Bebot! Bebot!

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. Who would've thunk work would be madd crazy? I sure didn't.

A recap of my trip the Philippines:

Day 1: arrived late afternoon and was screwed over by the cab driver (he over charged me). checked into my cozy hostel, nestled right next to a starbucks! Met a Japanese backpacker and we cruised a nearby mall. We were talking and she told me that she had gotten robbed earlier in the day by some locals and had to fly back to Japan the next morning b/c she didn't have any more money. Poor girl. our conversation were mostly fixated on traveling (she's been to cambodia and thailand) and all of a sudden, she tells me she has a MENTAL ILLNESS! [insert thunder and lightning] Freaked the shit outta me cuz I was sharing the dorm room with her--alone! I honestly could not sleep a wink that nite.

Day 2: Mental illness girl left the dorm around 4am. [sigh of relief] In the beginning, I wanted to go to Boracay, but it was friggin $$$$. I did not want to explore Manila all week, so I checked out neighboring islands. I decided on Puerto Galera and started my trek there. 2 1/2 hours by bus, 1 1/2 hours by boat. Emily text me when she arrived and when I told her about my new plans, she said she might meet me there. Very cool. Anyway, on my way to Sabang Beach, NOT A BEACH, I was majorly disappointed. I even trekked to neighboring 'beaches' and shook my head in disgrace. I finally hollered for a boat and asked the guy to take me to White Beach. White Beach was awesome and became my camping ground for the next 3 days.

Day 3-5: White Beach was heaven! First evening there I hung out with the locals and took in the stars at night. It was suprisingly cooler than I had expected (at night) and savored the moments. Emily joined me the next day and that's when all hell broke loose! Of course I'm exaggerating a tad bit. Here's the run down. I met on the beach and she wasn't alone. She had met a local guy named German and it turns out he's a champion wind sufer (who would've thunk). He invited us to a private resort that's more inland and offered us free lessons. I was hesitant at first cuz Cardinal Rule #1: Don't follow strangers to strange places. But being the dumbasses that we were, we said Sure!

So we're walking on a dirt path AWAY from the beach and I'm just thinkin to myself if we're going to live another day. We hitch a ride from a moped and the driver takes us further inland---dirt paths. 10 mins into the ride, I start to notice that we were literally in the middle of NO WHERE! So finally we come into a clearing and va va va voom, the private resort. [insert happy dance]

Now, this wasn't your normal private resort. It was housing to a language exchange program. I thought the idea was pretty cool. It was Flippino's teaching Korean's English (one on one) and it was a 5 1/2 weeks course. I started to observe the setting and all of a sudden, CLICK! It was a CULT! We were in the middle of a CULT!

But it wasn't a cult. It just seemed like one. Whew~

So German taught Emily how to wind surf while I kayaked around the bay and watched the sunset. [insert bliss]

Night time! Our trek back to the beach was an adventure in itself. PITCH BLACK. If y'all MSN me, the pic was taken on the dirt path, in the middle of no where, in PITCH BLACK. [insert 'blind leading the blind']

Anyhoo, the rest of the time on the beach was spent being sunburnt [i asked my roomies if it was 'sunburned' or 'sunburnt' and it spawned into a 5 min conversation]

Day 5-6: Did not want to leave White Beach AT ALL! Got seasick on the way back to Batangas and reaching Manila made me depressed. The dirtiness and the traffic was just blah~ I was speedy gonzalez and zipped through Rizal Park, Intramuros and Robinsons Place before retiring back to my $3.00 hostel room. And then BAM~ my period came. What a way to end my vacation.

Will post pics whenever I'm not in a lazy mood. But considering how it almost took me a month to log in this entry, it might take a while....

OH! Starting new job on Monday!