Well I've racked up a significant amount of photos since my last post, so I'll try to break this up a bit and see where it gets us.
The cheapest way for us to get around in Yangshuo is by bicycle, which we can rent for just under a dollar a day. I have really come to enjoy the way Chinese traffic works, as it's every man for himself and drivers, riders, and pedestrians whiz by in all directions and wherever they need to be in the road to get there. It's practically a giant video game, with the mind judging vectors and velocities and pairing associated masses, and then gauging proper course redirections to attain collisionless travel to the destination. Giant roundabouts just add flavor to the situation.
Our riding a few days ago led us to Moon Hill, a popular tourist attraction and climbing area at the top of one of the small local mountains. Old ladies come RUNNING as we pull up, trying to get us to buy things or offering to get us into the park for a lower fare. We evade them and pay our tiny entrance fee, and head up to the rocks.
The guidebook for the area isn't at all clear on the exact routes, so I start off on one that I think is 5.12b, a rather hard grade that is currently either at or past my limit of ability. Steep climbing gets me to the anchor without a fall, but my celebration is short lived when I scope things out closer and find that the route I climbed isn't IN the guidebook. Not only that, but it's not in any of the revisions and hand-drawn updates at the local climber cafe, so I don't know what I climbed. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.11 though. Tracy follows me to clean the draws with Moon Hill's famous arch framing a village far below. Believe it or not, there are actually climbs directly up the underside of the arch, and all the way out and up to the top!
My other photos of the area are simply scenic and not too spectacular, as I quickly hit my limit climbing and cheating my way up a 5.12a nearby and we leisurely spent the rest of the day wandering back to town.
A parting glimpse of Moon Hill as we turn our back on the really hard climbing here and ride off into the sunset.
Anything resembling authenticity in Yangshuo is purely accidental and quite rare. The entire town is based on tourism, and positive hordes of people are out to profit from the money of visitors to the area. Here a local relaxes after a day of rafting up and down a small portion of the Yu Long River with tourists.
Starting another day and feeling intensely the effects of climbing beyond my limit the day before, we decide to go for a simple bike ride. Our hostel owner points us to an intriguing sounding "Dragon Bridge" with the directions to "Go down this street to the gas station and turn left." Fortunately I eyeball the map and see that there's another turn or two in there, and we take off to see the country.
Our biking leads us to the end of the road, where a large group of rafters are hanging out awaiting customers beside the Yu Long River. Riding back and forth eventually reveals a dirt path that looks well-traveled, and we take it, past another group of raft operators huddled around a game of Chinese Chess. This path seems to do what we want, traveling alongside the river and off the road system out into the farmland, where water buffalo graze and the people are fewer and friendly.
The scenery is awesome, and not really even tempered by the heavy smog always present here. Our path leads across a small stone bridge, and we stop to shoot the view:
Tracy rides ahead across the vast farmland that stretches from horizon to horizon between towering the mountains.
An elderly Chinese gentleman leads his carabou across the fields.
A small portion of the Yu Long River's raft traffic poles along through the smog.
Our trail eventually brings us back to the road system and we seem to be rejoining civilization. The riding is pleasant and the experience is well worth any work involved.
We pass by several fish ponds with small huts adorning their shores.
A large quantity of local construction utilizes baked mud bricks, and stacks of the thin ceramic shingles can be seen alongside roads near new construction.
The bamboo rafts that are used all over the place around here are a very simple construction, but seem to be incredibly buoyant.
At length we reach the Dragon Bridge, which is so boring I barely edited one shot of it and I won't post that. Both of us agreed the ride was more than worth it though, and while relaxing there we were joined by two guys from Holland who had made the ride from Yangshuo via the highway and were looking for the trail back along the river for a more scenic route home. Starved for friends, we agreed to head back the way we came to show them the very subtle trailhead that would lead them across the farmland. (This is NOT the dragon bridge.)
