Seoul to Manila

I'm going to do this in 2 separate posts. Even though its only been a few days, so much has happened its insane.

One of the last things we did in Korea was to check out the National Museum of Korea again. We were able to see a bit of it our first time through, but since we had extra days in Seoul after the China hiccup, we decided to go back and see it again.

I guess we all realize just how old we are getting when our vacations consist of visiting museums... None the less, it was an amazing place; Huge exhibits revolving around the history of Korea, pieces dating back to the stone age. Taking pictures in a museum seems a bit like cheating (you can see a lot of the exhibits via online pictures any way) but there were a few things I just had to take a quick snap at. Just to give you an Idea of the scale of the building it took us well over 8 hrs to view all the free exhibits. We didn't even see the pay to view exhibits.



At the airport we got another taste of traditional Korean culture as we watched some of the traditional music being played. No pictures but expect it to be on video when we get back!

Our first experience with China gave us a bit of a foul taste for it, though we won't let that discourage us. As I said before the whole Visa issue was quite a pain but when we arrived there we were all amazed at the amount of phlegm that the Chinese can produce. Not only that, but as we quickly found out, communicating was extremely difficult. We've been to other countries where people didn't understand us but at least some would make an attempt. We have been able to communicate with hand signals etc but arriving here people hardly even tried.

Our first meal wasn't that great either. It was a sort of fish soup but it must have been prepared like this... Throw a fish in water, stew it, serve it. After spending 40 minutes picking bone out from the inside of our cheeks we ended up with about 2 oz of fish each. The broth was.... not so great, but at least it was so oily and greasy that it just slid down without much thinking about.

Any way, we only had 1 day there so we aren't going to let it sway our opinion too much. We still plan to go to Yanshou after the Philippines.

We arrived in Manila around morning time and came to know the most common phrase here. "Sir! where are you going, where are you going my friend?"

We left the airport with the intention of walking to the LRT and getting to the (random) hostel that we picked out in Manila. Asking directions was a bit harder than we expected. Not because of the language barrier. Most people here speak decent english. The problem was with disbelief, perhaps a sort of cultural misunderstanding. No one could believe that we wanted to walk that far.

As a result every one we asked for direction gave us nearly the same answer, it went a bit something like this... "The LRT? you go down to the end of the block... then get a taxi." When we assured them we wanted to walk it was a bunch of scrunched up faces and the phrase, "too far, too far!"

We never did end up finding the LRT but we did manage to walk all the way to our Hostel, which ended up being about 11 Km. It took us the rest of the day and into the night but it was worth it. We got to see more of the city than a lot of people do as we walked down streets and through market places. Though we didn't know it at the time we had actually walked through one of the major market places in Manila, Baclaran market. We wound our way through the busy market, our packs making us about as big as any 2 people along the streets.

Vendors had their stalls pushed so far out into the streets that barely a single car could squeeze through. The tight spaces weren't the only difficulty to contend with, while it may sound callous, fighting off begging children while simultaneously watching our wallets was an adventure in itself.

We would also learn to shrug off and make ourselves look very uninteresting. A self preservation mechanism as we are bombarded by dozens of people trying to sell us anything from watches to silver dollars. Nathan and I were making jokes that when people see us walk by they grab what ever they have in their pockets and try to sell it to us..."hey man you want ot buy some lint, only 5 peso's"

My last description of Manila (to save me talking about it in further posts) is that I don't think there is a city on the planet with higher emissions than here. Jeepneys and buses spew out black smoke. The pollution is so thick that by the end of the day (albeit we were out walking around in it) you are coated with a black film. Significant enough to see wash off you in the shower, even after only 12 hrs of being in it. It took a while to get used to but its not so bad to us now. Lets just say it (along with the rest of the trip) has helped us to redifine what we think of as "clean"

Another of the fortuitous events from us walking all the way to the hostel was that it allowed us to arrive at just the right time to meet our impromptu Manila guide, Whitney. Whitney in turn introduced us to Harold, who in turn introduced us to Phil and Mary. In a matter of hours we gained contacts in Dumaguete, Manila and Sorsogon.

It's amazing how many times we have benefited from things not going according to plan.

Herald offered to take us diving and get us a discount on Nathan's Scuba certification. He also is the one that told me where I could find Whale sharks to dive with during this season.

The next day we went around to some of the sites that we had chosen in Manila. We stopped by the embassy (because our families requested it so strongly) and were amazed to not see a single American there. No American guards, nothing. When we went to "check in" all the staff was very confused. They gave us a flier with a way for us to register on line.

From there we headed to Intramuros, The oldest standing part of Manila. We found a little bar near the wall and rested there as the sun took its place on the horizon.

The next day we went to the only sporting goods store in Manila, the R.O.X. It's crazy how hard it is to shop here. All the shops have the same stuff, and so far the Philippino idea of "sporting goods" is baseball, basketball etc... gear. Even the stores that do sell butane stoves, and tents have no selection. Like 1 or 2 models that are completely over priced and have been sitting on the shelves since 1987. At least I got a good picture of the Fort Benifacio area at sunset.

We spent about 3 days in Manila, b/c this is when Whitney was leaving, (she had been here for 3 years doing peace core work) and hopped a bus to Capas so that we could catch a trike to Santa Juliana, which is where I will leave off and start the next post.

This picture is just one that I was amazed with. It was just a single tree in intramurous that I was amazed at b/c it was the only clean and fresh looking thing in the entire city. Flipping through all my pictures, this one caught my eye b/c it looks almost professional!