Ask, and ye shall NOT receive

The Penisula Hotel in Philippines, charges 1800 Philippines pesos for a journey to/from the airport, equivalent to $40 US.

A licenced taxi costs around 300.

To catch a taxi from the airport, you get a voucher from the taxi controller stating the destination and give it to the driver. I asked approximately how much it would cost for my destination and was told, it is metered.

I have a dialog with the taxi driver but watch the meter as it increases. As we round the Mikati block to the hotel I see the driver turn off the clock and when I ask how much, he says 500.

I blow a fuse and tell him in uncertain language that I know what the meter just read and know what he has done. I then tell him that since meter is reading nothing, I don't need to pay him anything ! He panicked muttered something about a misunderstanding, apologized etc but since I was tired and wanted to get to the hotel room, I could no longer be bothered with this so I paid what I last saw.

Left alone, I probably would have given him a 500 note and said keep the change.

Ah, Caveat Emptor since I don't know Latin for 'Greedy bastard'.

Phileas Fogg,
Manila,
26th July 2008.

You can checkout any time you like, But you can never leave!

“The Philippine Star” is usually a source for a laugh or two today’s newspaper didn’t fail with a story titled ‘Motel Chain shuts down for God’.

The quote the article:

There will be fewer lovers’ trysts in Metro Manila as the owner of one of the most popular motel chains in the country said he has succumbed to “God’s will” and decided to padlock the last of his establishments.”

Wyden King, chairman of the Anito Hotels Inc. (AHI), said the closure of the 137-room Anito Arellan Kalookan in Barong Barrio was the proverbial last nail on the coffin of his family’s decades old motel business.

The ways of Lord are very strange and we can’t fully comprehend them. Many people, too, do not understand our letting go of this business,” King, 54, said.

We did not want the devil’s mannon going into the family coffers,” said King, a born-again Christian.

Later on:-

King dramatized his distain for his old business by slashing with a knife the familiar red apple logo on the canvas signage that was brought down form its perch during ceremonies marking the Kalookan motel’s closure.

A white tarpaulin over the main gate read “ Anito Hotel closed for the glory of God”.

The closure was also a religious event attended by family and friends, and even former self confessed patrons of the motel.

Pastors of the Caloocan Minsters Associated (Camia) and the Metro Manila for Jesus Movement officiated at he religious ceremonies.

The ceremonies included King’s sprinkling of water on a bed to exorcise “the devil’s presence.”

King said the beds were mute witness to sins like abortion, suicide, incest and drug abuse, amongst others.

Huh? Suicide and drug abuse I may get as going on in a hotel room, but mute witness to incest?

Back to the story:

“I declare all the beds redeemed, (the hotel) totally closed and destroyed in the name of Jesus. I also destroy my covenant with the devil,” he said.

“Our love for mammon had blinded us all these years. I declare this covenant totally cancelled.” He declared.

Hallelujah. Another soul saved. Lets have a round of “Kum by ya”.

Oh yeh, I almost forgot to mention:

King also asked foregiveness for city officials by encouraging corruption by offering bribes, among others, to promote his business.

And finally this:-

King told The STAR that the business was making more the P2 Million a day before the oil crunch. He admitted that theh current crisis had affected revenues but this was not why he gave up the business.

He said some 11,000 individuals “used” his motels daily and their “lives were ruined by falling into immoralty using these rooms”.

C'mon, if he was so religous, why didn't he change the hotels to a lodge for pilgrims or homes for the poor. Sounds like he is getting closure to death, he's cleansing the negatives on his sin balance sheet.

With declining revenues, there is a lesson that Las Vegas hotels should learn in this story. The City with the slogan “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas approach”, should take a hard cold look at what goes on in their rooms.

It is scandalous and I am outraged.

They a missing out on such a gold mine where they should be promoting more decandence to get the tourists in.

Imagine this telephone conversation:

“Hello, BL Z Bub Hotel. Room service?”
“Yes, this is room 666. I like to order some heroin before I perform an abortion on my daughter.”
“Sorry sir, we are out of heroin”.
“Oh ok, what about crack.”
“Sir, we have crack. I’ll have someone bring it up”.
“Whilst I am at it, I was wondering if you have any other debauchery specials?”
"We have a special on human sacrifices. Buy one, another killed for free”.
“Are they free range? I am a environmentalist back home you know”
“No sorry sir, we only have factory farmed humans”
“Then I’ll skip it, Thanks. I pride myself in being green”.
"Have a nice day and thank you for staying at BL Z Bub. The hotel that brings the devil out of you”.

Phileas Fogg,
Manila Peninsula Hotel,
26th July 2008.

All bets are off

It seems that our earlier January blog prediction on Las Vegas' declining fortunes is coming closer to reality every day.

From UK's Telegraph:

Casino owners in Las Vegas have been warned that America's economic slowdown had left the gambling mecca facing "its most severe downturn ever".

Challenging the resort city's traditional boast that it was virtually recession-proof, shares in companies that operate casinos have dipped to new lows this week.

With casino owners plunging into heavy debt and even bankruptcy, industry experts have warned that the world's gambling capital faces the toughest economic challenge in its history.

