Special 'Back Home' Edition (Calgary, Canada)

(Published October 11, 2011 - from the drafted archives) 


Late 20's

Well, here it is, my final travel blog. Final? Yes indeed, today being my 27th birthday, I'm making new beginnings, I'm closing that symbolic door on my recent endeavors and am giving myself the gift to be free of dwelling, and the chance to move forward and create more memories. I consider this specific blog a birthday gift in itself, to myself.

Please note that I wrote a lot of this when I first came home but have postponing until now.

Contemplations, Confirmations & Conclusions
-All men are created equal
-$22,000 (including my airfares, insurance & rent/living expenses in Australia)
-Poverty sucks
-12 countries
-No matter what language anyone is speaking, they're all talking about normal everyday issues
-Everybody feels love
-I am Filipino. I am Canadian.
-Everybody deserves to be loved
-2 missed flights (intentional)
-Family is so important
-If every single person in the world were to stop their 'own' lives for 3 years and all pitch in to end poverty, pollution, destruction, etc, the world could have a fresh start
-India was my favorite country
-17 months exactly
-The Taj Mahal was the most beautiful thing that I saw
-78 rolls of flim
-What's so bad about communism?
-Its not cool to put a Canadian flag on your pack while backpacking
-Only 1 South Afrikan friend
-I left a piece of my heart in Cambodia, I think of the kids at least twice a day
-I discovered my roots, in the Philippines and Asia in general
-3 cameras, including an under water one
-Israelis really get around
-Backpacking can be hard work and a hard lifestyle, but is so rewarding
-15 flights
-6 pairs of underwear can last a long time
-Poor people seem to be the happiest
-The British are everywhere!!
-Is traveling worth the 'post travel depression'?
-3 guidebooks
-A simple life is an excellent life
-Who actually enjoys war?
-1 stolen mastercard, 2 stolen shirts
-The poor get poorer and the rich get richer

Adjusting
These are things that I have to tell myself until I get back into things:

-Everyone in Canada speaks english, most of them don't have an accent
-You don't have to guess and hope they're not American, you're in Canada now
-Porters at the airport aren't trying to scam you out of your money, its their job
-Its heated inside of buildings, not air conditioned
-Ask where the 'bathroom' is, not the toilet, not the CR...
-Wear a jacket outside, its cold.
-Its the right side of the road, watch out!
-I no longer need to wear my underwear inside out to save from doing laundry
- Routine is hard, not having the ability to move from one city to the next whenever you please is gonna take a long time to get used to
-I don't have to wear slippers inside my house or in my bath tub
-I can leave my toothbrush on the counter
-You can leave that roll of toilet paper at home, its provided in all public bathrooms, plus its free
-The air is sooo dry!

Mem'ries

USA:-Visiting my ol' friend Abbey
-Seeing where Tyra Banks got shot in 'Higher Learning'

Taiwan:
-The thrill of riding on the back of a motorbike
-Sharing a bed with my friend Mike
-Eating snake
-Taking the bus by myself
-Watching Mike teach his English class
-My first 'KTV' karaoke experience

Singapore:-Being squished on the streets of 'Little India' and thinking I won't survive the real India
-Almost fainting from the heat
-Eating durian
-Marlene
-Jenny and Jeremy amazed at how cheap there large meal was
-Jenny and Jeremy paying more for a famous 'Singapore Sling'

Malaysia:
-Said, the muslim hostel worker, being shocked at meeting a gay man
-Said wanting to score with Marlene
-Those yummy buffet style food stalls
-Timm falling down a muddy hill
-Me falling down a muddy hill
-Marlene almost getting attacked by monkeys
-Driving a motorbike for the 1st time
-Driving on the left side of the road for the 1st time
-The 'Reggae Bar'
-Hitch hiking
-Sitting around the fire at Daniel's Lodge and having a sing-a-long

Thailand:
-Snorkelling in the Andaman Sea
-Getting my credit card stolen
-Arguing with the store clerk about how a collect call works
-Monks freaking out because Emilie the female was sitting beside them on the train
-Throwing up while walking through a bar
-Breakfast overlooking the gulf of Thailand
-That American guy picking a fight with 2 locals
-Waiting 5hrs for a vacant room at 'My House Guesthouse', after arriving from a 16 hour journey and not understanding a word of this Aussi guy's accent
-That lady swearing at Jenny for not buying a purse
-Tuk-tuk drivers telling outrageous lies, and us believing them


