Blogs from Philippines, Asia - page 312

After just a day of rest, we were off to Tagaytay once more this time to celebrate Nanay's birthday. We had seen the Caleruega Church and learned of its campsite 3 days prior to this trip and had planned to go back to camp there. We oh so love the place - lots of trees, cool weather, nice grass covered lawn, the sound of creatures all around - perfect for staying overnight. We asked nanay and carlo, ikee's cousin, to come with us. Ikee and Boyet did the reservation the day before while I was enrolling for the 1st sem. Lunch was at View site Restaurant. We had filipino food - bulalo, steamed pla-pla, adobong kangkong, and ensaladang talong. The rest of the day was basically the same as what we had done during Ikee's birthday. ... read more

John Thomas Lynch, my grandfather, has been an enigma to me all my life, not only because he is the man I was named for yet never had the opportunity to meet, but because no one besides my Uncle Kevin ever had a conversation with him about his war experiences. It’s hard to write this particular blog without going into too much history about the U.S. military campaign in the Philippines, mainly involving their strategic withdrawal from Manila to the Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor and subsequent surrender of all U.S. & Filipino forces in the Philipines to the Imperial Army of Japan, but I’ll attempt to make it brief. I’ve heard the stories since I was a small boy about my grandfather’s role in WWII and despite all the papers and essays I’ve ... read more

Sagada, Mt. Province Philippines June 1, 2006 It’s 4:20 PM and am still here in the office, got to work first! Can’t wait to see the hidden beauty of the mysterious place, Sagada. Left the office exactly 6:00 PM, got to Meanne’s office at about 20 minutes. We had dinner at Tokyo-tokyo in Greenbelt and left their office at around 8:00 PM. We were at the Autobus terminal around 8:45 PM. When we arrived there were few foreign nationals waiting also for the bus bound for Banaue. I still can’t believe myself that I will finally be going to Sagada. We planned this around April and now, we are really going! The bus left around 10:00 PM. The bus was full with different people from all walks of life and with different dialects. Oh well! might ... read more

What up everyone. Thank you for the shout outs and I just want you all to know this is my last entry and its gonna be quick cus Ive been out all night and I just wanted to add somethin so you knew I was still alive and kickin. I am in Makati (which is an area in Manila). This is the last place before I take my flight at 1230 back to the states. This whole experience and this past month has been the greatest time of my life. I cant even begin to explain how amazing this has all been. I cant wait to see everyone, i am so damn excited. You know the classroom could never teach me the way that this hands on experience has taught me. You really get a whole ... read more

Hey you all I am in Cebu until tommorow morning. Tommorow we fly off to Boracay, I am so excited. The last few days are definitely the cool down period since we have been so frantic running around traveling all over the place. Today we went to Bohol and went on an eco-tour. Eco-tourism is basically tourism set up that is sustainable with no detrimental effects or strains on the environment. We went to a river where the community has set up a community based developmental protection system that seeks to protect the river and succesfully run an eco-tourist venue. This place was really neat. Much of the day was spent traveling as we were taking ferries to and from the island. Our day started at 5 am and we got back around 6. It was ... read more