SLEX and Star Expressway

(Pictures, STAR on top, SLEX bottom)

The South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) was a pathetic "highway" in recent years. Construction work was very long, the potholes and detour roads were plenty, so motorists were punished for long.

Until about late last year or early this year, a big portion of SLEX has been improved, 4 lanes, now motorists can really call it an "expressway".

STAR Expressway in Batangas is another toll road starting from Sto. Tomas all the way down to the entrance in Batangas Port.

Thus, one need not pass through Lipa City and Batangas City and endure the traffic there. Tollgate from Santo Tomas to end of highway at Batangas is P55 for cars and P109 for buses. The road could be about 30 kilometers long, +/- a few kms.

Dimple Star Transport

April 5, 2009

I was going to Iloilo via the Nautical highway (Batangas, Mindoro, Aklan) on roll-on, roll-off (RORO) boats. I took the RORO way because the last time I took this route was about 4 years ago, so I wanted to see if there’s “something new”. But more importantly, I wanted to see the province of Antique. I’ve seen the 3 other provinces of Panay island – Aklan, Capiz and Iloilo – but I’ve never been to Antique before.

The lady at the ticket office in Cubao terminal said the bus would leave 11am, April 5, and I have to be there 1 hour before to find out the bus number that I will take. I arrived at the terminal at 10am, the terminal was so crowded.

I would take bus no. 744. But instead of leaving 11am, it left the terminal almost 1 hour late. Ok, I could bear that one. On its way in Edsa, it took a right turn at South Road, a street before Boni Serrano. The bus line has another terminal there and it picked up passengers again. It stopped there for another 50 minutes I think. There I began shaking my head.

It moved again, but instead of going to Alabang, it went to Pasay and stopped again in its terminal to pick up more passengers! This time, there were complaints from some passengers because they have a reserved seat but their seats were already occupied by passengers from Cubao and South Road terminal who have no prior seat reservation. The problem was somehow solved, the bus moved again. I slept.

When I woke up, the bus entered another bus terminal in Alabang! This time, a big number of passengers with piles of huge cargo were waiting there! Another 1 hour stop over!

When I took Ceres Liner several years ago, when it said departure is at 4pm, it left Cubao about 4:10pm, and went straight to Batangas for the boat. Here, Dimple made 3 stops to jampack the bus with murmuring passengers and their huge cargo. The bus was obviously overloaded, it was running slow.

My advice to passengers taking the RORO to Iloilo or Antique, ask the staff at the ticket office if the bus will go straight to Batangas or it will make 2 or 3 more stops before proceeding to Batangas. Or don’t take that bus line! Take Ceres or Gasat or Alps, provided these bus lines will not do the same multiple stops at Metro Manila bus terminals.

A passenger from another Dimple bus though that I met at the boat, said her bus left Cubao 2 hours late but at least it went straight to Batangas.

Cubao Ali Mall bus terminal

April 5, 2009

This terminal is prominent because it hosts different bus lines going to Bicol region, the Visayas and Mindanao islands. I think there could be nearly 2 dozen bus lines using that terminal.

The terminal is privately owned, fronting Ali Mall. So some people who are buying their tickets or traveling that day can do their last minute shopping in that mall and its neighboring malls.

I left on a Sunday before the Holy Week, so passenger volume was huge. It’s a bit chaotic because there are many buses from different bus companies.

San Francisco, April 2008

Another friend from my university days, Kris Asinas-Cabrera, who then lived in Roseville, CA, visited me at Monchit's house in San Ramon. Kris's hubby, Harold, took a leave from his work for 1 day and the couple would tour me around SF City. I will have the chance to have a picture at the Golden Gate Bridge!

San Francisco is a sprawling city but not too many skyscrapers, unlike in Chicago, Atlanta and NY. Harold drove us to a hill where there is a good view of the city center, it was nice looking around. It was an almost cloudless and sunny day but chilly and windy.

The bridge is huge and long, a few kilometers long. From the city proper, you cross the bridge, there is a viewing deck with ample parking space at the other side. This is where tourists stop to have a picture of the bridge in the background. There are also souvenir shops and food shops in this viewing deck.

Harold’s car has a global positioning system (GPS). It was my first time to ride in a car with a GPS with audio. I was amazed at the technology: you just indicate where exactly you are going (house number, street and city) and the GPS will guide the driver whether it’s 5 or 500 kilometers away. It guides the driver whether to turn left or right or go straight in an intersection, which road or highway to take where there is less traffic, it tells the driver if he’s just 10 meters away from his destination, and if he has reached his destination, right in front of the house or office of his destination!

