Flight Research

 There are times when I feel I overanalyze things.  Perhaps this time, it will pay off.

I've been looking at flights into Cebu, Philippines Mactan Airport.  So far, the cheapest seems to be through Kayak at $1010 for round trip from 11/2 to 11/24, which means coming back after Thanksgiving.  I'm going to play with the dates a little to make sure I'm not going to be leaving or arriving to a madhouse at the airport.  So far, it looks like it's the same price for the 21st, 22nd, and 24th.  If I go back a week, it goes up by $80.

The bad parts are that I will be flying economy class, which means "packed like sardines."  I think if I fly back out in the future, I may look at business class. (Bwahahahaha!  That's a joke.  It's 5x as much!  From what the airlines tell me, Business Class is what pays the bills.  Economy is flown at break-even or a loss).

But 21 hours in the air.  Haven't done that since I FIRST flew out overseas in 1972!  I'd better get into practice of reading books again and bring two or three big ones with me!  Definitely bringing the laptop!  (Might have to get the Dell's keyboard repaired since it's the smallest of my three laptops) (Hey, don't judge me.  I paid less than $150 for each of them and they're all 6-10 years old!)  If I get the Dell fixed, I'll probably have them max out the RAM while I'm at it, just to be safe.

The next thing is whether or not to book a hotel in Cebu for the entire time.  Probably not.  May go through AirB&B for that and rent a couple nights, then move on to Duma, then Olongapo/Manila and just get hotel rooms at each of those for the number of nights I will spend there.  From Manila, I can then choose between Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, or (the one I forgot about in the last post) Taiwan.

I'm supposed to be going with a bunch of other Vietnam Vets, but each of them are bitching about what dates they have available, which airline to fly, which airport to come into and which hotel.  All of them are in different financial brackets and all want to fly in at different times.  They don't like my dates because it makes it more likely that it will be dry and hot.  And most want to go to Manila because they want to go to Olongapo (Navy & Marines) or Angeles City (Air Force).  While I want to see Olongapo, I don't want to spend three weeks there.  Nor do I want to spend it in a city of 11 million people (Manila).  Cebu is about the size of Chicago, and that's big enough for me.  On my list is also Cagayan de Oro (CDO) and Davao, both of which are to the south.  I want to hit north last.  May have to contact a travel agent at Kayak to see if I can fly out of Manila instead of going back to Cebu.  Will have to see on that one.

Right now, I've been having insomnia over planning this and keep developing headaches.  I think I'm gonna go veg out on some mindless YouTube videos.

 Well, I'm finally retired.  But I'm not happy with the thought.  I miss working, but I don't.  I guess I miss the extra income more than anything.  Now I'm on a stricter budget and I'm thinking of relocating to somewhere that my money will go further.

But first, a vacation!

As many of you might have guessed, I'm a Vietnam Veteran. As such, I am curious to know how things have changed in the countries I spent much of my time in (or near).  So, I'm going to take a brief, 3 week trip to SE Asia and visit the Philippines, Okinawa (Japan), and Vietnam... perhaps even Thailand.

I'm most interested in seeing how much the Philippines has changed in 50 years, so I've been watching a lot of videos about it, as well as researching life there.  The main positives it has going for it is that a majority of people speak English to some extent, whereas in Vietnam, Thailand, and Okinawa, they speak it in the main cities, but once you're out in the suburbs or countryside, you'd better know some of the words.

I've managed to finally get my name changed back to what I've been using for the past 55 years (middle name) and got my first passport.  Now I have to arrange the flights, then register with the Philippines, which will be my first destination.  I also need to invest in a language program to at least learn Tagolog, though the places I want to visit use a different dialect - i.e.., Cebuano and Bisayan.  And there are over 140 different dialects spoken in that country, but those are the main three.

I thought Tagalog was going to be the easiest for three reasons.  1.) I used to speak it conversationally when I was there in the Navy, but that was 55 years ago and I've forgotten all but one or two swear words.  2.) I can get Rosetta Stone fairly cheap right now (also looking at Babel).  3.)  A friend I'd made online is/was a Language Arts teacher in a high school there and taught Tagalog (tuh-GOL-og).  But then she started asking for money, so... I'll have to go it alone.

Why the Philippines first?  It's where I spent most of my time, though it was all in a place called Olongapo (oh-LONG-a-poh) at the Subic Bay Naval Station, which no longer exists.  I've done walking tours on Google Earth and nothing looks the same, so I will want to visit there.

But, I also want to go to Cebu (say-BOO) and Dumagete (DU-muh-GET-tee) to see if I can meet with some of the people that post vlogs from there.  Especially since we COULDN'T travel to these cities when I was in the military, due to the political unrest at the time.

To give you an idea of what went on, I got out there on September 12th, 1972.  On September 23rd, I finally got paid and was able to go 'off base' for the first time... and that was the day President Ferdinand Marcos Sr declared martial law.  It was an interesting time.  

I did meet a lot of really great people after I quit hanging out in the bars.  Hey, it was a heady time for an 18 year old kid from Indiana to be able to drink without having to hide it!  But I did that far too much on my first tour of duty and realized how little I saw and discovered about the people there.

There were always vendors in the street and the ones I befriended sold barbecue pork cooked on a hibachi.  Most entitled Americans (usually the ignorant snobs who are now MAGA-hat-wearing goobers) called it Monkey Meat and treated NATIVE CITIZENS as if they were second-class human beings.  Americans, for the most part, were arrogant fucks back then (and they really haven't changed much in the past 50 years, getting even more arrogant, IMHO).  But I digress.

 I met some really good people who taught me the language and the customs and I fell in love with them.  It didn't hurt that the weather was warm all year 'round, though when it rained, it RAINED.  I have fond memories there, so I want to go back.

Second is that airline tickets are much cheaper there than they would be buying them here, so if I want to go to Thailand, Vietnam, Okinawa, or Tokyo, I can probably swing it.

Just have to find someone to take care of my cat for three weeks.