Travis has arrived...... And it is just as I suspected. I was an idiot not to rest up before he got here. I knew that would bite me in the ass. How strange of an experience it is to be a "regular" in a foreign place. Having been on the island of Boracay for at least a few days now...a good week not including the break we had in the Northern part of the country....I am now, of course, and expert. I know where to go to have the best mango banana shake, the bets place to see the view of [View Full Entry]

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Interesting way to spend Valentines Day- praying for my life. My hip flexors and glutes have never felt quite like this before, and I'm sure never will again. Mixed with an utter sense of accomplishment, I feel totally drained. Good thing we have an unimaginably lon, cramped, arduous bus ride ahead of us. With any luck, I'll sleep the whole way from Banaue to Manila. Banana pancakes and a banana pineapple salad (half of each) and one small bottle of water at 7 am were all I had to fuel my terrace traversing this morning. I knew it would be difficult, [View Full Entry]

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"You don't spend a centavos when you smile." Mary, the wife of Emiliano, the owner of this lodging and carving studio, up here in this breathtaking scenary, is yet another reason I have fallen in love with the Philippines. She is intelligent, and she is able to present to us an authentic view of Filipino life up here in Ifugao country, high in the mountains. She has given us more reason to trust the people of this country. I could write forever about how the people you meet while travelling colour yoru experience, and I will, no doubt, write about that [View Full Entry]

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Favorite part of travelling so far? For sure, without a doubt, the people. For good or bad it is what makes or breaks a trip. Today I have fully realized the other beauty- this morning I was on a beach in Boracay and hours later I am paddling on a mountain "lagoon" in Baguio. Different landscape almost entirely...and by tomorrow morning I will be in Banaue. It is safe to say I am partially more at east, though a little disappointed, we will not be traversing the death road by bus that travels from Baguio to Sagada. If we find our [View Full Entry]

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It has been 4 days now in Boracay. Small impressions include tiny ants (bed bugs) on my bed and all over my clothes, bits of seashells and coral along the fine, smooth, white sand shoreline, bowl of "goto", Filipino congee, along with the chicken (or duck) egg and black yoke (incidentally, in case you were wondering, yes the black yoke is a half formed fetus...yum yum), "turo turo"s along the "road" with quiet, kind, eager Filipionos awaiting late night white curious customers, sausage on a stick sliced and diced in a floral pattern coated in a sweet tangy spice BBQ sauce, [View Full Entry]

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Sense of smell is the sense of memory. Without having to think about it- to build a story in your mind to make sense of it all- that sense brings oyou right there. It is amazing how you can be in one place and feel so utterly in another. The brain works that way, associating one event, one experience, with another. I have no experiences of the Philippines to comare to...but I have the DR. And I have never been in two places so far from eachother geographically that are so utterly alike in the framework of my life experience. How [View Full Entry]

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What is it about Itaewon that draws one so consistently back? I know what people that have been here are thinking...you are lazy tourists that want to avoid the authentic experience and hide away in your own pre-established routine and plethora of expectations and don't want to be challenged or embarassed (HA! to those who think Itaewon can't embarass you). I think it is the hockey. Jen and I had an errand running day....back in Bundang. We were wandering the suburbian streets last night at 2 o clock in the morning because we were too tired to argue with the Korean [View Full Entry]

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Sometimes the best nights are the ones that sneak up on you. The truth is, those are always the best nights. Small town Korea is a strange experience. Coming from a legitimate Canadian small town, I wouldn't say it is exactly the same thing. This small korean town is 500,000 people. However, if you find the right little hole in the wall, the right crowd, then you can still find that intimate good small town feel. But the intention wasn't really to party it up. If anything, I was just trying to go with it...stay awake. I have to retrain myself [View Full Entry]

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Dusk. Moving Sillouettes on the other side of the glass. Inside the train it could be any world out there- any temperature, any climate. Any place with trees. Right now, it is the DOminican Republic, and I am headed for the beach. Then the song changes in my headphones and it is Canada, and I am headed home to you... Lights. Miles of endless city. Now I remember- I am headed to Busan. Beach. Romantic, despite the figid air. At least it is from this side of the glass...in my mind. I have let the trip to the Philippines sink in, [View Full Entry]

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They warned me the Korean bath houses were an intimate and intimidating experience. They were on the right track... We have been wandering the Metropolitan streets of South Korea for a few weeks now- "killing time" until our warm welcome on a Philippines beach. Classes begin in three weeks, and the susurrous Siberian wind has already lost its romance as it comes at you, biting through the trees. But I have no intention of "killing time" for a moment on this trip. This is the time to live all the life I have to give, and I'm give'n er...That means finding [View Full Entry]

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