high in honolulu

i had a very early flight this morning for hawaii, to catch a lunch meeting with the president of a big corporation in manila. hehehe. hawaii is 3 hours behind cali, so technically i'm still in cali time.

first day's kinda hectic. honolulu is beautiful. it actually feels like i'm in another country. and that's good. i'm staying at this nice hotel in waikiki, a few minutes away from the hustle and bustle of the conference site. hilton hawaiian village is one huge hotel. i got lost looking for the registration. the entire hotel, or village, has about 5 buildings and an entire shopping area. love it.

i'm paying $10.95 a day for my internet access. better than the $15/hour at the business center downstairs. although it's kinda expensive, i need to access my mails so i can send my stories and photos as well. sigh. and it's from 12 noon to 12 noon the next day, not the 2 am till 2 am the next day stuff. which i find unfair. like i started getting online only around 130 am here (430 am cali) and my one day expires at noon. if i need to send stories later, i need to pay another $10.95 plus tax. oa.

covered fidel v ramos earlier as he spoke about 100 years of filipino diaspora. saw some familiar folks and met new ones, too. i haven't gone around yet since the day was filled with activities. just like tomorrow, and the day after and the day after that. i can probably go around waikiki beach and honolulu sunday afternoon or monday morning. dang.