Greetings from Philippines

To all my dear friends…s

It’s coming to the end of 2007, is 2007 a good year for you?! May 2008 be a GREAT year for everyone!

It is Day 39 (29th Dec) at Philippines when this E-mail is transferred to be my blog post. Working at Philippines is a busy affair. I have been working 12 to 14hours everyday, and 6 days per week. I had missed 30 dinners for pass month. In fact, dinner is a luxurious affair. I only have that during my off days, Christmas, and on one of the days my project manager's boss was at Philippines.

There is little motivation to do physical training, and the body is like a drained battery on rest day. My favourite activity for rest day is “pretend to be Tare Panda”. That is to lie flat on my stomach and go into hibernation mode.

In Army, we call the similar activity free falling. The “aircraft exit altitude” is directly proportional to how tired the “jumper” is. I usually did my exit from space.

After seeing many growing nations, I would say Philippines is quite well of among ASEAN countries. The standard of living is equivalent to Thailand. The operators’ monthly salary ranges from 8000 to 10000 PHilippines Peso (1SGD to 28PHP). They had a 20% pay raise without knowing.

FYI, PHP has the highest ASEAN currency growth against USD in 2007. The paper proudly published that, without empathising to the Nation – it is tougher to sell Philippines product now.

There are heaps of islands in this country. 7107 is the official figure now. Philippines lie on the West Pacific “Ring of Fire”. Volcanic eruption under the sea may increase the island statistic.

The country is also exposed to the cooling effect of planet Earth. During my first week in Philippines, typhoon number thirteen (Mina) hit the country. FYI, all typhoons are named in alphabetical order. The meteorologists love to use ladies’ name to name them. Maybe because women can be scary, but they always hope it would be a gentle one coming. In States, the naming is continuous. That means after 26cycles, you should hear another “Katherine” (She maybe call “Karina” the next time)… It usually takes more than a two year for the repetition to occur in the big country. In Philippines, I guess the reset button can be pressed annually within 24months.

My mama believes Singapore is the only safe country on Planet Earth. When I was studying at Australia, she was very worried when she heard about the student murder case in Sydney. I tried to explain the distance from Brisbane is far from Sydney. I would never meet the murderer unless I travel the distant equivalent of Singapore to HatYai, Thailand. There was a curfew at Makati, during week one of my stay. The rebel seized Peninsula Hotel. I must say, the country is really ready for such incident. All rebels surrendered within 24hours.

There isn’t lotsa BUTTER on everyone breakfast table, but there is always enough JAM to delay everyone on the road. Filipina may not eat to their fill everyday, but there are always holes on tarmac road to create opportunities for people fill them up.

I stayed at Bellevue Hotel, Alabang, during my initial 26 days. There are two nice shopping malls near my hotel. One is for the “rich” the other is for the “richer”… A Nike Top which is sold at 50% discount at Festival Mall may have no discount at Alabang Town Centre. Anyway, for the factory operators, 50% discount or 600peso is a lot of money. Alabang (30km south of Manila) is a nice place to stay. However, the daily return travel time can be easily more an hour, depending on road condition.

General Air Photo of Luzon island
(Bellevue is the hotel I stay for 26days, Santa Rosa is the place I work)

For the last 13days I am staying at Techno Park Hotel, an Ulu hotel 3-5min drive to my work place. The hotel can be pretty noisy during weekend. The breakfast and internet connection isn’t awesome. The only plus is Mount Ma-Ki-Ling can be seen from my balcony... and there is a long road which I can see Makiling when running. I would love to trek at Makiling. I would love to trek up Makiling. Sadly, one of the local climbers told me the trail is no longer accessable after the last typhoon.

Life is tough!! Why can’t there be a hotel with a mountain outside my window and cute front desk meimei. I am returning to the cute meimei at Alabang tomorrow.

MaKiLing from Techno Park Hotel Balcony

For almost four hundred years, Philippines was a Spanish colony. The American marched and took over the command in 1898, following the Spanish-American War. The Yankees left during Dec 1941 (initial World War 2) after the Japanese hit Pearl harbour. On 20 October 1944, General MacArthur executed his promise to return to the Philippines. The landings on the island of Leyte were accomplished with an amphibious force of 700 vessels and 174 000 army and navy servicemen. The fight carried on till 2nd Sep 1945 when General Yamashita surrendered.

I think the Japanese really fight with very good sprit! Should there be no atomic bomb drop, I am sure the Red Army would continue till the last drop of blood is shed on the foreign land?! That is Philippines history, the influence of Spanish (people using Spanish name) and American can still be seen on many islands.

With much foreign influence, Filipinas are very friendly. Tourism is never a major industry in the country. The people in customers’ factory generally welcome my presence. There are friendly people who taught me Tagalog. The age group of my mentors shifted to the senior auntie when I told the younger gals I am thirty and have a “girl friend” who I love dearly. As of the men, I am working with a more hardworking group now. They understand I don’t play soccer and would only chat when I can achieve good machine output with low reject rate.

Volcano Taal from Tagaytai

It is my off day again. My previous break was spent at Tagaytai looking at Volcano Taal. I heard much of the volcano and wanted to climb it. However, it’s smaller and more expensive than what I perceived. To make things worse, the agent who wanna bring up the volcano insisted I should do with a horse. There is nothing special about this volcano, and I would prefer going to Rinjani again. This volcano was “skipped” when she was in front of me...

I had done the hour run today. More importantly, I am taking my dinner (Kim Bao) when updating this blog!

Celebrate Life…

Chee Meng

Techno Park Hotel de Laguna Bay