Philippines Vacation 2016 – Days 4 and 5

Capones Vista Beach Resort

My family had planned to spend the Easter weekend at a beach resort in Zambales and it was decided that we were going to leave at 3 a.m. on Thursday to avoid all the vacation traffic. We were joined by Elgee’s (Ninette’s sister) family consisting of husband Ben and son Uno driving in another car.  Well…only the 3 a.m. departure time worked out because it appeared like everyone had to same idea for avoiding traffic that it created the opposite effect and made traffic worse. It’s what we call in California a SIG Alert, only much longer. I’ll spare you the details, but what should have been a 3 hour trip lasted for 6 hours. All that time in traffic, I was thinking I hope this beach resort was worth going through all that (and it was). The trip back home? Well…you’ll hear about that later.

The Family

After escaping the initial traffic, Waze guided us directly to Capones Vista Beach Resort. It was quite a sight- there were rooms for rent, 2 fresh water pools, the beach, the sea, and across the sea were three islands. There were no more rooms available for weeks so my brother had made a reservation at a rest house in town where we checked in later. We found ourselves two tables where we could lay our belongings while we spent the day. For me, first things first: I had to do my workout for the day and that turned out to be a walking workout back and forth on both sides of the pools, occasionally extending it to the driveway and out the dirt path and back, until I finished my requisite 30 minutes (all in my flip flops which fortunately had good arch supports). When I returned, Uno was already in the pool enjoying himself, as he had been dying in anticipation to do this for days. The rest of us lounged around and settled down, and some wandered around to take the mandatory selfies and groupfies (?). Thoughts of the earlier traffic nightmare were gone by then. On this day, I was finally able to wear my newly bought flip up/flip down sunglasses for the bright sunlight.

Larry & I beside one of Capones Vista's pools

Soon enough it was the adults’ turn to enjoy the pool. Even my brother, who had a kidney transplant a couple of years ago (Ninette happens to be the donor), and required the perfect pH in the pool water, joined in the fun. He did a few laps and tried to teach Uno how to exhale in the water. The rest took a few strokes here and there and just generally enjoyed getting out of the stifling summer heat and humidity. I have not swum in decades and while the stroke was still somewhat acceptable, the endurance was gone. The 15 meter pool felt like 50 meters long. We played with Uno some more then ordered lunch. If I remember correctly, I had the fried milk fish, fried egg, and rice (bangsilog), and most of us ordered something similar. We swam and lounged some more before heading to town to find Big Foot, well…Big Foot Rest House, that is, where we would be spending our sleeping hours for the next couple of nights. Ninette and Larry had reserved 3 rooms: one for the men and boy, for the women, and for Pilaring, Liling, and Vangie.

Ninette enjoying her post swim margarita

We had Chinese food dinner at the Big Foot restaurant next door and afterwards returned to our quarters. Since it was Good Friday the next day, the restaurant was going to be closed, so we preordered our breakfast and coffee before the restaurant closed for the night. I was so exhausted that I was in bed before 10 p.m. It was the first time since 1973 that I shared a bed with my brother. Back then when I was 15 and he was 10, we shared a bunk bed in Jolo, Philippines. Well, that’s not entirely true because we also shared a bunk bed briefly in 1979 or 1980 when we lived with Auntie Faida before I moved to the U.S. I almost forgot this part - Liling knocked on our door at about 2 a.m. and reported that something was wrong with Pilaring. Larry and I went to their room and it appeared that Pilaring had an episode of sleep paralysis where she couldn't be aroused. Her respirations were pretty even and normal though so I was hoping it wasn't some kind of stroke. After several minutes of trying to arouse her, she finally woke up and we returned to bed.

I found the YETI

The agenda for the next day was to take a boat ride to lagoon an hour away. I woke up at about 5:30 and was out the door at 6 for my mandatory daily exercise. I walked 15 minutes one way and 15 minutes back, and by the time I got back to Big Foot, everyone was ready to leave for the boat ride. Pilaring appeared none the worse for wear despite the sleep paralysis episode she experienced just a few hours earlier.We had to leave the cars behind because the owner of the boats called my brother to tell him there were no more parking spots left. So be boarded several tricycles to get to the launching area. When we arrived at the beach, we waited until they had the food we were going to bring with us was cooked, then boarded a medium sized outrigger canoe (banca) which was just enough for all 10 of us plus 3 boat handlers. We donned our day-glo orange life jackets and were soon underway. At a steady clip on a calm sea, we went straight for about half an hour then made a left for another half hour before we arrived at a lagoon with a beach semi full of day trippers like us. On the way, we saw plenty of outriggers coming from and going to different beachfronts in the area. I think the one we went to was the least crowded because it took longer to get there. The place was called Nagsasa Cove.

Launching area for the outrigger canoes

Outrigger canoe (banca) ride on calm seas to Nagsasa Cove

Elgee, Larry, & Ninette in Nagsasa Cove

We got off the boat to find a shady place to set our things. All the huts were occupied but after waiting a few minutes, one became available and we were able to use it for the day. Ninette and I went exploring and she wanted to find a trail that was mentioned on the internet. We saw the trail but were unable to get there because the path through the shallow water was too rocky. There must have been another way to get to that trail but we couldn’t find it at that moment. She took a few photos of the views and ourselves of course, then went back to our family who had since settled down at the hut (well, it was a big table with a roof). By then, the sun was blazing hot and the sand was burning if you were barefoot. We entered the sea water to get some relief and thankfully the water gradually deepened the farther you went compared to yesterday’s beach where there was a sudden drop into deep ocean after only a few feet of beach. We swam a little bit but generally just enjoyed the coolness of the water.

