Ogling Earth!

I have been going around some places in my neighborhood and noted the disorder and I wondered how it would look on google earth. Unlike the coverage in the US were you could just type the address you are looking for and it will easily zoom in on it and you could almost see the details, the coverage for the Philippines is not that well yet (that is on the free version I am using, am not sure on its pro version).

When I typed Quezon City, Philippines it defaults on a location. I tried to figure it out by looking at landmarks that I was familiar with and finally noted that it zooms in on the Iglesia ni Cristo compound. Why? I don’t know. Tried the same in Manila but I can’t figure out yet the place it defaults to. And while checking the landmarks, I realized that it is not a recent photo too!

But since I was already able to place the default page for Quezon City, I was able to locate my home (just the roof, I couldn’t zoom in any closer) and the whole neighborhood. Ah, it doesn’t look that chaotic and somehow you also get to see a lot of “green spaces” – Trees!!! I was reflecting on it and thought that sometimes you have to move some distance to appreciate a place (the same goes for people too) because if you are too close then you get to see the flaws and sometimes you become focused on it and lose the good parts.

Anyway, I like looking at maps and for a long time I had a relief map of the world in the wall in my room. It was not an ordinary flat paper map but was made of plastic of some sort with proper elevation and colors. I got it from my father and he had it in his office for a long time too before giving it to me when he went to work abroad. However, it went brittle over time. But it is not just maps that I enjoy looking at but the topography of the earth. When I ride an airplane, I like looking at the contours of the land and the expanse of the sea and how I wish I could identify all the places we are passing through. I couldn’t but I would always make a guess! The same feeling comes to me, when I see our different islands while riding a boat. I particularly enjoy it when I see a small strip of land at the end of an island (don’t know what it is called), sometimes there’s even a tree in it! The view from a land trip wouldn’t come close since you’ re too near to see the scope of the area but on certain occasions and in certain locations you too get a bigger view of a good place and there is a great feeling that envelopes you. The earth is simply beautiful and I realized that I enjoy ogling it!!!

I believe I started with my fascination on the first plane ride that I could recall at about the age of 8 (it wasn’t really my first plane ride since mama brought me from Vietnam when I was still a baby…nope am not a refugee but I was born there). My father was a surveyor (and so was his father) and they had a project then in Mindanao and my brother and I tagged along in one of those trips! The company he worked for had converted a bomber plane for use in aerial photography. It was not a big plane and had its opening in the belly which remained open for most of the ride and we could see clearly the land terrain and the sea we were passing through since it wasn’t flying that high. I could still remember my excitement and joy on that trip especially since the people there told me I was brave considering that I didn’t feel dizzy nor throw up at all (while my brother did…hehehe)!!!

Every time that I would travel I would always look at the views especially on places I am not familiar with. I would rather just keep silent and watch the sights unfold and marvel every time I come across something beautiful. I like to travel during the rainy season (not typhoon season though!) when it is not so hot and dusty and the earth is green and alive and the rain had somehow washed out some of the dirts from the land but I am not traveling far again real soon so I guess I better just ogle the earth in google… its not as magnificent but it is pretty interesting!!!