Philippines!!

I had 12 days back in Korea after Thailand, which were pretty rough. Coming down off the vacation high is never fun sitting behind a desk in 30 degree weather. Luckily, I was heading right back to the beach!

The Phillippines are a weird mix of Asian and Western. The Spanish ruled there for a long time so a lot of their food and culture is very European. The language is also very interesting. The actual language is their own, but I could understand parts of it that were definitely Spanish. In the Philippines they also all speak Enlgish for the most part. It was weird to see all the signs everywhere in English, and have the radio be in English as well. The country itself was very interesting and you can tell there are deep issues happening politically and culturally. I did not feel very safe all the time, especially in Manila. Overall though the people were REALLY friendly and helpful, and didn’t seem to resent or be annoyed with tourists like they did in Thailand. Anwayssss here is what we did:

I left for the airport right after work on Friday the 12^th. My flight was direct from Seoul to Manila and took 4 hours. I got in pretty late, but I met up with my friend Erin who is teaching English in China at our hotel. We went right to bed to wake up the next morning to take another flight. We flew to the city of Kalibo which was 45 minutes away. When we got there we took a minibus for an hour and a half across the Philippino countryside. It was very beautiful with mountains and rice fields right along the beaches. At the end of our ride we took a small ferry boat over to the island of Boracay.

Boracay is a very famous vacation spot in SE Asia and is known for its beautiful beaches. When we arrived we took a “trike” which is a motorbike with a sidecar attached down to White Beach, which is the tourist central location on the island. We checked into our hotel and headed out exploring. White Beach was an amazingly gorgeous beach lined with tons of little restaurants and shops and the water was literally turquoise. We decided to stop at a place with lounge chairs right on the beach and ordered some daquiris. That night we watched the sunset with some beers (San Miguel) and then got ready to go out. The nightlife in Boracay is really fun and we met some Americans that night.

On this day we decided to rent a moped. This is where the story gets interesting. So we rented our moped and the rental guys asked me “you have driven one before right?” of course I said “yes!!” (which was a lie) and hopped on thinking it would be really easy to pick up. I was wrong. I hit the gas and we literally flew into oncoming traffic. Luckily I hit the brakes in time, but the entire street was laughing at us. The moped rental guy decided it would be best to take me to a side street and teach me how to drive. After about a minute I picked it up and we were off on our adventure. I had finally gotten the hang of driving the moped when the streets turned into dirt roads. These weren’t just plain dirt roads, which would have been okay, these road were full of potholes and ravines and I literally would have killed us if I had tried to drive down it. Some Philippino men who had seen us drive by had estimated this, so they came up behind us right as we were about to turn around on their own moped and offered to drive ours. So that’s how we hired our 2 tour guides for the day. They drove us around the island to all the great locations, which we never would have seen if I were driving. We went to a bat cave, puka shell beach, and the island overlook. At the end of the day I drove the moped back to town and turned it in… we survived unscathed.

That night was Valentines Day and so we decided to have a nice meal on the beach. There were sandcastles on the beach that said “Happy Valentines” which was cute. We decided that of all nights this would be our night off since we had big plans for the next morning.

We woke up early and rented a sailboat for the day. The sailboat took us out and all the way around the island. On the East side of the island it was so windy it felt like we were on a rollercoaster. The boat drivers stopped in the really choppy water and said “okay snorkel time!” and Erin and I were like ohhhhh no way. So they took us to the other side and we snorkeled there instead. The water is so clear it was really cool even though the coral was pretty far down. The sailboat ride was really nice and relaxing. That night we went out but nothing especially exciting happened, although it was fun.

The next day we spent our time on the beach, simply relaxing under umbrellas with a book and a banana smoothie. We watched the sunset with a bottle of wine and some hummus & tabbouleh, which I had not had in 6 months. It was amazing. That night was our last night on Boracay so we headed out to the bar called Summer Place and danced all night.

The next day we had to head back to Manila, which meant a ferry ride and then the minibus. I had to fight back throwing up on the entire minibus ride, which was no fun at all, but hey it happens. When we got back to Manila we headed into town, but to be honest, Manila feels very unsafe. Even when just driving between terminals at the airport the cab drivers told us to lock our doors. Anyways, we found a Wendy’s (which don’t exist in Korea) and, therefore, I had to have it. While we were eating our Wendy’s some little boys came up to the window and knocked on the glass pointing to their mouths. I felt like such an American pig chowing down on a hamburger right in front of them so after I was done I bought two hamburgers and brought them outside with me. I handed the bag to the kid who had been at the window the whole time and him and his twin brother TOOK OFF with it. That’s definitely what I would have done if a foreigner had bought me Wendy’s… I wouldn’t’ share that!

I caught my direct flight back to Seoul and got back to my apartment. Overall it was a really fun week and I’m glad I decided to make the trip. I am very thankful my school gave me an extra week off that most other people didn’t have. Now it’s back to the grind at work, I only have 2 days off until July, so I’m back to the grind for sure. My parents are coming to visit in May, which I am excited for, and this summer should be really fun in Korea. That’s all for now, I promise I’ll update more frequently.