Spring Break 2011! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sorry, I'm still in party mode because Isaac and I just got back from Spring Break!   Yeah!  Isaac and I decided to go to the Philippines this year because, although we have both already been to the Philippines, we did not go together so it doesn't count as us having been there.  Also, we decided that after spending ridiculous amounts of money on trips to Japan and Australia this year, we should probably take a vacation that was cheap.  So we headed to the Philippines for our 2 week spring break and the story shall unfold below:

Let's start from the very beginning, a very good place to staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart:

Day 1:  If you have read our blog before or have listened to Isaac and I talk about our travels you should know that we have had some amazing luck with transportation on vacations.  Just kidding.  I think we've had terrible luck.  We've missed busses, trains, and been re-routed to some terrible airports.  Read some previous blogs if you care.  Or just skim them if you get bored, Mom.
  

We continued our lucky streak on this trip by getting screwed by a late flight and the horrible terminal layout that is Manila international airport.  We were supposed to take 2 flights on our first day.  We flew to Manila and then had a connection flight to Puerto Princesa 2 hours after we were SUPPOSED to land in Manila.  Alas, our flight to Manila was an hour late.  This would have been fine, if we could have easily gone to the terminal where our connecting flight was located.  Unfortunately, Manila decided that it would be a good idea to have 3 terminals that are about 5 miles away from one another and the streets are usually full of people, jeepnees, bicycles, dogs, children, and people peeing on the street.  Needless to say, moving between terminals when you are running late for a flight is pretty frustrating.  By the time we got to the correct terminal for our connecting flight we were told that our flight was totally full and there was no way we would get on the plane.  Also it was the last flight of the day to Puerto Princesa. 

Isaac was even keeled in a stressful situation and calmly walked out of line making a point to undo all of the lane dividers in his path.  On security guard tried to show him the way to follow the path that had already been created for people in line but he informed him that his way was more efficient.  Take THAT Cebu Pacific Airlines!  Good luck putting up all of those lane dividers again!  You'll never get those 30 seconds of your life back, just like we'll never get on our flight!

After realizing there was no way we would leave Manila that night, we decided to go to the Philippine Airlines customer service counter and demand justice!  As a frequent visitor of airline customer service rooms, I have to say that Philippine Airlines needs new decor.  Powder blue couches with random brown stains on them are so 2000-and-late!  At least they were comfortable to sit in while we waited for 3 HOURS!  I think that Asian people don't know how to handle angry Americans, or Texans for that matter.  We explained that we missed our connecting flight because our flight to Manila was an hour late and they kept trying to tell us that we should have allowed 3 hours for some reason, even though there is nothing on their website that explains the horrible terminal design of Manila.  We didn't know!  Luckily this made Isaac angry and his powers only grew stronger.  He proceeded to follow one representative around for a while and refused to sit down when asked.  He also helped himself to a cookie that was on the man's desk.  All of these Jedi mind tricks clearly worked their magic because somehow Isaac managed to get us a free hotel stay for the night, buffet dinner, breakfast, and round trip private car from the airport, to the hotel, and back the next morning for the first flight!  

*Isaac edit - I calmly explained to this dude that we missed our connection because his airline was an hour late.  He looked at all our information for a while and then said, "Well sir, you need to allow two to three hours between flights."  

"Great," I told him, "we allowed two hours."  And this is when things went downhill.  He kept saying that we needed to allow two to three hours and I kept telling him that "two hours" is the first part of the statement "two to three hours!"  He didn't seem to get it.

He made it seem like he was going to get our flight taken care of (we were going to have to buy another ticket) and told us to sit down.  So we sat and waited for about an hour and a half.  That is when I decided it was time to use 'the force', as Becky said.  Yes, I did eat his cookies.  I also offered them to another employee, but she declined.

The hotel was super nice too!  The only drawback was that there was no tv remote in the room and the only thing on was Fox News.  This did not deter our tv watching, although I think watching Fox News started to change me.  I now have a strange urge to invest in Gold......

Day 2:  We headed to Puerto Princesa bright and early and finally made it to our hotel.  It was pretty nice but there wasn't much to do in the city of Puerto Princesa.  We got a massage in the room, ate some Filipino food and that's about it.  

Day 3: We booked a tour to an underground river in this giant cave and left at 7:00 am.  We were a little confused why we left so early when we spent the first hour in Puerto Princesa at a gift shop but we didn't question the "system".  After driving for about another 2 hours with stops along the way at other gift shops we finally made it to lunch.  We spent about an hour and a half on the beach that every tour group goes to for lunch and then it was time......to wait some more for our tour which only lasted about 30 minutes.  It was a pretty neat cave though.  And our guide told us it is the ONLY underground river in the world.  When I told her that I thought there was one in Costa Rica, she said: "Oh, if you want to know more about underground rivers you can look on the internet".  Sound advice.

Happy Easter...is Jesus!

Snakes in a cave!

After our boat ride was complete, Isaac and I had to wait for the other group members to finish their tour so we decided to check out the Monkey Trail that was right next to the cave river.  We also saw some monitor lizards on the way!

The monkey trail was cool and we saw monkeys but after about 15 minutes our boat driver came running up the trail and told us that we were not allowed to be there.  Apparently, after 3pm all of the poisonous snakes go for there afternoon walk on the monkey trail and we weren't allowed to be there.  They like their privacy.  Well, we read the signs for the trail and there was nothing about the snake afternoon walk so how were we to know of our impending doom?  Regardless, when we arrived at the bottom of the trail our knowledgeable guide was very upset and told us in broken English that we must ALWAYS ask permission from our non-present guide to go on monkey trails.  Isaac told her that maybe we would have made the cut off for the 3o'clock trail walking if we didn't stop at every gift shop that existed on the island.  She didn't like that.  She was pretty quiet the rest of the trip so we didn't get to learn about how to use the internet to look things up about the Philippines.  

