Philippines:
I was in Manila for less than 24 hours, but it was surprisingly better than we all expected. Before our departure, we were warned by a few people that Manila would be a little sketchy and we should be extremely careful. It really wasn't as bad as everyone tried to prepare us for; the people were generally nice and carefree. Unlike other countries in SE Asia, the Philippines is a Catholic country. Therefore, it added contrast to see a large cathedral rather than a Buddhist temple. Something that was really unique to the Philippines was the presence of male "urinals" on the street. They were situated on the street like telephone booths, except in appearance it resembled a large barrel on poles with the top and bottom cut out and a vertical slit down the middle to allow men to go in and out. It was hot pink in color and the inside was completely hollow. The main purpose of the urinal was to cover men from public view while they relieved themselves on the street. At first I wondered if it was really necessary. That was before the driver of our Jeepney jumped out of the driver seat while in traffic to relieve himself on another Jeepney parked beside us. Adam said the guy even made the "kind" gesture of flushing the street of his urine with a little water from his water bottle.
After talking to my dad this morning (Monday morning Taiwan, Sunday evening US), I was enlightened with the knowledge that in addition to being stationed in Taiwan my dad was also stationed in Manila. It was nice to be able to compare his perception of Manila (1960’s I presume) to my perception of Manila today. He said that he enjoyed Manila because the people were nice and they cooked like black people. I also made some correlation between the Filipinos and black/Hispanic people. While in Manila I could feel the same essence I feel while in LA or Miami.
Travel trip: Manila has a departure tax of about $15.00 USD and don’t feel afraid to ride on the jeepnies. Also, request the use of meters in the taxi or be prepared to bargain down your taxi driver because they will over charge.
Thailand:
The second stop on our journey was to Thailand. Thailand was probably one of the most anticipated on our 5 country tour. Jill (my one and only roommate for those who are a little behind because I haven’t made a post in like 6 months) and I were extremely stoked about having AUTHENTIC Thai food and beer. In Taiwan, Thai food is one of our favorites (Jill is much more addicted than I). The anticipation of knowing that we were going to have Thai food straight from its original source was so enticing, that we had a Thai food fast before embarking on our trip. 
We landed in Bangkok at about midnight and headed to the hotel. The next morning we met up with Beth, her sister Kate, and Kate’s friend Kelly. From there, we headed to Bangkok proper and to the touristiest street in SE Asia: Khaosan Road. The street was crowded with backpackers and old Euro-tourists. Everyone’s skin glowed with the “I went to Thailand for holiday” tan. About every other 3 vendors was a stand that could braid or dread your hair in any/every color you desire. So along with their tans, many of the tourists would also choose to get the bohemian dread hairstyle to accompany their carefree motif.
Amongst this ocean of ultra-tourist commercialism, there was a fountain of milk and honey. Within the streets there were these gods and goddesses of food and drinks on a cart. These wonders would create mouth inspiring Pad Thai and milk tea that would take over your senses and literally make you want to “slap your mama” (Except I would never do that ;-). Eating and drinking was the best part of the trip to Thailand and it was extremely affordable.
That same day, Adam and I split from Jill and Virginia to join Beth and her group. We headed off to Phuket on an overnight sleeper train (highly recommended if you have plenty of time to spare and you’re traveling on a budget). After a lot of confusion and unanticipated spending, we arrived in Phuket about 22 hours after we left Bangkok. The trip should have only taken about 15 hours, but that is all water under the bridge.
Once we finally arrived in Phuket, we were without housing, which resulted in us walking door to door looking for an available hostel. When that began to feel fruitless, we walked into a hostel called the Pineapple. The woman there told us she had no room, but her friend who didn’t speak good English had a dorm room open. She escorted us barefoot down the street to a quaint sky blue building and up the stairs to a 12 person dorm room. The rather large room was filled with empty bunk beds. It was perfect! We stayed there for 2 nights, and rarely ran into the two other guests who shared our room. The cost was only 200 Baht (~$6USD)! And to top it all off, there was an affordable restaurant under the hostel that served the most amazing Pad Thai, Thai spring rolls, and chicken satay that was served with the best peanut sauce I have ever tasted in my 22 years of existence! The restaurant was called the White Elephant and was only in its first month of business. The owners were a sweet couple that just moved to Thailand from France (the husband was French and the wife was Thai). They helped us arrange a taxi to Khao Sok and the husband drove us to this great festival about 15 minutes away from the tourist part of the beach. The festival resembled a Taiwan night market, except some of its delicacies differed. Fried bugs seemed to be a favorite among some of the Thai people. Feeling courageous, Beth’s sister Kate tried a grub. She purchased a serving, but after trying one she decided to give that “tasty” treat to one of the on-looking locals.
