travel tip

ok. i'm going back to my lazy self and not bothering to capitalize. i'll at least try and punctuate. it was great to see my friend dinna posting a comment to the blog. she is the first to do so and that can never be taken away from her. no one else can ever be first. congratulations, dinna.

i would encourage any and all readers to vist dinna's blog and learn a bit about the filippino community here in new york and get a flavor of what the culture is like. my wife, my son and i made the pilgrimage back to the philippines last christmas to visit members of her family who still live there. going back at christmas is a tradition the natives call Balikbayan(sp).

it was really an eye-opener for me and one of the best trips i have ever taken. the countryside there is beautiful and the scuba diving is some of the best in the world. plus, selfishly, the dollar goes a loooong way there and someone of moderate income by US standards can live extremely comfortably and even afford domestic help. i like to say that the philippines is one of the only places where you can actually live on US social security.

this is not to say that it is paradise. obviously, if the dollar is so strong that means the local currency is weak and the economy is not great. manila is a big, smoggy city with literally millions of people who live close to or in abject poverty.

despite this, the overwhleming majority of filippinos are very generous, friendly and warm-hearted people. customer service and personal relationships really mean something there. after living in new york for 11 years, the treatment i received everywhere i went was such a refreshing change that they literally had to drag me to the airport when it came time to leave.

i'll definitely be going back. if you decide to go, make sure you ride the jeepney.