I had the same quandary when my wife put up our contact information for I-NAV Travel and Tours. Naturally, because it was a home-based venture, business and personal contact information was almost one and the same. While there were risks in doing that, the fact that we depended solely on the internet as a marketing tool, as well as the fact that it will be immensely difficult to obtain trust in business transactions if, say, we withheld our real name. The necessity to publish contact information superseded the need to protect ourselves from the risks of online information mining, whether real or imagined.

So far, in the whole year that we’ve done that, the only annoyances that we’ve faced are some anonymous guys trying to add my wife on Friendster. Sorry guys, if you’re not gonna do any business with us, no luck for you. Besides, she’s already taken by me, and if you try to pull anything funny off to get my wife’s attention, I’ll cut yours off. Raaaawwr. Hope that’s clear

So, giving up anonimity is really a risk that we have to take, if only to establish both our sincerity and credibility. Of course, further measures can be taken in that direction; joining business contact repositories like the Asian Business Directory will not only publish contact information, it may benefit online businesses through more extensive networking capabilities.

In the end, it’s really up to you but, as a rule of thumb, don’t give up personal information if you don’t have to.

I have been meaning to do this myself, but somehow, that “passion and excitement” of writing down my dreams has not reached me. For some reason, I find it difficult to write it in serious detail, the most plausible reason of which is not really knowing what I want to attain. I do have some vague idea — the birth of my wife’s travel agency business is certainly part of that. But my inability to do so does not erase the need to write it down.

So here’s my meager attempt at writing at least some of my dreams, and then maybe I would be able to add details unto it slowly in the future:

1. Set up my own ISV (Independent Software Vendor) business – or simply, put up my own software company, which will most likely dabble with the travel and tourism industry which my wife is already in. I have already taken baby steps towards this direction, although I am keeping my day job until I’ve completed some extensive preparations. So far, I’ve been drafting a feasibility study for this, which is a requisite to writing a good business plan.
2. Put up our own resort/hotel – actually this is my wife’s dream, but after hearing of the idea and thought about it, I figured… that’s not a bad idea at all. Perhaps set up one of the real Value Hotels in the Philippines. Considering the fact that the Philippines suffers from a lack of hotels vis-a-vis interested foreign visitors, it’s actually crazy not to pursue this dream.
3. Be a “real” entrepreneur – By “real” entrepreneur, I mean someone who has set up a system or an otherwise efficient business model that creates jobs and generates a decent profit. The two previous items should lead to this.
4. Become a pilot – despite defects on my vision, I still hope to be able to afford laser eye treatment and learn how to fly a real plane, whether for recreational or business purposes. As you can see it’s still quite related to the business we’re in
5. Move/retire to a home away from the city – My wife and I have, at one point, considered moving to the province as an option, but we didn’t push through it because of the lack of employment options for either of us. But that was more than two years ago, when we didn’t have a business on our own. When we visited Puerto Princesa in Palawan last year, we were so impressed that we toyed with the idea of moving there, since we’re in the travel industry anyway and the city’s main industry is eco-tourism. Once I am able to go on my own and really set-up my ISV, it might actually be possible to do that.

So far that’s it. It’s not much, but I figured it’s a start. Wish me luck.

P.S. I’m flying to Cebu City tomorrow and will be visiting Bantayan Island. Not sure if I’ll have internet access there, and my wife and I do intend to enjoy ourselves, so I might not be able to moderate your comments until Monday. I’ll update if I ditch Puerto Princesa for Cebu City, but I think that will be highly unlikely :p

One of the new year’s resolutions that I’ve been wanting to make is to be able to post more regularly to this blog. To say that this is difficult is by itself an understatement — my work schedule only allows me a few blocks of genuinely free time, which are then used up for things like family and genuine sleep, not to mention I-NAV Travel.

So scratch that resolution, it doesn’t seem attainable and realistic — at the moment.

The nice thing though was that starting last year the holiday economics law came in to effect, providing a wide range of long weekends within the year. Not only is it good for our business, but it allowed us to travel to a lot of places without me having to give up a lot of my vacation leaves.

It’s important, because starting last year we’ve been traveling like crazy; it’s the first time where I went to four different beaches within a year when before there are years that I wouldn’t even go out of town. It’s also been the first time that I hopped on a plane to two different destinations within the same year.

