Bohol, my favorite island in the Philippines!

After Cebu I went to Bohol on a slow boat that took about 5 hours (not the longest boat ride) and they have beds on the boat for the long rides.





Beautiful sunset from the boat.
The Tarsier, the smallest monkey in the world. Small enough to fit on your palm.






Diving at Balicasag island (small island off Alona beach in Bohol) and my dive master, Kwats.
Alona Beach!








More Bohol to come later!

Apo Island, or in other words Small Paradise!

After Bohol, I went to Apo island off the big island of Negros Oriental. Another paradise island that is only big enough for 750 people to live and only has electricity 5 hours a day and no running water... But who cares when you're in paradise!!!
My super generous friends, Pad and Joel, from Bohol that practically escorted me to Apo island and wouldn't let me pay for anything along the way!!! Unbelievable, and just because they wanted me to enjoy the Philippines!!


Sunset and fishermen looking at Negros from Apo Island.
The one beach on Apo island.








The view deck.
Is it still necessary to explain that I was really on paradise!










Going out for a dive from Apo!
Paradise I tell you just paradise. This English man I met can't leave seem to leave the island so he decided to build a fishing boat with all his spare time!




Adriano (Australian), Liberty (the Chief of the Island), and Hugh the man who built the boat. This is in Liberty's community resort, one of the 2 resorts on the island, and where I stayed. I think you would have a hard time finding a more friendly place on earth.
Liberty is the reason this beautiful island hasn't been over run buy tourists b/c of her no more resorts can take over the island! Also, with her caring of the island she built a much need elementary school and put already 8 island children though University and is working of getting a medical facility on the island, and all with her own money!! I want to go back there are teach English at the school she had built if I can :)

Sadly leaving Apo island, but with Liberty's big heart being taken to her home in Valencia, Negros to stay a night in order to catch our boat early the next morning.

Arriving in The Philippines

I booked a flight to the Philippines when I first got to Singapore, and unfortunately the law to enter the Philippines is that you must have a ticket leaving the Philippines. So, I bought a round trip ticket to Manila and then back to Singapore, when really if I had been a planner it would have been best to fly to the central island of Cebu and then leave from Cebu directly back to Bangkok... Oh, well done and over with...

So, I started my trip in Cebu, which even though Cebu city is the second biggest city in the Philippines after Manila, it is still a much nicer city and the people are supposedly a bit more friendly (don't know if I believe that one). I met an Iranian guy on the airplane on my way to Cebu, so I traveled with him for a few days. It was really interesting because I learned a lot about the Iranian people and culture while I was in the Philippines, and turns out that a lot of Iranian students (as well as other nationalities) come to the Philippines to study because they can easily pay off the teachers to pass classes or to say they took a class that they didn't really take.

Then I took about 3 days to go south of Cebu city to Moalboal which is known for its scuba diving. And here was the first time I learned how different the Philippines is from Thailand. Even a place like Moalboal that is on every tourist map and every tourist itinerary to Cebu, this little town has no AMT machine, and little did I know but the closest one is in the town of Carcar which is an hour and a half ride from Moalboal. So, I ended up having to pay a habo habo driver 750 peso (~$15 ) to take me to Carcar... What an expensive trip to the ATM!

My dive masters from Korea, and really funny guys!

My second dive site... A beautiful little island off Moalboal.

The scuba diving really is great there, its all wall diving which I had never done before. And the water is bluer than anything I had ever seen.... also on my second dive I saw maybe 6 sea turtles and swam through a cave!!!
There was also a beautiful white sand beach nearby that had almost no tourists there and the water was of course crystal clear and the sand so white and so soft! The day I was planning to go back to Cebu City I thought I would go to the Moalboal city market to buy some fresh Mango's (the best in the world). The really really cute Filipino guy that was driving me ask if I had been to Kawasan Waterfalls yet, and I said no but that I was planning to go on the bus soon. He told me I had to see them before I left and that he would dive me there if I wanted, so I agreed. He took me to the waterfalls which were about half hour from Moalboal and once you get there you have to walk about another half hour to see all the waterfalls. So, while I was talking to him, his name was Cito btw, I found out he wasn't a habo habo (motorbike) driver at all that he was just on his lunch break and tries to make extra money sometimes by offering the tourists rides to the city. Well he was really informative in spite of it and told me all about the falls and about the Philippines and the people of Cebu and also taught me some phrases in Cebuano. He was in a bit of a hurry to get back to work but was super nice and cute!
Cito and me at Kawasan Falls!
Bridge over the Kawasan stream.

