An outdated software engineer with the attention span of a fruit fly explores the world.
Looking at my photos of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque made me realize that they don’t deserve to be in a post on a day in Abu Dhabi; they deserve to be in a dedicated one to properly showcase the mosque’s splendor and beauty. Big words, especially that I actually had no intention of going to the capital of the United Arab Emirates until it was brought up by the Korean and Chinese I met at the hostel. So, shall we?
It was a little more than a quarter to 1:00 AM when I descended to one of the platforms in 5th Avenue/53rd Street Station and started waiting for a train. I was capping off my fourth day of solo travel with a wide grin after the person I asked to take a photo of me at the Top of the Rock (tripods were prohibited!) *insert adverb of your choice* nailed it. The only problem? I wanted to cross the Brooklyn Bridge that late but needed to take a dump. And as you ought to know, New York is not a place for public toilets.
Prior to bungee jumping in Costa Rica I only had one such experience which was in Gunma alongside a Japan-based postgraduate classmate. It wasn’t what I hoped for for the reason that the elastic cord was attached to the waist and not to the ankles. (Choosy pa?) Nonetheless, it was still as fun and exhilarating. And oh, did I mention that on a cable car 143 meters high, at the time of writing jumping Monteverde Extremo Park’s is the highest bungee jump in all of Central America?
It was my penultimate day in town and after taking things to greater heights at Monteverde Extremo Park, joining a night walk, and getting a visit from white-faced monkeys at Que Tuanis, I could’ve just stayed at the hostel and lazed around. But then, the front desk attendant, who ended up calling me Josh during my stay (and I just let her because who knows if I was a Josh in another life), told me to visit the Ficus tree in Monteverde.
This trip was part of my repatriation; I won’t beat around the bush and will be blunt that to fully enjoy a Pacific Coast Highway road trip in one day, you have to do it in more than just a day. Did that make sense? I do hope so. Then again, if you really need to traverse it in such a short period, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re no longer in for some stopovers.
The story of my repatriation to the Philippines begins with the reopening of Juan Santamaria International Airport and the only way of getting back to the land of promise being through the US, particularly Houston where our high school valedictorian by the name of Joey was wrecking havoc. After my Spirit Airlines flight got rescheduled and cancelled at least twice and the airline postponed the resumption of their operations to Houston, I conceded to flying with United Airlines. From there I was to fly to Manila through Taipei via EVA Air.