What do you do when you just have a few thousand bucks left in your bank account, with no job and bills rising in the horizon? Why, go visit the most expensive State in the USA ofcourse! A last minute trip last May 2005 to Hawaii in my "in between jobs" days enhanced my budget skills (Ilocano in da hauz!). Close encounters with drug dealers, hot lesbian roomies, the North Shore and a brand spanking new surfboard highlighted the trip.

I stepped back into Manila's crowded streets with no money left, but certainly richer in experience or so the cliche goes.