Last day of the trip :( :) :(

Being in Taipei for only 24 hours was...unfortunately short. It felt like there was way more stuff to do here than in Singapore but we were only in Taipei because of the layover going home.

We were able to make it to the hot springs this morning at Xin Bei Tou. On our walk up to the public hot springs we ran into a few guys going to the same place from Toronto. The management made us wait until the next group time and then it started raining.

This place was really nice and only cost about $1.50 US to get in and it was full of old Chinese people. I think we were the youngest people in the hot springs. So how it works is that the top pool is the hottest, about 108f and then the lower pools are cooler. The rain was actually really nice because the water was so hot, when you would get out of the water steam would actually come off your body.

We headed back to the hostel and I needed to get my regular Asian haircut which I do on every trip. I paid less than $20 and got a head and shoulder massage before the haircut. Unfortunately it took longer than I anticipated and we had to catch a cab to the airport instead of the bus which is a huge cost difference $30 for the cab vs $8 for the bus.

I will definitely be making another trip to Taipei. I was forced back into using my very rusty Mandarin but according to the old lady that was sitting next to me in the hot springs, I can still communicate.

I guess this will be my signoff for this trip. As of right now I'm sitting at 1700 page views over the 3 weeks that I updated my blog. I bought a Fitbit before the trip and throughout the 19 days we walked a total of 90.5 miles, averaging 4.75 miles a day, the most we walked in a day was 12.87 miles in Singapore. Pretty neat data.

Thanks everyone for the support and prayers during our trip. I had a blast keeping you updated on all the places we got to experience and I'm already planning on where to go next time.
I'm glad that we were able to check out so many different locations, therefore I don't have an exact favorite place on the trip. We were able to make a ton of new friends which was the best part and I took almost 900 pictures in total.

Thanks for following along, I hope to keep you updated on the next journey back to Asia! Now it's time to get back to real life.
-Andrew

Jump jump jump around

I haven't blogged the past few days just because we've been jumping from place to place (hence the related title). Over 4 days we'll be going from Singapore > Manila > Taipei > Minneapolis.
Spent most of the morning yesterday getting from Singapore to Manila. We didn't really have any plans last night but to either go to a cock fight or midget boxing. The hostel said cock fights aren't safe at night so we opted for the latter. We're not allowed to take pictures inside the bar so I just did a quick google search and found a picture taken from someone else. Besides the midget boxing, they also had lady boy boxing...yah it's exactly what you think it is.

We spent most of the day today getting to Taipei, didn't arrive to the hostel until 9pm. We're really happy with the hostel, it's really comfortable and clean. Since we only have about 22 hours in the city, we rushed over to Shilin night market. It really reminds me of Meyongdong in Seoul. Basically a lot of clothing and food shops spread over a few blocks.
Unfortunately, we didn't get into Shilin until about 10:30 so a lot of places were starting to close up but we managed to get a few snacks.

And what's a trip to Taipei without bubble tea? This big cup was $1 US.

I didn't know that you can't drink or eat on the subway. We were about halfway up the escalator when a security guard just books it up the escalator, I joke that he's coming after me because I took an accidental sip and he really did yell at me for drinking in the subway..oops, I'm sure if this were Singapore I would have gotten caned

Tomorrow we're going to try to make it out to the hot springs near the city before we have to pack up and start the long journey home. Trip is almost over and we're sad :(

Laid back day

Today was a pretty laid back day. Since we're going back to Manila tomorrow we figured we'd lay low and try to spend the least amount of money as possible. Christopher flew into Singapore on his way to...somewhere, Bali? so he had a half day layover here in town which was great because it was just another opportunity to hang out.

Most of the day was wandering more malls and finding things to eat. This old man sold literal ice cream sandwiches. He sliced blocks of ice cream and put them between bread. It was pretty good, not great.

