Phil 'er up

Our trip to The Philippines was broken into three parts:  beach, jungle, and city.  

Beach

If you know me (which let's face it, if you are reading this you definitely do) you probably know that I don't like the beach.  The sun punishes me, I can't open my eyes underwater, and all that sand...I found Bill Hicks said it best:  "What's the big deal; it's where DIRT MEETS WATER."  

That being said, this was probably my best beach experience ever.  Even a sourpuss like me had a hard time being negative about this gorgeous beach.  We went to a small island off the north coast of Cebu.  Bantayan is an isolated little place, full of quaint resorts and fishermen.

These kids were trying to sail away in an old refrigerator.  They were having a blast.

The eeriest thing we saw were these fishermen.  They'd zoom past during most of the day, their heads fully covered straight terrorist style.  It was really difficult to look at them.

There aren't any taxis on the island, and the easiest way to get around is on these little tricycles.  The driver will take you around for little to no money, peddling as hard as he can.  It's a cutthroat business, when leaving our hotel it was brutal trying to be fair and choose the "first" one.  I love how the sidecar is heavily utilized in the Philippines.

 Jungle

From Bantayan we went to another part of Cebu, a much larger island named Bohol.  This island hosts The Chocolate Hills, a really strange natural mass of hills created by the ocean receding.  The hills were dense coral, and the water just went down around them.  We'd never seen anything quite like it.

We also saw Tarsiers.  I challenge anyone to find a cuter animal.  This is the smallest primate in the world.  They eat bugs at night and sleep all day.  Their eyes are about he size of a nickel, and their bodies are smaller than your fist.  We saw them at a sanctuary.  They're an endangered species (surprise!).

We ziplined across a breathtaking river.  It was actually quite relaxing.

Our hotel in Bohol had a giant pet albino python.  The owner told me they would feed him while we were there.  He went to the market, bought a live chicken, and threw it to the snake.  The snake was pretty hungry, I'd say he wrapped that bird up in less than a second.  It took him an hour to eat him.  It was pretty fascinating to watch.

Our hotel was on the river.  And when I say hotel, I really mean bungalow with a hose for a shower and a toilet that doesn't flush.  Still, with views like this it's worth it, right?

City

The Philippines has the highest Christian population of any southeast Asian country.  I attribute this to Spain and the US, both of which occupied the country for a time, introducing it.  Below is a motorized trike.  They litter the streets, and each have a different religious quote on back of them.  This one says "God is Love."

Each city has it's own "Fiesta," a party for different Saints.  We were in Tagbilaran for Fiesta, which wasn't exactly the party I was anticipating.  It consisted of a few boring bands and a ton of people selling used clothes.

One of my regrets from the trip is that I didn't get a great picture of a jeepney.  This is their version of mass transportation.  These buses are open air and incredibly ornate.  They are always packed to the gills.  The one we rode in had 33 people inside, with more hanging off the back.  An hour ride costs about $2.

Electioneering

A few weeks ago elections for each district (the same as counties) were held.  We started seeing people in sashes walking around promoting their candidate.  Each candidate is assigned a number (1-6) so that it's easier for people to choose the candidate on the ballot.  Also, cheering "1" over and over is way easier than "Park Ji Hyun."  In the US I guess the "6" candidate would have to think of something else as chanting "6, 6, 6!" would catch some flack from the religious right.

The people holding the yellow signs are waiting at the opposite side of the crosswalk.  Once you're allowed to cross, the whole row would simultaneously bow to you, and then you had to find your way around them.  The sign gives the county (Seongseo-gu) and the candidate's name (Chung Sin Sul).

The coolest part of this campaigning was that they had dancing middle aged ladies being carted around in the back of trucks, blasting a loud speaker with the candidate's (theme?) song.  Within 2 weeks of the elections the streets were littered with these things.

Each candidate had an impressive amount of volunteers, ready to dance and cheer for hours on end for their candidate.

                                      

Outside of our school there's a very popular outdoor market that shows up every Monday.  Because of the  massive foot traffic, each candidate wheeled their trucks and volunteers to the entrance of the market and queued up there to get some exposure.  It wasn't very organized.  Often there were two trucks playing their songs simultaneously, right next to each other.  Their attempt to drown out the other candidate made for some serious noise pollution.  This carried on until the sun went down.

