The Philippines

Taking the morning flight from Taipei, I landed in Manila a little before noon. Phone companies are extremely well prepared to provide whatever cellular services you're looking for, for a price. Thankfully everywhere I went in the Philippines I saw a huge competition between it's two cellular providers: Smart and Globe. So the cost of domestic calling, texting, and 1 GB of data per day came out to be $20 for a month (no start-up charge or other hidden fees). Still within an international airport, I felt like a connected Filipino. Heeding the advice of everyone I've ever heard talk about the Philippines, my first stop was a bus station, to get anywhere out of Manila. With seemingly no public transportation from the airport I walk out to a main road and ask a security guard how to get to the bus station. He flags down a bus and I get on. On that crowded bus, going along a dirty, wet road with no apparent rules for right-of-way or lane demarcations, the bus driver told me to get off and take another bus just behind his. Another 20 pesos (40 cents) and I'm now on a bus that's actually headed to the Buendia Bus Terminal. After a stop into a 7-11 and a local mall for food and curiosity I get on a bus going south to Batangas. 

The advice was good. Everything outside of Manila was gorgeous. Rice paddies, banana farms, and even a stunning double rainbow greeted me on my first trip within the Philippines. A little after 5:00 I arrive at Batangas port. After getting heckled by some locals I find one who points the way to the ferry companies. A short walk and I make it to the ticket counter and discover that the last boat to Puerto Galera had just left at 5:00. My choices are to stay in Batangas or go to the other city on this side of the nearby island (Mindoro) called Calapan. Having not been too impressed with Batangas, I jump on the boat and hope that Calapan is better. 

An hour and a half later, almost through some American action film I'd never seen, we arrive at Calapan port. It's a dark night, but warm and very humid. The city is a few kilometers from the port so I start to hoof it along the road. The 5 or 6 cute kids that ran up to me asking me what's my name and where I'm going kept me company for a few minutes and noisy tricycles (~125cc motorcycles with a one-wheeled sidecar attached on its right) kept me company for the rest. I booked a hostel that was at Aninuan hoping to catch a bus or van there from Calapan proper. After an email, I discovered that the vans that run along the island also stop running between 5:00 and 6:00 and getting to Aninuan would be extremely expensive. My first experience with incredible Philippine kindness came in two forms that night. The owners of the Aninuan hostel called me and told me it would be most sensible to stay in Calapan that night and asked me to put any local near me on the phone. I happened to be next to a tricycle taxi at the time, and he took the phone and spoke some Filipino (probably Tagalog) with the hostel owners. A minute later he hands me the phone back and says in accented but very understandable English, that he's going to help me find a nearby budget hotel to stay in. Slightly stunned I follow after him as he walks off. The first place ran for ~500 pesos ($10) a night. He said "oh we can find better than this," and doubled back to find another hotel. He was right, ~350 pesos ($7) a night got me my own tiny room and a shared bathroom (though I think I was the only one using it that night). An early wake-up and very hot and muggy exploration of Calapan later and I'm in the van bound for Puerto Galera. 

After a gorgeous ride, a sporadically rainy hour and change later I arrive at Puerto Galera; it was beautiful. All of the scuba diving departs from Sabang port, but my hostel was a big hill and small village away in Sinandias. Getting used to the Philippines here, I took an Advanced Open-Water dive course and enjoyed getting stuck as a typhoon in the southern seas passed, cancelling all of the ferry rides. 

I made some great friends on Mindoro. After buying bananas from the closest stand to my hostel two days in a row, some young guys invited me into the stand for gin and pulutang (snacks or appetizers) on the third day. Feeling that 9:30 or 10:00 is a little early for shots of gin, I join imagining I'll leave after a few minutes. Apparently one of the guy's mother owns the stand and bananas but he was running the shop that day because he wasn't working a taxi. 