Uno, Robynne, Ninette, Ben, & Elgee keeping cool

Me in Nagsasa Cove

We had lunch of fried fish, grilled fish, squid, rice, and other things that I had already forgotten about. After a brief rest, we dipped in the ocean again and oh my God (!), Larry went in the water too. He had already put into consideration that he didn’t have any open cuts on his skin and that he wasn’t going to “put his head in the water so his mucous membranes weren’t exposed to whatever bacteria was in the water. Some of us were not too pleased with what he did, but begrudgingly accepted it.

Lunch Time

Larry taking a daring plunge into the ocean

Taking shelter from the heat under the hut

The boat was supposed to come back to pick us up at 3:30 p.m. but they were slightly delayed. The boat handlers said the sea was getting choppier and to expect to get wet on the way back. What an understatement! They should have said “get very wet and get very scared of dying”. Casting off the beach, the waves didn’t feel so bad, but the farther we went, they got increasingly larger. Well large in proportion to the outrigger. Splish Splash and everyone was taking a bath. Hit a wave, bounce up, get splashed with sea water, and this went on for an hour and a half. Yes, it took 30 more minutes to get back because of the waves. Some were freaking out, others quietly stoic (or is it stoically quiet?), while a few had no fear due to their confidence in their swimming abilities. I was thinking I was about to meet my Maker on my vacation but kept quiet about it. After all, we were literally and figuratively on the same boat, weren’t we? Names shall not be mentioned but one older lady got so fed up with all the bouncing around that she exclaimed “bababa na ako!” (I wanna get off!), which made for a lighthearted moment and made everyone laugh despite the situation we were in. We soon saw our landing area up ahead but it still seemed to take forever to get there because we were battling cross currents, and when we did we had a hard time getting off the boat due to the waves. What a great relief to be back on dry land! We had survived the harrowing boat ride and our very own Good Friday Calvary at sea. Believe me, it was probably more scary than my capability to describe it in words.

Another tricycle ride and we were back at Big Foot Rest House (still no sighting of the Yeti). Well the Philippines is such a Catholic/Christian country that most of the restaurants were closed on Good Friday. We were caught in yet another traffic jam downtown when we ran into a religious procession while trying to find a place to eat. We ended up getting take out and eating in our room at Big Foot. Another vacation day full of adventure had ended.
You can read about the first 3 days here: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2016/04/philippines-vacation-2016-first-3-days.html

Attribution: Some photos from this post were taken from Ninette's Facebook page.

Philippines Vacation 2016 – The First 3 Days (due to the International Date Line)

Oh boy, the jet lag and insomnia has thrown me for a loop! I've been trying to reestablish my equilibrium the past two weeks and it's still a work in progress. Normally, I would have written about this vacation already, but instead I barely got started. Well, for better or for worse, this is the first chapter.

My first real vacation since 1989 started with a day off from work which gave me a chance to recheck  what I had to bring to the Philippines. The downside was having to wait another 36 hours before flight time. China Southern Airlines was the airline I booked back in December and I got a pretty good price and what I thought was as little layover time as possible. Unfortunately, the airline changed the schedule of my return flight and rebooked me with an 11 hour layover in Guangzhou, China, instead of just 3 hours. Well I managed to change that to “just” a 7 hour layover, still long but more manageable. But of course things changed again, as I shall tell you later.

My outbound flight from L.A. to Guangzhou was scheduled for 11:30 p.m. I was picked up from home at about 6:30 p.m. by a company called Shuttle to LAX and what showed up was a private car - a brand new Honda Accord with only one other passenger. When we arrived in LAX, I found my way to the China Southern Airlines check in counters. I had already checked in online from home and reserved my seats both for the LAX to Guangzhou leg and the Guangzhou to Manila leg. All I had to do was check my baggage of presents and make sure that my mileage was going to be credited with the airlines’ Sky Pearl Club.

I proceeded to the assigned departure gate, walked around a bit, then sat down to connect to LAX’s free wi-fi. After waiting a couple of hours, we were informed that there was a flight delay and the airline was kind enough to pass out some buns and bottles of water. I didn’t partake since I was still full from dinner. When we finally boarded the plane, the usual announcements were done but I had to listen really closely because it was sometimes difficult to understand English spoken with a Chinese accent. I soon found out one of the reasons why I got a cheap ticket. Or maybe this is the trend nowadays. During my last trip 3 years ago on Korean Airlines, we were given a kit containing a toothbrush, toothpaste, disposable slippers, and an eyemask and had 3 meal services. China Southern didn’t have such a kit and only served food twice. On the long flight to Guangzhou, I watched some movies (Star Wars and some other forgettable one), listened to classical music, and tried to sleep without much success.

The final approach during landing at Guangzhou had a lot of cross wind but the pilot landed the plane beautifully and as smooth as butter. The plane didn’t even bounce. Due to the flight delay, we arrived in Guangzhou with only about 45 minutes to spare to catch my flight to Manila. Still, I managed to put in a 20 minute walking workout by finding the departure gate and walking back and forth. I really wanted to hit my minimum of 30 minutes but it was time to board. Wouldn’t you know it, but we had to wait on the tarmac for another flight delay of an hour due to bad weather. I could have walked some more if we had stayed in the terminal! I’ll have to make up for that 10 minutes some other time. One observation I have to mention about China Southern Airlines – on the flight from L.A to Guangzhou, I never saw a smile among the flight attendants the whole time until we stepped out of the plane. Maybe they were just tired. Smiles were more abundant among the crew from Guangzhou to Manila.

