't think that it was funny and
wanted a REAL tip.
Exchange Rate Range: 47.20 to 47.25

December 14th
Hey, I didn't wake up with a hangover!   Ha! Ha!   But I DID have to take an Immodium
AD pill.   Per my 3- or 4-day schedule, I needed to take a pill because I would inevitably
"get the runs".   I'm not sure if it's from brushing my teeth with faucet water, the
change in the temperature and humidity, something else, or a combination of issues, but
I have to take those pills.   It was about 8:30 and I took a shower, caught up on a few
things, and had breakfast at my usual restaurant -- Angel Bakery.   I took note ... again
... that they sell high-quality German beer there.   (I'm going to have to remember to buy
one sometime instead of drinking San Miguel Light or San Miguel Pilsner.   By the way,
the Filipinos pronounce "pilsner" as "pilsen".)   I then walked to the mall.   And the
following is what I was referring to in yesterday's notes.   The ankle brace, a cloth-type,
slip-over wrap, was too small for me.   So I returned to the store and bought the same
type that I had brought with me from the U.S.   This time, I wore my original one and
showed it to the salesman, a different person than the one from the previous day.   "Oh,
that's what you want!"   He promptly walked over to the item rack and retrieved the
exact same one that I had.   I put it on and it fit perfectly.   "How much does it cost?"
"850 pesos."   ($18.)   So after all was said and done, it cost me nearly the same price as
the one that I had brought with me from the U.S.
I also went to the mall to return the camera battery charger that I had also purchased
the previous day.   I informed the clerk that its lights would not turn on, indicating that
it was broken.   She seemed unsurprised about it.   She looked in her display case,
couldn't find another one, and asked if I could return the next day to get another one.
Damn!   So I returned to my hotel and caught up on email messages and updating this
Web page.
One thing that I noticed is that there are house flies that are the same size as the ones in
The United States and there are much tinier flies -- about 1/25th the size of those flies.
Also, the mosquitoes are similarly tiny.   Thus, you can neither see nor hear the
mosquitoes "until it's too late".
I relaxed in my room for a few hours, most of the time watching the movie 'The
Assassination of Jesse James'.   (I thought that only politicians could be considered as
being assassinated.   Ha! Ha!)   Afterwards, I showered and went to Kokomo's for
dinner.   This time, I had Pad Thai with chicken -- a standard Thai dish.   Wow, it was
very good!   I expected it to not taste that great by assuming that the chef was not Thai
and might not know how to prepare it similar to how it's done in The Land Of Smiles.
After finishing eating, I went out for a few hours.
Exchange Rate Range: 47.15 to 47.30

December 15th
Wow, did I sleep!   I initially woke up at 8:30, thought "I'm still tired."   I woke up again
at 12:30.   Wow!   I went back to sleep and woke up, for the last time, at 1:30.   My guess
is that I was catching up on missed sleep from Saturday night/Sunday morning when I
never went to sleep.   I was very glad that I bought some things from a grocery store the
previous day that I could eat for breakfast because (1) I was very hungry, and (2) I
didn't feel like going out to a restaurant for breakfast.   (It gets pretty expensive if a
person does that every morning.)
I caught up on to-do's such as browsing Web sites and reading email messages.   I
informed a couple of my friends about the prices of smart phones, laptops, and (smart)
TVs here.   One of them researched them in the U.S. and stated that none of the deals
were better here in PI.   The only one that surprised me was the 14-inch Acer laptop that
sold for $325.   It's amazing how inexpensive such items are compared to just two or
three years ago.
I ordered lunch from room service and stated that I wanted to eat it in their restaurant
and asked them if they could call me when it was ready and I would go down to the
restaurant and eat it there.   (I love this technique!)   About 15 minutes later, one of the
kitchen staff arrived at my room and informed me that I couldn't eat in the restaurant
because they were doing maintenance work in the restaurant.   Damn -- I could have
gotten the room cleaned while I ate!   So, I agreed and a few minutes later he brought
the lunch to my room.   I thought "I wonder how late the room-cleaning service was
open."   So, I called the front desk and the clerk informed me that they clean rooms all
day and all night long.   Great!   So I got dressed, went to the nearest money exchanger,
and got more pesos.   I was lucky that this exchanger had one of the best, and sometimes
THE best, rate around.   I returned to my room and here I sit, updating the Web page.
In about 1-1/2 hours, I'm going to go to a buffet that I heard about the previous night.
The sky was overcast all day long.   I was surprised because there were few clouds in the
sky during my first two days in Angeles City.   Occasionally, it would rain, albeit lightly.
So, it was a perfect day to stay indoors.   Oh, and there were some clouds that quickly
traveled low in the sky.   I'm guessing that they were about 500 feet up.   If I understand
correctly, that indicates that there is a wind sheer occurring.   I want to understand such
phenomena better.
Meanwhile, one interesting thing about PI, and some of the countries in Asia and
Southeast Asia, is that they have never seen a lime.   What that means is that when they
see a lemon, which is larger and yellow, they call it a lime.   So, I got on the Internet/
WWW and took a picture of an image of a bunch of limes and lemons sitting next to
each other.   When I am spending time with the locals, I'm going to show them the
picture and ask them to point out which of the fruit are lemons and which ones are
limes.   (That's how mean I am.   Ha! Ha!)
As planned, I went to the buffet for dinner.   But it was more interesting than expected
in order to get there because the rain had become stronger.   I didn't bring an umbrella
or a raincoat with me.   (I had initially packed one of my raincoats and decided that I
wouldn't need one because it was December and there shouldn't be any rain.   Wrong!)
Fortunately, I had packed a small plastic handbag for the possibility of making short
trips.   So, I took it and used it to somewhat cover me as I walked along the streets.
When I reached Fields Avenue, I stopped under an awning to take a break.   While
there, a Filipino walked up to me and asked if I wanted to buy an umbrella.   Duh!   But
he only had large ones and I wanted something that was small enough to fit into my
carry-on suitcase.   Another man walked up to me and he had the compact/retractable
kinds of umbrellas.   I bought one of them from him for 100 pesos.   (I probably paid too
much, but it was only about $2.15.   So, off I went, somewhat wet, to the buffet ...
The buffet cost 250 pesos and there were about ten different dishes ... half of them
Filipino dishes.   It was pretty good.   And the mamasan sat with me most of the time,
buying me drinks.   While I was there, I showed her and some of the employees the
photo that I mentioned above about the limes and lemons.   The mamasan said that she
knew that there were differences between the two fruits but none of the employees had
ever heard of a lime, I mean a lemon, I mean a lime, before.   I wonder if they'll
remember.
Exchange Rate: 47.30

December 16th
And more rain.   Someone told me that there was a small typhoon hitting PI.   After
lunch at a Chow King restaurant (I had wonton soup.), I returned to my room and
checked it out.   The typhoon -- Melor or Nona -- was passing over Luzon Island, west of
Manila, directly over Subic Bay.   I read the news about it at, up to then, thirteen people
had died because of it.
This was another quiet afternoon.   I had planned on going to the mall to exchange the
camera battery charger plus get a couple of other things (a USB cable to upload photos
from camera to laptop and an ethernet cable to physically connect my laptop to my
repeater), but with the rain falling and making part of the walk to the mall a muddy
mess, I decided to postpone going to the mall until the next day.   (Or the next day?)   So,
I stayed in my room and caught up on updating these Web pages.   Prior to sunset (at
5:30), I did the same thing as the prior day and walked to the nearby money exchanger
office to convert dollars into pesos.   As you can read, the exchange rate had not changed.
While walking there, someone had rented a "karaoke van", had set it up in front of their
one-story apartment, and were singing like it was their last chance.
And this would be my routine for the next 5-1/2 days.   Monotonous?   Yes.   Fun?   Yes.
If nothing else, it gives a person time to think about issues and prepare for things.
Exchange Rate: 47.30

December 17th
I woke up at 8 o'clock and I ordered breakfast in my room while catching up on email
messages.   Afterwards, I gathered some clothes and took them to a nearby laundry shop.
Then, I went to the mall and took care of a few things including (1) Getting the
replacement camera battery recharger, (2) Buying an ethernet cable, and (3) Buying a
USB cable to connect my camera to my laptop.   I succeeded at the first two tasks and
went to six or seven stores to complete the third one.   No success.   Oh well, I'll try to
find one when I was in Thailand or, if worse came to worse, I'd upload photos when I
returned to the U.S.   On my way back to my hotel, I bought a few things at a grocery
store.   Hopefully, that will be the last time that I have to do that ... until I'm in Thailand.
Finally, I got around to trying to get the repeater working that I had brought with me on
the trip.   I could use it to connect to the hotel's wireless network and then I could
connect the laptop to the repeater.   (It is certainly more enjoyable having both the larger
screen -- 15 inches versus 9.7 inches -- and a larger keyboard.)   Well, as I suspected, it
didn't work.   I had a feeling that it was going to be necessary to connect the repeater to
the hotel's router by having them within close proximity.   So this "project" would
continue another day.
Per the instructions of the person at the laundry shop, I went there at 5 o'clock to pick
up my clothes.   They weren't ready.   She said that they would have them ready for me
in five minutes.   So, I returned to my room, caught up on a few things, and returned to
the shop at 5:45.   The clothes were ready and it cost 130 pesos ($2.77) for one pair of
shorts, three collared shirts, three pairs of underwear, and three pairs of long white
socks.   When I dropped off the clothes earlier, she initially stated that they would have
them ready for me the next afternoon.   I asked her if it was possible to get them the
same day and she said yes, at a higher price.   If $2.77 is the higher price, what is the
lower price?   $1.38?   I'll find out when I have them do another load prior to continuing
my trip in Thailand.
I went to a new restaurant for dinner -- D Cafe.   It is located on the corner close to La
Teresita.   I ordered Filipino food and it was very good.   I'll be going there again.   After
returning to the hotel to brush my teeth, I went out for a while.
Notes -- (1) Nearly all restaurants sell shakes -- banana, mango, etc.; and (2) Men
cleaned the rooms in the hotel, not women.
Exchange Rate: 47.25