For dinner we thought about getting siu long bao (pork dumplings) again but everywhere we went it was basically a dollar per dumpling. I did a google search and found another person's blog that found a good place in chinatown that sold them for half price.

I got an order of the steamed pork bao dumplings and the pan fried pork and leek dumplings.  We were really glad we found it easily and had our fill of dumplings

We're just going to lay low tonight because everything is pretty pricey to do in the city and we're heading back to Manila in the morning.

Here a mall, there a mall, everywhere a mall mall

I didn't post anything yesterday just because all we did was pretty much wander malls. I think between the 3 days we've been here, we've gone to at least 15 different malls in Singapore.

Yesterday we finally found the anime store we were looking for, actually there were 4 all on the same floor of the Funan Digital Life Mall. There was a ton to look at and in typical Japanese fashion, all the cool stuff was very expensive.

Alex and I had a very romantic moonlit evening walking through the Gardens by the Bay last night. Great place to take a date. There was a section called the Super Tree Grove which were HUGE pillars compiled of many plants put together with lights. Every half hour there was a concert and the lights would change according to the music.

Afterwards we went to the 9:30 showing of the watershow at the Marina Bay Sands. I didn't really bother to take pictures or video myself because I knew I'd be able to find a better quality video on youtube to share. Click on the link below and jump around. The show was a really incredible way of using water, fire, lasers, and video projection.

My wallet hurts in Singapore

I learned one travel lesson, it's just easier to plan everything ahead of time. I booked the Matchbox hostel back in February along with the rest of my reservations but I only booked one night as everything I found in Singapore was pricier than the other places we've stayed at. So I figured once we got here I could shop around or we could extend our stay. Yah big mistake, now we have to move hostels today because Matchbox is full and it's going to cost more. On the brightside, since they confused our reservation, we got our first night free.

I would say yesterday was QUITE an adventure for us. Also another day of firsts for Alex. Our hostel is only a 3 minute walk from Chinatown so we started there first. Lots of familiar sights and sounds from what I'm used to seeing in Shanghai. I do have to agree with everyone that's been to Singapore, it is very very clean here and people don't push each other around like in China.

We grabbed some pork soup dumplings (siu long bao) at Din Tai Fung, they were really good and full of soupy goodness, I burned my mouth because I was so excited to bite into my first one in a long time.

One very impressive thing about Singapore is its subway systems. They have a 3 day unlimited tourist card for $20 to use on the subway. It was Alex's first time riding a subway, I was amused that he would randomly say during the day "The subway is SO convenient!" Here's him looking excited for his first ride :/

After lunch we took the subway to the bay front and checked out one of Singapore's many shopping malls. This one was the Marina Bay. This was a huge mall with shops that I would never go into like Prada, LV, or any fancy store you can think.

There was a casino in the mall and we wandered in. What I found interesting is that if you're a foreigner it's free to walk in but if you live in Singapore, you have to pay about $100 USD to get into the casino, basically in this case, the house for sure will win. We left with a net balance of zero so I think we ended up better than most leaving the casino

One thing Alex wanted to do while we're in Asia was check out an actual anime store. I looked up a few on my phone and we were off to find one. We literally crossed the island twice looking for two stores. Spent 4 hours looking for the locations I found on my phone and the stores moved. At the end of the day we were pretty disappointed but determined to eventually find an anime store so the search continues.

The thing on the top of my list was to eat at Hai Di Lao a hot pot chain that I blogged about last year when I went to Shanghai.

Quick rundown why I like it here so much. We arrived and had to wait about 45 min for a table, they served us ice tea, fruit, cheesy popcorn and banana chips. Ladies can also get their nails done, all for free.

They gave me an ipad to order off of when we were seated. I ordered beef balls, shrimp paste, golden mushrooms, beef slices, tofu, veggies, and hand pulled noodles. Also I got the split broth of Ma La for Alex (he wasn't really a fan of it) and a tomato base which was really tasty.

