Bill Weber
April 11, 1998: GOOD FRIDAY CRUCIFIXIONS .
This is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. You have sinners, crosses,
nails, hammers,
blood, everything you need for a good crucifixion. Or a horror movie
sequel.
I had heard they crucified people on Good Friday outside of San
Fernando Pampanga.
I was skeptical. I wanted to see it for myself. I mean, there must be
some gimmick, right?
Why would anybody allow themselves to be nailed to a cross?
Seven hundred pesos was an expensive trip. An air conditioned bus ride
would have been
under P100 each. But, I figured, how often do you get to see a
crucifixion? For the full
story go to Johns WEB page and read Good Friday Crucifixions, San Pedro
Cutud,
outside of San Fernando Pampanga, Luzon, Philippines. April 10, 1998.
(Page 1 of 4)
Having traveled to almost every state in the United States, central & eastern Canada, and three times to Europe during my life time. I enjoy reading other peoples travel adventures. So when I ran across John F.X. Berns travelog I found it to be very interesting with lots and lots of good pictures. I then e-mailed him asking permission to use some of his writings and got this reply back from him, "Permission enthusiastically granted! Thanks for the note! " About the Author: John F.X. Berns, Take a geek, add a digital camera and a laptop and send them around the world. Whaddya get? Travelog.net. It all started when I was 25 years old. I became obsessed with the idea of traveling around the world. The seed was planted on a train ride back to school for the fall semester. I was bored and decided to talk to a rather dull and bookish looking fellow across the aisle from me. I had no idea the impact that conversation would have on my life. For the next four hours he told me about his travels around the world. The stories were wonderful. He told me about being stranded on an island in Micronesia and being rescued by pirates (not the buccaneers of days gone by, but more petty criminals in boats), of landing in London with $5.00 in his pocket and working his way across Europe and more. I realized that there was still adventure to be had on this planet and I knew I had to have some of it. So I tried to save up some money and travel. I almost made it, but I met my ex-wife and well, decided to settle down. But the marriage didn't last long. After the separation, I thought about making the trek, but I was broke. Instead I started a business that kept me occupied for the next five years. But then something happened. At age 69 my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he died six months later. He had always talked about buying a camper and traveling all over the US after he retired. He was always waiting for a better time--but he waited too long. It made me realize that my life was not going to last forever. If I wanted to live without regrets, I had to do something now.
So for a few months I pondered the idea. After a while I even spoke
openly of it to friends
and family. Reactions varied from "Cool, do it!" to one friend who
insisted I go
immediately go see her psychotherapist. I wavered. I waffled. I gave
myself the weekend
to come up with a firm yes or no.
Somewhere about Sunday I was still wallowing in indecisiveness when I
picked up a book
about 'round-the-world travel and started reading. Chapter one, the
introduction, "Making
the Decision to Go." As I drew to the close of the chapter, the author
introduced a quote
as follows: "Here's a great passage about getting up and going" He
continued with the
following quote:
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw
back, always
ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation),
there is one elementary
truth (the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid
plans).
That is the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence
moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would have never
otherwise
occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one'
favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meeting and material
assistance which no person could have dreamed would have come his
way.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius
power
and magic to it. Begin it now.
-- Jonathan Goethe (1749-1832)
I knew then that I had my answer. I called family and friends and told them I was going. The next day, at 35 years of age, I quit a my job and bought a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia Manila, Philippines to be exact.
I spent the next few weeks figuring out how I was going to manage to pull it off. I read my Lonely Planet guidebooks. I tried to get what information I could off the 'net. I found out that there was a lot of information about places and not much about how to travel. So I winged it. I put all my belongings in storage, bought the biggest backpack I could find and packed it with far too much stuff. And off I went.
Since I had been working in interactive media for the last, oh seven or eight years, it just seemed natural that I would set up a couple servers back in the states and take a laptop and miscellaneous geekware with me. For an interesting report direct from the field by a fellow, with a digital camera and a lap top computer go to his WEB page at: > http://www.travelog.net/<
Thema and I are leaving on our Italy trip on May 13th, ( see the December 22nd 1997.and January 8th 1998 reports on our WEB page. Latest update on the trip will be in the May 14th issue.
NOTICE: I regret that our April 16th WEB page was not online when the article came out in the Journal two weeks ago. But it up now for anyone that would like to read the full details of our trip to the Big Apple.