The Vegan Lifestyle

Holidays are in the offing, and everybody is waiting with excitement. Perhaps the whole family is planning a tour holiday in the tropics to be away from the cold winter season at home. Surely the kids can’t wait to bask in a shore of white sands under the cloudless tropical sky. How invigorating it would be to feel the warmth of blue crystal-clear sea water while swimming together with your family in pristine white beaches!

Holidays are for the whole family to enjoy. During this coming Christmas holidays, bring your family in a beautiful place where you’ve been dreaming to be, and spend your time happily with them. It is the best time for bonding and showing love for your kids and loved ones. Christmas season is long, and you will have more time with your family.

Happy memories are few, and money can’t always buy them. Share happy moments with your family during the holidays, and let them cherish these happy memories in their lives. Money are spent and gone, but the joy and happiness that the holidays bring will always remain in the hearts of your loved ones.

Holidays should be planned in advance. Book your flight and hotel accommodation early and avail of discount holiday prices to save more money. Some travel agency can offer you cheap hotel deals and big discounts. They can also assist you even in last minute flights.

Holidays are fast approaching. Let us unwind from our daily office work, and have an exciting holiday vacation together with our family.

Are you planning to have a tour with your family and friends? Then choose from the 3 best tour destinations in the world today. Book now at Letsgo2 and experience the comfort of a hassle-free tour package deal to any of the 3 best tour destinations in the world.

Among the best tour destinations in the world today is Dubai. Dubbed as the future “Las Vegas of Middle East”, and the “New York of Middle East”, Dubai is one of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates that has undergone a phenomenal transformation from the lonely scorching desert sand dunes to a very  enchanting  modern city of the next century with skyscrapers and very  high-rise towers.

Indeed Dubai is among the most progressive and most beautiful cities  in the world today. The  3 man-made Palm Islands, “Map of the World”, and the world’s first Hydropolis decorate Dubai’s water theme parks of crystal clear blue water of the Persian Gulf. Let your family enjoy at Dubailand, and other beautiful tourist spots in Dubai. Book your tour package to Dubai now at Letsgo2 and let them do the reservation of the best hotel accommodation at Le Royal Meridien Dubai. It is one of Dubai’s luxurious hotels with best amenities that offers  a wide range of recreation and leisure activities. Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort and Spa is set in landscaped gardens overlooking the famous Dubai’s Jumeirah coastline. You will surely enjoy sunbathing at the resort under the warmth of Dubai summer sun and have a perfectly tanned skin. You can choose the best food menu that you like most from its 14 restaurants and bars. You and your family will surely enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime experience in your lives.

Plan your tours with Letsgo2, and choose the best tour package to the best destinations in the world. Letsgo2 is the reliable tour operating division of Ickenham Travel PLC with 30 years experience in business travel services to small and medium sized companies, and now extended to leisure travellers on holidays. Book all your tour package deals at Letsgo2, and enjoy a hassle-free tour to the best tour destinations in the world. Ticket reservations, tickets, hotel accommodation, insurance and others – Letsgo2 will prepare it for you.

Do you want a holiday vacation in Grenada? Call Letsgo2 now and let them book your hotel accommodation at LaSource Grenada located right on the shores of Pink Gin Beach, one of the prettiest beaches in Grenada. Enjoy the impressive land and water based sports such as golf, tennis, and diving. Relax at its Oasis spa facilities and experience the range of exceptional treatments such as  Swedish massage, reflexology, yoga, and stress management.

Does your family want to go to America and see the beautiful tourist spots in New York City? Consult Letsgo2 and have your best hotel accommodation at the very famous New York Art Deco landmark, the grand Waldorf Astoria New York. It is conveniently located at Park Avenue and is only a  few minutes away from famous landmarks such as the Rockefeller Center, The Fifth Avenue, and the Broadway shows. See  the panoramic view of New York City and its metropolis and the Statue of Liberty from the top of the State Empire Building.

Avail the best affordable tour package deal now at Letsgo2. See the most beautiful tour destinations in the world, and enjoy the most memorable tour holidays in your life.

Are you getting married soon, and is planning to have your hen weekends within the UK? You and your fiance could be very busy with your wedding preparations and you do not have enough time to plan for your hen party.

Usually close friends among the bridesmaids do the preparation for the hen weekend by booking it themselves and sharing the cost equally among themselves. But sometimes, the bride-to-be makes the planning and shoulders the cost herself. Whoever does the planning and paying of the expenses, it would be better to consult Release Travel for your hen weekends within the UK and avail of their affordable prices.

Release Travel has a lot of UK destinations for your hen weekends, such as Newcastle, London, Bournemouth, Blackpool and Brighton. Hen weekends usually consist of 2 nights accommodation, a daytime activity, and 2 lively hen nights.

