Thursday-Monday, July 24-27
Do I need to know how to spell Philippines to visit??
Although I had the worst time trying to figure how to spell Philippines, and MULTIPLE problems trying to purchase tickets.. I was excited to be off on another excursion.
Thursday
We left HK airport around 9 pm on Thursday, after a full day of classes and a quick packing session. Our flight attendant, Michelangelo, was so nice and helpful and one of the other women was also helpful in giving us suggestions on what to do and see while in Manila. When we arrived we were surprised at how small the airport was and quickly tried to get through the temperature control and customs. We had been warned to only take yellow taxis, so we found a yellow taxi to take us to La Casa Nicorosa, our hotel. We had been on the plane with some other CUHK students, and they had suggested this hotel to us, so we figured we would stay there for at least the first night until we figured things out. We ended up lucking out by getting to the hotel before the big group, so we were able to get the best room and get situated.
Friday
We woke up early, started our day with coffee and bananas at the hotel, and then were off to see Manila. After getting a tip from the concierge, Laura, Kyle, and myself walked to the tourist bureau to get a map of the city and find the highlights. We walked around the battlefield and fort, enjoyed lunch at a Philippines cafe, saw the history of Manila at the National culture museum, walked through Rizal Park, around Chinatown, saw many historic churches, the GE building in Manila, and ended our tour at the Philippines Tech University which looked more like Hogwartz than a University. Each college had a different uniform that the students had to wear. The business school had the best uniforms, so I decided I would have been all set. We tried to take a "jeepeney" for about an hour, but they all seemed to be full, so we finally settled on taking a taxi back to our hotel. The traffic at 6 pm on a Friday was crazy, and we wondered if it was because of rush hour, but when we passed the RC Church, we realized that everyone was flooding to the 6 pm service. The city of Manila seems very religious, which was a change from our observations in HK and China. We spent $7 between 3 of us on dinner and buckets of beers - WOW!
Saturday
This morning we woke up and were ready to go to a volcano inside of another volcano with the other CUHK students. They had planned a day trip to this site, and needed three more people, so Laura, Kyle and I were in. It took about 2 hours to get to the "resort" where we had a delicious outdoor lunch/dinner, and then took boats across to the volcanic island. Once we got on the island, we rode horses to the top to see the other volcano inside of this volcano. It was a fabulous view and great day to do this. The weather was must more bearable away from the city and it gave us a good understanding of the Filipino village life. I especially enjoyed my horse-riding helper, Kevin. He spoke English very well and was willing to tell me about his life. The ride home ended up being about 4+ hours, but it gave us a chance to get to know Dave, Zuhair, and the others who had come from CUHK. We all went to dinner at a delicious kebab when we got back, and then tried to make plans for the next day. Everyone from CUHK was going on a trip to a water park, and as much as we wanted to join them, we just couldn't figure out the accommodations.
Sunday
Late on Saturday night we decided we would go to the waterfalls in Tanjansan. It was about an 1 1/2 drive, and we would go white water rafting to the falls. The river water was very dirty looking, and I later found out that it might have made me sick, but the white water rafting ride was so intriguing, as we traveled through cities and were able to go under the falls. I really enjoyed being in nature all weekend and trying some new things - although we did a lot, the weekend was rejuvenating!
Monday
We were out of the Philippines by 8 am, and were back in HK by noon. This allowed us to catch up on sleep, homework, and laundry. Unfortunately, I got sick somewhere in the Philipinnes and was in bed for most of the day (and next 4 days!)
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