Category: Journal (Page 3 of 968)

Warning: there are pictures of my feet in this post. And of a spider.

We were up at the crack of dawn again yesterday. The sunrise was orange.

We drove for three hours to get to our destination. Whew! I was feeling crampy when we got there. We drove from Baybay City across Leyte island to the other side, so we could cross a bridge to the next island over, Samar.

Our destination was the Sohoton Cave. The visit included a boat ride to the cave, then a ride a little farther upriver to a swimming area, then lunch.

They said our feet were going to get wet, so I got some flip-flops from their store, but I was a little worried about my feet getting sunburned. They never see the light of the sun. Fortunately, the boat ride to the cave was short.

We had a guide for the cave. Our tour group was just us. He gave us a little history first. It was a site of conflict for the Philippine-American War. Americans got ambushed there. We joked about it a little, since I was the only American there.

The inside of the cave was really interesting. I’m having trouble selecting which pictures to show. I took pictures with people in them to try to show the size of the cave.

We took a lot of group shots, and some posed shot places. Here’s one:

Our guide also pointed out some of the formations, and said what people thought they looked like. Here’s a small dog:

And he said this looked like people working in a rice field, but I think it looks like the model of the city that Indiana Jones uses to pinpoint the location of the Ark of the Covenant:

After the cave was the ride farther upstream. We rode kayaks, and had someone in the back paddling for us.

This part of the river reminded me of a scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie.

Some of the water was shallow, and we had to get out while the paddlers pulled the boats to deeper water.

Our final destination was an area enclosed by rock bridges that had a rocky beach. It was a huge area, and hard to capture in pictures:

They said we could swim if we wanted, but I didn’t bring my swimsuit. I did put my feet in the water though:

And I walked on the rocks a little. I saw a colorful spider. It was tiny, but I zoomed in for this picture:

After our time on the swimming spot, we went back and had a delicious lunch:

The trip back to Baybay was long, but we stopped a couple of times to stretch. One of our stops was at the MacArthur memorial. Many Filipinos like him for his promise: “I shall return.” during World War II. I, of course, only know this phrase because of Bugs Bunny.

We also stopped at a roadside stand for some lanzones. They are a seasonal fruit that is refreshing and delicious. They sort of taste like grapefruit.

My friends here all speak Cebuano when they are talking with each other, so I don’t know what they’re saying, but at some point on our ride back to Baybay, they decided to stop at the house of a friend to look at it. It’s actually his second house. It’s a massive property on the top of a mountain, that has several buildings for gathering and picnicking, and has lots of landscaping. I think he intends to make it a destination place for parties or team-building business retreats.

I was admiring the plant life. Denis caught me in a picture:

We were there in time to see the sunset.

When we were done there, it was getting dark. And then it started raining. Our driver was very confident in his knowledge of the dark and rainy road. I was praying a lot.

After a long time in the car, we finally got home at 7:30. Denis went out to meet some old classmates, but I just went to bed. I was worn out.

We met at 4am yesterday so we could drive up a mountain to see something called the Sea of Clouds. It was beautiful:

It’s a local tourist attraction, so there were lots of people there, taking pictures.

We took some too. Here’s me and Iday:

And this is me, Iday, Arden, and Denis:

You could also eat breakfast up there, so we did.

When we got back to Baybay, we prepared for our next adventure: the Four Islands. It’s a group of tiny islands you can take a boat to for picnicking and swimming.

The municipality of Inopacan administers visits to the islands. You hire a boat to get there.

The ride to the first island was about thirty minutes long. I didn’t get a good picture of our picnic site, but here was our view while we sat:

And here was one of the dogs that begged us for food while we ate. It was a puppy:

After we ate, we did a drive-by of the next island, then stopped at the third island to swim. We were the only ones on the beach. The water was warm and clear and amazing. I risked bringing my phone into the water for a picture:

There were lots of cool shells, but my favorite find was this:

We were back to Baybay in time to get a quick shower, catch the sunset…

…and have dinner with Denis’ friend Janjo, who makes fancy desserts as his career. He had made two for us. Ube (purple sweet potato) cheese cake, and buko (coconut) pie.

