Cebu - Jeepney's, Honduraw, butterfly knives and PUMP

Cebu is the place that I spent the longest in for the whole time I traveled, so I think it merits a post about why its cool, why I left, etc. 

Just to play some word association, Cebu:

-Hot /Humid

-Jeepnys

-Tanduay / Being really drunk

-Jullianas / PUMP

-Manok

-Brown Cup breakfast

-Ferrys

-Nurses

-Pancit

-Reggae

Cebu was really good and really bad all at the same time,  Fun, but horribly humid; Chaotic, but also pretty dirty.  On the whole I liked it, but mostly because of the people I met there.  Had I met a different group of people I would have probably just passed through and not given it a second thought.    I think I was lucky that I found it good and don't think other people would find it as amazing as I did. 

Cebu to me is streets jammed with jeepneys carrying loads of nursing students into the city under a smokey haze from the numerous manok stands, fumes from the jeepneys and debris from the factories. 

Its meeting friends at Brown cup for the 2 dollar coffee, pancake, bacon, and egg breakfast at 11 pm to start the night off before going to Jullianas and then finishing off the night dancing on the bar at PUMP. 

Its trying every method possible to keep the ants, mosquitos and cockroaches at least confined to the floor so they don't crawl over you at night, and falling asleep listening to the sometimes horrible and sometimes melodious sounds from the karaoke machine down below that is constantly in demand, from 9 am till midnight. 

Its being offered the customary beer glass everywhere you go, by old men, young kids, etc sometimes even in the morning. 

Its spending the whole day in Ayala doing absolutely nothing since its just TOO hot to be outside and nothing else has air conditioning. 

I eventually left because I needed a break from the heat, was sick of eating pancit for every meal and kinda just wanted to go somewhere else, I have the curse of not being able to keep my feet planted in one spot for more than two months apparently. 

Cebu sunset taken from the boat back from Bohol

Cebu 'culture' park
I think this is supposed to be Lapu Lapu, the leader who 'killed' Magellan.   A lot of people think he was killed by his crew

Beach near cebu

My neighborhood Manok stand

Nurses on the way home from school

Fort San Pedro, the first fort in the Philippines

The main church in Cebu, which is very famous in the philippines because it has never burned down unlike every other church there it seemed. 

Philippines - Jeepnys

Number of fatal accidents I have seen in the past 2 days: 2. This makes me slightly worried about the amount of time I spend zipping about on the back of Budoy's motorcycle. On the other hand he's a good driver and if we drink we take cabs, so I feel a bit better, but I do really need to get a helmet or something. But on to the main subject of this post, which is.... JEEPNEYS, the main mode of transportation in the Philippines. They are bus/car hybrids that are usualy lavishly painted and decorate with either "god is good", or Kobe Bryant who apparently is tantamount to god in reverence since he is painted on jeepnys.  (The kobe brayant mobile used to be my jeepny of choice to get into the city).   

Basically no one can afford cars in the philippines so three quarters of the vehicles on the street are jeepnys which will pick you up at any location and drop you off at your destination for a mere 7 peso, or roughly ten cents.   You just wait by the side of the road until you see the right number jeepny (all have the route number marked clearly on the top).  Until you know the correct number you are doomed to ride around in circles or look like a tourist and have to ask one of the passengers in which case they wonder why a tourist would ever be riding a jeepney anyway and be too shocked to answer you.    Basically you just flag down your jeepney, climb in the back and pass the kid hanging off the back your seven peso. Then, when you reach your destination you hit a coin on the metal bars above your head so that the drive hears you and slows down to let you off.   Because of this jeepneys are definitely not the most efficient mode of transportation since they stop to pick up and drop off every few seconds, but they certainly are cheap and have lots of character.   Below are some pictures I took of the ones on my route. 

Cebu from a Jeepney window 

The sides are all open and they're pretty long, you can squish at least 10 people on each side, and they definitely pile in as many as they possibly can

This is the dude that hangs off the back and rustles up fares, a lot of times by yelling the destination as loudly as he can

Other jeepney art:

Apparently: "Australia, the legend lives on" who knows......

Another day, another cell phone

I sincerely apologize for complete lack of postage in the past month.  I went to australia and had far too much fun* and completely forgot about the whole blog thing.  I will try to be good about recreating these posts as though I am still in the philippines etc, but this is obvio a BIT hard since this was over a month ago and has begun to recede into the hazy parts of my mind along with calculus and Shakespeare.     I think I'll intersperse these old ones with posts about what i've actually been doing at the current moment if there is anything exciting going on in seatown. 

OK, this post would be from say february 20th or so.  Begin time travel: 

I am now on my third cell phone in three months, kinda ridiculous right? Someone jacked it off our table last night, which made me NOT happy. Did the usual Jullianas, Pump run, awesome fun, but not so much this morning when I woke up to little fists banging of on my door crying tia liz, borrow camera! borrow camera! only a few hours after I had gone to sleep.  All the neighborhood kids discovered that I lend out my camera and then suddenly I was their favorite person in the world.  They call me Tia (aunt) Liz now and greet me with a gesture of respect which is to touch my hand to their forehead when they see me which is pretty cool, I always knew I was kind of a big deal, just under appreciated.