I was very thankful of Kris and Harold for that whole day tour.

I will see them again late this month in their new house in Rocklin, CA.

San Ramon, CA, April 2008

Late April last year, after attending the Atlas Liberty Forum in Atlanta, Georgia, I proceeded to visit a friend in San Ramon, California, Monchit Arellano. Monchit is a friend in Manila way back in the mid-80s. I stayed in his house for about a year. He later migrated to the US with his family (wife and 2 kids) nearly 2 decades ago, but he retains his Filipino citizenship.

It was a long trip from Atlanta: Atlanta to Minneapolis, then Mineeapolis to San Francisco, then train from SF airport to San Ramon. I remember my plane left Minneapolis around 7am, the temperature outside was only 1 Celsius. On the air, I saw plenty of snow and ice in the mountains of Wyoming, other mountainous states.

The train ride from SF to San Ramon was about an hour. I enjoyed watching the views of Bay Area from the train.

San Ramon is a valley, surrounded by small hills. It's not very cosmopolitan but it's not congested either, very spacious. Monchit's house is about 20 minutes by car from the San Ramon train station.

Clouds

See the clouds they drift so far below
Ever changing as they come and go
Makes me wonder why I’m up so high
When really I am down so low
Of all the wonders I was one aloud
I think that I would always choose a cloud
Always brings my feeling right out loud
Weather I’m ashamed or proud.
-- "Clouds" by Bread

That song was among my favorite several years ago. Well I guess until now maybe, David Gates is a great singer and composer.

Whenever I'm up in the air on a plane and its daytime, I always look outside to see the big cities below, or simply the clouds. So whenever I fly, I always tell my travel agent or the check-in staff, "Window seat please, and away from the wings!" Since the seats in the front (away from the big wings) are always taken ahead, I usually sit at the back of the plane. Could be "bumpy" sometimes when the plane encounters strong air pockets, but at least I can see many things below the plane and the view is not hampered by those 2 huge and wide wings.

Low level clouds and gases in the troposphere are among the last line of defense or protection of the earth surface from strong sunlight. So when you look out of the plane window and there are thick clouds below, those clouds are very bright because they reflect back a huge amount of sunlight. And when you look up in the sky, it's a bit dark, reflecting that it's the wide and limitless outer space out there.

Snow-covered farms

When farms in temperate counries are covered by snow and ice, what will the farmers do? I assume that the answer is: Nothing. They wait for the snow to melt before they can till or plant on the soil.

Another case with a different variant is, there are no more snow on the farms, but the lakes, rivers and streams that can irrigate the farms are still frozen, can the farmers still plant? Maybe yes, if they melt by electricity some of the water into their irrigation canal, but that could be expensive, and the farmers will be irrigating super-cold water into their crops. Won't the roots of the crops shrink and wilt? I don't know. A more practical option perhaps, could be to wait for some of those frozen water in the lakes and rivers to also melt naturally.

Of course there are greenhouse farms now, where crops and vegetables are planted under plastic or glass houses, protecting the crops from thick snow and super-cold weather. The enclosed structures trap some of the heat inside, giving some warmth to the leaves, flowers and fruits.

Snow and Ice, North America

March 13, 2009

Like my transit trips to Detroit, this is my 6th time to see the “ice wilderness” of north America (north US mainland, north Canada, southern part of the North Pole, Alaska), sometimes Russia’s westernmost areas near Alaska. And in all those 6 flights, I was always amazed and fascinated, 100 percent, by the hugeness and vastness of the “ice wilderness” of this part of the planet. While our regions in the tropics, north and south of the equator, are the “heaters” of the globe, those wide ice areas are the “freezers” of the globe.

From east Asia to Detroit or the east coast US (and vice versa), the plane has to fly near the North Pole for a shorter distance. This allows interested passengers to enjoy watching super-wide ice deposits below the plane. Something like for 4 hours or more, you see nothing but ice below, assuming they are not covered by the clouds.

My thoughts are on the people who live there: how could they endure 5 months or more of all snow and ice around them every single year? Well, man is intelligent, he knows how to adapt. Those who cannot adopt would have died many years ago, whether they are living in super-cold states or countries in the north or south pole, or in super-warm countries near the equator or in the Middle East desert.

Ice and snow, huge expanse of them, they just make my day, just looking at the pictures!