The rollercoaster of homesickness...

It's funny being Homesick, it's not one of those things that can be fixed all that easy so most times you end up just tucking it away and try not to think about it. I have been gone from home for about 4 months now and I find that I get really homesick around week 6....the first 3 weeks you kind of go through this discovery bit, week 4 and 5 you decide to take the high road and week 6 you want off! When I moved to Spain, I would get homesick around times of bad weather or when I was sick. Here in Manila, it's usually when something monumental or exciting happens at home. Nevada beating Boise State this weekend, I was homesick...My family getting together for Thanksgiving dinner at Steve and Susie's new house, I was homesick.
My main struggle here in Manila is that at work, I'm the only American, I can't really talk about "American" things without sounding like a broken record or just conceded. When the elections were going on and I saw that Harry Reid won, I had no one to talk about it to. Not to mention it is a lot easier to not be homesick when you are able to relate to the culture you are in, here, I don't have that. The culture is great, but it is so different then what I'm use to it's hard for me to grasp. I have enjoyed my time here, but next time, Sam and Cora are coming with me!

Goodbye for now....

Thailand was amazing! I have to say, if the Philippines took advantage of the islands and beaches they have, they could be just as popular (if not more)! I loved being able to do so much in so little time!

On our last day (Sunday) we were able to make one last stop to a Buddhist temple! We really didn't do a lot of "sight" seeing so it was nice to see a little bit of their religious culture. Besides, you always have to leave something behind so you have an excuse to come back!

I would highly recommend Thailand, it's cheap, it's fun and best of all, the beaches are amazing!

This isn't what I was expecting...

Today we rode elephants! Caro, Andy and I were really excited to do such an amazing thing, when we got there though, my attitude changed. There was about 6 elephants chained in a small area. I really felt bad for them, for some reason I was expecting them to have a little bit more room and even to be able to roam around. Caro and I got an elephant that was 24 years old and Andy got the youngest one, 9 years old. He wanted NOTHING to do with walking, listening to the trainer, so a lot of the ride was waiting for Andy's elephant to move. It was amazing to be on top of these amazing animals, but at the same time, it made me really sad.

Once the depression of the elephant ride wore off :) we went to the beach! We stayed there the entire day and may have gotten a little too much sun. Andy played soccer with a bunch of people and had a blast. Caro chased a boy down the beach to "take" his picture, and I just drank a lot of fruit shakes and thought about how much fun Sam would have had if he were with me. It's always hard to travel to places like this when you aren't with the person you want to share most of the moments with. I loved being with Andy and Caro, but had Sam been there it would have been pure bliss.

At night we split up, Andy went out to meet up with some Aussie Girls he met earlier and Caro and I returned to the same bar we went to the night before. It was a lot of fun to play games like Janga while having a beer! It was also a ton of fun to celebrate thousands of miles away the major victory Nevada had against Boise State! I can't believe I missed it! But I wouldn't have traded elephant rides, my cousins or Thailand for it!

Hopping all around...

We were well rested and ready to set out for our first adventure! The tour company picked us up and took us to the pier. We arrived and told where and what we were going to do, the first stop was Khai Nok Island, its about 30 mins away from Phuket and is an all natural beach. It was a lot of fun to pick sea shells and snorkel around for a bit!

We then got back into the boat and headed for Phi Phi Ley Island. Phi Phi Ley Island is one of the more famous beaches in Thailand and when the tsunami hit in 2004It was incredible to imagine a very calm day (much like the one we were experiencing) at 10:00am a huge wave crashed onto the island and pretty much whipped out the entire island killing well over 2000 people. I was very grateful nothing like that happened while I was there!

After Phi Phi Ley we went to Phi Phi Don where the famous Maya Beach is, for some of you that aren't familar, the movie, The Beach was filmed here. It's funny too because in the book, it's an island in the Philippines, not Thailand! Either way, it was a beautiful site and a lot of fun to take pictures. Caro wanted to take a walk in the "jungle" so we started to walk on the path at one point there was a tree in the middle of the path so she went running towards it and jumped onto it, well she had a little too much momentum and swung around the tree, when she sung, she got stuck on a branch, Andy and I had to help unstick her bathing suit bottoms from the tree! She looked like a little monkey the way she was haning there! It was hystarical!

