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Travels with Myself

A Journal of Discovery and Transition
Doug Jordan, Author
Travels With Myself, Part III (2022)

22-19. Visa Vicissitudes

Carmen came to Canada at the end of April 2019 and after six months we returned to The Philippines, October 12, to continue to explore our relationship. While there, I discovered, somewhat to my surprise, that as a Canadian, my unrestricted entry was good for only 59 days; after that I had to apply for an ‘Alien Certificate of Registration’, which was mildly disturbing to me, naively believing I had unrestricted liberty. An alien! I felt a bit like ET. 

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2022-10-16
Travels With Myself, Part III (2022)

22-18. Tag-ulan

Rainy days severely limit commerce and economic activity in The Philippines. With Super Typhoons, everything comes to a halt, government and schools suspended. This is a chronic problem for the Philippines economy but acute for the millions of Filipinos who operate micro-enterprises, called tindahans, out of their tiny houses.

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2022-09-28
Travels With Myself, Part III (2022)

22-9. Sins of the Father

May 9th was Election Day in The Philippines, and Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos was elected in a tremendous landslide over his closest rival, Leni Robredo. Since then the alarmist reports out of the Western press, and echoing comments to me, now an apparent expert on Pilipinas affairs, have been distressing, and to my mind, insulting to Filipinos. 

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2022-05-16
Travels With Myself, Part III (2022)

22-6. Tale of Two Democracies in the Time of Covid, Part 3

The most compelling difference [between Canada and the Philippines wrt covid consequences] is how significantly more damaged the Philippines economy is and the adverse affects on the people. … For all of this, Filipinos in general are not complaining

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2022-03-30

22-5. Tale of Two Democracies in the Time of Covid, 2

When I arrived in Philippines March 4 (and survived the bureaucratic storm of documents – both print and electronic) and was driven to our modest resort hotel in Dasmariñas, I was struck by the heavy traffic and claustrophobic congestion, even though only 6 o’clock in the morning. It was just like the last time I was here, pre-pandemic, in 2020. But somehow different. The country is tired.

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2022-03-13

22-4. Tale of Two Democracies in the Time of Covid

What has been the response to covid-19 protocols on Philippine society is something I hope to uncover during my visit to The Philippines over the next few weeks, and see if there may be similar disruption to social cohesion as there appears to be in Canada.  Stay tuned.

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2022-02-28
Travels with Myself, Part II

20-5. Entrepreneurism

Entrepreneurism means more than opening a business, or even having a better mousetrap, and a marketing plan. It requires that you have sales. And selling, constantly generating revenue, turns out to be the hardest part of running a business.

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2020-08-15

20-2. Post Covid Stress Disorder, June 30

I lament my forced separation from Carmen Beauty; I am missing her company and constant companionship and feeling quite lonely. We Skype twice a day, sometimes four times a day, adjusting for the twelve hours difference in our time zones, and keep ‘in touch’ (ha!) that way.

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2020-06-30

TMW – 68. Family

Family is big in the Philippines and it’s not a cliché. Not only are the families big but the value ‘family’ is big. It’s a specific cultural condition widely understood by Filipinos. That doesn’t mean they all get along but they certainly know where everybody lives.

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2020-04-17

TMW – 66. I Shall Return

Maybe I was living a romantic fantasy of my hero of the Pacific, a vague notion of walking in the footsteps of history. I was returning to Philippines, maybe to find happiness with my own Filipina companion.

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2020-04-03

TMW – 65. The Philippines Sojourn

Travels With Myself has a different purpose than The Pilipiñas Packet; Travels is the account of my journey of self-discovery and transition in the twilight of my life. The Packet recounts tour of The Philippines but was as much a vehicle for discovering myself, as it was for having a life experience.

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2020-04-03

TMW – 62. Suburbia 2

The thing she did comment on though, was how far we had to drive to see these many friends. Living in suburbia, your friends were scattered in their own distant suburbs, or downtown, and this meant much travel. At least the travel on relatively uncongested expressways was not the tremendous thief of time that commuting in The Philippines is. For this we cannot thank city planners for inventing suburbia, only for adequate infrastructure.

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2020-03-12
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