The Philippines...Part 2

Batangas was a real beaut...NOT! It was definitely my least favorite place...here's a picture of our hotel room. Oh and by the way, this place, the Travelers' Inn it was called, was RECOMMENDED by Lonely Planet!?! Anyway...that night Ronan had rented 2 tricycles for our gang, yep, you read it right, 2 TRICYCLES for 8 people! They're these dirt bike like vehicles with a sidecar for 2 and room for 2 behind the driver. They were SO FUN! Don't worry Mom and Dad, they only go about 30 mph. So for like 200 pesos a person or something (which is like $4USD?) our drivers stayed with us the whole night, dropping us off at places and then waiting for us. Wild! They were so silly though. We asked them to take us to a bar with pool and a TV so we could watch the "match" (as the Norwegians would say talking about soccer) and 4/5 times they took us to hooker bars! At dinner, Laura and I were smart and ordered chicken fingers and cheesesticks while everyone else decided to get steaks. The steaks were gray and the empty restaurant had somehow managed to run out of knives (?) so everyone had to cut their meat with forks and spoons! Obviously still rather hungry, we girls had ice cream at McDonald's while the boys ate "spaghettis," as Ronan would say, at the local fast food place, Jollybee's. By the end of the night we finally found a cool outdoor bar with live music and toilets with toilet seats!



The next day we were supposed to leave Travelers' Inn by 5:30 AM to catch a 6 AM boat to White Beach in Puerto Galera. Of course, 5:30 rolls around and who's still sleeping after I banged on the door 5 times? Yeah...the boys. So the half of us that are ready by 5:45 speed over to the seaport to make sure the boat doesn't leave. About 10 minutes later the other 4 show up and through some miscommunication, we find out that two of the guys ended up paying twice since Ronan had already paid for them in the first place! They were pissed...but we're talking again...$4USD. Whoops! In true Filipino time, our boat didn't end up leaving the dock until 7:30 and we arrived at our destination around 9:30. We spent the day on the beach with all the vendors and massage ladies..."Hello Ma'am, do you want a massage? When you want massage you let me know, I am Baby, remember my name when you want massage." And Man! were they persistent! Laura got so fed up with them bothering us all day that she refused to have a massage at all, but Maud and I gave in and for 200 pesos (~$4USD), we had 45 minute full oil body massages on the beach...beautiful. At 3, the boys said they had rented a boat and we were going to go to a place to go snorkeling. I had no desire to snorkel, but was under the impression we were going to a more private beach where we would still be able to lay out if we didn't want to swim. Unfortunately, that was not the case. They dropped anchor a ways off shore and said, "Go!" I didn't want to be the baby that stayed on the boat (and after all, I was paying 300 pesos!), so I put on that nasty mask that I was sure had never been cleaned and jumped in. Owww! Something had wrapped around my wrist and it hurt like a bitch! I was sure something had stung me, but I didn't see anything. So I shouted to everyone, "There's something in this water that stings!" And everyone said back, "Nah, it must just be the salt on your sunburn." So I kept swimming and damn! my legs were burning like hell! I had had enough. I started to swim toward the ladder on the side of the boat, saw a jellyfish, and turned around immediately. I got out on the other side of the boat and saw red lines all over my legs. Then, of course, everyone starts going, "Ow! Ow! Ow!" And now they believe me. Needless to say, our snorkeling didn't last long and there were no fish anyway! Being the Philippines...there were unfortunately no refunds.

We ended our time in Puerto Galera with a good dinner of bbq pork and rice and a crazy Philippine rum shot drinking game that I fortunately did not take part in because man that game went fast!

The next day the 8 of us rode for hours in a 4Runner size SUV back to Manila. Our driver was nice enough to stop frequently to let us eat and use the toilet and thank goodness because for one of our travel mates it was a "photo finish" at Jollybee's after an unfriendly hot dog from the last seemingly well-kept gas station shop.

Back in Hong Kong safe and sound, I'd never appreciated the luxuries of a first world country so much in my life - toilet seats, toilet paper, and hand soap. But something I did notice and love about this country was the genuine happiness and enjoyment of life of the local people despite their apparently desperate situations. They maybe "developing" in the economic sense, but they sure seemed to have a better handle on other aspects of life us "developed" people are still working on. That trip certainly prepared me for my travel adventures to come.