Hello from Manila, Philippines!

Hey music lovers!

I have been here in Manila since Monday night with a group called the Philipino-American Retired Association (PAMRA), and organization started by my friend's brother. They sponsor bi-annual trips for Filipinos and friends. I have been on a tour of Filipino history of WWII, and today we went to a gorgeous hot springs out in a nearby province. I'll have some digital pix to post up when I return after Feb 6th.

Filipinos are nice people, they like to crack jokes and have fun, which fits pretty well with my philosophy. There's a music lounge in our hotel, and last night I met some good local musicians. The young Filipinas can sing their butts off, in addition to being tremendously beautiful.

They use the metric system here, which means they sell beers in the lounge by the quarter-, half-, or full liter. So when I went to the lounge with a friend, true to Seattle style, I oredered a micro-brewed San Miguel (by the way, if you haven't had San Miguel freshly brewed on the spot here, you haven't REALLY had San Miguel!). Thinking of pints, I ordered the full size. Uh, huh-- what I got was a liter, which is comparable to almost a pitcher in the states. I could barely lift the thing with one hand. Of course, being who I am for those that know me, I ordered one for my buddy too. We had to get a plate of calamari in order to make through our liters. The singing Filipinas helped a lot, of course.

Tonight is a latin group. It seems like the Filipino musicians are really good at covering just about any popular style of music. The Filipina singers love the pop ballad (Celine Dion seems to be a favorite).

So this is all way cool, mand next week we go out into the province of Pansanginan for two weeks and chill in the country side.

For the tech nerds - it turns out that buying computer gear isn't really much cheaper here. Flat-screens, laptops, plasma TVs, etc, are nearly the same price here, and are sold in the stores of the big Japanese mega corporaions. I paid about US$30 (1800 Philippine pisos) for 128 MB SD memory for my digital camera. This is about the same as at Frye's in Renton, I believe.

Anyway, I gotta go now and email y'all so you know to read this post. Feel fee to reply, you don't have to register, you can reply anonymously, and just sign your post only if you want me to know who wrote it. I'd really not bother with maintaining regeistered users.

Cheers,

Yogi