Hey everyone, this is Mike and I'll be guest blogging today. I've never blogged before so hopefully my stories make sense.
First, I'd like to give a brief summary of the trip from my viewpoint then I'll get into some new stories. So we arrived in Manila about 1.5 weeks ago and almost immediately started participating in The Philippines' favourite past-time...eating! It's been a non-stop eating ride since we got here! Priscilla and I met up with my cousins while Kevin and Melissa met with Melissa's cousins. Priscilla and my cousin, Vera, got their hair and nails did while I went with my cousin Von to go to a tailor and get suited up.
The next day during breakfast I learned the single most important phrase of the trip so far: "Mango Shake, no milk". Also, Priscilla and I learned the fine art of bargaining. Get this, a pair of pyjamas at the market was listed as P200, but I managed to bargain them down to...P200! I did get better at bargaining though. In Boracay I bought a shirt that was listed as P239, but I scored the shirt for only...P230!!! I was looking for the cops as I exited the store because the price I got was straight stealing.
Okay, now onto the new trip details. So, after Cebu, we all met up with Tito Clemente and Joe's brother Randy (BTW Joe, Randy said that he could still whup your butt in a fight) and made the trip to Matagok for the Matagok Fiesta. The trip there was pretty scenic, and when we pulled up to the village in a boat all the children came out and helped us with our luggage, so that was pretty cool. That afternoon we all had front row seats for some good ol' Cock-fighting! How good were our seats? Let's just say that we had a bunch of Rooster blood-stained clothes to clean after the fights. Watching Cock-fighting was similar to watching UFC, if the fighters were allowed to bring knives into the octagon. The next Fiesta event was a town basketball game. Kevin and I dominated the game Canadian style! Imagine Shaq and Kobe but with more dunking and you get the picture. The next day was the big Fiesta dance, where Melissa, Priscilla and I each danced the Cucaracha. The rest of the night was a blur of Tanguay rum, San Miguel Beer, chuba (Coconut wine), Tito Clem dancing tango with the girls and Kevin dancing the robot. Oh, and Nanang's house was really nice!
Today we made the trip up to San Fernando which was about a 6 hour drive. After arriving we ate a great lunch prepared by Tito Richard and then went into town to do a little shopping and see the city. Currently we're at Tita Normita's place (which is very nice) getting massages. Yup, so far the trip has been amazing, hopefully Melissa and Kev will let me write another one of these later on. Bye!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Land of the Dried Mangoes
Friday, January 4, 2008 - Ahh.. oh Cebu. Where Mangoes taste a little bit better. Where the streets seem a little bit cleaner. And where the air smells a little bit fresher... just a little bit. I think I've developed asthma while I've been here or maybe it's just the smog.
We left Boracay on Wednesday at 9:30am to head to Cebu. I, Melissa, woke up at about 6:30am because the front desk had lost Dave. Well not lost, he chose to leave the place himself.
Dave was arranged to be picked up at the hotel for the airport at 5:30am. Since the hotel escorts came late, Dave decided to find a way to the airport himself. Remember, it's not that easy to get to Boracay. Let alone Dave had to find yet another airport to go back to Manila himself.
We, on the other hand, were to travel to Cebu. It's weird we had to leave Boracay from another airport than we had arrived in. Although it took us longer to get there, the aiplane we took to Cebu was new, a lot cleaner and a lot bigger.
Our first destination in Cebu would be Shangri-la Mactan Resort. Let me just say, we felt like movie stars. The place is amazing! Well, for the high price of one night it had to be! The four of us stayed in one room that was supposed to accomodate only 3 people max. Instead, since the rooms were so expensive, we decided to secretly share the room between the 4 of us. Everywhere in the resort you had to give them your room number. We felt like they were suspicious that we ate dinner for four, rented towels for four, ate breakfast for four, and went to the gym with four. Yet, there was only 3 people in the room.
We wanted to go to Bohol (Chocolate Hills) the next day we arrived in Shangri-la but it rained, so we said we would go the next day. And then the next day, it rained again. What luck.
Now we are in Plantation Bay Cebu. I get free internet for half an hour and I think I'm almost done. If you want to know what it looks like here, Kevin describes it as an amusement park.... think Universal Studios with salt water pools.
Tomorrow, my dad is meeting us and we're heading to Matagok at 6:00am in the morning. Why did he pick such an early time? I have no idea. So I have to make the most of this place while I can.
We left Boracay on Wednesday at 9:30am to head to Cebu. I, Melissa, woke up at about 6:30am because the front desk had lost Dave. Well not lost, he chose to leave the place himself.
Dave was arranged to be picked up at the hotel for the airport at 5:30am. Since the hotel escorts came late, Dave decided to find a way to the airport himself. Remember, it's not that easy to get to Boracay. Let alone Dave had to find yet another airport to go back to Manila himself.
We, on the other hand, were to travel to Cebu. It's weird we had to leave Boracay from another airport than we had arrived in. Although it took us longer to get there, the aiplane we took to Cebu was new, a lot cleaner and a lot bigger.
Our first destination in Cebu would be Shangri-la Mactan Resort. Let me just say, we felt like movie stars. The place is amazing! Well, for the high price of one night it had to be! The four of us stayed in one room that was supposed to accomodate only 3 people max. Instead, since the rooms were so expensive, we decided to secretly share the room between the 4 of us. Everywhere in the resort you had to give them your room number. We felt like they were suspicious that we ate dinner for four, rented towels for four, ate breakfast for four, and went to the gym with four. Yet, there was only 3 people in the room.