I left L.A. on Monday and arrived in Manila on Wednesday. There must have been a storm since it was raining steadily and the flight to Manila had a lot of turbulence. Nevertheless we touched down in Manila safely and passed through immigration, baggage pick up, and customs pretty quickly. My brother Larry had sent me a message a few days before to meet him at the letter X waiting area for arriving passengers. I asked a security guard for directions, found the area and soon enough saw Larry walking towards me. We walked back to where he parked the car and as we left the area, I experienced something that was going to be repeated time and again during my short vacation – Philippine traffic. My brother uses Waze to navigate and even with that, one still gets stuck several times. Despite Larry telling me where we were, I could no longer recognize anything. My former landmarks were gone and the former wide open spaces of those landmarks were now crowded with new buildings and highrises. Only when we entered the University of the Philippines did some things still look familiar since I spent my college years there. Prior to that, we stopped by a foreign exchange business in Cubao so I could exchange dollars into pesos. The teller initially made a mistake and indicated that I had given her $300 instead of $500. Good thing I noticed it before the transaction was finalized.

I breathed a sigh of relief when we finally arrived at Larry and Ninette's townhome in U.P. Professors Subdivision. My sister in law- Ninette came downstairs to meet me and later her mother- Pilaring and niece- Robynne. I also met Ninette’s and her sisters’ former au pair- Manang Liling, who now cooks for them, and their helper- Vangie. Since Ninette was working from home, and Robynne was studying for exams, and Pilaring was trying to recover from a fractured arm and a cough, I excused myself to explore the neighborhood and put in my workout for the day. Somehow, I made my way to Tandang Sora and walked down that street, made a left on Congressional Avenue until I reached Mindanao Avenue. All the while, I tried to walk on whatever sidewalk was available, which was already uneven in the first place. I still had to dodge cars, jeepneys, and tricycles because I had to step off the sidewalk several times due to vehicles being parked there. I thought I was just going out and back on that street but somehow got misdirected on the way back. Instead of making a right on Tandang Sora, I proceeded straight on Congressional Avenue. Thus, I couldn’t find the landmark I made a note of on my way out. 

Fortunately, I saw a sign saying U.P. Professors Subdivision and asked the security guard how to get to Jade Street. It turns out, that entrance happened to be Jade Street and my brother’s home was at the end of that short block.Was I glad to find my way back home because I still hadn’t bought a Philippine SIM card nor “load” for my cell phone and couldn’t call anyone for help. That was my next order of business: buying a SIM card and some load (prepaid credits). Every corner store seemed to sell those but the first store I went to cut the SIM card too small for my phone, so my brother ended up buying one and cutting it the right size (one card can be cut to regular, micro, or nano SIM size). Next I bought 100 pesos worth of load but despite following the instructions, couldn’t get the 4G data to work  (or any G for that matter) even though I could call and text. That would have to do for now.

(To be continued)

Dazed and Confused - How I Feel While Training in the Intake Department

Well, I've been training as a relief Intake Coordinator for 6 night shifts now and after the first two, I thought I already had enough learning to be able to do it independently soon and I told the charge nurse so. Boy, was I badly mistaken when I finally trained with Jonathan, the Lead Intake Coordinator, on my third shift.

The first night, I was oriented by Marlana, one of the night shift coordinators. That time, I observed what she did and took notes, then compared my notes to the resource or reference book that the department had. I noted as much details as possible, or so I thought. I never got a chance to even answer any phone calls because the only 3 or 4 that came were answered by Marlana and after that no other calls came in. I didn't even touch the computer that night. I typed up my notes in my own computer, which I kept adding on to later after subsequent training nights.

The second night, again with Marlana, I went to the intake department at about 10:40 p.m., having been asked by the charge nurse to help in the detox department first since7 p.m. By the time I arrived at the intake department, there were no more beds available in the hospital's psych units and with the phone calls I answered, I only had to tell the callers that we were full. No computer work again that night.

After somewhat digesting the notes I had in combination with the resource book, I thought I had more or less a grasp of what needed to be done. I still needed to be connected to a shared network drive though, to access some logs that the Intake Department used. The hospital uses the Epic electronic medical records system and I thought that I was already set up to access all the sections that the intake coordinators used. Of course, was mistaken, as I learned later.

Finally, this much older Kwai Chang Caine had the opportunity to train one night under the Shaolin master himself - Jonathan. After setting up my personal desktop on the hospital's computer network, we found out that I still needed access to the shared network drives that the intake department used, as well as areas in the EPIC electronic medical records system that I had no access to as a Behavioral Health Worker. Jonathan asked me to contact the Information Systems office so they can resolve these issues. Eventually, after a few phone calls and email exchanges with Information Systems, I was finally given access. In addition, the hospital's admissions department gave me a username and password for the Passport One Source insurance verification system.

On that first night with Jonathan, he went into finer details about medical insurance companies and verification of coverage, what insurances we accepted and what we didn't, Medi-Cal from other counties, and I finally had the chance to enter information on EPIC after we received some calls regarding possible admissions. Entering information was where I started getting bewildered because there were so many things to remember, e.g. - click here, type a note here, close here, open this section, pend here, sign here, reserve here, and so on and so forth. It didn't help that I didn't sleep well the night before and my concentration was already poor. Jeez, how am I going to remember all of that and even if I did then, will I remember them again on the occasional times I'm going to be asked to relieve the full time intake coordinators?