The Philippine style of drinking involves one bottle of rum or gin, one shot glass, and pulutang. You pour our own alcohol into the cup, drink it, and then pass the bottle and cup around to the next person. This goes on until the bottle is empty to which another is opened, or someone runs to the store to buy more. I think the culturally appropriate way to participate but not be drunk as a skunk before noon is, when the bottle and cup come around to you, pour yourself just a trace of gin. The idea of a small shot or partial shot doesn't inspire the ridicule and jokes it would in the US. So several hours, bottles, bananas, and pulutang later I have three new friends that I will remember for life. Being quite close to Christmas, many businesses and organizations are having Christmas parties. So soon after making new friends, I get invitations to a pair of Christmas parties the very next day. Agreeing to join, I wake up early the next morning, rent a scooter for the day, meet up with one of the guys and head out.

We pick up another one of the guys and his wife and then start a long ride along the beautiful and windy coastline back towards Calapan. Almost half way there we turn inland and the hills, trees, and wind all turn into wide quiet valleys filled with rice paddies and old farmers working their carabao with egrets or storks filtered here and there. Further in, the evidence that this is a less-developed or third-world area sets in. Virtually no technology is present within sight. Just a single power line running through open bamboo houses and warped tin shingle roofs; kids playing with a patched soccer ball in the middle of the street, laughing like the happy ones at Hope Elementary School during recess. The pavement ends and we park the bikes. We still haven't arrived so a 10 or 15 minute walk through the jungle is necessary. Thinking we'll get lost and then have to draw straws to see who to sacrifice for the rest, I get reassured with "follow the power line." We went to where the power line (and trail) ended; I don't think I'd ever seen the end of a power line--it gives a strange feeling. Despite being on the last fringe of civilization, the house was well maintained and even had a karaoke machine running for every one's enjoyment. My new friend was part of a group called the guardians, and it was their Christmas party I was attending. An entire pig was chopped and cooked up along with a handful of other dishes. I was requested to sing karaoke all the time, although I never figured out if it was because they thought I would enjoy it, or if they wanted to hear popular songs with an authentic American accent. After a great meal, many smiles, and many handshakes my second friend and I left the first friend and his wife there to attend his company's Christmas party back in town.

The second party is much smaller and is at a nice hotel. Karaoke is the still present, and I must say, generally speaking, Filipino people love to sing love-songs. Heavy rains that evening so several hours later I ride back slow enough that the rain hitting my eyes doesn't hurt, which is also slow enough to be drenched to the bone with the warmth of a Philippine storm.

The Filipino language is by far the oddest combination of others I've heard. There is a very SE Asian island language at its core, but so much borrowed language from English, Spanish, and I think even Arabic. Even the illiterate can speak numerous words in English, and most signs (government and commercial) and advertisements have various English words on them. Many nouns like table, chair, fork, and the days of the week are all accented Spanish, and even to say "how are you" is "kamusta ka." I don't know if Arabic has had any influence on its language, but thank you is "salamat" and there is a strong feeling in my ignorant mind that much more Arabic is perfused throughout the Filipino language. 

There's a trick when you're getting used to traveling in the Philippines, it's quite funny. Everyone says everything runs on "Philippine Time" which is later than scheduled. So expect to wait if you're early, and if you're late, the bus or boat will still probably be there. So when I was early for the ferry across the unpaved section of the north I had to wait for a very long time. After spending the afternoon and night in a small town with hardly any tourism (I felt like a celebrity walking down the one paved road of the town as everyone under the age of 30 waved at me saying hi) and miles of gorgeous coastline, this Philippine Time came to my advantage. I woke at 5:00 caught a van going south at 5:20, and got to San Jose at 8:20. Online the ferry to Coron was supposed to leave at 8:00, but a tricycle driver says it's leaving at 8:30 or 9:00. Thinking I'm about to get swindled I hop into the sidecar in hopes of getting out of the extremely industrial and impoverished San Jose that day. We get to the port at 8:40 and I still get a ticket for the ferry with enough time to buy a few snacks up the road.

There is one traveler I am comically bound to, Mohamed Chenine. After unintentionally staying in the same 4 hostels in Mexico we opted to travel to Guatemala together (it was already both our plans). This time, only knowing that we're both going to be landing in Manila within 2 days of each other and plan to go south from there, we both end up on the same ferry from San Jose to Coron on the same day. He's traveling with another Frenchman he'd met in Manila and so the three of us enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas in Coron.