Day 4:  We took a van to El Nido which is about a 5 hour trip.  Van trips in Southeast Asia are always interesting because you never know what "van" means.  The one we had was actually pretty comfortable and we didn't even get a flat tire!  We did have a girl who was throwing up for most of the trip but that happens a lot.  In El Nido, we didn't have a place to stay and were talked into staying at this house with apartments "close" to town.  It was actually in a local village far away from the downtown area of El Nido but it was pretty cool to see where the "real" people live.  Both Isaac and I agree that the people in the Philippines are some of the friendliest people we've ever met.  Also, they can play basketball on any kind of turf there is.  Grass, dirt, rocks, sand, you name it!  Our accommodation was nice, but there was no electricity and it was uber hot.  We learned that fans make a BIG difference when you are trying to sleep.

Day 5:  We took a snorkeling trip and saw some of the most beautiful corals and sea creatures ever!  The water was very blue and there aren't nearly as many tourists in El Nido as there are in Thailand, so the beaches were very private and the water was clean and clear.

I loved this beach.  You can see the entire beach in this photo as it was surrounded rock on both sides.

On the trip I managed to offend this Scottish girl basically every time I opened my mouth.  We were on a really small boat and I always try to make friend quick when I know that I'm going to be trapped with a group of people for a long period of time in a small space.  Right when we got on the boat, I was ready to chat it up and I overheard this girl talking about a tattoo on her wrist that was a circle.  Someone asked her what it meant and she said "Oh, I don't know, it means anything you want it to mean".  So I said: "I think it means the number zero".  And she said "Um, no, it's NOT zero".  And I said: "Well I want it to mean zero".  And then she was silent.

"Hi, I'm Becky.  Scotland sucks. Let's be friends!"

Isaac told me I wasn't making a good impression, so I apologized.  She looked pretty angry but I was ready to patch things up so I asked her what she did for a living.  She said she was a teacher in Australia.  Yes!  We had something in common!  So I asked her about Australia and talked about how it must be hard to live there on a teacher's salary because it was so expensive.  Apparently, this is really offensive and she told me off so I shut up and tried to re-group.  I was able to chat with the other people on the boat who were British and much more receptive to me.  Later, while eating on the beach, the Scottish girl wanted to talk about her scuba diving so she started telling a story about how she had seen all of these dolphins and I said "mmmm delicious".  She looked at me like I was the spawn of Satan.  Everyone else laughed, but I later found out that she teaches marine biology and is in love with dolphins.  Whoops!

Finally, I managed to offend her once more when she was telling a story about her friend who can eat a lot of food.  And I said, "Ooooh Haggas!" Silence.  She just looked at me, so I explained, "You know, you're Scottish so you eat Haggas".  No response.  It was at this point that I gave up trying to talk to this girl and pretty much just focused on nature and hoped to avoid her for the rest of the trip.  Other than my offensiveness, the snorkeling trip was really awesome and we enjoyed it a lot.

Day 6: We rented a dirt-bike to explore the island on our own and I realized that dirt-bikes are REALLY uncomfortable if you are the passenger and are riding on bumpy dirt roads in a wet suimsuit with chafing issues in 100 degree heat with a helmet that doesn't fit and bobbles into your sweaty face about every 5 seconds obscuring all vision.  Go figure.  I was a grumpy goat pretty much the whole time and refused to be in pictures and was a jerk to Isaac all day.  The views were really pretty and people were really nice but chafing makes you cranky no matter what.  Isaac was really great at dealing with my temper tantrums so that bodes well for when we spawn....also for if we ever ride a dirt-bike together again.

"Smile!"

This is why you take an uncomfortable 5 hour bike ride.  Completely deserted beach.

Day 7: We took another Van back to Puerto Princesa for the night before our flight and ferry to Bohol.  We got a flat tire on this trip and whilst waiting for the driver to change the tire, we met this super awesome German couple, Sabrina and Johannes.  We eventually made it to Puerto Princesa and ended up running into the German couple AGAIN at dinner and then the next day at the airport.  Apparently, they were also taking the ferry to Bohol.  Crazy!  We also learned that they live in Freiburg which is my favorite German town I've been to!  We got to chat with them quite a bit at the airport and on the way from the ferry and then we ran into them AGAIN on our last night on the beach in Bohol.  See pictures below.  We're hoping to annoy them more and maybe see them again when we visit Germany.  Isaac hasn't been to Germany yet so my trip doesn't count. 

Really didn't see this coming...not.

Day 8: Travel day to Bohol

Day 9: We hung out at the pool all day in our awesome beach front Villa:

Day 10: We traveled by motorcycle (yes I was able to get over my chafing/crankiness enough to take another trip on the back of Isaac's bike) to the beautiful Chocolate HIlls.

Hehe. Making chocolate hills.

Looks like Isaac has a little chocolate hills on his upper lip and chin.

Later that night we rode to the beach to eat and then got a flat tire about 6 km from our hotel.  About 10 people stopped to ask if we needed help which was very sweet, but there wasn't really anything they could do.  Another man took the bike to some shop near his work and "fixed" the tire by pretty much ripping it to shreds.  At least he tried.  The moon was full so our walk wasn't in complete darkness, so that was good.  It wasn't that bad of a walk, although I wasn't pushing the bike . . .

Day 11: The bike was repaired and we took a ride to a Tarsier Sanctuary to see the worlds smallest primate!  They look silly:

Day 12: Hung out at the beach and ran into Johannes and Sabrina again and had a nice dinner with them.

Day 13: Flight back to Bangkok!  Goodbye Philippines!  We will miss you!