Tubbutaha.hahahaha

Just got back from an AMAZING liveaboard adventure on the borneo explorer in Tubbataha Reef in the middle of the Sulu Sea between Palawan, Indonesia, and the Visayas. It was known as Jacque Cousteau's playground and favorite place. It was a bit expensive, but worth every penny. I was able to book the transition trip which meant for the same price I got 8 days instead of the typical 5. As soon as I boarded, I knew I was in for quite a trip. Took a chase boat to the main boat, the borneo explorer. This may not seem like much, but after taking deafening bancas where even earplugs would do little to sooth the ears all the time, this was a nice treat. I was welcomed on board into a fancy (and airconned!) main cabin and dining area and treated to ice tea (with its namesake ice). I was given a boat tour and shown my cabin which was quite awesome as well. A huge window looking out onto the ocean, a queen bed and then a bunk bed on top of that. Air conned of course, my own private bathroom with cold and hot shower. The room was so very clean and smelled of fresh fruit and was made daily and they'd even fold my clothes everyday. This was a complete 180 from everywhere else I had been staying. I arrived early so as not to miss the trip...philippine travel can be quite unreliable so I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon walking along the road that followed the coast. I boarded the ship around 5pm and settled into the cabin. I explored the ship some more and tried to meet and chat with the crew. I then made my way up to the bridge to learn all about the controls from Captain Castillo. We had a briefing and met all the other passengers on board (lucille from australia but works in the manila embassy, Bill and Lisa Bubb from Australia, Jean Paul, Anuete, georgio armani, and lindua from france, Sara and Kent from Sweden, Chester and Lucy from Palawan, Jean Paul and Thereu from France. The head divemaster was Paul Ancla from Cebu and the two divemaster guides were Cathy Ridsdale from the UK and Mike from Canada. Herg and Carrie (Germany and France but live in bali) were also along for half the trip but met up to guide another ship once we were a couple days in Tubbataha. (these names are more for my poor memory). I was the youngest by far (except the two guides who were in their late 20's), and the only real budget traveller also. They were all pretty much purely dive vacationers and I was by far the most inexperienced. I had 22 dives going into the trip and most had over 250.

That night we sat down for dinner that was just a preview of the amazingness to come. It was buffet style and there was always different meals to choose from, then fresh fruit (mangos every day!), fancy desserts, fruit juices and MILK! I'm pretty sure I gained lots of wait on this trip b/c we had so much food and on the budget thing I'm on I never really eat enough, so I was always helping myself to 3rds. And you know those shirts that are like eat, sleep, play basketball or whatever, well this was seriously, eat, sleep, dive. We had five dives a day and between each dive and before the first and after the lat there was food. Before the first dive was "light" breakfast which included cornflakes and milk (a delicacy here), bananas, WHEAT bread and peanut butter, hot coco. Then after the first dive at 7am was the heavy breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, porridge, other kinds of meats, pancakes, etc. After the 2nd dive was a big hot lunch. after the 3rd dive was snacks after the 4th dive was cookies and pastries and after the 5th dive (the night dive) was the big dinner. And of course there was juice, coco, and candy around the clock. And of course we were quite pampered. Anything you wanted. They helped most people gear up, but didn't help me much b/c I was the youngest and didn't have too much trouble. Fresh warm towels after every dive.



And of course the diving was super sweet. It was actually pretty intense. 5 dives at 1 hour per dive is actually a lot b/c breathing compressed oxygen can make you tired (that's why a lot of the people there used nitrox...but too expensive for me). Of course my schedule was also a bit more rigorous than everyone else. I did every single dive except the first night dive b/c I didn't have my advance cert yet so I had to wait one day before I could get that, where as most people only did 3 or 4 of the dives a day. No way would I do that b/c the diving was too good and I wanted to get my money's worth. And most people retired to their cabin during surface intervals, but not me...I enjoyed hanging out with the crew or swimming off the boat or even bettter, jumping off from the top of the boat (the boat was 4 stories tall). The french always got a kick out of that b/c they snoozed on the top of the ship on the beach chairs in their speedos getting tans.

So back to the diving. The first night we sailed all night to get to Apo Reef off of Mindoro, which is a nationally protected reef. That night was very rough seas and it took 14 hours instead of the planned 11 to get there. I was a bit seasick in the morning, but not really too much. More groggy from not sleeping too well b/c with every big way I would roll across the bed. I had 4 great dives there. Lots of sharks, turtles, and of course all of the reef fish. I also had Carrie in my group the first 3 days before she moved on to the other boat and she was a pro at finding the macro stuff, so we saw lots and lots of different nudibranchs, anenome crabs, shrimps, and other highly camoflauged tiny things. The next day we steamed to the Cuyo islands. Because of rough seas, we were late in arriving there (this time I slept well b/c I slept a different direction on the bed) which meant we only did 2 dives there that day, which ended up being ok anyways. The cuyo islands unfortunately aren't protected from fishing, dynamite blasting, or cyanide poisoning, the the fish life isn't the best and there wasn't much big stuff. All the same we saw lots of cool little things with the help of Carrie. The area was actually quite good for macro b/c all the big stuff to eat the little stuff was overfished. And there was a cool cave we got to swim through that started at about 25m depth and ended up at 18m depth. Also, the islands were quite gorgeous in the area, abit like el nido style. We left early that day to make it to Tubbataha in order to get there on time in the morning. That night watched a couple movies with the crew in the dining area, which is quite fun with the boat is rolling up and down. The 3rd day we arrived at Tubbataha reef. It's divided into the N. and S. Atolls and we spent two days at each one. The diving was absolutely amazing there. So many fish and such good corals and the most incredibl wall dives Tubattaha is a world heritage site, nationally protected, as well as protected by the WWF. It is supposedly the most pristine reef complex in asia b/c it is very remote, and has incredibly rough seas 9 months of the year, so not many fisherman got to it before it was protected. The fish diversity was definitely impressive with all the typical butterfly, damsel, parrot fish etc. More angel fish than I'd ever seen anywhere and just an incredible amount of sweetlips and grouper (a good indication of a non-fished reef as they are quite tasty fish). And of course the sharks, oh the sharks. More than you could count. So many that you almost got to a point where you were just like, oh, just another shark and kept swimming. Diddn't happen too much for me b/c I love watching them, but I know for some people it did. Mainly white tipped reef sharks and grey reef sharks. But I saw one huge bullshark. We went to one area to look for hammerheads, but didn't get any luck unfortunately. Lots of times you could get quite close to the sharks as they napped during the day and would just sit in sandy areas or in caves. But on the early morning and late afternoon dives we often got to see them hunting which was quite exciting. And we saw lots of other typically uncommon fish with high frequency here such as moray eels, ribbon eels, and lion fish. A few of the exciting finds were an octopus just sitting on a coral head changing color and texture, and anenome hermit crab, triton shells, a pygmy sea horse (microscopic sea horse that lives in sea fans that has only been known to science for 10 years), a couple conical sponges spawning (they look like volcanos and when they're spawning which occurs once a year, they look like erupting volcanos), a marble ray, and a few eagle rays. We unfortunately struck out with manta rays though the crew saw a bunch from the boat while we were diving one day. I love turtles and there were lots and lots. Hawkbills and Green. Almost everywhere I had been except for Apo Island with lucas, the turtles typically scare easy. But here you could just sit and watch them forage for food or just float along with them for minutes on end in the current. We got to do 4 days, 5 dives a day at Tubatahha which was just great. On the last night dive there we dove at the Malayan wreck. There are always unusual creatures inhabiting wrecks and I also saw the largest grouper and parrotfish I have ever seen, but the big excitement in addition to a turtle nearly running into me in the dark was near the hull of the ship. Bill and I were squeezed into a tiny hole barely big enough for the two of us in the hull of the ship looking at some large fish in there when in a flash and out of nowhere a huge reef shark swam straight at us. Nearly slammed into us and somehow managed to turn around in the tiny space and go the otherway so that all we could see was the tail. We were so surprised that we nearly slammed our heads on the wreck and then started laughing. Quite exhillarating.

Tubatahha is made up of two atolls. The southernost has a tiny island with a few trees and a lighthouse. The northern one has the wreck above water and just the tiniest of sandbars. There is also a rangerstation that is built on stuilts, but even on low tide there is no dry land. So the ranger station is always on at least 1 foot of water. On the 3rd day we took a tender boat in to see the ranger station and splash around on the sandbar and the emerald water. It was the first dry land I'd been on in 5 days and it felt quite weird!

Besides the diving though I had a lot of fun on the boat. Had fun with the crew (again for my memory) especially Ben, Ardy, Angelo, Jay, Roan, Jeff, Richard, Eddy. The crew loved me. I think because I actually talked to them, joked with them a lot, and tried to learn their names, and also I was the craziest and most spunky of the people on the boat. At the end of the trip paul told me that the crew really liked me and wished I would stay for another round. I actually felt like quite a celebrity with them b/c when we'd load up on the boats to go to the dive site they'd all sit on the ship and wave and say have fun Trabis (the v is not really used in the philippines), and when we'd come back they'd jump up and down and yell my name again. And of course in the morning they'd all be quick to shout out my name and I was always invited to crew movie time at night. And just anytime walking through the ship they'd always have their hands out for highfives and such. No one else got this treatment at all. I was especially fond of Angelo who was the server and bartender and was fun to make laugh. At one point the french group asked me why they were always so excited to see me in the mornings and when I came back. In my head I was thinking b/c I actually talk to them and try and be friends, but I just told them perhaps b/c I was young. I think they also really liked me b/c I knew about filipinos and their culture. Everyone else (besides bill and lisa) were on purely dive holidays. So I think they really respected that I'd try and speak tagalog, that I knew the names of filipino dishes, that I ate turo turo on the streets, that I knew things about each of the regions the different crew were from (from bicol to romblon to cebu to n. luzon), that I could talke to them about rooster fights and that I was always teasing them if they had a videoke machine. The first day of diving at Tubbataha (the 3rd day overall) at 7am as we were gearing up on the side decks I opened the door to the dining area next door (I didn't wear a wetsuit or fancy equipment so I was always dressed a full 5-10 minutes before everyone else) to grab a quick hot chocolate and angelo had the music blasting as he was cleaning up. What song was it...none other than total eclipse of the heart, one of my very favorite 80's power ballads to karaoke to. I was feeling especially happy and excited for the diving so I was running around and singing to it, and there is a pole in the middle of the dining area and I did a pole dance from it. Angelo loved it. And of course he had air supply's all out of love, my next favorite song. So every morning it became routine that before the dive I would belt out and dance to those two songs with all the crew loving it. By the last day, the 4 french friends in my boat (my boat had the 4 french friends, lisa, bill, and mike as guide with jay as boatman and eddy as helper) joined in the dancing and I was twirling Anuete around. I actually really liked the group of french people too. It took a few days to warm up to them b/c of the english barrier, but they were quite cool and I think found me rather funny. I especially like georgie as he seemed so nice and was always smiling. I actually had quite a lot of fun with them and I was glad b/c the other english speakers seemed to ignore them b/c there english wasn't quite as good. But you can still have a lot of fun with people just with hand motions and tones. But my favorite was Bill. As Kathy and I joked, especially after looking at all of chesters pictures he had taken of the trip at the end where bill and I were always hanging out, he was my new best friend. Bill was about 65 and had been everywhere and dove everywhere it seemed and had quite good stories. He and lisa had done quite a bit of budget travel in their day as well and were the next most budget people to me on the trip. We always had good convo at dinner and since lisa didn't dive as many dives as bill, I was often his dive buddy. But I really did like them a lot and we had fun diving together. We just had a good connection for some reason. I also had good fun hanging out with Cathy and Mike who were more my age and also native english speakers.

