Ok guys, I'm not gonna lie here, I really am not in the mood to blog. Its been a helluva travel day and I'm hungover and all the restaurants around our hotel are closed so I had chips and juice for dinner. But we're going to Turkey tomorrow and doing loads so I need to update before the load becomes too intense!
We're in Athens at the moment; we've just come from Ios which is THE BEST PLACE EVER. I can't really explain why its so amazing, there's just something in the water there that makes a person completely and utterly satisfied with life every second of every day. Its beautiful, the beaches are fantastic, we met some seriously wicked people, and did some very serious partying.
The days are a major blur, but I'll give it my best shot.
We weren't really sad to leave Mykonos. If you ask me that island it overrated. It was expensive and the people were shit. Being us we did manage to find some fun, but we had to dig down deep. Ios was a totally different story. On our first day there we were informed that the bus was taking us to Far Out Hotel and Spa, which shocked us completely because we highly doubted that we were paying 15 euro a night for a Hotel and Spa. Turns out there was an overbooking and we got upgraded. The rooms were nice, gorgeous pool, gorgeous view, but man alive was it ever BORING. Within 5 minutes we were walking down the hill to the beach to find some food and someone to talk to. We were more than happy to move down into our little backpacker village the next morning. Even the little backpacker Far Out was really nice, especially considering how cheap it was. We got a private hotel room with ensuite and no bugs. There was something blocking our mental capacity on the first night in those rooms because for some unknown reason, between 2 of us (and both of us think we're pretty damn smart) we were unable to locate the light switch for the bathroom. We both showered in the dark. Seriously.
Before fully committing to the party scene on Ios, Steph and I decided that we should finally follow thru with the promise we always make ourselves on every island and never actually do: go biking/exploring! We rented an atv (yes we wore our helmets!) and scooted all around the beautiful island of Ios. We hit a totally deserted beach, drove aimlessly, and stumbled upon what the plaques claimed was the tomb of Homer. Illiad Homer. Luckily I have Steph and she got all upset and informed me that this was NOT Homer's tomb and the historian guy who claimed it was had a tendency to make things up and call it fact. Its fun having a Classics minor by my side when confronted with these things.
Beyond that we were on the whole pretty unproductive. We spent lots of time laying in the sun, swimming in the ocean, swimming in the pool, eating cheesey carbs, drinking 5 euro wine, meeting Australians, and judging slutty Swedish chicks. All our favourite Greek island activities! We fully committed to Ios' vibrant nightlife. I'm not sure if its because its the end of the season and the bars are trying to blow their inventory before they close, or if this is just the cheapest place ever, but around every corner there's some Australian promo person hollering at you for free shots, 1 euro drinks, or the standard special: 2 shots, 2 drinks, for 5 euro. Now, that is just not safe. Especially when they seem to cram about 2 dozen bars within the tiny main square. There was lots of dancing and an incident in which I begged Steph to let me sleep at the bus stop because we couldn't get a taxi home. Don't worry, she didn't.
Our best discovery was Porkey's: an all-night crepe shop that makes the most delicious crepes you can imagine. And hands down the best gyros I've ever had. In a spectacular display of serendipity, while mowing a white chocolate crepe at 3am, we bumped into 2 awesome South Africans who we'd hung out with on Mykonos! 'Tis a small world after all.
By far the most amazing part about our time on Ios was the people there. Everyone was so great and friendly. I am, quite seriously, formulating plans to head back there to land myself a promo job next summer. The place was crawling with people who live and work there for the summer at the similar random promo jobs me and Shanna worked in Australia. They are living the life! Don't worry, not dropping out of school. These are summer plans.
Ok people, that's all I've got. I did not do that magical place justice, and that's a shame, but I'm all sleepy from my ferry ride and we've got a flight at the crack of dawn tomorrow, so its sleep time for me!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Long overdue 4-island update
Hey cyberspace, I'm still alive!
Its been ages and much has happened, the days blur a little bit, but events are handily separated by island.
After the last update, in Santorini, Steph and I left Taylor's family's place to move to the more backpacker-friendly Perissa Beach. We had some serious lazy beach days, laid around our hotel's pool (definite perk for the budget travelers!), attempted a night on the town that turned out to be not so rowdy (who knew we were now in "off-season??). On one of our more ambitious days, we were told we could walk to Ancient Thera, just by taking that road over there for a few metres and following the signs for 45 minutes, how easy! It turned out that the "walk" was over an hour up the side of a mountain through what we later found out was the graveyard of the aforementioned Ancient Thera. So there we were, hiking like billy-goats in flip flops and sun dresses alongside hardcore keens-wearing tourists with waterbottles and judging glances. It was totally worth it - our first real ruins! It was the ruins of the old city, and they were pretty intact for a site that didn't seem to be afforded much in the way of protection from stomping tourist feet. That adventure took the whole day, then off we went to catch our ferry to Naxos. The major highlight of Santorini, sad as it is to admit, was the 24-hr bakery located about 100m from our hotel room. We went 5 times in 2 days, and each time discovered a new and exciting phyllo-covered treat...oops.
Our ride to Naxos should have been a nice, easy, 2 hour ride, but Poseidon seemed to have other plans and gave us some seriously rough seas. It wouldn't be outrageous to estimate that a solid 75% of the passengers on our ferry were vomiting into their seasickness bags. The poor ferry workers had to walk up and down the aisles for an hour with garbage bags exchanging puke-filled bags for empty ones. I almost threw up just from the sight, sound, and smell of so much bile, but lucky for me the Lawton constitution held up. At one point we were told that we couldn't even get to Naxos, and we turned around to dock in the nearest safe port, Ios. We then turned BACK around when the ocean calmed down and made it to Naxos safe, but late.
We arrived at night, completely lost, with absolutely no idea where to find our hotel. The directions said "250m from the port, on the beach". Sounds simple, no? NO. An hour or so of hopeless wandering and asking very unhelpful locals for assistance finally brought us to our rooms, where we were greeted by the owner scolding us for not seeing him and his nice minibus waiting for us at the port. Naxos was REALLY windy, just like Santorini, but on Santorini there were nice big lava rocks that didn't get blown around, whereas Naxos was pristine white sandy beaches. That sounds nice until you realize that it translates directly into a not-so-pristine white sandy body. We ditched the beach to head uphill (everything in Greece is uphill) to check out a Venetian Castle and the area around it. It was nothing like any other area of Greece we've wandered around - very very Italian looking and full of awesome shops, danger danger. We were sort of under the impression that Naxos was a boring ghost town with nobody around and no shops open, until we ventured out for dinner around 9pm and all the people who had been siesta-ing all day were out in force. Naxos is a seriously noctournal place and it is absolutely full of baked goods. They were everywhere! We became excellent customers of a local bakery between our hotel and the main street, very sketchy looking but run by a really nice Greek family. We definitely hit that up 4 times in 2 days. We can't be trusted with phyllo so close by, and crepes!
The ferry from Naxos was almost going to be a total disaster. Our ferry to Mykonos was canceled, so we had to book one 5 hours earlier (thank god we went and checked early) to Syros, then another to Mykonos. The first ferry was almost 2 hours late, which put us in a bit of a panic to make our connection, but evidently this is standard procedure for the Aegean Sea, because our next ferry was equally late.
Mykonos is a fairly dangerous place. One is able to find booze and loud music at pretty much any time between noon and 8am. We stayed at a place called Paradise, which had nice rooms but cost a fortune. I was frankly not super impressed with Mykonos on the whole. With the exception of one highly debaucherous night, it was pretty tame. The club we went to on the first night turned out to be an unofficial gay bar full of douchey gay Italians wearing scarves indoors when its +30 outside. On the night of the Full Moon Party, our one crazy night, Steph and I got a 1.5L of crappy wine to get a bit pissed before we headed to the bar where RedBull costs 12 euro. It was a totally unnecessary exercise - 5 minutes after we walked in some guys who may or may not have worked at the club slapped some VIP wristbands on us and plopped us in a booth with a bottle of Grey Goose. We went from VIP to dancing in the actual DJ booth at sunrise behind DJs who I've actually heard of! Crazy night that became a crazy 7am morning. Clearly the next day was a total write-off.
Next up is Ios! That's where we are now...stay tuned!
Its been ages and much has happened, the days blur a little bit, but events are handily separated by island.
After the last update, in Santorini, Steph and I left Taylor's family's place to move to the more backpacker-friendly Perissa Beach. We had some serious lazy beach days, laid around our hotel's pool (definite perk for the budget travelers!), attempted a night on the town that turned out to be not so rowdy (who knew we were now in "off-season??). On one of our more ambitious days, we were told we could walk to Ancient Thera, just by taking that road over there for a few metres and following the signs for 45 minutes, how easy! It turned out that the "walk" was over an hour up the side of a mountain through what we later found out was the graveyard of the aforementioned Ancient Thera. So there we were, hiking like billy-goats in flip flops and sun dresses alongside hardcore keens-wearing tourists with waterbottles and judging glances. It was totally worth it - our first real ruins! It was the ruins of the old city, and they were pretty intact for a site that didn't seem to be afforded much in the way of protection from stomping tourist feet. That adventure took the whole day, then off we went to catch our ferry to Naxos. The major highlight of Santorini, sad as it is to admit, was the 24-hr bakery located about 100m from our hotel room. We went 5 times in 2 days, and each time discovered a new and exciting phyllo-covered treat...oops.
Our ride to Naxos should have been a nice, easy, 2 hour ride, but Poseidon seemed to have other plans and gave us some seriously rough seas. It wouldn't be outrageous to estimate that a solid 75% of the passengers on our ferry were vomiting into their seasickness bags. The poor ferry workers had to walk up and down the aisles for an hour with garbage bags exchanging puke-filled bags for empty ones. I almost threw up just from the sight, sound, and smell of so much bile, but lucky for me the Lawton constitution held up. At one point we were told that we couldn't even get to Naxos, and we turned around to dock in the nearest safe port, Ios. We then turned BACK around when the ocean calmed down and made it to Naxos safe, but late.
We arrived at night, completely lost, with absolutely no idea where to find our hotel. The directions said "250m from the port, on the beach". Sounds simple, no? NO. An hour or so of hopeless wandering and asking very unhelpful locals for assistance finally brought us to our rooms, where we were greeted by the owner scolding us for not seeing him and his nice minibus waiting for us at the port. Naxos was REALLY windy, just like Santorini, but on Santorini there were nice big lava rocks that didn't get blown around, whereas Naxos was pristine white sandy beaches. That sounds nice until you realize that it translates directly into a not-so-pristine white sandy body. We ditched the beach to head uphill (everything in Greece is uphill) to check out a Venetian Castle and the area around it. It was nothing like any other area of Greece we've wandered around - very very Italian looking and full of awesome shops, danger danger. We were sort of under the impression that Naxos was a boring ghost town with nobody around and no shops open, until we ventured out for dinner around 9pm and all the people who had been siesta-ing all day were out in force. Naxos is a seriously noctournal place and it is absolutely full of baked goods. They were everywhere! We became excellent customers of a local bakery between our hotel and the main street, very sketchy looking but run by a really nice Greek family. We definitely hit that up 4 times in 2 days. We can't be trusted with phyllo so close by, and crepes!
The ferry from Naxos was almost going to be a total disaster. Our ferry to Mykonos was canceled, so we had to book one 5 hours earlier (thank god we went and checked early) to Syros, then another to Mykonos. The first ferry was almost 2 hours late, which put us in a bit of a panic to make our connection, but evidently this is standard procedure for the Aegean Sea, because our next ferry was equally late.
Mykonos is a fairly dangerous place. One is able to find booze and loud music at pretty much any time between noon and 8am. We stayed at a place called Paradise, which had nice rooms but cost a fortune. I was frankly not super impressed with Mykonos on the whole. With the exception of one highly debaucherous night, it was pretty tame. The club we went to on the first night turned out to be an unofficial gay bar full of douchey gay Italians wearing scarves indoors when its +30 outside. On the night of the Full Moon Party, our one crazy night, Steph and I got a 1.5L of crappy wine to get a bit pissed before we headed to the bar where RedBull costs 12 euro. It was a totally unnecessary exercise - 5 minutes after we walked in some guys who may or may not have worked at the club slapped some VIP wristbands on us and plopped us in a booth with a bottle of Grey Goose. We went from VIP to dancing in the actual DJ booth at sunrise behind DJs who I've actually heard of! Crazy night that became a crazy 7am morning. Clearly the next day was a total write-off.
Next up is Ios! That's where we are now...stay tuned!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Santorini
Wow, it was a struggle to get here. Here being Santorini, on the complete opposite side of Greece from Corfu. Our travels began on Sunday night when we left the Pink Palace at 10 pm on the night bus, which arrived in Athens at 9am. Unfortunately for us, the only ferry leaving that day was at 7:30pm, arriving in Santorini the next morning. So we spent a VERY hot and EXTREMELY boring day in Athens waiting for boarding. We decided not to try to hit the Parthenon in the 8 or so hrs we had, because we hadn't slept, it was hotter than hell, and we didn't want to sprint thru the awesome historical sites at 100km/hr and exhausted. So we spent the day in various cafes being those people who take 2 hrs to drink a cup of coffee. The ferry wasn't terrible, and we managed to snag about 2 hrs of sleep on the hard floor of the peasant class cabin.
Steph and I are staying for 2 nights in Santorini with her boyfriend's parents. He and his family are here for 2 weeks, but we don't want to overstay our welcome. After tonight we're going to transfer to a more backpackery side of the island to do some backpackery things. But it has been really nice staying in an actual hotel and his parents are great; they won't let us pay for anything and they're really sweet people. On our first day here we were too exhausted to do much beyond lay by the pool, relocate to the beach, and go out for dinner at a local tavern. We did get a little sneak peak of Black Beach where we're staying tomorrow and it definitely looks like fun.
Today we had a bit more ambition, so we popped out of bed and got on a big ol' sailboat to go around the caldera, hike up the active volcanic part of the island, stop at a fishing village for lunch and a swim, and stop at the volcanic hotspot in the middle of the ocean. The guide neglected to tell us that the hotspot is full of bright green sulfer and some red volcanic shale, so Stephs pretty white bikini is now a gross tea-stained colour bikini. She was, needless to say, not very pleased. But the day was great. We had an amazing guide who seemed to speak about 7 languages and give us all the local history of the island and the volcano, and the weather was a solid 45 degrees. Lots of tanning, swimming, and learning. Therefore a fully successful day. Tonight we may or may not go out with Taylor and his brother, but everyone's kind of beat so it may be a quiet night.
I'm finding it a lot harder to blog update here, I always feel like I'm strapped for time! Speaking of, its 7:40 now, so dinner must be happening soon!
Ttfn!
Steph and I are staying for 2 nights in Santorini with her boyfriend's parents. He and his family are here for 2 weeks, but we don't want to overstay our welcome. After tonight we're going to transfer to a more backpackery side of the island to do some backpackery things. But it has been really nice staying in an actual hotel and his parents are great; they won't let us pay for anything and they're really sweet people. On our first day here we were too exhausted to do much beyond lay by the pool, relocate to the beach, and go out for dinner at a local tavern. We did get a little sneak peak of Black Beach where we're staying tomorrow and it definitely looks like fun.
Today we had a bit more ambition, so we popped out of bed and got on a big ol' sailboat to go around the caldera, hike up the active volcanic part of the island, stop at a fishing village for lunch and a swim, and stop at the volcanic hotspot in the middle of the ocean. The guide neglected to tell us that the hotspot is full of bright green sulfer and some red volcanic shale, so Stephs pretty white bikini is now a gross tea-stained colour bikini. She was, needless to say, not very pleased. But the day was great. We had an amazing guide who seemed to speak about 7 languages and give us all the local history of the island and the volcano, and the weather was a solid 45 degrees. Lots of tanning, swimming, and learning. Therefore a fully successful day. Tonight we may or may not go out with Taylor and his brother, but everyone's kind of beat so it may be a quiet night.
I'm finding it a lot harder to blog update here, I always feel like I'm strapped for time! Speaking of, its 7:40 now, so dinner must be happening soon!
Ttfn!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Corfu Adventures
Well, I barely survived, but Steph and I are leaving Corfu today. It was a truly exhausting 4 days. I can definitely see why half the travellers here have found themselves accidentally staying here for weeks on end, the days just seem to get away from you.
On Friday we went on the infamous Pink Palace booze cruise. Basically it involves putting 40 backpackers on a boat with booze and loud music and just seeing how it turns out. It was how I imagine spring break is...in Vegas...only worse. Or better, I suppose, depending on one's definition. While we were still coherent enough to make the climb, we got to do a 55 foot cliff jump and explore some bat caves early in the day. It was FUN. We barely made it back to our room, showered, and passed out for a 2 hour power nap before I was shaken awake by Steph demanding, "I put on makeup, we're rallying, let's go." So away we went to dinner, where we met up with some of the staff from the boat and they took us to this great Greek tavern with a bartender who made us all kinds of delicious layered intense beverages.
Saturday morning was a rough one. We couldn't mobilize until around 2pm, at which point we dragged our haggard selves into town to have lunch. Sadly, I ordered a delicious hunk of barbecued lamb but was too hungover to appreciate its juicy goodness. I guess I'll just have to get some more! Back to the Pink Palace because Saturday night is Toga Night! After trying unsuccessfully to tie the giant satin toga around ourselves in any sort of adorable way, we cut one in half and managed to fashion some halter top/belt things that looked reasonably good. The party had Greek dancers, plate smashing, ouzo, the works. I was apparently the object of some staff member's affection as I was selected from the crowd to take a shot of ouzo, standing on both of the Greek dancers while they did these biology-defying backbends and bouncing up and down to the music. Pretty sure everyone in that place saw more than they should have when I dismounted, but it was really fun nonetheless.
