GPRS users beware

I'm just sharing my plight here since Boo wrote about it in his column on July 26. This serves as a warning to unfortunate smart phone users who are not enrolled in an unlimited data plan. I am a heavy blackberry user for texts, emails, FB and twitter. I wrote this letter to Ms. Grace Plata of Smart on July 5:

I’ve been a loyal infinity client since 2008 and my average bill would be PhP 5-6,000 a month. Last year, I was traveling frequently twice to Europe and once to the United States and my bill would only cost P7-8,000 or at the most, P9,000 only with roaming, data charges and even voice calls.

I was upset last month when I received my phone bill amounting to PhP 27, 958.72 which is an increase by 386% from last month’s bill. 53% was data charges and 31% roaming charges. I was in Beijing for four (4) days and I assumed that the charges were becaue of China. However, I received this month’s bill and shocked that my bill is PhP 21,166.69. this time 78% was due to data charges amounting to PhP 16,493.61.

This is absolutely absurd since I haven’t changed my data activity and I wasn’t even abroad. My average data charges would only be PhP 4-5,000 monthly so this is a 286% hike from my regular usage.

There may either be something wrong with your system or my phone has been compromised. I would appreciate if you can reverse the data charges because I did not accumulate and rack up that amount. This is for BOTH last month’s bill of PhP 27,958.72 and also this month’s PhP 21,166.69. Otherwise, I would appreciate if you can terminate my account immediately.

I followed up twice through email and repeteadly sent follow-up texts to my assigned account officer Jeffrey. I guess it was only after meeting the Smart Public Affairs head on July 20 that my account was attended to because the next day, within 24 hours, I was informed that the data charges will be reversed.

I found out that the erroneous billing started when Smart issued a replacement unit for my broken unit (repair of my Storm's touchscreen). My colleague Carla also experienced erroneous data charges after her broken phone was replaced with a new unit, the Nokia E72.

The problem may be on the new smart phones. Tony A. whose staff racked in a total of PHp 125,000 worth of GPRS data says "The problem is that Blackberry’s are always attached to the network. Hence if you are connected using time based billing, you will definitely be charged such a huge sum. Blackberry devices should be billed separately – this is normally via the amount of packets the Blackberry device downloads."

What's the solution to this faulty GPRS charges? Unfortunately, unlike the iphones, I can't turn off the network on my blackberry unit. If I turn off the 3G or EDGE, I won't be able to send a text or even email. I can't even put a cap on my credit limit because Smart doesn't provide the courtesy of informing clients (mind you - I am an Infinity client) once they reach and/or exceed their credit limit. I'm now experimenting with Smart's unlimited data plan which is an additional P300 per week.

I am glad though that my GPRS problem is being resolved (and hopefully resolved soon). I found out that a certain Nikki G has yet to be attended to. She wrote : "When I got my bill for March, April, and May, my bill was at it's highest. In May it reached a total of P365,513.84. I asked Smart to provide me a copy of the breakdown of the data charges, but they never replied to my request. They only gave me a summary. Last week, I reviewed all my statements of account and saw that my bill did get higher and higher as the months went by. I exceeded my limit 7 times in 7 months. Not a single warning was received by me." Oh wow!

on my 27th day on Raw Food

Since my creatinine level indicated beyond normal in my recent annual physical exam, I've been advised to refrain from eating meat. I've decided to go back to being vegetarian and in fact, I've taken it a notch higher by going raw. This means, not eating cooked, processed foods. So far so good, I'm on my 27th day and surviving.

It wasn't easy at first since there was hardly anything to eat at most restaurants and all I know how to prepare is salads. My first attempt in making a vegetable smoothie ended tasting like wasabi juice. I blended pechay (local spinach) with pineapple and banana.

Also since I didn't stop running or doing workouts, my strength and endurance suffered. I started panting at 6-km or would be out of breath which I seldom experienced. I guess my body was relying on my stored fats for energy and the last few days, I had no stored fat left.

Its not easy to go raw. This even includes boiling water which means no soups, teas and coffee. Apparently, cooking destroys 25% to 100% of the nutrients depending on the how its cooked - steaming 25% and up to 100% for microwave, frying and baking. In fact, cooked food produces carcinogens such as acrilamide.