December 18th
Wow, I didn't wake up until 12:15!   That's in the afternoon, by the way.   I must have
partied late the previous night.   I had to took an Immodium AD pill ... if you know what
I mean.   If you don't know, it was for the same reason as mentioned in December 14th's
information.   I was on schedule, once again.   I didn't feel like going out for breakfast, so
I ate in the room -- fruit juice, a couple of bananas, and a muffin.   Maybe I would go to
my favorite breakfast place -- Angel Bakery -- the next day.
It would be a slow, and short, day today.   I primarily relaxed ("recovered") while
watching some Star Wars movies.   One channel was showing all of the Star Wars
movies as a preparation for the latest, and possibly last, Star Wars movie that was going
to open that night around the world -- "Star Wars: The Force Awakens".   I'll watch it
when I return to the U.S.   Or maybe I'll watch it some afternoon at the mall's theatre.
I ate a late lunch and felt much better as a result.   I didn't do much that day as I had
caught up on nearly all of my trip-related errands.   So, I occasionally updated these
Web pages while relaxing in my room.   However, one thing that I did accomplish was to
email a taxi company in Thailand that my friend from England provided to me.   Their
email address was 'thaihappytaxi at gmail dot com' (for possible future usage).   I would
get a ride from them from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Pattaya.   For two reasons, it would
be nice to have something prearranged -- (1) Convenience, and (2) I was probably going
to be pretty exhausted after flying on three airplanes between 9:15pm on December 22nd
to 12:10pm on the 23rd.
At about 7:15, I went out to eat dinner. On the way, I dropped off some more clothes to
clean.   (I couldn't drop off all of my clothes the first time because then it would be
reenacting the scene from 'The Terminator' -- "Nothing to wear ... Laundry Day!"
There would be no partying this night.   I went to a place named Kokomo's Hotel &
Restaurant.   I only ate a seafood chowder dish.   It worked well at making my stomach
feel better.   I returned to my hotel and was "out like a light" at 10:45.   I would end up
sleeping through the night until about 6:45.
Exchange Rate Range: 47.25 to 47.35

December 19th
As mentioned above, I woke up at a decent hour.   I proceeded to catch up on email
messages, checked the stock markets, and updated these Web pages.   After taking a
shower, sure enough, I went to Angel Bakery for breakfast.   While walking there, I
checked out the money changer booths for the current Php-to-dollar exchange rates.
The dollar had slightly dropped.   I also walked along a side road to see where it lead.
Unfortunately, it didn't lead back to my hotel ... or even to another street heading
towards my hotel.   However, I fortunately discovered a couple of hotels that I had never
seen nor heard of before -- Kokomo's and Prime Asia -- and I got their room rates.   The
lowest price for a Deluxe King Standard room at Prime Asia was Php 3,000 per night.
That's a bit steep.
It was overcast all day and it gently rained in the morning.   It was a good day to remain
in the room.   One benefit about staying in my room was the chance for me to learn how
to use my Samsung tablet.   I should take the time to read the tuturial about it.   It sure
has come in handy during this trip, especially considering that my laptop was unable to
connect to any wireless networks!
At 3:45, I picked up my laundry.   The rain had picked up, enough for me to need to
carry my umbrella.   I spent some more time in my room and then ate dinner at a
Jollibee restaurant.   In case you don't know it, Jollibee's are like the McDonald's of PI.
I had a cheeseburger, Sprite, and a chocolate sundae.   It was sort of nice to eat
American-type food for a change.   Afterwards, I went out ... late.
Exchange Rate Range: 47.20 to 47.30

December 20th
It must have been a late night out because I didn't wake up until 11:15am.   For lunch, I
ate pancit canton -- Filipino spaghetti with chicken in my room.   Good stuff!
Afterwards, I watched some TV while working on these pages.   Later, I went out and
bought some groceries.   I also bought some high-quality German beer from Angel's
Bakery ... something that I'd wanted to do as soon as I had arrived in "AC".
Later that afternoon, I had the beer.   Ahh!   After finishing, I went out to a couple of
bars.   Then, I ate dinner.   Then I went out to a couple more bars.   I returned to my
hotel fairly early that night.
Exchange Rate Range: 47.15 to 47.25

December 21st
As per standard MO ("Method of Operation"), I slept until late in the morning.   I had
lunch at the Bunny Burger restaurant.   The food was very good, but it was very
expensive.   Afterwards, I walked to the SM Mall and spent some time there, enjoying
the air conditioning.   Later, I returned to my room and took a nap.   (The heat/humidity
was catching up to me ... as usual.)
After waking up, I took a shower and went out for a while.   While I was out, I ate dinner
at Kokomo's ... again.   Then I went out some more.   The next thing that you know, it
was 1 o'clock in the morning.   Wow!   Needless to say, I fell to sleep immediately.
Exchange Rate: 47.25

December 22nd
I woke up around 11:15.   I ordered some breakfast and had it delivered to my room.
Meanwhile, I took care of some things such as cancelling my flight from Cebu to Manila.
I decided that instead of flying from Clark to Cebu and then from Cebu to Manila, I
would get a ride from Clark to Manila.   I would end up wasting money because I would
"forfeit" the two tickets plus have to pay for a taxi/minivan/shuttle ride (3,000 pesos).
But I decided that it was worth it, especially since I could travel starting at 3:45am
instead of 8:30pm the previous night, saving over 7-1/2 hours of travel time.
In order to cancel the Philippines Airlines flight from Cebu to Manila, it was necessary
to buy more time for my cell/mobile phone.   I only had about 11 pesos worth of time left
and it wasn't enough to make any calls.   So, I went to one of the phone kiosks and
bought 200 pesos worth of time.   I also bought some food from Jollibee for a small
lunch.   I returned to the hotel and successfully cancelled the flight.   BTW, if I hadn't
cancelled that flight and simply didn't take it, then the airlines might have cancelled the
flight from Manila to Bangkok.   And that would be a big problem ... preventing me from
flying from Manila to Bangkok!   Did you wonder about my flight from Clark to Cebu?
I decided to just miss it instead of spending time calling Cebu Pacific Airlines and
cancelling it.   I hoped that it wouldn't come back to be a problem, especially since I was
taking a Cebu Pacific flight from Manila to Cebu two weeks later.   (Note to self: Verify
that the MNL-to-CEB flight had not been cancelled.)
Prior to taking care of the previous three tasks, I dropped off my laundry at the same
laundry shop near the hotel.   I asked her if she would be charging me extra for getting it
done before the end of the day.   She said 'No.'   Awesome!
That afternoon went by quickly.   The next thing that I knew, the sun had set and I was
getting hungry for dinner.   So, I walked down the road and had dinner at Phillie's ... a
popular restaurant/bar for foreigners.   I had a burger.   It was very good.   After
finishing, I walked around for about ten minutes, hopefully working off the red meat.
Then, I returned to my room in order to prepare for the next day's trip.
At 7 o'clock, I walked down to the laundry shop and picked up my clothes.   Sure enough,
the woman in charge didn't charge me extra for getting it done the same day.   I returned
to the room and packed my bag.   I went to bed early -- at 9:30 -- so that I could get at
least six hours of sleep.   What do you know? -- I fell asleep almost right away.
Exchange Rate Range: 47.20 to 47.25

December 23rd
The last two days were sunny.   During my trip to AC, it rained about half of the time.
But as I mentioned above, it was a gentle rain, so it wasn't much of an inconvenience.
I got the minivan ride from La Teresita hotel to MAIA ("Manila International Airport
Authority").   We left the hotel at 3:45 and arrived at the airport at 5:15. That must be
some sort of record time for that trip.   And the driver wasn't even driving that quickly.
When I checked in, the agent told me that I wouldn't be able to take my carry-on bag on
the plane because it was too heavy and that I wouldn't be able to take a large bottle of
juice with me through immigration and security.   Neither was correct.   So, I arrived at
the gate nearly four hours before the plane took off.   By the way, I had originally
planned to catch the ride at 4:30, but the staff said that there would be heavy traffic in
Manila and that I had better leave at 3:30.   Really?   Heavy traffic around 6am?   I
guess that it was possible, and better safe than sorry, but it certainly didn't occur at 5am.
While sitting in the passenger area near the gate in the airport, I noticed that one of the
flight crew was a woman.   A Caucasian woman.   Also while sitting in the passenger
area, I was able to watch the sun rise directly in front of me.   (It was about 6:30 at that
time.)   About one hour later, I looked to my left ... to the north.   The "brown cloud"
was forming over Manila.   While playing golf early one morning in southern Manila
years ago, the pollution grew and grew as the day progressed.   Scary!   I think that I'll
be glad that I didn't spend any time in Manila ... or Bangkok ... and went directly to
places that are much smaller and, as a result, are much less polluted.
So, I flew from Manila to Bangkok.   I sat in the 74th row out of 78.   It was okay because
I had two seats to myself.   But wouldn't you know it? ... The reclining button was broken.
After arriving and while inside the airport, I exchanged some dollars into baht.   The rate
at SMB was 34.10 baht per dollar.   I later learned that it was a low rate compared to
other money changers.   (I'm glad that I got "only" $100's worth of baht.)   But I needed
to do it because I needed baht for a few things.   One, I needed to buy both a SIM card
and some time for it.   I also needed money to pay the taxi driver.   During the ride, the
plan was for me to text and/or call my friend to let him know that I had arrived.   If he
didn't respond to my text relatively quickly ... and he knew about what time I would be
trying to contact him, then I would call him.   Also part of the strategy was that if he
didn't respond to either methods of trying to contact him, he would know that is was me
trying to contact him since both methods were from the same number.
I arrived in Thailand on schedule at 12:10pm.   As planned, I found a representative of
the taxi company at the arrival area and got a ride with the associated driver to Pattaya.
However, it took me about 20 minutes and six trips back and forth at the exit area to find
someone with my name on a placard.   (By the way, another alias for me is now "Chaig-
Ben" in addition to "Craig-Ben".   The driver's top speed was 140kph -- I'll let you
determine the speed in miles per hour.  
The ride to Pattaya took about 1-1/2 hours -- from 2:35 to 4:10pm.   Although he had a
difficult time finding the hotel ... driving up and down two streets three times each, the
driver was very good and if you ever want to use their service, their company's name is
"Thai Happy Taxi".   They can be reached at 084-115-8210 and 'thaihappytaxi at gmail
dot com'.
I checked into the hotel, went to my room, unpacked, and went out to get something to
eat.   The weather was overcast and 29 degrees Celsius (84 Farenheit).   I needed to eat
something prior to meeting my friend because, per my previous experience with him,
once he started partying, he didn't want it to be interrupted.   And he reminded me about
it, more than once, in our email messages during the past two weeks.   Ha! Ha!   (Or as
they say in Thailand -- "555" -- which is "Ha! Ha! Ha!" in the Thai language.)
I returned to my room and took a break prior to going out with my friend.   The plan was
for him and me to meet with one of his British friends who had two or three friends with
him who were in Thailand for the first time.   (This should be interesting!)
My room had a great view of the ocean.   Actually, it was the Gulf of Thailand.   (Please
refer to the associated photos on the 'Pictures' page.)   The only negative part about the
room was that it didn't have free WiFi.   It cost 100 baht for five hours per day or 300
baht for unlimited time per day.   At least that's what I thought at the time.   I would
determine exactly what was going on later.   And a disconcerting thing was that I "took a
number two", flushed the toilet, immediately washed my hands, and for a few seconds,
brownish-colored water flowed out of the bathroom faucet.   Wo!
Note: The number of TV channles was 23 whereas the number in La Teresita Hotel was
112.
Exchange Rate: 35.95

