Message from a reader:

Gigi is a remarkably perceptive person who shares her love for traveling.  I become so immersed in reading her travel journals that I find myself on an imaginary voyage to places I never seen.  Her stories go beyond describing the niceties of places she visited by conveying interactions and reactions along the way.  I get a good idea what to expect if I were to take the same journey.  Thanks for sharing Gigi.
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Aftermath thoughts

Once again Filipinos are faced with challenges. The outcome of the recent Ondoy and Pepeng typhoons has torn the hearts of many victims apart; their family members, who are miles away, couldn’t help but be overwhelmed of the unexpected turn of events.

Nevertheless, despite all the misfortunes, stories of hope, courage, tenacity and giving go hand-in-hand with the flow to spread out the best among Filipinos. Sino pa nga ba ang magtutulungan kundi kapwa Pilipino din, di ba?

I have collected two blogs from friends who shared their aftermath thoughts of the recent disasters:

 Inundated
It was September 26, 2009, Saturday, I had my schedule worked out the whole day. I had planned to do some walking and jogging at 7 a.m. then meet a friend at the Mall of Asia at 8:00 a.m., then proceed to office to finish some workload and at 2pm attend a seminar on financial literacy.

Not a single task was accomplished on that fateful day. It was a drizzle that welcomed me in the early morning. An hour had passed; the rain seemed to have a field day, pouring in more droplets of water from above without let up. The water in the street was beginning to rise and the rain kept pouring in with all its might, something was wrong, and so I thought. I kept looking out at the window and observing the water level outside, and when it reached the critical level which was an unusual occurrence, I instructed my Mom to warn my brother to get his car out of the street and move it to a higher ground for safety. It was just in the nick of time before a huge volume of filthy and blackish water invaded our homes and streets. (Read more Badditalk’s blog).

Catastrophe season
Woke up to heavy rains Saturdays ago, "Wow, bed weather." It was not the regular heavy rain... By 11 am news have been coming in of flooded areas. It did not stop... two weeks ago, floods was still in the news.

How resilient the Filipinos are. Setting aside political color and economic position- everybody geared up to help. It was not only traffic that was the great equalizer this time, the flood was too.

As numbers came in, it’s finger pointing time again. But really, those civilians who came in to help just gritted their teeth and dove in to lend a hand. This is where your taxes go... 5 rubber boats. (Read more Teacher Thoughts’ blog)