OWGN

Maybe you are not familiar with my penchant for making acronyms for everyday situations. When planning to eat at burger machine, we speak of the BM. The DO is of course the dump out, which usually follows eating at BM. It's not that "dump out" is too long to say, it's that making an acronym enables me to use it in public places. For example, in the hotel lobby I can holler to Ben "I'm just going to D.O. and shower, then I will be ready to go out." There are other acronyms we use that are inappropriate to explain (like the DOJO and the APJO), and I am sure that more will be created. The OWGN is something that comes up frequently, but not everyday. Some of you may have experienced this if you have traveled to a place where you are the minority and looked significantly different that everyone else. The OWGN of course stands for the "Obligatory White Guy Nod." No matter what the situation, when we run into another white guy, he automatically nods to acknowledge our presence. I could walk by a thousand Asians and not get a single nod, but I could see a creepy white guy from across the street and he is waiting for me to look over so he can nod. It's like his day would not be complete if he didn't throw the nod.

I never start the nod, but when I receive it I am faced with the choice of whether or not to nod back. I almost always do to be polite, and usually it is just a natural reaction, but I want to stop him and tell him that we are not buds...and that you wouldn't nod at me in the US or Europe. Anyways, this is an interesting wrinkle of traveling, and I look forward to seeing if it's the same in other countries...but I know it is.

There are variations of this like the OBGN (which looks a lot like OB/GYN), which may be experienced by Steve Ak when in Wrigleyville or Rey in the northern suburbs of Atlanta.

Hundred Islands

Inquiring what else is worth seeing here, we heard from a local friend that Hundred Islands is a nice place to visit. After researching and catching a few clips on tv, we bumped it to the top of our list and (since it looked like the FCC startup would be further delayed) planned for the weekend. Departing from the hotel at 5am Saturday, Joel drove us on the 5 hour journey to Alaminos City, Pangasinan, in the west part of Luzon straight north of Bataan. Arriving around 10:30 (after eating a second consecutive meal of McDonalds, which now makes 3 times in 3 months...not bad), we got the usual welcoming of 19 people trying to sell us cheap crap. This was a much nicer tourist trip since Hundred Islands is a national park, which basically means fixed rates so we didn’t have to bargain or worry about getting ripped off. We hired a boat with a guide named Amboy for the day, rented some snorkel gear, and went on our way.

Unlike the weather in the snowy Chicago, it was a perfect day here. The pictures can't accurately portray how beautiful this place is. (Ay pinaka magandang – I have taken up learning Tagalog phrases, which will hopefully turn into sentences at some point.) Most of the 124 islands are small enough to prevent habitation, but 3 of them have a few snack shops and picnic areas; Governor’s Island, Quezon Island, and Children’s Island. They have a Filipino version of Big Brother (which reminds me that Survivor is Steve "Sweet P" Carlson's favorite reality show. Hope you are doing well, Steve. Put your hand up for the othersideoftheworld-backhand-air five to prevent germ transfer!) called Pinoy Big Brother, and the house from one of the old seasons was built on Governor’s Island.

Hundred Islands Pictures

Anyways, we island hopped for the early afternoon and got out to swim and snorkel in two places. One was an incredible cave like you would see in a movie with bats swooping down from overhead and shrieking. The other, a coral reef with giant clams on the sea floor. Here is a picture of the cave from overhead.

After the entire day of being outside admiring the natural beauty, exploring uninhabited islands, sun-burning my pale white skin, and swimming in the ocean, we headed back to the mainland to find a hotel for the night.

We found a larger resort in Sual (pictured above), about 30 minutes away. The hotel had a pet monkey on a chain (of course), and I finally captured Joel's winning smile. After showering, we ate, relaxed with some billiards/barely-clothed band, and called it an early night. On Sunday, we drove back to the port to buy some souvenirs, watch local children play POGS, and head back to Balanga. It was another good short weekend trip. Hundred Islands was definitely worth seeing.

I feel like Hansel (so hot right now) from Zoolander when describing these trips. "Me and my friends have been too busy bathing off the southern coast of St. Barts with spider monkeys. Tripping on acid changed our whole perspective on shit." Me and Ben went snorkeling in bat caves with protected giant clams at Hundred Islands off the coast of the Philippines...I've never even been to Mount Vesuvius.