December 24th
Since I had gone to bed relatively early, I woke up relatively early at 7:45.   I heard some
noises outside my bedroom door, so I got up to check it out.   I discovered that there was
no peephole in the door.   Interesting.   At 9 o'clock, I ate breakfast in my room.   The
"American Breakfast" included eggs, ham, sausages, toast, a salad, juice, and tea (that I
asked for instead of coffee).   It was good and it was in my room quickly at ten minutes
flat.   Oh, the apple juice that I requested turned out to be pineapple juice.   I don't know
if they didn't understand me, didn't know the difference, or they made a mistake.
After taking a shower, I went to a Big C store to buy food, water, and some t-shirts.
While riding on a songtaew (baht bus) -- a covered pickup truck with two benches, I met
two Iranians.   They were very friendly, even after learning that I was an American.   At
the Big C store, I found everything that I was looking for.   When I went out to get a ride
back near my hotel, I learned that the baht bus rides were much more expensive -- 150
baht instead of 10 baht -- because, since Second Road was a one-way street, it was
necessary for them to drive much further to return to Central and South Pattaya.   So, I
walked abot 1/2 mile until I reached Central Road and got a ride for only six blocks.   But
it was worth it since I was carrying four plastic bags of groceries and clothes.   While
walking to the hotel again, I stopped in a Subway restaurant ... the same one that I had
gone to the previous day to get lunch.   I was set up with snacks for one or two days.
One thing that I had discovered was that both my transformer and my laptop's adapter
got much hotter than they did when I used them in PI.   So, I was going to have to more
closely watch them than I had done in PI.   On the other hand, my electric shaver didn't
seem to get as hot as it had gotten in PI.   And that was even connecting it directly to an
electric outlet, not using the transformer.   I might try directly hooking up my laptop's
adapter to an electric outlet.   If the adapter blew (and the laptop survived), it would be
okay because I had brought two backup adapters.   Then again, maybe I won't try that.
I went out bar-hopping with my friend's three British friends.   In one bar was a live
band.   The base player had a 5-string guitar.   Have you ever seen one?   Strange!
Maybe even stranger was that people were lighting off fireworks in the street during the
hour prior to midnight and the beginning of Christmas Day.   And I'm not talking about
red cats, black cats, or bottle rockets.   Some of them were Roman candles that reached a
height of about one hundred feet.   If people were walking down one of the streets that
was firing off such fireworks, people would have to stop and back off until "the show"
ended.   Wow!   Oh, and some M80's were also fired off.   Those will get your attention,
especially (1) Being in a confined street area, and (2) Considering the current situation
with terrorism around the world.
Exchange Rate: 36.95

December 25th
Hey, a full moon on Christmas Day!   I woke up around 8:30.   The previous night, one of
my new British friends stated that he had stayed at the same hotel that I was at and that
they had provided free breakfast with their rooms.   I checked my reservation printout
and, sure enough, I also had free breakfasts with my reservation.   (With all of the
different hotels that I was staying at with their different scenarios, it was hard keeping all
of the issues straight.)   So, I'll be eating in the hotel lobby's restaurant for the remainder
of my stay.
After finishing breakfast, I went to the front desk and asked them about their WiFi
scenarios.   It turns out that customers had two choices.   We could either buy (1) Five
hours of time for 100 baht, or (2) One week of time for 300 baht.   Well, that's a no-
brainer!   So, I bought the latter, was back online when I returned to my room, and
caught up on two days of email messages.   Needless to say, I was online for quite a while.
While in my room, I looked out the wall-length sliding glass door at the water.   I noticed
that there were a lot of parasailers.   I counted them.   Eleven.   Wow, I wonder how close
that they got to getting tangled up!?   At about 12:30, my friend from Leeds, his wife, and
his daughter dropped by my room to visit for about a half an hour.   The original plan
was for us to go to the Central Shopping Mall and have lunch at a restaurant that I had
been to with them before -- Oishi.   Unfortunately, my friend's wife got incorrect
information from one of her friends who worked in the mall, stating that the mall would
be closed during Christmas Day.   So, instead of us eating lunch together there, they made
plans to eat lunch in their room and I ate lunch by myself.   While they were at my place,
they brought me a birthday gift.   And it was a thoughtful one!   They remembered that I
preferred drinking Beer Lao, especially the dark version, compared to drinking
Thai beers.   And that's what they gave me -- two bottles of Beer Lao.   "khap kuhn mahk
khap!"
A small storm passed through early that afternoon.   It helped to keep the temperature
relatively cool.   (That means that it didn't get hotter than 29 degrees.   I was wondering
the same thing as you -- "Is it always 29C whenever I check the temperature?")
However, it was "bloody" humid, reaching the high 80's.   One thing that I tried to do was
to turn off the air conditioner, open the door, and attempt to acclimate.   We'll see if it
worked ...
After taking a 1-1/2 hour nap, I took a shower and then watched the sun set.   During this
time of the year with the sun having swung as far south as possible, the sun sets over a
peninsula that separates Pattaya from Jomtien.   Also, there's an island -- Koh Lan
("Island Lan") beyond the peninsula.   Afterwards, I walked down to the street, caught a
baht bus to Walking Street, checked out what was going on there (Wow, there were a lot
of Chinese tourist groups!), got some food from a street vendor, and went bar-hopping.
After a while, I ran into my friend's British friends and we continued bar-hopping
together.   We also stopped at a beer bar area and played some pool.   In particular, we
played Black Ball, not 8-ball.   If you look it up, you'll learn that the two games are
somewhat, if not very, different.   They ended up buying me some drinks for my birthday
and after hitting a few more bars, we called it a night ... a late night.
Exchange Rate: 36.75

December 26th
"Happy Birthday to me!"   I woke up at 8:15, took a shower, and ate breakfast in the
hotel's restaurant.   My friend's plan was to arrive at my hotel at 10 o'clock.   It didn't
happen.   After I caught up on some email messages, he called me and said that he
planned on arriving at my place between 1 and 2 o'clock.   No problem since I had plenty
of things to still catch up on.   So, I caught up on some more email messages, updated
these pages, and planned for the day's activities with my friend.
My friend called me later and said that he wanted to push back the time that we would
get together until 6 o'clock so that he could take care of some things.   "Okay." (Thinking
to myself -- 'Are you talking about 6 o'clock today or tomorrow.')     So, a little after
6 o'clock, I met my friend at a nearby outdoor bar.   We hung out there for a little while
and then caught a baht bus to another area where we would meet his British friends.   We
met them and then we all went bar-hopping together.   We agreed that we wouldn't be out
too late, but sure enough, that's what happened.
Note: My friend told me about renting a room for a very low price -- 400 baht per night --
several years before.   He said that when he paid the bill the next morning, the total was
900 baht.   He asked what the extra 500 baht was for and they responded that he had used
the air conditioner and that's how much power that it had used.   Wow!
Exchange Rate Range: 35.40 to 36.92

December 27th
A routine had been established -- I woke up, this time at 9:15, took a shower, and ate
breakfast in the hotel's restaurant.   And also as usual, I spent most of the day "hiding"
from the heat and humidity by staying in my room, catching up on email messages,
watching some TV, and updating these pages.   One thing that I still needed to do was to
buy a cable to connect my camera to my laptop so that I could upload photos.   If I got up
early enough one of the following days, I could get one in the morning prior to the heat
and humidity kicking in.   Meanwhile, I checked the availability of the current hotel that
I was in to determine if they had anything availability for December 31st and January 1st.
(When I made my initial reservations, I booked rooms between December 23rd through
the 30th and January 2nd through the 5th because they didn't have anything available on
the 31st and 1st.)   Well, they had one room available and, as you might have guessed, it
was outrageously expensive ... nearly double the price and not even as nice as my current
room.   So, I would be researching other hotels.
I took a nap between about 2:15 and 4 o'clock.   I don't know about you, but that's a
pretty long nap for me.   Soon thereafter, my friend called me to ask when and where I
wanted to get together with him.   We agreed to meet at the same time and place that we
had done the previous day.   And we did.   We then went to a couple of places near my
hotel.   After that, we went to an area about six blocks away that was a complex of
outdoor bars where primarily Great Britains spent time.   (I wonder if you could count the
number of Americans there, amongst around 1,000 foreigners, on one hand.)   We ended
up spending the rest of our time there, leaving around 11:45.
Exchange Rate: 36.75