Sunday morning we were unceremoniously booted out of our room at the WAAAAY TOOOO EARLY 9am checkout. We wandered down to breakfast and somehow found the strength of will to go on a kayak safari today. It was 5 hrs of paddling in the blazing sun but we're really glad we went. We did another cliff jump (much shorter this time), some snorkling, and took a trip up several hundred stairs to a tiny old cliff-top monestary. Tonight we're taking the night bus to Athens, then heading to Santorini. Thats all for now!
On Friday we went on the infamous Pink Palace booze cruise. Basically it involves putting 40 backpackers on a boat with booze and loud music and just seeing how it turns out. It was how I imagine spring break is...in Vegas...only worse. Or better, I suppose, depending on one's definition. While we were still coherent enough to make the climb, we got to do a 55 foot cliff jump and explore some bat caves early in the day. It was FUN. We barely made it back to our room, showered, and passed out for a 2 hour power nap before I was shaken awake by Steph demanding, "I put on makeup, we're rallying, let's go." So away we went to dinner, where we met up with some of the staff from the boat and they took us to this great Greek tavern with a bartender who made us all kinds of delicious layered intense beverages.
Saturday morning was a rough one. We couldn't mobilize until around 2pm, at which point we dragged our haggard selves into town to have lunch. Sadly, I ordered a delicious hunk of barbecued lamb but was too hungover to appreciate its juicy goodness. I guess I'll just have to get some more! Back to the Pink Palace because Saturday night is Toga Night! After trying unsuccessfully to tie the giant satin toga around ourselves in any sort of adorable way, we cut one in half and managed to fashion some halter top/belt things that looked reasonably good. The party had Greek dancers, plate smashing, ouzo, the works. I was apparently the object of some staff member's affection as I was selected from the crowd to take a shot of ouzo, standing on both of the Greek dancers while they did these biology-defying backbends and bouncing up and down to the music. Pretty sure everyone in that place saw more than they should have when I dismounted, but it was really fun nonetheless.
Sunday morning we were unceremoniously booted out of our room at the WAAAAY TOOOO EARLY 9am checkout. We wandered down to breakfast and somehow found the strength of will to go on a kayak safari today. It was 5 hrs of paddling in the blazing sun but we're really glad we went. We did another cliff jump (much shorter this time), some snorkling, and took a trip up several hundred stairs to a tiny old cliff-top monestary. Tonight we're taking the night bus to Athens, then heading to Santorini. Thats all for now!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Pink Palace
Greetings from Corfu, Greece!!! We're finally here, and lordy was it a struggle to make it.
On our last night in London we popped down to the half price ticket office in Leicester Square and managed to score some tickets to Wicked for about $100 each. So off we went for an absolutely amazing show. I can't imagine how great it would've been to see the original cast. Our Glinda was ok, but our Elphaba was incredible. All in all a great show and I'd definitely recommend any visitors to London or New York to go, regardless of the price. We stopped to have some dinner and made it back to our hostel around midnight. We had a mad midnight dash to every souvenir shop we could find when we discovered the transformer we brought with us wasn't compatible with 3-pronged plugs, so to charge the laptop we needed to buy a 3-prong Canadian to England adaptor, then get a 2-prong England to Canada adaptor, then plug that into our power transformer, and then put the European plug on the end of that. The thing is a beast and I'm convinced that at any moment there's going to be sparks and a suspicious burning smell and the computer is going to be fried, but that has thus far not happened (knock wood!).
Our flight left Gatwick at 6am, so we had to leave our hostel at 3 to make it there. We passed out for just a bit too long of a nap and found ourselves sprinting through the streets of London to make the 3:22am bus to the train station. We ran up on the bus stop just as it was pulling in. And lucky we did, because that flight brought us somewhere that is so great!
We're staying in Corfu at the Pink Palace (check the website if you'd like a taste of what our weekend is going to be like www.pinkpalace.com). It is undeniably a party hostel, with 3 bars, 2 restaurants, and staff that 3 minutes ago pulled me and steph aside to have someone pour ouzo down our throats straight from the bottle, whether we wanted to or not. There are maybe 5 guys for every girl, and of those guys at least 4 are Italian. We are being leered at from all sides, but luckily the language barrier means they're leaving us alone. We get free breakfast and dinner and its decent, the drinks are cheap, and the rooms are clean. Our first day was spent napping, beaching, and being generally useless. We made it out for dinner at 8:30 and met a few really great people, 2 American guys who were sharing our room, and a couple from London. The 6 of us bought 4 boxes of wine (1.5L each...for 3 euros each....uh oh) and sat on the roof of the beach-front bar for a couple of hours. It got VERY MESSY. Steph and I stumbled home around 4 when the complete lack of sleep caught up with us, and I have no idea what happened to the Americans, as they are now gone. Poor guys are probably on the worst ferry ride of their lives right now.
Today was a lazy beachy day, we're already working on some serious tans. Tonight we're planning on taking it easy (if we can avoid the staff) because we have a booze cruise leaving at the crack of noon tomorrow that takes us around the island, cliff jumping, snorkling, and drinking. On Saturday nights they have a toga party here with plate breaking, ouzo drinking, and Greek dancers. Its 12 euros to get in, which includes your very own pink silk toga!! Then on Sunday we're heading to Santorini to hook up with Steph's boyfriend and his family for a couple of nights. In fact I should sign off and book our ferry now!!
On our last night in London we popped down to the half price ticket office in Leicester Square and managed to score some tickets to Wicked for about $100 each. So off we went for an absolutely amazing show. I can't imagine how great it would've been to see the original cast. Our Glinda was ok, but our Elphaba was incredible. All in all a great show and I'd definitely recommend any visitors to London or New York to go, regardless of the price. We stopped to have some dinner and made it back to our hostel around midnight. We had a mad midnight dash to every souvenir shop we could find when we discovered the transformer we brought with us wasn't compatible with 3-pronged plugs, so to charge the laptop we needed to buy a 3-prong Canadian to England adaptor, then get a 2-prong England to Canada adaptor, then plug that into our power transformer, and then put the European plug on the end of that. The thing is a beast and I'm convinced that at any moment there's going to be sparks and a suspicious burning smell and the computer is going to be fried, but that has thus far not happened (knock wood!).
Our flight left Gatwick at 6am, so we had to leave our hostel at 3 to make it there. We passed out for just a bit too long of a nap and found ourselves sprinting through the streets of London to make the 3:22am bus to the train station. We ran up on the bus stop just as it was pulling in. And lucky we did, because that flight brought us somewhere that is so great!
We're staying in Corfu at the Pink Palace (check the website if you'd like a taste of what our weekend is going to be like www.pinkpalace.com). It is undeniably a party hostel, with 3 bars, 2 restaurants, and staff that 3 minutes ago pulled me and steph aside to have someone pour ouzo down our throats straight from the bottle, whether we wanted to or not. There are maybe 5 guys for every girl, and of those guys at least 4 are Italian. We are being leered at from all sides, but luckily the language barrier means they're leaving us alone. We get free breakfast and dinner and its decent, the drinks are cheap, and the rooms are clean. Our first day was spent napping, beaching, and being generally useless. We made it out for dinner at 8:30 and met a few really great people, 2 American guys who were sharing our room, and a couple from London. The 6 of us bought 4 boxes of wine (1.5L each...for 3 euros each....uh oh) and sat on the roof of the beach-front bar for a couple of hours. It got VERY MESSY. Steph and I stumbled home around 4 when the complete lack of sleep caught up with us, and I have no idea what happened to the Americans, as they are now gone. Poor guys are probably on the worst ferry ride of their lives right now.
Today was a lazy beachy day, we're already working on some serious tans. Tonight we're planning on taking it easy (if we can avoid the staff) because we have a booze cruise leaving at the crack of noon tomorrow that takes us around the island, cliff jumping, snorkling, and drinking. On Saturday nights they have a toga party here with plate breaking, ouzo drinking, and Greek dancers. Its 12 euros to get in, which includes your very own pink silk toga!! Then on Sunday we're heading to Santorini to hook up with Steph's boyfriend and his family for a couple of nights. In fact I should sign off and book our ferry now!!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Tourism+debauchery=Debauchourism....the new voluntourism?
I begin this blog while I listen to the familiar sweet siren song of Steph, puking in the bathroom adjacent to our dorm room. She's puking because we got back to said room at 4am after 2 bottles of prosecco, a bottle of wine, a strongbow, a mojito, a few gin and cranberries, and a couple of ill-advised mystery shots. London, we have arrived. I am lucky enough to a.) have spent the last 2 months training rigorously for such a night and b.) be predisposed to not puke under virtually any and all circumstances. My genetics may have saddled me with a giant curly afro and a pig nose, but they sure help the drinkin'.
It should be noted here that those bottles were not just for Steph and I. We were joined by my lovely former roomates. You may remember them from that blog - Rosie and Jenny, the English girls we shared our ramshackle backpackers flat with in Melbourne. One of the English boys from across the courtyard, Simon, also assisted us (if memory serves, he was responsible for ordering them). It was great to see those girls. Its amazing how long ago that was! And how little everyone has changed since then. We got along like we had seen each other last week. The 3 locals took us to a pub off Piccadilly Circus where they have 1/2 price drinks and had some "Taste of London" card that gets us 1/2 price food, which you have to appreciate in a city where the cost of living is double. We had some decent grub, some drinks, some laughs, and once they discovered that we actually knew what Strongbow was, well, we just had to wander off to another pub to find some. And so the night began, and you already know how it ended.
Prior to that experience we actually had quite a productive touristy day. We rolled our jetlagged butts out of bed at 8 and grabbed some freeby breakfast at the hostel. Steph has been here before but has never seen the Tower of London so I joined her for my third tour. Its still cool. I'm enough of a history buff and have forgotten enough info since my last trip that it was still a good day for me. We spent far more time there than we thought we would and spent the few hours between the Tower and dinner with the girls just wandering around central London, Trafalgar Square, Covent Gardens, and Leicester Square.
Today we had big plans to push through the hangover and get all museum-ing early, but that hasn't exactly worked out. I'm going to rouse my little friend and drag her off to do something educational, and swing by the half price ticket booths to score some Wicked tickets for tonight...wish me luck!
It should be noted here that those bottles were not just for Steph and I. We were joined by my lovely former roomates. You may remember them from that blog - Rosie and Jenny, the English girls we shared our ramshackle backpackers flat with in Melbourne. One of the English boys from across the courtyard, Simon, also assisted us (if memory serves, he was responsible for ordering them). It was great to see those girls. Its amazing how long ago that was! And how little everyone has changed since then. We got along like we had seen each other last week. The 3 locals took us to a pub off Piccadilly Circus where they have 1/2 price drinks and had some "Taste of London" card that gets us 1/2 price food, which you have to appreciate in a city where the cost of living is double. We had some decent grub, some drinks, some laughs, and once they discovered that we actually knew what Strongbow was, well, we just had to wander off to another pub to find some. And so the night began, and you already know how it ended.
Prior to that experience we actually had quite a productive touristy day. We rolled our jetlagged butts out of bed at 8 and grabbed some freeby breakfast at the hostel. Steph has been here before but has never seen the Tower of London so I joined her for my third tour. Its still cool. I'm enough of a history buff and have forgotten enough info since my last trip that it was still a good day for me. We spent far more time there than we thought we would and spent the few hours between the Tower and dinner with the girls just wandering around central London, Trafalgar Square, Covent Gardens, and Leicester Square.
Today we had big plans to push through the hangover and get all museum-ing early, but that hasn't exactly worked out. I'm going to rouse my little friend and drag her off to do something educational, and swing by the half price ticket booths to score some Wicked tickets for tonight...wish me luck!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Off on a new adventure
Hello again blogosphere. I am, at this moment, sitting on my bunk in Equity Pointe Hostel in London, ready to start my next adventure. This time around I've brought my own computer so hopefully I won't be such a slave to internet cafes.
We've already had a relatively eventful journey. Steph and I decided that we didn't need to double-check that our flight was on time when we left Calgary, and upon our arrival at the YYC we discovered that we had been delayed until 6pm. Great. How exciting. Steph's parents had dropped us off 2 minutes before this discovery, but sadly they didn't bring their cellphones with them (clearly they've yet to put the "crack" in "Crackberry") so we found ourselves stuck at the oh so thrilling Calgary airport. We had an exhaustive wander around the non-security side, hit 2 separate coffee shops, and used our $10 meal voucher on a margarita and lunch at some airport restaurant. Several hours and half our books later we meandered thru security and got mildly pissed up at the Chili's by our departure gate. Once we finally boarded, an announcement came on telling us that one of our fellow passengers had indeed waited all day to board this flight and at the last minute "decided not to fly with us today" so they had to dig through all the luggage to find his bag, leaving us sitting on the tarmac for another 40 minutes. So our 6am arrival in London soon became Steph and I finally hitting our hostel around 3pm after we got our baggage and took the train into the city. By this point we were STARVING because the 2oz. blueberry muffin and 1/2 a cup of coffee we'd been given for "breakfast" 8 hour prior had been completely burned through some hours ago. So we dropped our bags and headed to the first pub we found for a couple of pints of Strongbow, meat pie for Steph, and fish and chips for me. We barely made it back to our hostel before we passed out facedown in our bunks for a solid 3hr nap, but not wanting to be jetlagged we dragged ourselves out of bed for a late dinner and a couple of hours of wandering around the area by our hostel. This area is quite posh, as they say. Every other car is an Audi or BMW and we are surrounded by whitewash houses and massive maple trees. Its nice because we felt completely comfortable walking around at night with minimal direction in mind.
Tomorrow we're having a big ol' touristy day. Its supposed to be nice tomorrow and rainy on Tuesday so we're going to do all the outside/walking stuff like the Tower of London, etc. and then the museums and indoor things on Tuesday. Tomorrow night we're also meeting up with Jenny and Rosie, my two former roomates from Australia, so that should be a nice catch up and perhaps a debaucherous evening. Off to bed for us now, big day ahead!
We've already had a relatively eventful journey. Steph and I decided that we didn't need to double-check that our flight was on time when we left Calgary, and upon our arrival at the YYC we discovered that we had been delayed until 6pm. Great. How exciting. Steph's parents had dropped us off 2 minutes before this discovery, but sadly they didn't bring their cellphones with them (clearly they've yet to put the "crack" in "Crackberry") so we found ourselves stuck at the oh so thrilling Calgary airport. We had an exhaustive wander around the non-security side, hit 2 separate coffee shops, and used our $10 meal voucher on a margarita and lunch at some airport restaurant. Several hours and half our books later we meandered thru security and got mildly pissed up at the Chili's by our departure gate. Once we finally boarded, an announcement came on telling us that one of our fellow passengers had indeed waited all day to board this flight and at the last minute "decided not to fly with us today" so they had to dig through all the luggage to find his bag, leaving us sitting on the tarmac for another 40 minutes. So our 6am arrival in London soon became Steph and I finally hitting our hostel around 3pm after we got our baggage and took the train into the city. By this point we were STARVING because the 2oz. blueberry muffin and 1/2 a cup of coffee we'd been given for "breakfast" 8 hour prior had been completely burned through some hours ago. So we dropped our bags and headed to the first pub we found for a couple of pints of Strongbow, meat pie for Steph, and fish and chips for me. We barely made it back to our hostel before we passed out facedown in our bunks for a solid 3hr nap, but not wanting to be jetlagged we dragged ourselves out of bed for a late dinner and a couple of hours of wandering around the area by our hostel. This area is quite posh, as they say. Every other car is an Audi or BMW and we are surrounded by whitewash houses and massive maple trees. Its nice because we felt completely comfortable walking around at night with minimal direction in mind.
Tomorrow we're having a big ol' touristy day. Its supposed to be nice tomorrow and rainy on Tuesday so we're going to do all the outside/walking stuff like the Tower of London, etc. and then the museums and indoor things on Tuesday. Tomorrow night we're also meeting up with Jenny and Rosie, my two former roomates from Australia, so that should be a nice catch up and perhaps a debaucherous evening. Off to bed for us now, big day ahead!
Monday, July 19, 2010
One more for the road.
Greetings from Taipei, boys and girls. Here is where I get the priviledge, nay, the pleasure, of spending 4 glorious hours on my layover before my super duper extra fun 12 hr flight to Vancouver. I'm sure the families of 12 are already in line at the check-in counter with all their worldly belongings and their distaste for waiting in line for anything. I figured one more blog post from the Asian landmass was in order to pass the time.
