Tour Trajectory

Dubai Connect

Hong Kong Dec 2009

Birthday Cigar in Baghdad

The Boss on his first tour in Iraq (2003)

Kurdistan Trip

Taken on top of the Citadel in Erbil Kurdistan. I was in Kurdistan for 5 days. The place is nice and sort of layed back with all those century old historical structures that survived for generations.

A new project

It's been our dream of investing into something . . . And we made it possible this month. We're now in the process of acquiring a piece of land in the town of Lupao in Nueva Ecija.

We plan of putting up an agribusiness . . . . Am so thankful to my wife Janice for being so supportive in so many ways . . .

The picture above is a view of Parista Lupao Nueva Ecija Philippines

Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers Monument - Baghdad

We we're given the oppurtunity to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.
For an overview of this monument, here's what I've got from wikipedia . . .

The Monument to the Unknown Soldier is said to be inspired by the glorification of a martyr from the Iran-Iraq war. What looks like to many as a flying saucer frozen in midflight, represents a traditional shield (dira¹a) dropping from the dying grasp of an Iraqi warrior. The monument also houses an underground museum. The artificial hill is shaped like a low, truncated cone of 250 m diameter [1]. It is surrounded by slanting girders of triangular section that are covered with marble. Red granite, stepped platforms of elliptical form lead to the dome and cubic sculpture. The steel flagpole is entirely covered with Murano glass panels fixed on stainless steel arms and displaying the national flag colours. The cantilevered dome is 42m in diameter and follows an inclination of 12 degrees. Its external surface is clad with copper, while its inner surface features a soffit finished with pyramidal modules alternating steel and copper. The promenade is covered by a semi-circular, flat roof supported on a triangular steel bracing. The roof is covered with a copper sheet and the soffit displays V-shaped panels of stainless steel and Murano glass.




Static images can be viewed here.

Baghdad Boy 4 - Pic to remember

With Captain Javier Velasquez, USAF.

Baghdad Boy 3

Some images on how we live life in the International Zone. We don't have a weekend here. The only rest that we have is on Friday mornings. We have a pool table inside the villa. It's good that wii was available at PX and we have another entertainment. We work 12 hours a day and even more. It's good that we can blog and there's internet. Most of the companies here is relying on satellite internet which is very expensive and it's hard to find a reliable internet source.

Baghdad Boy - The Environment

The Office and area of work is just beside the building where you rest. The company provides everything from food to laundry. The place is being surrounded with Concrete T Walls as protection against mortar attacks.A few months ago daily mortar attack was normal. Expect at least 35 drops a day. A nearby police station was hit by a mortar. It's good that spy planes was able to locate the origin of the attack and it was neutralized. A mortar was also found nearby but didn't do a bang and it was found out that it's made in Iran.

There's no weekend here, what I mean is, you can't expect to have a weekend since there's no place to go except the office, your room, a nearby PX, the only available place where you could get some personal stuff with a little choice of electronic gadgets and military supplies. Just like a 711 (larger version). There is always a body and car search everywhere you go, you need to turn off your phone and go to a bunker while they search the car for possible bombs. Phone with camera is not allowed at all. Although it can cause so much delay but it's good for everybody. The guards who usually do the body search were latinos.

Baghdad Boy - Entry Point

As we all know that Filipinos are banned from entering Iraq as noted on the first page of a Filipino passport, "Not valid to travel to Iraq" but somehow Filipinos has "ways" and "means" on how to get to Iraq.

An early interesting experience was the route from Baghdad International Airport going to the so called International Zone or Green Zone, they said as the "safest" place in Baghdad. The escorts, personal security guys mostly ex military with tattooed arms. They will provide and let you wear bullet proof vest and give instruction in case under attack, that they are here to protect.

From Baghdad International Airport going to the International Zone is a 20 - 30 minutes ride on 4 car convoy equipped with radios and automatic weapons (AK47s, submachine guns and 9mms). The ride is on a Mercedes Benz with bullet proof doors. Distance between cars is always 100 meter apart. Along the way you could see lots of US Military on humvees in convoy. I cannot distinguish if they are US Marines or US Army and other groups of with personal body guards and having high end equiptments and hardwares. They said that the highway from Baghdad International airport going to IZ is the most dangerous highway on earth. They believe that there are snipers along the way and car bombers as well but I didn't know about it til I hear stories from other Filipinos who had been here for quite some time now. The adrenalin is high for a fresh meat like me. I don't know if I am scared or not. I've been asking myself if this is stupidity or just the call of opportunity to be here bringing myself to one of the most dangerous place on earth. I am here now doing my job. More experiences will be posted soon . . .

The Greenzone

Iraq News

Bohol Feb 2007

Blog for this post can be viewed here

Antulang Beach Summer Outing - May 2007

Lakwatsa ako - Lakbay Pilipinas

My Lakbayan grade is B-!

How much of the paradise Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Not bad eh :)

Antulang Beach Summer Outing

Last weekend TrendMicro PH Core Team had there summer outing at Antulang Beach Resort in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. The resort is 49 kms away from the city. It has a magnificent view facing Mindanao Sea. The food was great specially 'tinolang native na chicken' with a little bit of chili on it. The thing didn't went well was when during dinner time in which the TV at Waldo's Bar was broken and we're supposed to have an all night karaoke and there's no other TV available :(. It's good that Jeibe brought along his beloved guitar.
The team had a rapelling in the morning of the next day in which everybody was having fun and enjoyed the activity.

We also visited the marine sanctuary at Apo Island (45 min boat ride from the resort). This is an awesome place to go if you love under water views. One of the best place for snorkling and diving enthusiasts. You will experience the view of fishes in different colors.

At the end of the day we were all burned up and exhausted but we enjoyed and had some fun in the sun . . .

Sad to say this is my last outing with the team and I have to be somewhere else to meet new challenges . . .