Philippines Part 2

Continuing on my Philippines journey.

Day 5

Our fifth day was action packed. We traveled down the mountain from Sagada to Subic. I want to mention one thing about these bus rides. First of all, our bus, drivers and tour guides were amazing. Our bus driver was especially good, every scene in Fast in the Furious – Tokyo Drift would be too easy for our driver. Despite our incredible bus and driver, the bus is the one place I dreaded. God strike me dead if I ever go on another tour without a pillow. My neck broke. My head had two choices – to lay against the chair and not quite have enough incline to remain flush, or to rest on the window feel each minute vibration amplified into my slumbering skull. Instead of these my head usually just rolled around like a floppy wet fish held upright by the tail.

Anyhow, we rolled down to Subic for 5 hours or so, my head flopping along. Here we stopped at the highest paved road in the Philippines, and Danny, one of our bus drivers, showed us how to eat Balut. If you don’t know what Balut is, you are lucky.

We then went to a strawberry field and walked around for a few hours picking strawberries and eating corn. I somehow got swindled into buying a tiny bag of cashews for $3.00. I consider myself pretty street savvy, so I was really shocked after I realized what happened. Several minutes later Javi walked by with the same tiny bag and same bewildered look. I showed him my matching bag.

Here’s the group at Cafe by the Ruins – probably the best meal in the Philippines I’d say. Notice Hyojin picked up a stray. Several minutes before this photo we saw that girl standing nearby, playing with some friends. A dark, tall man with dreadlocks walked by and she, at the top of her lungs, yelled “Monster!! RUN!!!”.

We then went on to Baguio, a beautiful city, and blessedly cool. Due to its cool weather and cultural, historical, and scenic attractions, Baguio is a prime tourist location, especially for other Philippinos.

I had to get these hats… Me and Alessa are sporting them here on the left, and Hyojin and Jin on the right. Hyojin, I think was trying to look like a pig?

After Baguio we went to Subic and visited the Zoobic Safari.

Dem eyes…

And then at night we came to this amazing beach. This band… tore it up. TORE IT UP.

Yeah. I was happy. Self portrait! (Missed the focus, woops).

And thennnnnnn, we went to this night club, and these bands tore it up. Man, I wasn’t expecting to be amazed by the music in the Philippines, but it was great. These cover bands at this club even heard that there were some Koreans in the audience and played us a couple Korean songs. Jin was even kind enough to grace us with an amazing Gangnam Style dance.

As I said earlier… copious amount of San Miguel. At this nice club it was only $1.50. At a similar venue in Korea it would probably run around $9.00.

Day 6

Wow! Day 5 was action packed and awesome. Day six we finally slowed down a bit. We started at Everybody’s Cafe and sampled some Batute (stuffed frog) and some crickets.

Javi loved the crickets and ate the whole plate.

Later that day we visited a water park and had a blast. To avoid looking like perverts, and to have fun, we left our cameras and just played for a while.

We then spent 4 solid hours drinking in the hotel room. And then on to the Red Light Discrict! Angeles is the Philippines capital for its Red Light District, so our guides insisted we had to walk down and take some photos. The few of us not passed out stumbled into the bus and out into the Walking Street. On Walking Street young women line the roads and beg you to join them. I’ve been to a few red light areas in my life, not to patrone the service, but I find it interesting. Typically it’s impossible to take photos in these areas as bouncers will pounce and demand you to stop, but here, no one seemed to care. A few girls gave us dirty looks, but otherwise we were free to snap what we wanted.

We went in to one of these clubs to take a look. I forget which one. The sight was… incredible. The first room was massive, the size of a small ballroom. Booths lined the sides. A slightly elevated stage dominated the center, but it was skinny, wide enough for 3-4 people side by side, and it extended from the front to the back. On stage were at least 50-60 young girls, wearing bikinis, swaying to the music. It was… shocking. We stood near the entrance for a minute or so, and drifted back out.

The next day we departed. I had an amazing time on this trip, and I want to thank the Philippine Department of Tourism for sponsoring it. Again, soon I’ll have much more detailed posts of each day posted on Seoul Eats. I hope to get those up within this week.

Take care! Salamat Po! (thank you!)