They were so good. And I was so full and so tired when we got back to the hotel. I slept like a log.

I remembered that when I was here before, I decided to put a delay between when I did things and when I posted about them. Otherwise, I’m trying to write a post at 4pm, and I can’t include anything that happens after that.

So for a “spacer” post, I’ll show you what my toenail looks like after the abuse it endured on the downhill hike on Mt. Fuji:

Isn’t it cool?!? It’s dark! I wonder what will happen. Will it keep getting darker? Will it fall off? I’m so excited to find out!

Our flight to the Philippines went well, except my legs got a little restless-leg-syndrome-y. There was a beautiful sunset out the airplane window:

We’re staying at a Holiday Inn in Cebu for a couple of nights. Denis has some things to do here before we head to the island of Leyte.

The hotel had a breakfast buffet, just like our last place. It was on an upper floor like our last place too:

Denis needed new dress shoes for the wedding, so we went to a mall. It was in walking distance. I really like just walking around places I haven’t been, especially in other countries.

Denis’ niece, Alvie, met us for lunch. She’s not the one getting married. We ate at this exotic restaurant:

After our meal, we went to a place that, apparently, is pretty common here – a place where blind people massage you. We each got a thirty-minute back massage. It was relaxing.

Next, we met up with Iday. We had to coordinate our travel plans for tomorrow. We’re going to be doing some sight seeing.

We were at her house the last time I was here, but it’s so beautiful inside.

We ended up back at the hotel. Today we have an early boat to Leyte.

Yesterday we woke up kind of early. We were both pretty hungry, so we went to the hotel’s breakfast buffet right when it opened. We’ve eaten there every morning. I like all the choices, and the view is nice. It’s on the top floor of the hotel. We got the best seats – right in front of the window:

We decided we’d take a ride on the bullet train, for the experience of it. Our destination was Fuji, the city right next to the mountain.

It was interesting to be on a train, which I haven’t done much, besides subway or transit trains.

It was fun to watch the view change from city to country.

Since the city of Fuji is right next to the mountain, there are amazing views of Mt. Fuji. When we arrived, we went outside to see it:

D’oh! There were clouds covering it.

We had about two hours. We decided to walk to a park that was next to the ocean, even though it was incredibly hot and humid.

In spite of the heat, the walk was fun, because we were traveling through local neighborhoods and seeing them up close.

D’oh! Our route to the park and ocean were blocked. By then we were so, so hot. We started back to the train station, but decided to stop in a clothing store called Avail. The clothes were so cheap.

Nine hundred yen is $5.52.

I got a shirt. It was 990 yen, or $6.07.

We had cooled down a little by then, and headed back to the train station. We had time to get a little lunch for the trip back.

As we left, I took one last picture of Mt. Fuji:

…and then I let my phone rest. The battery was getting lower, and I hadn’t brought the power block part of my charge cable along, which I would have needed if I was going to charge my phone on the train. Dang.

As we traveled, I looked out the window, and was amazed to see houses with ceramic tile roofs. I’ve seen tile roofs before, but not glazed ceramic. It was pretty:

After getting off the train, we headed to Shibuya. Denis had gotten tickets to Shibuya Sky – an observation deck at the top of a skyscraper.

D’oh! It was closed, due to the heat. Since the Shibuya Sky check-in was on the fourteenth floor of the building, we decided to descend via escalator instead of elevator, just to see what stores were there.

The most amazing one to me was a place called Hands. It had everything!

I got a souvenir from the kids toys section: a little bonsai starter kit with four different types of seeds:

In spite of our disappointments of the day, I still had fun with all the people-watching I could do, and seeing places that weren’t just for tourists.

We’re flying back to the Philippines today. Here’s my flight info: United #32 Depart Narita 5:55pm Arrive Cebu 10:05pm