Puka Beach Time

Overall, today was another do nothing day for the most part. One of the guys in our group suggested checking out another beach called Puka Beach on another part of Boracay Island.

There aren't actual taxis on this island,  you either jump on a motorbike or you take the tricycles which is a motorbike with a side car attached. The 5 of us squished onto a tricycle with me riding behind the driver

We got to the beach within 15 minutes and I have to say that it was exactly what I wanted. There were barely any people, it was not commercialized at all like the beach that was by our hostel and the view was beautiful because we just got there a few minutes before sun set.

My cuts have healed a bit so I decided to just jump in the water , it was really  nice and all of us enjoyed ourselves. I'm really glad we came here because I was feeling a little overwhelmed by how touristy Boracay was so it was nice to just get out of the crowds and watch the sun set.

Kelvin, Daniel, and Christopher are leaving tomorrow to new places so I'm kind of bummed that our new travel group is splitting up but I'm hopeful that we can all keep in touch and maybe travel the next time I'm back in Asia. I just meet the coolest people on these trips, it's great!

Sidenote: I'm really glad the guy I asked to take this picture knew what he was doing because anything could have made this really nice scene not turn out. Asking a stranger to take a picture with an SLR is one of the drawbacks of owning one I guess lol

The first of many coconuts

Yesterday was just a super chill day, this is basically what we did:

Eat
Lay on beach
Find place to eat
Lay on beach
Find place to eat
Find place to eat immediately after

One thing that annoys my American upringing is that portion sizes here are tiny to what I would prefer. For those who know me well know that I can really pack down food and pretty much after every meal here so far I haven't felt hungry but I could probably eat 3 more of what I just had.

I've had some really awesome conversations with people on my trip so far which is always one of my biggest highlights of going on trips like this. I was talking to two people at breakfast yesterday, a girl from Holland and a guy from Germany. Both have been traveling for over 7 months. When they asked me how long I'll be traveling for, I told them that I only get 10 vacation days and their mouths dropped because they're used to 30 vacation days minimum.
One guy from Toronto quit his job and has been traveling South east asia for a year and a half. Although I'm not as carefree as these people, I am VERY envious of their travel experience and ability to live that out.

I haven't journeyed out to the non touristy parts of the island yet, there is only one main road and it's about the width of one single lane but it has to accommodate two lanes of traffic so just taking a motorbike taxi is just not worth it.

One thing that I do a lot of is eat young coconuts. Most places were charging about $3 per coconut with is way overpriced. My new friend Christopher (I wanted to be his friend because he had an awesome Bri-ish accent) and I stumbled upon a rickety fruit stand selling coconuts for .90 cents. The lady cut mine first, I chugged the thing so she could cut it in half so I could get into the meaty goodness, she even gave me an awesome scraping spoon too.

There's this REALLY pregnant cat that wanders around the hostel meowing really loudly. I'm just watching her go from person to person begging for food. I've affectionately named her Preggers.

Also another random note, I haven't heard a single second of non western music. Just sitting here typing my blog post I've heard the hostel play a lot of Jack Johnson songs which makes the environment very fitting to the music as well as some of your favorite hits such as:
My heart will go on
I will always love you
I want it that way
Tearing up my heart
Never gonna dance again

I have no idea what we have planned...I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE IIIISSSSS, I WANT YOU TO SHOW MEEEE (sorry got caught up in the light 80's rock mix they're playing) today which might be a good thing. I'm starting to lose track of what day it is in the week which probably means I've fully transitioned into vacation mode ^_^

How today went

Just laid on the beach drinking mango juice, yup that's about it. After a half day of travel yesterday and 3 full days of activities and walking 21 miles we decided to do nothing, and it was glorious.

Losing my sh*t in more ways than one

Today was another busy day. We left Our Melting pot at 9:30 to head to the airport to go to Boracay. Waited in line for over an hour to check our baggage, I ended up having to pay an extra $40 USD for my oversize luggage because they only allow a max of 22lbs per bag.

I honestly felt like one of many in a giant heard of cattle from the beginning to the end of our journey to the island of Boracay. The moment you get off the plane they rush you into a motorbike or taxi to take you 3 minutes away to the ferry. You have to go to several ticket booths that are right next to each other to buy a boat ticket, pay the environmental fee, and pay the boat terminal fee. I'm not really sure why they don't cover the entire cost right off the bat. After you buy your tickets, they rush you through security, make you show your tickets multiple times in different orders, and then you get crammed onto a boat.

My jaw seriously dropped at how beautiful this place was. The water was crystal clear, not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was about 90f.
In 2012 the island was named World's #1 island to visit. Given scenery like this I can't argue that point.

We checked into the Frendz Resort and I was very glad I booked the reservation back in Feb as we got the last room with AC. We got to the room and apparently they only have a room with a single queen size bed. Which means that Alex and I will be getting to know each other better this week. We'll be taking turns spooning.