Keith Foley, a gaming analyst who tracks 55 gambling companies for Moody's, a credit-rating company, said the casino industry was "in the midst of what could be its most severe downturn ever"

"After 9/11, when it bounced back really quickly, everyone thought Vegas was immune to just about anything," he said.

"It is suddenly obvious and maybe kind of scarey that it is not." A combination of rising petrol prices, the housing crisis and cuts in airline services have helped drive down the number of people coming to the Nevada resort city and the amount they are spending there.

The spending downturn has primarily affected the shops and restaurants on which the casinos rely for most of their profits rather than the gaming rooms.

I read on:

Many casino operators have borrowed heavily to finance ambitious expansion plans intended to keep Las Vegas as the world's gambling mecca.

Four casino companies have already gone into bankruptcy this year, including Tropicana Entertainment, which defaulted on $2.7 billion debts.

Harrah's, the world's biggest casino group by revenue and owner of Caesars Palace and seven other big casinos on the Vegas "Strip", posted a fourth-quarter loss in the Spring.

Also from Las Vegas Review Journal, the bright lights don't look so bright:-

Forecasting the demise of Las Vegas is a game that's as tired as puns on the city's ubiquitous "what happens here, stays here" advertising slogan.

But for the first time in recent memory, two benchmark indicators of the health of Las Vegas, the number of hotel rooms in development and airline seat capacity at McCarran International Airport, are moving in opposite directions.

According to the Official Airline Guide, seat capacity at McCarran is expected to decline 12 percent in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the number of available hotel rooms on the Strip is expected to increase 18 percent by the end of 2009.

That has investors wondering how resort operators intend to maintain the 90 percent occupancy rates to which they've grown accustomed with fewer available airline seats for customers and drive-in traffic slacking off as gasoline prices approach $5 per gallon in parts of Southern California, the No. 1 source of Las Vegas visitors.

"In our opinion, this could not come at a worse time for Las Vegas," Wachovia analysts Brian McGill and Denis Kelleher wrote in a note to investors. "With the cuts in airline capacity, we do not think there will be enough seats to fill the new room supply."

A major Duh for LV!

Looks like the gambling Corporations have been participating in their own products and spinning that wheel. Betting on being in the black but ends up in the red.

What is ironic is that Casino operators get a mention in Taleb's book "Black Swan".Overview. Though in this Bloggers opinion, this event was not a black swan but entirely foreable as it highly correlates to the housing bubble.

Me no more Heloc = Me no more travel, me mo more gamble.

Room rates in LV are already coming down. The legendary hotel buffets offerings are being cut back. If this continues, the Elvis impersonators will end up pawning their "Blue suede shoes" and moving to "Heatbreak Hotel".

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
6th July 2008.

For further read see also WSJ article.

Ruff Riders

Humans are not the only animals which like to travel.

This link has a funny clip of a dog that likes to travel by motorbike.

It seems he is not the only one. Here's one from Asia. At least the small guy above has some protection.




Dog Breaks Law! - video powered by Metacafe

This video below probably illustrates why having dogs unrestrained is a bad idea.



Police and investigating the above videos and aiming to collar the owners. A police spokesman said that at this moment, we have no leads.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
6th July 2008

The Armchair Travelers

Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
We could float among the stars together, you and I.
For we can fly.
We can fly" ....... 5th Dimension

Just as I thought I couldn't be surprized by much in life, real life events throw me a curve ball. From the BBC News most emailed stories:-

An American man has succeeded at the third attempt in making a 235-mile (378km) trip in an armchair held aloft by party balloons.

Kent Couch soared across the Oregon desert to the neighbouring state of Idaho in a journey that took him about nine hours.

Mr Couch took an air gun and blow pipe to control his elevation.

He had to bail out by parachute on his first attempt and his second fell short of the state border.

The total expense of the flight was around $6,000. Most of that being the helium gas.

The idea started when Couch, 48 saw a TV documentary on a ex-nam vet named Larry Walters, who did much the same thing in 1982, Walters was fined $1,500 when his adventure elevated him to 12,000 feet and violated air space at Los Angeles International.

Larry Walters is one of the the few to contend for the Darwin Awards and live to tell the tale. From Darwin Awards.com:-

He hatched his weather balloon scheme while sitting outside in his "extremely comfortable" Sears lawnchair. He purchased 45 weather balloons from an Army-Navy surplus store, tied them to his tethered lawnchair dubbed the Inspiration I, and filled the 4' diameter balloons with helium. Then he strapped himself into his lawnchair with some sandwiches, Miller Lite, and a pellet gun. He figured he would pop a few of the many balloons when it was time to descend.

Larry's plan was to sever the anchor and lazily float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back yard, where he would enjoy a few hours of flight before coming back down. But things didn't work out quite as Larry planned.

When his friends cut the cord anchoring the lawnchair to his Jeep, he did not float lazily up to 30 feet. Instead, he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon, pulled by the lift of 42 helium balloons holding 33 cubic feet of helium each. He didn't level off at 100 feet, nor did he level off at 1000 feet. After climbing and climbing, he leveled off at 16,000 feet.

