Screw the Jet, Get Your Feet Wet!

One of the highlights of traveling around the archipelago that is the Philippines is that it affords me the opportunity to ride on many a boat, one of my favorite forms of transport. The country abounds with reasonably priced airlines to whisk people from place to place, but I prefer the simplicity and old-time romanticism of boat travel. There's nothing quite like gazing out onto the open sea, witnessing strings of uninhabited craggy coastlines, and breathing in the salty air.

I'm now in Boracay, a tourist trap of a beach that I ended up at because of a reckless spur of the moment decision. I've had enough now, and this morning embark on a solid 2 day combined boat/bus trip to the finger shaped, far eastern island of Palawan, home to the world's longest subterrainian river, idyllic scenery and stunning landscapes, and top notch wreck diving (the aftermath of an American WWII bombardment of Japanese ships), or so I read in the tourist brochure.

The boat really has it all. You get a bed, a top notch restaurant serving a wide variety of cuisine (they have 3 flavors of cup of noodle!), and best of all, the chance to mix, mingle, and trade stories with the locals.

Sinulog in Cebu

Weather patterns in the Philippines are changing. Normally this time of year is dry and clear in this part of the country but lately the rainy season has not obeyed orders. Many people are blaming global climate change for the shift. Whatever the reason, it's certainly not going to stop Filipinos from enjoying Sinulog, or "The Queen of Festivals", as one Cebu local dubbed it.

Sinulog is a dance, a rhythm, costumes and celebration wrapped in a religious celebration of the Santo Ninyo, the Philippines' version of the baby Jesus. Loads of people cradle little, and sometimes large, statuettes of the child saint through the rough-edged downtown district of the city in a huge procession towards the large Cathedral in town. Sprinkles rained down throughout the afternoon resulting in many an umbrella poke to the face.

At night Sinulog turns into a raucous street party with reggae and rock cover bands dominating crooning tired tunes into the festive night air. The quality of the music is made up for by the cheapness of the beer. San Miguel is the national beer of the Philippines and comes in light, pilsen, super dry, and red horse forms. Pilsen is the original and still the best. So good in fact, that I've de-throned Tiger and Lao as the leaders of the Asian beer scene.

All in all, Sinulog did not disappoint. It will take a lot more than the gradual destruction of the plant's ecosystem to keep Filipinos from having a good time.

First Impressions of The Philippines

Keep in mind I've been here a day, with a good chunk of that asleep:

Manila airport is by far the worst airport I've ever been to.

Filipinos speak fluent, polite, American accented English. When checking into my room, the hotel staff said: Would you mind if I asked you to pay for the first night?, while in Thailand it's always something like: You pay now.

Filipinos and Filipinas are very friendly! They talk a lot with their eyebrows.

The city, Cebu, is not especially nice. Think long polluted roads with no sidewalks and little charm. I'm actually hanging out in a shopping mall now. I like this shopping mall. Everything I need right now is here.

Food and transport and very cheap!

Most other foreigners here are old white dudes.

It's totally bizarre but I love it!

Go Chang!

Chang, or elephant, is more than just a low-cost, high-alcohol (6.5%) Thai beer, which my former Thai language teacher said he drank over other beers because he's "kikiat chee" or "lazy to piss". Chang is also a magnificent "Koh", or island, in the east of Thailand near the Cambodian border. Overlooked by tourists heading south to "the beaches", many people must have been confused and not realized that "The Beach" is just a book and movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and there are no paradise pot crops and utopian communities living on Koh Pi Pi, just a lot of drunken Europeans.

Koh Chang is no secret, but it's a beautiful and, so far, tastefully developed island. Here you feel you're living with Thai people, and not that you've driven them out and replaced them with banana pancakes. Getting here from Bangkok costs a fraction of that to get to the southern islands, and once you're here the food and booze are half the price, too. Have you grasped my advice yet? Skip the full moon party on Koh Pha Ngan, unless of course you like dancing on broken glass, and Go Chang!In other news, I ship out for Cebu in the Philippines late Wednesday night and arrive Thursday morning to witness the weekend Sinulog festival. Apparently, Filipino festivals are quite mad. During Easter, devotees in the predominately Catholic country actually volunteer to be nailed onto crosses, like, for real. For the rest of us, choking down marshmallow peeps is suffering enough.

Under the Sea

I spent the end of '07 on a raucous beach on the island of Koh Pha Ngan in Thailand, and after growing tired of that washed up island went to the decidedly more pleasant Koh Tao to the north to soak in sun and salt water. The main attraction of the island is scuba diving, and always being one to run with the crowds, I jumped on the bandwagon. The first couple days were spent watching corn-hole PADI videos and doing quizzes designed for the thickest of the thick. My classmates were a Canadian couple who both would have gone down in flames on the final exam if they hadn't cheated on me - takes me back to junior high and letting the stoner kids cheat off me in science class. Equally easy test, and equally daft classmates. Anyway...

The depths of the sea are remarkable, and I got see and swim amongst dozens of species of bright, beautiful, florescent fishies, a massive school barracuda swimming in a spiral, some fish related to "Nemo", stingrays, and lots of other scuba divers doing their PADI open water diving courses. Apparently, Koh Tao is the #2 place in the world for issuing PADI open water certification (the certification which permits dives of up to 18 meters, although we were down to 22 meters at some points, shhhhh.)

Unfortunately the visibility was a bit crap because of a storm that had blown through and shaken up the ocean floor a few days earlier. Still, it was a remarkable experience and I look forward to doing more of it.