Slide in, Slide out. Tap!

It all begins with a slide, a finger, and then, thumb and pointing finger together. Sliding outwardly-- sometimes, inwardly. Could it be sensation or is it fascination? I'd like to think it is both. While I thought I was possessive, my smart phone is too. It wants my full attention. Sometimes, it robs from me time I would have used to cross off an item in my daily itinerary. And as soon as I am close to winning it back, it allies with "internet" so I lose time and my tasks increase the day after. If youtube and facebook got a little too boring, the brain-eating zombies start grunting. My smart phone wants solo attention.

I belong to the generation that lived half their life doing most things manually and in the same generation that lives to witness and experience the dawn of smart phones. We used to carry books, now i wear it. Playtime then was physical workout, now, it's all finger tapping (unless you zumba while gaming). I used to have dogs for a pet, now, fishes in the internet. Farms are huge and farming was tough but we have virtual crops growing at present. It's both awesome and sad. I applaud how inventors and business people figured "greed" and "want" (everything and anything for self) as a common denominator that generates response from all men in all walks of life. Both the poor and the rich demand more. There is barely any contentment. We are not happy with the way things are, hence, the concept of continuous improvement. Oddly, I think we may be wired to be exhaustive so we will know the meaning of having none. Experience then, is certainly the best teacher. We unintentionally go through rough times so others can avoid it. Repeat the good ones and stir away from bad examples to be wise. Repetitions of a mistake is stupidity (but aren't we -- a number of times?).

Yolo means "you only live once". That's because there is no repeating time. Even by benefit of a doubt reincarnation is true, the moment you come back to life is still not the same time in the past. Therefore, make it count. Take time to listen to others. Spend quality time with family and friends (as much as possible without the smart phones). The reason we keep running out of creativity in our conversations is because we stopped talking. Our gadgets become our easy escape. But aren't escapes nothing but a temporary detachment from reality? At some point we have got to stop running and start facing people, issues, and confronting life itself. We don't run forever or our tongues hit the ground. But when our time's up, how we spend it is what really matters. Aim for balance.

Back to the gadget. Slide in. Slide out. Tap. Tap. Tap. Nap..zzzZZZ!

Corregidor: A Walk Through the Ruins

At P500 a night, The Lodge accommodation already provides a full bed for two regular-sized adults, an extra bed, and own bathroom. One needs not be very picky to survive a bathroom that only has a curtain for a door. The place has no canteen but it has a little pantry, such that, if you need to drink hot coffee and make payments early at dawn, you just have to wake the attendants to get all that done.

As soon as everyone has packed, we hailed a trike for P40 to get us to the Cabcaben Pier. We were told that the earliest time boats are available is 5am. We got there at 5:30am and were told to wait for the owner of the boat so we can make the necessary negotiations for the price. While waiting, we watched the gradual appearing of sunrise until its full encompassing glare. Just somewhere in one of the junctions of the street stretching from the baywalk, we got excited by the smell of hot arroz caldo. We bought and ate their local produce for breakfast to store enough energy for the anticipated journey to the historic Corregidor Island.

Here are the prices of my energy boosters:
 Arroz Caldo (rice congee) - P20
 Puto (rice cake) - P10
 Malagkit - P6
 Biko - P6

Take-out snacks: Mr. Chips (P20) and Mineral Water (P15).

CABCOR (Cabcaben-Corregidor Motorboat Association) is a cooperative for the seafarers whose motorboats are rented and hired for a trip to and fro Corregidor and Bataan. They are responsible of regulating the standard rental fees of the said motorboats. In as much as we would have wanted our route to proceed from Corregidor to Manila, we were unable to insist since the trips going to Manila are monopolized by Sun Cruises. We sealed Bataan-Corregidor-Bataan negotiation at P3000 for 1 motorboat.

After being at sea for over an hour, we docked at the port of Corregidor. From afar, one could already sense the quietness and almost deadening silence that only the splashing waves seem to break. We may have been the earliest tourists that day.

An entrance fee of P150 per person is collected inside the ticketing office. The hourly rate for the jeepney transport cost us P800 which already covers the major spots in the entire island. More than the boat ride, the jeepney experience was both arduous and fun. My only problem then was the limited time we were given per stop. Because we hired it only for an hour, the driver was very stringent in terms of time compliance that it kind of pissed me off. There were so many great places in the island to take pictures of but 5-minute stops are hardly enough to get creative juices to work. Nonetheless, I decided to shake the frustrations off by moving fast, covering as far as I can get myself with the 5-minute allowance and shooting trigger-happily.

Our last stop was near the back part of the Mile-long Barracks. We entered the museum to get a glimpse of the islands history and gain understanding of the reasons behind the war that happened a long time ago which left 900 dead and 1,200 wounded from the Japanese troop and 800 dead and 1,000 wounded from the US and Filipino defenders. (1) Although the Japanese have seiged Corregidor, the effort put in by both our local troop and American allies have definitely delayed their scheduled attack to other nations like Australia.

These preservation of remains and ruins of the past has allowed us a peek to the struggles our descendants had to go through to win freedom for all. They have not ceased to assert their ownership of the Philippines even if it cost them their last breath. They are the unnamed and unsung heroes who knew that our God -given justice, Filipino identity, and freedom are worth fighting for. 

Corregidor, to this day, stands a witness of the bloodshed that once was. I would be dishonest if I say that the visit did not bring chills and there was nothing creepy about it. In fact, the horror and scare continued even on my way back from Bataan to Manila. One female soldier at her late twenties sat beside me on the bus and testified that she had friends who came back haunted by the ghosts of Corregidor. She said a few had to overcome nightmares in the evening and ghost apparitions after their visit. To me, it was more of the sad recollection of deaths and killings that pulled me down.

In reflection, greed and haughtiness always have its own repercussions. Amplifying them by personal nurture can bring forth death both on the guilty and the innocents. Live content.

Further readings:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corregidor 

How broke was I?

It started here:

Where to Stay in Angeles
Where to Eat in Angeles
Korean Bakery
Pampanga's Ikabud
A Beautiful Aftermath
Treetop Hopping and Dropping
Where Humans are Strangers
Befriending Bataan
The Splendor of the Shrine of Valor
The Past Today