To sum up our travels, last year we’ve been to well known destinations like Subic, Boracay, and Palawan, and the lesser known beach in Bani, Pangasinan — a relatively new find which promises to be an excellent place for snorkeling and diving enthusiasts.

I’m excluding Laoac, Manaoag, Dagupan City and the beaches of San Fabian (all in Pangasinan) from this list — we go there practically all the time already.

This year, we’re already slated to go to Cebu in February and Bohol in March, and perhaps Davao later in the year. We’re going to look into other destinations as well.

You might be wondering what all the fuss about going around the Philippines is — well, there are several reasons. Being in the travel industry and not knowing what your clients and suppliers are talking about have proven as a handicap, so we’re taking a “see it from the horse’s mouth” approach and take a look at the different destinations ourselves. Secondly, we’re planning to have another baby by 2009 — so any and all the travel that we need or want to do will be best taken by 2008.

So to hell with the new year’s resolution — I will blog about the places we’ve been to soon (ironically, the Palawan Experience blog of Legend Hotel beat me to my own Palawan post), but I do promise that whatever comes out of this blog will continue to be worth your while — if not worth fighting over at Manolo‘s blog.

Hope to see you around.

Melynn and I along with her barkada have been planning this trip for months, but the latest pair of typhoons, Lando and Mina come way too close of each other, and typhoon Mina threatens to become a super typhoon.

To further underscore the risks, a client of I-NAV Travel & Tours informed us that their flight went back to Manila after two failed landing attempts at Kalibo, Aklan, due to heavy rains. Melynn and her barkada might push through with the trip on December 1, but I won’t be able to come because of work deadlines.

As with anything in life, you win some, you lose some. Our Boracay trip last September was so summery, anyway, despite September being a typhoon month.

So for the record, yes, my wife and I have a wonderful sex life. I wonder if knowing that will make them happy.

Of course I digress.

When they prod further, I usually just say that “birth control works”, but what I fail to say is that our chosen birth control method is courtesy of the government. And we got it for a very low cost.

Yes — the government actually has an effective birth control policy, at least for our case. But it’s a loosely guarded secret.

You see, back in 2004, as part of the mandatory pre-marital orientation conducted by the Department of Health as a requisite for getting your marriage license, we got the following information. Note that this is all lifted from memory:

• The Department of Health facilitates various birth control measures at their health centers for free.  For example, a woman can have an intra-uterine device (IUD) planted into her uterus for no cost. This is the birth control measure that my wife availed of a few months after giving birth — however she gave a small contribution of a couple of hundred pesos to the health worker just to make sure she takes extra care of her, if you know what I mean. They can also give away condoms, injectable shots, and contraceptive pills, subject to availability.
• PhilHealth covers the cost for sterilization methods, like tubal ligation and no scalpel vasectomy (NSV). For the “macho” guys here who don’t like the idea of vasectomy but whom I might call sissies for being afraid to put their balls under a knife (wait — no scalpel means no knife, right?), the detailed procedure for NSV can be found here, instruction manual style. If the illustrations make you cringe – don’t tell me I didn’t warn you. It’s not for squeamish pansies.
• Men who avail of no scalpel vasectomy will actually be given money to the tune of 5,000 pesos by the government (not sure if it’s thru PhilHealth or SSS). I was amused when I heard this — be sterile and get paid? And keep your semen to boot? Cool! 

(UPDATE: After asking around, I have not been able to verify this from more recent attendees of the seminar. Has it been canceled? Or does my memory fail me?

UPDATE 2: My wife verified this with the DOH and they say that the incentives system must have been a program of the LGU concerned, but DOH definitely does not give any such incentives. The rest of the information above, however, is accurate.)

For the record, the orientation also included details on natural family planning, for the benefit of those who believe that artificial contraception is a sin or who have medical conditions that prevent them to avail of artificial contraceptive methods.

Anyway I forgot all about these things until a few weeks ago when a conversation with a friend (again, with the dreaded “wala pa bang kasunod yan question”) led to him asking how my wife availed of the IUD. He’s planning to get married and raise a family, and the information proved vital. But then he asked me — is there any article or document that you could show me regarding it. And so I searched.

That’s when I realized that the information is not available online.

I have tried for days searching through Google but all I found was muck; pro-life debates, details of the law in its proposal stages, etcetera, but not the enacting law itself. No Reproductive Health Act of 2003 (HB 812 — which I initially believed to contain the details for this program) search results reveal anything substantiative other than a news article containing comments about the bill.

