travel + music + airports

Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport, 2007

As a six year old, I missed the first month of the second grade of elementary school. I was in a ship going from Iloilo City, my home town, in the Iloilo Province of Panay, Visayas Region, to Quezon City in Metro Manila at the National Capital Region, Luzon Region. This was in 1978, and we were moving.

It would be my first taste of lengthy travel, after which I would go on to ride a whole load of ships in my life, including RoRos. I have likewise gone on a train from Brussels, Belgium to Paris, France and back.

As far as planes go, I have gone from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport of Metro Manila, Philippines, to the following airports, from earliest to latest: Narita International Airport, Narita, Chiba, Japan: Frankfurt am Main Airport, Frankfurt, Germany; Brussels Airport, Brussels, Belgium; Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong; Portland International Airport, Portland, Oregon, USA; McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand; Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Phnom Penh International Airport, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; several times, and perhaps more.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2008

I have obtained compact discs, books (paperbacks, postcards, others), massages and stuff to become last-minute presents within airports and harbors all over the globe.

In point of fact, I have procured music and musical merchandise within all of the nations where I have gone – tons in Phnom Penh including 5 Cambodian Golden Age pop/rock music CDs such as by Sinn Sisamouth. Ros Sereysothea. Pan Ron; Seam Reap; Bangkok; a few in Ho Chi Minh including a couple of Vietnamese folk music CDs; Bruges; Ghent; Leffinge; Ostende; Werchter; including cassette tapes of dEUS, Zita Swoon, Moondog Jr., Novastar; Portland; and Vegas.

Of course, all the travels came to a halt once I had a stroke, which began to impede my life in 31 December 2015. Since then, I had started short travels again commencing in 2017, even with the stroke, going as far as Tagaytay City and Nuvali, Sta. Rosa City in the South; Manila Bay in the West; and Cubao in the North, but the Covid-19 virus next reared its ugly head and I am back being home all day, every day. Let us see about the next year, 2021.

Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, 2007