Yes, the owner of this blog is a PROUD FILIPINO. I was born and raised at the northern part of Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines. But sadly, I haven’t toured or been to many places here in our country. This is the reason why I called myself a TOURIST.

Well, aside from the fact that I have dreams (and plans) to tour the Philippines, I believe as a PROUD FILIPINO, we should learn to appreciate the beauty our own country has. We need to see that God gave the Philippines a lot of things that we should be proud of.

I am not a hypocrite. I still want to tour other countries to see and experience other cultures but I prefer to do it first in my own country. I want to see the see the Underground River in Palawan, the white beaches of Boracay, the windmills in Ilocos, the Banaue Rice Terraces and so many more. I want to see them all and experience the exciting sights and sounds that my own country has to offer.

Since birth, I have been to some places but according to this cute travel grader found at the left, I scored C- in Philippine travel. And honestly, I wish to score at least B- or B+ in the next few years.

Well, we did it. Nobody is going to have expected it from us. We have been dating for three years. The whole thing was spontaneous. What started out as a weekend holiday to Las Vegas turned into a weekend honeymoon. My wife and I just sent our parents a postcard from the chapel. Later, we will post photos on Facebook. For a little extra money we hired a cameraman to snap some pictures of our quickie ceremony. Actually, it was a camera woman. She was dressed like a classic cocktail waitress, but she really had an eye for detail. My wife, Pam, has a neon glow and is smiling ear to ear. This is what Sin City is all about, right? It is about being spontaneous and compulsive. After the ceremony, it was the start of the unplanned, unscheduled weekend honeymoon. I looked at my new wife and said: What do we do now? She squeezed my hand and said: We try our luck at roulette.

The Best of Las Vegas

Las Vegas means something different to every person who visits. It is a place that people both love and detest. It is deafeningly loud, vibrantly colourful and hyper-real. It is an artificial paradise composed of the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, a giant pyramid, a lion, a volcano and more glittering buildings and hotels than you can ever possibly imagine jammed onto a desert highway. For some tourists, Las Vegas is a pure adrenaline rush. For others, this mecca of coin slots and table games is like one of the circles from Dante’s hell. My new wife and I love it here. In fact, this is our third time to what my wife has so colourfully named the Pleasure Dome. If the third time is the charm, as the expression goes, we figured that getting married now was a good idea.

There is an intense, dreamlike quality to Las Vegas. The first time we were here, I wanted to pinch myself to make sure I had not slipped into an alternate reality. Where else can you see New York, Egypt, Paris and the canals of Venice without getting a passport stamped? Where else do the ghosts of the Rat Pack still prowl the nightclubs and lounges? Where else can you see shows where sultry showgirls battle pirates? My wife and I come here because there is no place like it in the world.

Slots and Table Games

Roulette is our casino game. We have a system. My wife thinks there is a romance to roulette. It reminds her of Monaco and Bridgett Bardot. She starts throwing around the word croupier. She wins big on a daring column bet, and we decide to go shopping for wedding gifts.