Once again I am late in reporting on my recent travels. A serious jet-lag, characterized by sleepiness and exhaustion mixed with a busy schedule, forced me to put the materials aside. I had become lackadaisical. I was editing some essays from the 1980s, satires against the Marcos regime, to feature in the anniversary of the martial law regime in February but I was seized with the so-called manana complex. I kept putting the blog off and before I realized it, we’re into April, the “cruelest month” and tax time. To top it off, I had a couple of eye surgeries for my cataracts. Yes, I am getting on in years! ☺
I visited Batanes, the northern-most island group in the Philippines, and Singapore.
Batanes was a respite from the long 18-hour flight from Newark to Manila. But it also required a plane ride from the Ninoy Aquino Airport to Basco. Batanes is just, as it was described, a cock’s crow from Taiwan; in fact, we were told, you can see Taiwan across the strait. I won’t mention where my traveling companion and I stayed because it was a disappointing B&B but the tour around the islands was more than enough to ignore its shortcomings. The picturesque shorelines were impressive, but the highlight was the 103 year old woman, who has become a tourist destination for many travelers. The tour guide told me that she was looking for a husband. When asked, she said, Who will take this old, sick woman? What was the secret of her longevity? Eat vegetables, she said.
Vegetables wasn’t what we ate at Beehan’s, a popular resto Basco. It was ramen noodles and halo-halo, among the best in the world. You can have excellent meals in most places on the island. Fresh coconuts, too, instead of water or the Filipino favorite, that unhealthy and dangerous drink, Coke Zero.
Singapore has become too crowded since the last time I was there in the summer of 1986. The taxi driver said a million tourists come every day. Where there was only one small airport, there are now 4 terminals. New high rises clutter the skyline. There are many tourists draws – the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the Gardens. You need to pay to enter. Go at night to see the light shows and the city lights. Raffles Hotel was a disappointment: it was razed and a new, modern building was constructed in its place. When I went in 1986, I was with a friend and we had gin sling at the famous bar, reputedly frequented by Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham. The inauguration was advertised but I shied away and preferred to retain my memories of the hotel from that summer more than 30 years ago.
One weekend I taught Tao Basics – Inner Smile, 6 Healing Sounds, Microcosmic Orbit Meditation or Small Heavenly Circle/Xiao Zhou Tian, and Zhan Zhuang/Stationary postures – sponsored by INAM Philippines. Nine students attended. Thanks to my faithful students in the Philippines, Annie, Isabel and Jackson, the seminar was a success.
Click on the image to see the full-size version:
The essay “The Last Days of Marcos” was written in the early 1980s and was originally printed in the Philippine News. It was an attempt at prophecy. Marcos fell in February 1986. The essay correctly anticipated the escape of the late dictator from Malacanang Palace in a helicopter. “Jose Rizal: Alchemist” is an inquiry into an aspect of the national hero’s life and thought.
Recent acquisitions:
“The Body Papers: A memoir” by Grace Talusan
“The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives” edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen
“Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience” edited by
Patrice Vechione and Alyssa Raymond
“Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila” by James M. Scott
“Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee
“The Best American Travel Writing (2018)” edited by Cheryl Strayed
“A Village in the Field” by Patty Enrado
“Illustrado” by Gina Alonzo
“Rizal+” edited by Alfred Yuson
“Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, TH Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los Reyes and the Production of Modern Knowledge” by Resil Mojares
“Daoist Internal Mastery” by Wang Liping
“Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom” by Rick Hanson
“Leave me alone. I am reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books” by Maureen Corrigan
I also have a few new CDs of Rachmaninoff compositions performed by Jiayin Wang and Yuja Wang. Great divertissement for the ears while I am resting my eyes.
Last but not least, it is with deep regret and sadness that I announce the passing of the great master of Traditional Yang Family Tai chi chuan Gin Soon Chu last March 18 in Boston, Massachusetts. My sincerest condolences to the family, students and friends. He was one of a kind, a master who taught the real curriculum of the Yang Family as transmitted by Grandmaster Yang Sau-chaung, the heir and elder son of the legendary Yang Cheng-fu. I started studying with him since 1990 when I was studying acupuncture and herbology at the New England School of Acupuncture. I have been working on his biography and the theory and practice of the Yang lineage for many years now. Some of his teachings are presented in the essays in the Writings section of the website.
Blessings, always,
Rene J. Navarro
Dragon Ridge
Easton, Pa 18045