TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

Due to the heat (and maybe hate?) -- the rallies and protests in support of Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, ex leader and founder of the CPP-NPA (in short ex-communist leader of the Philippines), who was exiled in the Netherlands and lived in Utrecht, and was arrested last Tuesday to face criminal charges of murders in the Philippines, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Dutch) has announced a travel ban for Dutch citizens traveling to the Philippines. Snip in today’s (31 August) Spits, a local metro/train gratis publication in the Netherlands. My first reaction was, “Huh, a travel ban?” Dutchman’s reaction was, “Yeah!” and grinning so wide his eyes thinned that they looked like Chinese. Obviously he did not take his governments’ warning seriously. Me again: Oh my dear lord - a travel ban!? LOL! And I will say it again, LOL! If you don’t know what LOL means, it’s LAUGHING OUT LOUD. The Dutchman could not stop grinning (mischievously). Without having to sound like Miss So...

This morning I went to the car dealer for my every 15,000 kilometer checkup. My appointment was 8AM and the route instructions I printed from the internet (routenet.nl) said it will take me approximately 12 minutes. With that in mind I left home 7:30AM. I am not familiar with Overvecht where the car dealers are located, and where Utrecht CBR (where everyone takes the driving exam) is by the way too. To get there you have to comb through rows and blocks of residential houses that looked very much the same from each other. And for a 12-minute ride the route instruction was 2-pages long! Go straight, turn right, upon reaching rotunda 1 take the third exit, go straight, turn left, upon reaching rotunda 2 take the second exit, etcetera, you get the point. Well guess what, I got lost along the way! A couple of times I had to stop and ask people on the streets for directions. There were road constructions too that totally mangled the route making me all the more confused. Then I found myself ...

Neighboring Belgium, the crossroads between North and South Europe has been receiving a lot of attention lately from the European press. The headlines: Flemish vs. Walloons. A linguist and sociologist would probably say that the rift between the 2 camps may misleadingly masquerade as cultural and political grievances and differences, but in reality, this is but a simple core language dynamics problem - Dutch vs. French. My favorite Antwerp images: Dusk; You got mail; and Windows and busy women. Nevertheless, this topic got me intrigued and interested. As a result of my inquisitiveness, I mused on and daydream about some Belgian ambience, a Belgian inspired weekend getaway would be nice. You know, just to have a feel of what’s going on down there. So, how about dinner in Antwerp? Dutchman complained that Antwerp is too far but I quickly reminded him that it’s about the same drive going to Friesland, just that this is southbound. In the end he gave up and gave in to my wants. I WON AGAIN...

Grilling days will soon be over. Foto taken when Dutchman and I had barbeque with the Dutch parents in the garden. This is my plate. A part of me feels saddened that summer has to end, but another part of me felt happy, eager, like I know for sure there’s going to be a new beginning of something wonderful. If you’re keen enough, you might have already noticed that I have changed my blog banner. From “Expatriation” it is now ‘Expatriotism”. This word best describes my state of being in the Netherlands, well, at least 50%. Goodbye Expatriation. Welcome Expatriotism. The weekend looks promising. I am very much looking forward to it.

Why are weekends fleeting? Someone needs to get serious and start lobbying Parliament the new 3-day weekend rule. I could use some really. Anyhow, just like the tone of my first paragraph, last weekend was a lazy one. There were a number of open action items in my agenda left undone, i.e., visit to a village; buy a pair of trainers; check out a castle. But since I was not feeling well and couldn’t move around much, I didn’t accomplish anything. However, I managed to successfully glue my bum into the seat I am now sitting on, with my laptop in front. Well, that was Sunday. Saturday was another story. It was a bit active. We were quite busy, which is a regular thing for us during Saturdays anyway. We did some household chores, went food shopping and more. Honestly, life would have been convenient in this part of the world if only shops open until 8 in the evening. Sigh – I know. I am wishing for the moon and the stars. Nevertheless, living near to the town center has its advantages that...

Finally uploaded my Giethoorn pictures! Giethoorn is an old canal village known also as the “Venice of the North” here in the Netherlands. Giethoorn: Venice of the North We didn’t really stayed long in Giethoorn because this was just a quick stop over. Our original agenda for the day was to go to Friesland in Wolvega to visit friends. It was the birthday of our friend’s youngest little son, Dutchman’s godson actually. Because this boy is free spirited, mischievious and exhibits a streak of notoriety, we gave him a nickname, “De jonge Holleeder”, lol (tip: google Holleeder). Giethoorn is part of the province Overijssel just near the border of Friesland (in the north of the Netherlands) and the old canal village is situated in the northern part of the region. There are cycling, hiking and walking paths in the area but the best way to experience and appreciate this beautiful place is to rent a boat or canoe. Because we didn’t have much time on our hands and we still have to g...

I grew up with maids and my parents usually employ 2 or 3 when we were little kids. Having them at home and around me is as normal as brushing my teeth everyday and tying my shoe laces every morning before going to school. I even have a personal nanny who looked after me. There were a couple of them. A couple, yes, because no nanny could stand long with my stubborn bouts and mischievous acts. At a very young age, I developed quite a bad reputation in the town north of Cebu where my parents normally employ for house help – the little bitchy girl, beware of her. In many developing countries where manual labor is cheap, its a customary thing for families from middle class and up to have 1, 2 or 3 maids living with them. The reason is quite simple really -- in the Philippines, there is no social system that supports child care and a labor system that encourages women to raise their children all by themselves. Working part-time in normal professional jobs, receiving child benefits, free hea...

We had a busy weekend. We went to Friesland to visit a friend and had a stopover in idyllic Giethoorn, dubbed by many as the Venice of the North. As I still need to upload the pictures online, I will have to post them later in this blog. For now, I have pictures and short videos of Manila. The still empty, still unused, and controversial airport: The NEW Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila. If the government, the contractors, and the courts find amicable settlement with this without end fiasco, they would need to re-invest millions of pesos to cosmetically bring back this new unused airport into its ironically, new state. Right foto is the new airline price fighter of Asia (the Easyjet and Ryanair there): Philippines’ Cebu Pacific Air. Manila touch base: ............... The overpopulated-congested Metro Manila from the plane. You can see Makati City skyline (Manila Central Business District) and its buildings shooting up to the skies from the distance. If I am n...

I was born in Cebu City. I grew up in this island. But, just like any driven and enthusiastic young girl who looks at the world with the I-will-conquer-you! mentality, I left her at 22 to seek and carve a place for myself somewhere else. So for 15 years now, I have only been a regular visitor here. Capitol, the white palace where the City of Cebu is being run. Next foto is a calesa (with a bush horse) and the water street vendor . Omnipresent security guards, you cannot miss them! And Halo-Hallo, a popular Filipino dessert (or cold snack). Dutchman loved it -- we should not have shared this, we should have bought each our own Halo-Halo. More local snacks (deep fried): Chorizo, Ngo Hiong, Tempura, and Squid/Fish balls. During our stay in Cebu City, we didn’t get to go around much. I would have wanted to visit a couple of towns I had in mind (Carcar, Moalboal), but our time was spent mostly with family, which is the reason why we were in Cebu anyway. Left: Street mango vendor - that...