On the 8th day we arrived into the port of puerto princesa on Palawan. I had one last huge breakfast. Most the people got off the ship right away by like 9 or 10, but bill lisa and I took our time and stayed on the ship for a while. Everyone else at pre-arranged resort reservations but we had to find our places and check out time isn't until noon. Around noon we took the borneo explorer van and went in search of budget places. Before I left the crew gave me a gift of one of the cool bright yellow crew t-shirts for the ship. I was very appreciative of that and was happy not to have to spend the 15 dollars that everyone else did for their tubbataha shirt. Went out to a fairly fancy place for lunch with all the divers from the ship as a goodbye thing, but then headed back to the borneo explorer to find the boys to hang out with again. We cruised around town and then they all went to get pedicures. I'd never had one before, but they were less than a dollar and they were all doing it, so I got one. As they were working on my dirty feet with their tools that they didn't exactly sanitize I was crossing my fingers I wouldn't get any fungus or anything like the last time I was in the tropics. I was nearly done with I looked at Jeff's feet and asked him what the black area was. "worm" he said. I could only laugh...and pray.

That night they took me to videoke, something they had been waiting to take me to for quite some time. And I thrilled them with passionate but most likely terrible renditions of all out of love, total eclipse of the heart, making love out of nothing at all, and I will survive. They bought me several rounds of beer and then Angelo, ardy, and I went down to this concert by the ocean walk they were having that night in puerto to meet up with Paul, Mike, Cathy, Chester and Lucy. Chester who is a big wig in Palawan (owns all the petrol stations) had gotten mike and cathy backstage to meet the band (apparently a big and famous one inthe philippines. Tanduay Rhum was sponsoring the concert so they were giving out 1 free sample each of mango juice and tanduay and some energy drink and tanduay. But since we were with chester, we got unlimited drinks and eventually found ourselves with whole bottles of it. We had a good time at the concert drinking the rum, attempting fountains of rum, and just joking around before Cathy and I finally went up towards the front of the band. In this country whites seem to get way too much respect (in malls and airports where they check your bags they thoroughly search the filipinos and let me walk in without hardly looking or in a line of people they always try to help me first), so we were easily able to walk right up to the front of the crowd so we were in the front row. And when we would shout for covers, the people next to us would join us and eventually the whole crowd. And thanks to chester the band gave a shout out to cathy and mike as well. After the concert we all too trikes to get some mami noodles before turning in. Definitely a great way to end my first liveaboard expedition. Paul said he'd hire me as a dive guide if I get my dive master cert, so it's something to think about for me b/c the borneo explorer also does trips around the visayas, micronesia, and palau. The trip was totally worth it as it was definitely the best diving I've ever done, i improved my diving skills tremendously, had a lot of fun, and quite enjoyed living on a boat.

Goodbye to the sweet stringfields

A couple of days ago, we took our last trip together to Apo Island. It's listed as one of the 10 best dive spots in the world. We didn't dive b/c it was pretty expensive b/c of the boat ride out there as well, but the snorkelling was also supposed to be just as good. There were two main snorkel spots. The sanctuary and the turtle area. We snorkelled twice at the sanctuary and once at the turtle area. It definitely lived up to its word. THe snorkelling was fantastic. The diversity of soft corals and fish was unbelievable. And saw the largest aggregation of plate corals I had ever seen. Bigger than the size of a basketball court. Saw huge "schools" of clownfish. Clownfish don't really school, but it was just an area so dense with them, they were everywhere...like a city. Lots of trumpet fish and trigger fishes and pufferfish. At the turtle sanctuary we saw 3 turtles very close. It was an especially good interaction b/c typically turtles swim quickly away (yes quickly), but these ones you could get quite close to and just float and watch them eat, and in very shallow clear water. Unfortunately the day was quite marred for me b/c I realized that my camera had broken. We also did a little hike up to the top of the island to the lighthouse where we watched some local boys fight spiders. The boat back and forth between the island was pretty fun b/c it was not a very seaworth vessel and we were all completely soaked by water splashing onto us in huge buckets.


Apo island had a special interest to me b/c in Dr. Walser's class we had a read a book called the enchanted braid about the importance of coral reefs and a couple of chapters were reserved for apo. Apparently 20 years ago or so the people in the village were starving and poor b/c they had overfished and dynamited the reef so they had much diminished fish catches. They aggreed with the help of the WWF and Smithsonian to set up a sanctuary that was absolutely off limits to fishing. THe rest of the island could still be fished. This gave an area where fish could breed, grow up, etc and then move out to the rest of the reef around the island. 5 years later and the fish catches were back to normal, plus they were now making money on ecotourism. One of the best documented examples of conservation making life better for local people

that night, we went out for our last karaoke together and then I took lucas out for his belated bachelor's party (no one was able to throw one for him b/c they had snuck off in secrecy to the philippines to get married). We sang some more karaoke, went dancing to at a club, bought some handles of Tanduay rum to drink by the ocean and then ended the night in a pretty interesting conversation with a lady boy.

Yesterday was a difficult goodbye for me to say the the stringfields. I hung out a bit trying to do errands in dumaguette before flying to manila. From manila I took a bus to batangas where I stayed last night in a kind of sketchy, rent by the hour hotel, but it was late at night and all I could find and batangas is definitely not a place tourists go, but the bus to anilao where I'm headed today had already stopped when I arrived at midnight.

Today at 6pm I head off onto the borneo explorer for 8 days of unlimited diving at Tubbataha reef and apo (a different apo) island. I'm excited b/c it will be the first time I've slept and lived on a boat. Doubtful that there will be internet on the boat, so I'll see you all in 8 days.

Lunch with the Gov

Today we got up early to go to Apo island for some snorkelling, but the weather didn't look too great so we changed our plan and went to Twin Lakes national park...a rather sketchy ride on the back of a motorcycle and then steep hike. The scenery was quite stunning up in the mountains of Negros. The road was treacherous and full of landslides. Apparently a few weeks ago they had buckets of rain and caused lots of the landslides making the road impassible. We got to the first lake which was gorgeous set amid misty mountains. We wanted to hike to the next lake, but the trail went along the first lake's shore and with all the rain the water levels were 15 feet higher than normal. It was quite funny to see the picnic cabanas completely submerged in water. They were having an inaugural lunch for a new tourist facility at the lake so there was apparently a bunch of big wigs up there. We were just chatting to a few people up there when I noticed one of the guys was wearing a boehringer ingelheim hat. BI is a huge biotech company that has facilities around the globe including connecticut and germany where I had visited when I worked for Sapidyne. The guy wearing the hat used to be the president of the site in the Philippines and in Indonesia, and has since retired to the PI. After chatting, Lucas, Sari, and I went to sit by the lake and eat mangos and let the little fish clean our feet. It started to pour, so we went under the cabana in the new tourist place. The guy, Michael, from BI and his wife invited us to ride back down the muddy road in their 4WD, which would be much safer than on the motorcycle and of course drier. We accepted and they took us to their AMAZING house. It had a gorgeous view of the ocean, immaculately landscaped yard full of flowers and fruit trees, a couple pools, huge outdoor dining area and more. They had security officers and maids and everything. It was quite incredible. They had us (in our sweaty, dirty, smelly clothes) sit down for coffee and fancy treats as we waited for the Mayor of sibuyan and the governor of the province of Negros to come for some food and coffee. So we got to eat and chat with the governor and the mayor. They were quite funny and liked to make jokes about how corrupt politicians are in the PI. After that they gave us a ride back into dumaguette.

We finished out the afternoon visiting the siliman university marine laboratory that has giant clam, grouper, and philippine crocodile breeding programs. We then watched Marley and Me in a theatre (aircon!) and finished out the night having a mango and mangosteen party.

Still have not found any sandals my size and my keens are starting to fall apart. Luckily they have cheap and hopefully good shoe repairmen here. I got my keens stitched back up for 30 cents today so hopefully they'll hold until I can find some sandals built for giant's feet.

Spooky Siquijor Island

Hmm...so it's been a while since I had a chance to write in this.

On the 4th, the last time I wrote here, Lucas had to go from Loboc to Tagbiliran to work on an application b/c he needed a fax machine, so Sari and I walked/swam up the river from nuts huts to a waterfall that afternoon, where I was lucky to see what some people call a Jesus lizard; the kind of lizard that can run on water. That night sari and spent the evening reading in hammocks from the nuts huts balcony listening to the jungle until lucas got back when we feasted on some homemade yoghurt.

The next day we went to the Tarsier reserve in bohol. Tarsiers are these cute, tiny primates that have huge eyes and heads the resemble yoda's and fingers that resemble ET's. They had been known as the smallest primates on earth until a mouse lemur was discovered in madagascar a few years ago. Luckily the tarsiers are territorial and tend to sleep in the same tree during the day, so with a guide we were able to find 5 of the cute little guys and actually get quite close. I loved looking into their big, soft eyes.

After visiting the tarsiers we went to Tagbiliran to due some necessary travel searching/booking/planning. We went to the mall to do it and of course feasted on the cheap icecreams and shakes there. That night we caught a trike over the bridge to Alona Beach on Panglao Island where after a bit of a search we were able to score a great deal on lodging at the high priced diving resort.

The next day Lucas and I dove two dives with a local philippines company. The funny thing is alona beach caters specifically to europeans (mainly germans). There are tons of dive shops and all the diveboats we saw out were packed full of divers b/c they all book online from home or on package tours. Then there was lucas and I, just the two of us on our own private tour, paying half the price of everyone else with the local guys. The two dives were excellent! They were dives off of Baclaran Island. On the 1st one we saw a turtle, some lion fish, a huge school of giant barracuda, some very cool anenome dwelling crabs, a species of angel fish I'd never seen before, and a moray eel. The 2nd dive was the best wall dive I had ever done. Huge fan corals, little caves to explore, the wall dropping indefinitely down to the depths of the ocean. At the end of the dive we ran into a large group of japanese divers. We had quite a lot of fun watching our dive guide laugh at and imitate the japanese divers. Had a fun ride back to Panglao sitting on the bow and bouncing up and down in the large surf as the boat raced back towards Alona.

That afternoon we chartered a banca pumpboat to siquijor island after I had climbed a coconut tree to get us 3 coconuts for a snack. Siquijor is known for its magic, mystery, abundant fire flies (the spaniards called it isla de fuego b/c of the glow given off by the fireflies), medicine men, and mysticism. In fact all the no siquijoran filipinos we talked to told us to definitely not go th siquijor b/c it is a haunted bad place full of spirits...all the more reason to go! Siquijor was a great place though. Very quiet, hardly any touristm, nice beaches, jungle interior, and some of the nicest people in the philippines thus far. The banca we hired landed on some random beach. We had planned to walk to this one budget resort, but a man on the beach said he had a cousin who had a house for us to rent cheaply. Thus we were introduced to Tata and Edwin (edwin is a proud retired policeman, aged 48, who loves basketball, singing, and cockfighting). The were able to hook us up with a nice two-storey house for only 10 bucks for the 3 of us. That night we joined with Tata, Edwin and their various cousins and neighbors for some karaoke and drinking. You could buy a liter of coconut wine for 16cents. Siquijor had some of the cheapest prices. Besides that we got a liter of beer for 80cents, a kilo of bananas for 15 cents, and fish tempura for 6cents.