December 28th
Hey, it worked!   "What?", you might ask.   It is about the booster/extender/repeater that
I brought with me on the trip.   And it worked easily, I didn't have to place the repeater
physically close to the wireless router (as the instructions stated) or anything else that
would have required significant effort.   So, now I can use my laptop instead of my tablet.
Prior to achieving this "major accomplishment", I performed my morning ritual of taking
a shower and eating breakfast at the hotel's buffet.   Fast forwarding past the repeater
accomplishment, I performed other rituals of catching up on email messages, watching
some TV, and updating these pages.   I had hoped to take care of a few to-do's such as
buying things for my family and friends, buying a cable to copy photos from my camera to
my laptop, and finding a hotel for the 31st and the 1st.   Well, those tasks got pushed back
yet another day.   But that's okay ... I had plenty of time to do them.
I had made plans to meet my friend at a non-predetermined location along a particular
street that night.   Unfortunately, it didn't work.   The reason was because I couldn't find
the road that he was talking about ... at least until I spoke with someone who gave me
directions.   By the time that I had walked around for about 20 minutes, I just felt like
going into anyplace that had air conditioning in order to take a break and cool off.   And
that's what I did.   I exchanged text messages with my friend and he wanted to do
something different than I wanted to do.   So, we ended up partying separately that night
and agreed to make sure that we would party together the next night.
Fortunately, I made it a shorter night than usual.   I ended up staying in one place for a
few hours.   After leaving, I ate Phad Thai at a seaside restaurant.   Then, I headed back to
my hotel.
One thing that I noticed that night when walking near Beach Road was a group of police
officers.   There were about 100 of them standing across the street from the police station
that is located on Beach Road.   I'm not sure what was going on, but I think that they were
trying to indicate that they were going to be out and about before, during, and possibly
after New Years Eve.   Good idea, especially considering the terrorism acts that had been
occurring around the world during the previous year.
Exchange Rate: 36.01

December 29th
Even though I went to bed relatively early the previous night, I still slept in so late that I
missed the free buffet in the hotel's restaurant.   (It finished at 11am.)   So, I went there
anyway and ordered Phad Prik Khing, my favorite Thai dish, for "brunch".   That set me
back 350 baht ($9.72).   I then returned to my room and caught up on a few to-do's.
Afterwards, I walked down and got some food at a street vendor and at the same Subway
that I would end up going to every other day.   My plan was to have at least a half of a
sandwich in my room's refrigerator every night so that I would have something to munch
on if it was too late to find someplace where I could get some food.
As planned, I met my friend that night.   We implemented our previous plan from two and
three nights before where we would meet at a particular outdoor bar that was near my
hotel.   We spent the rest of the night bar-hopping.   At one point, I said that I wanted to
get some street food.   So we found a place where he could go to an outdoor bar, I would
get my food, and I would join him at the bar.   It would turn out that we would have a late
night, especially since we were both going to take a much-needed night off from partying
the next night.
Do you remember that I previously pointed out that the repeater and laptop adapter
would get hot?   I decided to try and solve this problem.   One strategy that helped was to
place both of them in my room's refrigerator after disconnecting them, thus cooling them
off as quickly as possible.   I also learned that if my laptop was either turned off or in
standby mode, then neither the repeater nor the adapter would get hot as quickly.   So, as
I currently type and have them hooked up, they are getting hot as quickly as possible.
While we were in one bar, my friend noticed a Thai woman setting down on a nearby
couch and leaning over.   My friend pointed her out to me.   I asked "What?" and he
informed me that she was vomiting.   Sure enough, I looked over a couple of minutes later
and she was wiping off her leg.   "TIT" -- This Is Thailand.
Exchange Rate: 35.85

December 30th
I resumed my routine this morning -- I woke up (this time at 10:15), took a shower, and
ate breakfast in the hotel's restaurant.   While I was filling out the sign-in sheet with my
name and room number, one of the male workers and one of the female workers were
saying something and then the female touched my chest.   I said "arai nah" ("What's
up?"). They were very surprised that I could understand Thai, giggled amongst
themselves, and were probably concerned that I had understood what they had been
saying.   (Actually, I don't understand Thai that well and I didn't even understand what
they had been talking about.   But by speaking Thai, it "put the fear into them".)
I had to change my routine slightly.   I needed to change rooms because of my reservation
situation.   So, before returning to my room after breakfast, I went to the front desk and
asked them both about changing rooms plus how much it cost to do laundry.   For the
latter, she showed me a prinout of how much they charged to clean each type of clothing --
shirts, shorts, underwear, socks, etc.   For the former, they had two rooms available.   So I
went with a doorman to check them both out, choosing the room that overlooked the
swimming pool instead of the room overlooking a street.   I moved into the room just
before noon and went down to the front desk to give them my previous room's key.   While
I was there, an Australian man, who was not staying at the hotel, walked in and asked the
clerks if they had any rooms available for the next two nights.   One of the clerks informed
him that they didn't and he subsequently left.   I then gave them my key and I asked them
the same question.   She said that they did.   Interesting.   Did she respond 'Yes' because I
had been staying in their hotel already?   And For one week?   So, I booked a room with
them which saved me the hassle of having to change hotels.   Also noteworthy was that the
cost was not much more than that of my previous room.   AND the same class/level/type of
room.
Afterwards, I put my dirty clothes into my small "overnight" bag and walked along a
nearby street to find someplace to clean them.   I found one place that had a sign stating
that they could do the job in four hours.   I checked their prices and, as expected, the prices
were significantly less costly than the hotel's prices.   For example, a shirt cost 45 baht at
the hotel and it cost 20 baht at the laundry shop/store.   So, I dropped off my clothes there
and asked them when they would be finished.   The man told me that they would be ready
at 3 o'clock the next afternoon.   I'm guessing that having them available in four hours
would cost significantly more ... around the same price as the hotel charged?   I would try
to remember to find out the next day when I picked up my stuff.   (I didn't remember to do
it.)
A (hopefully) humorous story -- When I returned to my hotel, I was taking the elevator
("lift") to my new floor.   A male employee also got on it.   When he pressed the button for
his desired floor, he said "sick".   (He was expressing which floor that he was going to, not
making a derogatory statement about me!   I think.)   I told him that I was an English
teacher and that what he said, translated in Thai, was "mai sabai" -- "sick".   I then told
him that his floor was six or, as I pronounced it, "sicks".   At first he didn't understand.
Then he got that look in his eye of "I get it."   (Or that look of "If I wanted an English
lesson, I would have asked for it first.")
I met my friend's British friends at 8 o'clock at the same bar that I had been meeting my
friend.   I had previously learned that the primary reason why they liked to go to that bar
was that beers cost less there than at most other bars -- 45 baht each.   To their
disappointment, I informed them that I would not be drinking alcohol that night ... giving
my liver a break.   Believe it or not, I had not one beer the entire night while they partied
it up.   (I told them that I was the "designated walker" -- preventing them from falling into
gutters and walking in front of motorbikes/motorcycles and other vehicles.   We spent most
of our time in a bar while playing pool.   When we left there, I informed them that I was
getting a sore throat and that I would be returning to my hotel.   And as one of them had
been joking all night long about me not drinking, he called me the name of a female's
genitalia.   (Fine, you wanker!)   So, I got back at 11:30 and was in bed at 11:45.
Hallelujah!
Exchange Rate Range: 35.85 to 35.95

December 31st
Once again, I had to change rooms because of my reservation situation.   So, before
returning to my room after breakfast, I went to the front desk and asked them about
changing rooms.   The receptionist told me that I needed to check out of my room by noon
and that I would need to leave my bags in the lobby until my next room was ready around
1 o'clock.   So, I returned to my room, brushed my teeth, packed my things, and returned
to the lobby.   They informed me that my new room was already ready for me.   Great!
So, I went to my new room, unpacked some things, and went to the Big C store again to
both buy some groceries and some souvenirs.   I needed to buy some groceries because my
current reservation was in a standard room and I no longer got free breakfasts.   So, I
bought some breakfast-related items.   Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything to buy for
my family and friends.   I would do it one of the next few days prior to leaving Thailand
and returning to PI.   By the way, when I initially went into my new room, it smelled
strongly of cigarette smoke.   Well, it was only for two days and I would leave both the
front door and the opposing sliding glass door open as much as possible in order to
ventilate the room.
When returning to my hotel after shopping, I decided to stop off at the laundry shop,
hoping that they had finished with my clothes prior to 3 o'clock.   What do you know --
they had!   But when the employee added up the cost, it was 150 baht instead of the 120
baht that I had expected.   It was only 30 baht, or about one dollar, more.   But you know
how it is when you expect to pay a particular amount and, Surprise!, it's more.   Another
issue was that, when I returned to my hotel room and unpacked the clothes, one of my
pairs of underwear was missing.   So after eating some chicken shishkabob that I had also
bought while returning from grocery shopping, I took the rest of my clothes to clean and
the matching pair of underwear that was missing.   This time, I created a list of my clothes
that, this time, I took to another shop in order to show that I had predetermined how much
I would be paying.   It worked -- the women noticed it and from what I could tell, they were
discussing it.   The woman in charge wrote a receipt for me ... with the correct number of
items but not with amounts.   We'll see if they charged what was on the chart in their shop.
(They did.)
Next, I returned to the previous laundry shop.   I informed the employees that I was
missing a pair of underwear.   The man in charge had already realized it and gave them to
me.   He apologized twice and I told him that it was no problem.   I went to an empty beer
bar next to their shop to put my matching pair of underwear in the plastic bag with my
missing pair.   And ... there was another pair of underwear in there and it wasn't mine.
Was that a bonus for having not given me both pairs of underwear initially?   I then
returned to the shop and gave them the other pair.   Funny!
I relaxed in my room for a couple of hours.   I also texted my friend's British friends
(maybe I can simply call them my friends now) to find out their plans for New Years Eve
night.   He responded stating that he would call me between 7:30 and 8:00 when they were
in my area.   So, I rested some more and entered information into these pages.
My friend called me around 7:45 and said that they were 10 or 15 minutes away from my
area.   So, I got my things together and walked down to both exchange some money and to
find them.   Note that the baht-to-dollar rate had dropped quite a bit since the previous day
-- half of a baht.   By pure luck, as I was walking from the exchange booth to the bar area
where we usually met, I walked past a different bar where they were sitting.   I heard them
yell out my name (actually, my Thailand name) "Ben!" and joined them.   We partied at
that bar for about two hours and then walked down the street to another area.   One
tradition that I had forgotten about was that when a Thai person has a birthday, they are
given a leie (or whatever it's called in the Thai language) and people staple 100-baht bills
to it, creating a type of flared-out necklace.   I did it for her and, as a joke, I stapled a 20-
baht bill to her boyfriend's leie.   (I should point out that people were firing off Roman
candles, Saturn rockets, and blocks of firecrackers.   Occasionally, one could hear what
sounded like M80s blowing up.)   At that bar, we played several games of pool.   I had
played well the previous night, but I didn't do well that night.   It must have been that I was
given a shot of Russian moonshine.   Note: I didn't drink it alone, insisting that the bar
owner who poured it for me drink it with me as well.   After that, we went to another area
where eventually the new year occurred and people throughout the bar were celebrating by
spraying everyone with "silly string".   Now children!   Around 30 minutes later, I called it
a night.
Exchange Rate: 35.30

