Outlining My Philippines Schedule, Mix of Business + Pleasure

Spent most of this Sunday, FATHER’S DAY (miss you dad….), traveling between Hong Kong to Manila. Hour delay on the plane (not so bad) and had my “Philippines family” to greet me at the airport (technically Marie’s family, but heck, I love em!) Her aunt Malou and brother Roc Roc (in the photos) as well as another friend I just met. They had taken a series of MRT (train), jeepneys, and buses to get to me, and we took the same route back. But before leaving the airport, we had a big lunch of pizza and “chick and chips” at Shakey’s restaurant here at Manila International Airport. They seemed rather shy to accept the food, saying they had already eaten…but it was a great time practicing my limited Tagalog (Filipino language) and catching up on stories since I’ve been away in January.

Again, being back reminded me how Philippines transportation systems are so…under developed and I seem to enjoy putting myself through the stressful and slow process getting from the airport to Quezon city, Manila.

Anyway, I spent the evening catching up on some emails as well as planning the time I’m in Philippines til June 30th.

• Monday (tomorrow) – stay in metro manila, hanging out at coffee shops in technohub to meet support team, book keeper Joel, Chinese Lesney, potential new workers,
• Tuesday to Thursday – my buddy Chris Gormley told me about a Tropical MBA that really seemed interesting, an open event for internet business entrepreneurs to get together for a whole month. Networking and learning how people work effectively as an entrepreneur where “location doesn’t matter”. Look forward to this and will definitely blog about the results of my visit.
• Friday – Go to Dau city and Angeles. Visit my goddaughter Charlotte and her dad, Bas, for his birthday bash!
• Saturday to Monday – Boracay, this will 95% be for my holiday…i hope to not even check email!!! I hope to catch up with Alex Schock there and talk internet projects, as well as consider selling bar supplies in this party island! Mike Mo has been pushing me to go here and I am told its one of the top beaches in the world. Seems there is no better time to go.
• Tuesday – maybe Manila meetup? I tried a manila meetup back in December….wasn’t as good a turnout as I liked….learned filipinos aren’t as willing to travel and / or meet strangers online as in other cultures. Considering it again, because I’m being asked by some, but am quite busy lately…
• Tuesday and / or Wednesday – Scholarship & clear cafe visit scholarship program progress as well as check on progress of Clear Cafe center
• Thursday – Fly back to Hong Kong. actually that night is my good friend Lammy Yeung’s birthday bash in LKF, Central, so will go there directly from the airport.

But it felt good today to organize everything, outline, plan….and I think it is also good for me to blog publicly my travel plans and business ideas. Its helped me connect to so many like minded people and make quality relationships!

Life continues.