According to Dr. Bernarr, "When food is cooked above 118 degrees F for three minutes or longer, its protein has become coagulated, its sugar has become caramelized, its natural fibers have been broken down, which means it will take longer to move through the intestinal tract, 30% to 50% of its vitamins and minerals have been destroyed and 100% of its enzymes have been destroyed. Cooked food depletes our body's enzyme potential and drains the energy we need to maintain and repair our tissues and organ systems and shortens our lifespan."

The good news is aside from Alive! restaurant in The Farm in San Benito, I found a raw food restaurant in Manila called Rawvolution in Kamuning, Quezon City. The owner and chef, Cheloy Ignacio, who was previously sickly turned to raw food in 2006 and since then never got sick. In fact, she lost 20 lbs in ten days. Check her website here. I joined her 'healing' class which consisted of a lecture by naturopathist Dr. Samuel Dizon and raw food preparation by Cheloy where she shared two recipes - green smoothie and asian salad. I learned how to make almond milk in her class - 1/4 cup of raw almonds soak overnight and 1 cup water, blended which i use for my daily morning smoothie.


I also joined the live food preparation of another raw food chef Aileen de Guzman who learned from Michelin award-winning Chef Felix Schoener at The Farm at San Benito years ago. Aileen taught us how to prepare - a breakfast smoothie, asparagus bundles, thai pomelo salad, vegan sushi and tiramisu.

Well, so far i can see the benefits - literally my eyesight has improved, my hearing good, skin better and alas, I've yet to lose weight. I've invested in a vitamin blender, food processor, ceramic knife (food won't oxide when sliced) and will have to save for an ozonator and pasta maker. Being a food lover and gourmand, going raw is quite a challenge. The recommendation is actually 30% cooked and 70% raw. If I keep this up longer, I may just join the ranks of raw food advocates - -the likes of actor Woody Harrelson, author Anthony Robbins , Tri-athlete Brendan Brazier and even Apple CEO Steve Job.

Venus-Crescent Moon celestial event

Last night's alignment of the planet venus and the crescent moon was dubbed a rare occurence by astronomers worldwide. Well, I can't believe that I missed this sublime event and to think that six months ago, we planned the meteor shower gazing. I should have asked Z during lunch what to expect this week instead of talking about the election results.
I guess Emma hosting the barbeque was serendipitous (left photo was taken from her backyward) because she changed the date from Friday to Sunday.
Astronomy Magazine had the date posted in their website with the following description "The 7% illuminated waxing crescent Moon will occult the magnitude +4.0 and 85% illuminated waning gibbous planet Venus for Asian observers during the afternoon and evening of 2010 MAY 16...Southeast Asia and Indonesia will be especially favored with an evening event...."
Here's another posting from a stargazer in India: "After sunset at 7pm one should look towards west direction to find Bright thin Crescent Moon. Just above it one can find Bright Non-twinkling object which is Planet Venus. Occultation of Venus on 16th May: On 16th May beginning 3.30pm. to 5.30 p.m. depending on location, people in India can notice called Lunar Occultation of Planet Venus in the skies. In which view of Planet Venus is obscured by Moon during its course of journey around earth"
Neverthelss, I am glad that Jenny pulled me out and pointed to the sky last night. The first thing that came to my mind though was the configuration resembled the Islamic flag's crescent moon and star. The origin of the flag dates back to the year 1453 when Ottoman Empire founder, Osman I, dreamt of a crescent moon stretched from one end of the earth to the other. "Taking this as a good omen, he chose to keep the crescent and make it the symbol of his dynasty."
Well I hope that this is also a good omen for us in the Phlippines. The election results are now being disputed by losing candidates. Since Venus is the planet of 'love', maybe this is a sign for all of us to accept the results and move on?