January 1st, 2016
I woke up around 8:15.   I logged onto the Internet/WWW and caught up on email
messages.   I didn't get very far because my 300 baht, 7-day account expired during the
session.   So, I took a shower and went down to the lobby to buy another week's worth of
time.   I returned to my room and, wouldn't you know it, I had difficulty logging onto the
network.   So, I tested the ability to get onto the wireless network with my Samsung tablet.
It worked.   So, the problem was with my repeater.   Hopefully, it wouldn't take too much
time and effort to fix the problem.
An interesting thing was happening with my laptop's power adapter.   It wasn't getting as
hot as it usually did, even while it was plugged in and the laptop was turned on.   I hoped
that this would continue in the future.
My friend called me about meeting him and his friends at a bar at 4 o'clock.   I agreed to
meet them and they arrived at the bar at 1 o'clock. Meanwhile, I went along the streets
checking exchange rates, getting some shishkabobs for lunch, and finding out if my
laundry was ready earlier than planned.   As you can see below, the exchange rates varied
a lot, I got my lunch, and the laundry was not ready.   I returned to my room, ate lunch,
and relaxed until leaving my place at about 4 o'clock.   (The place that we were meeting at
was a 5-minute walk from my hotel.   It was certainly in a convenient location during the
trip based upon where my friends liked to go to party.)
We hung out at a bar along Beach Road and played several games of pool.   Afterwards,
two of our friends went out to do something together while the three of us went out to some
other bars.   While going to the next bar, I went to the laundry shop and picked up my
clothes.   I returned to the room and decided to take a shower prior to reconnecting with my
friends.   And what a good decision it was!   I wasn't feeling too hot when I first met them at
4 o'clock.   But after drinking two beers, I was perspiring like crazy!   Taking the shower
felt SO-O-O good and I felt like brand new.   So we continued partying until 10:30 when
they returned to their places.   I went down to a bar near my hotel and ended up playing
'Shut The Box' for about one hour.   While I was playing, two girls about five and seven
years old joined us.   (I guess that they got tired of selling 20-baht trinkets to customers.)
They played for about 15 minutes until the younger one started cheating and the older one
made her leave.   Soon thereafter, I returned to my hotel.
Exchange Rate Range: 34.75 to 35.70

January 2nd
I woke up at 7:15.   My "normal" sleeping schedule had returned.   Once again, I had to
change rooms because of my reservation situation.   So after eating breakfast in my room
and catching up on email messages, I repacked my bag, went to the lobby, checked out of
my old room, checked into my new room, and moved in "for the home stretch" of my trip
in The Land Of Smiles.   While still in my old room, I resumed researching potential
retirement places in the Cebu (Philippines) area.   I didn't mention it before, but on
December 31st, I signed up on a Cebu expats-related Web site and posted a message that I
wanted to get information about communities in the Cebu area that were relatively secure.
I received over three dozen responses!   Unfortunately, some of them were off topic,
discussing things such as pensions.   I posted a follow-up message thanking people for their
responses and stating that I was narrowing my criteria to buy a condominium because I
couldn't buy a house (land) since I neither was married to a Filipina nor was I planning on
creating a business and buying property via the business.
Also while I was in my old room, my British friend called me to make plans for the day.
We had made plans for the previous day where he would leave Jomtien, the next city to the
south of Pattaya, pick me up on his motorbike, and take me to his place.   The purpose was
so that I could take a baht bus on January 4th from my hotel to his place for an afternoon
party that he was throwing.   It didn't work out to do it the previous day, so we changed
plans so that we would implement it this day.   Afterwards, he, a couple of his friends, and I
went to a local restaurant where we would have a 3 o'clock lunch at an outdoor Thai
restaurant.   So, as planned, he called me at 1:30, he picked me up at 2 o'clock, and we went
to his place.   Along the way in Jomtien, he showed me a few condominium developments.
Some were finished and some were not.   At that time, the real estate market had
significantly slowed down, so much so that some of the developments were abandoned.
One of the reasons, if not the primary reason, was that Russians had been going to Pattaya
and Jomtien in droves during the previous five years until their economy slumped about
two years before now.   So, the expected money didn't continue to flow in.   This could be a
good time to buy property by as much as 40 percent less than the original asking prices.   It
was a question of when money would start flowing into the area again.
After arriving at his place, we spent about five minutes until his friend and wife arrived.
The six of us, including my friend's wife and their one-year, 10-month old daughter, rode in
my friend's friend's car to the restaurant.   It was nice with a large pond of koi swimming
in it. We had about ten dishes of food and ten large bottles of Leo beer, spending about 3-1/2
hours there. Afterwards, we returned to my friend's house.   My friend wanted to have
another beer.   (Really?!)   So, we went to a nearby outdoor bar.   While hanging out there,
we saw several baht buses drive by.   Since it was a Saturday night, most of them were full.
My friend suggested that when I tried to catch one of the buses back to Pattaya, it would be
best to walk up the road to the beach (about 200 yards away) and find one that was
relatively empty.   I did that and, well, it didn't matter.   I finally got a bus after about ten
minutes.   It took us to the intersection of Second Road and where Beach Road meet.   The
driver's assistant got out and informed us that they were discontinuing driving because there
was too much traffic.   Bummer!   So, I walked to where there were several baht buses
queued up for passengers and got on one of them that took me to my hotel's road.
I returned to my room, took a shower, and went out for a while.   (It was Saturday night,
after all, so I wasn't going to just go to sleep at 8:30!)   I went to one bar, then another bar
(listening to live music), then another bar (winning nine of out ten 'Shut The Box' games),
and another bar, and then home.   Once again, I slept like a baby.
Exchange Rate Range: 34.75 to 35.70

January 3rd
Per my somewhat typical routine, I woke up around 8:15, ate breakfast, and updated these
Web pages.   Afterwards, I took a shower and planned on buying some souvenirs for my
family and friends.   (Hopefully, it would happen this time.)   I went to the hotel lobby and
asked the clerks how much their taxis cost to go from Pattaya to Bangkok.   The price was
1,600 baht.   I decided to use the same taxi service that I had used going from Bangkok to
Pattaya because, as mentioned above, they cost 1,200 baht.   Later, I would email them
about it.   Hopefully, the cost was the same going both ways because some taxis charge more
going to Bangkok than going to Pattaya.   As Billy Joel wrote -- "Don't ask me why."
So, I finally went souvenir shopping.   I walked down to a major intersection -- Second Road
and Central Road -- where there are several shops that line Central Road to the east.   What
do you know? ... the first shop that I went into had lots of souvenir-type items plus the silk
pillow cases that one of my friends wanted.   So, I bought about 1,400 baht worth of items.   I
hoped that I could fit all of these things into my carry-on suitcase, along with what I already
had.
After returning to the hotel, I arranged a taxi ride from Pattaya to Bangkok with Thai
Happy Taxi.   By exchanging four email messages, I was go to go.   Then, I reserved a room
in a hotel -- Pillows Hotel Cebu -- in Cebu (obviously).   Because of experiences with lower-
quality hotels in Cebu during previous trips, I only made the reservation for two nights out
of the six that I would be there.   With that strategy, I would be able to check out two other
hotels in case the Pillows Hotel was also lower quality than what I wanted.   It was a
productive day.   Now to check out communities in Cebu and reserve drivers to take me to
them.
One problem that I had was that I was getting sick.   My throat was somewhat sore, I was
getting congestion, and my nose was runny.   I wouldn't want to be in this condition when I
was flying in a couple of days.   So, I needed to buy some things to end these problems.   I
would take care of it the next time that I left the hotel.   I took a nap and, next thing that you
know, the sun had set.   (I guess that the sickness was getting to me.)   So, I took a shower and
went out to buy some medicine.   Along the way, I stopped off in a few bars.   I figured that
this might be my last night in Pattaya and I had a last chance to have fun.   Along the way, I
was not a nice boy.   I was asked by one of the Indian suit makers if I was interested in
buying a suit from him.   I wasn't and showed him the 5-baht coin in my hand as I continued
walking.   He said "Give it to me." and I faked throwing it to him.   After going into two bars,
I bought a couple of things from a pharmacy for my sickness(es).   I'll say one thing for Thai
medicine, it is potent stuff and nearly completely eliminated the problems.   At about 12:15, I
returned to my hotel and went directly to bed.
Exchange Rate: Unknown