I told the charge nurse the night before, that perhaps I may be ready to undertake the job on my own after orienting with Jonathan for one night. When the charge nurse asked me how I felt at about 3 a.m., I told her I was dazed and confused and that my brain felt so numb, like I just finished 3 finals tests in college. It was then that I asked her to give me as many training nights as possible. In the back of my mind, I was thinking I was never going to figure out the system and was reconsidering whether I still wanted to do it or not. Boy, oh boy, what have I gotten myself into?!

A few nights later, I was able to train with Shaolin Master Jonathan again and he let me sit on the captain's chair. We answered the phone on speaker and he was able to listen in and help me answer questions from callers which answers I didn't know. When it was time to enter information into EPIC, I would turn around to him to ask for clarification on what data to enter and where, since I had already forgotten most of them from a few nights back. It was a pretty busy night because we were barraged with calls from 7 p.m. until about 1 a.m. It was a great challenge to try to multitask and I was glad that Jonathan was there when I couldn't catch up. But, on a good note, I had a lot of opportunities to enter data on EPIC and it was very good practice. Still, I had to turn my head backwards to Jonathan so much that night that I may have gotten whiplash if not for the swiveling chair. Towards the end of the shift Jonathan told the charge nurse that this grasshopper was doing a pretty good job. He was being supportive of course because I felt that I didn't do as well as he said I did.

Did I tell you that I developed insomnia while I was training in the Intake Department? Well, when I tried to sleep, things I was trying to learn and how to do them kept creeping into my mind and made for bothered sleep. I kept thinking about how to do things the right way that it was starting to stress me out.

On my fifth training night, I was with Jane. Jane was a little bit more animated in the way she taught me as compared to the more relaxed way that Marlana and Jonathan did it. I still had to refer to Jane a lot that night when I had doubts on what to do next. One thing different that Jane taught me was to create a template for the End of Shift Report. After five training nights, I still didn't feel comfortable with the process.

It helped that I was able to orient with three different coordinators and I was able to see how they did things their own way to arrive at the same result. Hopefully, I will be able to incorporate the information I learned from all three into my learning process.

On the sixth training night, which happened to be the first time I trained two nights in a row (the others were separated by several nights off or working on the psych units), I was back with Marlana. I took all the calls that night other than one when I was using the bathroom. Between referring to my notes, a cheat sheet that Jonathan had given me, the resource book, and an occasional look back towards Marlana, I seem to have navigated my way through the system, remembering the sequence of steps to be taken, inputting which data and where, and doing updates as necessary. There were only a few calls and that helped me pace myself, and other than a few frantic moments towards the end of the shift, I thought I had done a fair job. I'm off from work for a few nights and so far I haven't received any feedback negative or otherwise, by email or by phone, so far.

Do I feel a little bit more comfortable with the system now? Perhaps I do with the routine stuff, I but I still have much to learn about the finer points of medical insurance verifications, of course how to answer phones in a tactful, customer service-oriented manner, and how to multitask when calls come in simultaneously. Lord knows what's going to happen if we don't get paid by the insurance company for a call I took. My boss is probably going to chew me out!.The job is much harder than I initially expected. I remember back in the mid 1980's when I was working for Tenet Los Altos Hospital, and had to occasionally take intake calls at night. All we had to do was ask the caller a few questions and arrange for him/her to come in for a free evaluation during the daytime, and if he/she came in, I would get an extra $10 in my paycheck. It's much more complicated now and I hope I hadn't already forgotten what I've learned so far after a few nights off. Can this old dog still learn new tricks?

Return To Pechanga

Gold Coast Tours shuttle bus

          Armed with my selfie stick I went for another casino adventure with a free bus ride to Pechanga, which was about 15 minutes closer than Pala, where I was a few weeks ago. The first and last time I was in Pechanga was almost 2 years ago when I was still unemployed and having so much free time, my relatives brought me there. It was also my first ever visit to a casino. A bit of sacrifice needed to be done this time, which was waking up at 4 a.m. so I could get my workout out of the way, take a shower and make it in time for the 7 a.m. pickup at Tambuli Market in Long Beach. I had scouted the location the day prior to check if there were any parking restrictions. The parking lot had a 2 hour limit which didn't help because it would be at least 8 hours before I would get back. There was no time limit for street parking. Just in case, I talked to the produce guy in the market to ask if I can park in the parking lot without getting towed away. He said it would be okay if I parked at farthest lane away from the market. As I typed this draft on my phone on the bus heading back from Pechanga in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, I was praying that my car was still safe at Tambuli Market, because it's not exactly in a good neighborhood.

          I arrived at the bus pick up area about 20 minutes early and noticed two women waiting. I asked them if they were there for the casino bus and they said they were waiting for the one that went to San Manuel. Since they were first timers also, they couldn’t tell me if I was at the right location for the Pechanga bus. Shortly however, a huge bus which had Gold Coast Tours markings on it and a tiny sign saying Pechanga on the windshield drove by and parked on the street. I went towards it and asked the driver that it was my first time riding the bus and what he needed from me. He said he needed to see my Pechanga membership card. I didn’t have one yet having signed up online, but I showed him the membership number the website provided me. He let me on the bus as we waited for more customers.