The next day we rented motorbikes in Larena to circumnavigate the island (72kms around, plus roads to the interior). We originally were going to bicycle around it, but figured it would take too long considering we still had other places we wanted to see in the PI. Our moto tour was quite cool though. We just packed light and headed off. The first day we got to a beautiful white sand beach where we hung out, listened to some music, and snorkeled. We then drove inland up the mountain into the forest to San Antonio where the infamous healers (medicine men) are. We met with one and had a little bit of his 200+ herb potion that is made during holy week. On siquijor they kind of mix Catholicism with animism. It was beginning to get dark so we rode down to where our map said there were some beaches near San Jose as we had planned on sleeping on the beach. The beaches weren't exactly public, but one of the hotels said we could sleep on their beach if need be. We decided to check out a bit more. We stopped for some tempura at this one house and they said they knew a person who would give us a good deal at a house. We went to check out the house and it was amazing. Really nice and overlooking the ocean. Lucas and Sari took a room for 8 dollars and I slept on a very comfortable hammock on the deck with the ocean breeze for a buck. Turns out the house is a vacation home of some australian room and the caretaker of the place was just making some money renting it out to us, which is why we could get it so cheap (nearby resorts were charging from between 30 dollars and 50 dollars for bungalows). That night the family who had helped us find the place cooked us the food we bought at a little store and then we had some beers down on the beach. In the morning we shared breakfast with the caretaker and a couple of his friends and enjoyed the ocean view

After breakfast we headed off again on the motos, though it would have been nice to stay as one of the caretaker's friends is a chef and was going to make fresh fish curry. We first stopped by at a century old tree that is apparently haunted. Then we visited an old church and the oldest convent in Asia. After that we drove inland to a really amazing 3 tiered waterfall. The water was a beautiful turquoise color and so incredibly warm that you could just swim in it forever. We had a good time jumping off the waterfall into the glorious water below and feasting on the 2 kilos of bananas I had bought at the market. Definitely one of the best swimming and jumping falls I have been to thus far. After that we drove to an area with some nice beaches nestled in rocky coves. We did some snorkelling and I had some fun jumping of a pretty high cliff jutting into the ocean. After that we got on the motos and headed to find a beach to sleep on. Again, the same thing. No really good place to sleep on the beach, but we ran into a caretaker at a fancy resort that was closed and we got some very nice ocean view bungalows for 3 dollars. He originally wanted 15 dollars, but we had all the bargaining power and we knew it, b/c we knew that since he was just the caretaker, he would make all the money from whatever we paid. We said we'd only stay for 3 dollars each otherwise we'd move on. If he said no, then he missed out on 9 dollars, so of course he eventually said yes. That night we took the motorcycles up to near the top of the island in the interior of siquijor looking for fireflies. Unfortunately we didn't see too many b/c it was a very bright, near full moon. However, it was pretty cool nonetheless b/c the moon made it spooky, we got some nice view from the top in the moonlight and we were able to glide all the way back down to the coast with no headlights and the motos off in stealth mode the whole way. That next morning we went out and explored the beach and tidal pools a bit and just watched the ocean from the veranda.

That afternoon we took a ferry from Siquijor town to Dumaguette on Negros Island. Dumaguette is a really cool college town that has a nice oceanfront blvd and path with huge trees and good views as well as a nice central square. Unfortunately I wasted the whole afternoon dealing with airline tickets and travel stuff. I have a liveaboard divetrip scheduled for the 14th leaving from Batangas near manila so I need to be up there by then. It's a kind of expensive trip so I don't want to risk missing it. I found out there's really no direct busses to manila and the ferry is only once weekely so travel time with busses and ferries would take at least 2 days if I made all the connections. I went around everywhere asking people and travel agents before I foudn out there were no direct busses or ferries. So I ended up having to book a flight, which isn't the end of the world b/c it only costs 40 bucks and lets me spend more time with Lucas and Sari on Negros. The more upsetting thing was I needed to change the date of my cebu pacific flight from manila to bangkok, b/c I had had to wait until I got to a big enough city with a cebu office. If you remember I had been forced to buy a roundtrip ticket when I was at the bangkok airport as per new rules on PI immigration so I had only guessed when I'd come back. They had told me it would cost 40 bucks to change the ticket at a later time, but when I went to do this I was going to have to pay 160 bucks b/c of fair increases and such!! So I ended up canceling my flight, which means I'll get refunded 35 dollars of the 80 dollars I paid, and I was going to go just completely book a new flight b/c it would be cheaper. Well I was on cebu's website and I booked my dumaguette to manila flight just fine, but it wouldn't accept my credit card for the next flight I was booking from MNL to BKK (I found it for $150). I stayed up very late trying to fix this with no luck, so I was very discouraged about money and booking when I went to bed that night b/c I figured the tickets would go up again even the next day as they tend to get more expensive each day. So today I went to the booking office in dumaguette since my credit card wouldn't go through, and it's amazing how ones karma can change so quickly...when I asked them to book it for me, expecting to pay at least 150, they said, oh, there is a promotion for today, you can book for only 40 dollars!!! That was a huge relief (and money saver!) So thank God for that.

Today we caught a jeepney up to Valencia and then rode a motorbike and then walked to a waterfall. It was quite impressive. Hidden away in dense jungle and over 100 feet high with powerful surging water coming down. The water was very cold, but we still swam and even found some cliffs in the pool to jump off of. We relaxed at the falls for a bit and I munched on mangos (I had bought 4 for 80 cents at the market this morning). We made it back to dumaguette fairly early so we went around to get some shakes and icecream and then to a supermarket to get some cheap food. I bought a liter of milk and downed the whole thing right then as I hadn't had milk in such a long time and was craving it. I searched around in about 5 shoe shops and several department stores in the mall and even a nike and adidas store in the mall but couldn't find any sandals that fit me. Nor could I find any at the local market...so I'm unfortunately still sandaless!

Tonight we all got hour massages for 4 bucks including aromatic oils and hot showers. It was by far the best massage I have had yet in Asia, and when we got out, we were all so relaxed we could hardly move.

Wunderbar! ..and bigfoot

My last day on Siargao Island I went for a little surf in the morning. Then we all headed out to the flying fox run by the german treasure hunter Victor. He had an eat all you can buffet for 4 bucks, and we were all excited for some different food. 4 bucks is pretty expensive for us here, so we made sure we got our money's worth, and you can be sure we did! It was so very tasty, and we kept coming up for more. Lots of good german food and some filipino food too. Fresh pork, fresh mahi mahi, bratwurst, german chicken, german pancakes, real bread, mangoes, other fruits, mushroom stew, pasta. Yum yum yum! Mom you would have loved it with all the german food and the crazy german guy and bavarian music playing in the background.

After feasting for over 2 hours we headed off to watch a cock fight. We could hardly walk!

The next day began an epic couple days of travel. We left cloud 9 at 3:45am to walk the 4km to general luna b/c a moto was way to expensive at that time of day. From GL we took a trike to dapa where we caught the 5:45 ferry to Surigao. From Surigao we were told we could go to Butuan to catch a ferry to Bohol. We took a bus fo 3 hours there. When we got there, we found out the ferry didn't leave for 2 more days. So Lucas got a quick haircut and shave and I loaded up on tasty fruit at the market (mangoes, pineapple, rambotan, mangosteen, and bananas) before taking the bus ride back to Surigao. When we got to Surigao they told us to go to this one port, but when we got there it was the wrong one, so we had to take a jeepney to another one. We had missed the 3:30pm ferry to Liloan (we had been told it left at 7pm), so we had to wait for the 11:30 ferry. We arrived in Liloan on Leyte around 4am where we caught a bus to Sorsogon. From Sorsogon we took a bus to Bato. From Bato we took the 9am ferry to Ubay on Bohol and then a bus to Carmen and then another bus to Loboc, arriving there around 3pm. We then had to walk the last 1km to Nuts Huts retreat where we are staying. A definitely long and exhausting journey.

Nuts huts is an awesome little place. Away from everything in the jungle right next to a blue river. It's very relaxing...full of jungle sounds, hammocks, and greenery. Last night we walked into Loboc which is about 4km away for some internet as lucas is applying for a job. Loboc has the 2nd oldest church in the philippines. We finished the night slurping on mangos down by the dock.

Today after a breakfast of fresh yoghurt and bread, we took a hike up through the jungle to 2 pretty impressive and large caves full of bats. It was a nice and sweaty hike for sure. When we got done we were ready for some lunch and as the food is too expensive at nuts huts we headed back to Loboc. It's only about 2.5km if you go by river from nuts huts to loboc, so I swam the whole way into town. A nice and refreshing (and non-sweaty) way to get into town!

I broke my flip flop sandals about 2 weeks ago, which is not surprising considering I use them everyday all day and am often carrying a heavy pack, going through mud, etc. But I have been unable to find any sandals here that fit my size 13 feet! I have been searching for 2 weeks now and have only found size 11, but way too narrow so far.

Surfin Safari

We ended heading down to Southern Leyte to Padre Burgos. It was rather expensive there, so we all shared a bungalow by the beach. As soon as we got into Burgos, we donned our snorkels and mask and went for a swim. The water was quite choppy and wavy as it was very stormy (Leyte apparently is always wet), but we saw some nice stuff including a couple lion fish. The next day, Lucas was feeling a bit sick, but Sari and I went for two dives. I saw some pretty cool things I hadn't seen before. A couple different species of stonefish, two species of pipefish (in the seahorse family), some very colorful nudibranchs, and by far the biggest pufferfish I had ever seen. The 2nd dive(a wall dive) in particular had an incredible array of fish and corals. Quite beautiful. We found a sweet videoke bar with a great selection, so we went to it both nights there.

The next day we headed to Surigao. We caught the early bus from Burgos to Liloan, but we still missed the early ferry, so we spent the day at liloan, which was surprisingly nice. It was a small fishing and port town. The kids were incredibly nice and interested in us, so we spent a lot of time hanging out with them, singing with them, playing marbles, and be adorned in flowers by them. We caught the afternoon ferry to Surigao around 3. The open aired ferry was nice b/c it allowed for the breeze and good views. We got into Surigao late and a guy, JoJo, that we had met on the ferry took us to his aunt's house and then helped us find a place to stay.

Both Surigao and Siargao are in Mindanao, the southern most province in the PI. If you've heard of it, it's because it's a mostly muslim area and a hotbed for terrorism and fighting as the muslims want to break free from the mostly Christian philippines. Most of mindanao is quite dangers to travel in, or so they say, b/c there have been bombings and tourist kidnappings, but the area we are in of Mindanao in the far northeast is just as safe as the rest of the philippines, is mostly Christian, and just not a problem. It's quite quiet here now as it's the low season, meaning the waves aren't as big, which is nice to have the island more or less to ourselves as travelers. But during the big wave season, lots of westerners, especially Australians, rent bungalows for months at a time to surf cloud 9.

Bright and early the next day we took the ferry to Siargao. It was an intense trips as the waves were huge and came crashing over the boat and all we had were tarps over us. The ocean on this journey was also the craziest I had ever seen it. The most unusual currents, and incredibly strong. Some areas looked like rivers in the ocean, and others inexplainably calm. Other areas had huge funnels. Other areas the water seemed to flow up. I would definitely not have wanted to be swimming around there or in a small craft.

We got to Siargao early that day and we found a nice place to stay near general luna town in Cloud 9. As it's not major surfing season right now, we got incredible deals. I have a beachfront, two storey bungalow with attached bathroom and a huge deck for 7 bucks a night. We explored the island a bit (it has tons and tons of palm trees, so of course I collected several coconuts for eating!) then rented some surfboards. Cloud 9 is very famous as one of the top 5 surf waves in the world on par with pipeline in Hawaii, though right now it isn't the huge wave season which starts in August, which is ok by me b/c it was the first time I had ever surfed. We went to a beginners break (quicksilver), and an hour into it I was doing pretty good with catching a wave and standing up on the longboard.