I had an action-packed few days in Siargao following the last post. On Thursday night we left on an overnight trip to a place that I'm 70% sure is called Sohoton. Or something like that. Haha its all a bit of a Tanduay haze how we planned that one out, but Bertus had it under control. First stop (after getting lunch and booze) on our little boat adventure was the Naked Island, called so because its just a giant sandbar in the middle of the ocean completely devoid of any buildings or plant/animal life. Basically it was an awesome place to get completely belligerently day drunk in the blazing sun and work on our tans. A few of the local guys came along with us to spice things up a bit. For lunch they made us an awesome grilled fish, which they seasoned by dipping it in the ocean - for salt! I have discovered a shameless love of grilled fish over here, and this one as usual did not disappoint. They grilled up some sailfish steaks on a chunk of wood they brought with them using some dried up coconut husks and dead palm leaves. Soooo delicious! Next up was a 2 some-odd hr debaucherous boat ride full of spontaneous singalongs and Tanduay straight from the bottle to this completely random house in the middle of nowhere. I don't think I could describe this place acurately or in a way that will make sense, but basically it was a 2-story house perched on the side of a jungle-covered cliff in an area of 70 acres full of smallish cliffy uninhabitable islands. Everywhere there was these amazing views and the water is half-salt half-fresh and completely still, with no waves or surf. It was so quiet after being ocean-front for so many days. Grab some google images if you can, because its so stunningly beautiful and peaceful and amazing that my dazed mid-flight brain can't quite grasp it. In any case, this place was awesome. We spent the late afternoon jumping from the 2nd story balconey into the water and swimming in the water, which is really cold for the first 3 inches or so then gets really REALLY warm underneath. So cool. The night was yet again another amazing meal of squid, some kind of salted fish, watermelon, soup, grilled squash and pumpkin, and chicken adobo. I swear, the best meals I've had in this country are the ones where some random lady is cooking you whatever she damn well pleases and there's no menu, just great grub. That night was the standard debaucherous rowdy times, with the Canadian team trying to teach a dozen very confused Pinos how to play Sociables.
The friggin biological clocks in the lifelong surfers woke them up at the crack of dawn. Its like they could smell high tide. Since they couldn't surf, they proceeded to resume the cliff-jumping cheering and laughing from the night before, much to the chagrin of the hungover Canadians who had passed out just before sunrise. We spent the morning chillin at the house, eating an awesome breakfast and swimming for a solid 4 hrs. After that we managed to herd the unbelievably drunk South African (our freakin tour guide) onto a boat for the planned day excursion. We went on small boats paddled by locals thru the coves/lagoons area, and hit up 2 caves, the names of which I sadly can't remember. There was one that was very much like a cenote swim in Mexico, all dark and stalectite-y. And the other one (where there was friggin BATS) we climbed up thru this column from the water inside the cave that spat us out about 30 feet up on a cliff-side. So more cliff jumping! The boys invited us back to this guys Rasta's house that night for a fish bbq, to which we readily agreed, so we all piled back into the boat for the long ride back to Siargao.
The fish bbq was AWESOME. More delicious non-restaurant food. Those boys can COOK. We had my new favourite fish, grilled blue marlin steaks, some Sinigang, soup, pineapple, and rice. YUMMMMMMY. Time to get smashed again, as it was unofficially our last real night in the Philippines, and our last night on Siargao. A very rowdy night was had by all. At one point I was on the back of a bike heading to Nine Bar and we almost ran over Bertus, sitting in the middle of the dirt road in pitch darkness wearing a panda touque playing guitar all by himself. He gave me a look of "hey, what are you doing on my road?" and we sped off. Sooo random. The night ended with a barefoot dance party at the bar where we had spent our first night. Such a great island.
Saturday was an epic travel day. Really its like I'm taking 4 days to get home. We left Siargao at 9 to take a jeep to the ferry, took a really shitty hungover ferry with no shade from the blazing sun for 3 hrs to Surigao, the capital city of the island. There we got a crappy hotel room for the afternoon that had no A/C and only 2 beds, so people slept as best they could and I sat there hating my life. I have developed a rather nasty infected cut on my butt cheek (ew, I know) and sitting down is super uncomfortable, so I sweat my bag off while laying with my back on the bed and my legs on the ground. Worst 5 hrs of my life. We were all very happy with the prospect of leaving that hot-box for the airconditioned night ferry back to Cebu. I was wise enough to have bought some sleeping pills for this one, and I popped 2 and passed out for the night. In the morning I woke up feeling like I had just been hit by a bus, chugged a bottle of vodka, snorted a line of laundry detergent, and been clubbed in the head. Those things were POWERFUL. I'm taking one on the plane tonight so I may be slightly delerious by the time I get home. I think I'll need it if I'm to sit on my sore ass for half a day.
Last night we were in Cebu, and it was a pretty anticlimactic last night in the country. We all passed out when the ferry arrived at 6am, and the girls headed to the mall to boost the economy. I did very very well on that trip. Almost to the point of being unable to pack my backpack - thank god for compression bags! I threw a couple of bottles of Tanduay in my bag, and even though I got a fragile sticker put on it, I was informed today that one of them broke in my bag. I have all my clothes in plastic compression bags, so I hope they make it home ok. So last night Kaitlyn and Brynn left at midnight, so there was lots of hotel drinking and drunken hugging and reminiscing. This morning I left alone at 9am to start my flight days home.
I'm thanking my lucky stars that I had 4 hrs in Manila, it took me almost the entire time to get there, take a taxi to the international terminal from domestic (soooo far, the airport is so spread out in the middle of the city), wait in the huge Air China check-in line for the Chinese people to get all their baggage in order, get through immigration/security, and find my gate. Manila is also one of those airports where there is absolutely nothing to eat on the other side of security. I was so happy to get out of there. Now I'm in Taipei waiting for my flight home! Catch you guys on Canadian soil!
I had an action-packed few days in Siargao following the last post. On Thursday night we left on an overnight trip to a place that I'm 70% sure is called Sohoton. Or something like that. Haha its all a bit of a Tanduay haze how we planned that one out, but Bertus had it under control. First stop (after getting lunch and booze) on our little boat adventure was the Naked Island, called so because its just a giant sandbar in the middle of the ocean completely devoid of any buildings or plant/animal life. Basically it was an awesome place to get completely belligerently day drunk in the blazing sun and work on our tans. A few of the local guys came along with us to spice things up a bit. For lunch they made us an awesome grilled fish, which they seasoned by dipping it in the ocean - for salt! I have discovered a shameless love of grilled fish over here, and this one as usual did not disappoint. They grilled up some sailfish steaks on a chunk of wood they brought with them using some dried up coconut husks and dead palm leaves. Soooo delicious! Next up was a 2 some-odd hr debaucherous boat ride full of spontaneous singalongs and Tanduay straight from the bottle to this completely random house in the middle of nowhere. I don't think I could describe this place acurately or in a way that will make sense, but basically it was a 2-story house perched on the side of a jungle-covered cliff in an area of 70 acres full of smallish cliffy uninhabitable islands. Everywhere there was these amazing views and the water is half-salt half-fresh and completely still, with no waves or surf. It was so quiet after being ocean-front for so many days. Grab some google images if you can, because its so stunningly beautiful and peaceful and amazing that my dazed mid-flight brain can't quite grasp it. In any case, this place was awesome. We spent the late afternoon jumping from the 2nd story balconey into the water and swimming in the water, which is really cold for the first 3 inches or so then gets really REALLY warm underneath. So cool. The night was yet again another amazing meal of squid, some kind of salted fish, watermelon, soup, grilled squash and pumpkin, and chicken adobo. I swear, the best meals I've had in this country are the ones where some random lady is cooking you whatever she damn well pleases and there's no menu, just great grub. That night was the standard debaucherous rowdy times, with the Canadian team trying to teach a dozen very confused Pinos how to play Sociables.
The friggin biological clocks in the lifelong surfers woke them up at the crack of dawn. Its like they could smell high tide. Since they couldn't surf, they proceeded to resume the cliff-jumping cheering and laughing from the night before, much to the chagrin of the hungover Canadians who had passed out just before sunrise. We spent the morning chillin at the house, eating an awesome breakfast and swimming for a solid 4 hrs. After that we managed to herd the unbelievably drunk South African (our freakin tour guide) onto a boat for the planned day excursion. We went on small boats paddled by locals thru the coves/lagoons area, and hit up 2 caves, the names of which I sadly can't remember. There was one that was very much like a cenote swim in Mexico, all dark and stalectite-y. And the other one (where there was friggin BATS) we climbed up thru this column from the water inside the cave that spat us out about 30 feet up on a cliff-side. So more cliff jumping! The boys invited us back to this guys Rasta's house that night for a fish bbq, to which we readily agreed, so we all piled back into the boat for the long ride back to Siargao.
The fish bbq was AWESOME. More delicious non-restaurant food. Those boys can COOK. We had my new favourite fish, grilled blue marlin steaks, some Sinigang, soup, pineapple, and rice. YUMMMMMMY. Time to get smashed again, as it was unofficially our last real night in the Philippines, and our last night on Siargao. A very rowdy night was had by all. At one point I was on the back of a bike heading to Nine Bar and we almost ran over Bertus, sitting in the middle of the dirt road in pitch darkness wearing a panda touque playing guitar all by himself. He gave me a look of "hey, what are you doing on my road?" and we sped off. Sooo random. The night ended with a barefoot dance party at the bar where we had spent our first night. Such a great island.
Saturday was an epic travel day. Really its like I'm taking 4 days to get home. We left Siargao at 9 to take a jeep to the ferry, took a really shitty hungover ferry with no shade from the blazing sun for 3 hrs to Surigao, the capital city of the island. There we got a crappy hotel room for the afternoon that had no A/C and only 2 beds, so people slept as best they could and I sat there hating my life. I have developed a rather nasty infected cut on my butt cheek (ew, I know) and sitting down is super uncomfortable, so I sweat my bag off while laying with my back on the bed and my legs on the ground. Worst 5 hrs of my life. We were all very happy with the prospect of leaving that hot-box for the airconditioned night ferry back to Cebu. I was wise enough to have bought some sleeping pills for this one, and I popped 2 and passed out for the night. In the morning I woke up feeling like I had just been hit by a bus, chugged a bottle of vodka, snorted a line of laundry detergent, and been clubbed in the head. Those things were POWERFUL. I'm taking one on the plane tonight so I may be slightly delerious by the time I get home. I think I'll need it if I'm to sit on my sore ass for half a day.
Last night we were in Cebu, and it was a pretty anticlimactic last night in the country. We all passed out when the ferry arrived at 6am, and the girls headed to the mall to boost the economy. I did very very well on that trip. Almost to the point of being unable to pack my backpack - thank god for compression bags! I threw a couple of bottles of Tanduay in my bag, and even though I got a fragile sticker put on it, I was informed today that one of them broke in my bag. I have all my clothes in plastic compression bags, so I hope they make it home ok. So last night Kaitlyn and Brynn left at midnight, so there was lots of hotel drinking and drunken hugging and reminiscing. This morning I left alone at 9am to start my flight days home.
I'm thanking my lucky stars that I had 4 hrs in Manila, it took me almost the entire time to get there, take a taxi to the international terminal from domestic (soooo far, the airport is so spread out in the middle of the city), wait in the huge Air China check-in line for the Chinese people to get all their baggage in order, get through immigration/security, and find my gate. Manila is also one of those airports where there is absolutely nothing to eat on the other side of security. I was so happy to get out of there. Now I'm in Taipei waiting for my flight home! Catch you guys on Canadian soil!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Surfin' Safari
Yikes, where does the time go? Last update was over a week ago if I'm not mistaken. The days are a bit blurry. The rice terraces and CWC seems like ages ago, but at the same time I can't believe I've been gone a month already. I've been busy busy busy, and internet access is hard to come by on islands.
Last you guys head I was about to embark on a dive day. That was an awesome dive. Every time I dive here its better than the last time. That dive was no exception. Actually it was 2 dives. Great day. More eels, more fish, more everything. It was a wall dive, which is down the side of a drop off into deeper ocean, where you can just float alongside a wall of coral watching the fish and keeping one eye open into the deep for big stuff. We caught sight of a giant school of baracuda that seemed to come out of nowhere and come REALLY close REALLY quickly. I'm sure we were not of any interest to them whatsoever, but I couldn't help but picture myself as the Travelocity gnome in the pirhanna tank. Saw some more eels, really amazing trumpet fish, piper fish, and the always adorable clownfish who come to investigate the intruders into their little territory. Some big ol' green sea turtles too. It was so sad to think that it was my last dive in the Philippines, but it was a great way to end.
The next day the group took the first day trip we'd been on in a while. It was an incredibly jam-packed day that had us leaving at 9am and getting home at 7pm. First up was the Chocolate Hills. These things are left over from the time when the Philippines didn't exist and the whole area was covered in ocean. They're huge coral mounds that have since been filled in by soil and taken over by plant life. They were cool to see but sadly we couldn't enjoy them for very long before rainy season reared its ugly head. Thank God that didn't last long because next up was a stop at a zipline! That never gets old. It shot us 1km over a ravine looking waaaaaay down at the river below. We flew strapped in Superman-style, headfirst flying across - I could've flown forever. The only way to get back to the other side? Zipline back! They were building a huge bungee site, but it wasn't done yet. Such a shame because I would've been all over that.
From there we went to visit a Tarsier "sanctuary". The place presented itself as a refuge for the world's smallest primate. The Tarsiers themselves were so so cute, looking like little bush babies clinging to the trees. However, I left the place feeling disgusted that I had given them money to continue the business. You see, Tarsiers are very territorial. In the wild each one will ahve a territory of about a hectare. When placed in captivity in close proximity to one another, they commit suicide within a year or two. They do this by smashing thier heads repeatedly with a rock or against a tree until the cute little monkey is reduced to a dead bloody mess. I asked the guide flat out if the ones we were looking at would succumb to this fate, and he said they would. Great. I'd like by 100 pesos back please. So if anyone every comes to the Philippines, DO NOT support this place.
It was getting pretty late in the day at that point, but we had one more stop to make to a waterfall. Usually our trips to waterfalls are great and refreshing, but on this day by the time we actually got to the place we were so tired we just wanted to head back and swim in the pool at our hotel and avoid the epic hike back up the hill that always accompanies waterfall treks. Adventure prevailed, and down we went to the falls. At that point out Filippino tour guide told us it was "no good", meaning that the white water was too strong and not safe for the planned cliff jumping. Bertus, being the rational professional that he is, decided to jump in anyways. This prompted one of the girls to beg to be allowed to jump, and it seemed he had a hard time saying no to the girl he's been banging all trip, so in she went. The river current grabbed her and sent her flying down the river and for about 5 seconds (longest 5 seconds ever) I really thought Bryn was going to die. Well played, Bertus. thursday mroning Kaitlyn and I got up early to catch some sun before heading back to Ceby in the afternoon. In Cebu I got to put on makeup and go to another real disco and dance my sweaty white ass off into the wee hours of the morning. Such a treat! Wee! The quote of the night was Kaitlyn telling me how surprised she was to see my facebook picutre; when she met me she thought I was such a tombody and the photos of me all blonde and dolled up and wearing pink totally shocked her! Evidently my foul mouth and butch cockroach-killing abilities hid the Barbie within when I don't have my hair straightener and liquid liner.
Friday morning, still drunk yet again, we boarded a plane to Siargao ("shar-gow"). 4 hrs of sleep after that much booze is not a fun time.
Siargao, our last stop, is actually, 100%, my absolute favourite place in the Philippines. Its amazing. I could stay here for 40 days. In fact, next summer I may do just that and be a surf bum for a month. The local surf guys are hilarious and up for anything and all the people are so nice and generous and just all around great. Add that to the fact that the surfing is awesome and the scenery is beautiful and the parties are insane and you've got paradise! On day 1 Amanda, Bryn, and me went for a wander down the beach to expore our new home. We took a turn into town and stopped at a shop to pick up some Tandua for the night (P30 for a mickey). A group of local guys was sitting at a table having some drinks and hsouted out to us to join them. Not wanting to miss the opportunity for excitement we sat down and cracked the Tanduay. It was, after all, 3 pm, and we had sobered up from Cebu. Most of them were surfers, one of whom has won 3 Masters Surf Competitions, which is apparently the most elite level of surfing competition. These guys are legit surfers, not just island-dwelling surf bums. We also met Liam the Aussie, who is here to surf while his wife gets Botox in Manila. His words, not mine. He has since lost his wedding ring at a house party. Good luck explaining that one. He's a random dude, who has remained part of our party crew ever since. Exhausted from our night in Cebu, and 2-drink-sleepy, I had myself a little 3 hr disco nap and was woken up around 9 to go get some dinner. The only place still serving food was Bar 101, so off we went. There was maybe 12 ppl in the place including our group of 6 when we arrived. I had my very first experience with jugs of Jungle Juice (1 mickey of Tanduay, 4 mangoes, ice, in a blender) and the unbelievably delicious jug of Boracay. Boracay is Tanduay, condensed milk, Milo (coco drink), and 3 in 1 instant coffee (coffee, creamer, sugar, in 1 packet). Its AMAZING. I'm making it when I get home. Anyways, that 12 quickly grew to 40 or 50 people, all locals except for us, all dancing, chatting, laughing. Such a sweet night. Once acain, the locals are amazing people. After Bar 101 we went back to our hotel, Cloud 9, to jam with 2 dozen ppl with guitars and a drum box. The jug of choice there was a mix of beer, rum, and powdered pineapple juice mix. I spent the night listening to a mix of English and Visayas songs, the local dialect here. One of the instructors, Mitchberg, treated us to a Visayas freestyle rap. It was sooo sweet.
