Caylabne Bay Cavite

We set foot on the beach of Matabungkay in Batangas almost eve of the 1st of May, 2009. Ate Joyce (the beautiful lady) wanted to have family outing and me and Sue got invited. We ate some lugaw early in the morning. And then rented a balsa where we will take some lunch. The sand in the beach is not that white and the sea is crowded by this balsa. So there are little space for swimming, but we still enjoy our time in here.

It was lunch ...

... other loser kittens were just going to have to step aside or get trampled. Jane liked her attitude so we took her home. When we got there we opened the carrier. Did she run and hide under the furniture? Hell no. She just strutted out, gave a quick look around, and gave it her "paws up" approval. She was home. And she was definitely Jane's cat. Sometimes we thought she was more dog than cat. She followed Jane everywhere and ...

... we'd need. We started at S&R which is like Costco or Sam's Club back home except the membership is only the equivalent of $12.50 a year. We found a lot of familiar food items mixed in with the interesting local stuff. There were several flavors of Ben & Jerry's ice cream available. All the way from Vermont? I wonder what the carbon footprint on shipping a pint of that is. There were also good deals on lots of ...

... away from the airport as teh cab would have been 100 pesos instead of 400 (exchange rate is 44 pesos to 1 dollar). So we do this, hop in a cab after we specifically asked for meter, put all our bags int eh trunk adn he starts going. At this point I ask him to start the meter and he says "yes, meter" and taked out a piece of paper he laminated himself that said airport to malate (area where we were staying) 400 pesos. At this point i laughed in his face because I ...

... and three others decided that a three hour wait while busses were organised was just not acceptable. We hitched a ride with a local to the gat of the estate, then we grabbed a Took-took ( a motorised Tri-shaw ) to the highway. We then hijacked a taxi. The driver had no idea how to get to Maynila so we put him in the back seat and we drove. We didn't know how to get there either it would seem. At one point we drove into an area that I was sure I'd seen on TV in ...

I really wanted to go back to the Philippines and see my step mom, little brothers, and the rest of the family but I wasn't really sure if the budget could handle it. My dad also really wanted me to go since he wouldn't be able to make it to my little brother's graduations. As soon as he offered to pay for my round trip plane ticket to Manila from Bangkok, how could I say no? I went back to Joes' apartment in Bangkok and started searching for a good deal to Manila. I ...

So today we went on another outing to view more of the Philippines, but this outing is our first voyage off the big island of Luzon. To get to the island of Corregidor we obviously had to get on a boat... Before I tell you too much I must explain. This trip generated too much info to share in my "diary" blog, so I've ...

Well a slightly different experience today, I went to the island memorial of Corregidor. The largest of the islands guarding the entrance to Manilla bay Corregidor was quickly seen by spanish sailors as an ideal place from which to protect their harbours from British and Chinese pirates. After the spanish American war the Americans began reinforcing the defenses on the ...

... with water park, animal park, basketball (you know I hit that up immediately) and volleyball. I guess the advertising was right it called it said it is a escape from reality which in some ways it has been but as I experienced in Morocco and I have no doubt I will grapple with on a daily basis here the drastic dichotomy of existence is only across the water and street from our luxurious resort. The shanty towns, cardboard homes and amount of garbage are ...

... efficiently accomplishing each task before you at your own pace. There was also something very comforting about being in my natural setting and going about my way the way I always did. From the health center to Madocs to PLM to HP and to OM... I was dead tired by the end of the day, but it was all good. We met with the original owner of "F". Jeff had a blast telling our story ...