The town of General Luna is quite nice. It has gorgeous blue water and white beaches right in town and all the roads are of sand.

Yesterday we rented a motorcycle to go explore the island, and it turned out to be quite the adventure. We got up early, but it took a bit before someone could bring their motorcycle. On the way into GL, the clutch broke, so it had to be fixed by the guy we rented it from. When that was done we all boarded onto the motorbike (called here habal-habal, which literally means pigs fornicating in tagalog language, b/c they fit anywhere from 3-7 people on them), which lucas driving, sari in the middle, and me on the back. We were trying to get to pilar, but we took a wrong turn and ended up on an incredibly rough road. At one point the bike stalled so we had to start it up. Maybe our wait was a little bad and Lucas started it a bit quick and the road was just so bad, but we did a wheely and crashed. We were just starting so we weren't going very fast, so Sari and I escaped unscathed, but the hot muffler landed on Lucas' thigh and he got quite a nasty burn. We got another driver to take Lucas to the hospital, and I had to learn on the spot how to drive a manual bike to get to the hospital in Dapa to meet him. I had ridden motorbikes before in Thailand, but they were all automatic. After several stalls I figured it out and was able to meet up with Lucas and Sari in Dapa at the hospital. Typical 3rd world country hospital, which is always quite humorous. His burn was bad, but not terrible so they just suggested some antibiotics, burn cream, and bandaging.

Lucas being Lucas and ever the adventurer decided we should continue exploring, just on roads not quite so bad. We eventually found the true dirt road to pilar and took that. It was rough but not too bad. It passed over the island through some amazing country...jungle, palm forests, little villages, rice fields at the base of mountains, giant mangrove swamps. We eventually reached pilar, the beach, and the natural swimming pools there. We didn't swim as Lucas' leg was burned, but we collected shells and ate mangos instead. On the way back we stopped at this german ex-pat'a place for mango shakes (a beer for Lucas), and watched hundreds of flying foxes (giant fruit bats) glide over. The german guy was quite the character. He had been all over and had a house here in the PI and one inf florida. He was a professional treasure hunter and had found some different things worth millions of dollars. One of his best finds was 400 gold coins from the roman times in the black forest of Bavaria.

This morning we took it easy with Lucas' leg. I surfed for a couple hours and climbed some palm trees to get fresh coconuts. The other day I had bought some cornflakes and 100% cow milk, so I enjoyed a couple bowls of cereal. I hadn't had cereal since I left home and hardly any milk either! Now that I'm learning to surf, I guess it's time to keep with the beach boys theme and find my little surfer girl...haha

Tomorrow we are headed to Bohol, but we are not sure how long it will take to get there.

Whale Sharks, Videoke, and Bakeries!

Took the ferry and busses for the long trip from Caramoan back to Naga and then Donsol, a small fishing village in S. Luzon. Got into Donsol afterdark after a fun jeepney ride (riding on the roof) from Legazpi that included viewing Mt. Mayon one of the most perfect cone volcanoes in the world. There were only a couple of places to stay in Donsol and we headed up at this really creepy homestay place (we called them the adam's family of the PI)...that included entirely too much (think a fog) of mosquito spray, a poorly fed chained monkey (who loved mangos we gave him), a weird family, a lock in, no running water at night, and chunky kid who was entirely too spoiled. In the morning we braved the rain and went on a butanding tour looking for whale sharks, the largest fish in the sea. We were out the whole day, but had no luck. That night Lucas and I played a i5on5 pick up gamel with some filipino guys. We dominated downlow, but they were into the cherry pick. The icecream we got after that game never tasted so good as I was definitely overheating. Lucas and I ended the night by watching the sun set and eating mangoes from the beach of Donsolaa

The next day we went out again looking for Whale sharks with the same crew (Simon and esther from schweiz and Patrick and Nat from Canada)...and this time we had great luck. We saw 4 different whale sharks and got to swim with all 4. One was quite huge...perhps 25 feet. They're quite beautiful...slow moving, spotted, and huge. We also saw some dolphins and a sea snake coiled up on top of the water.
After the whale shark adventure Lucas helped me film my application for a job in Australia I'm applying for. It was quite difficult, as I didn't have much time to practice the lines, it involved jumping onto bamboo bridge from a muddy swamp and there was a whole horde of local kids intently watching and following us...yelling, poking me as I was filming, etc. But after many takes, we finally got some good footage!

That night we met up with some locals and the swiss gals for some san miguels, red horses and videoke to celebrate the whale shark success.

The next day was very frustrating. We got a bus to sorsogon, where I was hoping to just upload the video app real quick, but the internet was slow and the website not working, so I spent the whole day there working on it. Lucas and Sari, bless their hearts, waited patiently in Sorsogon for me, eating and shopping a bit, but mostly trying to help me out. That night we met a nice man that took us and paid for our trike trip to the main road to catch an overnight bus to Taclobon on the island of leyte. Of course we sang some karaoake waiting for the bus. The ride involved a ferry from luzon to the island of samar and then a large bridge. We arrived in Tacloban around 6am. We walked around the town a bit, stopping at bakeries, before lucas and I took off for the island of Biliran. There we haggled with some local moto drivers before getting a ride to a waterfall. It was one of the most scenic rides I've been on yet, even though half of it was in the rain. It went through emerald rice terraces, set amongst palm trees, at the foot of rugged volcanoes, with quaiant villages all around. The watefall was quite impressive and flowing at full force with all the rain. Lucas and I of course swam around in it, and did some waterfall jumping. Unfortunately when we got back into town, as it was Sunday, the last van back to Tacloban (100kms away) had left. So we started to walk to hitchhike when a moto offered to take us to the next big town for a small price. It was a long an uncomfortable ride, but we eventually got to lemon and then to Tacloban to meet Sari for dinner.

Today we all headed for a day trip to the island of samar to Sohoton Natural Bridge National Park. It was a beautiful boat ride from the ocean up a river to the mountains. We had guide through a nice and large cave system and then walked to a monstrous bridge/tunnel where the river cut under a mountain. Lucas and I floated in the river back down to the boat making sure to take advantage of cliff diving spots along the way.

We are not quite sure where we are off to tomorrow...perhps mindanao, southern leyte, or biliran

It's been awesome traveling with the stringfields. They're fun, adventurous, and it's nice to have some company and people to share the travel with and toss the frisbee with. They're also on a very similar budget to me (we all rigorously keep a record of our spending). But they both enjoy icecream and fruit like myself...so we splurge on that! Mainland Asia had no bread, and what little they had was gross sweet bread. The PI has an overabundance of bakeries...they are tasty, and insanely cheap...so we stop by them regularly. I especially enjoy the cinnamon rolls and banana bread!

The Stringbeans!

Met up with Lucas and his new lovely wife sari in Naga City. After a long embrace we walked around town enjoying icecream and milk shakes. Every single guesthouse and hotel in town was full b/c of a student media conference there, so I called up Larry, the nice filipino man I had met before and he gave us a free place to stay! It was an extremely nice place too. It was Sari's birthday, so we went out for some rocky road icecream and then had some red horse and san miguel to finish off the night. The next day we went back to caramoan since it was so nice. At the port we had to wait for the boat, so we played some frisbee. the locals found it hilarious to watch us play and eventually lost their fear and joined us. We showed them how to throw, and they were soon having a grand time. Walked from caramoan up to the fishing village of paniman. As it was getting dark we went to the river and lucas and I swam up it until we got to the place where it came out of the cave. It was an awesome swim back...swimming in this gorgeous jungle river, looking up at the bright stars, seeing bats fly overhead, and loads of fireflies along the banks. Nothing like exploring a river with an awesome friend in the middle of the jungle at night. Of course that night we went back to visit Islaw and his family for dinner and then sang karaoke late into the night.

The next day we did a different island hopping tour. Went to a couple islands with beautiful white sand beaches. Went to a cool sandbar and just sat there in the warm water. Went to a beach called tayak, the one I had tried to go before, but was chased off by survivor israel guards. This time it was empty so we went on. A gorgeous beach with huge limestone cliffs all around. You can walk for about 3 minutes inland to a huge lagoon lake that is fed by the ocean, but the weird thing is that when it's high tide in the ocean it's low tide there and vice versa. The lagoon is awesome with cliffs and jungle all around. We also saw the survivor camp where the survivors will be staying. In a gorgeous location, but had even been fixed up to make it look nicer. After that we enjoyed a nice boat ride through lots of islands and mangroves and looking out for both flying fish and skipping skimmer fish. The power was out in the town that night so we had a tough time finding food, but we eventually did.

We arrived today in Donsol after a day of travelling by trike, then boat, then van, then bus, then jeepney (we got to ride ontop of the jeepney which was good fun and afforded good views of the awesome mt. mayaon volcano rising dramatically above the rice fields and palm trees near Legazpi. All the locals loved yelling at us and laughing in surprise to see us on top of the jeepney. And of course we did our fair share (especially lucas and his deep fried eggs) of buying goods from atop the jeepney at stops.

Hello...Hello...Hello!!!