          We were soon underway to another pick up location in the city of Carson but was actually at the Harbor Gateway Transit Center. We waited for more customers there until about 8:15 a.m. when the bus was almost full. Most of the customers were senior citizens in what I venture to guess were in their 80’s, some with canes and one with a walker. Folks, gambling has no upper age limit as long as you are over 21.

          That was the last pick up stop and we soon hit the freeway towards Temecula. I tried to take short naps and catch up with the news on my cellphone. Mostly I was vehicle watching where I noticed a lot of drivers still texting or social networking while driving. I observed this on the way to and from the casino.

          We arrived at Pechanga about an hour and a half after leaving Carson and as we got off the bus, a couple of hostesses met us at the steps to check our membership cards. Having none, I presented my ID and membership number which I got when I registered through their website, but the system didn’t recognize my number. The cute hostess provided me with a new one and sent me to the lobby to pick up my new card from the desk. The lady told me that since I came with the casino sponsored bus, I was going to be given a $10 free play credit and since I was a new member, a free spin on any of the slot machines for a chance to win an additional $5 to 1,000 prize. I also asked the lady what their wifi password for guests was. Having gotten that, what else would I do but post it on my Facebook status, then went to find a slot machine for my free spin.

The welcome committee.

          Oh well, the free spin only yielded $5 but that’s better than nothing. I roamed around for a bit and took a few selfies before sitting down at a slot machine in the non-smoking area. I inserted my new membership card and the machine asked me for my password, which I tried to punch in on the touch screen. Well, either my aim is poor or the touch screen is inaccurate because when I punch in a number, it jumps to another number. I tried another machine with the same results. I went from one machine to the next until I found one which took my password and I figured out the next thing I had to do was load the $5 and the $10 to my card so I would be able to use it to gamble. It took me awhile to figure that out. Can you tell by now that I’m really not a gambler even though I’ve been to two casinos in the past month? For some reason I also found out that the penny slots had a minimum 20 cents bet or maybe on just the machines that allowed me to log in. Who knows? Since I was given free money by the casino I played more boldly than when I was in Pala Casino a few week prior. After trying a few single bets, I put in maximum bets. Bada bing bada boom, in about 10 short minutes all the free money was gone!

          So it was time to roam around again and since I was getting hungry I checked out the restaurants in-house. The prices were still not within my comfort zone so I left the building to see if there were any fast food restaurants outside. Since Pechanga Casino was not as isolated as Pala, I thought I would find one within walking distance. I was mistaken because despite seeing many housing tracts around the area, there was no shopping center in sight. About a block away from the casino, I saw a mini mart similar to the one in Pala and bought a huge processed burrito with some soda and that filled me up. Wait, I just noticed that there was no free soda in Pechanga unlike Pala. Darn, I had to buy my own drink!

          After having lunch, I walked around the perimeter of the casino and saw the clubhouse where their golf course is. A couple of women and a man asked me if I knew where a particular restaurant was, and having seen a sign about that restaurant earlier, I pointed them to that direction. I apologized ahead of time if I sent them the wrong way. I kept on walking and reached the edge of the parking structure before turning right and back towards the casino. I kept walking until I found the front of the hotel and entered the casino from there. Thus, I was able to walk off some of the calories of the somewhat heavy lunch I had. I tried playing quarter (25 cent) slots with my own money and immediately lost a dollar in just 4 spins. I’m beginning to realize that I have no luck in gambling and more reason not to do it. I went up the second floor the first time I roamed around and went back up there again, I found a place to sit which overlooked the gaming floor. The second floor consisted of the bingo room and the high stakes poker room, where the high rollers go to lose their money and subsidize the casino. I didn’t even have enough cash in my wallet just for the buy in.

The Second Floor

          It was during this rest period that I found out about the goings on in Paris so I tried reading more about it. None of the TVs in the casino had the news on and the gamblers were blissfully unaware of what was happening.

          I walked around some more and at 1:45 p.m. I went back to the bus pick up area, but not before I cashed out the 15 cents credit left out of the $15 the casino gave me. The bus left for Long Beach at 3 p.m. and we hit Friday afternoon rush hour traffic on the way back. It lengthened our travel time by another half hour. It was dark when we arrived back at Tambuli Market. On our way to our cars, a lady whom I talked to earlier asked me if I could give her some money to buy pizza for her kids because she said she lost money at the casino trying to win back her initial losses. I apologized for being not able to subsidize her family’s dinner since I too lost money at the casino albeit not mine.

          It was a huge relief to see that my car was still in the parking lot. I did a walkaround to check if anything was missing (in case someone from a chop shop stopped by). The car appeared to be safe and intact and with that, I drove back home from another casino adventure. Next time, it might be San Manuel Casino where the bus pick up is at the same location.

The bus arrival and departure area.

A Day Trip to Pala Casino

After finding an ad which offered a free shuttle bus ride to Pala Casino, a place I’ve never been to, I called the number Monday evening to ask if they had any more vacancies the next day and the operator said they did. He took my name and I said I’d be at their Cerritos pick up location at the scheduled time of 11:45 a.m. That was very convenient for me because I would be able to sleep in, wake up and workout, have lunch, without having to rush(or so I thought).