As far as the actual surfing goes, my first day out on the waves was Saturday. It was AMAZING. I'm in love with surfing. I may find my way out to Tofino to surf in the freezing waves. I got up without too much trouble and rode some good sized waves. nothing compared to the 15 footers on the far side of the break, but nice newbie waves that made me feel awesome and hardcore nonetheless. Yoga has come back to bite me in the ass here. My instructor, Babal, told me not to put too much weight on my feet when I pop up, but to use my hands to power me up instead. This is to prevent me from pressing on the back of my board and losing all the speed I build up paddling to catch the wave. No problem for yoga girl, as I've spent some years now working on jumping on my hands from downward dog through to a seated or standing position. Unfortunately, when translated into surfing, my techniques seems to involve dragging the tops of my feet along the board until its actually time to stand, this results in very large, very painful blisters on the tops of my big toes, right under where my flip flops hit. So it looks like I'm destined to be shoeless for the week and to spend my future surf days in surfing booties that scream "NEWBIE!" even louder than my giant longboard did on day one.
The instructors are wicked. When any new surfer catches a wave, everyone in the water cheers for them and shouts pointers as they go past. And falls are met with immediate cries to paddle back and try again. Its such a great environment to learn in.
having done pretyt much zero physical activity since the rice terraces, and weighing about 10 lbs moer than I did 40 days ago, Sunday morning greeted me with stiff muscles and board burn on my chest. But hey, I'm hardcore surfer chick so I hit the waves again. I was on a shorter board and managed to choose 2 waves on my own, paddle, and ride them without the help of Babal pushing me into a wave! Yay! Such a good feeling! That night we hit up some truly delicious Indian food at an aussie sports bar (this island could not be more random). Some of the surfer dides came looking for us (this island is also very small) to invite us to a birthday party at another bar. They even brought birthday cake in a bag to intice us haha. Already we had learned that one never says no to a random adventure on Siargao, so off we went. These people are so unbelievably generous; we didn't pay for a thing all night. Bottles of vodka and pitchers of Boracay ran circles around that party, with the part of Christine Walton/Brian Olsen/Taylor Lancee being played by Otak the surf instructor. His mission seemed to be to get everyone as drunk as possible as quickly as possible and to make sure everyone had a good time. Fine by me. We hit a disco and went home in the wee hours. What shocked me most was the fact that a mickey of Tanduay at the disco cost the same as a mickey at the random local store in town. No jacking up of prices at all.
Monday was a VERY relaxihng (hungover) day. In the afternoon the surfer guys came and asked us if we wanted to get a pig and roast it. Heck yes we did! Wilbur cost P3000 and fed about 20 ppl. We paid for it, and the guys did all the dirty work. We showed up at Mitchberg's house to find the pig in classic roasting form, head still on and all. That, along with some Lipsiligan (I think that's what it's called - raw fish in vinegar and spices), rice, and a squid stuffed with vegetables, made a truly delicous meal. The skin was the tastiest part, so crispy and tasted like a mix between bacon and roasted chicken skin. More free booze followed the feast, and the boys busted out a 3-prong beer bong for races. THe Canadian girls showed them how its done, and I won my heat :D
I think its perfect that the trip ends in Siargao. If some random local had asked me to hop on his bike and go to a cockfight during my first few days here, I probably would've been too nervous to say yes. Oh God! I didn't mention that before, did I. On Sunday before surfing we went to a real live cockfight, where the roosters fight each other to the death. They have a 3-inch blade strapped ot their foot and fight. The craziest thing was watching the men yell out thier bets. I don't know what the signal was, but all of a sudden everyone started yelling and waving hand signals at 3 guys wearing orange t-shirts. Everyone was going crazy. As I was saying, the best this about this island is the random adventures, and I htink its better to come here once we're all comfortable in the country, so those things can happen.
Tuesday's random adventure involved Ali the surfer dude asking me and Kaitlyn if we wanted to go eat some coconut. So we hopped on his motorbike and he took us to some random coconut tree area and proceded to climb up an enourmous tree to get some coconuts. He and his buddies made this drink that was coconut juice, coconut meat, condensed milk, and cookie chunks. It was tasty as hell and great for the pigroast hangover. These guys are living the dream. They surf high tide in the morning, have all day free to do whatever they want, and teach us white girls how to surf at afternoon high tide, then drink all night. Almost all of them are sponsored by big names like Billabong and Rip Curl, and they get to live in their small island paradise and travel to Japan and Indonesia and all around doing competitions. There seems to be only about 20 tourists here surfing, so its still nice and empty. They told us not to spread the word about Siargao to our friends at home, because then more people would come and ruin it. They're not wrong.
My surfing on Tuesday was brutal. I went solo and flailed around in salt water for an hour before giving up. I think I was too tired and the surf was not that great and it just wasn't an idea day.
Today we were supposed to go on a day trip to Naked Island (basically a huge sandbar where we were planning on having a fish cookin' fire and getting day drunk) but its pissing rain and cold (maybe 25 degrees haha) so we're not going. Also Adam has had a fever and been vomiting for a week so his sister, the one who just got out of the hospital, was going to stay with him. We figure its better to go another day when its sunny and Adam is either safely in a hospital or is in good enough shape to stay by himself for a whole day. Those poor kids are having the worst luck with medical stuff. Knock on wood, but I've stayed prety much illness- and infection-free since getting here. I probably wont have another update until I get to Manila on Monday - on my way home!!! Yikes! I have a brutal flight schedule: 1 hr flight from Cebu to Manila where I have a 4 hr layover, a 2 hr flight from Manila to Taipei where there's another 4 hr layover, then 13 hrs to Vancouver where I actually would have someone to play with for 4 hrs, but I only have an hour there, then home where my Mom has to pick me up at midnight on a school night. Long day for me! See you guys on Canadain soil!
Last you guys head I was about to embark on a dive day. That was an awesome dive. Every time I dive here its better than the last time. That dive was no exception. Actually it was 2 dives. Great day. More eels, more fish, more everything. It was a wall dive, which is down the side of a drop off into deeper ocean, where you can just float alongside a wall of coral watching the fish and keeping one eye open into the deep for big stuff. We caught sight of a giant school of baracuda that seemed to come out of nowhere and come REALLY close REALLY quickly. I'm sure we were not of any interest to them whatsoever, but I couldn't help but picture myself as the Travelocity gnome in the pirhanna tank. Saw some more eels, really amazing trumpet fish, piper fish, and the always adorable clownfish who come to investigate the intruders into their little territory. Some big ol' green sea turtles too. It was so sad to think that it was my last dive in the Philippines, but it was a great way to end.
The next day the group took the first day trip we'd been on in a while. It was an incredibly jam-packed day that had us leaving at 9am and getting home at 7pm. First up was the Chocolate Hills. These things are left over from the time when the Philippines didn't exist and the whole area was covered in ocean. They're huge coral mounds that have since been filled in by soil and taken over by plant life. They were cool to see but sadly we couldn't enjoy them for very long before rainy season reared its ugly head. Thank God that didn't last long because next up was a stop at a zipline! That never gets old. It shot us 1km over a ravine looking waaaaaay down at the river below. We flew strapped in Superman-style, headfirst flying across - I could've flown forever. The only way to get back to the other side? Zipline back! They were building a huge bungee site, but it wasn't done yet. Such a shame because I would've been all over that.
From there we went to visit a Tarsier "sanctuary". The place presented itself as a refuge for the world's smallest primate. The Tarsiers themselves were so so cute, looking like little bush babies clinging to the trees. However, I left the place feeling disgusted that I had given them money to continue the business. You see, Tarsiers are very territorial. In the wild each one will ahve a territory of about a hectare. When placed in captivity in close proximity to one another, they commit suicide within a year or two. They do this by smashing thier heads repeatedly with a rock or against a tree until the cute little monkey is reduced to a dead bloody mess. I asked the guide flat out if the ones we were looking at would succumb to this fate, and he said they would. Great. I'd like by 100 pesos back please. So if anyone every comes to the Philippines, DO NOT support this place.
It was getting pretty late in the day at that point, but we had one more stop to make to a waterfall. Usually our trips to waterfalls are great and refreshing, but on this day by the time we actually got to the place we were so tired we just wanted to head back and swim in the pool at our hotel and avoid the epic hike back up the hill that always accompanies waterfall treks. Adventure prevailed, and down we went to the falls. At that point out Filippino tour guide told us it was "no good", meaning that the white water was too strong and not safe for the planned cliff jumping. Bertus, being the rational professional that he is, decided to jump in anyways. This prompted one of the girls to beg to be allowed to jump, and it seemed he had a hard time saying no to the girl he's been banging all trip, so in she went. The river current grabbed her and sent her flying down the river and for about 5 seconds (longest 5 seconds ever) I really thought Bryn was going to die. Well played, Bertus. thursday mroning Kaitlyn and I got up early to catch some sun before heading back to Ceby in the afternoon. In Cebu I got to put on makeup and go to another real disco and dance my sweaty white ass off into the wee hours of the morning. Such a treat! Wee! The quote of the night was Kaitlyn telling me how surprised she was to see my facebook picutre; when she met me she thought I was such a tombody and the photos of me all blonde and dolled up and wearing pink totally shocked her! Evidently my foul mouth and butch cockroach-killing abilities hid the Barbie within when I don't have my hair straightener and liquid liner.
Friday morning, still drunk yet again, we boarded a plane to Siargao ("shar-gow"). 4 hrs of sleep after that much booze is not a fun time.
Siargao, our last stop, is actually, 100%, my absolute favourite place in the Philippines. Its amazing. I could stay here for 40 days. In fact, next summer I may do just that and be a surf bum for a month. The local surf guys are hilarious and up for anything and all the people are so nice and generous and just all around great. Add that to the fact that the surfing is awesome and the scenery is beautiful and the parties are insane and you've got paradise! On day 1 Amanda, Bryn, and me went for a wander down the beach to expore our new home. We took a turn into town and stopped at a shop to pick up some Tandua for the night (P30 for a mickey). A group of local guys was sitting at a table having some drinks and hsouted out to us to join them. Not wanting to miss the opportunity for excitement we sat down and cracked the Tanduay. It was, after all, 3 pm, and we had sobered up from Cebu. Most of them were surfers, one of whom has won 3 Masters Surf Competitions, which is apparently the most elite level of surfing competition. These guys are legit surfers, not just island-dwelling surf bums. We also met Liam the Aussie, who is here to surf while his wife gets Botox in Manila. His words, not mine. He has since lost his wedding ring at a house party. Good luck explaining that one. He's a random dude, who has remained part of our party crew ever since. Exhausted from our night in Cebu, and 2-drink-sleepy, I had myself a little 3 hr disco nap and was woken up around 9 to go get some dinner. The only place still serving food was Bar 101, so off we went. There was maybe 12 ppl in the place including our group of 6 when we arrived. I had my very first experience with jugs of Jungle Juice (1 mickey of Tanduay, 4 mangoes, ice, in a blender) and the unbelievably delicious jug of Boracay. Boracay is Tanduay, condensed milk, Milo (coco drink), and 3 in 1 instant coffee (coffee, creamer, sugar, in 1 packet). Its AMAZING. I'm making it when I get home. Anyways, that 12 quickly grew to 40 or 50 people, all locals except for us, all dancing, chatting, laughing. Such a sweet night. Once acain, the locals are amazing people. After Bar 101 we went back to our hotel, Cloud 9, to jam with 2 dozen ppl with guitars and a drum box. The jug of choice there was a mix of beer, rum, and powdered pineapple juice mix. I spent the night listening to a mix of English and Visayas songs, the local dialect here. One of the instructors, Mitchberg, treated us to a Visayas freestyle rap. It was sooo sweet.
As far as the actual surfing goes, my first day out on the waves was Saturday. It was AMAZING. I'm in love with surfing. I may find my way out to Tofino to surf in the freezing waves. I got up without too much trouble and rode some good sized waves. nothing compared to the 15 footers on the far side of the break, but nice newbie waves that made me feel awesome and hardcore nonetheless. Yoga has come back to bite me in the ass here. My instructor, Babal, told me not to put too much weight on my feet when I pop up, but to use my hands to power me up instead. This is to prevent me from pressing on the back of my board and losing all the speed I build up paddling to catch the wave. No problem for yoga girl, as I've spent some years now working on jumping on my hands from downward dog through to a seated or standing position. Unfortunately, when translated into surfing, my techniques seems to involve dragging the tops of my feet along the board until its actually time to stand, this results in very large, very painful blisters on the tops of my big toes, right under where my flip flops hit. So it looks like I'm destined to be shoeless for the week and to spend my future surf days in surfing booties that scream "NEWBIE!" even louder than my giant longboard did on day one.
The instructors are wicked. When any new surfer catches a wave, everyone in the water cheers for them and shouts pointers as they go past. And falls are met with immediate cries to paddle back and try again. Its such a great environment to learn in.
having done pretyt much zero physical activity since the rice terraces, and weighing about 10 lbs moer than I did 40 days ago, Sunday morning greeted me with stiff muscles and board burn on my chest. But hey, I'm hardcore surfer chick so I hit the waves again. I was on a shorter board and managed to choose 2 waves on my own, paddle, and ride them without the help of Babal pushing me into a wave! Yay! Such a good feeling! That night we hit up some truly delicious Indian food at an aussie sports bar (this island could not be more random). Some of the surfer dides came looking for us (this island is also very small) to invite us to a birthday party at another bar. They even brought birthday cake in a bag to intice us haha. Already we had learned that one never says no to a random adventure on Siargao, so off we went. These people are so unbelievably generous; we didn't pay for a thing all night. Bottles of vodka and pitchers of Boracay ran circles around that party, with the part of Christine Walton/Brian Olsen/Taylor Lancee being played by Otak the surf instructor. His mission seemed to be to get everyone as drunk as possible as quickly as possible and to make sure everyone had a good time. Fine by me. We hit a disco and went home in the wee hours. What shocked me most was the fact that a mickey of Tanduay at the disco cost the same as a mickey at the random local store in town. No jacking up of prices at all.
Monday was a VERY relaxihng (hungover) day. In the afternoon the surfer guys came and asked us if we wanted to get a pig and roast it. Heck yes we did! Wilbur cost P3000 and fed about 20 ppl. We paid for it, and the guys did all the dirty work. We showed up at Mitchberg's house to find the pig in classic roasting form, head still on and all. That, along with some Lipsiligan (I think that's what it's called - raw fish in vinegar and spices), rice, and a squid stuffed with vegetables, made a truly delicous meal. The skin was the tastiest part, so crispy and tasted like a mix between bacon and roasted chicken skin. More free booze followed the feast, and the boys busted out a 3-prong beer bong for races. THe Canadian girls showed them how its done, and I won my heat :D
I think its perfect that the trip ends in Siargao. If some random local had asked me to hop on his bike and go to a cockfight during my first few days here, I probably would've been too nervous to say yes. Oh God! I didn't mention that before, did I. On Sunday before surfing we went to a real live cockfight, where the roosters fight each other to the death. They have a 3-inch blade strapped ot their foot and fight. The craziest thing was watching the men yell out thier bets. I don't know what the signal was, but all of a sudden everyone started yelling and waving hand signals at 3 guys wearing orange t-shirts. Everyone was going crazy. As I was saying, the best this about this island is the random adventures, and I htink its better to come here once we're all comfortable in the country, so those things can happen.
Tuesday's random adventure involved Ali the surfer dude asking me and Kaitlyn if we wanted to go eat some coconut. So we hopped on his motorbike and he took us to some random coconut tree area and proceded to climb up an enourmous tree to get some coconuts. He and his buddies made this drink that was coconut juice, coconut meat, condensed milk, and cookie chunks. It was tasty as hell and great for the pigroast hangover. These guys are living the dream. They surf high tide in the morning, have all day free to do whatever they want, and teach us white girls how to surf at afternoon high tide, then drink all night. Almost all of them are sponsored by big names like Billabong and Rip Curl, and they get to live in their small island paradise and travel to Japan and Indonesia and all around doing competitions. There seems to be only about 20 tourists here surfing, so its still nice and empty. They told us not to spread the word about Siargao to our friends at home, because then more people would come and ruin it. They're not wrong.
My surfing on Tuesday was brutal. I went solo and flailed around in salt water for an hour before giving up. I think I was too tired and the surf was not that great and it just wasn't an idea day.
Today we were supposed to go on a day trip to Naked Island (basically a huge sandbar where we were planning on having a fish cookin' fire and getting day drunk) but its pissing rain and cold (maybe 25 degrees haha) so we're not going. Also Adam has had a fever and been vomiting for a week so his sister, the one who just got out of the hospital, was going to stay with him. We figure its better to go another day when its sunny and Adam is either safely in a hospital or is in good enough shape to stay by himself for a whole day. Those poor kids are having the worst luck with medical stuff. Knock on wood, but I've stayed prety much illness- and infection-free since getting here. I probably wont have another update until I get to Manila on Monday - on my way home!!! Yikes! I have a brutal flight schedule: 1 hr flight from Cebu to Manila where I have a 4 hr layover, a 2 hr flight from Manila to Taipei where there's another 4 hr layover, then 13 hrs to Vancouver where I actually would have someone to play with for 4 hrs, but I only have an hour there, then home where my Mom has to pick me up at midnight on a school night. Long day for me! See you guys on Canadain soil!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Safely out of Boracay. Dear body: You're Welcome
Greetings from Panglau. The itinerary you guys have is definitely not right. Malapascua is where I did my scuba stuff. Now I'm in Bahon, on Panglau island...I think. The names are always a little elusive as every 2 metres it seems we're in a different municipality and the islands have names that don't exactly roll off the tongue. I popped into this internet place on a whim, and usually I have a notebook that I bring with me to remind me of where we've been and what we've been doing, but I don't have it today, so bear with me on the details.