Anyway, since I could no longer sleep my hangover off in peace in my room, I decided that it was altogether too hot to be hungover and set off for Ayala to try and find something to do all day in the air conditioning. To recap, I was very successfully, entering the mall when it was light and coming out after dark... 8 hours later. In that time I: bought a cell phone, ate three meals, bought and consumed a large quantity of aspirin, bored people on skype for a few hours with my hungover ramblings, watched a movie, and spent some time staring at the pictures of Seattle at SBC wishing it looked like that every day.

Ayala Plaza at night

Then as I was about to go home I ran into some friends outside SBC who were going to Honduraw, I had totally forgot it was a jam night, so then I had to rush home, shower, and change and then rush back into the city, which I'm not doing a good job of obviously I am here in this internet cafe blogging and not rushing into the city. Blogging is an addiction, and never install a counter that lets you see the nationality of your visitors because then you start to feel self important and spend even more time blogging. This week I have had visitors from: UAE, Hong Kong, Oz, United States, Denmark, China, UK and Brazil (Philippines too obvi). Coolness. Ok this was a completely pointless post, I'll try and think of something exciting I did next time, but my brain feels like its in molasses, I always figured that this is what it must feel like to be really stupid.

I'm a Cebuano!!

I got an apt in Cebu for 50 dollars a month!! I actually had been planning on leaving the next day to go to Siargao, but then I got drunk and woke up with a room rented for the next month... no joke, all Matet and Jurry's fault, they convinced me it was a good idea. My liver cancer will also be their fault. My room is pretty basic, just one room with an attached bathroom, and a bed so small that I have to be careful not to roll in any direction orI'll fall off, so I guess I won't be bringing anyone home, but that's ok, and now I'll spend so much less in the next month that I would if I were traveling around, and the best part = it was 50 dollars.

Ive made friends with everyone in the reggae crowd here, and we've been going to a lot of concerts and just generally being really chill cause thats what gangstas do, and its cool cause all of them have got dreds so I don't feel so odd man out. There is some amazing music going on here, I'll try and upload some videos to my facebook if I don't go crazy first because of the excruciatingly long load time. Its really cool cause the concerts are basicaly just big jam sessions - all the reggae crowd shows up and then after the band who was supposed to play finishes their set there is just a massive freestyle jam session.

So my friends here so far are:

Matet & Jurry - the first couple I met here, who helped me get my apt. Matet is gorgeous and has dreds that go all they way down to her butt. She works as a call center person right now bc she ran away from home at 16 because her parents wanted her to go into nursing and she didn't want to. Jurry is a really good artist who does badass henna tattos and plays in a reggae band here that is really good.

GK - Guy who has lived all over it sounds like; he just came back to the philippines from living in hawaii for a few years, which after hearing his stories I want to do. He has a radio show here, which I should listen to sometime, and goes to all of the concerts and generaly just knows everyone and is also a sick DJ.

Budoy - The guy with the badass motorcycle that is made all out of recycled things, for example the seat is an old tire. He was on big brother and the only reason he was voted off was becasue people wanted to see his dreds, but he wouldn't take off his head wrap, which he never does and is about twice the size of his head. Hanging out with him is funny bc everyone is always yelling his name and wanting autographs and shit. He's a sweeeeeet Dubstep / reggae DJ and makes his own visaya music on the side, I need to buy some of the CDs. Ive gotten to ride on his motorcycle 3 times now! wooooo, and it is the most fun EVER in the world.

Valentines Day festivities

* this post has been censored by someone limiting my freedom of speech... damn you infringing my rights zac

All I can say is that this valentines day was superior to the last three, but before you assume that I went on a date and was given a diamond tennis bracelet and roses lets recap the last three:

3 years ago - a pipe in my ceiling broke while my roommate was out to dinner with her boyfriend, spewing water all over my couch, guitar and computer. I called Campus Security to have them come save me, and got... a busy signal for thirty minutes...WTF? seriously, what if I was being killed????

2 years ago - broke up with the guy I had been dating a week before valentines day, and then started talking again a few days after valentines day, I think it was strategy on his part, but he claimed that no one in Norway celebrates it anyway..load of tosh.

1 year ago - Was given chocolates in an awkward and furtive manner by a 'friend' who was at the time dating one of my other 'best' friends, I don't think she got anything, this occurrence still puzzles me greatly and was really weird.

This valentines day I - went to a reggae concert, then out to a club, then went on a food binge/extravaganza with zac at 5am, going first to Jollibee, where we had a 2 hour deep and meaningful about life etc over our burgers and fries which seems to be our thing now, and then after, headed to the drugstore to get a giant bag of Cheetos to supplement my burger and happily munching them on the walk home while zac went off for a valentines day tea party. After going to sleep at 530ish Jess woke me up by calling at 6am, but I was still so incoherent and asleep that I don't remember anything of the convo.