Release Travel also offers beautiful hen nights destinations in Europe such as Amsterdam, Budapest, Prague and other newer destinations such as Barcelona, Paris, Albufeira and Ibiza . You can also have your hen party in some famous worldwide destinations such as New York, Dubai, Bangkok, and Las Vegas. You can have your hen do or hen party at exclusive restaurants, live music venues, trendy wine bars, nightclubs, comedy clubs and pubs.

Consult and plan your hen weekends with Release Travel. Enjoy your hen party with your close friends before finally settling into a married life.

Have you been to Okinawa? Do you know that Okinawa has a climate that is totally different from mainland Japan?

I used to believe that Japan is such a small strip of land of many industrial parks that are congested with factories and other manufacturing plants. My only reason of going there is to see and to take a ride in fast speed trains and to try a one-in-a-lifetime ride on the super fast Maglev trains .

Not all in Japan are factories! There are many beautiful places in Japan where tourists can enjoy their vacations. Okinawa is one of them. It is such a beautiful place with white beaches for scuba diving and snorkeling!

I accidentally came across a very informative website at the Internet about Okinawa Japan. It is the most comprehensive website about Okinawa Japan in the Internet! It has totally changed my notions about Japan! From that website, I learned a lot about Okinawa Japan: its history, its people and their unique culture, it beautiful beaches with colorful coral reefs that teem with marine wildlife.

Okinawa is the southernmost prefecture of mainland Japan. It is composed of Okinawa Honto as the main island together with hundreds of smaller islands that stretch 1000 kilometers from the south of Kyushu all the way to Taiwan.

Okinawa Japan has a very good temperate climate throughout the year. The flowers bloom all year round. And the earliest cherry blossoms in Japan appear early in Okinawa in January.

See the beauty of Okinawa! Experience the crystal clear water of the beautiful beaches of Okinawa! Enjoy scuba diving and see the various colorful marine wildlife at its pristine coral reefs!

Enjoy the warm reception and hospitality of Okinawa hotels. You can choose from 6 Okinawa hotels. And of course you can relish the food they serve from different delicious food menu: Western, Oriental, Chinese, or Japanese.

Have you been planning to spend your summer holidays with your family in some beautiful cities in Asia Pacific?  Now is your high time to make your dream vacations come true!

Visit China and see the awesome Great Wall of China, or see the Forbidden City.  You can visit Singapore and see the Underwater World at Sentosa Island, or see the Science Park, and let your children enjoy their dream vacation!

Choose from the many beautiful destinations in Asia Pacific. Tour the Philippines and see the Ifugao Rice Terraces – the 8th wonder of the world! See the underground river in Palawan, or simply bask at the beautiful  white beaches of Boracay.

You can choose many beautiful destination cities in Asia Pacific such as Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya  in Malaysia, Jakarta and Bandung in Indonesia,  Bangalore and Hyderabad in India, Bangkok in Thailand, Hongkong, Vietnam and others.

There is no need to worry about hotel accommodation. Stay at Accor Hotels and enjoy your holidays in Asia Pacific. Whether you choose luxury hotel or for less expensive ones, Accor Hotels have it. Log on now at Accor Hotels ,  and avail a 60 percent discount for your July 10 up to September 30 stays when you book  online starting June 23 up to June 29. Hurry up and avail now of the big discounts in your hotel accommodations! You can choose luxury hotels or for less expensive ones.  Book now at Accorhotels.com and let  the whole family enjoy your dream vacations in the beautiful cities of Asia Pacific!

I survived malaria in Nigeria. I am not sure if it was the fatal plasmodium falciparum type which struck me, but I survived malaria in Nigeria.

Last February 1998, I worked with DAEWOO Nigeria Limited as a Piping Engineer in the construction of Nigeria LNG Plant Project in Bonny Island. This island is far from Port Harcourt. Workers took motorized boats from Port Harcourt to reach Bonny Island. On the way along the river are swamps and marshlands infested with mosquitoes and crocodiles.

The construction area was a reclaimed area near the sea. Mosquitoes thrive in the area, especially in our camp. Nearby our camp was the forest where tribes live, and mosquitos could be coming from that area.

We slept with our mosquito nets to protect us from mosquito bites, but it was impossible to totally protect ourselves from mosquitoes. When we go out for our dinner in the mess hall, or when we go to the toilets, we are exposed to mosquitoes. There was no way to avoid it and be safe.

More workers were sick with malaria. Some were very sick and were sent back to their country of origin. The company doctor gave malaria medications in high doses. Others survived, but some died without reaching their countries.