After a few days Mohamed's friend, Tim, got sick and was living by the toilet and suffering at both ends. I got a low-grade fever, lost my appetite, and felt very lucky in comparison. After recovering from illness, Tim's luck continued to roll in the doldrums as his scooter slide from under him when turning on some gravel. Unable to bend his left knee we continue with our plans to boat to El Nido the next day. Tim opts to go to the tiny ER in El Nido and gets an X-ray; 99% chance a small part of the tibia has chipped off from the rest, and 1% chance a small pebble has lodged itself in front of Tim's tibia.

A few beautiful days in El Nido and a few more in Puerto Princesa and I've almost run out of time on my visa in the Philippines. I can say that the Puerto Princesa Underground River maybe one of the 7 new wonders of the natural world, but the tour the public is allowed to go on doesn't warrant that acclaim. Also, a great story about NYE 2018 could be told, but that one is best in person. A solemn farewell to the small tropical towns of Palawan and a return to Manila to catch a late flight to Vietnam. Stay tuned. 

Taiwan 台灣

A short and sweet post on one of my favorite places in the world, Taiwan. It was good to be back there. The friends I had made while I was there have almost all but left. Luckily, I was still able to see one. I was also fortunate enough to see some of the last parts of the island that I didn't get to see when I lived there, namely Taitung county, Jiufen, and any of the little islands off the mainland of Taiwan. I will generalize and say the culture fit comfortably in the middle-ground between Korea's self-conscious rigidity, and China's, sometimes wild, roughness.

Now in the Philippines and a full post on that in due time.

Korea!

Beijing's bustling streets gave way to a short but incredible fast (295 km/hr) train ride to the most coastal Tianjin. I didn't explore it much, but rather flew across the Yellow Sea and landed in Incheon Airport just outside of Seoul. I think in the past, I've always traveled by air with lots of luggage so by the time I get to my destination I'm tired and worn out. This trip I make it to my home around noon and felt still fresh. So with almost no transition I went from the streets of Beijing to the streets of Seoul. Perhaps because the architecture is similar (high-rises as far as the eye can see), the temperature wasn't more than a few degrees warmer, or the height and hair-color of the populace are generally not dissimilar that I found myself very surprised by differences in culture and bearing. I can say undoubtedly South Korea has no interest, universal distrust in, or something altogether different with regards to making eye contact (at least with remarkably funny looking foreigners). This was the largest difference I noticed. The other differences seemed less apparent, but I did get a greater sense of cleanliness and uniformity in Korea. If memory serves Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, so I wonder which if any of these generalizations contribute to that.

After a few days in Seoul I made it down to Daegu and then promptly the next day to Miryang, my old home. My old school was either shut down or merged with a mathematics cram-school as well. Later in the day I went to the kendo school where I trained during the weekdays. As I was going up the stairs I found some people coming down the stairs, apparently the school head had guests. I got to see briefly table full of empty dishes and Soju bottles before being quickly whisked out the door to go to a restaurant where the school head continued and I started to drink. I had to use Google Translate to say many simple things since I had forgotten so much Korean. I was forbidden to help pay the bill, a common theme as we went to a chicken-and-beer (a popular combo in Korea) restaurant afterwords. The table was full so someone grabbed my backpack and put it on a seat at the neighboring table. With my whole life in that bag, it was odd to not have it within arms reach, but then I recalled the stories all of the locals and foreigners alike had said about Korea: (maybe) the safest place in the world. After much chicken and drink I was kindly escorted by the whole party to the nearby jimjilbang, which is a budget place to sleep in Korean cities. One of the kind souls even insisted on paying for my jimjilbang stay, which I thought weird, but was in no mind or linguistic capabilities to argue. I don't what it is, but their kindness seems to know no bounds (nor time limits) I feel like I will always have an incomprehensible second family on the other side of the world. Several great pictures and less than a day later I made it to the airport. On to warmer weather!

China, the middle kingdom as a whole

I'm flying out of Tianjin, China today for South Korea. Maybe it'd be worthwhile to report some findings on the world's largest country while I'm still here.