The last day in Boracay, once I sobered up, was pretty chill. I managed to get my life together by about 5:00 and do some shopping, which was decent but nowhere near the crazy deals and numerous stores that characterizes Thailand. I bought some jewelry, a couple of dresses, a new sarong, and a bathing suit top. Bathing suit shopping in the Philippines is quite the ordeal, especially when one is bloated from being hungover and has not seen the inside of a gym for a month. There is one size, SMALL. And it is not Canadian size small, no no no. It is Filipina size small which is about as big around as my upper thigh. Sadly the tops all fit like a damn (tiny boobs and all that) but I wasn't about to go and buy a bunch of half bathing suits. I just got the one that I already kind of have matching bottoms for. That night I was clearly in no shape to drink excessively, so me and Kaitlyn from my group headed out for some awesome Japanese food that cost me a whopping $18 for soup, rice, sushi roll, tuna steak, salad, and this mysterious plain tofu for desert. Which is actually really expensive for the Philippines but it was tasty and I deserve a damn treat every now and again. That tofu thing was NOT desert so we stopped for gelato on the way home. Yum yum.
Fully committing to the tourist vibe around us, the next morning us 2 got up an hr before our 8am departure to make our way to the Starbucks!!!! Starbucks Boracay is the happiest place on earth. I was more than excited at the prospect of having a whole wheat bagel and a "triple grade sugar-free vanilla non-fat latte", and then when we walked in we were greeted by the happiest damn staff of any coffee shop anywhere in the world. The girls behind the counter giggled and asked us all sorts of personal questions that were so adorable and sent us upstairs to eat our breakfast overlooking the blue blue waters. Kaitlyn ran downstairs to grab us another cream cheese and came back with 2 sets of "pearl" earrings. Evidently the girl at the til has a cousin who makes these for the street vendors who are selling them all over Boracay, so she has a ton and gave them to us as a present just for being adorable I suppose. So random but quite seriously the best Starbucks experience you could imagine. I think I should write a letter.
8 am and we were on our way via jeepney to the ferry, little jumper ferry to the bus terminal, 6 hrs on a bus to Iloilo, where we had 2 hrs to shop at the mall and hang out before going on a jumbo night ferry back to Cebu. I just bought some $10 gladiator sandals and had some lasagna. Hey, sometimes you just want some friggin' white people food. The night ferry was pretty nice, comfortable beds and the standard frozen solid air conditioning. I had a bottle of wine on the roof of the ferry (ignoring the big red RESTRICTED ACCESS sign...oh well) and passed out. Wierdly they didn't turn off the lights all night so I spent the evening cursing myself for not bringing a sleeping mask. Around 6:30 we rolled into Cebu, picked up Adam and Amanda who had gotten out of the hospital 2 days prior and caught another ferry to Panglau. Apparently Amanda had an inflamed fallopian tube and it spilled some sort of infectious bile into her uterus. I'm not really sure on the specifics, but she's all good now. Her brother had a pretty nightmarish few days, as she ended up on oxygen and the nurses could not administer any medication without him actually getting a prescription and going down to the pharmacy himself to get it, that includes IV antibiotics and a cold compress when she had a fever. Also no A/C and no bed for him to sleep in, and we had their backpacks for the whole time in Boracay. Poor things. But all is well now, the group is together and back in action. Our rooms here have kitchenettes so we stopped at the grocery store for luxuries such as cheese and fresh produce and the fixins for a bbq tomorrow afternoon to celebrate the birthday that Adam spent laying on a bench in a Filipino hospital.
I'm really not feelin' our new girls Alyssa. She's 26 and going through a divorce from her high school boyfriend, so that time that most girls have when they're 18 or 19 and just discover alcohol, freedom, and sex, she is going through now, 26 years old, in the Philippines. She is as emotionally stunted as you can possibly imagine and has a voice that grates on my for a reason I can't quite pinpoint. Add that to the fact that she had sex with some Australian dude on her balcony at 8am totally wasted and lets just say her and I haven't exactly bonded. Also she has never had a drink until about 7 months ago and tries to go shot for shot with our 31 year old professional alcoholic/tourguide. Yeesh. I avoid her for the sake of not having any open hostility on this trip.
Tomorrow we've got a dive booked at Balicasag island, which is supposed to be pretty amazing. We're doing 2 dives then hitting the Tanduay (P60 here) for Adam's belated birthday. My body is happy to be out of Boracay, maybe it will get some R&R...or maybe not. Today marks exactly 2 weeks till I get home - where did the time go???
The last day in Boracay, once I sobered up, was pretty chill. I managed to get my life together by about 5:00 and do some shopping, which was decent but nowhere near the crazy deals and numerous stores that characterizes Thailand. I bought some jewelry, a couple of dresses, a new sarong, and a bathing suit top. Bathing suit shopping in the Philippines is quite the ordeal, especially when one is bloated from being hungover and has not seen the inside of a gym for a month. There is one size, SMALL. And it is not Canadian size small, no no no. It is Filipina size small which is about as big around as my upper thigh. Sadly the tops all fit like a damn (tiny boobs and all that) but I wasn't about to go and buy a bunch of half bathing suits. I just got the one that I already kind of have matching bottoms for. That night I was clearly in no shape to drink excessively, so me and Kaitlyn from my group headed out for some awesome Japanese food that cost me a whopping $18 for soup, rice, sushi roll, tuna steak, salad, and this mysterious plain tofu for desert. Which is actually really expensive for the Philippines but it was tasty and I deserve a damn treat every now and again. That tofu thing was NOT desert so we stopped for gelato on the way home. Yum yum.
Fully committing to the tourist vibe around us, the next morning us 2 got up an hr before our 8am departure to make our way to the Starbucks!!!! Starbucks Boracay is the happiest place on earth. I was more than excited at the prospect of having a whole wheat bagel and a "triple grade sugar-free vanilla non-fat latte", and then when we walked in we were greeted by the happiest damn staff of any coffee shop anywhere in the world. The girls behind the counter giggled and asked us all sorts of personal questions that were so adorable and sent us upstairs to eat our breakfast overlooking the blue blue waters. Kaitlyn ran downstairs to grab us another cream cheese and came back with 2 sets of "pearl" earrings. Evidently the girl at the til has a cousin who makes these for the street vendors who are selling them all over Boracay, so she has a ton and gave them to us as a present just for being adorable I suppose. So random but quite seriously the best Starbucks experience you could imagine. I think I should write a letter.
8 am and we were on our way via jeepney to the ferry, little jumper ferry to the bus terminal, 6 hrs on a bus to Iloilo, where we had 2 hrs to shop at the mall and hang out before going on a jumbo night ferry back to Cebu. I just bought some $10 gladiator sandals and had some lasagna. Hey, sometimes you just want some friggin' white people food. The night ferry was pretty nice, comfortable beds and the standard frozen solid air conditioning. I had a bottle of wine on the roof of the ferry (ignoring the big red RESTRICTED ACCESS sign...oh well) and passed out. Wierdly they didn't turn off the lights all night so I spent the evening cursing myself for not bringing a sleeping mask. Around 6:30 we rolled into Cebu, picked up Adam and Amanda who had gotten out of the hospital 2 days prior and caught another ferry to Panglau. Apparently Amanda had an inflamed fallopian tube and it spilled some sort of infectious bile into her uterus. I'm not really sure on the specifics, but she's all good now. Her brother had a pretty nightmarish few days, as she ended up on oxygen and the nurses could not administer any medication without him actually getting a prescription and going down to the pharmacy himself to get it, that includes IV antibiotics and a cold compress when she had a fever. Also no A/C and no bed for him to sleep in, and we had their backpacks for the whole time in Boracay. Poor things. But all is well now, the group is together and back in action. Our rooms here have kitchenettes so we stopped at the grocery store for luxuries such as cheese and fresh produce and the fixins for a bbq tomorrow afternoon to celebrate the birthday that Adam spent laying on a bench in a Filipino hospital.
I'm really not feelin' our new girls Alyssa. She's 26 and going through a divorce from her high school boyfriend, so that time that most girls have when they're 18 or 19 and just discover alcohol, freedom, and sex, she is going through now, 26 years old, in the Philippines. She is as emotionally stunted as you can possibly imagine and has a voice that grates on my for a reason I can't quite pinpoint. Add that to the fact that she had sex with some Australian dude on her balcony at 8am totally wasted and lets just say her and I haven't exactly bonded. Also she has never had a drink until about 7 months ago and tries to go shot for shot with our 31 year old professional alcoholic/tourguide. Yeesh. I avoid her for the sake of not having any open hostility on this trip.
Tomorrow we've got a dive booked at Balicasag island, which is supposed to be pretty amazing. We're doing 2 dives then hitting the Tanduay (P60 here) for Adam's belated birthday. My body is happy to be out of Boracay, maybe it will get some R&R...or maybe not. Today marks exactly 2 weeks till I get home - where did the time go???
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Boracay
Let me start by saying that I have not yet been to bed from yesterday, and I am on the cusp of a truly crippling hangover. I figured I should blog while I'm still drunk to avoid passing out in the internet cafe later on. It is 4pm. Spelling and grammar errors are inevitable here.
Boracay is mad. Its crazy. Its like if Koh Pangan in Thailand and Cancun had a baby together and that baby was a raging alcoholic. The days are a bit blurred, but I can say for certain what happened on Canada Day. Aileen and I woke up early and went out for a dive. Its was an awesome dive, like swimming in an aquarium. Highlights include seeing lobster, more sea snakes, a bright yellow polkadot puffer fish, a school of those giant dinner plate sized angel fish, and an eel. We met a really cool family from Calgary now living in Qatar (not a poor family I would wager) who took all kinds of photos of us with their fancy underwater camera so I have lots of pictures! Sadly my video camera has not been working on the dives, the buttons don't push when I'm below 6m or so. I think it has something to do with the pressure :( We came back to the island in time for the rest of the travellers to come out of their caves into the bright gorgeous day. We had booked a sailboat for the afternoon so we rounded up some Tanduay (P80, which is misleading because Boracay is really really expensive) and off we went. One of the girls was an absolute genius and brought nachos and salsa with us so we had a downright Canadian lunch on one of the little islands that the boat took us to. Half a bottle of Tanduay later we were back in Boracay for a shower. The dive family had invited Aileen and I to their resort for a Canada Day party put on by the Canadian owners. So we grabbed a tricycle and headed to Seven Sands Resort, which looked to be about a 6 star place full of rich ex-pats. They had a BARBEQUE! I had potatoe salad and some absolutely delicious veggie skewers and got absolutely bombed with this family. They invited us up to their place where they had Clamato juice that they had brought with them from Qatar...sadly I do not like cesars. My group was horrified to learn that they had misseed the opportunity. We ended then night with a Canadian flag cake and some shisha and left them to go back to our beach to find our crew. No chance. The place was crazy and we were hammered so Aileen and I just sat down at a bar and demolished a plate of fries and went home.
The next day, needless to say, did not start off with a dive. Its too hot to sleep here during the day so I woke up around 8am and stumbled down to the beach to pass out. Around 11 Aileen woke me up to say goodbye. She was only here for 20 days and now she's on her way back to Canada. Sad news indeed, but she's from Calgary so we shall meet again. There wasn't a breath of wind on the beach so I had to spend the day bobbing in the ocean. Rough life. We pulled ourselves together when the sun went down to grab some dinner. I had some incredible chicken curry and started in on the Tanduay. Last night ended up being so random. Highlights include drinking on the beach with a group of transvestites, taking a cab back to my room just so I could take a crap, hitting a club on the other side of the island where a Canadian bartender named Shawn must've given me at least 10 tequila shots, dancing at another club with that club's owner and his posse of Korean girls who spoke no english and kept touching my hair, ending up drinking at the Canadian dudes appartment above the bar he worked at til about noon, and finding our way home where we tried to pass out but couldn't due to the blistering heat. So swimming and trying to sober up all afternoon. Today is our last day here so I need to get my act together and go shopping, which I somehow have managed to miss for the last 5 days.
Oh! And the day before Canada Day we hit up the Hobbit House where I paid a whopping $8 for a cold, delicious, unbelievably satisfying strongbow. Yummmmmmm.
Epic travel day coming up tomorrow. 24 straight hours of busses, jeepneys, and a night ferry. Should be pretty brutal, then we find ourselves in Panglau for a few days...only 2 weeks left! EEP!
Boracay is mad. Its crazy. Its like if Koh Pangan in Thailand and Cancun had a baby together and that baby was a raging alcoholic. The days are a bit blurred, but I can say for certain what happened on Canada Day. Aileen and I woke up early and went out for a dive. Its was an awesome dive, like swimming in an aquarium. Highlights include seeing lobster, more sea snakes, a bright yellow polkadot puffer fish, a school of those giant dinner plate sized angel fish, and an eel. We met a really cool family from Calgary now living in Qatar (not a poor family I would wager) who took all kinds of photos of us with their fancy underwater camera so I have lots of pictures! Sadly my video camera has not been working on the dives, the buttons don't push when I'm below 6m or so. I think it has something to do with the pressure :( We came back to the island in time for the rest of the travellers to come out of their caves into the bright gorgeous day. We had booked a sailboat for the afternoon so we rounded up some Tanduay (P80, which is misleading because Boracay is really really expensive) and off we went. One of the girls was an absolute genius and brought nachos and salsa with us so we had a downright Canadian lunch on one of the little islands that the boat took us to. Half a bottle of Tanduay later we were back in Boracay for a shower. The dive family had invited Aileen and I to their resort for a Canada Day party put on by the Canadian owners. So we grabbed a tricycle and headed to Seven Sands Resort, which looked to be about a 6 star place full of rich ex-pats. They had a BARBEQUE! I had potatoe salad and some absolutely delicious veggie skewers and got absolutely bombed with this family. They invited us up to their place where they had Clamato juice that they had brought with them from Qatar...sadly I do not like cesars. My group was horrified to learn that they had misseed the opportunity. We ended then night with a Canadian flag cake and some shisha and left them to go back to our beach to find our crew. No chance. The place was crazy and we were hammered so Aileen and I just sat down at a bar and demolished a plate of fries and went home.
The next day, needless to say, did not start off with a dive. Its too hot to sleep here during the day so I woke up around 8am and stumbled down to the beach to pass out. Around 11 Aileen woke me up to say goodbye. She was only here for 20 days and now she's on her way back to Canada. Sad news indeed, but she's from Calgary so we shall meet again. There wasn't a breath of wind on the beach so I had to spend the day bobbing in the ocean. Rough life. We pulled ourselves together when the sun went down to grab some dinner. I had some incredible chicken curry and started in on the Tanduay. Last night ended up being so random. Highlights include drinking on the beach with a group of transvestites, taking a cab back to my room just so I could take a crap, hitting a club on the other side of the island where a Canadian bartender named Shawn must've given me at least 10 tequila shots, dancing at another club with that club's owner and his posse of Korean girls who spoke no english and kept touching my hair, ending up drinking at the Canadian dudes appartment above the bar he worked at til about noon, and finding our way home where we tried to pass out but couldn't due to the blistering heat. So swimming and trying to sober up all afternoon. Today is our last day here so I need to get my act together and go shopping, which I somehow have managed to miss for the last 5 days.
Oh! And the day before Canada Day we hit up the Hobbit House where I paid a whopping $8 for a cold, delicious, unbelievably satisfying strongbow. Yummmmmmm.
Epic travel day coming up tomorrow. 24 straight hours of busses, jeepneys, and a night ferry. Should be pretty brutal, then we find ourselves in Panglau for a few days...only 2 weeks left! EEP!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Actual Reality
Internet AGAIN! Its like I'm in the real world. In Boracay now. Very touristy, lots of pasty white Germans walking around and lost of nice little Filipinos selling me things!
I bought a dress today. I was so excited I even forgot to haggle. Oh well. I got totally ripped off and paid a whopping $8 for it. Bad traveller.
Today was....interesting. We woke up early (or didn't go to bed in my case...I'm still wearing teh dress I went out in last night...whoops) and got cabs to the airport in Cebu. A girl on my trip, Amanda, was really really sick all day yesterday, spontaneously throwing up and complaining of stomach pain. Most of us figured it was a really terrible hangover based on the late night Karaoke she was doing previously, but today she was still pale and puking and feverish and in the tropics those are not good symptoms to have. At the airport we spotted a medical clinic and sent her in to see if she was dying or hungover. They diagnosed her with potential apendicitis and advised her not to fly. So as the final boarding call was going out over the loudspeaker we made the snap decision that she and her brother would stay in Cebu where there's nice friendly American-owned tourist hospitals and the rest of us would come to Boracay. Bertus stayed with them, so we are flying solo for the moment. There was some talk about staying, but to be completely honest, I didn't pay all this money and take a 36 hour flight to sit in a hospital waiting room in support of a girl I met 3 weeks ago. I feel for her, but this is MY trip. Having made these snap decisions, all of their stuff was already loaded on the plane, and in a blatant violation of international aviation laws, their bags came to Boracay with us. We also recieved a new addition to our group today, joining us for the next 20 days (is it half way already!?) So 5 of us girls had to lug 8 backpacks through the airport, find the right helpless-looking white girl with a backpack, get a tricycle (motorbike to sidecar) to the ferry, take a ferry, get transport, find our hotel, all hungover beyond all help. Success! I think the definition of a good traveler is one who can do all that while trying not to puke.