Survived the Great Wall marathon

Woohoo! I finished 21-km of the Great Wall. It was definitely a challenging course and I should have worn my trail shoes instead.

average height is 738 meters

all eleven of us before the race

Eleven of us from the Philippines had flown to Beijing to join about 2,000 runners from all over the world to run the Great Wall Marathon on May 15 - Dennis and Jenifer Quepe, Australian expats Chad and Natasha Davis, Iloilo-based Arthur and Angela Chu, Bads Tan, Charita Agana, Candy Lee, Nino Fajardo, Marge Buot, Guam-based Ronaldo Navalta and myself. We were the first batch of Filipinos to do the run since 2006.

We were up and about at 2:30 am on the day of the race (a Saturday) and in the bus at 3:30 to take us to Huangyaguan in Tianjin province, about two hours away from Beijing. Huangyaguan Wall is not as popular as Badaling, the portion closest to Beijing, but it is the best restored section and the most scenic. Huangyaguan (Yellow Cliff Pass) lies on a steep mountain ridge and got its name from the surrounding yellowish hills and rocks. Its average altitude is over 700 m and it stretches 42 km long with 66 watchtowers. The wall was built during the Nothern Qi Dynasty (550-557 AD) and repaired with bricks during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

It was cold at 9 degrees Centigrade when we arrived at 6ish—and foggy! We could only see a faint outline of the wall against the mountains. We walked down to Bagua Castle to the square to assemble. There were booths set up to collect bags and personal belongings; and onstage, perky aerobics instructors warmed up the crowd. Around 7am, Chinese officials in suits gave opening remarks (in Chinese - duh) and immediately after that was the gun start and we were off!

Qi Jiguang at the entrance 

The course was divided into two sections—9 km along the wall and 12 km through the villages. The first part was a gradual uphill climb from Bagua Castle, to the main road, crossing Juhe River and the mountains. I wasn’t used to the altitude and started peeling away from the group. Approaching the entrance of the wall was an imposing 8.5-m statue of Qi Jiguang (1528-1588), a Chinese military general and national hero during the Ming dynasty. There was a slight gridlock at the entrance as runners waited in line to climb up the steps. There should have been a sign up that says “Warning: Expect treacherous climb or endless steps.”


This is the famous Taipingzhai section. The path felt like a roller coaster with the steps getting steeper and steeper as it wound up through the mountains. At this point I was climbing up the steps, whose height varied from the normal step up to thigh height and the width varied from wide to narrow. There was a portion of the wall where the path changed from bricks to narrow gravel lanes, the gridlock was because we had to slow down and hang on to ropes. That or fall down the crag. In hindsight, I should have brought my trail shoes instead of runners—it could have helped make up for the fact that I wasn’t prepared for such a grueling course.

narrow portion of the Taipingzhai section 

After climbing up and down for one hour and six minutes, I had covered only 6.46 km and reached the highest point at 502 m. I wondered about the Chinese of yore where watchmen were supposed to have memorized the steps to go from one watch tower to another in the dark.

rocky terrain in the village

The next part of the course was through the picturesque villages.
The path changed from asphalt on the main road and then gravel and dust. Again it was an up and down path, making me long for my trail shoes. The farmers would stop and watch and the villagers would cheer on.

I finished the 21 km before the 8-hour cut-off at 3:39. I didn't expect to break any record since I had been forewarned that given the conditions of the route, I would finish 50% longer than my normal time. The website wasn't lying as it described the marathon as "a tough, beautiful and definitely extraordinary experience. The 5164 steps of the Great Wall will put your physique to the test, and the breathtaking surroundings of Tianjin Province will compete with your tired muscles for attention". True, I was armed with my blackberry and camera shooting away.

very very steep descent

all taped up running with Tze Yann Tan from Singapore

I must congratulate the organizers for a well run event - well-placed visible distance markers for the different races (black for 42 km, red for 21 and green for 10); water stations every 5 km including up the mountain top; sports drinks, bananas and sponges every 10 km; gigantic baguette sandwiches with bananas, dessert and drinks at the end of the race. And, to top it all off, a free 20-minute massage before boarding the bus back to the hotel. Another warning - there are no portalets in China. I may just go back to do the full marathon or maybe opt for an equally challenging course, Athens in 2011?

great viw of Bnlagang Mountain, the race area covers 18 watch towers

Here's the route using my garmin forerunner 310xt: