That's my impression of the Philippines. Every day spent here makes me feel more and more welcome here to the point I'm starting to feel endeared to it. The people here are so warm and open that a person cannot help feeling a great connection. Literally within a couple minutes of meeting someone you'll be treated like a long term friend and welcomed with open arms. Many people over the past few days have asked us to come back and visit them soon, and it feels genuine, not just some formality to be polite. I do hope I come back, for I'm sure there are some amazing friendships awaiting me here.
Traveling with Matt the past couple weeks has marked a turning point in my trip as well. I've found I'm back in the mode I was in in Nepal and India, ready and open to experience as much of the country as I can. I feel I lost a lot of that in SE Asia, instead I chased the party around and wasted a lot of my time. While I did have fun there, I feel I could have got much more out of my time there, and from now on I'm going to leave the party and tourist scene behind and opt for something more real.
As for the past few days, we arrived in Puerto Princesa on Tuesday and immediately found a nice, quiet guest house across the street from a group of kids we befriended and shot some hoops with. The next day we headed on a tour to and underground river a couple hours away from the city. Honestly it really wasn't worth what we paid for it, but was a good day nonetheless. Except for the giant spider that was in the bathroom stall with me, of course. Yesterday was a great day as well. We walked around the slum of Puerto Princesa, basically a shanty town above the shore. It was amazing in that how poor and dodgy the place looked, we were greeted with smiles and hellos. One old man there pointed us in the right direction to see a cock fight, which we jumped all over. Cock fighting is a big deal in the Philippines, many people own and enter their roosters in fights, and it's even a televised event. The atmosphere at the arena is incredible, people there are so passionate about betting on the fight. Literally the whole arena erupts at the time of betting, arms flying and bets being shout out to the bookies creates quite a chaotic yet harmonious feeling. The sport itself is obviously brutal and usually end up in the death of one bird, the instrument a razor blade attached to the back of the leg. Matt and I partook in the betting, and both came out ahead around twenty dollars each. The way people bet there is mindblowing. I'm sure many of them don't have much disposable income, but many in the crowd were throwing out bets of five thousands Pesos on each fight, some of them ending up tens of thousands in the hole. I wouldn't like to see this sport back home, and I'm sure I won't have to worry about that, but all in all it was a cool experience.
Today will be a hard traveling day, with a flight back to Manila to catch an overnight bus to the north to see some rice terraces that are supposed to be incredible.
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