If I was to sum up Phuket, I would sum it up by describing its good, bad, and ugly.
Our next stop in Thailand before we headed back to Bangkok was to Khao Sok, a national park that houses one of the oldest rain forests in the world. It was absolutely beautiful and it provided a nice change from all the commercialism we saw in Bangkok and Phuket.
We stayed in a “tree house,” which was actually an elevated cabin designed to appear as if the post were actual trees. Behind our tree house was a river that we had to climb down the rocks to reach. When it started raining (like it does everyday in the rain forest), we made our way down on the slippery rocks to the river in our swimsuits. We walked around and played for minute, then headed back to the cabin. The next day, Adam and I did a short hike to one of the many waterfalls in the park. Once we made it to the waterfall, Adam pushed me in!!!! Ok, so he didn’t actually push me. He convinced me that my short little legs would be able to leap to this slippery rock. My body told me that between my lack of coordination and short limbs, I would not be able to successfully make it to the rock, but I tried anyways given Adam’s persuasion. That’s when I slipped and fell into the stream. Adam later ended up falling into the waterfall as well. Except, he fell in full body while only my feet and legs fell in.
After our hike, Adam and I took the bus back to Bangkok to meet up with Jill and Virginia.
Travel trip: While in Bangkok, use a taxi rather than a tuk tuk. Although based on appearance, it would seem more logical for a taxi to cost more given its higher comfort level (AC, enclosure from all the pollution in the streets, and space). In reality, the tuk tuks take advantage of tourist ignorance and often over charge. Also, request the use of a meter in a taxi.
I was in Manila for less than 24 hours, but it was surprisingly better than we all expected. Before our departure, we were warned by a few people that Manila would be a little sketchy and we should be extremely careful. It really wasn't as bad as everyone tried to prepare us for; the people were generally nice and carefree. Unlike other countries in SE Asia, the Philippines is a Catholic country. Therefore, it added contrast to see a large cathedral rather than a Buddhist temple. Something that was really unique to the Philippines was the presence of male "urinals" on the street. They were situated on the street like telephone booths, except in appearance it resembled a large barrel on poles with the top and bottom cut out and a vertical slit down the middle to allow men to go in and out. It was hot pink in color and the inside was completely hollow. The main purpose of the urinal was to cover men from public view while they relieved themselves on the street. At first I wondered if it was really necessary. That was before the driver of our Jeepney jumped out of the driver seat while in traffic to relieve himself on another Jeepney parked beside us. Adam said the guy even made the "kind" gesture of flushing the street of his urine with a little water from his water bottle.After talking to my dad this morning (Monday morning Taiwan, Sunday evening US), I was enlightened with the knowledge that in addition to being stationed in Taiwan my dad was also stationed in Manila. It was nice to be able to compare his perception of Manila (1960’s I presume) to my perception of Manila today. He said that he enjoyed Manila because the people were nice and they cooked like black people. I also made some correlation between the Filipinos and black/Hispanic people. While in Manila I could feel the same essence I feel while in LA or Miami.
Travel trip: Manila has a departure tax of about $15.00 USD and don’t feel afraid to ride on the jeepnies. Also, request the use of meters in the taxi or be prepared to bargain down your taxi driver because they will over charge.
Thailand:
The second stop on our journey was to Thailand. Thailand was probably one of the most anticipated on our 5 country tour. Jill (my one and only roommate for those who are a little behind because I haven’t made a post in like 6 months) and I were extremely stoked about having AUTHENTIC Thai food and beer. In Taiwan, Thai food is one of our favorites (Jill is much more addicted than I). The anticipation of knowing that we were going to have Thai food straight from its original source was so enticing, that we had a Thai food fast before embarking on our trip. We landed in Bangkok at about midnight and headed to the hotel. The next morning we met up with Beth, her sister Kate, and Kate’s friend Kelly. From there, we headed to Bangkok proper and to the touristiest street in SE Asia: Khaosan Road. The street was crowded with backpackers and old Euro-tourists. Everyone’s skin glowed with the “I went to Thailand for holiday” tan. About every other 3 vendors was a stand that could braid or dread your hair in any/every color you desire. So along with their tans, many of the tourists would also choose to get the bohemian dread hairstyle to accompany their carefree motif.