What Hai Di Lao is well known for is their noodle dance, they hand pull noodles for you and dance around with them. The guy in Shanghai was a bit more enthusiastic than the one we had last night though.

At the end of the meal you can finish things off with more free fruit (watermelon, oranges, and longan) and almond pudding. Also, you can have the pleasure of using one of these future toilets to *ahem* end your meal

Overall we had a really long day, my fitbit said we walked almost 13 miles in total. I'm looking forward to seeing what food we end up eating the rest of the time we're here.

Breaking the law

Apparently Singapore has some really strict laws like it's illegal to litter and you'll get fined heavily and/or caned in public...I decided to become a criminal today

It's been a long day, my fitbit told me we walked almost 13 miles. I'll do an actual post tomorrow morning. Good night.

Looong Travel Day

I'll just do a really quick post to update you on what's been going on.
We left Coral Bay at 9am this morning, the boat ride took an hour to get to shore and then we had another hour and a half bus ride to get to Coron Town. When we got there it was noon and they told us to come back at 2 to take us to the airport. We got to the airport and flew out at 5 and arrived in Manila, flew out of Manila at 8 and arrived in Singapore at 1am.

I booked the hostel for 5/14 putting in a note that we're arriving after 1am and when we arrived at 2am nobody was around. I rung the doorbell and one of the guests opened the door and let us in. I called the hostel number and the girl that answered said that since the reservation was past midnight, technically check in is at 3pm? Anyway, she invited us to crash on their futons in the common room until someone came in at 9am in the morning to straighten things out.

It's 3am, I've had a really long day, so goodnight

Fully Certified and Shipwreck Diving

Sorry about the radio silence everyone. We didn't have a solid internet connection all day yesterday and most of today. I just checked my stats and I've gotten past 1,000 hits, thanks everyone for following along with my blog. I hope you've been enjoying it so far ^_^ . Also, happy Mother's Day Mom, love you.

Today was our shipwreck diving excursion. We got on the boat at 8am and headed out. I have to say that I've always had awesome boat drivers during all my travels.

We visited two Japanese WWII ships today that were sunk by the US in 1944. 'MERICA!

Also we had another coral reef dive as well. You can check out the diagrams of the ships below

Both were equally awesome, and huge. Once we arrived on site, there was a black buoy that our boat would latch on to, we'd jump into the water wearing our scuba gear and basically pull ourselves down to the ship below. It's seriously freaky how deep the ocean can get. You can't see the bottom and when you get low enough, you really can't see where the water ends above you.

I think the maximum  depth that we reached was about 18 meters and there were just fish everywhere just like in the reefs. It's pretty cool how the coral has overtaken the hull of both of the ships that it's just become a new home for all these fish. 

I think each dive averaged about 45 minutes each and the time really rushed by. I don't think there's any other way to describe scuba diving other than flying. Once you manage your buoyancy, you're effortlessly floating about these fish and coral going along with the current, a very addictive feeling which I must feed in the near future with more diving trips. 

So we did one shipwreck and then one coral reef dive which marked Alex and my official completion of our recreational diving certification. Woot! Now that we were officially completed with our training, Phillip took us through the body of the 2nd ship. It was crazy how dark and deep it was. There really weren't any fish inside that I could see either.

I'm really glad I was able to do my open water dives in the Phillippines, doing it in Lake Calhoun just wouldn't measure up if I were to do it back home. Phillip was an awesome instructor and I would love to come back here to dive again.

Tomorrow is the day we head out to Singapore. We have to take the ferry out to Coron Town at 9am, fly to Manila at 4:30, fly to Singapore at 8:30 and arrive at midnight. So it's going to be a long day of travel.

I hope people have enjoyed the diving pictures so far, they just aren't the same thing as actually being there. I'll see if we have any faster internet at the next place for me to post a few videos of us diving.

