Texan in the Philippines | SAMAR - Once you visit, you'll want SAMORE

Posted by UJ on Feb 25, 2017

Re-populating the Compound

Pretty soon things will be hopping around here again. In some cases I mean literally hopping. When we first arrived here, and shortly after, we had 5 total families living here. Now we are down to only two. Well they are all coming back. Starting next month they will begin to trickle back here. That means we will have children running around here again. Well that’s good news and bad...

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Posted by UJ on Feb 14, 2017

Valentine’s Day 2017

Today was Valentine’s Day here in the Philippines. As usual we went out to eat. What is not usual though is we went to the new hotel restaurant to eat. Instead of where we usually go, Marcial’s Grill, we went to the Baypark Hotel. This was only my 2nd time in this hotel. The last time was just 3 days ago for the party of Ludy. Her 60th birthday party and it was a grand party....

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Posted by UJ on Feb 8, 2017

Lost and Found Notes

Recently, this past September, my wife and I were on a little Space A trip. It didn’t go exactly as planned, but we did learn some things. While we were gone I wrote some notes about things along the way. I lost those notes, but I just found them yesterday. These notes cover a little bit about time in Angeles City Philippines and a little bit about our first and only time (so far) of...

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Posted by UJ on Feb 7, 2017

Parties, Malls and Parties

Since it’s been awhile since I’ve done a post, I figured I’d bring you up to date on some things going around here. Today I went to a birthday party for one of my Filipino nephews. I like getting to go to the parties, but I’m such a picky eater that I feel bad when they have to get something extra for me to eat. Today they ordered me a pizza from a place I’ve never...

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Posted by UJ on Jan 1, 2017

Recent Space A Adventure Condensed

Recently my wife and I were on a very long Space A trip that didn’t go too far. This is just a collection of all the posts from my recent Space A trip out of the Philippines. It didn’t go exactly like we planned, but it sure was an adventure. I just thought I’d put them all in one spot to make it easier for anyone that wanted to read them again or for the first time. No need to hunt...

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Posted by UJ on Dec 28, 2016

Philippine Funeral Superstitions

Recently I attended the funeral of a great man, my wife’s uncle Quirino B. Apilado Sr. Although he lived to be 94, and almost 95, it was still sad that he passed. This was the first funeral I attended in the Philippines and some of the customs took me by surprise. I decided to look up these customs and compare them to what I actually experienced. It seems that many superstitions are intertwined...

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Posted by UJ on Dec 17, 2016

Restaurant Opening Soon

Well its time to let everyone know about the restaurant that our cousin is building out front of our house. We do not have a date that it will open yet, but it’s progressing nicely. Supposedly somewhere around my birthday (18 Jan) it will open. Being Filipino, that could be way before or even way after. They run on Filipino time. I’ll keep y’all up to date on the opening date. I’ve...

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Posted by UJ on Nov 9, 2016

Our Long, Short Space A Trip 12 – The End

Finally getting to the end of our journey we find ourselves in Singapore. It is our first time in Singapore, so we are really pretty lost. Thankfully we met a pretty nice guy named Harry Judge that has been to Singapore many times (20+). He’s been there so many times he knows the people at the terminal and they know him. The lady that I spoke with in Sinapore was a very nice lady. She answered...

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Posted by UJ on Nov 3, 2016

Our Long, Short Space A Trip 11

Andersen AFB in Guam is where we are and it is now 30 Sept. We had plans to take a flight the next afternoon to Yokota AB in Japan so we could go to Singapore than a commercial flight back to the Philippines. Well that didn’t work out exactly right, but I’m not complaining. I should explain that from here on out I will be doing these posts from memory. For the last part of our trip I...

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Posted by UJ on Oct 31, 2016

Our Long, Short Space A Trip 10

Continuing where I left off and also a quick little review. It is now 29 Sept and we are at Andersen AFB in Guam. We are processed for a Navy flight and are in the bus on the tarmac waiting because now they are not sure if they want to take passengers. After about 10 minutes of waiting the came back and said that the will not be taking passengers. Their concern was that they were not sure if AMC at...

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Posted by UJ on Oct 28, 2016

Our Long, Short Space A Trip 9

Continuing with our journey to get back to the Philippines from Okinawa, after we decided to give up trying to get to Texas due to typhoons, unavailable flights and depleting funds. By 26 Sept we were so desperate to get out of Kadena that we decided to take a flight to Guam (wrong direction) because they had a flight to the Philippines on their schedule for the next day. The schedule at Kadena is showing...

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Posted by UJ on Oct 26, 2016

Our Long, Short Space A Trip 8

Another day, another waiting game. It is now 23 Sept and we decided to get up a little early, head down to the passenger terminal and sit, just in case an unscheduled flight arrives. We arrived there around 0900 and waited until around 1045 with no good news. At that time we decided to take a chance and go to the food court at the BX to get a couple of Subway sandwiches. They might be our last for...

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Posted by UJ on Oct 23, 2016

Exchanging Money at Kadena AB Japan

During our latest Space A adventure my wife and I found ourselves in a situation that required we needed to cash in some of our Philippine Pesos for either American Dollars or Japanese Yen. The dollars were preferred because we can use those here in Japan on base and any other US military base we happen to make it to. This was not as easy as we hoped it would be, but it could have been harder. The first...

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Posted by UJ on Oct 22, 2016

Our Long, Short Space A Trip 7

Continuing with our travels, my wife and I are in the process of heading for Texas via military Space A travel. We have been having a tough time because of typhoons and non-availability of flights. After being stranded in the Philippines for 6 days, we finally made it to Kadena AB, Okinawa Japan. Things are not looking so good here either. We left on 14 Sep and it is now 21 Sep. That’s 7 days,...

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Posted by UJ on Oct 20, 2016

Our Long, Short Space A Trip 6

The date now is 20 Sept. It has been 6 days since we left our house to get a flight out of the Philippines and hopefully another flight or two to get to our final destination of Texas. We have been delayed by typhoons and cancelled or no flights. Today is our best chance yet, but it just seemed like another dead end when we arrived at the terminal. After taking our P350 taxi ride to the terminal, the...

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Posted by UJ on Oct 16, 2016

Our Long, Short Space A Trip 5

My wife and I left our house in Calbayog City on Wednesday, 14 Sept on our way to Angeles City, Clark, to try to get a Space A flight out of the country to satisfy our balikbayan status, but more importantly to go to Texas to see my relatives whom we have not seen in a couple of years. Also to get some good ole Texas barbeque. It is now Sunday, 18 Sept and we are still trying to exit the Philippines....

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DPWH, DOT Finish P50M Samar Road Project

Posted by UJ on Apr 6, 2017 in Calbayog | 0 comments

THE public-works and tourism agencies have completed a P50-million tourism road project in Samar. With the completion of the road-construction initiative in Calbayog City, visitors now have easy access to three...

Restaurant is Now Open

Posted by UJ on Mar 20, 2017 in Calbayog Restaurants | 2 comments

Starting today the restaurant in front of our house will be open. It does not have a name yet, but I’m thinking they will just transfer the name from the old restaurant, which they should be closing down....