We went to one of the restaurants nearby to grab some much needed lunch. I noticed the guy sitting next to us speaking with an American accent. This is how that conversation went.

Me: Hey I noticed you had an American accent, what part of the states are you from?

Guy: I'm originally from Minnesota, how about you?

Me: NO WAY we're from Minnesota, what part?

Guy: St. Louis Park

Me: Small world, so are we, what part of SLP?

Guy: Near Hwy 100 and Minnetonka Blvd

This totally blew my mind that this guy used to live just a few miles from where we live. His name was Daniel and has since moved to Arizona a few years back to get away from the cold, given this winter it is totally understandable as to why.He invited us to join him and 3 other guys to go cliff diving later in the afternoon. Alex and I hadn't determined our itinerary yet so we said yes.

Pictured from right to left, Evan is from Maine, Bobby is from Boston, they both are doing a study abroad program at Fudan University in Shanghai and decided to skip school for a few days to come out for a vacation. Christopher is from London and worked out of Hong Kong for a while after living in Toronto for 2 years. Daniel from MN lives in Arizona now and is on a sabbatical from work since October and has been in Asia traveling alone.

The boat driver they hired took us about 20 min off the main island to Magic Island, a tiny piece of land apparently only used to jump from the rocks to the water below.

I brought my GoPro on the excursion and strapped it to my head using the headband accessory. I went 3rd off the highest jumping point because go big or go home right?

This was my point of view from the top. We estimated it was at least 25 ft drop into the water. The moment I started feeling hesitation, I decided to go for it and jump.

I hit the water and instantly got salt water in my nose and ears. Also I felt my go pro slip off my head. I frantically started trying to catch it and unfortunately it sunk. I shouldn't have freaked out the way that I did because I grabbed onto the cliff and cut my hands and feet on the very sharp rocks. I've got about 6 deep paper cuts that I've counted so far.

I almost accepted the inevitable,  that I lost my brand new camera. Luckly one of the people that run the park had a diving mask and dove down into the water and found the gopro almost immediately. Watching the footage later on, it looks like the water was at least 15 feet deep, impossible for me to be able to retrieve on my own. I was extremely thankful but had to call it a day after my first jump :(

Alex was brave enough to jump 3 times while we were there.

We got back to the main island and watched the sun set over the ocean horizon during the ride.

We all went out for dinner as a group and I just got a weird feeling about the environment. I'm not sure if I'm just crabby now because of the stress from the traveling and almost losing my camera and now my many small stinging cuts but I'm not sure if I'm a really big fan of Boracay. It's extremely beautiful but I feel like the island itself is just too crowded and commercialized for my taste. You could walk for half an hour and there would still be restaurants completely adjacent to each other. 

I'm doing the best to stay positive but I think I would prefer an island with similar scenery and less catering to the masses. 

On my walk back to our hostel I picked up band aids and antiseptic and on my way I was able to take a nice shot of the moon overlooking the water. 

I'm going to have to stay out of the water for the next few days as ocean water can cause infections in open cuts. I hope to go scuba diving on Friday so hopefully I can take care of myself well enough by then.

The lake within a volcano within another lake within a mountain within an island

So you know how I said the fish market yesterday rose the bar on this trip. Well today's trip totally rose the bar...again!
They let us know that a few more people decided to join our trek out to Taal Volcano, which was great because the overall cost went down significantly among the 5 of us. There was Alex and me. Josephine from Spain, Samuel from Switzerland, and Tomas from Czech Republic. In the picture below you can kind of see the volcano to the left of me.

I am so glad we had this great group of people to get to know and hear their travel stories. Josephine has been living in the Philippines for over a year and is planning on going to London next. Tomas and Samuel met each other in a MBA similar program in Singapore.

We took a private bus out of Manila to the volcano which took less than an hour and a half, I was really thankful that we went on Sunday morning as traffic was very clear.

Part of the ride was navigating some mountains and driving down to the lake area. I got a little car sick because I was sitting in the front trying to turn around to talk to everyone in the bus, eventually I gave up and had to look forward.

We got into a boat and our driver was super awesome looking basically what a hipster back home would try to emulate.

It was a 10 min boat ride to the volcano and according to my fitbit, we hiked 3 miles up to the top. We had the option of paying 500 pesos to ride a horse to the top but the guys decided not to which I feel was the right choice to make. It did get really dusty and although the path wasn't paved, I'm pretty sure it was almost 100% horse poop because it smelled like it the entire way up. 

I'm really glad I thought ahead and brought extra bottles of water today. Just on the climb up I drank about 2 liters of water which is crazy. Most of which I think ended up being sweat out of my skin.

The view was fantastic and the lake within the volcano was slightly green due to the acidity so it was very cool to see the green lake in the crater and the blue lake bordering the volcano on the outside.

After hanging out at the top for about 45 min, Samuel noticed a big wall of rain that pretty much appeared out of nowhere and was coming right at us. It started pouring huge globs of water almost right away, also the rain was hitting us hard and at an angle.