Left yesterday to get to Caramoan…actually paniman. I had originallydecided to go to caramoan, but I talked to a nice man at an outdoorshop in Naga and he said caramoan was actually 15 minutes from thebeach, so he got me a homestay with a family in paniman which is onthe beach and about 30 minutes from caramoan. What awesome luck!! Toget to the caramoan peninsula I took a bus to sabong port, then road abanca (boat) for 2 hours to guilijo port. Both the bus ride and boatride were quite beautiful. The boat ride passed by goregeouslimestone cliffs and karsts covered in jungle with beaches everywhere. I didn't feel like sitting down in the seats so I sat up on the roofwith a few other Filipino men. They all fell asleep, so I turned onmy ipod and sang aloud (foreshadowing of what was to come) to songsincluding calypso by john denver and come sail away. Arrived aguilijo port and since it was a shallow harbor, smaller man-poweredbancas came out to pick us up. I then took a trike to caramoan (wefit 8 people on it!! With bags), and then a trike from there topaniman. Paniman is a cute little fishing village right on the oceanon a long beach. Right now the beach is a bit littered with coconutsand leaves due to the northeast monsoon winds that are starting to diedown as summer approaches (march), but very gorgeous nonetheless. Theonly thing on the beach are fishing boats and fisherman untanglingthere nets. And out to sea is postcard view of lots of karst islandsjutting dramatically out of the ocean. After I found the family Iwas staying with, chowed down on a coconut, and settled in, I headedout to wander the beach and the small town. Let me just say…what anAMAZING place! Topping even the scenery of the islands and the quaintbamboo and thatch huts are the people. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONEwould yell out Hello! even if they were far away. Old women sittingoutside their houses, old men without teeth, fisherman, and the youngkids. I have said hello so much in the past week that my unconsciousbrain now controls that function much like my breathing and digestion. The kids and the kids with their moms were the best. Some wouldboldly come up and yell hello and then ask my name. They'd laugh,they'd jump, they'd fall to the ground, they'd give high fives, gigglewildly. Lots of different things when I'd respond to them and talk tothem. Then there would be the shy ones who would run up, say hello,then quickly hide behind older sister or mom before peaking theirheads out and smiling and laughing and maybe running out to touch meand then running back. But seriously everyone in the town would comeout to say hello and wave and smile. So genuinely friendly. It'sdefinitely not a tourist place as there are no bungalows or hotels formiles until you get to caramoan town. In fact, I have only seen onewesterner since I left the manila airport, and that was an Americanman now living in the Philippines who asked me if I wanted a ride whenI was waiting for the boat at sabong port b/c I was just mindlesslywandering the road waiting for the boat. The town is a 100% fishingvillage and that is what everyone does here. The kids came out in droves to say hi and smile and laugh and giggleat me and with me. By the time I had walked as far as the daylightwould let me on the beach, I had a huge herd of children followingme…laughing, flopping on the floor, yelling Trabis, Trabis, Trabis.And they all wanted their photo taken. Something that was nice for meb/c I tend not to take too many photos of people here in asia b/c I amshy and try to be respectful. It bothers me the tourists who juststick their cameras right in people's faces. I try to ask before Itake a picture (or do it secretly), but sometimes I'm too shy to ask.But these little kids were always asking for their picture. They'd dofunny poses and then when I'd show them, they scream and laugh andfall to the ground. As night had fallen, I was walking through thevillage, and people would invite me into their yards to say hi.Everyone was shouting from their houses, hello, hello. And othersgiving me warning of where the wells were so that I wouldn't fall in.One nice guy invited me to basketball (basketball is the Philippinesmajor sport which is a welcome break to the soccer world that iseveryother place besides the us). I wasn't so hot as I haven't playedin a while, I think the ball was women's size, it was covered in sandand fish guts, and it's hard to make jump stops in sandals, but evenharder to do as the locals do and go barefoot. But I was a blockingand rebounding machine being for the first time in my life the tallestguy on the court. I had quite a cheering section with all the littlekids yelling my name. After that, ate at my host families' daughter'shouse. A huge meal of stew, rice, and some sort of vegetable. Myhost family (which includes grandma, grandpa, daughter (Robbie),daughter's husband (islaw), son (randy), and a handful ofgrandchildren) all spoke pretty good English, which was very nice.They were incredibly friendly and the kids loved to watch me,especially eating (with that left hand), from the safety of papa'slap.The power in the town came on about 7pm and that means karaoke…or moreaccurately videoke starts. Videoke is hugely popular in thePhilippines. Remembering from my last trip here, the towns are fullof videoke bars and one or two people only are often just singing infront of them. You pay a few pesos and you choose your song. Theyalways have a video in the background playing while you sing—somethingcompletely random. Usually it's nature, or cities, or scenery, butthis one that the family headed out to was hilarious. Very scandalousshots of swimsuit models at swimsuit shoots. But they weren't justposing, lots of rubbing of their bodies, etc. The video is only solong, so you see it many times and my favorite was the swimsuit modelposing in Kenya with giraffes and jumping maasai warriors in thebackground. I sat down and they picked out a song for me…KellyClarkson's because of you. "It's American idol, like you" Ha, onething for sure is I can't sing, and I butchered the song as I don'treally know it too well. But it doesn't matter b/c the Filipinosaren't too good at the English songs either. I definitely drew acrowd and after singing a few more songs I think half the town wasthere watching and clapping. An older gentlemen with his shirt tuckedup and big belly hanging out (they do this to stay cool), came in andslapped down 200 pesos for us to enjoy. That meant songs for thewhole night! Before the night was over I had sung don't stopbelieving (journey); we didn't start the fire (b. joel); piano man (b.joel); lay all your love on me (abba—of course I had to sing abba b/cthe Philippines is the first place I began to appreciate them (andgreatly disturb yosh) as the filip inos love them); stacy's mom(fountains of wayne); take me home country roads (j. denver); friendsin low places (g. brooks); winner takes it all (abba); money, money,money (abba), down under (met at work); all out of love (air supply);in the end (linkin park); all the small things (blink); sail away(styx); a rod stewart song I can't remember the name; and Californiagirls (beach boys). Wow, I've never done karaoke like that. Thegirls and pickles at the house of sin would be very proud b/c Iusually required a duet with pickles the elder at the pirate bar whenwe went to karaoke nights. The crowd was loving me there and Iappeared to be the guest of honor. They were always wanting me tosing, and when I would they'd get up and dance. They'd introduce meto all new people coming in as their new great friend. Every songthey'd dedicate to me and put their arms around me as they sang. Andof course they never let my glass of red horse or san Miguel getempty. By the end of the night, I had somehow had achieved thehighest score of the night on a song (money, money, money) with a 98.Somehow the computer gives a rating out of 100. I personally thinkit's very, very generous. As I went to bed that night I wasdefinitely feeling like royalty in the cute little fishing town.The next day was the day to do the island hopping. It would cost 40bucks to rent a boat for the full day, which was a bit out of my pricerange. This is when it would be nice to be travelling with others asup to 8 people can ride in the boat. So I was able to negotiate adeal to get a small canoe banca for 10 bucks. But in the morning itwas a bit stormy (the only possible negative thing about jumpingquickly to the Philippines to see lucas is that it's not quite summerhere so the northeast monsoons bring in some bad weather, big wavesmaking snorkeling not so good, wind, and it's not mango season yet,but it starts to die in February I think as march starts the summer,so it should be ok) so the family had randy take me out in his fishingboat for half the day for the 10 bucks. Which was fine by me, it waswindy, (but not rainy) so the canoe would have been difficult Wepowered out towards the islands with waves crashing in until we madeit to the calm of the islands. The first island, maglipan wasgorgeous. Had a nice white sand beach (of course all to myself).When we arrived we climbed up the razor sharp karst rocks (anyone whoknows what karst is knows what I'm talking about) to about 100m abovethe beach and looking down on the other side was a hidden, secretlagoon. The karst, which always has tons of caves, had a cave underthe island letting in the ocean. I climbed down to take a closerlook. I shouted up…Randy, can I go for a swim. "No" why not"dangerous" why dangerous. "I don't know" I scoped it out. Itdidn't appear bad. No currents, no sharks. Locals can sometimes havethe perception that westerners can't do anything outside of drinkingand sitting in luxury hotels, so they'll often tell you totallypossible things are impossible (examples I've had so far…biking towaterfalls instead of taking a motorcycle or bus, walking to towncenters from bus stations, doing certain hikes), or they'll havesuperstitions. So I jumped in anyways and Randy didn't seem to care.In fact, he said he was going back down to get a smoke. As I wasswimming around there was a sudden loud splash and I saw it was quitebig out of the corner of my eye. I looked around to see if randy wasplaying a trick on me, but he was gone. It creeped me out a bit, so Ididn't stay in much longer. As I was drying off I saw a lizard, abouta foot long jump off a rock and run across the water. Perhaps it hadbeen that. When I got back to the beach, the captain had climbed up acoconut tree and brought down three coconuts for me. He cut it openso I could drink the milk, then he fashioned a spoon out of the huskso I could eat the flesh. Spent the rest of the time at that islandsnorkeling with some decent corals. The next island, Layos, wasequally beautiful and had a beach that faced both the calm side andthe rough wavy side. Randy informed me that they often camp here inthe summer when tourists come. I wished I had been there in thesummer for that, but hopefully I will find some place to camp on adeserted island this trip. We made our way to the third island. Thebeach was gorgeous—palm covered and gigantic karst cliffs framing it.Randy said there was a beautiful lake just a little walk away. Ijumped out all excited to go check out the lake when I noticed a whiteguy come out of the palms. He exchanged some words with randy andthen talked to me. Apparently they were setting up the area forfilming of Israeli Survivor (can't believe anyone is still doing thatshow!). He was quite rude and said we couldn't be there even thoughthey weren't filming for another month. Apparently they had boughtthe rights to several beaches and islands in the area. He said Icouldn't take photos (I did as we were leaving), and that we had toleave right away. If I actually watched survivor, I would definitelyboycott it with as rude as he is and considering they think they canjust buy the rights to a whole peninsula for 6 months and not let anytourists in. IT also meant that we couldn't go to gota beach whichaccording to my lonely planet is one of the prettiest beaches in thePhilippines. We did boat by it however, and my island beaches werejust as good I think. When we got back to paniman that afternoonthere were three other Israelis there, and they were much nicer. Itall started to make sense. People had been asking if I was Israeli,if I was a survivor and I couldn't understand. And they keptmentioning Israel. And at the end of the village there was a workshopthey showed me, but with really weird things, including some giganticfunny painted balls on towers. I couldn't figure out what they werefor, but these guys told me they were for some of the games insurvivor. Had a very fresh fish lunch and then randy and I canoed upa river until it disappeared into the karst as an underground river.The water coming out of the mountain was a gorgeous blue and quiterefreshing for a dip. We snuck into an area nearby that was markedoff by yellow police tape as survivor filming areas and then climbedup the mountain to a huge cathedral cave. I said a sad goodbye andinstead of taking a trike back to caramoan town I walked the 8kms b/cit was quite beautiful with the mountains soaring behind bright greenrice paddies. And of course everyhouse I went by on the way tocaramoan people came rushing out to say hello. and "Hi Mr. American"Apparently news travels fast, and they all new that I was American.At one point I got invited into a school . Yes, school on a Saturdayon valentine's day. They had a big exam coming up and it was reviewtime. Again, cute laughing kids and a wonderful teacher. Furtheralong the path, I met a nice man who didn't know English too well, buthe invited me to spend the night in his house with his family. Idefinitely would have if I wasn't still 4kms from the town and Iwanted to get down there to catch the early ferry the next day.Right on the outskirts of town there was a huge gathering of bikes,trikes, and jeepneys, and I heard a lot of cheering. I went to checkit out and it was the regular weekend cockfighting. It wasinteresting to watch as the men really get into it, and bet outrageousamounts. I had always wanted to see a cockfight ever since my veryfirst assignment in college. As a scared little freshman I had megsimonton's English as my first class that Thursday. We had to read anaccount called something like the life of a Balinese cockfight thatcompared the cockfight to actual Balinese culture. We then had to dothe same thing (I compared mountain bike racing to Colorado culture).At that time though in the beginning of college, I was feeling asthough I had been thrown in head first into a raging river and couldhardly breath. So it never even registered with me that the article Ihad read took place in Bali until much later. After I realized ittook place in SE asia, I always wanted to watch one to see howaccurate the author was. Of course in Indonesia cockfighting isillegal, so it's a different feel I think than here where it's legal.It's quite violent, though, I will say that. And of course met somenice people at the fight and on the walk back to town.But, wow! What a great trip to paniman and the caramoan peninsula.Gorgeous scenery, a quaint fishing village (just as authentic, if notmore than anything in Burma as they had nothing to do with tourism,only fishing), and the nicest people and funniest kids.

Load Na Dito! filipino! and Mr. darwin's evolution of species (of transport)

In my previous blog I forgot to mention something that kind of echoed my sentiment. On Ko Chang, I ran into rachel (swiss) who I had hung out with a bit at various places along the myanmar trail with her other swiss friend. She was getting ready to head to that more deserted part of the island. we chatted a bit about how crazy ko chang was and how we missed myanmar. She said when she checked out the person at the guesthouse didn't say have a good voyage/ask her how her stay was/say thank you/or even say goodbye. rachel said she left with a few tears b/c of this. They would never let that happen in myanmar. she greatly missed the hospitality.



Well, I'm in the philippines and loving it. Got into manila around 4:30am asked about a bus to donsol and was rushed right onto a bus so I didn't get a chance for breakfast, get much money (the airport atm would only give 1000pesos (us20), or anything. That's ok b/c I have seen manila with my parents and brother before and it's just a city.

