Tales from the M-Gok

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!