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. 

Bohol Trip..UBEC crew represent

Bohol is an island 2 hours from Cebu which the philipina governemnt randomly decided was destined for great things and have run an overwhelming tourism campaign based on Tasiers, which are common on the island - by the way tasiers live all over the philippines... not just on bohol.  I don't really understand the appeal of tasiers either, they kind of look like a cross between ET and a possum. 

Anyway.... We all went to Bohol for the band's concert, which was reaaaallly fun although I was SO sick (thanks Matet) that I had to go to sleep and didn't even see them play..which was too bad, so most of my pictures are from the next day when we all went out to some beach place for the day before we had to go back to Cebu. 

On the boat on the way over:

Filippinos have clearly embraced text-speak..

Rules, rules rules...There must be huge problems with cleanliness in the philippines because every bus and boat had this sign. 

UBEC Crew represent (everyone in Cebu calls it UBEC) 

On the boat ride over....

Sound check

Really big space they played in.. apparently they're a big deal

Really pretty church in the main town on Bohol

Beginning of beach pictures from the next day:


Jah and Santo Nino

Jurry had the job of dispensing the Red Horse to everyone.

Lunch before it went on the grill

Pretttttty

Morning after the concert everyone is looking a bit rough... Wear it Chief 

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

Batayan 2 - more motorcycle fun, again without getting hurt

Pissing rain this morning, so I was going to split my time between the internet and food, but as I was happily munching on my crepes (out of my budget) I remembered that I had told the kids from yesterday I would meet them at the square today, (gasoline to drive over there also out of my budget). The thought of them waiting anxiously for me to arrive made me feel a bit guilty, so I got on my bike and headed over to Batayan town.

They were indeed waiting for me, so I would have been kind of a Grinch not showing up. After they went back to class I ambled around the town for a while trying to find a library but had luck, which is a bit depressing, everywhere needs a library - mado this can be another of your plan Bs if everything in CA goes to hell. Vincenta said she had a few books I could borrow so I headed over to her school, getting to test out my off-road motorcycling skills on the way, which I would say left something to be desired and need a bit more practice.

The school was somewhat like I had expected, ramshackle, small classrooms, even smaller desks, 40 kids to a room, etc. I got there in the middle of English lesson and caused a huge stir that was very uncondusive to learning anything. Even after Vincenta had closed the doors to the classroom there were still about 30 kids with their faces pressed against the window watching me like I was a circus freak. I'm going to go to the drugstore tomorrow and buy them colored markers because the classroom didn't have any, and also give some money for new paint for the classroom.

Since I was already in Batayan town, and had three mangoes left over I decided to head up to Kota Park again and see the people up there I had met the day before. The kids loved the mangoes, and I made friends with one of the girls my age from a fishing family. She was in kind of the same boat as me - IT worker who got laid off because of the financial crisis. She said she was getting really bored living at home and wanted to move back to Cebu city, but couldn't find a job. Hopefully that won't be me when I go home for the summer.

They were all extraordinarily welcoming, the men even asked me if I wanted to come out fishing with them, but I declined because I think I would have just gotten in their way, and anyway, none of them spoke English, so I could have confused "great white shark coming this way!! for "dive in and untangle that line there please" and that would not have been good.

Before they left the father even did some strange medical procedure that apparently was supposed to be for if you feel sick, even though I told them I felt fine. He took ground up ginger and rubbed it first on my forehead, then on the back of my neck, then the insides of my elbows, knees and finally the bottoms of my feet, said something weird and waved his hands a few times.

They wanted me to stay overnight, but I didn't want to take up their space since I don't think they had enough of it, so I said goodbye and did the hour long drive home in the dark.... it was cold. The end.