January 4th
Ahh, my last full day in Thailand.   It was bittersweet because it was fun but I'd had enough.
I didn't follow my routine because of my friend having his afternoon party starting at 4
o'clock.   So all that I ate that morning was a banana.   After that, I did a test run of packing
my suitcase.   It wasn't going to be easy because of all of the souvenirs that I had bought the
previous day.   Fortunately, everything fit into my suitcase, my laptop bag, and my briefcase
... after three attempts.   Afterwards, I made reservations at the Pillows Hotel.   I made a
mental note to write down both the address and the phone number in order to try and
prevent what happened when my taxi driver was searching for my hotel four weeks ago.
My friend's friend called me about when and where he and his wife wanted to meet me in
order for the three of us to take a baht bus to our friend's place for the party.   We agreed to
meet at Walking Street, walk up the road to Second Road, and catch a baht bus to Jomtien.
I caught up on a few things and met them at the designated location and time.   Believe it or
not, I was ten minutes early!   They were there when I arrived and we caught a baht bus.
They were counting on me to know how to get to our friend's place.   (That was a mistake,
considering my poor sense of directions!)   We took the bus too far and got off.   We walked
up the road, on the opposite side of our friend's place.   That's where the trouble began.   We
ended up walking past his place, afterwards crossing to that side of the road.   We walked
another 1/4 mile or so and decided to ask someone where was the condominium.   (At least I
remembered its name.)   One person told us that it was right down the side road where we
were standing.   So, we walked down it.   We got in an elevator and we said 'This can't be the
right building.   He is on the 18th floor and this elevator's top floor is 15.'   So we went to the
top, walked around where I remember his room should have been, determined that it wasn't
right, called our friend, and he confirmed that we were in the wrong building.   So, we went
back down, walked out to the main road again, and walked towards the statue at the
roundabout that I knew was beyond where our friend's building was located.   We stayed on
the phone with him until we finally found his place.   What a nightmare!   "Sorry, my
friends."
I brought with me both a tin can of cookies and a few dark, lager-style beers with me.
Needless to say, the beers were warm by the time that we arrived.   One of the other guests
had already arrived and we were to wait for two other guests.   Meanwhile, we played videos
on the large LG TV via my friend's laptop and YouTube while we drank beers.   My friend
and I even had a shot of Laucau (sp?) -- a nasty Thai whiskey that even most Thais won't
drink.   His other two friends eventually arrived and my friend pulled out the various dishes
that he had prepared.   Wow, it was quite a feast!   If I counted correctly, he had made nine
different items.   Fortunately for me, none of them were too spicy.   They were mostly Thai
dishes and one or two were Indian dishes.   We continued partying until about 8:30 and
decided to leave.   Note: Our friend had plenty to drink and had gone to bed about a half an
hour prior to us leaving.   No problem -- he had the right after all of the work that he put
into everything that day and the previous day for the party.
While on the baht bus, my friend's wife got a call.   One of their friends wanted to get
together to have some beers at the same bar that we usually started partying at.   They asked
me if I wanted to join them and I said that I needed to get some money and, depending upon
how I felt afterwards, I would join them.   (It wasn't going to happen.   I wasn't feeling well
and whenever I start drinking earlier than five or four o'clock in the afternoon, I'm "walking
dead" later in the night.   So, I exchanged some dollars into baht and returned to my room.
I took a quick shower and I was in bed by 10:15.
Another thing that I'd like to point out, as much as for my information as for anyone else's
information, is that Thais call bandages "plaster".
Exchange Rate Range: 35.70 to 36.01

January 5th
Everything went smoothly this morning for me to fly from Bangkok to Manila and from
Manila to Cebu.   (Note: With layovers, it took about 6 hours.)   I woke up at 7:20, took a
shower, ordered some breakfast, and ate in the room.   At 7 o'clock, my friend called me and
asked if he, his wife, and their daughter could visit me at 8 o'clock to "send me off".   I asked
them to arrive at 9 o'clock because I had a few things to do.   They agreed.   So, I was able to
do my final packing.   One thing was to finally resolve the problem of paying for my rent in
San Diego.   I had worked on it with the personnel since January 1st and hadn't had success.
Getting that done was a major weight off of my shoulders.   Plus, if it wasn't paid by the 5th,
then they might have evicted me.   But this was an unusual situation and maybe they would
have been lenient.
My friend and his family arrived at 9 o'clock, we chatted for about thirty minutes, and they
left.   I took care of some last-minute things, got a call from my taxi driver at 9:45 stating
that he was downstairs, and I went to the lobby at 9:50.   I put 300 baht in the 'Tips' jar for
the hotel personnel and off we went to She-Wanna-Boom-Boom Airport.
As expected, there was little traffic during that time of the day and it only took us one hour
and fifteen minutes to arrive at the airport.   So, I had 2-1/2 hours to kill prior to my flight.
Wow, the line to check in for the flight was long!   I believe that it took 45 minutes until I got
through it.   One thing to note was that Philippines Airlines required information about a
person's departure from PI.   They needed my airlines name, flight number, and departure
time.   So, I had to retrieve the information from my laptop.   That required me to unpack my
suitcase, pull out the laptop, and start it up ... the last of which took about three minutes.
Finally, the ticket agent got the information and I was good to go.
The two security checks (Yes, two of them.) and the gate check-in went smoothly.   Except ...
they wouldn't allow me to take my carry-on bag on the plane ... once again ... stating that it
was too large.   So, I removed my briefcase from it, rearranged the contents, put my TSA
lock on it, and checked it in.   When I checked it in at the ticketing counter, I told the agent
that I tried to check it in online but wasn't successful.   I think that she understood and
didn't charge me for checking in my bag.   Note: It was important for me to put my TSA lock
on the bag.   Recently, there were news reports about how employees at Manila's
international airport were putting bullets in people's suitcases.   After the person retrieved
the bag from the luggage carousel, airport employees would stop the person, check the bag,
find the bullets, and the trouble for the person would begin.   One report stated that a person
was held for five days prior to being released.
An interesting incident.   I was sitting next to a foreigner and we briefly chatted.   He asked
me where I was from and I said The United States.   He responded "Really?   I thought that
you were probably from the UK."   It made me wonder if it was possible that hanging out
with my friends from Britain and Ireland during the past two weeks had "worn off on me".
I was anxious to see if my family and friends noticed anything when I returned to The States.
We began boarding the plane about thirty minutes after I arrived at the gate.   Perfect!
However, we sat on the runway for about 25 minutes waiting our turn to take off.   I would
like to point out how much Filipinos like Christmas.   It was January 5th and they were still
playing Xmas music as we were boarding the plane.   Sure enough, they played more as we
disembarked.   One other thing that I'd like to note is that the pilot/captain stated that the
flight would take one hour and that we would be cruising at 33,000 feet.   I'm not a pilot, but
that seems like a quick liftoff and descent to get to that altitude for such a relatively short
flight.
Have you ever received those email messages titled 'There, I Fixed It!' ... or something
similar?   Such a scenario existed on the Philippines Airlines flight.   The food tray table next
to mine was missing its catch to hold it up against the back of the seat in front of it.
Someone had used two strips of duct tape to hold it in place.
We arrived at Mactan-Cebu International Airport at about 9:30pm.   I remembered that to
catch a metered taxi, it was necessary to walk to the right after exiting the airport.   Well, I
learned something else new.   I noticed that there were both yellow-colored taxis and white-
colored taxis.   An employee of the yellow taxi company asked me to follow him to get one of
his taxis.   I asked if the taxis were metered and he didn't answer me.   Warning!   So, I
turned around and got into the much longer line for the white taxis.   After getting one of
them to go to my hotel, I asked the driver what was the difference between the yellow and
white taxis.   He said that the yellow taxis were airport taxis and they started their meters at
Php 70 whereas the white taxis were not and started their meters at Php 40. Well, it's only a
difference of Php 30, or a little less than one dollar, but why not save it?   The cost was Php
250 including the tip.   Check above for the differences in the prices of the taxis to and from
the airport and my hotel during the beginning of my trip.   I'll bet that I took a yellow taxi
from the airport and a white taxi from my hotel back then.
While riding, I noticed that the price of gas/petrol was Php 22.75 per liter.   I wonder what
that converts to in dollars per gallon.
We arrived at the Pillows Hotel at about 10:30pm.   I checked in, quickly unpacked my bags,
and went down to buy some dinner.   I bought some KFC, which included rice with gravy.
Along the way, I bought some orange juice at a McDonald's.   I needed it for my sore throat.
While eating the chicken burger, I bit into a bone.   It was a good thing that I wasn't scarfing
it down!   I went into the bathroom and found a few interesting things -- (1) Mosquitoes
flying out of the sink's drain, (2) A small spider in its web attached to the mirror and the
spout, and (3) The glasses were not glass, they were plastic.   There was no refrigerator/
minibar.   As a "final touch", there was a gecko outside the bedroom window.   But, of
course, the hotel could not be blamed for the gecko.   "Welcome to The Philippines!"
Exchange Rate: Unknown

January 6th
Ahh, my first full day in PI!   I woke up around 6:30.   After eating what I had brought with
me during the previous night's flight, my initial plans were to buy cough drops and some
groceries.   (I didn't get a free breakfast with my room.)   I took a shower (There was no cold
water.) and went to a nearby pharmacy.   I got a number and waited for it to be called.   I
asked one of the pharmacists (?) for cough drops.   She brought out cough syrup (Robitussin
DM).   I responded 'No, I want pills.' while forming one hand into an OK-type shape.
"Sorry, we don't have those.".   Fine, I took the syrup plus some bandages (for my toes that
got blisters from walking more than usual) and waited in another queue -- the "Claims
Center" -- in order to receive and pay for my items.   All in all, it took about twenty minutes.
Afterwards, I went to buy some groceries.   Along the way, I found another pharmacy.   I
asked the woman for cough drops and she responded "Do you mean cough lozenges?"
"YES, that's it!"   Success.   I continued on to the grocery store in the Old Robinson's Mall
near my hotel.   I bought nearly everything that I needed/wanted, including toiletries,
breakfast items, and desserts.   (What's a meal without dessert?   It's half of a meal.)   I
returned to the hotel and while in the lobby, I asked the clerks if they had laundry service.
They responded 'No, but there's a laundry shop down the block.'   Interesting.   So, I
dropped off the groceries in my room, collected some clothes to clean and walked down to the
shop that they referred me to.   For a pair of shorts, two shirts, three pairs of socks, and two
pairs of underwear, it would be ready the next night at 7 o'clock and cost Php 75 ($1.60).
Amazing!
I returned to the hotel and I asked them if they had rooms available for the next night since I
would be checking out the next day.   I also asked them if they had rooms available that were
higher quality than the standard room that I was currently staying in.   The (head) agent
stated that they did indeed have a superior room available.   I asked if I could see it and he
requested one of the employees to show it to me.   He asked her to show me room 403.   I said
that it was very convenient because I was in room 402.   He checked his computer and stated
"Sir, you were upgraded to a Superior room last night because when you checked in, there
were no Standard rooms available."   "Well then, I don't need to see room 403 because I
already have the same type of room."   Everyone laughed.   (I don't remember if I laughed.)
I tried to take a nap in the afternoon.   No dice.   The problem was that whenever I laid
down, I would cough.   I needed to solve that problem prior to that night or I wasn't going to
get a good night's sleep.
Do you remember when I pointed out that both the transformer that I'd bought in PI and my
laptop's power adapter would get hot?   Well, they weren't getting hot when I used them this
afternoon.   (I need/want to learn more about electronics.)
The door locks for the rooms were interesting.   If a door was opened and wasn't shut within
five seconds, an alarm would sound.   It wasn't too loud, but it could be heard throughout the
hallway.   Apparently, it was to inform people that the door wasn't completely shut.
Because I wasn't feeling well, I didn't go out that night.   The most exciting thing that I did
was to determine, out of about 900 possible channels, which ones I was interested in.   (There
were about twenty of them.)   Also, I was able to successfully connect my repeater to the
hotel's wireless network so that I could use my laptop.   (The hotel provided free WiFi.)
Tonight was going to be a night of relaxing and recovering.
Exchange Rate: Unknown
Note: I exchanged Thai baht for Php and the rate was 1.25.   At 'xe.com', the rate was about
1.30.