I left home for Heritage Park in Cerritos at 11:00 a.m. giving myself ample time to get there. It would normally only be a 25 minute drive. When I reached Lakewood Boulevard via Del Amo, there was road work being done in which traffic barely moved. I began to get anxious as the seconds ticked by and my time allowance was disappearing. I cut across the street and into the Lakewood Mall area to get to South Street and I must have hit every other red light on the way. I finally arrived at Heritage Park at 11:41 a.m. by my watch but didn’t see a shuttle bus waiting. Could their watch have been ahead of time and left me? Was I a victim of Murphy’s Law which states “everything that can go wrong will go wrong”? This didn’t alleviate my anxiety and minutes passed by without any sign of a shuttle bus. Oh well, it won’t be the end of the world if I don’t get to Pala Casino that day. Finally at 12 noon, a bus showed up and made the turn towards the park. Whew, I didn’t miss it after all!

When I got on the bus, the driver apologized for being late as he himself was caught in some traffic. He also added that this may be the last week that they would be doing pick ups at that location because the Parks and Recreation department had requested them to stop. Another lady who was assisting the driver asked to see my membership card which I didn’t have since I had never been to Pala Casino. She then checked my driver’s license, then we proceeded. We made one more stop at Fullerton before continuing our journey to our final destination. In the meantime an older Filipino lady named Lourdes asked me if it was my first time, then she gave me some information on what to expect, and also told me about other pick up locations. It turns out we only lived a few miles apart. When it was time for the driver’s assistant to collect some tips (a dollar from each rider), the Filipino lady lent me a dollar because the assistant couldn’t break my $20, which was the smallest denomination I had.

The bus ride was to have taken between 1.5 to 2 hours but we got there at 2 p.m. I noticed that we passed by Pechanga Casino on the way (I was there for the first and only time in January 2014 when my uncle and aunt took us there and I was still unemployed at the time). Pala Casino was another 15-20 minutes away and we had to descend a mountain along a narrow street with a lot of switchbacks. When we arrived, the driver reminded us that the bus number was 2222 and that boarding for the way back home would be at 6:45 p.m. and leaving at exactly 7:00 p.m. We were also told to show our membership cards to the employee waiting for us to get off the bus, and if we didn’t have one, that same employee would give us a new one. I was given a rudimentary bus I.D. to identify me as a customer of that bus company. I waited for Lourdes to get her phone number in case I didn’t see her again that day, so I could repay her the dollar I owed her. Then we separated ways.

Entering the casino, the first thing I looked for was the bathroom, and after using the facilities, I spied a sign on a wall saying “Free Drinks”. Free bus ride and now free drinks. I thought I died and gone to heaven! Well, the free drinks were just sodas but you wouldn’t get a complaint from me about that. I started from the front of the building and walked towards the end which happened to be where the no smoking slot machines were and the hotel. But first I had to stop to check if there was free wi-fi so I could geolocate and post it on Facebook, hahaha! Outside and across the lawn was the swimming pool and spa and beyond that was a walking trail which required a key to get into. I explored the perimeter of the casino and noticed that there were no sidewalks and other than the main street, all you could see were mountains. The casino appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. I guess the proprietors wanted to keep you inside the casino and spend your money there and not outside. I returned to the spa area and tried using the selfie stick I bought the day before. All I can say after a few shots is that I need more practice on using it, so the composition of the shot is better. I explored inside the building some more and looked at the restaurants and the prices. There was a wine bar, a noodle shop, sandwich shop, buffet, etc. I left the building and crossed the parking structure towards the mini mart I saw on our way in. Still no sidewalks and even the main road only had a bicycle lane. I went back to the casino and took more selfies. I seemed to be the only one doing it and no one seemed to notice as selfie sticks has become so common. 

In the meantime, I had availed of the free drinks a few times, but I was getting hungry. The prices of food in the restaurants were quite expensive so I thought I’d try my luck at the mini mart. I got a huge burrito and after eating that and still feeling hungry, I had a slice of pizza. That cost me less than $5.00. After that meal, I went back to the casino and imbibed more free soda. I must have walked around a lot in the first 3 hours and my legs were getting tired, so I took a break in the hotel lobby as far away as possible from the cigarette smoke. My eyes were burning, my nose was running slightly, and I started smelling like a chimney.

I had forgotten that the driver’s assistant told me earlier that I would be getting a $10 credit on my membership card so I used my own money instead to play a few rounds 25 cent poker on a machine. I never won a single round and the dollar was gone lickety split. To soothe my now lighter wallet I went to the entrances of the casino to read about the history of the Pala Indian tribe. Can you tell that I’m not really into gambling? I just took this trip to get out of the house and look around.

Pretty soon, it was time to board the bus and head back home. The drive took half an hour lesser, but the cigarette smoke lingered till the next day. I still need to check if my membership card does indeed have a $10 credit, and if it does, I may go back and enjoy the cigarette smoke another day. But first, I need to have my cilia recover.

p.s. I checked the casino’s website later and found out that the $10 credit expired after 5 hours if unused.

Statcounter

Second Thoughts About Retiring in the Philippines

A few years ago, with hopes of retiring early, I started to explore the possibilities of doing so in the Philippines due to the lower cost of living in that country. There were townhomes with two bedrooms in good areas that were selling for as little as $15,000, with three bedrooms costing not too much more. Fast forward about five years later and those same townhomes are now selling at more than double the original prices.

One of the places I considered was Zamboanga City to be close to my mother, however she has passed away since. I also wanted to live there to have closer access to SATTI, hahaha! I still have plenty of relatives and friends in that city but there are problems with electricity and an ongoing turmoil with certain groups trying to take over the area.

