Ariving in the philippenes

We arrived in Manila at around 7:oopm. Getting through customs was amazingly fast but that was the only thing that was fast. We quickly learned that in the Philippines it is best to practice patients. At customs, we were told we would need to extend our visas (which were only good for 21 days.) We didn't need to do it right away, but we would need a copy of our exit tickets when we did - so they sent us to the Philippines Airlines office to get our copy, where we sat and waited until 10:00pm that night.

We also realized that while Philippinos are extremely nice and helpful, they will tell you anything to make you happy, even if it is not true. Example: We needed to find luggage storage at the airport for our dive gear, because we didn't want to take it with us on the first leg of our journey. We were sent all over the airport from floor to floor - terminal to terminal because the people we were asking didn't know where it was but wouldn't say that. Thank goodness we did eventually find someone who knew what he was talking about and he was nice enough to walk us to the office and explain how it all worked. It was a bit more complicated than the lockers we had used in other airports - so it needed explaining.

Finally at around midnight, our time at the airport came to an end and we caught a taxi to our first Philippine hostel - the Townhouse.


The next day we headed off to Baguio, a smaller city up in the mountains, where our friend, Mira, grew up and where we would stay with Mira's brother, Dharmu. Because of Manila's traffic - all of the tricycles and jeepneys on the road - it took over an hour to get out of manila. The bus ride took 6 1/2 hours to go 280 kilometers (about 160 miles.) But we were eager to get out of Manila and to breath some clean air, and the bus showed the latest Herbey the Lovebug movie, so off we went.

Apon arrival in Bagiuo we realized it was smaller than Manila but still full of traffic exhaust, covered in concrete and streets full of thousands of people. You are in Asia, what did you expect a french man told us when we commented on our headaches from all of the pollution in the air and garbage in the streets.

Darmu picked us up at the bus station in Bagiuo and took us to his beautiful home outside of town - ahhhh fresh air and green trees, we slept great that night. Darmu and his family hosted us for three days and we explored Bagiuo and got used to the busyness of the city - a bit. One night Darmu took us out to Baguio Country Sounds Club where we got to listen to some great live country music and do a little dancing. The locals thought it was hoot to have a couple of white folks cutting a rug and even applauded us!

These are the colorful buses that take you around town - called Jeepneys they are left over from World War two and the owners paint them beautiful colors.
To get out of the heat and away from the traffic, we explored Camp John Hay, a lovely pine tree-filled park on the edge of Baguio. Bagiuo grew on us - although it is not the small town that Mira grew up in it was close to the mountains and the air was cooler and cleaner than in Manila.

We had heard about the local hot springs so on day three in Bagiuo we headed out to find them. Darmu told us to stay at Palm Grove Resort and hot springs - a friend of his owned it. Once we were settled into our room we went exploring and learned that the resort didn't actually have hot springs - they were across the street. Palm Grove, it turns out, is more of a family water park and conference center. Check out Woody on that Octopus water slide ;-)


Our room was really fancy and we got dinner served to us in the room and the view was spectacular, now we were in the country.

Later...we went across the street to soak in the hot springs. It is hot in the Philippine,s but in the mountains it gets cooler at night, and lucky for us, a thunder storm blew in and chilled the air even more this made soaking a pleasure.

That night we made plans to head to Sagada,another 6 1/2 hour bus ride into the mountains. Boasting of fabulous rice terraces, hiking, caving and small town charm, we hoped the hours in the bus would be worth it.

To see our photos of Baguio, please check out our web album.

Hong Kong

We had a day in Hong Kong as a layover (on our way to the Philippines) and were hoping to see a Giovannina's friend, Luca, but at the last minute he had to go on a work trip, so he left his keys and let us use his apartment. His two cats were excited to see us when we got there and they made us miss our Axl when they cuddled up to sleep with us that night.



Luca lives on Hong Kong Island in a part of town called Kennedy Town.
Taking the train from the airport and then catching a taxi to his house was easy and we even made a friend on the way that we later had dinner with - Linda.



The next day before heading back to the airport we explored Kennedy Town, walking the mountains behind town and eating our way through the down town as well as finding a great market to wander through. A friend of Woodys had told us before we left that the food in Hong Kong would be cheap and good but it was really good - $.50 for a bowl of soup / $2 for a big and dish of rice, vegetables and meat.

