It's July and I'm writing about China in February. It's not all that clear anymore and you have soju (Korean poison) to thank for that. I flew to Beijing back in February for a long weekend. I was received with hugs at the airport via Tony and Rachel. Tony I know from back home and Rachel is now my friend from China. Beijing is a beautiful and DELICIOUS city. If you're going for all the cultural greats of China, Beijing will not disappoint and in my opinion, not too many things are overrated. The Great Wall was REALLY GREAT! It was [View Full Entry]

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So the Korean school system is developmentally challenged. Just last week, they had one week of classes to finish off the previous school year. Needless to say, most teachers just wasted time in classes, most abandoning their classes. Or at least my English co-teachers did. It was almost good to hear the voices of screaming teenagers stampeding up the stairs. Until they got to class. The headache and deep sighs came rushing back. I guess I remember being a kid though...barely. It's funny how quickly your frame of mind gets replaced with that of an adult's. I got invited to the [View Full Entry]

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Day 4 - White Beach I had been somewhat disappointed that the sun had not been out but I was not to be let down again. By Tuesday, I was laying on White Beach enacting my usual tanning regime and watching Greg flounder around in the water. Greg was applying SPF 47 and I was spraying on oil with SPF 4. Needless to say I got burned, but minor suffering for my beloved tan. Ever since we got to the Philippines, we had been harassed constantly for money, whether it was someone selling jewelry, personalized friendship bracelets, or offering the services [View Full Entry]

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Day 6 - Encenada Beach Resort On Wednesday, I had just finished breakfast at our lovely Mexican restaurant. For anyone reading this and wondering about food on Puerto Galera, I highly recommend this restaurant, even if you're not staying at Badladz. It is a Muelle Pier and it is part of Badladz. It is just scrumptious...maybe I've been deprived of food living in Korea but I still have orgasmic daydreams about the food there. As I was tottering back upstairs from my ecstasy inducing meal, all these guests showed up at check-in. So far, there had been few guests and we [View Full Entry]

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Day 7 - Tamaraw Falls, Hidden Paradise, Hanging Bridge, and Jungle Kayaking For just under $50 (2000 pesos), we decided to go on an organized tour to see the falls. Now, the falls were just falls and we took the necessary photos and left within 10 minutes. BUT the tour was still totally worth it. They drive you around the island and you get a great view of the water and jungles below. And our driver played Bob Marley so I was really feelin' it. After the falls, we were going swimming somewhere called the "hidden paradise". In my research I [View Full Entry]

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Day 8 - Food Poisoning! It was bound to happen. After another great day of lounging in the sun, we decided to head down to Sabang beach in the evening. We headed to Captain Gregg's, which is a dive centre/restaurant/resort. All big places there work like this, especially on Sabang. It's dive central. Anyway, long story short, Greg ordered the "chuck burger" on the menu. I warned him against eating it. It's a HUGE burger with a thick beef patty with slabs of ham topped with strips of bacon. That is not normal, even if you do eat meat. About 4 [View Full Entry]

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Last days in the Philippines We headed back to Manila on Saturday morning. Poor Greg had barely survived food poisoning and had to suffer through a 5 hour trek back to Manila on a ferry and bus. It took us a lot longer to get back into Manila due to traffic. We eventually made it back to our hosts in Manila. Greg passed out and I went to dinner with the girls. I was glad to be away from the ant poop and comfortably tucked away in a clean bed. Home sweet home. After all our adventures in Puerto Galera, one [View Full Entry]

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Day 3 Strangely enough, I didn't want to sleep on my vacation. I woke up at about 7:30am most mornings, maybe laid around in bed until 8:00am but was bouncing around as soon as the sun came up. It felt good, unlike the volatile fight I have with myself every morning here in Incheon to get up and go to school. Best thing about Badladz - the Mexican restaurant. It's HEAVEN. We must have ate their for all 3 meals every day we were there. The resort itself is situated on a pier so there isn't a beach...just boats to look [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 We got up early and headed out for Puerto Galera. We decided to be adventurous and the public transportation route. Actually Greg was probably just a cheap ass and I wanted to sleep in. All valid reasons. So we cab to the bus terminal and we're being sent down this line of buses looking for the one that goes to Batangas Pier. Person after person tells me to "keep going". Then finally, some guy says, "Batangas here", and points to a bus. I get on and it's actually better than I thought, it was air-conditioned. I thought I was [View Full Entry]

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Day 1 I was bouncing to go at 5 in the morning. Greg was nervous because he didn't have a multiple-entry visa back into Korea. I'd much rather be stuck in the Philippines I think. We hop on the bus to the airport and the closer I get to taking off, the happier I am. We asked the woman at information if Greg needed to get a re-entry stamp, she adamantly says no. We get to the check-in counter, the woman says he needs to go to get a re-entry stamp. That's Korea for you. We also manage to buy some [View Full Entry]

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