Another place I checked out was Cagayan de Oro city, but I hardly know anyone there other than a cousin and an elementary school classmate who said that area was much more peaceful than Zamboanga. Other property values I’ve looked into were in Davao and Cebu.

Currently, a main consideration is to live close to my brother in Quezon City since he is my only immediate family left. Checking properties for sale near his location showed prices ranging from 1.4 million Philippine pesos for a tiny bachelor’s pad condominium all the way to 3 million to combine 2 bachelor’s pads into one, or a one bedroom place. There’s no way I could afford those prices if I wanted to pay for the whole amount all at once. I just paid off my mortgage in the U.S. and I’m not ready to start another one in another country. The only way I could afford to buy a decent home in the Philippines is if I sell my condo here in the U.S., then move to the Philippines. Mentally and financially, I’m not ready to do that. By the way, I am qualified to buy property in the Philippines because I have dual citizenship.

It has often been suggested that before packing everything up and moving, one should try living in the area you want to move to for a couple of months or more to see if you would like it. It would not be possible for me to be off work for a couple of months but it may be possible to visit a week or two every couple of years. In fact instead of retiring in the Philippines as a backup plan, staying where I am now will be the backup plan since my mortgage is already paid off. That takes early retirement off the table though since I won’t qualify for Medicare until I’m 65 (I’m currently 58). If medical insurance was not a consideration, I would be able to retire when I’m 60 and use my retirement plans until I need to collect from Social Security. Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) could be a possibility except when I die, California has to be reimbursed for whatever expenses they used on me from my assets, before any heirs get to collect their share.

There remain other options or sacrifices if I still want to retire in the Philippines, and that is to buy a home in the suburbs, if you can call it that. Two to three bedroom townhomes in Bulacan and some parts of Cavite remain affordable but they are much farther away from my relatives in the Metro Manila area. However, I may have to buy it now or else they may no longer be affordable in a couple of years.

Another consideration with moving is having to buy a vehicle and getting a driver’s license. It would also be a major adjustment in learning how to drive in the Philippines which I hear has a lot more traffic jams nowadays and driving techniques are way more different than what I’m used to in California.

Let’s also not forget that if I buy a home there, there are start up costs of new furniture, appliances, and utilities.

As far as health insurance, since I’m a dual citizen, I will be able to avail of Philhealth, the universal health insurance of the country, although I will have to pay a certain amount up front to catch up since I have never contributed to the system.

Yet another possibility would be to rent out my condo if I decide to move to the Philippines, become a remote landlord, and use the money to pay for the new mortgage, but that would entail hiring a property management company to maintain the condo, which would decrease my proceeds.

It is due to the recent economic successes in the Philippines that property values and the cost of living have spiked, even though the poorer Filipinos have not seemed to have fared better due to this.

And then there's the politics of the country…

Oh my goodness, how can I neglect to say that one of the most positive things I can say about possibly retiring in the Philippines is the hospitality of the people. 

Videos of My Daycation in L.A., Hollywood, and Beverly Hills

Well I finally uploaded these videos of my daycation to You Tube. They are rough and shaky since they are taken from a cell phone camera and I make no claims on knowing how to make videos. It is what it is and I hope you might like them (or not).

You can find the original post with photos here: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2015/08/my-daycation-in-la-hollywood-and.html

My Daycation in L.A., Hollywood, and Beverly Hills

Muscle Beach in Venice, California

Well, I unexpectedly got a few days off in a row from work and decided to become a tourist for a day. I had bookmarked a website a few months ago which offered a tour of Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica Pier, and Venice Beach. What was convenient  for me was that the operator picked up tourists from Long Beach hotels, instead of me having to drive to La Palma or Anaheim where most tour buses do their business. Of course, I had to pay a few extra bucks more for the convenience.

Being basically a stay at home person nowadays who doesn't like leaving my comfort zone due to underlying mild anxiety issues, I liked being guided in a tour where I didn't have to make decisions on where to go and what to do next.

I contacted the tour operator by email to ask if he knew of any free or low priced parking near one of the downtown Long Beach hotels where they pick up clients from. He suggested one across the street from the Renaissance Hotel on Ocean Boulevard and street parking around the Holiday Inn on Atlantic Avenue and 10^th Street. Before I made a reservation, I drove to the Holiday Inn to check out parking areas. The concierge said the if I signed up for the tour through their hotel, I may use their parking space for a $10 fee. I looked at the parking signs at a Smart & Final store across the street and the surrounding streets and they all indicated a 2 hour parking limit. That wouldn’t work out too well for an 8 hour tour. To combine checking out parking places with my workout, I started doing a very brisk walk from the Holiday Inn towards the Renaissance Hotel which took 25 minutes. I found the parking lot that the tour operator suggested which only charged $5 for the whole day. Perfect! I then asked one of the bellpersons in the hotel where the pick up location was and he indicated that it was exactly where I was. So I walked back to the Holiday Inn to my car, drove back home, then made my reservation for the day tour.

When Monday came, I woke up early to do my requisite workout, took a shower, drove to the parking lot, paid the fee, then went to the Renaissance Hotel. I arrived earlier than the 8:30 pick up time so it gave me time to explore a couple of blocks around the area. Soon enough the tour bus came and I was greeted by our tour guide John. Seeing the front seat vacant, I rode shot gun with him. With us was a couple from Mesa, Arizona who were visiting their son in Signal Hill, two ladies from Maryland who were family members of a special Olympian in the sport of kayaking, and a mom with her two daughters who were from Cleveland, Ohio.