January 7th
That was a great night's sleep!   I went to bed at 10:45 and woke up at 10:25.   Hopefully,
after one more night's sleep like that, I'll be good to go for riding around Cebu to check out
potential retirement places.
I took a shower (There was no cold water in the shower again ... after about five minutes.)
and went down to the hotel's restaurant to eat breakfast at about 11:15.   (The hotel served
breakfast all day and all night until they closed, but they weren't open 24 hours per day.)
After ordering, I went to the hotel lobby to extend my stay for two more days.   The clerk
informed me that if I wanted to extend it, I could keep my Superior room and still pay the
rate for a Standard room.   Really?!   I told him that I would return after breakfast to let
them know what I wanted to do.   So, I returned to the restaurant, ate breakfast (Php 165),
and returned to my room.   I thought about the extension situation and decided that if I
could get the Superior room at a Standard room price, then I would just stay at the Pillows
Hotel for the rest of my trip.   I returned to the lobby, asked them if this was possible, the
clerk confirmed it, and I extended my stay through January 11th, checking out on the 12th.
Another reason why it was a no-brainer to do this was that the clerk had informed me that I
would get free breakfasts, even though I was paying the rate for a Standard room.   What a
deal!
While he was updating my record, I asked if any of their rooms had queen size beds.   He
responded that some of their Deluxe rooms had them.   I then asked how old was the hotel
and he responded "It is still one year old."   I guess that it means that the hotel is between
one year old and two years old.   I asked him about the upcoming festival and he said that it
was The Festival of Sinulog.   I noticed a doll/figurine on the counter and asked if he was
Filipino.   He and the other employees in the lobby chuckled and he responded that it was the
baby Jesus.   Well, it was hard to tell because the figurine was dressed up in what appeared
to be native Filipino clothing.   (I later learned that Sinulog was actually a Filipino priest
from the 1600's.)   Nevertheless, the festival occurred on January 17th and I learned that
there would be a large parade along the main road nearby where they had strung up
banners over the road.   Filipinos are seriously religious people!
Some interesting things to note.   First, Yahoo! email detects your location.   As such, when a
person logs into it, if you are directed to their list of news items, some of the news provided is
based upon your location.   So, when I was in PI, some of the news was about PI; when I was
in Thailand, some of the news was about The Land Of Smiles.   Second was the occupants of
the hotel.   From what I'd seen during the past two days, they were only Filipinos or
Americans.   Third was the music that was played in hotels and restaurants.   Filipinos must
be very romantic people because it seemed that all that I heard was romantic songs (not
rock, hip hop, rap, etc.).
I rarely get headaches.   Sometimes, I get one per year.   Sometimes, less frequently.   I was
getting a headache.   I believe that it was from going through Phase Two of whatever illness
that I had.   Or maybe it was from the strength of the medication that I was taking.   Maybe
it was a combination of things.   I hoped that it would go away relatively quickly.
I rested in my room for a while, mostly updating these Web pages and watching movies.
(Basically, I continued recovering from whatever illness that I had.)   At 7 o'clock, I went to
the laundry shop.   I took some more laundry that I needed to get cleaned.   So, I dropped
off those clothes, picked up my clean clothes, and paid for my clean clothes (75 baht).   I
returned to the hotel, changed my clothes, put them in my bag, put on some clean clothes,
and returned to the laundry shop where I dropped off the last bunch of dirty clothes.   I
needed to make two trips because I didn't have enough clothes in order to take all of them in
one trip.   So, I would return to the shop again the next night at 7 o'clock to pick up the final
load.
I returned to my room, updated these pages, researched communities to check out during the
upcoming days, and researched rental car companies that also provided drivers.   I found
four such companies with prices ranging from (1) Php 850 for the first two hours plus Php
300 per addition hour to (2) Php 1,000 for the first three hours plus Php 300 per addition
hour.   Now to make some phone calls the next morning and, hopefully, start checking out
communities that afternoon.
Since I was still not feeling well, it was going to be another early night.   I relaxed in my room
for a while until going to sleep around 11:30.   (I wanted to go to bed earlier, but I'm an
astronomer.   And we folks don't go to bed earlier than that.   Right?)
Exchange Rate: Unknown

January 8th
I woke up at 8:15.   I was feeling MUCH better after another long night's sleep.   I ate
breakfast at 9:45.   After returning to my room, I brushed my teeth and started calling rental
car companies about having someone drive me around Cebu to look at condominiums.   Not
surprised, the prices that the company representatives gave me didn't match what was listed
on their Web sites.   The least expensive company that I found was Daijobu (Japanese for
"okay") Rent-A-Car.   They charged Php 1,000 for the first three hours and Php 300 per
hour afterwards.   (I wished that they simply charged Php 300 per hour for every hour, but
what are you going to do?   Negotiate the price?   Hey, good idea!   But I didn't do it.)   I
arranged to have them pick me up between 1:15 and 1:30.   That would give me enough time
-- two hours -- to (1) Exchange some dollars into pesos, (2) Buy some snacks, and (3)
Organize the list of condominiums that I wanted to visit.   And that's what I did.   The driver
-- Bert -- texted me and informed me that he would arrive at 1:30.   Perfect!
Bert arrived on time and I met him in the lobby at 1:35.   I showed him the list of seven
potential places to check out.   He picked the one that was both closest and easiest to get to.
One thing that was interesting was to notice how lighter the amount of traffic was when we
got only one mile away from the center of Cebu City.   We arrived at the first place -- La
Guardia Flats 1 -- in about 15 minutes.   It wasn't on my list, but it was close to where we
were going and, having noticed it, we stopped there.   A man of Chinese descent who was
born and raised in Australia was in the lobby when I was speaking with an agent and he
generously took me to hit flat (studio apartment), showed it to me, and explained several
issues that I should consider when I was shopping for a place.   (Thank You, Mr. Chan!)
We then continued down the road to our original destination but stopped off at another
condominium building along the way -- Edades Residentia.   I got some information from the
agent although she informed me that they didn't have any units currently available.   We
continued on and were again waylaid at another place -- City Scape Tower 1 Condos.   The
agent there was very helpful (anxious?) to show me the two units that they had available.
She took me to one of them and, again, it was a studio apartment.   She wanted to show me
the other unit but when I found out that it was also a studio, I told her that she didn't need to
bother.   (After seeing two studios, I realized that there was no way that I would be able to
stand living in such small units ... 18 to 22 square meters.   I returned to the car and told Bert
that I had seen enough places and that I was ready to return to my hotel.   Besides, it was
already 4:30, my three hours were up, and I didn't feel like shopping around anymore.   (I
don't like shopping to begin with.   Plus, I got a better idea of what I was interested in
purchasing and from that point on, I was probably going to better use my time by calling
and/or texting places to find out if places had what I was interested in.   Some of the issues,
pretty standard, included (1) A non-studio unit, (2) Location, (3) Cost, (4) Discount for a cash
purchase, (5) Transfer fee amount, (6) Laundry inside unit, (7) Condominium building age,
(8) Security cameras ... on each floor, (9) Power backup ... to units, (10) Balcony, (11) View,
(12) Exercise room, (13) Furnishings, and (14) Good drainage.
When I returned to my room, I relaxed for a while.   Then, I went down to the laundry shop
and picked up my clothes around 7:15.   After putting the clothes away, I went down to the
hotel restaurant and had dinner.   Then, I returned to my room, brushed my teeth, and
updated these pages.   Prior to going out, I both emailed and texted my American friend in
Cebu about getting together the next night.   He was on a business trip and wouldn't return
to Cebu until 4 o'clock the next morning, but I wanted to give him a heads up about
hopefully meeting the next night.
Note: While driving around, I noticed a very large, new looking building named PAGCOR.
Bert informed me that it was a hotel/casino that was owned by the Indonesian government.
Exchange Rate: 47.25

