Filipino Filipino

With a couple of good Filipino friends' encouragement, the idea of traveling to the Philippines became an exciting option after finishing up in Japan. Finding I could cash in for free airline tickets using my SkyMiles with a stopover in South Korea made the Philippines trip a must. My ticket was even upgraded to Business class allowing me to finally see what actually happens behind that blue curtain. One piece of advice - if you ever choose to fly business or first class, you better be able to pay for the upgrade the rest of your life. Once you've experienced airline luxury, you can never go back.

My friend Bryant planned out a great trip while Megan and I arrived shamefully clueless.

Here's a few numbers from the trip:

2: Cameras I broke or lost (and fortunately found)

75: Percentage of the white people I saw that were male senior citizens being escorted by pretty young Filipino girls

3: Different islands (including Japan) we ran into one such retired man who'd previously hit on Megan on the plane ride over

2: Transvestites that hit on me

0: Number of balut (partially developed duck embryo eggs) I ate

50,000: Dollars I would eat balut for

5: New foods we did try: Chicken feet, ox tail, squid ink, pig ears and pig blood (tasted like pork and beans)

1,000,000: Dollars you can buy a private island for. Hmmm...anyone want to pitch in?

We started out in Manila and did very Filipino things...like paintball

Maybe it's just me, but do you see anything wrong with this?

We met up with some of Bryant's friends and flew to the island of Bohol.

Bohol is home of the world's smallest monkey, the tarsier

Also home of the Chocolate Hills

This Boholian could tear open a coconut with his teeth

Grocery shopping

These kids were more than happy to pose

Snorkeling trip

...which turned into whale and dolphin watching. We almost snorkeled with the whale but it swam off.

Sunrise - Bryant's pic, there's no way I got up that early

The Philippines have some of the best scuba diving in the world. Our instructor said he sometimes goes treasure hunting in sunken ships. Apparently you have to watch out for pirates that wait while you and your findings resurface. He said he actually escaped the pirates once in his boat.

We took a ferry to Cebu from Bohol. We went to the Philippines during Holy Week. Since Filipinos are predominantly Catholic most businesses shut down allowing our friends to come along. On Bohol Island as well as a few other places on Good Friday there are some small groups of Catholic extremists that whip themselves, wear a crown of thorns and even nail themselves to a cross. We mistakenly thought it was done in Cebu and took the ferry the day before.

Preparing for the week

On Easter Sunday the people of Cebu had a huge parade carrying statues of Mary and a Spanish looking baby Jesus

They sold balloons of Jesus and Sponge Bob Square Pants

Magellan's Cross - the Philippines is where Ferdinand Magellan, the first man to circumnavigate the globe, was killed. Makes sense from the natives' side. Magellan and the Spanish sailors claimed the Philippines for Spain - even though there were plenty of natives who called it home, sound familiar America? They decided this wasn't cool so they killed him. Spain eventually did colonize the islands causing much Spanish influence in architecture and language.


That's enough pictures. Great memories. Thanks Bryant!