The second country (and last) of my GLOBE TRAVELLING EXTRAVAGANZA (2 countries, already stated) was to the Philippines. I got invited out to travel for a week with my Filipino friend before she returned to Canada (confusing, don't ask). Go on then.
After a 4 hour delay of my flight, I managed to survive the (about) 45 temperature shift from neg 15 to pozzy 30ish. As I was packing light, this involved running to the bus stop in Seoul wearing all my t-shirts and one thin jumper. A little chilly. Initial impressions of Manila - mutha lovin' scary. Within minutes of getting in the taxi outside of the airport 2 kids had run across a busy road to knock on my window and ask me for money. I'd also managed to scare myself the night before arriving by reading many horror stories from peoples' time spent there of pickpockets and other general criminal activity. I spent the whole time cautiously guarding my belongings so that they wouldn't get stolen, in particular my camera which I ironically lost in Korea on the journey home. Genuine distress.
Seeing as my mate was Filipino, the planning was left to her. However she had taken my lazy motto 'no planning is best planning' to heart, and as most nights we left it till passed 11pm to find a place. This also lead to some rather dubious sleeping locations (purposefully vague, ask me), but also gave us more freedom and was more excitement. Sometimes. Stress others. Whilst I was in Japan I got a stared at a lot for being foreign, and thought that it would have been the same in the Philippines. To my sheer delight no one seemed to be staring at me. What was even more delightful was that instead they all seemed to stare at my Filipino friend, eyeing her up from head to toe and probably wondering which website that they too would need to sign up to to find a man of my calibre (by my 'calibre' I mean not fat and old). She claimed she didn't enjoy it, but I was paraded like a prized turkey. Her 20-something year old aunt even introduced me to her work colleagues as the her boyfriend. Used, abused.
My mate decided it would be great to introduce me to a Filipino delicacy, and after some recent questionable cuisines that my stomach had (heroically) managed to digest, I felt I could tackle anything (except a tackle). So on the menu, today's special - chicken foetus. This was properly properly hanging. First you pierce the shell, so that you could drink the juices (vom), and then peel the shell away revealing a little half formed chicken foetus (vom), and then you eat that along with some other... thing that's inside (vom). It's called 'balut' if you wanna spank that into youtube and watch some insultingly grim videos.
Loved the transport. A 'Wallace and Gromit' style bike and side cart seemed to be the primary taxi-ing service, although this thing had a legal limit of 5 passengers (honestly couldn't fathom getting 5 on this thing) my mate claimed she managed to get 20 on one time. If that didn't give you enough thrills then you could get in a van with an open door in the back which essentially hop on, pay the driver about 20p and then hop off whenever you fancy. Broke a fair few British helath and safety laws. Talking of which, definitely very much enjoyed watching several around-7 year old children, without any parents around, playing a game of 'chase each other with a chunk of wood that is on fire'. That well-known classic.
I feel like I saw everything though: touristy islands, beautiful mountain sceneries, little towns and villages, rural houses, rough suburban areas, dodgy transport, disgusting foods, cheap everything. The thing that struck me the most was although people had less, everyone seemed a lot more happy and content with life than they do in the west. A trip that will live long in my memory, unforgettable. Thank you Fran.
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