would we go back? definitely. do we need some time? absolutely.

April 2nd, 2018

We were up at 3:30 (after not eating or sleeping well) to catch our flight to China. It's like someone was looking out for us though because there was a STARBUCKS. a real, genuine, STARBUCKS in the airport dammit. Those Filipinos are REAL PROTECTIVE of their starbys though because in order to get there I had to:
- put my bag on a scanner and walk through a metal detector OUTSIDE just to enter the airport
-put my bag on the conveyor and walk through another detector in the security area
AND FINALLY...
-show my boarding pass and passport to an agent at my gate who then passed me to another agent who opened and searched my bag who passed me to one final agent who wanded me
After this lengthy process we were quarantined in a roped off area

But my STARBUCKS was just on the other side. How would I ever get there? Because I WAS getting there dammit. It WAS going to happen.

And so it did.

After I surrendered my passport and boarding pass to the gate agents and was given a "hall pass" I was allowed to cross over to the other side to the land of the properly caffeinated and fabulously fed. It was heavenly.

After our three hour flight to China we boarded a fourteen hour flight bound for the US. It ended up being fifteen hours though, because we sat on the runway for over forty-five minutes waiting for takeoff. Woof. Usually I sleep well on flights but my arms and legs were jumping and my tummy still wasn't feeling quite right so by the time we got off the flight at 1:45pm Monday I sure was glad to be back in the Windy City.

Fun in the Philippines... April Fool's!

April 1st, 2018

Mark and I got up with the sun and got all packed because today was the day we were starting our journey home. We reluctantly trusted the hotel breakfast (could fruit and a pancake really make me sick? let's hope not!) We were picked up in a van and traveled Thai style to the airport in Puerto Princessa.

Before getting to the airport we made a pit stop for squatty toilets and buffet style baked in the sun filipino fish. That doesn't even sound appealing to a normal stomach, much less one that's been nauseous for two days. We'll just skip the pit and head to the port thanks.

Luckily for us even after the questionable stop we were 4 hours early for our flight. Plenty of time to have some normal food, right? We found a cafe upstairs where I got us plain noodles and a lemonade-- Mark was feeling pretty sick at this point. There weren't any seats so we sat on the tile floor and ate our "friendly for the recently food poisoned" noodles. After filling our tummies we found out that our flight was delayed. Fast forward-- our flight didn't take off until two hours after it was scheduled to, so that put us at 11 hours of travel time without even having left for our final destination. Woof. How did we pass the time you ask? We found some actual seats on the first floor (thank god!) and decided to play a game of cards. It was supposed to be a game for two but apparently Mark and I looked inviting because next thing we knew there was a small child grabbing at the cards and trying to deal himself in (and by dealing himself in I mean trying to run away with the cards) He was "dealing", yelling and even canoodling up to us-- a true poker player, really. The best part? Mark was so thrown off by our third party that his game suffered accordingly. The even better part? Mark got so fed up by the unsportsmanlike conduct one minute and the star crossed lover conduct the next that he started telling the boy to "stop" in Tagalog (the language of the Philippines). Little did Mark know however, that the boy wasn't understanding a word he was saying because he wasn't Filipino, he was Korean. The only thing missing from this scene was a camera crew and Ashton Kutcher yelling "punked". Unfortunately this wasn't a tv show, this was our life and unfortunately we boarded our flight right behind the Korean card stealing curmudgeon. Someone must've given him a tranquilizer though, because we didn't hear from him the whole flight. Upon arrival in Manila we were starving, so we grabbed food from jollibee, a filipino fast food chain that we found in the airport. Gross. Yuck. Disgusting. This was going to make me sick all over again. We left after having only a bite or two each from our burgers. Instead of looking for another food spot we headed to bed hungry because at 3:30am we would be up again trying to catch our flight to China.

Watch Out Food Poisoning Because We're Fighting Back

31st March 2018
We were up with the sun (Jaclyn a little bit before actually, so she got to see a beautiful glowing moon over the water)

We both had long showers and wandered down the road in search of a bland, non-filipino breakfast. We stopped at Boodle Fight, an adorable outdoor cafe. I was still really nauseous but was able to eat a few bites of fruit from their fresh fruit plate.

When we got back we asked the hotel to give our room a deep clean while we laid out by the pool. We spent the whole day alternating between spending time in the pool and spending time in our deck chairs. It was perfect. And beautiful. And warm.

We wandered down the street to an Italian cafe for lunch. My nausea got the best of me yet again but at least I was able to eat a few bites. We shared the place with a little girl who was playing her music extremely loudly and burping uncontrollably. Needless to say we didn't make it a leisurely lunch. Mark was feeling pretty good when we got back to the hotel so he decided to rent a kayak and do some exploring.

