Status of Me
I have my pictures from the Bantayan Island trip ready to publish. I’ll be getting those published soon in my monthly pictures for February and 
also writing several articles with pictures detailing my trip there. Hopefully, the articles will be of some use to those that travel within the Philippines or even those that just wish they were in the Philippines.
Good Health & Loosing Weight
I walked 1.8 miles on Monday and 2.6 miles on Tuesday. The real problem with the walks, continues to be the cold showers. I’ll be glad when I can spend the cash to get an in-line hot water heater. A Philippines type water heater that hangs on the wall is just fine. I need things that are more important, so I’ll just take cold showers.
If can get fifty pounds off, I’m going to do so. Then I’ll move forward from there. I need to loose 100 pounds! That seems so overwhelming. So I’ll tackle it five pounds at a time.
Jessie has gone to Cebu City today, so I may not walk today. Depends, I may go down to the Pizza Pub and get something to eat. If so, I’ll walk.
I’m going to book my trip to Bangkok soon, I might do it today! Jessie is fearful of my doing it online. I don’t think it will be an issue. I tried a travel agent and the price was twice as much as what I can get online. I need to do some research on CheapO Air and see if there is any bad reports on them.
I’m off to getting my February pictures online. And the other things I need too get started. Obama released some memos from the Bush Administration that warrant my attention. Walking really cuts into my time developing my websites. It often gives me a lot of things to write about.
Tagged with: Bantayan Island • Cebu • Health • Lossing Weight • Obama Philippines • Walking
Filed under: The Philippines
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To The Philippines Faster
Hi Rusty!
I recommend that you go directly to the PAL website. They have a roundtrip flight from Cebu to Bangkok for 288US. I can’t imagine that a flight broker will get you a better price. I always go directly to the airlines and save the commisions. Just trying to help. Take care.
Tom
Tom, Lots of people have had problems with getting their tickets online with Philippine airlines. That’s got me weary of doing that.
And yes, I found something cheaper. Go to HeJoe.ph and click on the link for CheapO. They answer emails too.
Have you purchased tickets from Cebu-Pacific through there website? I didn’t see that price when I was there.
I think BI is going to grant me a stay to 24 months! I’m hoping.
I checked Cebu Pacific sites again today. No way are they cheaper than what I can get and they can’t even give me flights from cebu to bangkok, I have to figure out the connecting flights. Now there is one flight for less than $75.00 if I come back on a Thursday but then I have to leave on Tuesday and that price is over $100 and possibly another $100 going back to Cebu City plus I have to buy yet another ticket in that mix. Too complicated, not cheaper and reports of credit card issues going that way. :) And it’s not cheaper!
I’ve just attempted to view your Bantayan photos. I don’t know what it is, is it your new program (Linux?) or the piclens. It’s too damn slow to load. It’s not my computer (I have a fast one). With your older photos, they are easier and quicker to view. Any chance of putting the old system back? By the way, the pics are really gorgeous. I wonder if some publisher would buy them for posters etc?
Sorry your having trouble Christine. You don’t have to use Piclens. You can click on the picture and it will enlarge, Piclens is just the best way to view. I’m not sure what you mean by “Bantayan Pictures” on this site the pictures are put up by month..
This month has a lot of pictures. When I first viewed them online, I let it run all the way through while I was doing something else. I was in Piclens mode and let the slide show run. Then I came back and restarted it. The first time a picture loads, its slower. Second time it loads it from your hard drive rather than the internet.
Nothing has changed on the website software. The message I posted about linux was months ago and was on my own PC, not the web server.
I don’t know how your watching it. For me the best way to view is to click on the Piclens link then click on the square in the lower right corner and it goes full screen.
Otherwise click on each picture. I can’t go back to the way I did it last year. It takes up too much disk space and takes too long, around four hours to upload 300 pictures. It uploaded three copies of each one.
My pc is not fast and its working just fine. It wont matter how fast your computer is if your internet connection is slow.
Are you using Internet explorer? If so, I suggest you stop using it and change to Firefox. Google firefox and you’ll find it or go to firefox.com
IF others are having trouble, I need to know it.
Nice photos from too short vacations.
Wish you a little longer stay next time.
Those moments of total relaxation are so rare.
—————————-
You and all of us better enjoy it while it is stil time because a perfect financial storm is getting close to blowing up.
Rusty, the economy is imploding troughout the world.
Yesterday here in Canada we got the lowest interest rate ever… 0,5% and the governement officials openly said that a massive money printing mania (inflation) may be used as a last resort to turn-around the economy. I am getting worried.
Sorry for mixing subjects but I see that you are no longer posting on this issue, so I thought it would be good to add some caution to leisure. No offense here.
It is not a problem Robert. If you look around this site, especially back around October of last year, you’ll see I was sounding the alarm back then. When the US quadrupled the amount of money that the banks could lend over night. I didn’t know what was going wrong but I knew something was.
Its all about the housing market. Banks wont lend money because they need to build up their cash reserves for all the write offs they have coming.
When Warren Buffet, i think that’s his name said now is the time to buy stock, I was thinking no way. Not for most of us. When I was in college the stock market was around 300 not 3000. It could go back to that.
I’m okay. The current conditions will push the dollar’s value up. I have a retirement from working for uncle sam for 20 years and its not social security that I’m getting. I’ll be dead before I can get that. Not likely to see 65.
yeah, things are going to get worse, probably much worse but personally, I’m okay. The economy growing when it shouldn’t be actually hurt me.