Another great day in paradise

For whatever reason, I woke up at 5:30 just to see the sun rise. I was awake already so I figured I'd take some nice pics of the island while the sun was coming up. The internet here gets me hopeful, a webpage will half load and then the router will crap out leading me to mash the F5 key more than I have to. Phillip jokes that the wind isn't good enough today to bring the internet signal to the island.

Alex and I were told to meet Phillip in the dive shop at 8am to get started bright and early. The plan was to check out the nearest shipwreck in the bay. When we got there, I was suprised by a huge school of jackfish, just hundreds of them swimming by.

After that dive, Alex and Phillip did their certification lessons and messed around too.

I had a huge lunch and took a nap promptly afterwards because why not? At 3:30 it was time for Alex to continue his diving lessons and I jumped in and did some snorkeling. It's really unbelievable how shallow the reef is here, I stood up and the water was only up to my knees. I was happy to see a clownfish in it's natural habitat. Just like in the movie!

Tomorrow I think we'll have to take a boat to the shipwreck area we'll be doing 3 dives at. It'll be a full day thing from 8am to 3 which should be fun. I asked Alex if he missed being at work and he responded with an immediate "NOPE!". MAN I am really enjoying this leg of the trip, it's just so ridiculously peaceful here.

First day of diving

Ahh, last night I got the first full uninterrupted night’s sleep since we arrived in Asia. No stupid chickens crowing at 3am and the room doesn’t have AC so don’t have to worry about noise which has its good and bad side.

I’m really in love with this place. There are a total of 6 guests on the entire island and it’s absolutely relaxing and quiet. One of my favorite things to do so far is sit in the restaurant at night and watch the gekos hang on the lanterns to chase down bugs.

I woke up at 7, had breakfast, and met our diving instructor Phillip who moved from Poland 5 years ago to be a diving instructor, at the dive shop at 9am. Alex didn’t do any scuba education before we came but he was invited to join us anyway, in the end he decided to get certified here because of how much fun it looked. I had a lot of issues with my mask leaking water, I had it too tight and too high up on my face so I was concentrated more on getting that resolved under the water than everything else that was going on :/

I’m really glad I chose Coral bay to do my open water certification. Phillip was very patient and a good teacher. They have their own private coral reef that is just exploding with life. I’m frustrated I don’t have good internet speed here to share all the great footage and pictures I took while underwater. I was told that the owner of the resort has made the reef a sanctuary and it’s not allowed to go fishing in the waters therefore there are a ton of different fish and they are not afraid of people. Some even approach you under water.

We wrapped up an hour dive in the morning and Alex spent the rest of the day doing his video and textbook courses to get officially certified. I couldn’t get enough of the marine life so I went snorkeling in the afternoon. I saw sea urchins, an eel, a sea turtle, lion fish, clown fish, and a bunch of other fish I’ve never seen before.

Tomorrow we’ll do another dive in the coral reef and the day after we’ll do 2 dives in the shipwreck area. I’m really excited to continue diving, it’s just such a different experience that I would recommend to everyone.

Guest Post by Chris Brady

My new friend posted a blog post about his experience in Boracay and he mentioned me in it, I thought it was really cool how our random encounter made such a huge impact on his life.

Labour day weekend in Boracay. Perhaps the craziest party the Philippines has to offer. They even flew in famous American DJs for the event.

After the first weekend there, I'd already strayed from the path. Much further than I'd ever imagine I'd go.

I met a friend who stayed in our hostel. We spent a day on the beach together and really got to know one another.

He seemed to have everything I ever wanted. Good job, outlandish hobbies, frequent traveller, gym rat, super hot Asian girlfriend, nerdy interests and a healthy Christian life.

The 18 hour journey to Shipalay was arduous and consisted of a tricycle, ferry, bus, trike, ferry, trike, bus, trike.

On the long journey l had plenty of time to reflect on the past couple of days, my journey and my life. Before I left Hong Kong, the pastor advised me to make a list of everything I liked about my life, everything I disliked and what I wanted my life to look like when I returned. Before, I had only completed the two lists, which unfortunately were bottom heavy.

