philippines days 4 and 5

pictures! this is all from day 4 when we went to this place called treetop adventure and ziplined through the rain forest while sitting in chairs. it was awesome. this platform was up 50 or so feet in the trees and from there, you go on a whole zipline course.
the wait for the zipline was 2 hours so we did a 'jungle survival' course first with this nice man who taught us lots of useful things like..
how to make a fire using bamboo and a sharp knife:

how to be manly men in the rain forest:
how to glow like an angel due to a foggy lens in front of a giiiiant tree:
the trees can do it too.
i couldn't figure out a good way to photograph the torrential rain. it rained like we were in the middle of a typhoon for an hour or so, including the time we were on the zip line.
josh and steve have all of the pictures from when we were actually doing it since my camera isn't waterproof enough or small enough to take with me on stuff like that. hopefully i can get those pictures in the next couple of weeks.. but both of them are notorious for not ever uploading stuff.

steve did really well for being afraid of heights. it was creepy because you had a clip on your harness that they'd clip onto the fence somewhere.. but before you sat in your chair, you weren't clipped to anything while standing on a wet, metal, downsloping platform with a hundred-foot or more drop off.
we took a 4 hour bus back to manila and i was sitting next to this really fantastic philipino girl, ivy, who spoke fluent english. she told the bus driver where we wanted to get off the bus and then she somehow arranged it so there was a taxi to pick us up right when we got off. it was nice to chat with her during the ride and we both learned a little about the other's country.

we had heard that manila could be pretty sketchy and i read a million horrific hotel reviews (mice! cockroaches! worms coming out of shower drains! bedbugs.), but the imperial palace suites hotel was wonderful. for $100US or so, we had 2 beds, a real bath room and little living room area. the neighborhood wasn't scary at all and we had french food for dinner.

this early afternoon we hopped on a plane to come home. the guy sitting ahead of josh on our flight had the flu so they more or less made us put on face masks and they took our contact info so they can let us know if the guy turns out to have swine flu.
the man sitting next to me was flying to hawaii with his family and he wasn't happy at all about the mask situation. he felt weird and he didn't want to put it on his baby but the flight attendant was really adamant. i tried to explain that it's just an asian thing.. but he couldn't get over it.

i wish i had a picture of the look on my kids' faces when i told them i was in the philippines this morning. i think it blew their minds. i was so happy to see them. i chased everyone around in my little kid class to hug them, which has become our tradition in there, and scott and jerry kept lingering around me so i'd catch them.

tonight we went to dinner with tess' parents at the thai place. they were super friendly and tess-y. they both work in the airline industry so their family has traveled all around the world. i was surprised when tess didn't go stay with them in the hotel for their last night in town and she isn't going to go with them to the airport tomorrow. it would be nice to be so independent. i know i'd be at the airport until they went to the gate at the very least.

philippines day 3

well today we woke up to pouring down rain, so we spent most of the morning and afternoon on the patio of the hotel and read magazines, studied chinese and chatted while looking at the ocean as it rained. i had a banana split for breakfast :X

this afternoon we attempted to go to this zipline place but we got there right as it was closing, so we went go karting instead. neither of the boys had ever done it, but they both beat me. my pedal was to the metal but i just wasn't going anywhere.

what else did we do today.. we walked around "downtown" and found this market that would sort of remind you of a stinkier taiwanese night market, but everything costs $2 or $3 instead of 10 or more. josh also noticed that the style of clothes are all really tight fitting vs the materinty-chic of taiwan. i prefer the puffy dresses.
the boys bought a million DVDs but i didn't see anything i neeeeeded. if anyone from home wants any cheap DVDs, now's the time to let me know. what show, what season.

we went to this japanese restaurant called 'spanish gate'. ... the name obviously didn't make any sense, but the food was delicious. better than the japanese in taoyuan. they had miso soup that tasted just like the miso at my faaaavorite japanese place in austin.

time to do a little research about where to stay in manila and then i'm headed to the shower. josh and i went to get another massage tonight because it's $5, but i'm all oily/baby powdered.

philippines day 2

this is an interesting area. literally the only "foreigners" we've seen have been this group of norwegian people who are visiting 'stan' (i was asked if i was his granddaughter.. apparently i look norwegian), and a bazillion semi-creepy looking, vintage military tattooed, 60+ year old ex-military men who are cavorting with 20something philipino girls. it is bizarre, to say the least.

aside from the general weird feeling that that situation gives me, it's an alright place. the heat isn't nearly as oppressive as i had imagined it would be based on the forecast. the beaches are pretty. the people are nice if not a little phony.

today we had breakfast at a little place across the street. their spanish omelet could have been straight out of texas. it was lovely. then we set off for 'ocean adventure' which was like sea world lite. i'm kicking myself for not paying the $100 to do the swimming with the dolphins thing.. but there was a torrential downpour so i'm not sure if i even could have done it.

after that, we headed to a casino where josh won $5 and steve and i both lost $10 or so. then we hit up the city center and freeport zone which could have been any city in mexico.. and took a crazy 'jeepney' back to our hotel. it was like a long jeep with a cover on the back with open air windows and a really low roof. only slightly safer than the motorbike with little cart attached that the three of us piled into last night.

josh and i got swedish massages at some place down the road this evening which was really, really nice. now i'm covered in oil and baby powder but a little more relaxed. then this evening we went to the bar attached to the hotel and i got cornered chatting with this 65yr old dude, JR, from dallas, ironically. he's an ex-IMBer and if he hadnt shown me a picture of his 20yr old wife, i'd say he was a normal good old boy. he told me a lot about philippino life (the girls who work in the bars make 3 dollars a night) (the local food is gross and they love canned corn beef.. which i like) (the only spices they use are garlic, soy sauce and vinegar.. even though basil and oregano grow wild in the gutters).

so things are good. i think 3 days in subic bay is the ideal amount of time. the only terrrible thing is that the super humid, rainy weather isn't good for my camera so i haven't taken ANY pictures. tomorrow i can at least get the beach and area around our hotel, but i don't really want to take it on the treetop adventure.. we'll see.

philippines day 1

well today has just been a cloud of traveling. we set off around 11 for the airport and our flight left around 1. the flight was 2 hours and we were in the exit row which was awesome.
once we arrived in manila, we were going to try to take a ferry but we missed the last one so we ended up in a taxi for a looong time. the guy took us to the bus station and we were on a freezing cold bus for 4 hours before we arrived in subic bay.

we're staying at the lovely arizona hotel. it really isn't even a little bit lovely, but it's clean and not too bad.everyone who works here calls you sir or maam religiously. subic bay would remind you of downtown cancun. we haven't seen it in the daylight yet though. i'm just excited to sleep in a bigger-than-twin sized bed tonight.

observations about the philippines..
they looove KFC
and mister donut
there arent nearly as many 7-11s
there seems to be a surplus of ..call girls? let's call them
it's super ridiculously humid beyond belief
there are palm trees and pretty light purple bougainvillea (thanks mom)
there is no hair dryer so i'm going to be wavy-humid haired megan for 4 days

our tentative plans include zip lining, a shooting range, some bar in the middle of the ocean, and a crazy open aired bus/taxi