January 9th
Hey, the shower had both cold water and hot water this morning!   AND the water didn't
become scalding hot after five minutes!   This was going to be a good day.
I had gotten up at 10:20, taken a shower, and went down to the hotel's restaurant to eat
breakfast.   Today would be a relatively slow, quiet day.   One thing that I planned on doing
was to email condominium complexes and/or real estate agents about condominiums that
fulfilled the first of my requirements -- non-studio units.   Beforehand, I updated these Web
pages.   I believe that this is the most extensive amount of information that I have ever
provided about any of my trips.   I hope that it is not too boring, monotonous, etc.
Bummer -- both the transformer and the laptop's power adapter were getting hot again.   I
had them plugged in while I was using the laptop.   When I finished using it, I would put the
laptop in Standby mode, plug the transformer and adapter in, and see if they got hot again.
(My guess is that they would not ... get hot ... again.)
They're small.   They're fast.   And they were all over the desk in the room.   Ants, that is.
Fortunately, they don't eat much.   But some of them would crawl inside my computer.   Not
good.
And I was right!   Neither the transformer nor the adapter got hot while the laptop was in
Standby mode.   As a matter of fact, they also didn't get hot when I used the computer that
afternoon and only had three applications running -- Windows Explorer, Volume Control,
and Notepad.   As an experiment, I'll start up Mozilla Firefox and see if having it also
running makes them start to heat up ...
I never heard from my American friend in Cebu about getting together that night.   I was
disappointed, but I understood that he had a lot of things going on and couldn't easily fit
getting together with me into his schedule.   So, I performed my annual task of creating my
calendar/schedule for 2016.   It was another to-do off of my list ... a good thing.
The natives were restless!   The beginning of the festival had begun.   Starting around 1pm,
there were marching bands on the main street walking towards the roundabout near the Old
Robinson's Mall.   They were a-bangin' their drums VERY loudly as they marched and
danced.   I could see them one street away and took some photos, but with my digital camera,
I wasn't able to zoom in close enough to get any good results.   The parade continued for one
hour.   I considered going out to watch it, but I was engrossed in an entertaining movie
starring Michael Cane, one of my favorite actors, and The Rock.   I would probably regret
not stopping watching the movie in order to enjoy some Filipino culture.
After the movie finished at 2:30, I went to the mall to both exchange some money and to buy
some bananas.   (I love eating bananas for breakfast.)   I stopped off in the nearby KFC to
eat some lunch and then returned to the hotel.   I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and
watching movies.
At 9 o'clock, I ate a club house sandwich for dinner at the hotel's restaurant.   (They were
open until 10pm.)   I returned to my room, brushed my teeth, and went out bar-hopping for
a few hours.   I don't know what time I went to bed, but it wasn't too late.
Exchange Rate: 47.05

January 10th
I woke up this morning at 9:15.   I woke to the sound of employees in the hallway cleaning a
room on the other side of the hallway.   Since I could hear them, they might have been able to
hear me.   Uh-oh!   I decided that I wanted to sleep more.   So, I went back to sleep and woke
up again at 11:15.   Wow!   So, I took a shower and had breakfast in the hotel's restaurant.
After returning to the room, I decided to go to the hotel lobby and ask the clerks a couple of
questions. One, how much would be my total bill amount?   (I had plenty of American dollars
and preferred paying with cash because I would suffer a foreign transaction fee if I used a
credit card to pay for the hotel charges.)   Two, could I pay with American dollars or did they
require Filipino pesos?   The clerk gave me the amount and that they could not accept
American dollars.   So, I returned to my room and I calculated how much money that I
would need to exchange in order to cover the rest of my trip.   I needed to do it in case
something happened and I didn't have time to get more pesos the next day.
Sometimes, I scare the Filipinas -- only the women and
children.   ("Hide your women and children!")   Whenever an elevator door, or a similar
door that one can't see through, opens and I'm standing in front of it, Filipinas on the other
side either gasp, jump back a little bit, or both.
Around 4:30, I went out to exchange money.   On the way back to my hotel, I stopped off at a
Pizza Hut.   They had a "special" -- two medium-size pizzas for Php 419 (~$9) ... take out
only.   Fifteen minutes later, I had my pizzas and returned to my room.   The cleaning ladies
were in the middle of cleaning my room, told me that they needed 10 more minutes, so I went
to the hotel's restaurant and ate one of the pizzas there.   I returned to my room and relaxed
by updating these pages and watching the movie 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.
As usual, I went out that night.   I went to three bars and then returned to the hotel.
Exchange Rate: 47.05

January 11th
I woke up at 9:20 this morning.   I followed my routine of taking a shower and then eating
breakfast at the hotel's restaurant.   By the way, Pillows provides a checklist of items that you
choose from for their complimentary breakfast.   I always chose scrambled eggs, ham, toast,
and juice.   Afterwards, I returned to my room and spent most of the day relaxing.   I truly
NEEDED to relax this day and night because I planned on checking out at about 10pm,
getting a taxi to the airport, and catching my flight that left at 1am.   I sure hoped that I could
sleep on the flight from Cebu to Incheon Airport!
One thing that I did was to exchange more dollars into pesos in order to pay for the room ...
as mentioned above. I needed about Php 6,000 and only had about half of that.   Exchanging
100 dollars would do it.   So, I went to the same MS Money Changer booth in the Old
Robinson's Mall around 4 o'clock and took care of it.   When returning, I stood on the bridge
that crossed from the mall over General Maximo Street, looking at the people, traffic, and all
of the decorations for the upcoming festival.   I was going to miss Cebu, my favorite city in
the Far East.
The previous day, I saw that there was a construction crew removing a stoplight in the
middle of General Maximo Street and located under the bridge.   I didn't realize why until I
thought about it and concluded that they removed it because it would have blocked the
Festival of Sinulog the next Sunday -- January 17th.   Wow, going through all of that work
for a festival!
I packed my bags at 6 o'clock and then updated these Web pages.   At 9:45, I went down to
the lobby to check out, pay my bill, and get a taxi ride to the airport.   Everything went
smoothly and the ride took 25 minutes and cost Php 208.   I first went to the Asiana Airlines
office and got a printout of my itinerary.   (It was a good thing that I did it because I would
need it when I was going through security at Incheon Airport when the security guard
required it in order to pass through.)   At Cebu's airport, it took 1-1/2 hours to get to the
gate, including getting the itinerary, checking in, going through immigration, and going
through two security checks.   Regarding checking in, I told them that my bag was a carry-
on.   They weighed it and it was 18kg.   They informed me that it was too heavy and that it
would have to be checked in.   I said "Let me show you something.   I removed my laptop
from the bag, weighed the bag again, and it was at the maximum allowable weight -- 10kg.
(Actually, it was 10.2kg, but they let it go.)
The flight was 50 minutes late.   So, the wait at Cebu's airport would be about three hours
until we started boarding.   That was okay since I had a 12-hour and 45-minute layover at
Incheon Airport.   I considered this wait as a practice run.
Note: The exit fee from Cebu's airport was Php 750.
Exchange Rate: 47.20

January 12th
At about 1:45am, we flew from Cebu to Incheon.   I was exhausted and I slept during the
entire flight.   So, now comes the nearly 12-hour layover.   I wanted something to drink, so I
bought a mango smoothie at a restaurant.   I had to go to a money exchange booth twice in
order to get the necessary amount of yuan -- Korean currency -- for the Philippines pesos
that I had left over.   (It cost about $4.20 for the smoothie, or about 5,300 yuan.)
Note: After drinking the smoothie, I walked around the airport and found a passenger
waiting area ... located one floor above the gates.   The night before, I had researched the
Incheon Airport to find out what I could do to pass the time there.   I discovered that the
airport had been ranked the world's best airport for several years in a row.   Impressive!
And it IS noticeable impressive.   Its Web site provides information about many things that
exist there.   There are a few cultural centers and they even have a golf course!   After I
finish updating these pages, I'm going to see if I can find the cultural centers.   They are (1)
The 'Walk of the Royal Family' -- in the Duty Free Area on the 3rd Floor Passenger
Terminal Public Area; (2) The 'Korean Cultural Street' -- in the center of the Public Area
on the 4th Floor Passenger Terminal; (3) The 'Korean Cultural Museum Center' -- on the
concourse's 4th Floor; (4) The 'Traditional Cultural Experience' -- on the 3rd floor of the
Passenger Terminal and Concourse; (5) The 'Korean Culture Gallery' -- in the Duty Free
Area in the Transfer Lounge on the 4th Floor; and (6) The 'Arrival Hall Culture Street' --
in the Arrival Hall on the 2nd Floor Passenger Terminal.   What did I see/do?   I spent most
of my time in the 'Korean Culture Gallery' ... resting.   I discovered the 'Traditional Cultural
Experience' on the way to my gate.   Prior to boarding, I wanted to eat since I had three
hours until boarding began.   I walked around and found a Taco Bell.   Usually, I don't eat at
those restaurants, but I wanted to see how South Korea did it.   I ordered a chicken taco and
a beef taco, both with soft shells.   The shells were very good because they didn't fall apart.   I
ordered hot sauce and instead of giving me packets of them (like one gets in the U.S.), they
poured some sauce into a small plastic cup.   Taste-wise, it was nearly identical to that of U.S.
restaurants.
Exchange Rate: 47.20
We flew from Incheon to Seattle.   The flight went very smoothly.   The captain made an
announcment that I've never heard before.   He said that there was a passenger onboard that
had a peanut allergy.   As such, we were asked not to open any products that contained
peanuts or anything related to peanuts since it could/would go airborne and the passenger
would be affected.   At Seattle's airport, my Global Entry card worked as advertised --
instead of standing in an immigration line, I was able to go to the Global Entry area and
proceed through without waiting in any line at all.
As was the case with the flight from South Korea to Seattle, I sat in an emergency exit row on
the flight from Seattle to San Diego.   With layovers, the entire trip took about 33-1/2 hours.
I arrived in San Diego at about 6:30pm.   I'm going to take a sleeping pill in order to try and
sleep throughout the night.   That will both help me to catch up on sleep plus get me adjusted
to the 15-hour time zone change.   Wish me luck!
Exchange Rate: 1249.00 yuan per dollar

Epilogue
Here are the highlights and "lowlights" about the trip --
Highlights --

1. I was able to spent time in Pattaya with my friend from Leeds, England who I have
   known for about seven years
2. I made two new friends through my British friend's British friend
3. All of the flights went smoothly and I only had one bad experience with a fellow
   passenger -- "The Elbow Man"
4. I got my booster/extender/repeater to work so that I could use my laptop
5. I was able to check out a few condominiums in Cebu in order to plan for potential
   retirement there
6. Getting upgraded from a Standard room to a Superior room at Pillows Hotel
   Cebu, plus getting complimentary breakfasts