It was either try to find shelter along with this big tour group of old Korean people or just enjoy the experience as you can see in the youtube video I posted below:

Honestly, getting soaked in the rain made the experience a lot more fun. The rain got the dust out of the air and we weren't as hot anymore. We couldn't help but just laugh and enjoy the entire thing.

On the way down we noticed that there were hot spots on the ground that were giving off steam from the rain. Stupid me decided to stick my hand in one of the vents to find out if the hot air was hot...it was

We got back in the boat and it started pouring again so it took twice as long to get back to our starting point. It was already past 2pm and we were starving. Josephine could speak Filipino and got the driver to take us to a restaurant outside of town called Seafood Island.
I have to say that the experience was awesome. They brought us a big tray of seafood: grilled squid, steamed shrimp, raw marinated fish, roast pork, clams steamed in a coconut, fried talapia, roast chicken, crabs, and salty fish fried rice.

I thought it was odd that we didn't have silverware or plates and Josephine explained that it's traditional Filipino food where you ate with your hands and everyone shares the food in the middle of the table. I think total, all this food was $40 for all 5 of us. MAN it was delicious, probably because we hiked almost 7 miles today.

Nightime inactivity

After the fish market Alex and I went to check out some old colonial spanish buildings in Intramuros. Overall it was a pretty touristy part of the city, there was an old church, some very old buildings from the 1500s, and a Spanish defense fortress called Fort Santiago.

We ended up getting back to the hostel at 4:00 completely exhausted from walking all day. Alex decided to take a nap and I figured I might as well too, set an alarm for 1 hr and woke up at 10:30 - -'' 

Jet lag be a harsh mistress

I needed dinner so I ran across the road from the hostel to the street food area. I got some grilled chicken, a teriyaki pork skewer, and some pad thai all for $5

Alex decided to stay back and keep sleeping so I just sat back for a while and just people watched. I think just the relaxing part of the night tonight really got me into vacation mode which feels great. 

I am in trouble now because it's 2am, I had a 6 hr nap and I only need about 5 hrs a night to function. We got 3 more people to join the volcano tour for tomorrow morning so that should be a blast.

Fish Market Easily Raises the Bar for the Trip

Lots of pictures to share from today. We had an extremely busy day and it's only 4pm too! According to my fitbit, we've walked 9 miles so far since this morning and I've also been logging my water intake and I've had 2.5 liters of water to drink so far since it's about 92 degrees outside.

Ok so last night was really rough, I only got about 2 1/2 hrs of sleep due to jet lag and our air conditioning unit kept making loud noises every other second. So I was wide awake from 2am until I decided to get up around 6am. The hostel provided breakfast at 7 which was great and they suggested a few places to check out.

We started with a farmers market that was about a 10 minute walk from where we were staying, nothing really notable about it, a lot of halal meat, veggies, and some seafood. I felt guilty walking out empty handed so I bought a green tea popsicle.

After that we headed to the Dampa fish market. 

We got there around 9:30 and it was kind of empty after wandering around a bit so we decided to check out the Mall of Asia (MOA) which was about a mile down the road. Nothing really too special about this mall either, apparently it's the 11th largest shopping mall in the world whereas the Mall of America is ranked 20th at the moment.

Around lunchtime we decided to go back to Dampa and things got really crazy. The moment one person figured out we were looking at seafood to buy EVERYONE came at us basically like sharks.
Two guys put their arms around Alex and led him to their booth.

How this fish market works is that you pick whatever you want to buy, you MUST barter otherwise they take you for a chump, and then you choose a restaurant to cook your freshly bought seafood in any way you want it.
Alex shopped for crabs and I wanted prawns. After a while of bartering I got 1/2 kilo of prawns (11 ct.) for $4.50 and Alex got a large crab for $8. Believe me, this stuff was very fresh. I was able to snap a picture of some clams that were squirting water out of their box.

Trying to find a restaurant was as stressful as buying the seafood. One "lady" asked if we're looking for a restaurant...or a man...or a boy so that was awkward and we laughed it off. Eventually we chose the restaurant that didn't try to convince us with a 10% discount or a "lifetime guarantee, free meal if we don't enjoy it" special. We chose the right restaurant.

Alex had his crab fried with salt and pepper

I chose two methods of cooking my prawns, steamed with garlic and fried with salt and pepper.

After everything was gone, I didn't feel satisfied and I was worried we wouldn't have a chance to come back here again so I went back to the market and picked up 1kg of mussels for $1.75 and had them cooked in black bean sauce and baked with garlic and cheese.

The mussels in black bean sauce were easily the best, extremely fresh and the sauce was delicious. With the cost of seafood and paying the restaurant to cook the dishes, I think the total came out to be less than $20 for the both of us which really isn't bad.

If anyone makes it out to Manila, I would HIGHLY recommend going to the fish market and going through the crazy experience of bartering for fish and then getting yanked into people's restaurants.