Philippines: Beachbumming, Karaoke and Meat on a Stick

Okay so we actually ended up having to blow all of our American cash reserves on a plane ticket from Cebu to Bankok before arriving in the Philippines to show that we would not be there for more than 21 days without a visa. Luckily, we met a Filipino girl on the plane named Chenera (Chen for short) who, within 5 minutes of talking to us, immediately invited the two of us to stay with her 7 friends in their 3 bedroom apartment. It was pouring rain when when we arrived at the Cebu airport. We hopped in a taxi with Chen and a few of her friends and waded through the flooded streets. It was 5am and we were exhausted, but crammed into a taxi with 5 people and all of our luggage, the rain pounding down on the roof, and dancing queen blaring from the radio, we were kind of delirious. So we just kind of went with it.

We arrived at their apartment 15 minutes later. It was very simple but actually pretty big. Plastic furniture, air matresses, a tiny 10 inch TV with 2 channels. We came in and Chen offered us mugs of warm milk and a loaf of "American recipe" white bread. When you come through the front door, you take off your "outside" shoes and slip on a new pair of "inside" sandals that you keep on while you're scooting around the house. But you can't forget to take them off when you go into the bedroom - you leave your shoes in a big pile outside the door and tiptoe around barefoot.



All of Chen's friends were soo nice and friendly - always laughing and goofing off. One of the best parts was when we the 10 of us went for dinner to a filipino BBQ. This is no mom and pop throw the weiners on the grill with the lighter fluid type of BBQ. You enter into this huge venue - the whole place if filled with smoke. In the middle are rows of tables. Each table is connected with a different BBQ stand. Their owners jostle to get you to sit at their table, and once you pick one, you head over to select what meats you want BBQed. Duck liver, pig intestines....they all come on skewers. We stuck with your basic chicken breast and BBQ pork. The food was SO GOOD. You suit up with a plastic baggie on your eating hand to keep from getting too messy. It looks goofy but hey it works! You also get these little rice balls that come wrapped in palm fronds - you take them and dunk them in a mixture of soy sauce and chillies. YUM



After gorging ourselves on filipino BBQ, we headed for our first experience of filipino karaoke. Filipinos are OBSESSED with Karaoke. It's cheap - maybe $1 per hour for a private room, a big color TV, and a song book. But Karaoke in the philippines is totally different from Karaoke back home. Like, you know back home, when people sing karaoke, it's usually after getting hamsauced at a bar? This is different. Karaoke here is serious business. You don't drink. You don't sing Pour Some Sugar on Me. You sing ballads. And you do your very best to sing. No one laughs if someone is a bad singer. In fact, we've heard stories about people getting shot in the head for laughing during a karaoke performance. Not funny anymoreI think I'm finally starting to get into it. My rendition of "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley was a pretty big hit last night. I even sang it with a little Jamaican accent. HAH Erik and I were laughing inside, but they were eating it up.



The next day Chen and her friend Irene woke up at 6am and helped us get on the bus to Bantayan. As the bus started taking off, she handed me a little anklet made of shells. So sweet! Hey, I guess I'm a real backpacker now. I got my first official anklet. :)


It took us 3 hours by bus, and a 1 hour ferry ride to Bantayan Island. A guy named Don Don ended up offering us a ride on his "tricycle" (a bike connected to a carriage for 2) and he took us to sugar beach and helped us get a place to stay on the beach for 600P (about $12). Bantayan is really quiet. The beach is gorgeous with white sand, blue water and palm trees. In the market you can get street meet for less than a buck and sing karaoke for 5 pesos per song (about 2 cents). Wherever we go, Erik and I get constant stares and people are always saying hi, wanting to chat and find out where we're from. I think for Erik it's more about his height, and for me it's my eyes. It also has to do with us being lighter skinned. There is actually a multimillion dollar industry surrounding skin whitening in the Philippines - because darker skinned filipinos
generally work out in the fields.











This morning Don Don actually helped us relocate to a new bungalow in a more secure location on Budyong beach (our old place had a front door that had obviously been kicked in before. yikes). Now for 500P we have our own bungalow. Double bed. ON the beach. surrounded by palm trees. We spent the whole day playing in the water :) We're having such a great time, I think that we are pretty much planning on being beach bums for the next 4 days until we head back to Cebu to go to Chen's Christmas party.
















Well guys, the beach is calling!
Hope you enjoy the pics! :)
loooove
megan and erik