National Day Trip - Philippines

October 1st marked the 60th anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China. Mid autumn festival also landed at the same time so we got eight entire days off of school. Even though weve only been in China for about 2 months, it is already feeling pretty comfortable so I was definitely ready for a new trip. My friends and I decided early that because this is the most heavily traveled time of year in China, we would avoid the even larger than usual crowds and leave the country. We had our hearts set on going to Lombok; a tiny island near Bali in Indonesia but skyrocketing plane ticket prices forced us to quickly abandon that. We decided to go to the Philippines and booked tickets to Manila.

We started a countdown to our trip and then shortly before our departure Tropical Storm Ketsana slammed into Manila. From what we could tell from reading the news online, it was pretty bad but not bad enough to cancel the trip so we booked another domestic flight from Manila to Boracay. So on Sept 30th we began our incredibly long journey to Boracay. We left from our Wednesday afternoon Chinese class and took the Metro to the Hong Kong border crossing, stood in line for quite a while to get through immigration and crossed into Hong Kong. We then got on to the Hong Kong Metro and went a couple stops where we could catch a bus to the airport. We rode about 45 mins and arrived at the airport where we excitedly scarfed down some western food before our 10pm flight. We arrived at the Manila International airport around midnight but our connecting flight to Boracay wasnt until 5am. We figured we would take turns sleeping in the airport but then we found out domestic flights left from an entirely different airport. So we boarded a shuttle bus to the domestic airport. When we got there we were informed that we couldnt enter the airport until two hours before our flight but that we were welcome to sit in a large outdoor waiting area with hundreds of other travelers. Our flight left delayed sometime after 6am and while we were in the air we experienced some sort of mysterious technical difficulty and turned around and went back to Manila. We were put on another bus and taken to another plane and re-did the 45 minute flight. We arrived in Caticlan (Boracay is too small for an actual airport) and were put on another bus. This bus took us to a ferry that took about 15 minutes to get over to Boracay. So after metro, metro, bus, plane, shuttle bus, plane, bus, plane, shuttle bus, ferry, we finished our journey on a motorized tricycle ride to our hostel.

Boracay is a tiny tiny island, only about 7 km long with the famous White Sand Beach that has won numerous travel awards for the best beach in the world. And when we arrived, other than a constant breeze, there were no signs on a tropical storm. After resting from the epic journey we investigated the beach. The sand was just as soft and white as promised and the water was brighter and clearer than Ive ever seen. The bright aqua blue/green color was like something Ive only ever seen in pictures. When you wade into the water you can see straight to the bottom and tiny fish swarm around you.

Leaving China was interesting for a few reasons. We were all startled by the number of westerners when we arrived in Boracay. In Shenzhen, we are constantly stared at and while there are definitely other westerners working throughout the city, in my neighborhood I have never seen one other non-Chinese person other than the two other CTLC teachers that live there. We were also able to speak English and everyone had at least a moderate understanding. This was admittedly a relief and fitting for a vacation. The only Filipino word we learned was Tagay which means Cheers! And while I have grown to really love Chinese food, it was really exciting to be able to eat Filipino, Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean, and good old American food while we were there.

We spent our first day getting massages and shopping/bargaining in the numerous shops along the beach. The next day we rented ATVs to ride all over the island. We went to a butterfly sanctuary and a scenic viewpoint/cliff to take pictures of the entire island. Other than tourists, the island is populated only by people that have always lived there and have small and modest little dwellings away from the beach. As we were riding our ATVs we saw goats, chickens, donkeys, and all sorts of things walking along the road. We also did a sailing and snorkeling trip while we were there. We were really excited for this and we went on this tiny little sail boat that took us to the other side of the island. We plunged into the water and held on to a rope so we wouldn get swept away. Id never been snorkeling before so I was thoroughly impressed by everything. There was giant coral, fish that looked like they were straight out of Finding Nemo, and a star fish that was easily a couple of feet wide and bright, bright blue. But when we got back on the boat to go back to the beach everything started going wrong. The waves got to be huge and kept sweeping over us and slamming our faces every 30 seconds and then all of the sudden something broke off the end of the boat. It took twice as long and a lot of nausea to get back to shore. When we got off we all realized wed gotten really sun burnt and then I spent the night vomiting because I had swallowed so much salt water. But despite all of that, it was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

We flew back to Manila on Oct 6th to spend a couple of days there. Manila is a huge city and is really interesting. Philippines was once a Spanish colony so all the architecture reflects that. We spent some time investigating the part of town where we stayed called Ermita. For our only full day in Manila we took on a full load. We hired a car to take us to Tagaytay, about an hour outside of the city to see the Taal volcano. We took a boat to the middle of a lake where the volcano was situated on an island. When we got there we were told that the best way to get to the top was by horse. I wasnt thrilled by this but I also wasnt prepared to walk the whole way so I climbed on the horse and we were on our way. It took about 30 minutes to ride up and we spent quite a while taking pictures of the crater. The volcano has erupted several time and its death toll is almost 5,000,000 because it is so close to densely populated areas. There havent been any eruptions since 1977 but there has been seismic activity and what they call signs of unrest since 1991 so we didnt stick around for too long. We took the same way back Manila and it was nice to have the car ride through the city to see everything.

There was such a striking contrast between Boracay and Manila. Boracay was serene and everyone was friendly and happy while Manila was poverty stricken, busy, and dirty. It was interesting to be in an Asian country with strong Spanish influence. Everyones names were of Spanish descent and even part of the their language like numbers and certain nouns were similar to Spanish.

It was actually really nice to return to Shenzhen. I was eager to eat at my neighborhood Muslim Noodles restaurant, see my students, and most importantly wash my clothes. Even though the language barrier is greater here, it was nice to return to a familiar place even if its not quite home. But Im definitely looking forward to all the opportunities to travel I will have this year and all of the adventures to come.

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