Thoughts on Hong Kong - the layout of the city isn't that different from other cities like Seattle or even New York. However, instead of housing developments or even multi-family apartment buildings, Hong Kong has 50 story skyscrapers. It's a vertical city, with as much going on up above than down below.

Check out the pictures of the amazing bamboo scaffolding on the apartment building next to the one we stayed in along with other photos at our web album.

Sydney

On March 22nd we turned in our car - the little Hyundai Getz that got us places - and said goodbye to camping on the side of the road. We checked ourselves into a hostel in the Bondi Beach neighborhood of Sydney, took a shower and went for a long walk along the water in the last of our clean clothes. We would be in Sydney for three days before our next leg of the trip.

Bondi is a quaint neighborhood located on the cliffs above some of Sydney's best surf beaches. There is a walk way that follows the water from one beach to the next and reminded us of Zoagli - one of our favorite beaches in Italy. We hadn't even seen Sydney proper yet but we liked this city a lot and Woody was talking about seeing if he could get a job for a community college some where in Sydney just so we could live in Bondi and he could surf the waves in his off time.


The next day we went downtown to see the sights - the Botanical Gardens, Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.


After walking all morning we decided to take a ferry to Manly (another neighborhood outside of Sydney), which gave us a chance to see the city from the water and rest our feet a bit. In Manly we got lunch, checked out the surf beach there and then headed back to Sydney. What a spectacular city! Set right on the water with mountains in the backdrop.


In some ways it very much reminded us of home - Seattle has many of the same features - but Sydney is much larger yet it doesn't feel like it. It is cleaner, better organized and incredibly easy to get around on train, subway or bus. But not cheap, you need money to live in this city.

With our time in Australia coming to an end, we both reminisced about what a wonderful time we had had and all the amazing people we had met. I (Giovannina) have wanted to go to Australia all of my life and Woody asked me if it lived up to all of my dreams. I replied "Some times our dreams are unrealistic but being in Australia felt like a dream to me, the animals have pouches and other odd adaptations and there are so many things that will kill you, you just have to live every day to the fullest - so ... yes I feel Australia was everything I wanted it to be and more."

When we arrived in Australia and were standing in the line to go through customs there was a girl in front of us that had a tattoo across her back that read "Dream until your dreams come true" It was very fitting and it made us both smile.
I am sure we will be back...... Many times, there is so much more to see, but for now - good buy Australia and off to Hong Kong we will go.

To see our photos of Sydney, check out the web album.

On Our Way to Sydney

In our last few days before we had to drop off our car in Sydney we visited our two favorite parks in Australia - Lamington National Park and the Blue Mountains National Park.


Lamington National Park had a great tree walk and we met up with our friends Julia and Mark (the German couple from Byron Bay) for a long day hike through the rain forest followed by TimTams and tea. Thanks to Matt and Lilia for the recommendation on Lamington - It was spectacular.


The Blue Mountains are only an hour outside of Sydney. If we would have known this, we could have turned in our car early and just taken the commuter train from Sydney - it looked like a great ride and it made many of the same stops we did.

To learn more about our time in Lamington and the Blue Mountains please see the web albums.

The Thirty-Five Year Old Grommet

Grommet - Surfer slang (although also extends to other boardsports, and surf sports) for a young surfer. Can also be used to refer to children in general, although usually they have some association with surfing/etc. (urbandictionary.com)

As soon as you take a surfboard off the roof of your car, you feel totally cool like you're about to do something that defies nature. You're going to walk on water. You're going to fly across the waves and defy gravity. At least that what you think will happen.

When Giovannina and I first started planning our 5 month round the world trip, I had one stipulation - I wanted to spend an entire week at a warm-water beach and surf every day. With the exception of a couple times out at Hobuck Beach, WA messing around in the white water, I've never surfed. Growing up in Narragansett, I did a lot of boogey boarding, but no surfing, and I've always regretted it. Now living in Seattle, it's 3 hours to the nearest surf beach and you need multiple layers of neoprene to avoid severe hypothermia. So, I figured if we were traveling around the world's oceans, it would be a great chance to surf.