Boracay is so different from everywhere else we've been. I feel like I'm on vacation from backpacking. I'm half expecting to see a Senor Frogs around the corner. We're going to shop, beach, drink, eat, dance, and SCUBA! I'm totally in love. There's a really nice PADI scuba center here and I think I might do my Advanced Diver course! It involves Deep Dive, Wreck Dive, Drift Dive (underwater current that pulls us 2-3km in 20 minutes) and some real stuff like Navagation and Rescue. I figure why not! Its another $400, which would mean I have spent $800 on diving, $200 on my visa extension, and $200 on food and drink and personal expenses. How twisted is that budget? Such a cheap place but I've managed to spend some serious coin.
Off to boost the local economy!
I bought a dress today. I was so excited I even forgot to haggle. Oh well. I got totally ripped off and paid a whopping $8 for it. Bad traveller.
Today was....interesting. We woke up early (or didn't go to bed in my case...I'm still wearing teh dress I went out in last night...whoops) and got cabs to the airport in Cebu. A girl on my trip, Amanda, was really really sick all day yesterday, spontaneously throwing up and complaining of stomach pain. Most of us figured it was a really terrible hangover based on the late night Karaoke she was doing previously, but today she was still pale and puking and feverish and in the tropics those are not good symptoms to have. At the airport we spotted a medical clinic and sent her in to see if she was dying or hungover. They diagnosed her with potential apendicitis and advised her not to fly. So as the final boarding call was going out over the loudspeaker we made the snap decision that she and her brother would stay in Cebu where there's nice friendly American-owned tourist hospitals and the rest of us would come to Boracay. Bertus stayed with them, so we are flying solo for the moment. There was some talk about staying, but to be completely honest, I didn't pay all this money and take a 36 hour flight to sit in a hospital waiting room in support of a girl I met 3 weeks ago. I feel for her, but this is MY trip. Having made these snap decisions, all of their stuff was already loaded on the plane, and in a blatant violation of international aviation laws, their bags came to Boracay with us. We also recieved a new addition to our group today, joining us for the next 20 days (is it half way already!?) So 5 of us girls had to lug 8 backpacks through the airport, find the right helpless-looking white girl with a backpack, get a tricycle (motorbike to sidecar) to the ferry, take a ferry, get transport, find our hotel, all hungover beyond all help. Success! I think the definition of a good traveler is one who can do all that while trying not to puke.
Boracay is so different from everywhere else we've been. I feel like I'm on vacation from backpacking. I'm half expecting to see a Senor Frogs around the corner. We're going to shop, beach, drink, eat, dance, and SCUBA! I'm totally in love. There's a really nice PADI scuba center here and I think I might do my Advanced Diver course! It involves Deep Dive, Wreck Dive, Drift Dive (underwater current that pulls us 2-3km in 20 minutes) and some real stuff like Navagation and Rescue. I figure why not! Its another $400, which would mean I have spent $800 on diving, $200 on my visa extension, and $200 on food and drink and personal expenses. How twisted is that budget? Such a cheap place but I've managed to spend some serious coin.
Off to boost the local economy!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Scuba!
Hey guys,
Back again after another stunt outside the realm of the Almighty Internet. I did, however, have a toilet seat. Fair trade. Its been brought to my attention that I seem to be confused as to what day it is. I wrote most of this post in a notebook while operating on the assumption that today is Sunday. Apparently its not but I can't really find the brain power necessary to convert the days and figure out what my missing link is. So here goes:
Wednesday night, after my last update, Aileen, a gal in my group, and I went in search of diner. At some point in the afternoon the 2 of us decided to wander away from the larger group to hit the store, pharmacy, etc. Running errands quickly deteriorates into herding cats when 8 people tag along. So the 2 type A blond political science majors went to get some things done. It should be noted here that we were also the only 2 members of the group to track down internet that night. HINT: Ask the mall security guard who's in his early 20's and looks like he'd rather be checking his facebook.
Back to the linear plot - we had some ok Japanese food and set off for a ramble around town. Unbeknownst to us we were in Tabaco during Tabakfest, which seemed like a city-wide party celebrating the town itself. We found a San Miguel beer garden with a band playing and sat our blonde butts down to watch. We quickly noticed, unsurprisingly, that ours were the only blonde butts in the whole place. Cue stares from the crowd and giggles from the children. Apparently old white dudes with hot young Filippinas don't turn heads but "blancas" and "spaghetti hairs" (seriously) cause quite the scene. So much for my theory that I'm so tanned I blend in.
The band leader stopped to give us a shoutout, which was followed up with someone from the audience sending a requent dedicated to us, "Here Without You". Lordy. I had a feeling when we got the stares that we would end up being called on stage, and in this country that so loves its Videoke (Karaoke) I was convinced they'd make us sing. Luckily the singing part didn't happen, but Aileen and I most definitely did get called up on stage infront of a cowd that numbered around 200. The singer sang that Lifehouse song "Wherever You Will Go" to us. Then came an avalanche of audience requests including "Faithfully" and a truly painful completely unidentifiable Celin Dion song. The most adorable little boy brought us a bag of peanuts, then some crackers, then some grteen mangoes from somewhere. I think he was flirting with us the only way a 5 year old knows how. I bought him a P5 bag of cookies and he almost broke his little cheeks smiling. It was one of my favourite nights in the Philippines so far.
Thursday brought an epic travel day. Bus to Naga airport, flight to Cebu, 4 hour bus to some ferry terminal, 11pm ferry to Malapacua. Bantigue Cove, Malapascua is by far the nicest spot we've stayed at yet. The hotel is the only cluster of buildings on the tiny cove with white beach and turquoise water. NICE rooms, great restaurants, toilet seats, a bit pricey. No drinking before scuba class so no Tanduay for me! The staff were amazing and there seemed to be dozens of them working politely at all hours. Friday was my first day of scuba school. 3 of us were starting our certifications from scratch so we 3 sat down bright and early and got our little textbook packages and filled out our forms and prepared for a day of lernin'. 10 minutes later we were following our instructor Jonjie down to the beach to get diving. Clearly they do things a bit differently here. An hour or so of diving and we were instructed to go read the book. Sunbathing and studying gave us a full afternoon and we headed up to the restaurant to meet and take some quizes. Jonjie took this opportunity to grab a rum and coke...and bring it to our testing table where we wre all working very hard on our group test. We breezed thru those quizzes no problem. Jonjie decided at some point during the day that my name was Carrie, but along the way his memory must've tried to remind him of my true name, but he only got so far as adding a "ch". So I was Cherry for the day. During and after dinner we watched the required 80's safety videos and headed for bed. Early dive day and all!
Saturday was jam-packed full of underwater fun. We did all our learning skill-development dives, or Confined Water Dives as PADI calls it. Lunch, then the second open water dive. Saw lots of fishies and coral and tons of sea urchins. We finished up our final exams and all the really 'official' parts of the course.
It felt so bizarre to be so responsible with my drinking and sleep schedule while doing all the dive stuff, but its so cool I don't even care. Jonjie gave us the low down on all the good dive spots coming up on my trip. Hopefully doing a shark dive in Boracay next week! I think I may have found my new money-swallowing hobby!
Sunday was even more diving. Highlights include seeing a 2m long sea snake and an amazing coral reef. On the boat ride back to the beach Jonjie said we were all done our scuba lessons, but we just had one more surface skill to demostrate before getting our official certification. Only in the Philippines would this mean doing a snorkel bong. (place snorkel on head, mask inclusive, have scuba instructor pour beer down the snorkel and chug it as fast as you can). So now I'm officially scuba certified!!!!! WEEEEEEOOO!!!
Today was a travel day that involved taking the 4 hr bus back to Cebu City. I got to spend 5 hrs sitting in the immigration office getting my visa extended. What a thrill. Going clubbing tonight and having a hungover travel day to Boracay tomorrow. The hotel here is soooo nice. We even have fridges in our rooms, so you know what that means - cold white wine! It's the simple pleasures that make life really enjoyable.
In other news, I finished Eat Pray Love today. HATED it. 300 some-odd pages of this woman meditating and eating and complaining about being sad and its such a pain in my ass.
I'm staying right on budget, greatly helped by the fact that there is ZERO shopping here. Its nothing like Thailand. It looks like Cebu has some pretty sweet shopping but sadly today has already been swallowed up by paperwork and drinking. Sad. I'm told Boracay is pretty decent. I need to boost this economy!
And like the true polisci geek I am, I miss the news. I watched BBC like a crackhead in immigration today. I have no idea whats going on in the world and its driving me crazy!
Miss you guys, I can't believe I'm almost at the half way mark!
Back again after another stunt outside the realm of the Almighty Internet. I did, however, have a toilet seat. Fair trade. Its been brought to my attention that I seem to be confused as to what day it is. I wrote most of this post in a notebook while operating on the assumption that today is Sunday. Apparently its not but I can't really find the brain power necessary to convert the days and figure out what my missing link is. So here goes:
Wednesday night, after my last update, Aileen, a gal in my group, and I went in search of diner. At some point in the afternoon the 2 of us decided to wander away from the larger group to hit the store, pharmacy, etc. Running errands quickly deteriorates into herding cats when 8 people tag along. So the 2 type A blond political science majors went to get some things done. It should be noted here that we were also the only 2 members of the group to track down internet that night. HINT: Ask the mall security guard who's in his early 20's and looks like he'd rather be checking his facebook.
Back to the linear plot - we had some ok Japanese food and set off for a ramble around town. Unbeknownst to us we were in Tabaco during Tabakfest, which seemed like a city-wide party celebrating the town itself. We found a San Miguel beer garden with a band playing and sat our blonde butts down to watch. We quickly noticed, unsurprisingly, that ours were the only blonde butts in the whole place. Cue stares from the crowd and giggles from the children. Apparently old white dudes with hot young Filippinas don't turn heads but "blancas" and "spaghetti hairs" (seriously) cause quite the scene. So much for my theory that I'm so tanned I blend in.
The band leader stopped to give us a shoutout, which was followed up with someone from the audience sending a requent dedicated to us, "Here Without You". Lordy. I had a feeling when we got the stares that we would end up being called on stage, and in this country that so loves its Videoke (Karaoke) I was convinced they'd make us sing. Luckily the singing part didn't happen, but Aileen and I most definitely did get called up on stage infront of a cowd that numbered around 200. The singer sang that Lifehouse song "Wherever You Will Go" to us. Then came an avalanche of audience requests including "Faithfully" and a truly painful completely unidentifiable Celin Dion song. The most adorable little boy brought us a bag of peanuts, then some crackers, then some grteen mangoes from somewhere. I think he was flirting with us the only way a 5 year old knows how. I bought him a P5 bag of cookies and he almost broke his little cheeks smiling. It was one of my favourite nights in the Philippines so far.
Thursday brought an epic travel day. Bus to Naga airport, flight to Cebu, 4 hour bus to some ferry terminal, 11pm ferry to Malapacua. Bantigue Cove, Malapascua is by far the nicest spot we've stayed at yet. The hotel is the only cluster of buildings on the tiny cove with white beach and turquoise water. NICE rooms, great restaurants, toilet seats, a bit pricey. No drinking before scuba class so no Tanduay for me! The staff were amazing and there seemed to be dozens of them working politely at all hours. Friday was my first day of scuba school. 3 of us were starting our certifications from scratch so we 3 sat down bright and early and got our little textbook packages and filled out our forms and prepared for a day of lernin'. 10 minutes later we were following our instructor Jonjie down to the beach to get diving. Clearly they do things a bit differently here. An hour or so of diving and we were instructed to go read the book. Sunbathing and studying gave us a full afternoon and we headed up to the restaurant to meet and take some quizes. Jonjie took this opportunity to grab a rum and coke...and bring it to our testing table where we wre all working very hard on our group test. We breezed thru those quizzes no problem. Jonjie decided at some point during the day that my name was Carrie, but along the way his memory must've tried to remind him of my true name, but he only got so far as adding a "ch". So I was Cherry for the day. During and after dinner we watched the required 80's safety videos and headed for bed. Early dive day and all!
Saturday was jam-packed full of underwater fun. We did all our learning skill-development dives, or Confined Water Dives as PADI calls it. Lunch, then the second open water dive. Saw lots of fishies and coral and tons of sea urchins. We finished up our final exams and all the really 'official' parts of the course.
It felt so bizarre to be so responsible with my drinking and sleep schedule while doing all the dive stuff, but its so cool I don't even care. Jonjie gave us the low down on all the good dive spots coming up on my trip. Hopefully doing a shark dive in Boracay next week! I think I may have found my new money-swallowing hobby!
Sunday was even more diving. Highlights include seeing a 2m long sea snake and an amazing coral reef. On the boat ride back to the beach Jonjie said we were all done our scuba lessons, but we just had one more surface skill to demostrate before getting our official certification. Only in the Philippines would this mean doing a snorkel bong. (place snorkel on head, mask inclusive, have scuba instructor pour beer down the snorkel and chug it as fast as you can). So now I'm officially scuba certified!!!!! WEEEEEEOOO!!!
Today was a travel day that involved taking the 4 hr bus back to Cebu City. I got to spend 5 hrs sitting in the immigration office getting my visa extended. What a thrill. Going clubbing tonight and having a hungover travel day to Boracay tomorrow. The hotel here is soooo nice. We even have fridges in our rooms, so you know what that means - cold white wine! It's the simple pleasures that make life really enjoyable.
In other news, I finished Eat Pray Love today. HATED it. 300 some-odd pages of this woman meditating and eating and complaining about being sad and its such a pain in my ass.
I'm staying right on budget, greatly helped by the fact that there is ZERO shopping here. Its nothing like Thailand. It looks like Cebu has some pretty sweet shopping but sadly today has already been swallowed up by paperwork and drinking. Sad. I'm told Boracay is pretty decent. I need to boost this economy!
And like the true polisci geek I am, I miss the news. I watched BBC like a crackhead in immigration today. I have no idea whats going on in the world and its driving me crazy!
Miss you guys, I can't believe I'm almost at the half way mark!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
A week's worth of fun in the sun
Where to begin?? The last entry was in Manila before heading to Naga to hang out at the CWC wakeboarding park for a couple of days. Currently I'm at an internet cafe in Tabaco City pausing in civilization for the night to buy some multivitamins, check the email, and sit down to poop. We head to Malapascua tomorrow where I'm doing my scuba certification so that should be a sweet 4 days! So what happened between now and then?
The first day at CWC we spent in what was essentially a huge aquatic playgound for adults. A giant floating iceberg, an obstacle course, and a water trampoline were among the highlights. The day was hot hot HOT and the water was about bathtub temperature. My little Canadian body still hasn't been able to stop bracing itself for cold BC lake water every time I jump in.
An afternoon of drinking led, unsurprisingly, to a night of heavy drinking and my first naked swim of the trip. I can't believe it took almost a week! We all somehow ended up climbing all over the jumps in the advanced wakeboarding lake and jumping off them with our arses hanging out. So I guess I can say with absolute honesty that I hit the professional-grade wakeboarding jumps at a world class park....naked!
The park itself was really cool. Its set up to house international competitions and there were some pros and semipros there flying this way and that while I struggled to stand on the damn thing, but on our day of boarding I did manage to get up. I had to spend some quality time in the beginner's pool where the cable pulls significantly gentler than on the advanced track, but by days end I could go straight down the track and stall and come back to the start. Pretty good for a virgin boarder if you ask me. Got my ass totally kicked by the big boy cable for a solid hour before I gave up and went back to the bunny hill. The website has lots of pictures so google!
A good test of how expensive the cost of living is in any given location is the cost of a bottle of Tanduay Rum. CWC charged a whopping P125 ($3) - Pretty steep!!
June 17th we left CWC to catch a ferry to Caramoan. We seem to be running on Filipino time already because we missed our 11am ferry and sat on the beach til 1pm waiting for the next one, drinking San Miguel beer (P26) and listening to a local guy play guitar under the palm trees (jealous yet?). When the boat came our guide Bertus told us "Make sure you tip the guys who carry you to the ferry." Umm...what??? He meant exactly that. A tiny little Filipino man proceeded to pick me up, seat me on his shoulder, and carry me through the waist-deep water to the ferry. I must've had at least 20lbs on him but its nothing compared to the guys in our group who all hover around 200lbs.
That night was a low key one, as we had to charge our batteries for our camping trip that began the following morning. I love the tiny places where you can get a coffee and a beef stew for breakfast for $1.50. We stocked up on Tanduay (P95) and headed out for an island hopping booze cruise. It was a crazy day of afternoon binge drinking. We ran into 3 Swedish guys setting up something odd on one of the beaches and it turned out there were carpenters for Survivor Sweden setting up challenges! We brought them with us to our campsite to liven up the party a bit (they had a cooler full of beer, after all).
I'm not really sure how it happened, but at some point somebody brought us dinner and it was one of the most amazing meals I have ever had. Rice, mangoes, delicious blue marlin, and prawns that were quite literally 6-8 inches long. I thought i was a small lobster. In the absence of proper cutlery I tore it apart like an animal with my bare hands. So. Friggin. Delicious.
That night, much later, and much calmer, the bioluminescence came out. if anyone has seen the move The Beach its the plankton that Leo and the french chick play in right before they bone. As you move your hand thru the water the plankton give off pulses of light to try to attract predators to eat the fish before it eats them. Makes for a very Avatar-like swimming experience, that is until a Filipino guide points out the 3 foot sea snake coming to investigate whose venom gives its victim about 8 hrs of excruciating pain before the sweet release of death. Everyone out of the pool!! That night I slept in a hammock on the beach. Sheer bliss.
