While I have traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii, I have never been to the Philippine Islands. The closest I ever came to deciding to go there occurred during a week-long stay in Honolulu. I met a dancer with Tahati Productions, a traveling revue o Royal Polynesian performers who put on a nightly show at the Ala Moana Hotel.
Her name was Tiara. She was an exquisite dancer who was born into a royal Polynesian family. Learning I was a writer, she met with me after the show and took me on a tour of the clubs in downtown Honolulu and along Waikiki beach that I will long remember. I spent the night with Tiara, who was born in Davao City. She told me riotous stories about growing up in her hometown and insisted 'You must visit me in Davao City. But don't go anywhere without me. The bandits might capture you and take you hostage for ransom in the jungle. I am serious. They do that to visitors sometimes if they think they can get money.'
Davao City was severely damaged by a hurricane a few weeks later and I never kept my reunion with Tiara. But on my recent trip to Las Vegas, I discovered that many Filipinos have found a home in Glitter Gulch as poker dealers. They also work as cocktail waitresses and players -- Filipinos love to gamble -- and they are extremely interesting to talk to if you approach them about their homeland.
Kim works as a poker dealer at The Orleans Resort. He is an attractive young man in his late 20s and has much to say about his lands.
He agrees that the Philippines represent paradise to the average person as well as to himself.
'I am never so happy as I am when I go home for a visit," he said. "I am married to an American girl who had never been to an island before.
"We decided to spend our honeymoon in the Philippines. But we spent the first four days simply enjoying ourselves. Its funny but when you return to the Philippines from America, everyone there, including family members and your old friends, assume you have money. That's why I find it's best to avoid them. I always make time for my family at the end of my stay."
Casino management likes to hire Filipinos to deal poker. They adapt quickly to the game and make pleasant card dealers for the Las Vegas crowd. I told Kim about Tiara and he laughed.
'You should have married her," he said. "Philippine women make great wives. And when they took you a dinner..." he smiled. "You'll know you have been fed."
Kim says Tiara's tales about hostage taking may have been true in the old days but that under the new government, things habe changed dramatically for the better.
"There isn't much danger of anything like that happening these days," he said. "In the Philippine Islands, life slows down to a crawl. Here in America, things are pretty uptight. If usually takes the average person several days to calm down enough to enjoy the peace, tranquility and beauty of the islands.
"I love to go back for the food, the pineapples, the plantains, the roast chicken and the rice and beans. America is my new home and provides me with a good job, but as a Filipino, I belong to the islands and they belong to me."
I sometimes find myself wondering about Tiara. Over wine, she told me that the hula had been invented in the Philippines along with the Maitai and that her grandmother had taught her to dance it.
I remember reading one of Mark Twain's books when he visited Hawaii. There he heard of a'wicked dance called the Hula.' It was sexually enticing, hiss friends warned him, and added, 'No self-respecting Englishman would dare go into a place where the dance is being performed. That naturally persuaded Twain to seek out such an establishment and he found one where he enjoyed the wicked dance to his heart's content.
I can still see Tiari in my mind's eye that evening so many years ago. Along with the other dancers, she wore cone-shaped coconut husks to cover her breasts and a grass skirt to cover her shapely legs.
The dancers, musicians and singers performed the old songs of Hawaii and the islands and they brought gladness to the heart. As long ass there are islands, paradise will exist. And to me, an island rainbow is always a sign that paradise is about to begin.
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
