As a part of my new job I am thankfully afforded a significant time off. I’m still getting work done in the background, as teachers have to do an immense amount of prep to gear up for any semester, but I’m able to work around those islands of work for an ocean of exploration.
This trip affords a special commendation, however! It was, in fact, my 30th country visited! Its astounding to think of how many places I’ve been in life, considering I didn’t really start exploring until about a decade ago.
Seoul 2
First up, Christmas involved journeying to Seoul. I had some Magic cards I had to pick up from The Playgroup that I left behind when I moved away, but I was also looking forward to seeing life there without the unfulfilling insanity that was hagwon employment. Overall, I quite liked Seoul and the memories I was able to make with these boys.
Then I spent a week for New Years in Shanghai! Didn’t do too much, but some good friends took me out to dance and drink at my favorite punk bar, Specters! In addition to them, there was a rather unexpected chance encounter that took place. But, hopefully, it’s another story for another time.
Sitting around on the 1st, I realized I’d hate the prospect of doing that for another two weeks. So, what’s a journeyer to do in such a situation? Why, book a last-minute flight to the Philippines!
Philippines 1
I’m a peculiar guy who tends to want to go places and find out what there is to see. The vast majority of people I’ve spoken to tell me that the capital, Manila, is a terrible place to hang out. If I listened to those sorts of people, I’d have never journeyed to China in the first place. So, I only booked my flight to Manila and back, with the entire week there wide open!
Manila, as much as I hoped it wouldn’t be, was a pretty uninspiring place. Dirty, smelly, loud, aesthetically unpleasing… Within 4 hours I knew it wasn’t where I wanted to hang out.
I still made a lovely day out of it. I spent perhaps 6 hours wandering around for an ATM that would accept my Chinese bank card, which ultimately brought me to their historic district: Intramuros . This place was actually quite nice, though it still had the look of a city worn due to time and apathy. I spent most of the day there, however, seeing all of the historic landmarks built by the Spanish, upgraded by the Americans, destroyed by the Japanese, and maintained by the local Filipinos. I learned all about a local folk hero, Jose Rizal, who by some twist of fate once walked the same roads I did for a time in Heidelberg.
The next day I got up, sorted all my things, headed for the airport for my 1pm flight, got in line to get my ticket, and… discovered my Trip booking never went through. That got me all sorts of worried, and I had to scramble with their support team to find another flight that would get me to Puerto Princesa by the end of the day. Ultimately, it worked out, but it was pretty nerve-wracking. Especially because they say you probably shouldn’t leave Manila Airport once there due to the local traffic.
Getting to Puerto Princesa, I walked over to my hostel to see what I should look about doing. The person in charge of the hostel suggested I first check out Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park, and then take a bus over to Port Barton. Palawan has a lot of tourists in the north in an area known as El Nido, but it’s so crowded she suggested Port Barton as an alternative if my main goal was to chill.
She was right! The caves, as everyone said, are apparently one of the modern 7 Wonders of the World! It was quite impressive. My tour included an all-you-can-eat buffet before hopping on a boat, riding across the ocean in a rainstorm for 20 minutes, and then taking a smaller boat inside the deep, deep caves filled with bats. So, so many bats. There was a literal mountain of bat guano because it’s illegal to mine it in this protected area. I’d recommend it to anyone eager to do a unique form of boat-spelunking.
Afterward I got onto a bus, transferred to another bus, and set off for 3 hours to Port Barton. Arrived just after sunset to Cocorico Hostel. They advertise free drinks from 7-7:30, and free shots basically on the hour. There’s beer pong, food, a dance floor, and live music until like 9. Pretty nice facilities, too! Though it’s about 20 people per room and only three bathrooms to make use of. The staff are super nice, though. Things got pretty crazy that night, and I ended up without a hangover by some miracle.
Meaning I could go kayaking! You can rent kayaks and go area the area on your own or with a buddy. If you’re ever here, ask Richard for a rental nearby Barton Bistro. He is an English man whose lived in the area for decades, and he’ll give you a reasonable deal for a day of kayaking. I mostly went around to all the beaches harder to get to by land and finished two books while swimming or sleeping on the sand. Such a fantastic day with an early sleep because of my exhaustion from the day prior and all the exercise!
I’d decided that night to grab a fun little tour for the next, and potentially last, day. No idea the travel service as I think they’re all in cahoots with each other, but we left at about 9:30 and set off across the water!
We saw starfish on Starfish Isle, turtles at Turtle Reef, a bunch of other reefs, a gigantic blue starfish curled around a rock, nemos, dorys, and everything in between! We also had a fantastic barbecue meal prepared by our tour guides. I can hardly explain how good it all was, and just after me and a few of the people on the trip were discussing how we thought the local food was “just okay.” We drank and ate fresh coconuts picked from trees, climbed to the top of an island, and overall had a spectacular time – most everyone agreed!
I happened to meet some cool travelers on my trip, too! Some folks from northern Norway, some missionaries from Britain, an Italian, a cool guy from San Diego, two Dutch girls working for this interesting start up called Local Happinez, and many more. We all decided that we would go out for the night drinking! As you do! Started at Cocorico, eventually made our way over to Moon Bar (the only place open until 3), and had more to drink than I have in a really long time. I certainly felt a hangover the next morning…
The next day though, I was supposed to get onto a plane to make my way back to Manila for a day. Well, I didn’t want to stay in Manila for another day if I could help it, and my hangover made the idea of hanging about to lay on the beach for another day terribly seductive. After much discussion with Trip.com, I was able to reschedule my flights and proceeded to lay in bed until around 1pm to rest. This turned into me laying around with Marco (the Italian from the tour) on beanbags at Barton Bistro for nearly the whole night. I got a little bit of work done for my job, but mostly just relaxed as it was the last day I really had the option before work started creeping its way back into my life. I had a massage that cost me very little and was thankfully quite good. Then wrapped my night up going to bed around 9:30.
The final day was just traveling… first a tuktuk from my hostel to the bus station. Then a bus to Puerto Princesa. Then a plane from Puerto Princesa to Manila. Finally, a plane from Manila to Shanghai. All in all it took me something like 18 hours to get home.
For a guy who hasn’t traveled or been on many journeys as of late, I consider this a pretty successful one. It had everything I crave out of adventure! New places, fun activities, social people, complications you need to sort through to look back on with a smile. Seoul 2 and Philippines 1 turned out to be a good choice for my Christmas Vacation, and it’s made me look forward to the adventures I may find in the holidays to come.
To 30 countries so far! And on to the next 30!
Epilogue
Do not, for even one second, believe I have forgotten about The List.
What list, you ask?
Why, the KFC ranking list, of course! It’s a bit out of date, and at some point I’ll go back and fully update the entire thing. But rest assured, each country I go to gets me to a KFC, even though I’ve given up on fast food in my diet.
This was pretty good, but nowhere near spectacular (I dream of Kosovar KFC from time to time(spoilers!)). Filipino KFC chicken was Bigger than most other KFC I’ve had, but also a bit chewy. So who knows, maybe its mutated, hormone injected mega-chickens I was served, but more data would be needed. It wasn’t very greasy at all! Had all the spices and I really enjoyed the whole meal.