So other than that orientation, I have no other evidence of the benefits. That leads me to believe that the entire thing is a secret kept by the government from sexually-repressed/deprived celibate prudes conservatives. Unfortunately it has a terrible consequence — many of the people who NEED to know about it do not. That includes live-in partners among the poor, especially those who do not have money to get married or get a marriage license.

Even for those who know about it, religious influences or the belief that it will cost too much money (as if having yet another child doesn’t cost too much money!) prevent them from availing of the program. Access to health centers, and in a broader sense — access to health centers with qualified health care professionals is another problem. Unscrupulous health workers who might ask for “donations” for the procedure might be another hurdle to those who have absolutely nothing to spare.

Now I understand that there are people who would not trust government health centers if their life depended on it. An alternative exists — FriendlyCare clinics are run by a non-profit organization and provide free family-planning related health services, including sterilization procedures I mentioned above, as well as temporary contraceptives such as injectable contraceptives, pills and condoms. They even provide cycle beads for those who prefer natural.

So if you’re running into the trouble of having too many children, avail of these benefits now. Before you (or your wife) gets pregnant again!

Do NOT take my word for it, however — if you want more information regarding the above go to your nearest health center, and your obstetrician-gynecologist as well for good measure. You can also visit your nearest FriendlyCare clinic.

A guy put some bubblegum on my wife’s hair, and when she got distracted trying to remove it, someone else opened her purse to take the stuff. Then both of them got off the bus. Bad thing is she just borrowed my credit card (which was inside the wallet) which she needs for an online transaction for our travel agency biz.

I’m glad she wasn’t hurt, but the damage has been done. Certainly, this is the “bubble gang” that’s not funny at all.

So beware of this modus operandi. When something distracts you, e.g., drops coins, pulls at your leg, calls your attention, or puts bubblegum on your hair, hold on tight to your belongings because you’d never know if that’s what they are after.

UPDATE: Melynn shares her own account of what happened in her blog.

UPDATE 2: Manuel L. Quezon III, quoting Melynn’s post, asks why crime is not on the agenda of most candidates in the coming elections.

Summer’s just around the corner, and now’s the best time to reserve those hotel and airline bookings to beat the peak-season crunch. If you have a trip in mind and want to get the best packages for your desired destination, you could contact my wife Melynn of I-NAV Travel & Tours:

Seriously now, while I echo her raves about this book, I’d like to point out another reason why I do like it: it doesn’t sound prohibitive and condemning like Joshua Harris’s “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”. After just the first few chapters of IKDG, it already made me smirk; I mean, when I was reading it the thought that was running through my mind was that “this guy just doesn’t want to face rejection that’s why he’s shielding himself with his complicated God.”

I labeled the book as the “bible of the hopeless romantic” to the chagrin of many of my born-again Christian friends.

Reading HTFYOTL, on the other hand, made me realize why I hated IKDG: it wasn’t apt for our culture. The condemnation/guilt-tripping feeling I felt while reading IKDG was there because Joshua Harris was addressing a far more liberated culture — a culture wherein sex was a disposable good and dating was no more than a romantic dice game. It was addressed to a culture where the rule is you either have sex on the third date or you get the “let’s be friends” speech. While some might argue that the Filipino dating scene is no different, I’ll beg to disagree.

Nevertheless, I’d really like to recommend How To Find Your One True Love for people single and committed alike. I particularly loved Bo’s discussion “over-spiritualism“, which he applies to both romantic and non-romantic aspects of Christianity alike — and an accidentally beautiful insight on Filipino culture. Do click that last link… it’s a PDF sample of the book itself.

My wife started blogging lately, and I hope you’d take the time to visit her personal blog. Her entry on CJ is an update on how CJ’s been doing, still despite the fact that she hasn’t been drinking her formula as much as the pedia says she ought to.

Honestly I don’t care about her formula anymore.

Back to my wife, Melynn finally put up her travel agency business, called I-NAV Travel and Tours. I’m putting up a website for it soon, but you may opt to contact me if you have any plans (I must say the rates for Boracay for October are great!).

We also visited the 17th Philippine Travel Mart at SM Megamall, which showcased the best travel destinations the country had to offer.

My conclusion: whoever said the Philippines was ugly must’ve stayed in Manila too long.