 I stayed near the pool and it couldn't have been better. For dinner we went to our tried and true Dos Quadros Pizza and ordered one for takeaway. We brought it back to our hotel and watched an incredible sunset while eating food we knew wouldn't make us sick (always a plus).

We decided to celebrate the fact that we had been up and out of bed for the whole day and treated ourselves to massages later in the evening. The masseuse Bernadette was a really nice woman, but boy was she chatty. She even insisted that I stay in the hut on the ocean while she gave Mark his massage so that I could "learn some pointers". What did I do instead? Fell asleep on the poor woman. Guess Mark will just have to go back to the Philippines if he wants a good massage.

bet you can't spend a whole vacation day in bed... but i bet you we can

30th March 2018
4 words- don't eat the fish.
Mark and I were in bed most of the day. We both felt absolutely terrible. At 3pm I dragged myself out of bed and walked down the street to get Dos Quadros Pizza- the closest non filipino food I could find. Mark and I choked down a few bites in bed. Later, he left to get us water and saltines. We had watched some tv in the morning, but when we flipped it on in the evening it was all fuzz. No tv, no internet, no nothing. About 9pm we worked up enough strength to sit in the chairs on our balcony for about half an hour. Then it was straight back to bed. But hey, tomorrow's another day, right?

Paradise... Or So We Thought

29th March 2018
We got up and enjoyed one more morning photo session on our balcony because well, see for yourself!

As we left to find breakfast the hotel staff advised us that many places would be closed because of it being Holy Week. They weren't kidding. However, we managed to find one restaurant attached to a hotel that was open. I had the American breakfast and Mark tried lonsigna, which is a sweet filipino sausage with rice and eggs. It tasted really, really sweet! After, we hopped in a jeepney (a vehicle from WW2 that has been repurposed as a mode of public transportation). We weren't sure where we were going and we had no idea what we would be paying but we knew we wanted to try riding in one, so we did. We watched other people get on and off and those people definitely watched us--we were the only foreigners on the rickety thing.

The jeepney stopped near a really crowded intersection and a man riding the jeepney asked us where we were going. We told him we weren't sure (which probably sounded pretty crazy) so he told us to get off here. Another passenger chimed in and told us the name of a church very close by that we should visit. We paid the driver our 8 pesos and jumped off the jeepney into the crowded street and boy were we glad we did. We happened upon a massive street market selling just about everything in existence, from ears of corn to underwear to mobile phones. BUT DAMN WAS IT CROWDED.

Shoulder to shoulder we wandered up and down streets until we came upon the church the woman from the jeepney had recommended. It was beautiful but it was SO INCREDIBLY FULL. People were standing, sitting, even wading through. I thought the market was bad but this church didn't hold a candle to it (pun intended). I usually don't have a problem with crowds but this was over the top. We stayed just long enough to say we did saw it and then started our hectic retreat. We headed down a side street to escape the masses and were able to wander at a much more comfortable pace. We saw a sintomas vendor and decided to stop. (Our taxi driver, Bong had told us all about sintomas and made us promise that if we saw one we would definitely try it). This was the first time we had seen one, so we asked the man about it. He removed one from the bunch, skinned it and cut it for us to taste. He then handed us some spicy pink seasoned salt to put on it. Woo! The fruit was bland on its own but the salt gave it a real kick! We paid and thanked the man and somehow ended up with even more sintomas that we couldn't seem to refuse.

This time, in order to get back to the hotel, we took a trike that had a motorcycle powering it, not a bicycle. The trike was equally as scary because we were whizzing in and out of traffic and stopping way too fast for my liking.

We made it back in one piece though and grabbed our bags to head to the airport (we were boring this time and just took a car). Now we were headed for Palawan, specifically El Nido. On our way we saw the strangest thing. I had literally never, ever seen this before. It was an overhead gas station. The pumps were hanging from the ceiling! How Crazy!!

This was the first flight where we had to check our bags (because it was a tiny prop plane), but we managed to get the exit row seats yet again. The airport was super tiny, but our airline, Air Swift, had prepackaged lunch bags for us complete with tuna sandwiches, juice boxes and roast nuts. We touched down after an incredibly short flight to what looked like a wooden lodge house but was actually the airport.

We took a motorized trike from the airport to our hotel and more times than not I thought for sure we were going to slide straight back down the hill we were climbing but somehow we made it to our hotel with bags intact (they had been tied to the back of the bike with a piece of rope).

Our room was paradise. It was beautiful complete with a balcony view of the pool and the ocean. We were really going to enjoy ourselves here!

