Forty Eight

FORTY EIGHT

September 14 - Today we left for Cebu with Barry and Kay.. Lynn will be heading to Davao to get things set up with the our move there in March. It will be nice to spend a few days alone with her before I leave early Monday morning. We got there late Friday afternoon and Barry dropped us off at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City. The hotel has a special promotion which comes in the form of a booklet. You buy four nights for P13,000 ($280.00) and this includes a nice buffet breakfast. We bought two booklets as will use them on future trips.

The hotel was very busy with a convention for Philippine Catholic schools. I haven't seen this many Penguins I mean Nuns since I was last at the Vatican. They didn't have any standard rooms and so we had to get a superior for an additional $16.00. The room was nice but stunk of cigarettes. I should have demanded a room change. The next night we switched over to a nonsmoking room and that was much better. The hotel is okay but no way warranting the four stars they have. I think the Marco Polo is much nicer and with their promotion runs about $15.00 more per night than the Waterfront.

September 16 - We checked out of the hotel at about 8:00am to go to the Mactan/Cebu airport. Lynn had a 10:00am flight to Davao. It was sad to see her go. I really love being with her and Alex. Right across from the Airport was another Waterfront Hotel. I opted to stay and pay for the day and use another one of my coupons. It was worth it as my flight was not leaving until 1:00am Monday morning and I needed to get to the airport by 10:00pm this day (Sunday). No way I was just going to sit around an airport for 12 hours. It was a smart move. I got some good sleep and got to the airport refreshed for my flying ordeal ahead.

September 17 - The flight to Qatar was great. I slept most of the 9 hour trip. I am now in the DOHA airport and it is nice and modern. There is a duty free and some restaurants. The funny thing, it appears nobody working here in the airport is actually from Qatar. I have heard it is beneath Qatarans??? to work (the average annual wage in the county is $30,000) menial jobs as these would be considered. Couple this with the fact there are not many Qatarans to begin with and you get a good reason to bring workers in from elsewhere. Most of the workers in the country are brought in mostly from places like: India, Thailand, Philippines, China, Egypt and other Arabic speaking countries.

Wow!, I just paid $5.00 for a coffee latte and $20.00 for a power adapter so I can charge my laptop. I have no doubt that Italy will be similar. "Brother, Can you spare a dime" LOL

The flight from Qatar was not as pleasurable. While the flight itself was smooth it was the people on board that ruined it for me. The plane was packed with Indians and too be blunt they STINK. I don't know what it is about Indian people but I don't think they know what the words bathing with soap or deodorant means. I am not being racist as this is a situation I have run into time and time again while in the company of Indian people and others concur with me.

We arrived at about 6:00pm and was finished with immigration and waiting for my baggage by 7:00pm. I finally saw Mom. She looks great.

We took a train for to Rome and then another to Nettuno where we arrived around 9:00pm.

September 19 - I have now been here in Nettuno for two full days and I can see why Mom and Marcello like it here so much. It is a very nice place to live. They have a wonderful 80sqm one bedroom condo overlooking the main town square and everything you need is waking distance to the condo.