So many things happen that I never have time to update you (for instance, I write this blog entry 2 mo ago & I'm just now updating you, blech...)- clearly, I’m awful at this whole keeping a blog thing... also, having Facebook doesn’t help my motivation any!
Anyways... The Philippines!!!!
The Philippines was AWESOME!!! (Of course!!)
I joined Berengere in Manila on Sat. 12/19 (her birthday!)- I got in at 1am or something ridiculous like that and the taxi could not find my hostel for 3 hours thanks to the fact that the Philippines is not well known for using street signs OR numbering their buildings... So, I’m falling asleep in this cab in the middle of the most... how do I adequately describe the place? dirty? poor? scary? ghetto? Just try to picture all those combined in one place... eventually we discover the hostel tucked in the center of barred-windowed establishments and I go pass out in my bed.
The next day B and I proceeded to check out the Chinese cemetery right next to our hostel- the Red Carabao. The Chinese Cemetery was a crazy burial place!! There were mansions with bathrooms & AC for deceased ppl!!! Man, those Chinese REALLY cherish their ancestors!! It was a bit freaky walking up and down the streets like we were in a ghost town but it was a pretty neat piece of culture.
Some locals invited us to “dine with them” as we were walking outta the cemetery and we chose to partake in their festivities.. We walked down this alley where they threw up a table & chairs for us... 
They were having a baptism and had all this food and alcohol that they kept shoving our way... it was more food than I’ve seen since I don’t know when. They were insanely nice and we felt like 1st rate company.. we were sad to leave them a few hours later to board our flight to Cebu (an island in the Visayas)... but we made some great friends! :)
We got into Cebu, took a ferry to Bohol,
and grabbed a tricycle to Panglao Island. A tricycle is one of the main forms of transportation around the Philippines- basically a motorcycle with a box around it for ppl to sit in. Each tricycle driver adorns his box with his own accouterments and there’s a buncha rosaries & religious statues since we were in one of the most Catholic countries in the world...
We get to Panglao Island, find our little lover’s cottage (lol) at Alumbung, and proceed to walk to “Alona Beach”- the hotspot. We get a little lost in the woods but eventually pop out on the edge of the beach, find a diving center (Philippine Fun Divers!!)
, and sign up for an Open Water course! The rest of the day we drove around trying to find tampons... an EXTREMELY hard find...
The Open Water Course was THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER!!!! Professor Ogs C. Cruz was our UH-MAZING instructor who made me feel so at ease about possibly imploding my lungs and dying while under water! ( I’ve always wanted to Scuba dive, but have always been freaked out about the going down and coming back up... and well, just so happens- those are the 2x most ppl die! well, or have issues...) 
So... naturally I was freaked out about this and Ogs wouldn’t have any of it... he was a GREAT instructor! We decided we wanted to get the course done with so after the water sessions in daylight, we finished our academic portions via alcohol @ Coca Vida- THE spot!
(Well, Ogs’ spot... they even have a pillow for when he just passes out at the bar! lol... which he needs to use a lot more, if you ask me!)
After gradulimicating the OWC on Christmas Eve, we decided that we’d had SUCH an amazing time with Ogs and the Philippine Fun Divers that we just couldn’t leave just yet... We rang in Christmas day drinking and dancing at Coco Vida- Hiroshi (one of our “fave” Japanese dive instructors was QUITE intoxicated and was essentially the main entertainment~)
On Christmas day, Ogs took us to see the Tarsier monkeys- the smallest monkey in the world, the smallest primate in the world!!!
So cute, they reminded us of mini-ewoks and can spin their heads 360degrees!!! We drove around the island of Bohol and Ogs showed us the “Chocolate HIlls” which were largely uneventful and unimpressive, despite them being Bohol’s ‘claim to fame’... I mean, they’re brown hills- whoopie! lol.
We took the LONGEST, most PAINFUL motrobike ride that lasted 4 hours to Denali Adventure park where there was a bungee jump over a ravine... it was freaky~ I won’t lie... and I told Ogs that I couldn’t do it- this is when I truly realized my greatest fear next to cockroaches, mayonnaise, & divorce- is HeIgHtS!! ack! .... but it was motivation enough to return to him in Panglao b.c. ONE DAY... one day, I will bungee jump that ravine... :)
So, we broke down on the way home & we stuck in some- not-even-village for Christmas night, finally got to Panglao way past dark with extremely painful asses from the plethora of dirt roads with amazing huge rocks that we had to maneuver around.... ouchie! Whew, we slept well that night...
We finally said our tearful goodbyes the next day and headed via ferry to the next island over- Siquijor.
Known for it’s mysterious voodoo and magic, most Filipinos won’t come here due to it’s freaky reputation.. But, naturally, it’s got great diving so we had to check it. Tata Relacion was the 2nd most awesome dive instructor we had on our trip- no one could compare to Professor Ogs- but Tata was amazingly hospitable and of course, plied us with ample amounts of alcohol AFTER diving--
we were starting to think that it was a diver’s thing to be given so much alcohol after diving & sitting around with your dive master drinking until the wee hours of the morn... and well, it pretty much is...
We had a great few days with Tata and saw lotsa sea life, like sea turtles, Barracuda, Jack Fish, etc..
Next we hopped over to Dumaguete, the college town on Negros Island. Stayed at B’s french friend’s NICE Malatapay resort. Had a NICE massage & then hopped over to Apo Island for some New Year’s diving..
Apo Island had no running water, electricity was only on for a few hours a day and shut off by 9pm, and only has 2 major families that live on the tiniest island I’ve ever been on... Now, due to the remoteness, it took an hour via tiny boat
and there’s only one place to stay.. It’s one of the best diving spots in the WORLD!! (with very few ppl, there’s no pollution or destrcution via human beings... so the reefs are to kill for and the views are oustanding..)
We met some awesome Swedish peeps- Anja & Melker- whom we drank with and partied til New Year’s with... They were more advanced divers so you can only imagine how much we eager newbies were obsessively asking them everything about diving...
Sad to say goodbye to our new friends, we returned to Dumaguete after a few days of Robinson Crusoe- style living and hung out with B’s french friend... Who, BTW, pays something like 500USD$$ per month for this INSANE mansion ON the beach that would cost close to 3million in the US... it’s RIDICULOUS-O!!!
(Sidenote: it was here that we decided our new goal in life would be to save up a buncha money via our jobs in Seoul, then quit, move to the Philippines, open a bar, & dive on a regular basis... it’d be amazing and fairly cheap and easy... no one steal my idea!!)
Well, we missed Ogs too much... We missed the Phlippine Fun Divers too much... We missed our fave dive masters... we literally sat around day-dreaming about Panglao... We HAD to go back!!! (Now, we didn’t want to look like obsessive losers but couldn’t contain ourselves and wanted to spend our last few days in the Philippines with loved ones instead of partying it up at the hot party spot- Boracay!)
Naturally, we were welcomed with open arms from our fave PFD crew! :) 
We dove, got massages, drank at Coco Vida (of course!) AND ate a Balut (.... a fertilized duck egg that looks and sounds disgusting & scary but REALLY wasn’t that bad... it tasted pretty good actually and it was DEF a piece o culture! :) ) This Balut, btw, AND the fact that we returned to Panglao earned us the title “Ogs’ #1 fave students EVER!!” ~~ which we worked SO hard to finally obtain! :)
Ogs taught us to fire dance on the last night! Scary and hard... but not too bad and I was actually able to do it with some fire!!! It’s ok, Mom, I’m still alive! lol.
we promised we’d return in the future & nicely tanned but ridiculously depressed, we returned to a very snowy snowy Seoul...
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