So I haven't posted a Korea update in a while, so I'll start with a quick summary of the past few weeks:
-ate more Galbi (Korean BBQ)
-had some Crab
-went to Lotte World, which is like Korean disneyland, but smaller.
-went to work
-watched the grinch stole christmas in class
-cleaned my house on Christmas Day
-put way to much stuff in a backpack that was too big for a 10 day trip
-flew to the Philippines
And perhaps that's where I'll start the real blog?
We arrived in Manila at about 12:30am Philippine time (1:30 am Korea Time) on what was my boxing day. I started my trip with a friend from the other Poly School in Ilsan. As we disboarded the plane, we were struck by the heat and humidity. I was instantly reminded of Ghana.
Now I should say, that a few years ago my family went to Mexico for Christmas. Though it was warm in december, I wouldn't qualify it as hot. It was still, wear a sweater at night kindof temperature.
Here, it's the opposite. Well, not really the opposite. Just Really Hot. All the time.
Anyways, as we took our cab to the hostel, we drove past crowds of people milling about on the streets. Manila is a big city, but unlike Korea, there are a lot of small single family dwellings. However, Like Ghana there are a lot of little stores everywhere, and on this Christmas night/early morning, many people sitting on plastic lawn chairs on the edge of the streets. At the hostel I checked in, emailed my parents (Christmas morning still in Canada) and went to bed. As we got off the plane I had heard some girls arguing about whether or not to go out after arrival. And in fact, in the Hostel some random guy did wake me up by saying "American Girl, why are you in Bed" but as I explained to him, before he realized I wasn't the girl who he'd hanging out with earlier in the evening, it was now 2 am in Korea and I was tired.
Anyways, I woke up quite early the next moring, and spend some time repacking my backpack. Yep, still had too much stuff. Eventually my friend woke up and we took off to explore Manila for a bit. We had brunch at a Cafe that might have been bohemian in 1979, when it first opened, but was now a bit overpriced and slightly pretentious. After my Eggs Benedict (which I did enjoy) we caught a Cab to a bus station where my friend would get his ticket in the opposite direction as myself. The Cab driver definately ripped us off, but at that point I didn't know what standard was. And it was my fault for not having him run the meter from the start.
We caught a different (and much cheaper) cab back to downtown Manila, and found ourselves at 'Intramurous' and St. Francesco? Fort. It's a beautiful clash of modern landscaping, with palm trees, green green grass and pretty water fountains; and a 16th century spanish fort. We wandered a bit, looking at some canons, and checked out the Rizal Museum. Rizal was a Philippino hero (in fact, today is actually the philippino national holiday "Rizal Day" who died as a martyr seeking independence for his country. So he was kindof a big deal. At the end of the museum there was a man with a guest book: the catch being the final column of the guest book was titled: Donation. I made my obligatory money drop and continued on my way. I think I`ve figured out the Philippean Peso, but I`m not sure yet. About 43 pesos = 1 USD = 45000 KRW. This is kindof confusing, because everyonce in a while I think in Korean Won and think it`s okay to drop a few hundreds down, but then I remember that 200 pesos = 5 dollars, and my mind just can`t make that adjustment between 700 pesos being 15$, or 700 KRW being 75 cents.
Anyways, after the Fort we walked for a while until I got to a bank, then we kept walking, found the bay (no beach here) got a little lost, found our Hostel and I departed for the bus to my next destination. This turned out to be much more of a journey than I thought it was going to be. PS. Journey was totally a vocabulary word I was teaching my kids this week. But, after a crazy taxi ride through some heavy traffic, a long line up at a crowded bus station, and having some guys get mad at me because I didn`t tip them for letting them move my Bag 3 feet; I was on a bus. The bus, of course, was also stuck in the same traffic my taxi driver had succumbed to, and it seemed to take several hours to leave the city (also like Ghana!). Eventually I got dropped off in Lian, where I got in one of those motorcycle side car things and was taken out to the random beach resort I`d found online.
When I finally arrived I was late and a little stressed out from my journey, however, the resort owners treated me as though we were old friends. The resort has maybe 20 units, and most of the others here are either philippino families, white men with their philippino families, or older british folk who might be friends witht he Owner.
I was offered a choice of rooms, and am happy to report that I`m enjoying the pool, hot tub, and beach.
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