French Polynesia - Sometimes It Pays To Be Social

Well, the rain stayed out at sea and several of us went out to dinner at a fabulous French restaurant.  I wasn’t in the mood to go – as per usual, my hermitlike tendencies were starting to come out and I wanted to just hole up in the bungalow, but I’m really glad I went.

French Polynesia - Tank Tops In The Void

I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to join one of my bungalow-mates on a run this morning.

French Polynesia - Kick The Sting Ray

What is it with arriving in the middle of the night lately?  After hours of terrible turbulence and desperate attempts to sleep amidst weird, groggy dreams in which the other passengers were cheering for some unknown reason, the pilot welcomed us to Tahiti: Local time 1:15am, temperature 79 degrees.

79 degrees at one in the morning?  Are you serious?

Tahiti sucks

If I had to guess, Tahiti either has no solid internet access or whereever Anastasia IS in Tahiti has no wireless access...  I don't like trips like this as much...

Phillippines Adventure, Digital Aftermath

Anastasia returned from the PI (that's what we call it when we're "in the know") on Saturday, to be spirited away to Canada for a ski trip.  Now that we're home, I'm loading up the pictures from her trip, with ski pictures to follow.

Phillipines Adventure - Observations

Some observations:
1. Filipinos love hymns.  The Invocation, followed by the national Anthem, followed by the Provincial Hymn, followed by the Municipal Hymn.  It is amazing that anything gets done in meetings.

Phillipines Adventure - Firefly Trees

Most of today paled in comparison to this evening’s activity, but we’ll get to that in a minute. The morning began inauspiciously – a mosquito bite on my middle finger, drizzle during my outdoor breakfast and 4 hours of meetings and presentations. Things started to improve, however, as we traveled the island, visiting a craft market and the white sand beach on neighboring Panglao Island. From there we stopped in on the town hall of a Barangay (village unit) to watch some community mobilization in progress.

Phillipines Adventure - Keys to the Island

Today was exhausting, even after a full 12 hours of sleep. It started with 30 minutes of trying to (again) explain to the Holiday Inn that they lost my reservation, they were charging me too much and that I needed a room when I got back to Manila.  I talked to the receptionist, the hotel manager and the sales manager to clear this up.  Despite the mix up, everyone was wonderfully nice.  So far every Phillipino I have interacted with on this trip has been wonderfully nice.

Phillipines Adventure - Infant Baby Jesus Trading Store

The traffic in Manila is bad.   Wait, that is an incredible understatement.  The traffic in Manila is so bad that I don’t understand how people actually move from one place to another.  Left turns were recently made illegal in the city in an attempt to ease the horrific congestion.

Phillipines Adventure - Manila and Hotels

I am sitting at the ‘Hotel Lounge’ outside the Manila Airport at 11pm, after traveling for 17 hours. I’m trying to comprehend what it means that my name is not down on the Holiday Inn’s manifesto. Apparently, it means that the Holiday Inn has no record of my reservation and, therefore, I cannot get in a taxi for the hotel. Why can’t I just go there and ask them for a room? I’m confused.

Rampart Ridge, Take One

What's a ski tour without grand plans, smashed on the cliff-riddled shores of unexplored terrain?

I met with Alisa in Issaquah for an exploratory tour up Rampart Ridge, with an eye toward continuing on through the Rampart Lakes area and skiing down into Gold Creek north of Alta.  After stopping at the cache  to get radios and check in (this was a Cascade Backcountry patrol day), we headed up the ridge from the Gold Creek sno-park, looking at a long day.