I was one of them who was struck with malaria. I had no common symptoms of malaria whatsoever. No fever, no chill – nothing, except for blood in my feces during bowel movement. I went to the clinic immediately for check-up, and I tested positive.

I was given two types of medicines in tablet form of 750 mg each. It was as if I was floating in the air when I took the 2 anti-malarial tablets! It was as if I was very high on drugs! I could not understand my feeling. I felt giddy, dizzy, floating in the air or what – I did not know!

After recuperating, I tendered my irrevocable resignation, and went back to my country. I have totally recuperated, and have no recurrence of malaria throughout these years. I thank God for saving my life.

This story is the second part of my previous article Missing Abu Dhabi.

I worked in Abu Dhabi for 5 years, and I learned to love the place, the people, their food and their culture. I will always remember Abu Dhabi, and forever cherish in my heart the pleasant memories I had for it.

My first week in Abu Dhabi was the loneliest. I wanted to go back to my country immediately on the very day I arrived in Abu Dhabi. The people could not speak English – we could not understand each other. Their customs and culture were totally different from ours. I could not eat their very spicy foods, and the climate was very hot and dry.

I worked as a Site Engineer in a contracting company for ADCO oil and gas projects onshore. As a Mechanical Engineer, I was assigned in the renovations of pumping stations, oil gathering stations, water injectors, dual wellhead oil installations, and in pipeline constructions.

This month of June evokes in me a very nostalgic memory of Abu Dhabi. I remember how we worked in the desert every day under the scorching heat of the sun. Summer in Abu Dhabi usually starts in March and ends in September. It is in this month of June that the climate becomes very hot and this hot climate extends up to August. The ambient temperature during these months can soar up to 70 degrees Celsius! During these days, the desert is like a big oven with baked, red-hot sand dunes. No houses, no trees, no vegetation for shelter whatsoever! It is all sand dunes all around that stretch miles away – so wide, so high, so lonesome, and so scorchingly hot and nowhere to hide!

I could never forget the experience I had when we constructed a pipeline in Asab oilfield one summer. As usual, a British piping inspector working for ADCO showed me the right of way, and my workers marked it with pegs. Our big Kenworth truck loaded the pipes from ADCO’s warehouse and delivered them on site.

We started work immediately upon issuance of work permit. It was a windless hot day! I saw the water vapor ascended from the top of the sand dune mountains around the area like flames of fire. The temperature was extremely hot that I felt very uncomfortable and wanted to go inside our car – but it was not around. I wished there was a tree or any small vegetation where I could take shelter, but there was none. It was barren all around stretching miles away. It was so wide, so high, so lonesome, and so scorchingly hot and nowhere to hide! I started to faint and was about to collapse when our car arrived.

That was the  worst experience I had while working in one of the deserts in Abu Dhabi. I withstood the extreme temperatures from 60 up to 70 degrees Celsius while working in Habshan and Bu Hasa oilfields, but the temperature in Asab oilfield during that certain summer day was terrible! It could have been more than 80 degrees Celsius! I thanked God that I was fortunate enough that our car arrived just on time to rescue me.

In 1984, two years after my graduation from college, I was hired as a site engineer in one of Abu Dhabi’s oil fields. It was my first work stint outside our country.

When the plane arrived in Abu Dhabi, I saw the beautiful, colorful lights that lined their highways and streets. The houses, and buildings too were richly lighted with various colors. Most especially the palaces of the king and his princes were lighted all around — glowing like precious stones!

It was November 6 when I arrived in Abu Dhabi. The dry warm air met my face as I disembarked from the plane. In the airport, I noticed the big contrast of culture with ours. I saw young and old men dressed in long white robes with long mustache, beards, and sideburns. The strict deportment of the men in uniform was scarily obvious.

My first week there was the loneliest. I was the only Filipino in the company, and most of the workers can only speak Arabic or Urdu. One or two spoke English, but in hard-to-understand broken, halting English. We tried to understand each other by signs.

I was very homesick; I wanted to go back to my country as soon as possible. What with very hot climate, language barrier, culture shock, and overly spicy food, the life in the desert was too much to bear. Oven-hot sand dunes that stretched hundred of miles away — so wide, so barren and so lonely!

Eventually I was able to adapt to their culture. I studied their language and learned it in a few months. Gradually, I learned to eat their spicy food and unleavened bread, and I started to like the taste of mutton.

I worked for five years in Abu Dhabi, mostly in the desert. From seven in the morning up to five in the afternoon, we work under the scorching sun, with lunch as our only break. We fabricated and installed the piping on oil gathering stations, pumping station, water injectors, and dual oil wellhead installations. We also worked on pipelines.

