Where is your Rooster?

So, it has been a week since I have been back from the Philippines and after having acclimated myself to minus weather, I have decided to write a bit about my trip.

It all started on Saturday morning, as I boarded my flight to Manila. I was very tight on time and almost missed my two flights. Once, I was on the flight to Legazpi on Cebu Pacific Air, I won a Cebu Pacific orange organizer in the in-flight trivia game :)

Then , I made my way down to Maicon hostel and walked around a bit town. Since I am not a good focus of attention, I decided to split to Donsol and stay in at Amor Farm Beach Resort. There I took a firefly cruise and went diving twice for whale shark, but unfortunately did not see any :(

The Jeepney, most popular method of transport

 View from Amor Farm Beach Resort

                                      Restaurant at Amor Farm Beach Resort

I stayed at Amor for three days and nights, I finished reading three books and had time to get over my horrible sunburn (because being from Florida does not keep my super white skin protected from the sun :( )

 

Irene Opdyke's Memories of WWII, Unbroken  the incredible story of Louie Zamperini, and Freakonomics

If you ever get the chance, read Unbroken (before it gets turned into a movie by Angelina Jolie), it's the increible story of a man of incredible strength, who competed in the 1936, was stranded at sea for 47 days and then lived two years as a POW in the harsh hands of the Empire of Japan during WWII. And the man is still alive and going strong at the age of 94.

 This is Louis Zamperini with the author of the book, Lauren Hillenbrand

Manila, ila, ila, ila

On Wednesday morning I left Donsol for the airport in Legazpi, having little cash I left I scarfed down three plates at the buffet near the airport, I made it to the Pink Manila Hostel. It was a nice place to sleep, but clean and with a pool and awesome view of Manila. Chrissy the owner was super nice and friendly, I met so many nice traveler in two days, it was awesome!

There I met a fellow local traveler named Ash and we headed into the caos that is Manila. Composed of several neighborhoods together, Manila is raw, dirty, smelly, big, and awesome all at the same time. As you walk the streets, you can anything from coconut water, to head massages, to new (?!) or legitimately stolen cell phones.

As I as telling Ash about my life in Korea, he told me that he had met some Korean travelers at the Killing Fields in Cambodia,where they were posing and taking smiling pictures (with the peace sign of course) near the death sites. Not being new to people posing inappropriately with skulls and bones of people massacred (well I do live in Korea), Ask and I made it our mission not to pose smiling next to solemn monuments.

 

Solemn pose next to a monument commemorating the Battle of Manila during World War II

 

 But then I found this monument of Filipino-Korean friendship and so I had to pose appropriately

And this monument of a native Filipino freedom fighter which was built with funds from Korea

 

     This is me at Intramuros, the old part of the city built by the Spanish settelers after the arrival   of Juan de Legazpi, the Spanish 'governor' conquistador on the Philippines (Las Islas Filipinas)

                                            So, what about the cocks?

Well, cockfighting is one of the most popular sports in the Philippines, so it is only natural for everyone to have a rooster in their houses, including everyone in Manila. It was quite weird waking up to a rooster crowing at 5 am in a huge metropolis. But hey, why now? 

After getting back to Korea, I had a girls weekend in Seoul with Candice, Maria, and Amanda and I as finally able to go back to my sweet, sometimes confused favorite little rodent,where he gifted me with one of his many trance modes

                                                                       Moose Trance