Eric's Big Adventure - Part 4: Sports, Can I Please Watch Some Real Sports on T.V. ?

So anybody who knows me understands that I am an avid sports fan and that I follow sports passionately. Football, NASCAR, Baseball are definitely among my favorites. Second tier sports include Hockey, Basketball and occasionally Golf.

Following your favorite sport from overseas can be a bit of a challenge. Sure, the hotel has four channels dedicated to sports 24 hours a day. The question is, are the sports on television the ones you want to watch ? Well, if you like watching the World Snooker Championship, or are in the mood for an occasional Ping Pong match, then you are in luck. If you are a fan of the other football, known to us Yanks as Soccer, then you might be in a dream environment. You can watch all of the English Premier League soccer you want. For the games you miss, there is SportsCenter to help you with the highlights. Yes, ESPN is on tv, but it’s not your standard ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN Classic, ESPN News, or ESPN nth. It’s an international version of ESPN, complete with its own programming schedule.

So while you couch potatoes were home on Saturday enjoying college football, I was watching the 888.com World Snooker Championship. While you were watching baseball I was watching the International Ironman Championships. While you were watching NFL football, I was watching Futbol. Look, I'll admit that many times I was actually watching some of these sports. I did, however, have to draw the line at the ESPN Jump Rope Championships.

Other sports which I had more than enough opportunity to watch included Rugby, Ping Pong, Badminton & Motorsports of all kinds.

I will admit it was quite interesting to see Sunday Night Football on Monday morning and Monday Night Football on Tuesday morning. Too bad that I was in the office andhad to work !

Ok, so aside from sports on tv I will admit that I had the opportunity to see some sports you just won't find here. One night on my return to the hotel there was a flyer under my door advertising a hotel-sponsored trip to see Cockfighting, or "Sabong" as the locals call it. It was billed as the national pastime in the Philippines. In addition, the flyer said it is one of the most ancient spectator sports, originating more than 5,000 years ago in Persia. Although it would have been interesting to see, my free time was very limited so I took a pass on this offer.

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