Corregidor

Ben and I went to Corregidor for a quick Sunday trip two weeks ago. Corregidor is a tadpole shaped island at the mouth of the Bay of Manila opening up into the South China Sea.

It was the site of many battles between Japanese forces and Fil-Am soldiers during WWII because of its strategic naval position in relation to Manila. Wikipedia does a better job of it explaining it if you care. The island is filled with beaten down ruins of barracks and buildings, as well as damaged weaponry from the bombing barrages.

The forest is quite resilient considering all this bombing occurred over 60 years ago. Now, it is very peaceful and beautiful, especially since there was hardly anyone there when we went. The air was much cleaner with no trikes, and only a few jeepneys around. I am not much of a history buff, but the war history alone was definitely worth the trip. We tagged along with a group of Japanese tourists for the Malinta tunnel light and sound show. This tour was interesting and funny to me since the entire story was told from the Filipino-American point of view referring to the Japanese as "enemy invaders."

Corregidor Pictures

The water was a little choppier on the way back, but not too bad. Before going, I read about the "shark infested waters" later into the afternoon. My mentor on this job, Din, visited Corregidor the following weekend and got thrown from the boat on the way back. He was calm and uninjured, so it was funny in hindsight to hear this story. If you can imagine a 70 yr old Indian man being thrown from an outrigger in the middle of the choppy ocean, you will see the humor too. I wish I had a picture to post.

Just puts in perspective how far away I am. I love this.

Taal Volcano in Tagaytay

Three weeks ago, we were very busy at work preparing for start up of our FCC unit (which ended up failing and delaying for 2 weeks), but we managed to get away for the weekend to a sweet town called Tagaytay. They closed the ferry from Orion (here in Bataan) to Manila because it wasn't profitable enough so that eliminated our option to hire a car from there. We ended up taking one of our drivers (Joel, our favorite) from here in Balanga for the overnight trip. Anshul, Ben, Basel and his family, and I left very early Saturday morning for the long drive. We dropped Basel, his wife, and daughter off in Manila on the way through which left us with 3, so we got 2 hotel rooms in Tagaytay so Joel could sleep in a bed too. It was raining when we got there, and the clouds prevented us from seeing much of anything, so we decided to look for some things to do in town.

After a delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant (nice to get some decent red wine), we went looking for a bar. But we didn’t find a bar…we found a CASINO! We played some slots for a while, then went to a bar and resorted to our favorite leisure activity…playing billiards and watching scantily clad ladies sing cover songs.

Tagaytay Pictures

We awoke in the morning to a much nicer and clearer day. We set out, visited People's Park in the Sky, rented a boat, and got across to the base of the volcano. At the base, people were harassing us with offers of cheap souvenirs, drinks, and renting a donkey to ride up the volcano. This seemed ridiculous to me at the time, so we opted to walk. After a little ways, I could see why this donkey business was so popular. The trail was very rocky and narrow, made even more difficult because of all the donkey traffic. There wasn’t exactly a donkey HOV lane.

I am still glad we walked, as it was good exercise and good scenery…just really hot. Finally atop the volcano, we could see inside to Crater Lake in which another island has formed. So basically it’s an island inside a lake inside a volcano that exists in a lake in Tagaytay, Luzon, Philippines. Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds...but it always is in my world.

I didn't take this picture (obviously, since its aerial), but you can see the bullseye it makes with the lake inside the volcano. So much natural beauty in the Philippines.

I started a blog

I know this blog creation is completely out of character for me considering I make fun of bloggers constantly and harshly, but I guess I finally succumbed to my gayness and decided that it really is the best way to document my thoughts and experiences while I travel. This will also avail the people who are particularly interested in my daily life (stalkers) the opportunity to read more frequent updates. This should put me one step below pompous author, but hopefully one step above emotional 16 yr old girls who write blogs about Jared Leto (I actually like Jared Leto, but that is irrelevant).

Aside from adding updates of my activities, I will undoubtedly be writing about things that piss me off, or just my opinions in general in a very sarcastic manner. I plan to write at least once a week, or maybe more often if the ref at the basketball courts continues to show favoritism to the Filipinos and doesn't call fouls when they clearly foul me...A-Hole.

Feel free to reply to my posts on this site or continue to email me personally. I will respond. So, if you are interested in hearing about what I am doing, bookmark this page and return to it whenever you want. If you don't like my postings, then stop reading them...but if you want to see the classy side of being homeless, then keep reading...