The one downside: sunrise comes early and it comes BRIGHT. up at 6 am still drunk as hell. Our guide asked me if I wanted to go see the lagoon with only one fish. i foolishly agreed. This is called "hangover hyper". its the time between drunk and hung over when you can't believe how great you feel and everything sounds like an awesome idea. The only way to get to the lagoon is a climb over a vertical rock face made of jagged volcanic rock. Great thing to do hammered and wearing flip flops. The lagoon was a quicksand lake that a single fish lived in. Really random and totally not worth risking my life.
From there we headed by ferry to Catanduanes, about 2 hrs away. Needles to say I had a big ol' sleep. Sunday was the first, complete, uninterrupted, activity-free beach day of my trip. Up early for brekkie and made the 5 foot hike form my bungalow to the sand and plopped my butt down and didn't move until lunchtime, then repeat until dinner. A successful day if you ask me. I was treated to another amazing dinner. When we arrived, Bertus told us that the lady who owned the place would make our meals, that we had no say in what we were given, and that we would never be disappointed with the results. He wasn't kidding. They have amazing seafood here, and dinner that night was another great example. I reached for what looked like a lobster tail (the lobster heads turned out to be more jumbo prawns) only to be greeted with a pair of eyes on my "tail"! It was some never before seen flatheaded shellfish that was absolutely scrumptious, if only I knew what it was called. After dinner Tanduay (P62) led to a beach bonfire with some local guys. The people here are incredible. They are so welcoming and generous and they LOVE to party. I have still only seen a dozen or so white people here so far. When our group rides on top of the jeepneys (which we do at every opportunity_ kids shriek and wage and giggle at the sight of us. I was attacked by a group of adults on the beach one day who each insisted on a photo op with "Barbie". Its so odd to be in a place where the mere sight of a white face and especially a blonde head is a rare enough occurrence to warrant a picture.
Next morning (Monday), the group rolled its hungover asses on to another boat to take us to a village to do a little day trip to a waterfall. It was hotter than hell and I was sweating run thru my pores for the most grueling 2km walk up a slight incline I have ever been on. Jumping in that water felt great. An afternoon spent there and back to the boat for a solid 1 hr hammock nap, dinner, then a quiet and early night. The previous evenings festivities had left me with the beginnings of a cold and I needed to kick it before Malapascua and scuba.
Tuesday morning awoke with the cold I knew was coming. Between naps on the beach and taking all day to get thru 10 pgs of my book I managed to squeeze in yet another amazing meal, this time it was a full tuna (but a young and small one) more than likely caught in the very water in which we'd been swimming all day. They were about 18 inches long and delicious. All that amazing food almost made up for having to hover above a seat-less toilet to crap. Almost. Another lazy day. Another lazy night.
At the 2 week mark I'm starting to miss certain things from home. Some I can't get here, others just can't be stored or packed. They include:
- whole wheat bread
- white wine
- Strongbow
- real noninstant coffee
- cheese
- chocolate milk
- potatoes, pasta, and all other non-rice carbohydrates
That being said I am having a blast and eating like royalty! I need to improve my picture haul, as I have been severely lacking on that front, and mom: we definitely need a mini laptop for Greece!
Over and out for now, next update: SCUBA!
The first day at CWC we spent in what was essentially a huge aquatic playgound for adults. A giant floating iceberg, an obstacle course, and a water trampoline were among the highlights. The day was hot hot HOT and the water was about bathtub temperature. My little Canadian body still hasn't been able to stop bracing itself for cold BC lake water every time I jump in.
An afternoon of drinking led, unsurprisingly, to a night of heavy drinking and my first naked swim of the trip. I can't believe it took almost a week! We all somehow ended up climbing all over the jumps in the advanced wakeboarding lake and jumping off them with our arses hanging out. So I guess I can say with absolute honesty that I hit the professional-grade wakeboarding jumps at a world class park....naked!
The park itself was really cool. Its set up to house international competitions and there were some pros and semipros there flying this way and that while I struggled to stand on the damn thing, but on our day of boarding I did manage to get up. I had to spend some quality time in the beginner's pool where the cable pulls significantly gentler than on the advanced track, but by days end I could go straight down the track and stall and come back to the start. Pretty good for a virgin boarder if you ask me. Got my ass totally kicked by the big boy cable for a solid hour before I gave up and went back to the bunny hill. The website has lots of pictures so google!
A good test of how expensive the cost of living is in any given location is the cost of a bottle of Tanduay Rum. CWC charged a whopping P125 ($3) - Pretty steep!!
June 17th we left CWC to catch a ferry to Caramoan. We seem to be running on Filipino time already because we missed our 11am ferry and sat on the beach til 1pm waiting for the next one, drinking San Miguel beer (P26) and listening to a local guy play guitar under the palm trees (jealous yet?). When the boat came our guide Bertus told us "Make sure you tip the guys who carry you to the ferry." Umm...what??? He meant exactly that. A tiny little Filipino man proceeded to pick me up, seat me on his shoulder, and carry me through the waist-deep water to the ferry. I must've had at least 20lbs on him but its nothing compared to the guys in our group who all hover around 200lbs.
That night was a low key one, as we had to charge our batteries for our camping trip that began the following morning. I love the tiny places where you can get a coffee and a beef stew for breakfast for $1.50. We stocked up on Tanduay (P95) and headed out for an island hopping booze cruise. It was a crazy day of afternoon binge drinking. We ran into 3 Swedish guys setting up something odd on one of the beaches and it turned out there were carpenters for Survivor Sweden setting up challenges! We brought them with us to our campsite to liven up the party a bit (they had a cooler full of beer, after all).
I'm not really sure how it happened, but at some point somebody brought us dinner and it was one of the most amazing meals I have ever had. Rice, mangoes, delicious blue marlin, and prawns that were quite literally 6-8 inches long. I thought i was a small lobster. In the absence of proper cutlery I tore it apart like an animal with my bare hands. So. Friggin. Delicious.
That night, much later, and much calmer, the bioluminescence came out. if anyone has seen the move The Beach its the plankton that Leo and the french chick play in right before they bone. As you move your hand thru the water the plankton give off pulses of light to try to attract predators to eat the fish before it eats them. Makes for a very Avatar-like swimming experience, that is until a Filipino guide points out the 3 foot sea snake coming to investigate whose venom gives its victim about 8 hrs of excruciating pain before the sweet release of death. Everyone out of the pool!! That night I slept in a hammock on the beach. Sheer bliss.
The one downside: sunrise comes early and it comes BRIGHT. up at 6 am still drunk as hell. Our guide asked me if I wanted to go see the lagoon with only one fish. i foolishly agreed. This is called "hangover hyper". its the time between drunk and hung over when you can't believe how great you feel and everything sounds like an awesome idea. The only way to get to the lagoon is a climb over a vertical rock face made of jagged volcanic rock. Great thing to do hammered and wearing flip flops. The lagoon was a quicksand lake that a single fish lived in. Really random and totally not worth risking my life.
From there we headed by ferry to Catanduanes, about 2 hrs away. Needles to say I had a big ol' sleep. Sunday was the first, complete, uninterrupted, activity-free beach day of my trip. Up early for brekkie and made the 5 foot hike form my bungalow to the sand and plopped my butt down and didn't move until lunchtime, then repeat until dinner. A successful day if you ask me. I was treated to another amazing dinner. When we arrived, Bertus told us that the lady who owned the place would make our meals, that we had no say in what we were given, and that we would never be disappointed with the results. He wasn't kidding. They have amazing seafood here, and dinner that night was another great example. I reached for what looked like a lobster tail (the lobster heads turned out to be more jumbo prawns) only to be greeted with a pair of eyes on my "tail"! It was some never before seen flatheaded shellfish that was absolutely scrumptious, if only I knew what it was called. After dinner Tanduay (P62) led to a beach bonfire with some local guys. The people here are incredible. They are so welcoming and generous and they LOVE to party. I have still only seen a dozen or so white people here so far. When our group rides on top of the jeepneys (which we do at every opportunity_ kids shriek and wage and giggle at the sight of us. I was attacked by a group of adults on the beach one day who each insisted on a photo op with "Barbie". Its so odd to be in a place where the mere sight of a white face and especially a blonde head is a rare enough occurrence to warrant a picture.
Next morning (Monday), the group rolled its hungover asses on to another boat to take us to a village to do a little day trip to a waterfall. It was hotter than hell and I was sweating run thru my pores for the most grueling 2km walk up a slight incline I have ever been on. Jumping in that water felt great. An afternoon spent there and back to the boat for a solid 1 hr hammock nap, dinner, then a quiet and early night. The previous evenings festivities had left me with the beginnings of a cold and I needed to kick it before Malapascua and scuba.
Tuesday morning awoke with the cold I knew was coming. Between naps on the beach and taking all day to get thru 10 pgs of my book I managed to squeeze in yet another amazing meal, this time it was a full tuna (but a young and small one) more than likely caught in the very water in which we'd been swimming all day. They were about 18 inches long and delicious. All that amazing food almost made up for having to hover above a seat-less toilet to crap. Almost. Another lazy day. Another lazy night.
At the 2 week mark I'm starting to miss certain things from home. Some I can't get here, others just can't be stored or packed. They include:
- whole wheat bread
- white wine
- Strongbow
- real noninstant coffee
- cheese
- chocolate milk
- potatoes, pasta, and all other non-rice carbohydrates
That being said I am having a blast and eating like royalty! I need to improve my picture haul, as I have been severely lacking on that front, and mom: we definitely need a mini laptop for Greece!
Over and out for now, next update: SCUBA!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Batan Rice Terraces
Let me begin by saying that no matter how numerous and expansive my use of adjectives in this entry becomes, I don't think any words can really describe the amazing experience I've just had.
Saturday night we hopped on a night bus from Manila to Banaue ("ban-ow-way"), about 11 hrs north. As is customary on Asian transportation, the air conditioning was cranked up to "Arctic Circle" and we all spent the night attempting to sleep while shivering beneath our sarongs wearing whatever remotely warm clothing we could find. I have since purchased a blanket for such occasions. A lovely purple and gold one from the school supply store in Banaue.
At 8 am we arrived in Banaue to drop off our big bags at a hotel and have some breakfast. I experienced the very enlightening process of going through the essentials that I brought with me on this trip and packing a trekking bag of absolutely essential essentials. My day bag held a change of clothes, toothbrush/paste, bathing suit, sunscreen, granola bars, lots of water, and a bag of the dried mangoes to which I have become hopelessly addicted, as well as the required photography/music technology. And man did I ever use that camera.
We piled into a jeepney for our ride up to the rice firleds. Correction: We piled ON TO a jeepney. How could we resist the opportunity to ride atop a sort of half jeep/half school bus through the jungle?? For those of you who've been there, highway safety regulations in the Philippines make New Zealanders appear safety-obsessed. The ride along the harrowing dirt road on the side of a mountain was incredible. So warm and sunny and we broke out the ipod speakers for the hour-long trip, during which we passed up the mountains through the jungle and witnessed themost incredible views of rice terraces, villages, and wild jungle. We stopped seemingly in the middle of nowhere to begin our trek. An hour through the jungle brought us to our guesthouse perched on the side of the mountain that overlooks the village of Batan, surrounded by 15,000 square kilometres of 2000-year-old rice terraces. Now THAT was the most incredible view I've ever seen! ...or so I thought. After checking in we set off for a hike down to the rice fields. We walked down a mixture of paths, stairs, stone walls, and strategically placed stones jutting out of the mountainside. We descended into Batan where they still live in thatch houses and use the same manual farming techniques as they did 2000 yrs ago. It was absolutely the most stunning, beautiful, serene, enlightening, crazy experience I have ever had while travelling. It amazed me the kind of traditional lives that still exist beyond our cities. We didn't see another white face from the time we left Manila til we returned.
We hiked for 2 1/2 hours and wound up at the top of the next mountain. Next pu as the half hour descent down huge granite stone steps built who knows when leading to a waterfall for my first Filipino swim!! So refreshing! It was amazing to be so far removed from civilization. It was completely surrounded my forest and mountain and at night the village got completely dark and silent. We had lunch by the waterfall and prepared to head back. The skies opened up and began to pour. So back up the huge stairs we went. These blocks were a solid 18 inches tall and some had been replaced by mud and river rock. My already broken self was about to keel over by the time I reached the top. The rain was actually a huge relief from the heat and made the fields look so beautiful. The walk back was a nice meandering hike back up that have us lots of time to contemplet and enjoy they breathtaking sights around us.
We got back to the guesthouse for a couple of much-deserved San Miguel beers, some tasty rice dishes for dinner, and a night spent drinking, singing, shooting the shit, and laughing. We enjoyed our first experience with the Filippino drinking tradition of setting a single glass on the table, and one person begins by pouring a shot of Tanguay rum for the person sitting next to them, and that person follows by puring one for thier neighbour, and so on. Then off to bed to rest up for the next days hike.
Next day was much more traditional trail hiking through the jungle. About 3 hours of ups and downs brought us exhausted and sweating to our waiting jeepney, again in the middle of nowhere. We rode back to another lagoon for lunch and headed back to Banaue to pick up our things and hop on the bus home. That blanket came in all kinds of handy and I managed to snag about 2 hrs of sleep. Its now 5am, we're back in Manila, and we're waiting for 9:30 to arrive so we can head to the airport to go to the CWC Wakeboarking park...can't remember the island. Too tired!
Until next time....
Saturday night we hopped on a night bus from Manila to Banaue ("ban-ow-way"), about 11 hrs north. As is customary on Asian transportation, the air conditioning was cranked up to "Arctic Circle" and we all spent the night attempting to sleep while shivering beneath our sarongs wearing whatever remotely warm clothing we could find. I have since purchased a blanket for such occasions. A lovely purple and gold one from the school supply store in Banaue.
At 8 am we arrived in Banaue to drop off our big bags at a hotel and have some breakfast. I experienced the very enlightening process of going through the essentials that I brought with me on this trip and packing a trekking bag of absolutely essential essentials. My day bag held a change of clothes, toothbrush/paste, bathing suit, sunscreen, granola bars, lots of water, and a bag of the dried mangoes to which I have become hopelessly addicted, as well as the required photography/music technology. And man did I ever use that camera.
We piled into a jeepney for our ride up to the rice firleds. Correction: We piled ON TO a jeepney. How could we resist the opportunity to ride atop a sort of half jeep/half school bus through the jungle?? For those of you who've been there, highway safety regulations in the Philippines make New Zealanders appear safety-obsessed. The ride along the harrowing dirt road on the side of a mountain was incredible. So warm and sunny and we broke out the ipod speakers for the hour-long trip, during which we passed up the mountains through the jungle and witnessed themost incredible views of rice terraces, villages, and wild jungle. We stopped seemingly in the middle of nowhere to begin our trek. An hour through the jungle brought us to our guesthouse perched on the side of the mountain that overlooks the village of Batan, surrounded by 15,000 square kilometres of 2000-year-old rice terraces. Now THAT was the most incredible view I've ever seen! ...or so I thought. After checking in we set off for a hike down to the rice fields. We walked down a mixture of paths, stairs, stone walls, and strategically placed stones jutting out of the mountainside. We descended into Batan where they still live in thatch houses and use the same manual farming techniques as they did 2000 yrs ago. It was absolutely the most stunning, beautiful, serene, enlightening, crazy experience I have ever had while travelling. It amazed me the kind of traditional lives that still exist beyond our cities. We didn't see another white face from the time we left Manila til we returned.
We hiked for 2 1/2 hours and wound up at the top of the next mountain. Next pu as the half hour descent down huge granite stone steps built who knows when leading to a waterfall for my first Filipino swim!! So refreshing! It was amazing to be so far removed from civilization. It was completely surrounded my forest and mountain and at night the village got completely dark and silent. We had lunch by the waterfall and prepared to head back. The skies opened up and began to pour. So back up the huge stairs we went. These blocks were a solid 18 inches tall and some had been replaced by mud and river rock. My already broken self was about to keel over by the time I reached the top. The rain was actually a huge relief from the heat and made the fields look so beautiful. The walk back was a nice meandering hike back up that have us lots of time to contemplet and enjoy they breathtaking sights around us.
We got back to the guesthouse for a couple of much-deserved San Miguel beers, some tasty rice dishes for dinner, and a night spent drinking, singing, shooting the shit, and laughing. We enjoyed our first experience with the Filippino drinking tradition of setting a single glass on the table, and one person begins by pouring a shot of Tanguay rum for the person sitting next to them, and that person follows by puring one for thier neighbour, and so on. Then off to bed to rest up for the next days hike.
Next day was much more traditional trail hiking through the jungle. About 3 hours of ups and downs brought us exhausted and sweating to our waiting jeepney, again in the middle of nowhere. We rode back to another lagoon for lunch and headed back to Banaue to pick up our things and hop on the bus home. That blanket came in all kinds of handy and I managed to snag about 2 hrs of sleep. Its now 5am, we're back in Manila, and we're waiting for 9:30 to arrive so we can head to the airport to go to the CWC Wakeboarking park...can't remember the island. Too tired!
Until next time....
Friday, June 11, 2010
Manila
Day 2. Don't expect updates this frequent once I'm beaching, but since I'm trapped in the city with internet I figure I should tell you about it.
Manila is a lot like Bangkok, but without the enormous counterfeit goods market. At least I haven't seen one yet. It has that strange juxtaposition of abject poverty and modern wealth that Bangkok has. As I'm walking past the group of 5 or so 7 year old girls that hang outside the 7/11 on the corner begging for food, candy, money, and whatever else they can get from you, a new 2011 BMW will drive by pumping Lady Gaga. These girls are annoying, but I do get a kick out of the little ringleader who calls out "Hey, beautiful" and winks at me.