The philippines is great b/c I truly think the people are much more friendly than the thais, the food is incredibly cheap (1 dollar for a cheap meail in thailand 30-50cents here in non touristy areas), the fruit is insanely cheap, everything. the country is much more lush and rural and less touristic. I haven't been to true southern thailand so I can't compare there beauty yet.

I got on the bus to go to legazpi (to get to donsol). nice hot and sweaty open air bus. it's cool b/c people would get on selling food or wares for a mile then jump off, so there was never a lack of food. I started to get a bit worried on the bus since I had only taken out 20 dollars and spend 8 on the bus that I would run out of money. I had forgotten our atm issues the last time in the philippines. the small and rural islands don't have atms and often the one atm in the big city is offline and if online only lets you take out a little bit. so i was thinking as I was heading to a rural area I might have trouble. Ended up being a no issue though as naga had some atms. The bus ride was gorgeous: over palm and banana covered mountains, through villages with thatched huts, through narrow valleys with emerald rice paddies, and along the turquoise coast. About 10 hours into the bus ride as it was getting dark, the bus stopped at naga. it was still 2+ hours to legazpi, but I decided to be spontaneous and just hopped off the bus. this town has several univerisities, so I figured it would be happening...and it was. An awesome night market and lots of students just hanging around. I hadn't eaten on the bus worrying about the atm issue and paying for a hotel, so i was hungry after finding an atm. ate lots, and I mean LOTS of food at the market, but it call cost me 2.50. For that much this is what I got: a bag of pili nuts (famous around here), a bag of peanuts, pork on a stick, a chicken and rice curry dish, an icecream, a mango shake, 3 mangos, a huge bushel of bananas (more than a dozen), a pineapple (i didn't eat all the fruit but saved it for breakfast), 2 of these weird fried egg almost tempura style I'd never seen, and a coconut drink. THis morning I finally had some good bread at a bakery for 10 cents. no good break in thailnd or burma. I stayed at a very nice place: A/C, cable tv with 98 channels and 5 movie channels (first time I've had tv), a private bathroom and shower, a towel, and flush toilet. all for 6 bucks! And the internet is 30 cents an hour compared to the 3 bucks an hour on ko chang. And the people are much nicer here than on ko chang. everyone wanting to talk to me or say hi as I walked through the market. Just like I remembered from the last time I was here, the filipino girls are fascinated with americans. they are so friendly and always come up for a greeting. These two near where I was eating sent this little girl about 8 name christine (nickname cookie) to me. "are you single" yes. big smile and she ran over to the two older girls and gave them hi fives. I couldn't help but giggle. By the time the night was over 8 girls had given me their cell phone numbers. Haha, if only it was that easy in america. Buy some mangoes...get a number...buy a coconut...get a number...peel a banana...get a number. watched the bourne identity last night on the tube and the 1st half of the michigan/michigan st b-ball game (what's basketball again??).



This morning i originally was going to head off to this remote peninsula but I slept in a bit tired from sleeping on hammocks and beaches where you wake up with the sun but party at the beach till at least 1am and an overnight flight. THat's ok b/c I like Naga's vibe (and I have to admit the tv at night is a nice small mercy), i needed to catch up on some internet issues. it's amazing how unfortunately tied to this thing you get with credit card bills, bookings, etc. and the food here is great at the market. I met a nice filipino man who worked at an outdoor shop. I had hoped to rent camping stuff to camp on the beach on this remote peninsula but he didn't have it at the moment as the summer starts here in march (one of the only issues with my sudden decision to flee to the philippines along with the fact that mango season isn't until april), but he could hook me up with a homestay for 8 bucks which isn't too bad! and he told me how to get there and also gave me some ideas for nice waterfall hikes in this area and hotsprings. I also went into a mall here. the philipines, like america, love their malls...and I love them too, just for the food. cheap icecream, food, and all the crazy 12 in 1 dvd's you can buy. In the mall you can get burgers (which you begin to crave every now and then) for 30 cents as compared to 3 dollars in thailand (burgers are surprisingly expesive in asia especially since we are used to the dollar menu) rice and noodle dishes are what are cheap here! Also back in a catholic dominated country, so I went to mass tonight...in english no less. (typical tropical church with lizards and birds flying around and the best seats not in the front, away from the babies or near the exit (if you're that kind of catholic), but by the fans) that's one of the other nice things about the philippines that makes travel easier than mainland asia. they use the roman alphabet so you can always point to a name on a map or book and they can read it. in thailand, say you want to go to ko chang, you can't point to the word ko chang on a map or a book b/c they can't read it. and any signs on stores or what not we can't read. here even though tagalog is their main language, it uses roman letters so you can learn words for like toilet by sight. thai symbols are impossible. but also b/c the philippines was an american and spanish colony, they speak english very well, in fact it's one of their national language and spanish is incorporated in their native language. their numbers for example are spanish.

oh, and why the sudden impulse to go to the philippines when I already had a loas visa. I was a little lonely/fed up with the tourists and style in south thailand and mr. lucas stringfield was eloping in the philippines, so there is a good chance I'll hook up with him. I also have a second cousin travelling here.



riding in the filipino bus yesterday I was kind of thinking and smiling at how the modes of transportation in the 3 countries I have been to seemed to have evolved to meet the personality of the people and country, yet are so much the same. ANalagous to say how a jaguar, mtn lion, lion, leapoard, and tiger are all similar in evolution, but a bit different having evolved on different continents.

To understand this, there are 3 basic types of transport in asia: long haul (taken care of by busses): medium haul (across cities, between small towns taken care of by say SUV sized vehicles) and short haul (within towns taken care). They all share the taxi and motorbike in common with the modernity of the vehicle depending on the wealth of the country, but it's the other modes that are interesting.

long haul: thailand has huge fancy tourist busses and the public busses are also nice with reclining seats, usually aircon. the busses all have pictures of the king inside and the tv plays music videos or thai comedys. the bus system is very fast and efficient. in the PI, the busses are very colorful, people are chattering about inside, there are pictures of Jesus and Mary everywhere. the tv plays karaoke and videoke (both are EXTREMELY popular in the PI) and the people sing along. The busses are semi comfortable, no a/c generally and decently efficient. In Burma the busses can barely be considered moving vehicles. Obviously no ac, incredibly uncomfortable, often sitting on fish, onions, live chickens, whatever and not a seat. Dust streams in and people smoke inside. The tvs (yes some have tvs) play monks chanting at high volumes all night long. The busses are incredibly unreliable, often break down, always late, and often have flat tires

medium hall: thailand has the saungtheuw. An often modern pickup truck with benches in the back for sitting and a rack on top for gear. Efficient, but nothing special about them. The PI has the jeepney (I assume left over from wars or the millitary when the americans occupied). It's a long jeep, really cool and exotic looking with benches in the back. people are jammed in and hang from the outside and on top. They are very colorful and often have nice paintings on them of religious scenes or cartoons or the something random and they have bold letters saying Love is good, or blessed mary, or be happy or similar. Myanmar has old pickup trucks somewhat similar to thailand, but much older and people are crammed inside and crammed on top and the whole thing is so waited down it's amazing it moves. they also have mini pickups from the japanese in wwII.

short haul: Thailand has the notorious Tuk Tuk. noisy, colorful 3 wheeled motorcycle type thing. the driver is up front and then there is a spot for 2 or 3 to sit comfortably. they drive recklessly through traffic and always attempt to rip off tourists and are always hassling them for a ride. The philippines has the trike. a motorized motorcycle type thing. the driver sits on a motorcycle and 1-3 passengers sit in a side car that is nearly full enclosed. They are also very colorful. Burma has the tricycle. human powered bike with a side car that fits 1-2 people. the drivers are typically old and passengers have to walk up hills or over bridges due to the human natured vehicle power (unless of course it was lance armstrong or bro driving). horse drawn carts are also used.

just extended my visa today. most countries charge 30 bucks for a month visa while the philippines gives you 21 days free. but that's not enough so I extended my visa another month, which is kinda expensive 65 bucks, but worth it b/c it's such a great place. just on my way to get the visa, I stopped at a store to get a 80 cent 2 foot long dog and a chicken carbonara and coke for a dollar (I had been craving some italian food). it's nice to eat at some fast food type places here like chowking and the jollib b/c fastfood in thailand like mcdonalds and bk are too expensive. A nice man sat next to me and started talking. He was a landscaper and invited me for dinner. Tomorrow I'md heading off to caramoan peninsula an apparently gorgeous place and he said he'd take me there if he didn't have to work and that they have great marlin there japanese style (assumed to be sashimi?) Even though it was a short walk he drove me to the immigration office and gave me his cell and home phone numbers in case I had a problem. the gals at the immigration office were very nice. Not the stiff, all business, and slightly mean people I'm used to. Very friendly, giving me tips on where to go, looking at my passport asking about places I've been before, specifically peru, and just laughing a lot. I had to go to a copy place to get copies of my passport and when I got in there they all burst out singing and laughing. So many people smile and say hi to you hear. Walking to the church having a mango shake, the university was getting out. all the girls were smiling and saying hi and hello and getting my name that I felt like brad pitt or something (or perhaps chris sherman at yale!!)



ok...out to go enjoy some more filipino food!!! and then the coast

From Elephant Isle to Thrilla in Manila

The last time I left off I had arrived on Ko Chang (chang=elephant in thai). Didn't want to write on the blog there b/c internet was crazy expensive.





Day 1: I lounged a bit on the beach, finished my book and floated in the almost too warm water. Felt that I needed a bit of a R&R day after myanmar and bangkok. But I grew restless quick and ended up swimming out to this island about a km away. It was nice. only two people on it (american hippies) who were living on it eating fish and coconuts and sleeping just on mosquito net covered hammocks. A nice change from the very crowded lonely beach I was at. Lonely beach is a very big backpackers place and at night it is CRAZY with parties. They have gimmicks like free bbqs to come to the party. That night I went to a free bbq and sat in a hammock feasting on the bbq, drinking a mango shake, and listening to live music (overwhelmingly bob marley as is tradition in any nonwestern country I think)





Day 2: Rented a motorbike and toured a bit around the island. Went to a nice beach on the southern portion of the island and then to some scenic lookouts. Ko Chang is a marvelously gorgeous island with turquoise water, lots of surrounding islands and a lost world of jungle, waterfalls, and steep mountains on the interior. Then I hiked to 3 different waterfalls. 2 were good for swimming and cliff diving. It's quite fun to drive a motorbike on ko chang b/c the roads are steep, windy, through the jungle and along the coast





Day 3: Took a snorkel boat tour. Went to 4 other islands in the ko chang marine park. The corals were just ok, but the food on board was great. Got lucky b/c most the europeans prefer to sit on the beach. The boat was not one of those intimate zodiac snorkel trips you get in hawaii with 8 people or the bangcas in the philippines with just a handful; this boat could fit 80 people, but only 20 were on it, otherwise the snorkelling would have been real crazy. Anyways, people need to tell the tourists not to step on and touch the coral. So many people were it was making me sick. Probably why the coral was bad and no big fish indicating heavy overfishing. I randomly ran into Stefano from Italy who I had trekked with in chiang mai! It was nice to hang out with him and he was flying back the next day. crazy I had been with him on his first day in thailand and his last. We played some pool that night and went to the huge beach party they were throwing for a bit. He was very excited to get back to italy for pizza and spaghetti.