I guess the strangest part of all of this was this one truck that had people dressed up as animals.  It's very probable that these characters relate to some Korean traditional story, or that the animals represent things like virtue or power.  However, if this were the case it was all lost on me.  All I saw was a few 

creepy adults dressed in costumes.

P.S.  The next president of Korea will most likely be a woman.

Pow uh

English is power here. We're able to come here and work because of this simple fact. Students marvel at our ability to speak. They desire it. Their place in life here depends very much on how well they'll test in English. Even though most of our students can't speak it, they certainly know it.

Businesses write their signs in English, even though most don't read it when it's on a storefront. The business uses english to show they are progressive and sophisticated. Nearly every business does this here. The biggest businesses use english almost exclusively on their signs, even though it's wasted on 99% of the public.

Everybody wears shirts in english. It doesn't matter what it says, it doesn't matter if it's grammatically correct, it doesn't matter if it's nonsensical. Most students, if you ask them what their shirt says, they have no idea. They haven't even bothered to read it. That's because what it says isn't the point; the point is it isn't in Korean.

We get special treatment because we speak english. We aren't expected to know Korean, in fact it's usually the other way around. I had to return something to a grocery store a few months ago, and I went with a Korean friend. They said that usually they don't allow returns, but because she was with me that they would do it.

Walking down the street, children will yell "Hello, nice to meet you, I'm fine and you!!!" Like I said, they know english but they can't speak it. It's so strange having this power that I was born with, yet it's so coveted. Sometimes we feel like superheros that have a really lame power.

Taiwan Time

Taiwan was more than we expected. More beautiful, more industrialized, more unique, more expensive, and more difficult. The country is only a third the size of South Korea, but still managed to seem fairly big to us. We stayed on the east coast, dividing our time between Taipei, a remote island, and a truly spectacular gorge.

Green Island is a tiny little thing, a 10 minute plane ride from Taitung. We ventured there for two reasons--the island maintains some very authentic aspects of Taiwanese culture, and we'd never been to an island together before (save Jamaica). We had the island to ourselves, as the peak season was months ago. The weather was hit or miss, but we managed to get a few beautiful days out of it. We rented a scooter and putted along the only road on the island, stopping to hike into caves, find spiders as big as our hands, and watch beautiful sunsets. You can traverse the island on scooter in 30 minutes. The tourist center also had battery powered bicycles, which we used as well. One of the main draws to the island is that it boasts one of only 3 salt water hot springs in the world. Again, because tourist season was over, we were literally there with 4 other people.

Getting off the island proved difficult...there are only four 19 person flights a day, and ours was cancelled. We were forced to get on the ferry, which we'd heard was a harrowing, sickening experience. The waters between Taitung and Green Island are not kind. Fortunately, we made it without vomiting, apparently an amazing feat.

From there we went to Taroko Gorge, a really amazing crevice in Taiwan's topography. You could compare it to the grand canyon, although this one is narrower and greener. The water flowing through it is an amazing aquamarine color...it doesn't look real. I've found that beauty like this is almost impossible to capture through pictures, so much so that I saw pictures of this place before we went and almost decided to skip it. I'm so glad we changed our minds.

This was a large pagoda that we could go inside of, on the side of a mountain.

I found this vixen in a natural hot spring, right next to the ice cold mountain stream. The water was almost too hot to get into.

After our time at the gorge, we traveled up to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Being that Taiwan is very close to Hong Kong, the city felt like it in many ways. Very efficient subway, large bustling streets, and plenty of neon. What we enjoyed the most there were the night markets. Loads of outdoor shopping, arcades, and carnival type games were all around. The food was of particular interest, and it was as varied as it was amazing. Fresh fruit smoothies, shrimp hibachi, giant oyster omelets, and stinky tofu.

Beth's favorite food, however, was the giant, pounded, deep-fried chicken breast. They flatten these things so their nearly the size of your head. The line was long, so we knew it must be something special.