We got back on the boat and went past Viking Cave, the cave is famous for it's bird nests that is a delacacy in Asia Cuisin, its also famous for paintings believed to have been drawn by acient Vikings.

We then went to Loh Samah Bay were we were able to snorkel a little bit more. I went with one of the guides further out of the cove, I was surrounded by so many tropical fish. I passed by a puffer fish and below me was a BARACUDA! It was atleast 6 feet long! I popped my head out of the water and asked the guide if I shoud be scared, he laughed and said, "Nah!!!!" It was incrediable. I scared me at first but then it swam off and I was just so excited I saw one!

We then stopped in another cove where Andy, Caro and I jumped off the boat and took "action" shots of us doing tricks! The water was so warm and blue that it was hard to get back onto the boat. After we got into the boat we made one last stop at Monkey Beach. There were a ton of little monkeys on this tiny island, they would come right up to you and take bananas or peanuts from your hands. It was a lot of fun!

After that stop our tour was pretty much over, we got back into the boat and went back to Phuket! All and all the trip was a lot of fun and well worth the money (it was about $50 but it included, transfers, snorkel gear, lunch, soda and water. I'm glad we did it.

Cheap! Cheap!

This is it! We were finally on our way to Thailand. After all the planning and wondering we were finally going! Not without a few hiccups though! To begin with, I only had about 2 hours of sleep in a 36 hour time span, North Korea had just bombed Incehon and I had booked my ticket to return from Thailand for the wrong day!!!!!

But after we were all sorted out and realized that North Korea is just plan crazy, nothing was going to stop us from going.

Our first stop was to Singapore, I have to say by far one of the best airports I have ever been to. Very efficient and very organized. I really truly believe you can judge a country by its Airport, so next time, I'm going to Singapore to visit. We only had about 2 hour layover so we just had a quick bite and left.

Our flight to Phuket was about 2 hours from Singapore, we took a budget airline (Air Asia) but over all it was a good flight. One funny thing that happened while we were in the friendly skies was we hit some random turbulence, I mean literally the plane jumped out of no where. Usually you can expect turbulence because the plan starts to shake a little, but this time it didn't happen that way. About 2 rows ahead of me the flight attendants were selling soda and beer, when the plane jumped one of the flight attendants screamed on the top of her lungs and jumped to the ground. It was by far one of the most hysterical/stupidest things I have ever seen. It put a lot of people on edge (as they had all right). I mean don't they train the attendants to not panic?!

Once we arrived in Phuket the Hostel we were staying at picked us up. We drove about 45 mins to Patong Beach and checked in. We had a mission to go island hopping so the first thing we did was book a tour. It was hysterical because the owner of the hostel Mr. Cha (from South Korea) kept saying, "Keri, cheap cheap, very good price, I give you HAP (half) price!" I would agree and say, "ok great, book it." He would then again say, "Keri, cheap cheap, very good price, I give you HAP (half) price!" It finally got to the point where I just said, "Just book it already, I don't care if its cheap cheap!" Andy, Caro and I had a laugh about it later and proceeded to say, "Hap Price, Keri I give you hap price," all weekend long...

Once we were done buying "Hap Price" tours we put our bathing suits on and headed to the beach! We had a great time on the beach and saw an amazing sunset. We all knew the sunset was a true sign of what was to come!

**Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, I'm very sad that I can't make it to any thanksgiving festivities, however, I think the beach in Thailand with Caro and Andy is a pretty good trade off!

Una Visita! (A Visit)

I had been looking forward to November because of a few things, one, it was the last full month I was going to be in Manila, two my cousins Carolina (Caro) and Andy were coming to visit and three, we were going to go to Thailand.

Caro and Andy came at one of the busiest times, but since I work such random hours, I was able to spend time with them and work about 12 hours a day. I got really lucky because Andy had a few friends that lived in Manila so the majority of their free time they went off and did their own thing with his friends. His friends really helped them see the good side of the Philippines. Manila being so big its really hard to get a good feeling about it. But since they had a car, they were able to be driven all over Manila and the out skirts like Taal Volcano and Batangas (a beach town about 3 hours south of Manila).

