Articles tagged with: fee
From Cebu to Kuala Lumpur
Doug Health Check: It’s a good thing that I don’t (as the Filipinos tell me I should) have a bunch of children to take care of me in my old age. I’m already there. My phantom kids would have to start taking care of me now. My eyes are so sore and so bad that I can hardly focus on the keyboard. I’m so tired that I can hardly move. This has been a problem for a while and relates strongly to why I’ve stayed in the Philippines for so long. The days of waking up feeling refreshed and energetic seem to be long past. My legs feel like lead weights and I can hardly summon the strength to move. The last time I woke up feeling what I think of as normal was a long time ago. I remember the feeling strongly because it was so rare. It was such a surprise to open my eyes in the morning and feel good. I don’t remember when that was, but it was months ago and it was only that one time. Every other morning, I feel like this – exhausted.
Double Vision and a Trip to the Hospital
Seemingly out of nowhere, I’ve started to have trouble with my eyes. It was probably a gradual process that I just didn’t notice, but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like I woke up one morning and suddenly couldn’t see very well. The problem was mainly in my left eye, where I was experiencing double vision or ghost images. It was pretty bad and …
Day 35 Super Typhoon Yolanda – Bike Ride and Taking Photos
12:30 p.m.The day began with another flurry of text messages. People here seem to have a routine of greeting the new day by texting a good morning message to everyone on their contact list. So I got a few of those. And then I got a bunch from this odd duck Joevelyn and then some from May and then from a mystery number. I have …
A Visit to a Local Prison
Visiting hours at the jail start at 1:00 p.m. and I arrived there at about 1:30 to find a very long line-up of women waiting to get in. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to see a line-up, but I was. I wasn’t sure if I had to register first or not, so I initially walked past the line and went right up to …
St. Nino Shrine and Heritage Museum in Tacloban
I finally went to the St. Nino Shrine here in Tacloban. It is one of the two actual tourist attractions here, the other being MacArthur’s landing spot. I’d been to St. Nino Shrine before, but I didn’t go in as I was tired and irritable that day and didn’t like that I couldn’t buy a single entrance ticket. I had to buy tickets for three …
Catbalogan and Wacky’s Pension House
My day of riding from Calbayog to Catbalogan was only a short time ago, but so much has happened that I have to close my eyes and think carefully to bring it back. It was a beautiful ride through lovely countryside, not quite as nice as the stretch from Allen to Calbayog, but it was still quite nice. At the beginning, the road followed the …
Frantic Ferry – The Trip to Samar
I had checked out the ferry terminal when I first arrived in Matnog, and I learned that there were at least three different ferry companies operating. They all charged the same for the trip – 120 pesos – and a ferry left every 35 minutes. On that day, the ferry terminal was practically empty, and there were no line-ups at the ticket windows. I hoped …
“Pass the Brownies and Pepsi” – Island Hopping in Matnog
Once I’d paid all my fees, I left the tourism office and followed the Filipino woman and a boatman out into the street. She walked up to a big white van that was crammed with people. I thought I was expected to get inside the van, but I knew the boat couldn’t be far and I preferred to walk to the water’s edge. The boatman …