India:
-Upon arrival in Calcutta, having an adorable child, homeless and starving, hold my hand and beg for money and/or food
-Feeding Raju at the Daya Dan house for disabled children
-Crying as I listened to the angelic voices as nuns sang and prayed in unison at the 5am masses at the Mother Teresa house
-Having a Japanese man forget who I was a disregard me and basically run away
-The sunset/sunrise over the magnificent Taj Mahal with Emilie and Melissa
-Seeing Mt. Everest after 3 days of strenuous trekking
-Drinking rice wine beside a tire full of hot coals
-Getting followed by a dirty old man as he lusted over Emilie and Melissa, thinking, 'I don't wanna have to fight this idiot.'
-That poor man lying face down on a piece of carboard, begging for money as the stub of his arm, the only limb he had left, beat the ground uncontrollably
-Being discriminated against at a jewelry shop because I looked poor
-Almost being scammed into letting men photocopy my passport and assist them in transporting gems to Australia
-Thinking I'm gonna die on a 6hr bus ride up to the Himalayas
-Sleeping on the floor of the train
-Not knowing what a 'happy' shake was
-Being squished on a 7hr bus ride, while sitting on a wooden bench with no back support, my large backpack stuffed between my legs and a young girl eating crackers on my leg and crumbs getting entangled in my leg hairs
-Being squished on an overnight bus, sitting at the back without reclining chairs, trying to sleep while going over pothole after pothole, with an Indian man to my left resting his hand on my leg and his head on my shoulder, and to the right a young teenage boy resting his head on my other shoulder
-Pooping my pants on new year's eve
-Making a snowman out of sand on Christmas day
-Singing happy birthday to Jesus during Christmas eve mass
-Paying only 30 cents for a large plate of rice and fish
-Nils having this smile of accomplishment on his face for riding a motorbike for the 1st time in his life and then crashing into a tree about 2 seconds later
-Singing 'Someday at Christmas' for my friends during our 'traditional' turkey dinner
-My camel always wanting to smell the ass of the camel in front of us

Cambodia:
-That long ass, bumpy as hell, dust all up in your face, mother f*^king bus ride, to Siem Reap from Bangkok (2x!!!)
-On that same bus ride, children screaming out a welcoming cheer everytime we'd pass by
-Selling a book for that young girl trying to earn money for school
-Being at Angkor Wat at 5:30am for the sunrise and not knowing which temple I was standing in front of
-Chinese New Year parades
-Oded, a good hearted Israeli who always made the orphans laugh
-Being scammed into buying 2 sets of 10 postcards from these young kids cause I felt sorry for them and being ripped off because I couldn't calculate the foreign exchange
-Being told and taunted that I only like boys by an 8 year old girl
-Living with a rat in my guesthouse room for 3 weeks
-Those damn clever mosquitos!
-Seeing the sunset over Phnom Penh, while on the back of a motobike, crossing this bridge, after a long, fulfilling yet heart wrenching day at the orphanage and being in absolute awe. This I will never forget.
-Riding unto the orphanage property each day and always hearing a roar of excitment 2 feet passed the gates
-Walking through the muddy, stank, sludge that covered the local market cement where we bought groceries each day
-The joy in the kids faces when we told them we're going to the zoo
-Trying to tell the kids in english to 'stop running' while at the water park
-Chum run and his eagerness to learn english, and his first formed sentance that he spoke to me "I... like go to... english school."
-Seeing Cliff Richard and not knowing who he was
-Being nervous as all hell, returning to the orphanage
-Playing paper, rock, scissors 200 times a day
-Having to sit and jot down notes as we listened to sob stories of how the kids ended up at the orphanage
-Saying goodbye the first time
-Saying goodbye the second time
-The most heartfelt gesture and sincere 'thank-you' I have ever recieved from a man whose name I do not even know

Australia:
-Thinking that everything's so bloody expensive!
-Wombats
-That huge 'great huntsmen' spider
-Seeing a snake while hiking and freaking out
-Sleeping in a tent for 2 weeks
-Ruth, my rusty ol' mint green 1977 Holden Kingswood Wagon
-Brendan stealing a chair from this guy at a jazz show and the guy being really confused
-Picking up Jeremy at the airport
-Andrew staring at Maricka's hairy, smelly armpits
-DJ's loud cry
-Customcall
-That Aussie bastard customer on the phone telling me to go back to Canada
-Playing hangman and bingo while selling life insurance
-Picking up Jenny at the train station
-Killing cockroaches in our appartment
-Grocery shopping at 'the world of fruit' each Sunday
-Wynyard station
-Watching the olympics at my AAPT office
-Seeing Ian Thorpe walking through Downtown
-Seeing a man get run over by a bus
-Jackov!
-Pushing our jeep through 2 feet of sand on Fraser Island
-How tired my arms got while surfing
-Jeremy puking on the Great Barrier Reef




Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderfull World

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you.

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.


BOB MARLEY - So Much Trouble In The World Lyrics

So much trouble in the world now [repeat]
Bless my eyes this morning
JAH sun is on the rise once again
The way earthly things are going
Anything can happen

You see men sailing on their ego trips
Blast off on their spaceships
Million miles from reality
No care for you, no care for me
So much trouble in the world now [repeat]
All you've got to do is give a little
Give a little, give a little
One more time ye-a-h! ye-ah!

So you think you have found the solution
But it's just another illusion
So before you check out your tide
Don't leave another cornerstone standing there behind
We have got to face the day, ooh we come what may
We the street people talking, we the people struggling

Now they are sitting on a time bomb
Now I now the time has come
What goes up must come down
Goes around comes around
So much trouble in the world
So much trouble in the world
So much trouble in the world
There is so much trouble, there is so much trouble
There is so much trouble
There is so much trouble in the world
There is so much trouble in the world