With plenty of exceptions, it seems like most Chinese people believe that every American (including myself) owns one or more guns, and that if you walk down a street in America there's a ~50% chance you will be shot; because I'm the only American friend of a few Chinese people, I am now the the average height of all Americans; the normal house size everywhere is what you might expect to find in a new Midwestern suburb or Southern manor. Half or more of Chinese people haven't heard of, or know nothing about, the Dalai Lama. Past wars are frequently talked about, either a cab-driver sharing in camaraderie on having defeated Japan together in WWII, or justifying the world's second largest military budget with The Boxer Rebellion as a cause. Despite having little more than practice and routine training, the military is often on the news and related magazines are readily available in stands around the cities.  Work uniforms seem to be more popular here than in the US. In addition, I suspect they could historically be traced back to some American or western WWI or WWII uniform.

There is a general sense of happiness in a surprisingly many people and also a sense of ignorance, but somehow these two impressions seem unrelated with just an impressionable preponderance, and lack correlation. Chinese and generous definitely go together, on more than one occasion a friend or almost total stranger would insist on paying for food or drinks, always within memory citing because I was a "guest." People's opinions of their culture, government, and current events vary as much here as they do in the US, though there is a tinge more nationalism and ample more conservatism here.

Every tourist destination seems to be packed with people daily from a little after opening until closing, I definitely found this devaluing the experience of several places. Very natural scenic places would often have a very artificial walkway or amenities that I found very surprising or would have found very out of place in the US. I think China's immense population leads to the creation of a plethora of simple jobs in order to combat unemployment. I would guess what a modest restaurant does in the US with a team of 10 people on a shift, the average Chinese restaurant would hire at least 15, and probably 20, people to do. I saw on a billboard a list of government-approved virtures, which included 奔小康 (bènxiǎokāng). This translates to "strive for a relatively comfortable life," and seems to come from Confucius' idea of 小康, which is described as a "near-ideal state of society, second only to Datong." Perhaps ideal isn't feasible for this vast population with the current level of technology.

I was able to see a lot of China, but from so many conversations with other travelers I know there is much much more. If I am fortunate enough to return here in the future, I think the best or most interesting route of travel will be to go along the perimeter of China and see the people who claim Mongolian, Kazakh, Muslim, Tibetan, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc. decent.

Recap, and recent findings

Fun and interesting all around. When you're staying in Kunming, China, most people will tell you to go west to Dali, Lijiang, or Shangri-la. Following their advice I went to Dali and Lijiang. One of China's greatest landscapes, Tiger Leaping Gorge, is an hour or two from Lijiang, so I went there with the intention of returning to Lijiang so that I could go to Lugu Lake. Hiking the gorge so many people said Shangri-la is so beautiful and unlike Kunming, Dali, or Lijiang, so I changed plans and opted to visit Shangri-la before returning to Lijiang and setting out for Lugu Lake (and eventually Chengdu). Shangri-la is indeed beautiful, you're up high enough that the clouds are around you instead of above you. It carried a mysteriousness in its air, unless you're downtown or in the middle of a downpour. Those seem to be the same everywhere in the world. At the hostel I asked about places to go and after a nice chat with the receptionist I learned there is a northern way to Chengdu, full of wilderness, I wouldn't make it to Lugu Lake, but it would be as beautiful if not more. So yesterday I got on a bus and rode for 8 hours through windy mountain roads, muddy dirt and drop-offs most of the way. Got to Xiangcheng, slept, got up took another 4 hour trip to Litang (Lithang in Tibetan), and have been enjoying this city since. The architecture, language, and appearance of everything exudes Tibetan here. Apparently it was an old land/kingdom of Tibet, so it had retained much of its flair. The birthplace of the 7th Dalai Lama is enshrined and preserved just a 10 minute walk off the main street. There seems to be a much more heavy police presence here than any other city I've seen in China--small groups sitting on every other block doing nothing and one group of maybe 6 downtown with riot clubs and riot shields arrayed on the fence behind them. Tomorrow I'll be going to the large and partially ancient (supposedly much was rebuilt after a PLA bombing in the 40's or 50's) monastery and then Monday out to Kangding and more surprises. 

I wrote this and then tried to post it at various times in various places. I think it's going to actually go through now because I've made it to Chengdu and am guessing the reason it wasn't going through was China's firewall being nearly impenetrable if you're in a Tibetan region.

Many pictures are up! www.flickr.com/dcpetit, click on Albums for optimal organization.