I think my perfect valentines day would either be:
a. Pizza, good movie, beer
or
b. Dinner at the top of the clock tower in Prague with candles, champagne, and Al Green and then a night at mecca with the old crew.... unclassy vs classy

So yeah, I think that would qualify as a decent valentines day. Anyway, I hope everyone had a good party, and the people with boyfriends got a good day, and to the boyfriends congrats its over, you don't have to do anything romantic for another 11 months and 30 days now.

Various Thoughts

1. Dreds
For the past week I have had what kind of feels like a haystack on my head and I have mixed feelings about it. Most people say they like the way they look and they are kinda fun to have, but here are the downsides:
A. they are supposed to be all low maintenance and shit, but this is a lie. Maybe it's because i'm an slovenly human being and don't bathe as often as I should, but you still need to wash it like once a week, and then you can only use natural soap so its still as much of a pain in the butt, and they get little piece of hair that start coming out so unless you want nasty ones you need to constantly be poking that stuff back in, and I have little tails on mine that still get all tangled.
B. When you dive into the water they create drag, kind of like having a parachute on your head, so not advisable for swimmers (note to phelps)
C. Its given people something to yell at me -Now I get: Hey Rasta, Bob Marley, or Reggae. Which is kinda annoying, on Malapascua everyone just called me Reggae the whole time.

2. Fighting Cocks

Last night I went out with some Belgians and Swedes, who proceeded to get so drunk they bought a fighting cock - Then we carried it around with us all night, until it got too "unruly" and started scratching people, and then we returned it to its owner for the night. I saw some fighting yesterday when I was driving around the island, without the knives, and it was pretty cool, so now I really want to go to a cockfight, I don't really have that much of a problem with it since they eat the loser.


3. Philippines

I LOVE the Philippines, it is amazing. example: yesterday I was hanging out with my friend Marlyn up in Madredejos, her family is extremely poor - 9 kids, one room shack on the beach, shes the first to make it through high school, etc. Her mom went and bought my a pepsi and some bread for a snack even though I'm sure they didn't even have enough for themselves.

My plan right now is to go back to Sairgao for a month and do the following:
1. Learn how to surf at least decently
2. Learn how to climb a coconut tree
3. Play guitar more
4. Read the Idiot
5. Fantasize about buying property and living the


4. Life Goals

I also made a list of the things I want to do in the next five or ten years, in no particular order:

-Open a hostel or restaurant
-Go to cooking school
-Have something that I write published in some form even if only by my local newspaper
-Spend 5 months in India
-Work in Australia
-Drive from Gibraltar to Morocco around the Med
-Do Africa
-Learn how to sail so I can borrow the parents' boat
-Live on the farm and learn how to ride horses like a gaucho and speak better Spanish.
-Live in a Yurt/boat on Cortes Island
-Join a commune

Give me a shoutout if any of our goals converge

Cebu round 2*

*This blog post has now been censored of all objectionable content :)

Still writing hungover, so also will be a short post as result.

1. I got dreds

2. I slept on Zac's floor for three days which had the effect of = I got zero sleep, especial since one night he came back to the room and wanted to have a tea party so sent me to an internet cafe from 3 AM till the morning onwards. Funny story / FML: In my I-haven't-slept-in-two-days stupor I left my flash drive in the computer at the place, which contained the only copies of my first ten days in the Philippines. I discovered this at 9am, also while realizing that I did not know: the name of the cafe, where it was in cebu etc, since at 3AM I had just gotten in a cab and said take me to an internet cafe, go!, and they all look exactly the same and there are hundreds. I really didn't want to lose the pictures...I love pictures and I had a lot of sick surfing ones, so I got in a cab and just drove around for about 2 hours, getting more and more frustrated until by chance (I was asking for directions) I managed to stumble on the cafe from the night before, AND my flash was still there!

3. I bought a guitar for 20 dollars. Its orange and hopefully someone will teach me how to play cause I can't really remember

Manila = Madness

Manila was one big shit-show of us having absolutely no idea where we were going, or what part of the city we were in, or if we were gonna get killed immanently, etc. I had been to cheap to buy a guidebook, so we literally had no idea where we were, I didn't even know that manila is several cities and not one city with a main downtown, which made things a little interesting for trying to figure out where to go.

We finally found somewhere to stay for the night after wandering aimlessly for 45 minutes, and went to the nearby ladybar to watch the inauguration / get a beer.. I was exhausted so I wanted to go to sleep stat, but Liam really really wanted a beer and didn't want to go to a ladybar by himself, as he had already been propositioned a few times, so he dragged me down for protection, I watched the inauguration, which I've never seen before, I'm a bad American, so I gues it was a good educational experience.

The next day we bought tickets to Cebu on the ferry, and then went on an oddessy through what I think must have been all of manila's malls to find Liam a surfboard. After what seemed like eons of wandering around in circles totally lost among the ice rinks and Jollibees, (I hate malls) we finally found a place with surfboards and ended the agony.


Taco!!

I found cheetos at 7-11 for the first time in 6 months!!! this picture is my idea of pure happiness

Ferry to Cebu
Pretty sunset
Typical of the philippines. They were also testing guns off the side of the boat for about three hours on the way down. Pretty ridic.

Fighting cocks are alowed on the boat. No other livestock. Or wellwishers.


Prettttttyyyy