pumarega's VirtualTourist Home Page

My parents immigrated to the United States of America before my birth. They were not happy with the political / economical situation in the Philippines; their homeland. Like most immigrants, they settled in New York City, and stayed there for about a decade. During that time my mother gave birth to three children: 2 females and 1 male (me). Im the youngest of the three. My family moved from New York to Baytown, Texas when I was 5 years old and raised me there. I left Baytown at the age of 20, and moved to Houston, Texas; where I currently live.

My life, from childhood to young adulthood was spent in Baytown. Im not very fond of Baytown. You can die of boredom there. Baytown is a small town about 22 miles east of Houston. The reason that Baytown exists is because Exxon/Mobil operates huge refineries in the center of the town. If you look at a local map, you could basically see that the whole town is constructed around these refineries. Baytown citizens have the luxury of living in one of the most polluted places in the union. There isn't much to do in a place like Baytown.. it's backwards, the police are corrupt, and it stinks of refined petrol. I don't know why anyone would settle there. The mindnumbing environment with the stench of pollution and oppressive police forces don't seem to be enough to keep people away. Or perhaps Baytown just attracts people that like torturing themselves. I remember when the city built a bridge connecting the town of Laporte.. when it first opened, the whole town went to the bridge, stopped their cars and did a little dance on the bridge then clapped their hands in unison while chanting "neato bridge! neato bridge!". You can't blame them though, there isn't much in Baytown to really get excited about. I've been pulled over several times late at night for driving around because I was so spastically bored that I would just get in my car and drive around. It's *so* fun being pulled over for not doing anything illegal and being asked stupid questions like: "Why are you up so late?!" and "Where are you going.." It sucks because Im a sarcastic ass and can't answer questions like that without automatically saying something that would get me into more trouble. I can't really blame them though, the cops were as bored as I was in that do-nothing town and just itching for something to do. I hope you get the idea, Baytown isn't exactly the most exciting place to be brought up in.

I've recently returned from Anguilla, and I have tickets to go to Ibiza, ES in September. But after that, I think I'm going to put the island thing on the back burner for a bit. Islands are great. Especially Ibiza.

Here are my next targets (in no particular order).

1. Prague (New Years perhaps)
2. Budapest (Probably on the same ticket as Prague)
3. Thailand (My friend Bobby may want a travel partner)
4. Nevis + St. Kits (Islands that I wanted to go to, forever now)
5. Maldives (Ok, another island vacation... I can't help it!)
6. Japan (I missed out on going last time)