The resort was lovely and small and had an outdoor bar and restaurant attached. We put on our suits and grabbed a beer while watching the sunset. Could it get any better? Of course it could. We ate dinner along the water-- I had grilled fish and Mark had mixed seafood chopsuey. Partway through dinner I headed to the room; something just wasn't right. We hadn't gone out the night before though because of my sun rash, so I was determined to see what the El Nido night life had to offer. I laid on the bed and told Mark to give me half an hour.  I'd rallied before. I could do it again. Then things got better, way, way better. I got sick. Multiple times. It was official- I had been sun poisoned and food poisoned. I felt so bad for Mark because now he was stuck in for yet another night so I insisted he buy a few beers and consume them on our balcony (away from the wonderful sounds of my sickness). And then it got even better. How? Because then Mark got sick too.

From Big Breakfasts to Dumpy Dinners

28th March 2018
We went to our hostel for breakfast but discovered that "breakfast" consisted of a small closet with rolls and water. We opted out and decided to find our own morning nourishment. We decided on Hotel Braska because they had a buffet in addition to a la carte ordering- now that was breakfast! We went for the buffet and filled our plates with fruits, rolls and jam and even each took a bowl of macaroni soup (which was VERY tasty!) Then, the waiter came to our table with a menu, asking us if we would like the American, Japanese or Filipino breakfast. Oh no thanks we said. We ordered the buffet. Our waiter explained that these breakfasts come with the buffet. WHAT?! so much food! now this was really breakfast! So Mark and I ordered one American breakfast and one Filipino breakfast (that way we could be adventurous and safe-- best of both worlds!) There were pancakes, eggs and bacon along with Tocino, which is glazed pork belly atop rice with vinegar and eggs. I really enjoyed the pork belly (minus the vinegar). After gorging ourselves on way too much food- oops! we sat on the outdoor terrace and sipped tea while reading our Philippines edition of lonely planet. We headed back to our room to get ready for the day and then went out to explore the neighborhood around us. But first, check out these views from our hotel balcony!

Our initial route was blocked by a closed bridge so we took a self created detour and ended up wandering up and down the slum blocks. It's truly humbling to see people living in different classes of society and it makes me incredibly grateful for the privileges I've been afforded during my life. After, we headed to the bay and wandered along Roxas Blvd, which was the street that ran parallel to the ocean. The water was really, really polluted which was disappointing because it tainted the potential beauty of the city along the bay. While walking, we kept getting stopped by horse and carriage drivers asking if we wanted a ride. No thanks, bruh. We continued to wander and ended up in Rizal Park, one of the main sights to see in Manila. There were TONS of people and they were all sitting on these aluminum blankets so that their bottoms weren't in direct contact with the ground. Not us. We sat right down on that ground and damn were people looking at us funny. Aluminum Blanket Sellers kept approaching us because surely we wanted one of those things. Imagine their surprise and confusion when our answer was no. While sitting directly on the ground, Mark had his first bengbeng-- a candy bar I came to know in Asia-- to hold him over before lunch. He liked it just fine.

We decided to wander Intramuros Square to find a lunch spot. The area is beautiful. There are tons of old buildings that have been restored and preserved from the 1700s. We chose to eat at Ilustrado, a high end restaurant hidden behind a quaint garden area.

We tried ox tongue- it was delicious and very tender.

After cooling off in the air conditioning our next activity was to explore Intramuros, a huge fort built by the Spanish in the 16th century. Much of it is rubble thanks to US bombing, but it's still amazing to wander around. I mean, it would have been, had I not gotten horribly, horribly sunburnt the day before which caused me being in direct sunlight to be almost unbearable. Our Intramuros exploration turned into Jaclyn running from shady spot to shady spot while Mark leisurely walked and took in the sights, full sunlight beating down. One of our indoor stops, which I quite enjoyed, was heading into a cathedral. There was a group singing and inside there was an opportunity to light a prayer candle so we did.

Once back outside, Mark came across a massive artillery battery, something he was really impressed by and glad we stumbled upon. I needed some shade so we headed back to explore more of Rizal Park's 150 acres. We chose to sit in a Japanese Garden and while there had a lovely interaction with a local girl, Malen. She approached us and asked if she could talk to us about her fundraising campaign aimed at helping local youth conquer their vices and become more pure individuals. She told us a lot about her time in college, because that was her time especially tied to this organization. The conversation turned and we ended up talking about her culture and heritage, in addition to her family and where she's lived and traveled within the Philippines. She shared with me something about the Filipino school system that I found very interesting. She told us that Filipino children learn Tagalog and English side by side at school starting when they are very young and continue all of the way up. This made so much sense to me because nearly everyone we'd encountered, from vendors on the street to taxi drivers had spoken with us in English. I was amazed and impressed! I really enjoyed speaking with Malen and hearing her story and I think she enjoyed talking with us as well because after she gave us a handmade beaded filipino flag keychain from her organization as a memento. After sitting for awhile we decided to stretch our legs and wander in the park. We had some children come up to us begging (something incredibly common on the streets of Manila) and we were ready. I was able to give them the beaded flag keychain to play with and they were so happy. We continued on walking to the site of Jose Rizal's execution. Rizal was a Filipino academic who advocated for the his people to rebel against the Spanish rule. Because of this, he was executed by the Spanish. Not far from his execution site is a huge monument dedicated to him that is guarded full time by two uniformed guards.

