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!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
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
Wheels up in 11 hours
Well the time has come. This last week was spent running errands, also known as boosting the Canadian economy before I go. Got a spankin' new video camera for about $200, made waterproof by my sister's web surfing skills. The fam gave me a case that seals the little guy shut so I can take him scuba diving/snorkeling. I made a bucket load of cash on my last 2 serving shifts. Apparently telling regular customers you're leaving the country (and subsequently getting really really drunk with said regular customers) is quite the money maker. My little car had a slumber party at 1600 for 3 days in a row. Luckily that parking lot is full of BMWs and RangeRovers so I wasn't too concerned that anyone would try to harm or steal little ERK. Amongst all the shopping, working, and drinking, I managed to get my life together and I'm not all packed up and ready to go! I've got about 1/3 of my backpack empty for counterfeit Asian goods, a pair of flip flops, a book, and my ticket. What more could a gal need? There's something truly liberating about embarking on a trip for which you pack neither an underwire bra nor any makeup above and beyond a tube of waterproof mascara.
Now that I've done absolutely everything I need to do before leaving, today I may very well go insane. My flight leaves at 9:40 pm, leaving me the next 11 hrs or so to fester and wonder if I forgot to pack any bathing suits, etc. In an effort to prevent this pending insanity I've booked Mum and Kollee for dinner at the Keg tonight. We figured it would be best to get a solid meal of steak and mashed potatoes in my belly before I go on budget. Also this will cut down my pacing time considerably. So the Keg at 6 in my fetching Lululemon traveling ensemble, then off to the airport to start my epic journey. With the time change I lose a day so I get there on Friday. Yikes.
Sadly I missed out on an Air Singapore flight with their efficient refilling of complimentary wine and delicious snacks every 10 minutes. Hopefully Air China enacts the "to each according to his need" part of the communist manifesto i.e. I NEED some more pino grigio.
So that's that. Look forward to tales of scuba, sand, and sunshine.
Now that I've done absolutely everything I need to do before leaving, today I may very well go insane. My flight leaves at 9:40 pm, leaving me the next 11 hrs or so to fester and wonder if I forgot to pack any bathing suits, etc. In an effort to prevent this pending insanity I've booked Mum and Kollee for dinner at the Keg tonight. We figured it would be best to get a solid meal of steak and mashed potatoes in my belly before I go on budget. Also this will cut down my pacing time considerably. So the Keg at 6 in my fetching Lululemon traveling ensemble, then off to the airport to start my epic journey. With the time change I lose a day so I get there on Friday. Yikes.
Sadly I missed out on an Air Singapore flight with their efficient refilling of complimentary wine and delicious snacks every 10 minutes. Hopefully Air China enacts the "to each according to his need" part of the communist manifesto i.e. I NEED some more pino grigio.
So that's that. Look forward to tales of scuba, sand, and sunshine.
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