Return to Thailand from The Philippines

So, just a couple days ago I returned to Thailand from the Philippines. I haven't updated my blog in so long because the internet was very expensive in Singapore and traveling from island to island in the Philippines took so long that I didn't want to waste my time in the cities sitting on the internet. And the small islands I spent my time on were lucky if there was even electricity all day or running water. But all in all I had an unforgettable time and have so much to say about it but I will have to do it in parts for putting it into my blog and will do it soon.

Singapore

Wow! All the things you hear about Singapore are actually true. I felt like I was in a mini America that's very clean and where the citizens obey the laws. Their government buildings look like they came straight from DC and the Singaporeans dress like Americans... and I never thought I could pick out Americans by their clothes but I guess I can, then in the supermarket (which is set up like in the States) they have ALL the American brands, lol. Its really funny. But the difference is that the people are truly friendly, you ask where something is and with perfect English they explain the directions at least twice and draw you a map on some paper or a napkin :)

Something funny about traveling to Singapore was how many times they warn you about how all drugs no matter the quantity or which drug carries the same penalty under Singapore law, the death penalty! And they are very, very strict about their laws. Also, every time I got directions I was told only to cross the street at cross walks... and every one really does cross only at cross walks and they wait for the cross signal.

Singapore has three main populations, one from China, one from Maylasia, and last from India. So, I got lucky and was there for the Indian's Deepavali festival, or the festival of lights. Which is a month long celebration after their new year. So, I stayed a night in little India and got to try very tasty Indian food and took a tour around the area to learn about the festival and the populations of Indians living in Singapore.


This is just a funny escalator in the middle of a beautiful green park in the middle of downtown!





Downtown by the river.
You can find any kind of food in Singapore. This is a shop that sells meet that looks like beef jerkey but taste more like bacon...






An Indian Hindu temple directly next to a Chinese Buddhist temple. The Singaporean's are very tolerant people! The stands in front of the Chinese temple are selling flowers to take in as part of the Buddhist prayers.


The beautiful Esplanade from across the river.

The center of downtown looks very organized, right?







Well, all-in-all I really enjoyed my experience in this Asian country that feels nothing like Asia!

Leaving Thailand

Tomorrow morning I leave Thailand for Singapore!!! I'm excited and scared! I really hope traveling around Singapore will be as easy as Thailand, and hopefully I can go to Malaysia and the Philippines b4 eventually heading back to Thailand....

Mae Sai

Here I am in Mae Sai the northern most town in Thailand and one of the few official crossing points into Myanmar. Its a bit different here for me because its the first time I've been on my own for 3 days in a town with so few western foreigners. But its nice I guess :)

Yesterday I rented a motorbike and drove to the Golden Triangle, the intersection of Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. The town there, which is supposed to be a trading place for the 3 countries, was not to exciting.

Looking across the Mekong River at Laos on the right and Myanmar on the Left.

The little boy that kept following me, he wanted to take my picture for 5 Bath, so I took his picture instead and gave him the 5 Bath.

I went to some more caves. Tham Luang. Too bad you can't go through this cave in the rainy season because its flooded... its supposed to be 1 km long...

A cave not too far from Tham Luang.