At that height he felt he couldn't risk shooting any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really find himself in trouble. So he stayed there, drifting cold and frightened with his beer and sandwiches, for more than 14 hours. He crossed the primary approach corridor of LAX, where Trans World Airlines and Delta Airlines pilots radioed in reports of the strange sight.

Eventually he gathered the nerve to shoot a few balloons, and slowly descended. The hanging tethers tangled and caught in a power line, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. Larry climbed to safety, where he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD.

As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked him why he had done it. Larry replied nonchalantly, "A man can't just sit around."

No indeed. "A man can't just sit around". That's what Ken Couch must have been saying to himself otherwise he would be wait for it...a Couch potato.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
5th July 2008

Bridge over Troubled Waters

Scanning through the radio whilst in my car, I came across a local radio station playing "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry. Not exactly 'pedal to the metal' driving music such as Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" or foot tapping stuff, but since I was driving urban with a few traffic lights to wait at, it gave me a chance to listen to the lyrics.

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

Since the song was released, the lyrics has had many folks to philosophise on the story behind the story. Billie Joe was apparently the narrators' boyfriend. What exactly was it that they dropped off the bridge? Why did Billie Joe jump?

I on the other hand, wondered where the hell is the Tallahatchi Bridge or even Choctaw Ridge?

After some false Google search leads believe I found it: Panola County, Mississippi which sorta ties up with Bobbie Genty's background of growing up in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. Perhaps Genty's line "Nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge" reflects the historic cultural antagonism between the Delta whites and "Rednecks" from the hills.

I know nothing of the Tallahatchi river flow but Tallahatchie is a Choctaw name meaning "rock of waters". Maybe he jumped into the waters and hit the rocks instead?

Before my search, I was expecting it to be bridge over the Mississippi which is one mofo of a river to jump into.

When I visited New Orleans a few years ago, we took a boat ride on the Mississippi river. Looking into thefast flowing turgid water, I was amazed at power that the river has. I once stayed with a friend of family in Harvey, Louisiana. The husband told me a story that whilst participating in some commercial construction, he fell into the Mississippi where he said he was swept downstream so quickly but luckily managed to get rescued. Although, I can swim, I was thinking that I would not like to put my swimmiming skills to the test here.

At its headwaters, the Mississippi is less than 3 feet deep. The river's deepest section is between Governor Nicholls Wharf and Algiers Point in New Orleans where it is 200 feet deep ! The Mississippi River Basin or Watershed drains 41% of continental United States.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens wrote extensively about the Mississippi River. He worked as a licensed Mississippi river-boat pilot (1857-61) and adopted his pen name, 'Mark twain!' - meaning by the mark of two fathoms which was the safe depth for the steamboat.

The Mississippi river is also records to the worst loss of life in United States maritime history: the steamboat Sultana explosion. In the early morning hours of April 27, 1865, one of the Sultana’s four boilers exploded and almost immediately set the steamboat aflame. Those who managed to escape into the Mississippi River were met by cold waters near flood stage. More than 2,400 passengers aboard the Sultana, with most of them former Union prisoners of war making their way north from Vicksburg, Miss., to Cairo, Ill. From there, they were to disperse to be reunited with family and friends. Many were swept down river or died from hypothermia. 1700 died.

Even in modern days, the Mighty River still takes it's death toll. On May 29 2007, just as he was to begin recording the follow-up to his acclaimed album, 'Grace,' Jeff Buckley decided to take a swim in a channel of the Mississippi River and was swept away by its raging undercurrents. He was 30 years old.

Ten days after Buckley's body has surfaced, his road manager, Gene Bowen, stands by the riverbank. Looking at the muddy rush of water, he asks, "Why would you even put your toe in that? But it's typical Jeff. He was a butterfly, you know? He was just like: 'Go with it.' "

Another Rock star which has a linkage to bridges and suicide bid is Ritchie Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers. In 1995, Edwards disappeared where the speculation is that he jumped off the Severn Bridge. The Severn Bridge is the link between England and South Wales.

Not that I am contemplating ending it but it has me curious: Which bridges account for largest number of suicides ? I refer to two Wikepedia links: suicide bridge and list of suicide sites.

Number 1 is San Francisco : the Golden Gate bridge. So much for SF's image of flower power and city of love. Even if you survive the fall, the cold waters will get you and the current will take you out to sea. Brrrr.

The second Wiki site I quoted suggests 'Beachy Head' in England has a large number of jumpers. This was site where the character "Jimmy" from the Who's Rock Opera, Quadrophenia drove his moped over the top. The queston then becomes but did Jimmy go with it? A true cliff hanger of an ending.

I was thinking about attempting a humorous ending to this blog topic but knowing many people in my life who have taken their own life, I'll pass on this. One was a teenager, another 19, was at University but survived with serious head injuries. Another a Dad who hanged himself and was discovered by his 11 year old boy.

I just want to say for anyone who may come across this blog searching on keywords, Please don't do it. You may be hurting inside now but think of people you'll leave behind. Suicide is NOT painless.

Phileas Fogg,
Houston Texas
5th July 2008