We were able to go out one night, the night they arrived. I thought they were crazy but they were so excited to be here that I wasn't about to spoil their fun. We went all over Manila and really had a great time. Their friends had rented a VIP area at a really nice club so we hung out there for awhile and then went to another club until about 4am! It was a great time and it was also really nice to hang out with people I don't work with! HA!

I was able to introduce both of them to the crazy but fun GreenHills were you are able to buy really good looking knock off designer bags for cheap! Caro was hooked (of course) and once she figured out what all the designer bags were, she was ecstatic and bought a few things. Andy being a boy didn't really care for the purses but got a few pairs for "Gucci" shoes for about $10! I of course being a veteran shopped for other people and got some great stuff as well. I have really (so I think) have mastered the whole bargaining bit. And I have also learned all the tricks to get to the price you want. Never thought I had it in me, but I think I would make a good sales person! HA!

We had a great time while they were in Manila but we were really looking forward to our big adventure in Thailand! I was excited because I wasn't as homesick as I am when I'm alone and I was also able to share some great memories with people I will be able to talk about them for a long time to come!

Who needs a Kuya when You have a Keri?!

This weekend was set out to be a weekend I would go and meet my college friend Paul in either Cambodia or Vietnam. We planned to meet over the weekend since that is really the only time I have to travel, unfortunately, it didn't work out. Since it's starting to be "high" season, airfare has tripled not to mention, getting flights out of Manila is extremely difficult and inconvenient. It's not to say I didn't try my hardest to make it work, but I just couldn't justify spending over $500 for a two day adventure. So Cambodia and Vietnam will have to wait for another time.

Bummed about my failed plans, I didn't want to spend the weekend in Manila so I asked some of my local co-workers where I should go for the weekend, the answer was Puerto Princesa Palawan. Palawan is a small island on the Southwest side of Manila. It's famous for its underground river, a popular scuba spot not to mention a great beach location. So I looked up flights and for a round trip it was going to cost me a whopping $60! So I announced to some of my co-workers that WE were going to Palawan for the weekend! We found a great hotel and plans were set.

We left early Saturday morning, the hotel picked us up in pouring rain and all of us were just praying that it wasn't going to be that way the whole weekend. We go LUCKY! Once we got to the hotel, the clouds cleared up and the sun came out, and it was like that the rest of the weekend.

Saturday night we went out to dinner at a great restaurant that sat in the middle of a Mangrove forest. If you have never seen a mangrove, they are trees that grow on the shallow ocean surface. They are really cool looking because the roots grow out of the ground and are visible. They also have Sand Mites that live in the trees called Nik-Nik's which cracked me up....luckily I had some great bug spray so I wasn't bitten by the Nik-Nik's!

Sunday we pretty much hung out by the ocean and pool. I had planned to go to the famous underground river, but someone told me that the top of the cave is really close to you so you feel a little trapped in the cave, being Cloister phobic, I wasn't too excited about it....Not to mention, it was so nice outside I just wanted to swim and relax.

Puerto Princesa is a very small town where most of the transportation is tricycles which was something I had never experienced before, but it’s pretty much a motorcycle with a side car that fits 3 people on it, so three of us sat in the side car while Hazel sat on the back of the motorcycle, since it was pretty much the only way to get around it was a "when in Rome" moment, not to mention, they drive very slowly in Palawan so it was too terrifying!

It was nice to go around the Philippines, especially with some Philippines since they are able to speak for me. The only part that I do not like, I outweigh all of them by an easy 50lbs so it’s hard not to feel "big" when I'm around them! ha! One funny story that came out of this was one of the girls Cae wanted to move her lounge chair but wasn't able to lift it herself, so she went to call Kuya (Kuya means older brother, but it is also a way to call for a man), I started to laugh at her and picked up the lounge chair and moved it, she said to me, "Wow, you are so strong, who needs a Kuya when you have a Keri." I got a kick out it and it made me feel better that my weight had some perks!

Palawan is a very nice, very easy going island, if you are traveling around the Philippines, you definitely need to visit this island!