Goodbye Bangkok Hello Philippines

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I have officially officially said goodbye to Thailand. After arriving in Thailand just a few days ago I am off again. It is sad to know I'm not coming back any time soon but exciting to start the next leg of my adventure.

Erica and I are heading off to the Philippines. I'm starting out a few hours earlier. Or I should say started out already. The flight was short and sweet, getting me to Clark just 3 1/2 hours after taking off. Grant it I had to sit with a really strange fellow, but other than that it was a smooth ride.

I hung out in the airport for the next couple of hours as I waited for Erica's flight to come in. Naturally she caught me while I was in downward facing dog. The only white girl in the airport is hanging out upside down in the airport at 4am, yeah I know I'm weird.

Once reunited the two of us grabbed our stuff and hopped on jeepney, can we say coolest form of transportation ever! Apparently they were originally made from old military jeeps and have been converted into the most common form of public transport here. They are all different colors and styles and just really quite awesome all around.

Well our jeepney took us to the bus station where we hooped on a but and set off for Manila. fresh org time after that we were hopping on yet another jeepney bound for the pier. Our goal was to hop on a boat over to Cebu and spend the night there. Did you know a boat from Manila to Cebu takes 20 hours? No, we didn't know either.

We just happened to get a chance ticket which means no actually spots remained on the boat but they put mats down in the conference room and let us live the for the next 20 days. I actually think this is way better than the bunk beds everyone else got because we had quite a bit more space for all of our stuff.

After settling in we took a peak around, but exhausted we made our way back to our little mats and passed out. I woke around 11 and did a bit of yoga and cardio to the amusement of all who peaked their heads into the room. This was followed by a delicious lunch that we made from date bread, peanut butter and an orange. Sure we could have had free lunch but we never looked at our ticket and completely missed out. Sad times when we miss out on free food.

With our bellies full we headed out to the deck to catch some rays and read our books. It was pretty windy, but enjoyable none the less. When our bellies were less full we headed inside Ito the island fiesta where karaoke was pumping and the food was cooking. We took a gander at everything and one titled on kwek kwek, a boiled egg snack that was wrapped in orange tinted batter and seated in delicious sauce. Oh kwek kwek, for my first taste of filipino food you did it proud!

As can't chatted away out of nowhere everyone jumped up and got in line. Is is when we found out that we get dinner and that we had missed lunch. People piled into line an hour before service started. This seemed foolish until an hour after service when those folks who waited were done eating and I couldn't even find the end of the line.

Instead of waiting, Erica and I decided to check out the sunset. This appealed to me only as long as it took for my belly to start rumbling. Erica was forgoing the meal seeing as there were no vegetarian options and thus I was able to get two. This was great for me since they were such small portions.

Full once more we called in a night at 9pm. What seemed like only a few hours later we wee waking to the hustle and bustle of everyone getting ready to get off the boat. We followed suit and while stretching like weirdos on the boat we were approached by a young man.

We had basically no plans. The night before we ran into someone who recommended Bohol and that was the path we were headed but whe to go and what to do was still lost on us. That is brilliant we met his fellow AND a former tour guide from the area. Both pointed us in the right direction and as soon as we were off the boat we headed to another.

Purchasing a ticket for the fast track to Bohol we found ourselves once more on a boat only this time it was for a very short period of time. We chatted it up with a lovely German who sat next to us and before we knew it we were in Bohol! With traveling for the moment done we were ready to explore!!

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Comments

[Sharon Lubeck]

Nice way to travel
This sounds much better then the bus ride from Vietnam to Laos! The kwekkwek looks good, I was so afraid it was something funky.