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Published: December 10th 2011
I know boys and girls, it’s been a LONG time since you’re heard from me. I’ve just be so busy! When you see the next couple of countries I’ve been to I think you’ll understand a little more. After the fun I had at the zoo in Singapore, I was off to the Philippines. We got to the airport plenty early to catch our flight that was at 8:00, but when we looked up at the TV screens that show all of the flights, we didn’t see it anywhere! You’ve probably never heard of this, but we had gotten thrown off by the military time. We assumed that 8:00 was at night when we bought the ticket and didn’t pay close enough attention. In military time 8:00 can only be in the morning because they keep right on counting when they tell time. For example, 1:00 pm for US is 13:00 for them. Or 9 pm for us is 21:00 for them. Isn’t that crazy? It sure would be hard for me to be in the monkey military! Anyways, we actually missed our flight and it was all our fault! Oops! Just remember kids, ALWAYS remember that airports uses military time
just like many other countries do. Now that I think about it, it really DOES sound funny to say 15:00 doesn’t it? Haha! Oh well. Eventually we made it there!
I tell you what, I just never know what to expect when we get to a new country. The Philippines is sort of like Indonesia in the way that the country is made up of many islands. Our first main stop was Bohol Island. You’re not going to believe it, but I got to see wild tarsiers here! The look just like a little monkey! They were even cuter than ME I think, hehe! It’s kind of funny, but I always thought they moved really slow. In reality, they can move like a wild cat! I couldn’t believe it. When I saw them sleeping during the day, I thought about challenging them to a race, but when I saw how fast they are at night when we were watching a movie, I thought I’d better not! The cool thing about going to this tarsier conservation was that we got to get really closes to them, and we even saw a BABY tarsier. We know we can’t touch them, but
boy did we want to! After seeing the tarsiers, we took some time to go see what’s called the chocolate hills, which is basically just a lot of hills bunched together and covered with brown, dead grass when it hasn't rained in a while. They were green hills when we were there. I definitely like the tarsiers the best!
One thing about being in a country that’s made up of so many islands again is having to take whole LOT of ferries to get from island to island. We made our way to an island called Negros, where we really just wanted to see a little place named Sugar Beach. Too bad for us, it was rainy the whole time we were there. In fact, there was even a TYPHOON coming through the country. A typhoon is the same thing as a hurricane, but they call it a typhoon over in this part of the world. When we went to leave and get to the bus, the wind and rain came out of nowhere and almost blew Nate and Jessie right over as they were trying to get through the intense blowing and hard rain and sand literally hitting
them sideways. Good thing I was hiding in the backpack, but it sure was loud in there! I even got soaking wet just from the hard blowing wind and rain. In fact, Nate and Jessie had to lay out every single thing in their backpacks on the ground when we got to our next place we were staying just so they would completely dry out. Gosh am I glad my fur dries fast! A few shakes and wiggles and I’m good as new! Well, I might have to run around the room like a crazy puppy after a bath first, but I’ll get dry at some point…don’t you worry! Poor Nate went to the grocery store the next day and actually fell through the sidewalk! I felt so bad for him when he had to hobble all the way back to our hotel with a broken sandal (barefoot on one side then) and scraped up from his ankle to his knee. He was a little sore for a few days, that’s for sure.
The bad thing about being in the Philippines this time of year is having to deal with the rainy season and bad storms. Even when we
were on an island called Boracay, which is one of the most amazing beaches in the country, it was still wet and rainy. It’s funny how none of this weather bothered all of the kids who just ran around and splashed in all the puddles with me, although I had to be careful. One big splash and the water was over my little head! “Careful guys! I’m just a tiny little monkey!” I tell you what, as soon as the sun came out, the beach was so beautiful! I didn’t want to leave and neither did Nate or Jessie. I mean, can you imagine how good of a tan I could have here? I could probably be the color of a gorilla in a few days! Even though we had to leave this amazing place because there was another storm coming and we had to get to another island to catch a flight, we were glad we at least got SOME time in the sun. The first thing we had to do was take a tricycle to the bus station. I know what you’re thinking. “They have tricycles in the Philippines?!” Well yes they do, but they don’t pedal them
by their feet like a tricycle for a kid. Even though they can usually only fit 3-4 people inside, we’ve seen as many as 9 with the whole ROOF packed with kids! Yeah, the road rules are MUCH different in Asia THAT’S for sure. So don’t go telling your parents it’s ok to ride on the roof of the car because kids in Asia do it, HAHA!
We had to take a bus onto a ferry right away, then drive through an island to get to another ferry, and finally drive up to Manila on the island in the north called Luzon where the storm was supposed to hit really hard. First we had to wait 2 extra hours until we could get on the first ferry, but that wasn’t even close to being the worst part! You’re not going to believe this, but we got stuck for 2 nights and 3 days in one of the ferry terminals because of how bad the typhoon was that was coming through. It was so bad and so strong that the ferries weren’t even allowed to try making it from island to island. All 3 of us got stuck sleeping on
a piece of cardboard on the tile floor in the building because we were stranded and had no place to go. The funny thing is, we weren’t even really mad. You see, the Filipino people are very laid back and relaxed. They don’t really let things get to them, and that’s exactly what WE did. We just did our best to have fun talking with the people stuck like we were. Hey, at least we got food from the Red Cross because we were stranded! You’re going to laugh when you see the pictures of us sleeping on the floor! Do you think you could be stuck in the same room for 3 days and 2 nights while having to sleep on a piece of cardboard? Good thing I can always curl up in some of Nate and Jessie’s clothes so only THEY have to be on the floor. Then again, after not being able to shower for a couple of days, maybe I DON’T want to sleep on their clothes! Peeeyuuuu!!! Haha! I’m just kidding. I had clean clothes to sleep on.
Eventually we made our way to Palawan for our last couple of weeks where we met
up with Jessie’s friend Rachel. We had such a GREAT time island hopping in a town called El Nido in the north. I still can’t believe how perfectly blue and clear the water is there. You could see down in the water at LEAST 30-40 feet to the bottom. How am I ever going to leave this country? Maybe I can convince Nate and Jessie to move here and live in the Philippines for a while. I could get USED to this! We spent a little bit of time in Sabang, a very small fishing village on the other side of the island where we only had electricity for a few hours at night. It was a great little spot for a few days other than the rats that kept getting into our room and trying to eat our food every night. Dang rats! No matter where we put our food or hid it, they found it every time! Stinkers! I have to say, the Philippines were one of my favorite countries I’ve been to in all of Asia! The people are SO nice and the beaches are the best I’ve ever seen! I’m going to be really sad to
leave, but very excited to get to New Zealand, too! Until then…
Your world traveler,
Wylie
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james Mrs hunt
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MRS Hunt student
dear wyli i realy miss you i hop i see you son.ps i wonder who is your friend from james in 2ed grad