If I had to earn a pay check, I’d be very concerned if I was working in the private sector. The down turn will effect me. I’m making cash off of advertising and as businesses fail, there will be less ads purchased which will lower the price they pay me.
I saw rapid growth in my advertising endeavors until this month. Growh stopped but it hasn’t slowed, just no growth.
I remember looking through your last automn writings.
It was worrysome then; today it is out-right scary.
Here is a link for the braves only. I read it and am about to start digging a hole under the perma-frost for cover.
Just kidding… for now.
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-32-is-available!-4th-quarter-2009-Beginning-of-Phase-5-of-the-global-systemic-crisis-phase-of-global-geopolitical_a2805.html
Robert, I don’t find that article all that impressive. Its very well written but I think it is designed to be shocking in order to draw readers and to get people to link to it. They put that exclamation point in there and made it hard to link to them though. :)
Times are bad, but Armageddon is not yet upon us. :) Hope to see you around here often! You might enjoy my site about politics and finance but I don’t post to it enough myself. http://hobbyist-econosmist.com Just not enough time to get to everything.
Hi Rusty!
I did buy tickets directly from PAL before. Anytime you use a broker or travel agent they make money. It comes from the customer. Best to cut out the middleman. Last time I bought tickets from Manila to Gen-San on PAL the website was acting up so I called the ticketing office and told them I wanted the on-line promo price. They reserved the tickets for me with nothing other than my promise to pick them up when I arrived in Manila. I had no problem with them but I really don’t like Cebu-Pacific too much. They are okay to fly to Manila but not from Manila. The terminal there is very unorganized and stressful. Good luck with your trip.
Tom, sometimes agents can give you deal not available to the public. In fact, that is usually the case. I was shocked years ago when I got such a great deal from an agent, better than anything I could do myself. That was 30 years ago though. I don’t think the deals from agents are as good as they use to be. At times you can find good deals online.
CheapO air does offer prices better than I can get from the airlines themselves. Clicking on the link does prove that.
People in the Philippines using WESTERN credit cards report issues trying to purchase tickets ONLINE with I think Cebu-Pacific and PAL. They charge the card but the airlines never issue the tickets claiming that they didn’t go through but the charge is on the card. I’ve heard this from multiple people. Probably they will get this worked out and maybe already have, but I’m not gonna be the test subject. :)
I don’t think people using local credit cards have this issue. I think the main difference is that western credit cards have the option to do a charge back where the local Philippine credit cards have no such feature. I don’t recall where I got that idea, I hope I didn’t make it up. LOL The part about the charge backs. Maybe Bob knows something and chime in. He’ll probably say he has purchased tickets online many times and with no problem. If so I’d love to hear that.
There have been several times I bought tickets through an agent at the same or better price than offered by the airline. The airlines offer these incentives so they don’t have to hire the people to make these bookings and to answer questions.
If they always charged more, they couldn’t exist.
Yea the tickets I am looking at are PAL but the times are horrible. I don’t like the sound of stress out of Manila. I hate stress… especially when I’m flying. LOL
The travel agent I’ve tried here in the Philippines cannot match CheapO but they did match PAL.
They tried to get me extended to 24 months, no go.
Tom R, click this, give it a try and let me know if you can do better by going direct to the airlines? I haven’t found that to be the case but perhaps I’m missing something:
Cebu, Philippines – Bangkok, Thailand
&
Bangkok, Thailand – Cebu, Philippines
Mon 15/Jun/2009 — Thu 18/Jun/2009
$217.00 1 Stop PAL
BUT I just click on BOOK and guess what there is an additional $108.00 in taxes and fees. Naw that’s just misleading. Might as well get it through a travel agent I trust and pay the $350.00 they can do it for. They want to put me in an expensive hotel though so I’ll just do that myself.
Then again once you try to book the flight through PAL online the price shoots up to near $500:
Adult 288.00 USD
Taxes and Fees 163.30 USD
Total 451.30 USD
I do use Firefox, and my internet is the fastest available. I think I must be doing something wrong? I saw some pics of white beach, I thought that was Bantayan – not? I’ll have another go at the pics when I have more time. Hope your Bangkok trip goes OK. I’ve been browsing at airfares for Cebu direct from Brisbane. They have not gone down at all despite oil having come down a lot. The Oz economy is looking bad with 1000′s of people losing their jobs. The analysts still say our position is not as bad as the US or Europe. Up until 2-3 years ago, they used to say if America sneezes, Australia gets the cold (in economic terms that is). In any case, the Aussie$ has plummeted big time. I checked the exchange rate today and I can only get Php30.00 for my AU$1. In July last year, I got Php40.00 for my AU$1.
When the worlds biggest economy is in critical condition, it will effect everyone. Brittan is having its own problems though they like to blame it on us. If it was us, their banks wouldn’t be in trouble too. I think the UK is in even bigger trouble.
The US imports a lot of consumer good and they ain’t importing.
This all showcases something. If one country tries to damage another countries economy it will hurt them too. Even an embargo on Iran for example, that hurts the US too, just not as much as it hurts them. Not good for anyone though.
I don’t buy into the idea of this dooms day junk. There’s a talking head on Fox News calling for people to arm themselves as “something is in the air.” Yes mr talk head brain dead dude, it is, and its call paranoia. LOL
Times are not good, the US is on the verge of depression. But it will recover.
I don’t know why your having issues. I wish I could help. That’s why I was trying to point out the exact link to click on. I don’t know if your doing any thing wrong or if there is just a better way to do it. I don’t know what is happening with you. If you can give me a better idea of what your doing I MIGHT be able to help.