In support of my dream, Giovannina gave me a week's surfboard rental for Christmas and when we were planning our trip down the East Coast of Australia we decided to spend a week at Byron Bay, NSW. Byron came highly recommended from many folks and so we booked a campsite at the Brokenhead Campground about 10 minutes south of Byron Bay and right on the beach.

After setting up camp, I headed into town and rented a board for the week. I wanted something hot and sleek, but I ended up with a soft-top 8' surfboard, bright blue and weighing half as much as my first car. Stable. That's how they described it at the shop. To me, it looked more like a pool toy, but I figured I'd trust the experts. I took it straight back to Brokenhead, put on my shorts and headed for the waves.


I sat on the beach for about 15 minutes scoping the waves, seeing where the locals went. They paddled straight through the breakers and hung out about a hundred yards offshore, bobbing in the swell and catching really nice 5' to 6' waves. It looked great. So I hopped in and started paddling. I felt wonderful. Sun. Waves. Surfboard. Then the first wave hit and I don't think I breathed dry air for the next two hours. I felt like I was in a washing machine, but instead of clothes I had a huge styrofoam door attached to my ankle. Sometimes I was on top of it, sometimes it was on top of me. But most of the time I was swimming and try to stay off the bottom .

I never made it out with the other surfers, and realized I probably wasn't going to, so the next day I decided to head to The Pass, the beginners spot. Actually, there were lots of surfers there - all types, beginners like me flailing away on their own blue or red spongy surfboards, and really good surfers twisting and turning on their short boards and gliding over the water on their longboards like they were driving a Cadillac.

It took me a while to get a feel for the beach. The waves broke off a point, but then curled around towards the beach in nice three to four foot crumbly breakers. Great waves for a newby like me. And because of the way they broke, I could ride one wave - or actually try to catch it, tumble off and get dragged twenty feet - for a while, then catch another without having to paddle back out. This was great. Or at least it was until I found myself sitting in the lineup with other surfers, but these surfers weren't like me. They were good. I mean GOOD. They knew exactly where to catch waves and when they did, they did very cool moves.


As for me, it didn't go as smoothly. A wave would come. It would look like it would break right where I wanted. I'd start to paddle, pushing harder and harder, and then the wave would pass underneath me. Nothing. I did this for about an hour when I finally found a wave that looked just right. I turned and paddled and paddle, muscles aching, back sore. I could hear the wave starting to break behind me. The sound got louder. I could feel the board swell up underneath me and then all of a sudden the board started moving on it's own. I pushed up and and slid my feet under me. I was up on the board! I was riding the wave! I was SURFING!

Then I heard a voice behind me say, "What the &#@! you doin', mate?" and this guy on a short board grabbed my leash and pulled me off my board.

Seems that I broke a cardinal rule of surfing:I dropped in on another guy's wave. I apologized profusely and upon hearing my American accent he frowned and turned away. A stupid foreigner. I felt bad for ruining his wave so I paddled straight to shore and walked back to the beginners' beach. I know I shoud've felt bad, but there was a little twinge of pride. I had that wave. And I had it well enough to piss off another surfer. That means, I was worth swearing at. That means, I was another surfer. Or at least appeared to be one. Yes.

I spent the next three days at The Pass, sticking to the beginner waves and improving, gradually. Giovannina, Mark and Julia came out surfing with me sometimes or went hiking.
On the last day, the four of us surfed all day. My back was sore and my feet were cut up, but I was finally getting it. By the end of the day I was catching waves regularly and even turning the board. I think another week of surfing and I might be ready for the big waves (ones that break where you can't stand up), but the road beckoned and it was time to move on.

It felt good to settle in and stay in one place for a week, the campground had a kitchen with fridge and freezer so we could buy fresh food to cook and keep it cold when we needed to (this was a struggle living in and out of the car). We also made some friends. We met a wonderful older couple that had been camping/traveling for the last four months, they were big birders and retired parks rangers/biologists so we had a lot to talk about.

We Also connected immediately with Mark and Julia, a German couple who had been in Australia for three months. After talking about our volunteer gig in Carins, they told us stories about being flown to a Island and left there for a few days to camp on there own. We spent most of the week hanging with them, surfing, hiking and even celebrating St. Paddy's Day. They met us at Lamington National Park, our next destination.