I missed Abu Dhabi so much: the shawarma, the spicy food, the dates, the grapes, the chocolates, the mutton, the hot dry summer nights, the festival before and after Ramadan, the romantic, starry Arabian nights, the sand dunes, the sand storms, the thick morning fogs, the lighted buildings, palaces, streets and highways, the “kubash” or unleavened bread, the people and their culture — all these I learned to love. And I will always cherish their memories.

Last January 1999, I worked  as a piping supervisor in the Aromatics 2 project of Formosa Chemicals and Fiber Corporation in Yun Lin, Taiwan, Republic of China.

Taiwan is a beautiful place. The people are quite aloof at first, but respectful and friendly when you come to know them well. Taiwanese are very industrious people. Their women, young and old, work in even masonry works in roads, highways, and building construction. Some women worked as scaffloders, and still others as welders in the petrochemical plant. They are not ashame of manual labor.

Most of the  lands areas are cultivated for vegetable gardens. I had seen only a few idle lands. Most of the lands were planted with vegetables and other fruit-bearing plants. The highways were lined with quonset huts where they plant their vegetables and other herbs to protect them from the extreme cold during winter.

The site where I worked was an hour or so from the city, and it was lonesome, wide and high. Except for the stores where we bought our groceries after work, the nights  are  dark and lonesome. You can only hear the noise from the worksites where workers worked overtime nightly.

The aromatics projects was among the biggest petrochemical plant in the world, and it took years to finish it. I started working there during the middle phase of the project. I did not stay longer there because of failing health.

The site was a reclaimed area. The soil was made of  very fine black sands that filled the air during sandstorms. The sand is similar to the fine metal grits used in the sandblasting of pipes. We breathed it all the time, and many workers had lingering coughs, and other respiratory diseases. These black dusts even penetrated our portable cabins, and were circulated in our rooms by air conditioner. From time to time, we went to the hospital for medical check up. Simple drugs over the counter did not work, so we have to consult the doctor. But when I did not recover from cough, I decided to go back to my country.

My life in Brunei as an overseas worker was among the best I have had. I had worked in the Middle East ,  Asia, and Africa, but my stay in Brunei was very memorable.

I worked in Brunei Shell Petroleum Company in 1990 up to 1994. It was the best company I had worked with. The company is jointly manage by Shell Petroleum International, and Brunei Shell. It is staffed with hundreds of workers comprising of  expats and locals. It has many amenities: the Panaga Hospital, golf course, tennis courts, libraries, and swimming pools.

I worked onshore most of the time, but went offshore when assigned there from time to time. I usually stayed offshore for  a week or so, as a reliever of some workers on vacation.

I remember how seasick I was during my first assignment offshore. The waves were big and high,  and the workboat where I stayed was  rolling so much. I was so nauseated, and vomited a lot. I could not eat my meals on that day. I was so weak and dizzy to go around to supervise the workers of the contractors that work for Brunei Shell. It was a terrible experience I would never forget. Then I got used to it eventually. When the waves got really worst, I stayed at the platform and ate my meals there.

When the sea is calm, working offshore is wonderful. You can see the platforms of other fields nearby against the beautiful panorama and the  colorful backdrop of  the sunset at farther end of the horizon. The magnificent view brought nostalgic memories of the island where I grew, where awesome colorful  sunsets often beautified the western sky.

The deep blue sea teems with fish that feed on the leftovers from the platforms. Some workers went fishing during afternoon breaks or during the night, and they usually caught a lot of fish.

We were given incentives when working offshore. We have the offshore allowance, and the location allowance. Location allowance is to compensate for the ever-present anticipated risks or disasters that may happen offshore, such as fires, explosions, and gas poisoning.

I visited the numerous platforms in almost all oilfields in Brunei. I usually took the chopper to a platform in a certain oilfield. From there, I took the supply boats to visit the other platforms of that field to supervise the workers of the contractors, and to check and verify the material inventory.

I worked in the office when onshore. After office hours, I go with my friends window shopping, and buy something for the family. We usually went to Kuala Belait  to eat noodles at the second floor of the public market. We liked the Chinese foods served there. Sometimes, we went to Chinese restaurants in Seria, but not so often, because it was expensive there.

During weekends, we went to Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei.  We bought some electronic gadgets or device, and other things for the home and family. During public holidays, we went to Meri (a part of Malaysia) to buy jewelries and other things there.

It was a great life in Brunei. The people are very friendly and hospitable. Their culture is similar with ours – there was no culture shock to adjust to. The climate was good, and no strong typhoons. The sun was  always warm, and there were few rains in a year. The areas were clean, and the air was fresh and unpolluted. The surroundings and the thoroughfares were  green with trees.  And there were less traffic jams there.