I realized that on the beach, Andrew had shown me exactly what I wanted and It was all covered in God.

Seemingly on queue, the old lady behind me in the back row burst into a song of worship. It's funny how worship songs have such a profound emotional affect on me.

On the bus, in the middle of nowhere at 11pm in the Philippines the lady sang in perfect English 'How i want to jump for joy and sing his praises'

My eyes filled with years and I began to weep.

Even on this amazing journey of discovery and adventure I had never recalled a time when I had jumped for joy. I realized it was not true happiness I had been experiencing.

I felt the profound urge to turn from my life of emptiness and on toward the life I wanted so dearly

I find that no matter how far I stray, he always finds me to pull me back.

Full Travel Day

Travel today was crazy. Checked out of our hostel at 8am and this was our vehicles of transportation: Tricycle, boat, tricycle, plane to manila, plane to Boracay delayed for 3 hours, bus, bus, boat.

We’re staying at coral bay resort which is on its own private island and we had to be at the main town by 4pm to take the ferry to Popototan island. We didn’t take off from Manila until 3pm and arrived at the airport at 4:30 so we were SOL. I was really worried we wouldn’t have any way to get to the resort but when we walked out of the airport, there was a guy with a sign with my name on it. I felt very important.

We got on a bus and drove for about 15 minutes. There was a group of people on the bus that I was having a good conversation with when the bus pulled to the side of the road and told Alex and me to get off because we were parting ways.

The landscape on Busuanga is really beautiful just tons of rolling hills which looked even better in the setting sun. The roads were half paved and half rocky dusty road which were in the process of being paved. Some bridges were just wooden planks that we had to drive over.

The driver pulled up to a river and told us to get out. I felt like this was out of Rambo or something because a few minutes later, a guy drove up in a speedboat to take us to the island.

At this point, I’m actually glad that we were delayed because we watched the sun set behind the islands, it was breathtaking.

The bouys you see in the water are pearl farms. There were tons along the water while we drove the half hour to Popototan Island.

About 15 min into driving in the boat, the driver said something’s wrong and had to take the cover off the motor. I was a little nervous that we might have to row the rest of the way but he was able to fix the issue.

We got to the island and I couldn’t help but be SO excited for this leg of the trip. The environment is completely the opposite of Boracay. I think there are only 8 guests staying here including us so it’s going to be a very quiet few days. Unfortunately the internet is absolutely slow here and it’s frustrating just to load one picture, so the blog posts for the next couple days will be pretty light on the pictures.

I have my open water certification for diving scheduled for tomorrow at 9am and I can’t wait to get started.

Last day in Boracay

I'm disappointed I finally broke my streak of not getting sick from eating street food yesterday. I ordered a fried rice and pork sausage which is very similar to vietnamese nem nong. The meat was squishy and I stopped eating it halfway. Also the stall gave me a cup of water, i took a gulp out of habit and then realized what I did. I asked the girl where the water came from and she said "service water" which probably meant tap water. I'm glad I got prescribed cyproheptadine before I left. Took some this morning and I think I'm all good now.

I was sitting in the common area tonight and a girl I've had a few conversations with and have seen around the island asked if I wanted to go to the fish market with some friends of hers. Now knowing not to turn down an opportunity to go to a fish market I agreed.

We got there close to closing time so not too much to see but I didn't realize how many people were going to be in the group.

I didn't manage to learn everyone's names but I can list off where they were from (from left to right): London, Turkey, London, Vancouver, Vancouver, Manila, Me, Sweden, and Sweden.
It was pretty cool meeting such a big group of people. I felt a little intimidated at how much traveling they had under their belt. The guy from London has been traveling for 18 months straight! So crazy.

I was basically along for the ride on this one. The two main dishes they ordered was prawns in garlic butter and lime and crabs in a sweet chili sauce.