Month: November 2015

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The Journey Ends 

Currently Listening to: “Stole the Show” by Kygo

Out of all three beach towns I’ve been to in the Philippines, Boracay was my least favorite. The beach is crowded and it isn’t even high season yet. As you walk along the beach, you are constantly asked if you want your hair braided, a massage, a henna tattoo, a real tattoo (because that’s totally safe and sanitary), or they are trying to get you to book an island hopping tour. There are peddlers everywhere. The wealth disparity on the island is also incredibly apparent. There are people all over the beach and main street begging. Often times, you see mothers with their children begging and at least one of the children will have no clothes on. I will admit the island is beautiful, but as a backpacker, it was on the high end of the budget. We arrived on Friday the 13th late in the afternoon. For most of my trip in Asia, I haven’t booked anything in advance. It’s low season and you can easily get a deal by showing up to somewhere and just requesting a room. We got to Station 2, had some McDonald’s (the first time I’ve had it in the entire time I’ve been away. Judge me all you want, but I was happy to taste something so familiar) and then set off to find a hotel we found on booking.com Continue reading “The Journey Ends “

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Conquering Fears in Coron

Currently Listening to: “Bad Self Portraits” by Lake Street Dive

Early Monday morning Tom and I woke up and attempted to get some shakes before our ferry ride to Coron. People are slow movers in El Nido and no one ever has change for 1,000 pesos, which is what the ATM dispenses, so in don’t understand why it is such a struggle. The shake place had no change and the employees moved as slow as molasses. We gave up and went to the ferry terminal. While walking over, we were expecting to find a boat similar to the boat we took from Bagan to Mandalay. It was spacious with seats covered from the sun and seats in the sun. After arriving at the terminal, we were eventually led to a boat that was said to only hold 70 people, though I reckon there were more than 70 people. We sat in plastic lawn chairs in the middle of the hull with chairs in front and behind us and people sitting along the edge on a bench. We were packed like sardines. And then, before leaving, were told to put on our life jackets. It was hot, uncomfortable, and made me concerned as to how we would survive 6-7 hours of this. Luckily once out of the port and in open water, people were allowed to move around and take of our life jackets.
The 6-7 hour ride ended up being 8.5 hours. Continue reading “Conquering Fears in Coron”

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Journey to the Philippines 

Currently listening to: “Careful You” by TV on the Radio

Tom and I were ready to go at 7am on Tuesday the 3rd. It was too early for breakfast, but we luckily had a convenience store next to the bus station, so I was able to have a nutritious breakfast of yogurt and crackers. The first leg of our journey was a 3 hour ride to the boarder of Cambodia and Thailand. This was the first time I’ve done a land crossing and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had read that it can be chaotic and take hours. It took no more than an hour. We got to the boarder and got off our bus and grabbed our packs. We walked to a booth and had the Cambodian boarder agents stamp our passports out of the country. Then we walked five minutes to the Thai boarder. In between the boarders were two casinos, which we don’t really understand how that works as they aren’t in either country, but rather in this no man’s land. Then we walked up some stairs to a room to get our passports stamped with our Thai entries. Walked back out of that building and waited for the Thai version of a bus, which of course was just a pick up truck with benches along the side. It took us to a small restaurant for lunch while we waited for our mini bus for Bangkok. Continue reading “Journey to the Philippines “

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Cambodia, a Brief Adventure

Tom and I arrived in Phnom Penh later than expected. As we waited for our visas, we decided it would be best to have a quiet night, despite the fact that it was Friday night. Our plan was to check into the hostel and then grab a beer or two and go to be bed on the earlier side so we could sightsee in the morning. Oh how naive we were! When we got to the hostel bar everyone was several drinks in and I ran into someone I had hung out with in Hoi An, Vietnam. Continue reading “Cambodia, a Brief Adventure”

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Mandalay and Away We Go

Currently Listening to: Random hostel music

On Monday morning I woke up before Tom in hopes of getting to FaceTime with my family. My dad’s birthday was two days later and I knew they were having a small family get together to celebrate. In typical Burmese fashion, the wifi was the literal worst and all I got to do was see faces and wave. As this was happening at 4:20am, our taxi showed up 40 minutes early. I had gone to the lobby to FaceTime home, as I had figured the wifi would be strongest there. Continue reading “Mandalay and Away We Go”