Travel

Starting today, I'll record here the instances where Filipinos are featured in works of fiction. I've been meaning to do this, but always got sidetracked.

I have this small theory that Filipinos are very slowly taking the limelight in international media. (The Chinese are very well-known the world over and so are Thais. Filipinos are now slowly getting in the radar.)

Some insights I observed out of my visit to Googleplex in Mountain View, California. This blog entry will go beyond the usual observations about the physical structure of Google and how they have a fabulous, eat-and-drink all you can cafeteria :)

• Time is Money. Sounds cliche, but many aspects of the Google workplace focus on minimizing time-wasters and maximizing brainwork. For example, most of the meeting rooms I visited had Macbook power cords plugged in and ready. I just hooked it up to my Macbook and I was set up.

By Ian Brodie.

This book is the ultimate guide for those who wish to visit New Zealand. I brought this with me while I went through the Lord of the Rings - Red Carpet Movie Tour, which is the best tour you'll ever get in New Zealand, especially if you're a fan of the books and movies ;-)

NZ is one of the most beautiful places in this world and it was a good stroke of luck that Peter Jackson (a New Zealander, in case you didn't know hehe) decided to locate Middle Earth in NZ.

You'll also want this book if you're the DIY travel-type, or you simply want to save money. Armed with this guide book, you can rent a car, bring your trusty GPS and travel on your own. This book will take you to the places the ordinary day tours cover, and even those places that they won't. Visit Hobbiton, where the beautiful, green rolling hills and the giant oak tree convinced Peter Jackson that this would be indeed be the place where Bilbo would celebrate his birthday.