Day 4/5: Hired a guide to do an overnight trek from the west side of the island to the east side. The annoying thing about thailand, and probably asia in general is they never let you do anything on your own and don't mark trails, so you always have to hire a guide, but it was worth it! Only person on the whole trail. First day hiked to a waterfall, then camped at a stream high up in the mountains in the interior. Along the way saw some big lizards and a copper mamba (very poisonous) as well as a couple of species of monkeys. Took my bath in the stream, and the fish, probably b/c of lack of fishing were very friendly. They'd come right up and nibble on my skin and they were very easy to catch. Spent the night in a hammock watching the full moon rise over the jungle. I was reading the book congo on my hammock in the afternoon watching butterflies and monkeys overhead in the canopy and listening to the jungle sounds. My first true night in wilderness jungle ever i think! I'd always been in some sort of hut, or nature resort or research center or something. Made a small fire and laid out ferns to sit on as the floor. slept on the hammock and put banana leaves overhead incase it rained. The next day we hiked down along a stream for a while to the next waterfall. saw another copper mamba and the even worse green mamba. beautiful though! Had a good time at the last waterfall swimming and cliff diving and such. Got back to lonely beach about 3pm and just hung out reading and watching the ocean. got away from all the people on the beach though and hiked up to a bluff overlooking the ocean to watch the sunset.
I had been very fortunate my first few nights in lonely beach b/c I had found amazingly cheap hotels. I had walked all over the beach and main strip and all the places were between 9 and 15 dollars, which isn't too bad b/c they're bungalows so two or 3 people can split the cost and sleep in them. but i am solo of course and my budget is on the 2-6 dollar range. I was a bit discouraged at first as I walked along but the last place i checked was 6 bucks for a bungalow! I later found one for 4 bucks that I moved to. but they don't do reservations so i had to check out for the trek and on coming back the cheapest left was 12 bucks, which I just didn't want to pay b/c of what I had gotten before, so I decided to sleep on the beach as the beach was quiet at night with everyone partying on the main strip. I of course hung out at a bar with some live music for a bit first and then went to camp around midnight. set up my sarong as my "pad" and hooked my mosquito net up over a palm tree. around 1 am I woke up to my harms and feet just burning. I turned on my headlamp and my entire arms were covered and swollen with bug bites, which I couldn't quite understand why with the net and all that. I then figured out they were sand flies and had come up from the sand. I had never experienced that before I had slept on a few beaches before in california with kaitlyn, ali, rick and the crew and in australia with lucas and scott. hmm...maybe had something to do with the incredibly high tide and full moon or just the area. so i instead wrapped myself in a cacoon in my net and was fine the rest of the time.

day 6: Rented a motorbike again and scooted out to the east side of the island. the eastside is very undeveloped and rural. Hiked to a waterfall. After getting to the first tier, there was a small trail to the next two tiers. I hiked and climbed up to those. On the way back; however, at a stream area, it was hard to determine where the trail kept going to go back. I didn't spend too much time making sure what I picked was the actual trail b/c I wasn't too worried, but after going for about a 1/2 hour through dense vines, rocks, forget-me-not thorns, etc, I realized I hadn't picked the right path, but had picked a sorta dried stream bed or something. No worries, just do what I tell people in the park to do if they get lost. Fall the stream down b/c it eventually goes to a town or the ocean. In my case it intersected with the stream that had the waterfall on it. I was quite sweaty, dirty, and tangled in vines when I got down, so the refreshing dip in the waterfall was nice. After that I drove through a coconut plantation to a small stilted fishing village, took a walk on a mangrove plank walk, then hiked to another waterfall. This was a gorgeous falls, which disappeared under the ground after it landed. After that I drove to the very southern tip of the island on a crazy dirt road, taken out in a few places by landslides and washes to a beach called long beach. There was a small cheap bungalow area here that if I came back, i would stay here b/c I loved this beach. not too many people, very scenic, and still natural. Ghost crabs and hermit crabs were running around everywhere. brought me back to my days of catching them with my bro in rarotonga. I left a bit before sunset so I could watch the sunset from high up on the road and then drove back towards lonely beach. I stopped along a way at a buffet I had been eyeying for a while. I typically budget myself 3-5 dollars a day for meals. 1 dollar for each meal and then some fruit, snacks, or smoothies. This buffet cost a little more than 4, so I had only eaten a small breakfast that day. It was an awesome one: thai bbq which is a bit like fondue where you cook meat and vegetables; lots of fruits; and icecream. I definitely took the buffet to town, and probably ate 4 dollars worth of icecream alone.

Day7: I had decided on a whim to fly out to the philippines and not go to lao yet, so I took the ferry and bus back to bangkok and then took an overnight flight to the philippines. I had just bought a one way ticket but was informed at the ticket counter that some new policy for filipino immigration requires you have proof of an onward or return ticket. I really had not idea at the moment when I wanted to come back. Depends on if I get lost island hopping and stay for a while or get bored or whatever. I tried to tell them I was taking a boat from the philippines to malaysia (not exactly true), but they wouldn't do that. In the end I guessed when I wanted to come back and booke a flight, but you can change it for 30 bucks later. I was a little steamed about this, but later cooled down realizing the ticket had only cost 80 bucks anways coming back which was cheaper than the 140 going out.

On Euro Sunworshippers and tourists:
The lonelyplanet and other guidebooks mention all about the sunworshippers. how in thailand you're not a swede or a german or an israeli but a universal sunworshipper. This was no joke. What 99% of the people do there is wake up around 11am, grab beers and cocktails and migrate to the beach. sit there until sunset. shower, eat, then go hit the bars and clubs and then do it again. My 4 days in the national park away from the beach I only saw 2 westerners (and there were hundreds on the beach). There were just a few on my snorkel boat, and none in the other towns. Basically they don't leave the area of the beach and the club strip. And this is no exaggeration b/c several of the people I chatted with on the bus said they had not gone any farther than the beach, the hotels, and the bus stop. To me, this was very weird. The beach is great, but I like to explore! I wonder if this is a european thing?? It seems to me at the places americans go to hit the beach like hawaii, mexico, florida, they go out and do things still, (even if it's only fishing or mini golf)...but usually waterfall hikes and parks were popular. Maybe b/c most of europe seems to have about as much sun as seattle, they just love it. the truth is that many of the europeans are darker and more tan than the local thais (thais themselved view being pale as beauty). It was a bit crazy to me to think that's all they did: Party all night and lie on the beach all day.
This was the first time I had been to southern thailand where the MASSES of tourists go and it was a bit overwhelming (and it's actually low this year), and i think it was worse for me b/c I had just come back from non touristy burma.
This was also the first time I had ridden a tourist bus. In the past I had always chosen to ride the public and government busses b/c they tended to be cheaper, you met the locals more, saw more of real thailand. I had avoided the fancy, reclining, movie playing super tourist busses that go to chaingmai, the south etc. But this time b/c there would be several transfers and a ferry to get to ko chang it was easier and cheaper to ride the tourist busses. I have to admit they were nice, but full of lots of sunworshippers. On the way back to bangkok though I asked the driver to drop me off at this intersection where I knew I could catch a public bus to the airport instead of having to go all the way into central bangkok to khao san road and then take a taxi or express bus. the people next to me thought I was crazy and dumb to do that. it's much easier to go to khao san they said. I saw them later at the airport: I had arrived 2 hours earlier and for 10 dollars less, enjoying an icecream with a fraction of my saved money!
I think there is a difference between the tourist and the traveller and in southern thailand it is mostly the tourist. the tourists have bigger budgets, pamper themselves, are not so concerned with the culture or meeting the locals and are really just there for parties, beaches, and maybe a few sites. They eat at the tourist places (that serve western food or local food at 3x the price). Travellers however are less concerned with the hedonistic are more about seeing the people, the landscape, and the culture of the country. The tourists tend to be on 2week to 2 months holidays while the travellers are on longer than 2 months. I think I much prefer the travellers over the tourists.

While on ko chang I had the most difficulty i have had on the trip emotionally. For a several of reasons I think. I had just come from, pure travelling burma where the people view you as guests and not as dollar signs (thai people are very nice, you just have to get to where the "real" thai people are and that's not in the tourist areas. the best ones I've met are the ones on vacation themselves at national parks or in non touristy towns), and the travellers are all there for the same reason I am. It was difficult readjusting to this complete party and sunworshipping culture. Also compared to burma and even northern thailand, it was quite expensive (though it was affecting those people on short holidays) and just so touristy. And then something about being at a beach place reminded me a lot of my family. I missed hanging out at the nice little restaurants with my jovial family, going on little adventures with them, etc. etc. And I am used to having somone with me (typically my brother, or lucas, scott, and morgan in australia or cory in maine) on islands and beaches to explore, to go climbing into the jungle, to look for hidden waterfalls, to kayak to islands looking for cliffs to jump off of, to swim long distance with me, or just throw the football and frisbee around on the beach. A lot of those things you can't do by yourself or are more scary or not as fun by yourself. It's a lot easier to battle the currents and wind to kayak long distance with my bro and then jump off a 50 footer when it's the two of us. sigh...and I just couldn't find anyone around there like that!

So yea, being in an area where the tourists aren't doint much but partying and beach sitting is tough for me b/c I want to go explore. Don't get me wrong, I like to party, but I can't really afford to do it everynight (nor do I want to). I'm on the about 15-25 dollar a day budget. When you throw in 6 bucks for a hotel, 5 for food, and maybe 3 for misc like water, internet, you're sitting 14 bucks, which is plenty to buy alcohol (beers in 7-11 are about a dollar, in bars about 1.50, or the infamous huge bucket of hard a mixed is 6-8 bucks); however, that's not all I do, I have to factor in expensive tours, national park fees, boat rentals, kayak rentals, motor bike rental, scuba, snorkel trips and overland travel, etc, so I can't be partying like 24-7 like the plain tourists. Plus, I figure I have more fun typically partying with the gang back home (where huge packs of coors aren't that much more expensive), but back home don't have much access to snorkeling, tropical waterfalls, etc, so i'm here to see things, not be wasted on the beach all day, but it can be difficult b/c that's what most the other people in s. thailand are here for so it's actually more lonely than in burma b/c in burma everyone is there for travel even though there was probably less people in the whole country of burma at a given time than on lonely beach.

Well, I have arrived in manilla and now in Naga, PI, so I am very excited for this as the philipines in my experience are much less touristic and a whole a lot cheaper, etc.

Bangkok Dangerous

Haven't actually seen that nicholas cage flick yet, but I think I will someday. Had my bit of bangkok dangerous the other day.
So as most everyone knows, bangkok is very famous for its red-light districts, strip clubs, prostitution, and happy massages. The first few times in bangkok I avoided these areas as that is not at all what I'm into. But time and again everyone was telling me I need to go. You haven't experienced bangkok until you go. It's quintessential bangkok. And this wasn't just coming from college guys or single dudes, from girls, middleaged women, families, everyone. It was between so I decided to do it. It was between pat pong and soi cowboy, so I decided to go to the most famous area, pat pong, home to the ping pong shows. It's a huge area full of go go bars and strip joints.

I was at first very nervous to go in and just walked around the area
for a while. Touts offering shows, sex, happy massages, you name it. "just go look, then you pick girl for whole night" But I bought two beers (totalling a dollar!) in the store, chugged them and
went in.

The patpong area has all the, what they call, pussy shows or ping pong
shows. They open bottles with their you know whats, they smoke an
entire cigarette with it, they shoot ping pong balls and bananas out
of them. THey shoot darts and pop balloons. All very crazy, disturbing, and I guess amazing.


