Airfares expected to keep rising

This morning I was searching airfares to the Philippines for my wife and 2 kids for next year. It doesn't look good as the cost of flying to the Philippines keeps rising and making very difficult to see family in zamboanga, PI. One of the reasons why it's costing more is because of the rising cost of jet fuel. Add to that, the current poor health of the economy along with rising unemployment rates and you have a recipe for high airfares. I researched a round trip ticket from Los Angeles to Zamboanga, PI and it cost about $1400.00 round trip per person. That doesn't include the cost of a shuttle from San Diego to Los Angeles airport but to save money I've decided I will drive my wife to the airport. Not something I really want to do but I don't have a choice. It's getting to the point where it's nearly impossible to travel to see relatives in far away countries because of the rising cost of airfare. After doing further research, travel experts were not surprised to see this and were expecting higher cost. Another reason and maybe the main reason why airfares are so high is because the airline industry has lost billions over the last decade and is trying to make up for the years it went with empty seats.

Getting the passports ready for a trip to the Philippines

A few days ago my wife and kids started the process of getting their passports either updated or new ones so that they could all go back to the Philippines next February and see their mother and father, grand mom and grand pa. The kids keep saying to us, mom, dad, when can we go to the Philippines? Everyone is excited to go. The other day we applied and now we are just waiting for them to come to in our mail box. This will complete one of the most important parts of her trip to PI. Slowly, my wife is getting things ready to go back home, getting little gifts here and there at our favorite department store for her family and relatives back home. I'm sure if it was my family that was in the Philippines, I would be excited to go home and see them too. I'm excited for them to go. They will be gone for 3 weeks which allows me some time off away from them for a little while. I'm going to miss my wife and kids and I worry for their safety being so far away from home. I can't go this time for 2 reasons. One, it's not safe for me and two, I don't have enough PTO to be able to get a paid vacation. I've been to PI 2 times so far but it's a very long flight and by the time you arrive to your destination, you are physically exhausted. I mean this flight just wears you out so much that it takes nearly a week just to recover. And the high temperatures don't help much either. It's very warm this year and I spoke to some co-workers of mine who recently returned and they said that the Philippines is currently experiencing record heat temps. OMG! I'm hoping my wife and kids won't have to experience this kind of heat next February. Well, at least the bedroom they will sleep in has air conditioning.

Missing the philippines

I've been on disability for my left knee now for 2 months and I'm on my last 2 weeks off before i go back to work. I've learned that a husbands place is definitely not at home and am looking forward to going back to work on Sept 12, 2008. I really need to catch up on some bills and we have to get ready to renew my wife's green card before it expires. During my time off I've had plenty of time to reflect back on the very precious moments of my vacation to the Philippine's with my wife and son Ethan in march of 2008. We went back to her home town of zamboanga city, Philippines to visit her family. The picture of the tree house above is a famous tourist spot me and my wife visited the first time we met when i went to see her for the first time in the Philippine's before we got married. It brings back very special moments for me and my wife. We had such a wonderful stay and many cherished moments. We were waited on hand and foot and treated like a king and queen for the 3 week duration of our trip. Being on disability for 2 months stirs up memories of those precious weeks that we were in the Philippines and lately I've really really been missing my wife's family more and more and the Philippine islands. We already decided that we wont be returning back to the Philippine's until 2010 because our plans for 2009 include a vacation to see the bethel in Brooklyn, New York which is the main headquarters of Jehovah's witness.

Philippines Rice shortage?

I was watching the TV yesterday on the TFC channel and i heard there was a shortage of rice and that the price has been going up steadily. I also heard there was a scandal in arroyos government with the rice. whats up with this? i know theres about 3 billion people in Asia who are gobbling up the rice everyday as a main meal but geez. Here in California the country's two largest warehouse chains, Sam's Club and Costco, are limiting purchases of imported rice. When will this rice shortage problem end? From what i understand the rice will continue to steadily rise as more and more bio-crops are grown. This problem is due to rice shortages in Thailand Vietnam and other Southern Asian Countries. One reason i found out for the high cost of rice was the plummeting US dollar. Another reason was because of the high cost of fertilizers and insecticides used to grow the rice. As if no ones heard that one before. One begs to ask the question: what good will it do to go driving around town in bio-fuelled vehicles if we're hungry? More research must be made to provide an alternative fuel for cars and aircraft. I think the US needs to do more to help third world countries or they are going to starve. Countries like the Philippines, japan, china will have an epidemic if something is not done soon. Whats your solution to the problem? let me here your ideas or comments...

Farewell To Zamboanga,PI

Today we leave Zamboanga, PI as our 3 week vacation is over and as reality sets in, my wife and i have got the butterfly's in our stomach. My wife is just about finished packing as I'm writing this new post.. We have a lot of souvenirs to bring back with us for our friends in San Diego and Sheila and Shawn in Tennessee and elaiza. We bring back some dried fish for our Filipino friends. They just cant wait to get there hands on this Filipino delicacy as it is very popular in the Philippines as a main every day dish. We went to Zamboanga park the other day and seen the famous tree house and seen the boy scouts of Philippines camp ground. There were a lot of people celebrating the Lenten season and we even saw a large procession walking down the main road from the park with all kinds of different floats. We went to hai sans restaurant after the memorial. Whats cool about this place is that whatever you want to eat you just walk up to the display tank where they have live lobster and fish and pick out the one you like and they will pull it out of the tank and prepare it fresh for you. How much fresher can you get than that? We had rock lobster and baked sweet and sour fish and clam and corn soup with rice. My wife and i just loved the lobster in the special sauce. The sauteed fish was very tasty too. Are you getting hungry now for Filipino seafood? We're really gonna miss this place a lot! We will have beefsteak for lunch today before we leave. One last good Filipino dish before we leave. Well, that's all for now I'll get back to you when i get home.

Philippine Vacation Update

Well, here it is week 2 now. Today is march 17, 2008 and we're into the last week of our 3 week dream vacation in Zamboanga, Philippines and my wife and i are getting the butterfly's in our stomach knowing that we don't have much time left before this fun ride ends and we have to go back to the real world again. We're feeling so sad when we think about it because we're really enjoying our stay here just being able to relax and not have to worry about our son because he's being watched by our family and he just cant get that kind of attention back home because i being the man of the house have to work full time while Jerla stays at home to be a housewife and do her part time work making blog. We're already planning our next vacation in 2010 but we plan on surprising them this time and I'm hoping i can take off for a month but we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I've recorded some our most precious quality time with our loved one's on our Sony camcorder for playback on DVD when we get home so we can look back and cherish those special moments that mean so much to us. We're already starting to miss this place as we we're at KFC yesterday which is right by the airport and we were enjoying our food when a Philippine airlines 737 flew by us to land and that just reminded us of how close time is getting for us to say our goodbyes to our loved ones. I'm going to end this here coz I'm starting to get emotional now and i need to enjoy whats left of this dream vacation. I'll keep you posted as the day draws near. Until then, see ya later from Zamboanga, Philippines.