Sunseeker Tours bus

Tour mates

We headed towards the 110 Freeway via the Gerald Desmond and Vincent Thomas bridges while John talked about them. Otherwise, the only things between San Pedro and Los Angeles being pointed out by John were the cellular phone towers made to look like trees. Our first stop was the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum which was the current venue of the Special Olympics. For that reason, we couldn’t enter the coliseum but rather just drove around the parking lot. On the right side was the Air & Space Museum, while on the left was the Los Angeles Sports Arena, known as a boxing venue. Incidentally, the 1932 and 1984 Olympics were held in the Memorial Coliseum as well.

Next, we drove towards Los Angeles where we were shown the Convention Center (where I had my American Citizenship swearing in ceremony in the early 90’s), the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the Microsoft Theater, the Disney Concert Hall, City Hall, the Superior Court where they had the O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson trials, and the Capitol Records building which is shaped like a stack of vinyl records.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

L.A. Superior Court

Capitol Records Building

Our next destination was Hollyweird, I mean Hollywood. We were shown the famous Hollywood sign from afar. I mistakenly thought that we would be driven up the mountain and be at the sign itself. Oh well. Then we headed to the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Hollywood and Highland avenues)and were dropped off to explore around the Grauman’s Chinese Theater for half an hour and I took the opportunity to take a few photos and videos. The first two things that I encountered as soon as I got off the tour bus was a schizophrenic talking to himself and a guy on a wheelchair smoking pot, whose second hand smoke I took a deep whiff off. I felt right at home. By the way, our tour guide warned us not to take photos of the costumed characters because they will fight with you if you don't pay them. Spiderman saw me taking a video of the stars on the ground and tapped me in the back to ask me where I was from and I told him I was from Long Beach. I also complimented him that he looked good in his costume.

Elvis' car

Then it was time for lunch at Mel’s Drive-in (next to a watch store where the lowest priced watch was $7500). I ordered what Mel’s was supposed to be famous for: the Mel’s Burger which was supposed to come from grass fed beef. I passed on their famous milk shake and opted for Diet Coke. What was so special about this burger? Other than being grass fed, having an extra large Vidalia onion and the $9.00 price (!), I couldn’t detect the difference in taste as compared to let’s say the Carl’s Jr. $1.39 burger. Hollywood is pretty expensive, I’d say! Well, at least I don’t have to eat there every day.

Mel's Drive-in with the $9 burger

After lunch, we made our way to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive.  I was hoping we could have stopped and walked around Rodeo Drive but we just drove by instead. For some reason, the place reminded me of a shopping center in Manila called Escolta when I lived there in the 70’s. It was a place where high end and high priced clothes and jewelry were sold too. 

Beverly Hills entrance

We then drove along the edge of Griffith Park via the freeway and passed through Century City on our way to the Santa Monica Pier, we parked on the bluff for a few minutes to stretch our legs and take photos of the pier about a mile away. Sometimes celebrities exercise on that path but we didn't see any that day. Then we were shown a sign that said it was the western end of the famous Route 66, after which we headed to Venice Beach. We alit the tour bus again and were given the opportunity to explore around for 20 minutes. I took a walking video until I found myself at another famous location: Muscle Beach (photo at start of this post) where a couple of girls were nice enough to offer to take my picture with my cell phone without running away with it afterwards. I scurried back to the tour bus hoping they had not left me behind.

Santa Monica Pier in the background

Route 66 Western end

We drove by Marina del Rey, Westchester, underneath LAX, before hopping on the 405 freeway to head back to Long Beach. I took videos of the tour bus going up the two bridges before John dropped my off at the Renaissance Hotel where I bid goodbye to my tour mates and thanked them and John for the enjoyable day.

Although I enjoyed the tour immensely, my impression of the locations we visited was that they were underwhelming. Seeing those places on TV made them larger than life, overhyped, overcrowded with tourists bumping into each other with hawkers, vendors, and locals. This impression has nothing to do with the content of the tour or the guide who did a fairly outstanding job to keep the participants informed. Also, stopovers at Olvera Street, the Farmer's Market, and the La Brea Tar Pits would have been nice. The areas we visited where also full of other tour companies like Starline Tours and TMZ Tours among others. Flying solo, I had to take a lot of selfies because I was too wary to hand my cell phone to strangers and ask them to take my photo.

Having experienced all that in this tour, I have to disclose that this was not my first time being in most of those locations although the times I was there was not for sightseeing. I had been to these places a few times: Los Angeles, West Hollywood (nowhere close to Hollywood and Highland), Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, Venice Beach, Century City, Griffith Park and more locations between and farther north. In the days when I was still running a lot, I had been to those cities to run in road races, but it was difficult to enjoy the view when you were gasping for air as you were trying to run as hard as you can. I think I’ve run at least 3 L.A. Marathons that started and finished in 3 different locations in the past. The only place in the tour where I haven’t run through was Beverly Hills because I don’t think the folks who live there think a bunch of sweaty people running around in their underwear through their neighborhood was classy. This time I got to enjoy being in those locations breathing normally, fairly comfortable and not sweaty despite the rising humidity, and aboard a tour bus.

And last but not least, the photo I should have taken at Venice Muscle Beach, LOL!

Blogger limits the size of the videos one can upload but I'll try to upload them on You Tube and provide the links here at a later time. If you happened to have read this blog post, thank you for reading.