We wanted to go to Bohol (Chocolate Hills) the next day we arrived in Shangri-la but it rained, so we said we would go the next day. And then the next day, it rained again. What luck.
Now we are in Plantation Bay Cebu. I get free internet for half an hour and I think I'm almost done. If you want to know what it looks like here, Kevin describes it as an amusement park.... think Universal Studios with salt water pools.
Tomorrow, my dad is meeting us and we're heading to Matagok at 6:00am in the morning. Why did he pick such an early time? I have no idea. So I have to make the most of this place while I can.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
BBQ sticks & mango shakes
Finally, we're in Boracay. The plane ride from Manila to Caticlan was a little sketchy, but we made it. After geting to the airport we had to take a tricycle (motorcycle with attachment) to the boat which took us to Boracay. From there we hopped in the back of a truck and headed for the resort area. The truck dropped us off near the market area and we had to walk the rest of the way (about 15 minutes). Luckily, the resort provided workers to help with our bags.
We checked into the hotel, The Red Coconut, and scoped our new digs for the next 3 nights. It's right on the beach, like every other resort here, and very nice. We're staying in the garden villas which all have double doors that open onto a nice size patio.
Everyone seemed to be pretty tired, i guess the jet lag was kicking in, but we decided to take a walk up the strip and check out everything we could. There's no roads here it's just one long sand walking path along the ocean filled with trendy on-beach restaurants, shops and cafes. There's also street vendors selling anything from food to jewellery to massages. We decided to eat and we picked a Hawaiian BBQ place. We found a table on beach and shared multiple plates of anything that can be BBQ'd. We had to call it a night.
Second day started at 7am, as Melissa and I grabbed breakfast at the hotel. We set out to get massages to start the day proper. We found one on the beach and splurged for the 1 hour full body massage. This cost us 700 pesos ($18) for both of us! After that we went into the market grabbed some iced coffees, and explored the markets. I got flip-flops for 200 pesos ($5) and Melissa got a beach dress to wear later for our New Years party. We met up with Mike, Priscilla and Dave and we sat down for another BBQ lunch (are you seeing the trend here?). We were going to eat at the Hobbit House but felt it was just wrong.... let me explain, it's loosely based on The Lord of the Rings, and from what we could tell the only employment requirement was that you had to be a little person... seriously.
Lunch was followed by an ocean swim and a powernap to recharge for the countdown. We all met up and decided on a beach buffet and bottomless margaritas for dinner, then we went back to the hotel to have a couple more drinks. We got to our 'White Party' (everyone had to wear white) at about 11:50pm. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 ... HAPPY NEW YEAR!! fireworks went off down the whole stretch of Boracay and horns were blowing for good hour after the new year had officially started. Needless to say, our drinking saw no limit and the street side bbq stands for were never to far out of reach. I grabbed a couple of glow sticks from a young entrepreneur and somehow these got labeled as 'Weng-Wengs'. A weng-weng is a local drink which consists of about 16 different shots of alcohol with a touch of orange-pineapple just to make it edible. Anyways, you can probably see the connection between the term Weng-weng and an 8 inch glow stick, so I won't go into any explicit details. We ended the night with pork bbq sticks and mango shakes.
This morning was not pleasant, but I think I'm on the road to recovery.
Happy New Year!
Kev
We checked into the hotel, The Red Coconut, and scoped our new digs for the next 3 nights. It's right on the beach, like every other resort here, and very nice. We're staying in the garden villas which all have double doors that open onto a nice size patio.
Everyone seemed to be pretty tired, i guess the jet lag was kicking in, but we decided to take a walk up the strip and check out everything we could. There's no roads here it's just one long sand walking path along the ocean filled with trendy on-beach restaurants, shops and cafes. There's also street vendors selling anything from food to jewellery to massages. We decided to eat and we picked a Hawaiian BBQ place. We found a table on beach and shared multiple plates of anything that can be BBQ'd. We had to call it a night.
Second day started at 7am, as Melissa and I grabbed breakfast at the hotel. We set out to get massages to start the day proper. We found one on the beach and splurged for the 1 hour full body massage. This cost us 700 pesos ($18) for both of us! After that we went into the market grabbed some iced coffees, and explored the markets. I got flip-flops for 200 pesos ($5) and Melissa got a beach dress to wear later for our New Years party. We met up with Mike, Priscilla and Dave and we sat down for another BBQ lunch (are you seeing the trend here?). We were going to eat at the Hobbit House but felt it was just wrong.... let me explain, it's loosely based on The Lord of the Rings, and from what we could tell the only employment requirement was that you had to be a little person... seriously.
Lunch was followed by an ocean swim and a powernap to recharge for the countdown. We all met up and decided on a beach buffet and bottomless margaritas for dinner, then we went back to the hotel to have a couple more drinks. We got to our 'White Party' (everyone had to wear white) at about 11:50pm. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 ... HAPPY NEW YEAR!! fireworks went off down the whole stretch of Boracay and horns were blowing for good hour after the new year had officially started. Needless to say, our drinking saw no limit and the street side bbq stands for were never to far out of reach. I grabbed a couple of glow sticks from a young entrepreneur and somehow these got labeled as 'Weng-Wengs'. A weng-weng is a local drink which consists of about 16 different shots of alcohol with a touch of orange-pineapple just to make it edible. Anyways, you can probably see the connection between the term Weng-weng and an 8 inch glow stick, so I won't go into any explicit details. We ended the night with pork bbq sticks and mango shakes.
This morning was not pleasant, but I think I'm on the road to recovery.
Happy New Year!
Kev
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