Amongst this ocean of ultra-tourist commercialism, there was a fountain of milk and honey. Within the streets there were these gods and goddesses of food and drinks on a cart. These wonders would create mouth inspiring Pad Thai and milk tea that would take over your senses and literally make you want to “slap your mama” (Except I would never do that ;-). Eating and drinking was the best part of the trip to Thailand and it was extremely affordable.
That same day, Adam and I split from Jill and Virginia to join Beth and her group. We headed off to Phuket on an overnight sleeper train (highly recommended if you have plenty of time to spare and you’re traveling on a budget). After a lot of confusion and unanticipated spending, we arrived in Phuket about 22 hours after we left Bangkok. The trip should have only taken about 15 hours, but that is all water under the bridge.Once we finally arrived in Phuket, we were without housing, which resulted in us walking door to door looking for an available hostel. When that began to feel fruitless, we walked into a hostel called the Pineapple. The woman there told us she had no room, but her friend who didn’t speak good English had a dorm room open. She escorted us barefoot down the street to a quaint sky blue building and up the stairs to a 12 person dorm room. The rather large room was filled with empty bunk beds. It was perfect! We stayed there for 2 nights, and rarely ran into the two other guests who shared our room. The cost was only 200 Baht (~$6USD)! And to top it all off, there was an affordable restaurant under the hostel that served the most amazing Pad Thai, Thai spring rolls, and chicken satay that was served with the best peanut sauce I have ever tasted in my 22 years of existence! The restaurant was called the White Elephant and was only in its first month of business. The owners were a sweet couple that just moved to Thailand from France (the husband was French and the wife was Thai). They helped us arrange a taxi to Khao Sok and the husband drove us to this great festival about 15 minutes away from the tourist part of the beach. The festival resembled a Taiwan night market, except some of its delicacies differed. Fried bugs seemed to be a favorite among some of the Thai people. Feeling courageous, Beth’s sister Kate tried a grub. She purchased a serving, but after trying one she decided to give that “tasty” treat to one of the on-looking locals.
If I was to sum up Phuket, I would sum it up by describing its good, bad, and ugly.
- Good: The FOOD (yummy desert alert: fried banana pancake drizzled with chocolate sauce and condensed milk) and the nice people we met
- Bad: transportation cost and abundance of old Euro-tourist
- Ugly: The bug snack, yuck!!
Our next stop in Thailand before we headed back to Bangkok was to Khao Sok, a national park that houses one of the oldest rain forests in the world. It was absolutely beautiful and it provided a nice change from all the commercialism we saw in Bangkok and Phuket.
We stayed in a “tree house,” which was actually an elevated cabin designed to appear as if the post were actual trees. Behind our tree house was a river that we had to climb down the rocks to reach. When it started raining (like it does everyday in the rain forest), we made our way down on the slippery rocks to the river in our swimsuits. We walked around and played for minute, then headed back to the cabin. The next day, Adam and I did a short hike to one of the many waterfalls in the park. Once we made it to the waterfall, Adam pushed me in!!!! Ok, so he didn’t actually push me. He convinced me that my short little legs would be able to leap to this slippery rock. My body told me that between my lack of coordination and short limbs, I would not be able to successfully make it to the rock, but I tried anyways given Adam’s persuasion. That’s when I slipped and fell into the stream. Adam later ended up falling into the waterfall as well. Except, he fell in full body while only my feet and legs fell in.After our hike, Adam and I took the bus back to Bangkok to meet up with Jill and Virginia.
Travel trip: While in Bangkok, use a taxi rather than a tuk tuk. Although based on appearance, it would seem more logical for a taxi to cost more given its higher comfort level (AC, enclosure from all the pollution in the streets, and space). In reality, the tuk tuks take advantage of tourist ignorance and often over charge. Also, request the use of a meter in a taxi.
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