Among the other things we saw in the park were an art gallery, families having picnics, and vendors selling balloons and other toys. As lovely as the park was, we couldn't stay there all night so Mark suggested going to a rooftop bar called Skydeck at the Bayleaf Hotel to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful 360 view. We had a drink and enjoyed the breeze as the sun went down.

At this point my sunburnt arms had endured all they could so we went back to the hotel in search of some after sun. While I doused my arms Mark went to 7/11 to get dinner. Little did he know that I don't drink gatorade, nor do I eat pre-made 7/11 sammys, especially the spiced ham and cheese or chicken salad ones. Thank god he got me a bueno bar. One out of three ain't so bad :)

Whale Shark Watching

MARCH 27TH, 2018

Although we had ordered breakfast the night before, when we got downstairs at 6:30am the restaurant was swamped. (but the views were fantastic!)

We waited until 7:05, shoved our food in to go boxes and ran down the street to the whale shark interaction center. While waiting, I drank a mug full of hot, caffeinated tea. Upon arrival at the center I became super nauseous and had to find the bathroom. I came back and ate my toast while Mark and I watched the safety briefing video. The boat we boarded looked very much like a crab. I later was told the reason the boats were built like this was for extra stability and less rocking while sailing on the sea. Boy would I have been thankful for these types of boats in Thailand! There were 6 of us on our boat- two russians, a spaniard, a local teenage boy and Mark and I. The boat crew consisted of a boat driver and a spotter. The spotter called out so we all hopped in, but the shark got scared and swam away. While our spotter kept an eye, we sailed across the beautiful blue sea. It was a gorgeous day full of sun and I was soaking up every minute of it (a bit too much apparently because once we returned home my arms, back and neck were red as tomatoes). We'd spent a few hours on the boat without a sighting so I had resigned myself to the fact that our boat may head in without us getting a chance to swim. However, at the last moment, our spotter told us to hop in quick. Within seconds ten plus boats descended upon us and hundreds of people were jumping in all around us.  I looked down and saw the tail swim under me. I swam as hard as I could trying to keep up but there were so many people. It was exhausting. The process went like this: we swam for awhile following the shark and then the boat looped around, picked us up and sped ahead so that it could drop us in the water in front of the shark and we could swim with it again. By the end of this pattern I was so tired, but it afforded me the opportunity to swim right above the shark-- if I had reached my arm down I would have been able to touch it I was so close. Mark was able to swim much faster and managed to get in front of the shark so he got an amazing view of it's mouth. Because this was at the end of our four hour tour, we didn't get to spend as much time in the water as the spaniard man on our boat would have liked, so at one point he refused to get out of the water while our boat chased him down. He just kept on swimming. Once he did get out he was yelling at our guide on the boat. It was super uncomfortable, so the rest of us just sat in silence while eating sandwiches and fruits.

Once we returned to shore we headed back to our hotel to shower and change (we had to check out but were able to leave our bags at reception).

We went down the road for lunch and ended up in our own quiet bungalow overlooking the ocean. It was perfect! I ordered chicken in coconut cream with rice and papaya and Mark had blackened fish (his was tastier than mine) After lunch we took a nap in the hammocks and then grabbed a drink at the outdoor bar of our hotel. We met a really nice guy, Mike, who was going to see the live crucifixion reenactments that were supposed to be taking place later in the week. (This wasn't news to us because Mark's aunt had traveled to the Philippines previously and had told us stories about her time at the crucifixion). Mike "knew some folks" so had press pass access. We exchanged contact info because Mark and I sure were curious to hear what the easter crucifixion reenactments really were like. TBC...

After our mid afternoon drinks we hopped in a van with Manfred and headed to the airport in Legazpi. The airport is INCREDIBLY tiny, so much so that all of the eateries and restrooms are located outside of it. We sat outside on chairs made out of truck tires while we waited for our flight- we couldn't go in the airport until our plane arrived because there was no room for us.

As we waited outside we were able to see the ashy glow from Mt. Mayon in the distance. It was a beautiful evening.

Once we landed in Manila we headed for Tambayan Capsule Hostel, a swanky new age accommodation with great reviews. However, when we arrived (about 9pm) they informed us that there was a problem with our room and that we had been upgraded to a 3 star hotel down the street. Say WHAT?! We were on the 34th floor and had an amazing view of the city complete with our own private balcony. We sure were living in luxury!