Speaking of beautiful, I have been hit on and cat-called and winked at more times in the last 24 hrs than I ever have at home. I look like day 4 at the Gulch with no makeup and sweat streaming down my...everywhere...and still I am the "most beautiful lady" haha. Me and Kaitlyn (in my group) are the only 2 blondes I've seen in the Philippines so far, and once we go to the more remote regions I'm not expecting many more unless we run into some Swedes. So my fair skin and highlights make the men all chase after me, half of whom are simply trying to sell me something. I also stop traffic, literally. About 80 % of the vehicles on the streets are cabs, jeepneys, tuktuks, motorbikes, and every manner of transportation for hire. They would love nothing more than a nice P300 fare from an ignorant white girl like me.
A Philippino peso (P) works out to be about P44 for $1. For simplicity's sake I think of it as 50 to 1. Manila is bizarre in that while the local beer is P40/bottle, wine is about P200/bottle, and rum is P100/bottle, there is also a Starbucks, Burger King, GAP, Lacoste, and dozens more Western stores that charge pretty comparable prices to thier North American counterparts. Since I really struggle to accept the Asian tradition of eating miso soup for breakfast (nutritional value=zero) its nice to be able to hit up a FlapJacks (apparently owned by TGIFridays) for some scrambled eggs before a big day of wandering. There's also a big supermarket abot 10 blocks from our guesthouse that sells fruit I've never seen and litres of water for P10. I purchased a giant bag of dried mangoes today to take on our 2 day trek coming up tomorrow and promptly ate them all. I do have my granola bars and gatorade left. I am also slightly ashamed to admit that I fully plan on hitting up the TopShop in the mall when I pass through Manila on my way home. Its an amazing UK store and the prices are about half of those in London.
Yesterday was a pretty calm day. Just wandered around, got some food with the group. One event worth mentioning is our trip to the Hobbit Hole. Upon entering throught a Lord of the Rings round shire door, you are greeted with an entire bar full of small tables and midget barstaff. Its the strangest thing. There's also unlimited popcorn for the table. I felt rude taking pictures of the little people so I didn't, but it was such a funny little place.
There's not much to do here. I have no desire to see the Mall of Asia (biggest in the Southern hemisphere) or take a grossly overpriced taxi to see the colonial area for its architecture. We leave here in about 9 hrs and I can't wait! Tonight we take an overnight bus north to do a rice paddy hill hike (did I tell you about this already?). Apparently its completely exhausting and disturbingly sweaty but absolutely beautiful. Then in 3 days time I should find myself beachfront and able to jump in the ocean to relieve myself from the constant stickiness.
Until next time...
Manila is a lot like Bangkok, but without the enormous counterfeit goods market. At least I haven't seen one yet. It has that strange juxtaposition of abject poverty and modern wealth that Bangkok has. As I'm walking past the group of 5 or so 7 year old girls that hang outside the 7/11 on the corner begging for food, candy, money, and whatever else they can get from you, a new 2011 BMW will drive by pumping Lady Gaga. These girls are annoying, but I do get a kick out of the little ringleader who calls out "Hey, beautiful" and winks at me.
Speaking of beautiful, I have been hit on and cat-called and winked at more times in the last 24 hrs than I ever have at home. I look like day 4 at the Gulch with no makeup and sweat streaming down my...everywhere...and still I am the "most beautiful lady" haha. Me and Kaitlyn (in my group) are the only 2 blondes I've seen in the Philippines so far, and once we go to the more remote regions I'm not expecting many more unless we run into some Swedes. So my fair skin and highlights make the men all chase after me, half of whom are simply trying to sell me something. I also stop traffic, literally. About 80 % of the vehicles on the streets are cabs, jeepneys, tuktuks, motorbikes, and every manner of transportation for hire. They would love nothing more than a nice P300 fare from an ignorant white girl like me.
A Philippino peso (P) works out to be about P44 for $1. For simplicity's sake I think of it as 50 to 1. Manila is bizarre in that while the local beer is P40/bottle, wine is about P200/bottle, and rum is P100/bottle, there is also a Starbucks, Burger King, GAP, Lacoste, and dozens more Western stores that charge pretty comparable prices to thier North American counterparts. Since I really struggle to accept the Asian tradition of eating miso soup for breakfast (nutritional value=zero) its nice to be able to hit up a FlapJacks (apparently owned by TGIFridays) for some scrambled eggs before a big day of wandering. There's also a big supermarket abot 10 blocks from our guesthouse that sells fruit I've never seen and litres of water for P10. I purchased a giant bag of dried mangoes today to take on our 2 day trek coming up tomorrow and promptly ate them all. I do have my granola bars and gatorade left. I am also slightly ashamed to admit that I fully plan on hitting up the TopShop in the mall when I pass through Manila on my way home. Its an amazing UK store and the prices are about half of those in London.
Yesterday was a pretty calm day. Just wandered around, got some food with the group. One event worth mentioning is our trip to the Hobbit Hole. Upon entering throught a Lord of the Rings round shire door, you are greeted with an entire bar full of small tables and midget barstaff. Its the strangest thing. There's also unlimited popcorn for the table. I felt rude taking pictures of the little people so I didn't, but it was such a funny little place.
There's not much to do here. I have no desire to see the Mall of Asia (biggest in the Southern hemisphere) or take a grossly overpriced taxi to see the colonial area for its architecture. We leave here in about 9 hrs and I can't wait! Tonight we take an overnight bus north to do a rice paddy hill hike (did I tell you about this already?). Apparently its completely exhausting and disturbingly sweaty but absolutely beautiful. Then in 3 days time I should find myself beachfront and able to jump in the ocean to relieve myself from the constant stickiness.
Until next time...
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Arrived Alive
Hi all,
I'm finally here! Brutal flight. But totally worth it.
Vancouver to Calgary was VEEEERY late and had a helluva time trying to fill my day leading up to my 9:40 pm departure. Got thru security in about 3 minutes and wandered around the YYC for an hour or so. Uneventful flight, and I thought how fortunate I was that I would be in Vancouver from 11pm-2am...just in time for last call! Sadly everything in the whole damn place was closed so I used my last CDN$ to buy a Starbucks. I headed straight for a nice, comfy-looking couch to read my book and pass the time when I found myself sitting next to a 30-something year old guy who was either a sociopath, schizophrenic, or a compulsive liar. According to him he was a rig pig who had dropped out of school at 15 after his friend had shot himself in the school cafeteria, but also somewhere in the conversation he dropped something about his property in Italy and that time he lived in Dubai and then proceeded to tell me all about his friend Lynn and showed me her text messages. Very very wierd and I could not get away fast enough.
The flight to Taiwan was me (the only blonde and the only white girl on the flight), 200 Chinese people, and their LUGGAGE. Sweet Lord can those people pack! Every single person in the lineup had a mountain on a luggage cart, all marked Oversize. A little girl ran up to me and suggested I come back to check-in 2 hours later because the line would be gone by then and my luggage was already checked through to Manila. I have also discovered the reason there are so many millions of their kind on our planet: they can breed! I couldn't count the number of children under 5 on that flight. Each more delightful than the next. My personal favourite was the 3 year old sitting behind me for 13 straight hours gleefully kicking my chair and babbling unintelligibly to his mother. His mother eventually got just as frustrated with it as I clearly was and stopped responding to him, prompting a demonstration of his lung capacity for a solid 60 minutes of "Mommy-Y-y-Y-y-Y!!!!" I wanted to strangle him. Also Air China is no Air Singapore. Between not having any white wine on board (GASP!), only red, and unceremoniously throwing my headset at me when I boarded, this flight was a far cry from the days of delicious Japanese noodle soup and unlimited in-flight vino.
Anyways, transfered in Taipei to Manila, got thru customs and such with no problems and walked out into the furnace inside the boiler room in Satan's summer cottage on Mars. It is HOT HOT HOT. The weather channel will tell you its about 33, but my armpits and afro tell me its at least a humid 40 if not more. As usual, I do not enjoy large dirty Asian cities such as the one in which I currently find myself. It smells, there's beggars, and I saw a Starbucks which totally ruined me feeling all free and backpackery. We leave for our 3-day trek thru the rice fields on the northern part of this island tomorrow and I cannot wait. I need a beach ASAP or at the very least some serious cultural immersion. I think by Monday I should be lounging in my bikini as opposed to sweltering in perpetual rush hour.
My group is a small one. There's 8 of us in all, all from either Edmonton or Calgary. Andrew never appeared, strange. But its 6 girls, a boy (poor thing) and our tour guide Bertus. We're all in various stages of jet-lag from different epic journeys, but we're all rousing ourselves for some activity in 30 mintues that Bertus has yet to let us in on, then we're having our first group dinner tonight. I am heroically attempting to stay up all day until at least 10pm to avoid a 7 hour nap that has me waking up at 3am for the next 2 weeks. I'm sleepy and sweaty but so excited to get this show on the road!
Sweatin' and smilin'.
I'm finally here! Brutal flight. But totally worth it.
Vancouver to Calgary was VEEEERY late and had a helluva time trying to fill my day leading up to my 9:40 pm departure. Got thru security in about 3 minutes and wandered around the YYC for an hour or so. Uneventful flight, and I thought how fortunate I was that I would be in Vancouver from 11pm-2am...just in time for last call! Sadly everything in the whole damn place was closed so I used my last CDN$ to buy a Starbucks. I headed straight for a nice, comfy-looking couch to read my book and pass the time when I found myself sitting next to a 30-something year old guy who was either a sociopath, schizophrenic, or a compulsive liar. According to him he was a rig pig who had dropped out of school at 15 after his friend had shot himself in the school cafeteria, but also somewhere in the conversation he dropped something about his property in Italy and that time he lived in Dubai and then proceeded to tell me all about his friend Lynn and showed me her text messages. Very very wierd and I could not get away fast enough.
The flight to Taiwan was me (the only blonde and the only white girl on the flight), 200 Chinese people, and their LUGGAGE. Sweet Lord can those people pack! Every single person in the lineup had a mountain on a luggage cart, all marked Oversize. A little girl ran up to me and suggested I come back to check-in 2 hours later because the line would be gone by then and my luggage was already checked through to Manila. I have also discovered the reason there are so many millions of their kind on our planet: they can breed! I couldn't count the number of children under 5 on that flight. Each more delightful than the next. My personal favourite was the 3 year old sitting behind me for 13 straight hours gleefully kicking my chair and babbling unintelligibly to his mother. His mother eventually got just as frustrated with it as I clearly was and stopped responding to him, prompting a demonstration of his lung capacity for a solid 60 minutes of "Mommy-Y-y-Y-y-Y!!!!" I wanted to strangle him. Also Air China is no Air Singapore. Between not having any white wine on board (GASP!), only red, and unceremoniously throwing my headset at me when I boarded, this flight was a far cry from the days of delicious Japanese noodle soup and unlimited in-flight vino.
Anyways, transfered in Taipei to Manila, got thru customs and such with no problems and walked out into the furnace inside the boiler room in Satan's summer cottage on Mars. It is HOT HOT HOT. The weather channel will tell you its about 33, but my armpits and afro tell me its at least a humid 40 if not more. As usual, I do not enjoy large dirty Asian cities such as the one in which I currently find myself. It smells, there's beggars, and I saw a Starbucks which totally ruined me feeling all free and backpackery. We leave for our 3-day trek thru the rice fields on the northern part of this island tomorrow and I cannot wait. I need a beach ASAP or at the very least some serious cultural immersion. I think by Monday I should be lounging in my bikini as opposed to sweltering in perpetual rush hour.
My group is a small one. There's 8 of us in all, all from either Edmonton or Calgary. Andrew never appeared, strange. But its 6 girls, a boy (poor thing) and our tour guide Bertus. We're all in various stages of jet-lag from different epic journeys, but we're all rousing ourselves for some activity in 30 mintues that Bertus has yet to let us in on, then we're having our first group dinner tonight. I am heroically attempting to stay up all day until at least 10pm to avoid a 7 hour nap that has me waking up at 3am for the next 2 weeks. I'm sleepy and sweaty but so excited to get this show on the road!
Sweatin' and smilin'.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Email from Free & Easy Rep
Hi guys, I thought you might get a kick out of this. This is the email my tour guide sent me today. Definitely not your traditional cruise director!
Hi Christine
Hope you are doing very good and getting super stoked about the trip that is starting in a few hours for you. I’m happy you decided to join this trip and look forward to meeting you. I also hope this e-mail reaches you in time. Sorry for sending this onto you a little late. I'm excited for making some new friends and sharing some of the great experiences in amazing places with you and the others.
My name is Bertus (a tricky one for some of you Canadians to pronounce), and I am the random South African Free and Easy guy that will be taking you around the Philippines in June. I have been with Free and Easy for a while and so far I’ve missed only one of our trips here so you are in relatively capable hands
I got back to Manila today and just wanted to give you some important details about our journey coming up.
The trip in The Philippines was designed as a backpacker experience, and is definitely a level 2 Free and Easy trip. Don’t get me wrong, we are not gonna send you into the wilderness with a Zippo and pliers and ask you to survive for 40 days. We are just getting back to the roots of why we all love to travel. Passing school children staring at you as if they just saw a ghost (or white person for the first time), and then suddenly breaks into a giggle and start waving at you as if they want to break their little hands off their wrists. Sharing conversations with older Filipinos over a round of Ginebra (a gin like liquor that costs around a dollar a bottle). Breathtaking hikes through the mountains and rice fields of the mountainous regions of Northern Luzon. Taking in some of the best underwater scenery in the world and singing some nights away in karaoke ‘Cafés’, sharing lots of laughs with Filipinos and our Free and Easy family. And… as I think I don't wanna give it all away, I also realize that I cannot even come close to giving you an idea of what to expect!
Making our way throughout the islands will involve all sorts of random means of transportation. There are often ferries between the major islands, but we typically want to go beyond those 'obvious' destinations, so we'll be making use of all sorts of boats, buses, planes, jeepneys, tricycles and taxis. We'll be doing a lot of actual traveling throughout the trip, but being on the move is often where you really experience the best of the Philippines. Foreigners are far less common in the Philippines compared to some other destinations, so we will get to see a Filipino way of life that has barely changed in many generations.
To make your journey just a little more comfortable and enjoyable at times I want to advise you on a few finer details. For one thing I hope you like hiking! Right at the beginning of the trip we venture up to the Northern Mountains of the Philippines and there is an opportunity for an incredible 2-day trek. I want to mention this for two reasons.
Firstly I recommend that you bring a good pair of shoes or quality hiking/sports sandals. I would say proper hiking/sports sandals would be sufficient but I leave that to you to decide. If you don’t have any you will be able to pick some up in Manila before we leave.
Secondly, the summer weather is great at the moment but it does get cooler at higher altitudes so bring at least one warmish, long sleeved shirt which would also come in handy battling the freezing air-con on some Philippine buses and ferries.
Oh…and that reminds me of another thing to recommend - we'll be taking a night bus up North and back to Manila so having ear plugs (they will come in handy on loud boats too), an eye mask and one of those u-shaped blow up neck pillows would make sleep that much easier. Again, if you don't have some of this already, you can pick it up in Manila at a good price.
You will be arriving to the Philippines on June 11th at 9:35am, but the trip will begin officially when some arrive on Thursday June 10th and the trip ends late night on July 18th when the group flight departs from Cebu City. I will supply you with a full itinerary and a guide book as soon as you hit Manila. You fly out on the July 19th and Andreas is booking your flight from Cebu to Manila as we speak to get you here well in time for your outbound flight.
As for other reminders:
-- if you are a student or even have a student id from the past few years that could pass as valid, bring it along, and it could save you/us some cash along the trip.
Also, prior to landing in the Philippines, you are given an arrival card to fill out and give to immigration, you will be asked to 'Provide an address in the Philippines', and so you could use the following:
Friendly’s Guest House
1750 Adriatico St.
Malate, Manila
There is another question on the arrivals card about 'Are you traveling on a package tour?' yes___ no___
….and to make life simple, we are responding 'NO' to that question.
This is more for situations where the whole group is arriving together. Also, we prefer to call this group, 'a large group of friends', rather than a group tour.
If you don't have a visa for the Philippines, don’t stress it. They will stamp you in for 21 days at immigration on arrival. Sometimes (not often) they will give you 59 days so definitely ask if they can. If you only get the 21 days we will help you to get it extended to 59 days at an immigration office near youJ.
Please make sure that you have a paper copy of your flight tickets (inbound and outbound) when you go to the airport. When you arrive in the Philippines, you are required to show proof of your outbound/return ticket. If you don't have it, it will be a huge pain finding a way to print one off just to get through immigration.
Once you have cleared immigration, picked up your bag and go through customs (nothing to declare), you will exit and pass over one street, go down the ramp on your right and cross another street. That is where I will be waiting for you. I will be the tallest, whitest guy with dread locks in the waiting area so it'll be easy to spot me. They don't allow people into the terminal without a flight ticket so that's why I’ll be waiting there.
That should be all of it but let me know if you have any questions… I’ll be happy to answer them!!
The time is real close and I'm looking forward to get this show on the road (literally and metaphorically typing) and make our ways to all these fantastic adventures that await us!
See you soon – Have a safe flight!
Bertus
Philippines Mobile: +63 (0) 92 6711 8394
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