The bars are mostly no cover, but charge 3 bucks for a mandatory
beverage (beer is typically less than a dollar here). I guess some of
the bars can try and push and scare you into paying a fee for watching, but you
can say no. apparently they sometimes get extremely pushy and almost
violent. I was able to say no pretty easily and they didn't bother me
too much b/c I think they were hoping I'd pay big bucks to spend the
night with one of the girls. They all come up to you
and try and swoon you and such. It's kind of gross to see the old fat
men making out with these 18 year olds and such. Well these three
mid-age women, from 2 from NY and one from alamosa in fact were
getting hassled a lot about paying extra, so they got up to leave. I
could see they were not being let out, so I got up to head out not


wanting to stay at a place like that. They let me out, but they
didn't let the 3 women out. So I went back in to help them. It was
crazy. The older women of the house, running the place, who were
actually rather large and fat were blocking the door and keeping it
shut. I tried to get to the handle to open it, but the head woman
started shoving me and pushing me and screaming. She said she would
call the police, of course that's what we wanted and that's what the
american woman were pushing for, but there's no way she would b/c she
was actually doing the illegal thing b/c its clearly posted no cover. I was trying to be reasonable and level headed, explaining it said no cover charge. They had paid for their drinks, why couldn't they leave just like me.
It was very intense for about 15 minutes, lots of pushing, shoving,
yelling. The 3 women on the verge of tears and scared. I wasn't too
scared, just frustrated and adrenaline pumping b/c I knew I was
stronger than the woman, though of course I was wary there might be a bigger
bouncer around or something. At the moment I had not been violent or
anything, just trying to push my way to the door, get the handle
anyway I could. But I figured, it if came down to it and I really
needed to, I could get more aggressive. But at one point I got a better look
at the door knob, did what Mr. Arnold drilled into us every football practice, charged in, pushed the two woman blocking it away,
charged at the women holding the 3 americans and the head woman,
knocking them down, grabbed the americans and shoved them towards the
stairs before following. I had someone on my back clawing at me, but
I shoved her off and made it down. I was all scratched up and bleeding a bit, but nothing other than that. Incredulously, one of the touts
below had the nerve to ask if we wanted to go up again. "No cover" he
said. Only looking, buy a drink.
The 3 women were very appreciative and got my mother's address so they can send me a thankyou gift later I guess. They claim I saved their lives. Doubtful, but probably 100 bucks or so.

After that I was a bit shell-shocked and just kind of wondered aimlessly around the nearby market for a bit. A university group of about 20 students from the UK were going by and invited me to come with them, so I did. Their prof took them to a less scandalous place. It was a bunch of thai girls just dancing in swimsuit or something similar up on the stage. I felt better there with all the students and the club was on the first floor with open doors to the busy street. All in all a fairly disturbing, yet unique thing to see. The most disturbing is all these old fat men (both thai and western) making out and then leaving with the young girls. Pretty disgusting.







Well, I'm back in bangkok from Myanmar obviously. Staying on a nice street near the wild khao san, but much quieter, yet still happening. I quite like it. Khao San and bangkok in general was quite the culture shock coming from myanmar. So much noise, so much light, electricity, tourists. I can see how the more seasoned travellers aren't huge fans of thailand b/c of the tourists. Coming back from a country where all of the tourists are there for the culture, the beauty, for learning, etc and who are all very respectful and intelligent when it comes to travelling amongst other cultures, it's difficult to see bangkok. People are so disrespectful for a buddhist country...men without shirts, loads of women wearing hardly anything when they would really like you to wear long pants and long sleeves. Lots of the travellers in bangkok as I have new perspective now are there for purely hedonistic purposes: sun worshipping, drinking, sex, parties, drugs. A completely different crowd than in myanmar (and of course different than northern thailand...b/c I think it mainly tends to be bangkok and some of the islands). But all the same it's very fun to sit and crowd watch over a nice smoothy. Even better people watching than in boulder b/c there are lots more. The dress and style of people is so crazy b/c it's a mixture of people trying asian cultures, their home cultures (which include dozens of countries), cultures from places people have just come from (Bangkok is probably one of the cheapest airports in the world to go places so lots of people are stopping by from trips to egypt, pakistan, india, morocco, kenya, etc), and also being away from home and people you know, it seems as though people are a bit more free in how they dress and act. Myself...when I'm out doing activities or treks or whatever, I'm about the same as I am back home, shorts, quick dry t, fleece. In the cities I usually wear manpris (gaypris to yosh) to try and be respectful with a t-shirt. And on the beaches at night I wear a sarong or fisherman's pants with a light longsleeve shirt to stay cool but keep the bugs off. Nothing fashionable, just functional. But most who have never been abroad to beaches would think my beach get up is quite odd.



The khao san area was interesting to come back to at 4am when I got back from pat pong. All the vendors were gone, but there were lots of people passed out on the street, people still drinking, dancing. Pretty crazy. Bangkok is a 24 hour city and always happening. Restaurants and bars are always packed regardless of the time because everyone is on different schedules. You'll seriously be up for breakfast at 8 am and see people chugging beers. There appears to be 3 main schedules. Those who party till 2 or 3am and sleep in til noon (check out time). Those who get up at 8pm and party til 8am and sleep all day. Those who are out seeing things and get up early to avoid the heat. Then of course there's me...stay out late, but still get up at 6am for touring and such. Oh, btw, it's HOT here now. When I left for myanmar, you still needed a light sweatshirt and night and dreaded the cold showers. Now the showers are a relief and I'm in a constant sweat.



Since I've been back in bangkok, back to more civilization, I've been spoiling myself a bit. I'm in asia, why not? Having a couple icecreams a day (for only 50 cents, how can you not), 3 to 4 smoothies (less than a dollar), and lots of fresh fruit. Of course the problem with such cheap food can be that you just always get it since it's so cheap and want to try everything, and then it can end up rather expensive. But oh well, it's worth it b/c I know how much a jamba juice, a fresh fruit salad, or an icecream is at home. I just LOVE the fruit here!



Hmmm...perhaps back to more order rather than ramblings.

The night I flew into bangkok I met Amy Schilling at khao san. We had a smoothie and then went to bed b/c she wasn't feeling great. But the next day I toured her and her bf Kenny around. THe typical temples, river ferry, sky train before they headed off that night to the south. It was good to see a familiar face. I wish she had been there a bit longer or was feeling better b/c it would have been nice to have someone to party with in bangkok. That night I ran into the aussie couple Pat and Sam from new years eve. Random. I also ran into Helen and Johnny from myanmar and was we were feeling the need to splurge a bit from myanmar. We went to 7-11, bought icecream and chocolate and went to see a movie (bedtime stories). The movie theatres in bangkok are amazing. 5 bucks gets you this reclining seat and a blanket. You could also buy a love seat for 12 bucks and 1st class seats are 10 with fully reclining lazy boy type chairs, pillows, blankets, and a waiter. The mall the movie was in was ultramodern. fancier than any mall I've been too and I've been to some in san diego and the rich parts of denver like cherry creek and park meadows. They had an aquarium under one of the parts of the mall. Everything was animated, blinking, etc. Very Crazy!



The next day I did some errands. stocking up on books (I went through all my books with the long bus rides in myanmar!) b/c the best variety is in bangkok, washing my clothes (and my body). Bought some toiletries (toothpaste, shampoo, deoderant) which cost me a small fortune. I didn't want the chinese toothpaste for fear of the lead poisoning and other things that's been going around, so australian was quite expensive (I had bought some cheapo earphones for my ipod in myanmar b/c they were crushed on a bumpy bus ride, and I kept thinking about the chineselead stuff in those, but I figure as long as they're not in my mouth). They don't have deoderant here really, unless you pay about 10 bucks for a travel size one from nivea or axe. But they have these rock crystals that apparently kinda work, so I got those. Then I headed out for the chatuchak weekend market. Thailand is infamous for it's markets, and Chatuchak is the end all. Something like 6000 stalls. It's so huge they give you a map when you come in. You can get everything there from food to pet squirrels to garden supplies to watches to mosquito zappers to fashionable clothes to used clothes to arts and craft...just about anything. It would be the perfect place to go for those people that are hard to shop for gift for. And of course everything is incredibly cheap! I talked to some fashionable british gals on the sky train loaded with suitcases and bags and they had spent 100 dollars and they think back home the same thing would have cost 600 to 800 dollars. The lonely planet warns you that people go, end up spending the whole day and leave weighted down but with empty watches. I was doing pretty good besides buying smoothies, shakes, and fruit, having only gotten a bracelet and some new fishermans pants and shirt I needed (total 3 dollars), when as I was leaving I came across a weakness. Cool environmental shirts. They were pretty awesome, good quality. So I bought 4, for 12 dollars. Which is great b/c the one "earth is our playground" brand shirt I have from REI cost me 15 bucks on sale. I had opened my wallet, so then I also bought a thai souvenir shirt. But WOW! what an intense market. I usually don't like shopping, but it was just cool to see all they had and the prices. Usually you see guys being drug by their girlfriends, but not here, the guys were plowing through as well. As I was walking through I was thinking, wow, I could actually make myself fashionable with several outfits here for only about 50 bucks including watches, hats, slacks, shirts, all of it...you guys wouldn't even recognize me. After the market I went on a semi fancy dinner cruise on the chao phraya river. Another splurge...well kinda of. Only 12 bucks for the meal and cruise. And then after that of course was the pat pong experience.



Today I got up at 6am to go to the floating market. I had gotten raving reviews from my aunt dianne about it. It was actually quite cool in the canals and all that. I had read it was quite touristy...and it was with almost all the things being sold relating to tourists...souvenirs, fruits, cooked food, but it was still very neat. Much different than the floating market in inle lake in myanmar. At inle the locals far outnumbered the tourists, not the case here. And most of the wares being sold at inle were for the locals: spices, herbs, roots, uncooked vegetables, fish, raw meat, cooking ware, etc. But this market was more happening here and also more colorful with all the fruits (of course I partook in the eating of them...so many crazy interesting looking fruits to try, and of course delicious). the ac broke down on the way back, not a huge deal b/c we have windows, but in thailand they do things differently. Instead of getting us to our destination, he drove a bit out of the way to get it fixed, so we could stand outside in the heat and wait an hour to get it fixed! Since I went to the market I missed the superbowl. Since I was in myanmar with now espn.com or news, I didn't even know who made the playoffs, let alone was in the superbowl until I got to bangkok. The steelers and who...? crazy. I wanted to go check out the muay thai boxing here tonight. If you know anything about boxing you've probably heard about muay thai. It's kind of light ultimate fighting I guess. I went to get tickets, but ringside is 60 bucks and upper level is 30 bucks. Too much for me to pay for a sport I'm not too into. But I guess it's a sweet atmosphere, like a duke/carolina b-ball game. And there's betting involved and all that. Of course the thais only have to pay 6-12 bucks, which is what I was hoping to get away with.



Tonight gonna go out on the town. Could possibly be my last night in bangkok depending on how I get from Laos to the South thailand. Off tomorrow to Ko Chang in SE Thailand. An Island! The beach! yay! Hopefully this time I'll make it...

2.04
In Ko chang now and island in SE thailand. it's beautiful here. Nice water (so warm!), and a very mountainous jungly interior which I love compared to flat islands. I think I will spend some days here. motorbike tour around the island, snorkel tour, the beach, and a trek to some waterfalls in the jungle. I met some cool aussies on the taxi to the beach I'm at that I'll probably hang out with and I met a nice aussie gal on the boat over here and we went out to a bar last night b/c it had a free bbq if you bought a beer. We also made friends with the bartender and he gave us a free alcohol bucket (their infamous around here)...normally 7 dollars, but a huge thing of mixed drink alcohol.