Poughkeepsie, New York is half a planet away. Cab ride to the train station. an hour and a half south to Grand Central, and then a bus to JFK. Checking in with E ticket on JAL I got lucky with a half full flight being assigned my own three seat row on the upper deck. Movies sucked and game system was lame, but I got in some reading, good airline food, and real sleep. Two hour layover in Narita, Japan went well having a couple beers and finding a funky smoking lounge near gate 70. Thirty minute ground delay and four more hours later I arrived in Manila.

At 10:30pm in MNL things went pretty quick. Before immigration I walked by a heat sensor looking for people with high fevers and walked over a wet carpet for disinfecting shoes. Passport stamped with out question after a ten minute wait, bags collected, and passport form turned in without a word said. Quick change of $200 and I spotted my driver with a sign seconds out the door. Joey had me to Mo's just before 1am.

Mo's hotel is a bit of a dump. Digital safe, but no security during the hours the restaurant is open beyond the room door. Highly in need sprucing up, but I was instantly happy with the location. Computer in the room fired right up and a dropped message to the the guy from another board that I got in and told him to knock on my door in the morning if he did not see me downstairs.

Mild panic. After taking a shower and shave I was getting organized and could not find my passport. As I was going back through everything for the third time, the guy from the other board knocked at my door. He had just stopped in at Mo's, checked his e-mail, and came right up. I borrowed his phone, called my driver Joey. Sure enough, he looked in the backseat of his cab and found my passport. I arranged to pick it up the next day at BeeLine's offices. 'Tango' gave me a quick rundown and I traded my Pepto Bisthmal, a couple old books, and a bottle of Chambord for a stash of Cialis.

He had to run, so it was off to my first bar solo taking his advice to try Nero's Forum. It was starting to get late already, so I just wanted to grab a suitable pillow and get back to the hotel. Bullshitted some with a bartender and then called down a skinny girl picked as much for grinning and laughing on stage as her looks. A lady drink and a vodka tonic later, we walked the block back to Mo's. Good overall GFE and performance with a morning round before I sent her off with a 300p tip and went to breakfast at eleven. Tottaly forget her name.

Photo: Unknown Girl 01



Ran into Tango again at breakfast sitting at the big table getting little tips from the ex-pats and frequent visitors. Mo's did live up to being a great meeting point. Checked out and a 50p trike to Sunset Gardens.

Poughkeepsie? Been there several times for soccer tournaments while I was growing up. That almost made me homesick, except that I get homesick for SEA these days.