Ok, and now I'm just going to rant a little about the poor Burmese people that cross the border into Mae Sai. First off, I've already seen plenty of poor people begging the tourist for money, so this is nothing new to me, but the Burmese people here is new to me. There are tons here and its not just one poor person, its entire families begging. Most of the time you get a little kid maybe 4 or 5 years old (maybe 3?) and their moms are not too far off watching with another little infant strapped to their back by a sheet. And you just have to give money or buy food for these people, the little boys' eyes are just too sad :( And then there are the old men that are not just poor and dirty but the are missing multiple arms and legs... And after a while you just can't give any more money because there are way too many of them and all of them are sad. And it just kills me because today I had a little boy begging and I'm not sure if he just had scratches on his hands or some kind of skin disease, but his hands were so scraped up and his face was so sad... (And of course I don't even need to mention he has no shoes.) So I saw his mom nearby (also with a baby) and took them to a food stand near by and she picked out some fried chicken feet and rice, and it cost me what 40 Bath, and what is that to me a little more than $1. Its nothing!! $1!! But at the same time its not really helping these people, tomorrow they will all still be on the streets here begging for money and the little boy's hands won't get any better... And so my $1 was nice and of course I will buy food for people like this again but what good is it???... and it doesn't really help me to rant like this... :(

Northern Thailand

As I've been saying northern Thailand is gorgeous! The forests are so thick and green!

Before I left Pai I took a motorbike trip with a friend to this caving town Tham Lawt (or sometimes called Tham Lod) about 75 km drive.

We passed through a Lisu village on the way there.

Then we took a kayaking tour through the caves. Which was so awesome, our guides were from the village of Tham Lawt and grew up on the river and exploring the caves bare foot. We had to use headlamps and lanterns to see where we were going while kayaking through the caves. Much of the river was white water and then we went over a dam (not inside the cave), I guess it wasn't that high maybe only 3 meters but it still scared the shit out of me... The picture is the exit of the cave. It smelled so bad because every night thousands of birds fly into the caves to sleep, so when you walk through the caves you're walking in 3-4 inches of bird crap, which was the only bad thing about the tour... gross!

The exit of the cave looking out.

The cave was much more amazing than this picture, and maybe I shouldn't post this. My pics didn't turn out well b/c the formations were too far away and too dark for my camera.

This cat became my friend at the lodge we stayed. So cute, I wanted to take her home with me :)

Drive home through the mountains :)

Thailand has stray cats and dogs all over the place. And the kittens and puppies are so friendly! My friend Damian (Switzerland) with a kitten at lunch.

And puppies!

I left Pai (the travellers mecca of Thailand) I think 4 days ago on a local bus heading east. I figured I would get to see a lot more of the Thai culture this way. And its true. My plan was to take the bus toward Chiang Mai and then change buses in Mae Malayah, go north to Tha Ton then take a boat south to Chiang Rai.

Here's what happened. I got to Mae Malayah and had to stay a night because that local bus to Tha Ton stops running after 4pm. Ok, 1 night in Mae Malayah, and nothing to do there the next day, we couldn't even find a taxi to go to the waterfalls. Took a bus tom Tha Ton, a much better town for tourists. And it has a beautiful location of the Mae nam kok river. Stayed there 2 nights (b/c of laundry) and visited this crazy 9 level wat on the mountain side, with huge Buddha statues and wats that look like they will fall off the mountain side.

Also took motor bikes through the mountains and to the town of Mae Salang, a small Chinese community... and the restaurant we ate at had really good food :)

Left: A Paduang village

Right: I think this is a Paduang woman... she was definitely smoking something crazy in that pipe!








The 4th level of the Wat in Tha Ton.

View from the top.


Another of the Buddha statues.

Then we took a bus to Mae Chan, where my friend Damian got off the bus to go south to Chiang Rai, and I stayed on the bus to go north to Mae Sai the northern most point in Thailand and a boarder crossing point to Myanmar. And here I am in Mae Sai the second day :)

Pics from Chiang Mai and Pai

Ok so here are some of the pictures I promised my mom.

From Riverview Bar in Chiang Mai. From the left Flo (Germany), Roy (Israel), Martian (Quebec).

From a rooftop bar in Chiang Mai. Just thought it was a kewl picture.







Breakfast with the group of people I met here in Pai.


Flo with his pink motorbike.









Waterfall here in Pai, that we swam to. I don't remember the name though.



A different waterfall. I was playing with the colors on my camera.

Elephant camp!

Scenery from the motorbike in Pai.