The trip back to town is just as scenic and enjoyable as our first passage through this terrain. Here a seldom-used bamboo gate blocks entry to a residence's backyard alongside the trail.
While waiting for the others to catch up, I paused to snap a shot of a local woman, showing her years in her gray hair and stooped shoulders and yet still carrying double buckets of something to someplace far away. The Chinese definitely do not have a lazy culture.
When next we went out adventuring, it was to climb out a small wall of relatively easy routes at Butterfly Spring. This "spring" is some sort of huge tourist attraction which has its entrance on one side of a giant limestone tower. Visitors walk into a cave underneath a colossal concrete butterfly affixed to the wall of the cliff, and from there we're not sure what happens, but eventually they come out the other side of the tower on a suspension footbridge to the accompaniment of what sounds like very loud church bells, a strange flute copying the rhythm of the bells, and a local holding a large flag and talking into a megaphone. The footbridge leads them into another cave in another tower nearby, where presently the sounds of very loud drums and some sort of monotonous scream drifts out, introducing a very loud song sung to the intense beat of the bass drums. Experiencing all of this from the outside convinces me completely that there is no need for us to go see what happens inside these caves. Tourists will pay for ANYTHING evidently...
Anyway, we worked a few climbs under the noise of the bells and drums, but the hanging belays discouraged photography, so I only brought the camera up the last one, a 5.9 with an unknown name.
I led and Tracy followed, making her way up a slight overhang and past a few bulges to the anchor.
The rock, carved by millenia of exposure to the elements, is awesomely featured and very pleasant to climb and photograph.
Our climbing complete, we return to the hostel where our host Lily has arranged a dumpling cooking lesson as a sort of Christmas party. A group composed of climbers staying at the hostel comes together and enjoys the camaraderie involved in making dumplings.
Some dumplings are crafted with more care or skill than others, so when they're served back to us randomly out of one pot, questions of "Who's making these giant footballs?" are elicited. Martin from South Africa (Pictured above) fesses up. Here a fellow American from Colorado forms the seal on a dumpling.
More than four nations come together to enjoy dinner on Christmas eve at a climber's hostel in southern China.
Christmas day comes like any other day here, and we grab our bikes and head out looking for a certain crag. It turns out much harder to find than it would seem though, and after riding around for a few hours and experiencing teleportation through what could only be a rip in the space-time continuum, we suddenly found ourselves at Moon Hill. This is entirely in a different area of the countryside from that which we were exploring.
A tiny cat wanders the street in a small village somewhere in an interdimension.
Unperturbed, we wander over to the nearby Thumb Peak and climb the first pitch of Paparazzi Pete, a relaxing 5.9. Evidently when this route was first put up in the early days of climbing in Yangshuo by a fellow named Pete, the strangeness of the ascent stopped traffic and caused an impressive horde of onlookers along the highway below the climb.
Tracy works through an overhanging section as the climb traverses around the steeper stuff above.
The banana trees at the base of this route are Tracy's first introduction to the growing of the fruit. It's rather strange really, the heavy oblong fruits grow in an UPWARD direction in their clusters, rather than the downward droop that most uninitiated would assume.
The ascent marks our peak of excitement for this year's Christmas day, and we leisurely head back to town to enjoy wonton soup and rice before staying up late editing photos.
Our time in China is drawing to a close in a few days, but we'll have more for you before it's over. That is assuming that the present heavy rain diminishes sometime and lets us back outdoors! Enjoy!
I'm simply amazed by the sights you've seen (and the smog. i didn't know it was that bad).
Thanks so much for sharing and here's to a Happy New Year!
Thanks Ian! We should spend our new year trying to get on a plane to the Philippines. A life of leisure has no holidays.
The haze in China really is amazing. I try not to let it get me down, really. The whole culture has an acceptance of littering that is just appalling. It's perfectly okay to throw your trash wherever you want, out the window of the train, into ponds, on the side of the road, it's not even frowned upon here. Evidently that ethic extends to the skies as well. I'm sure it'll change someday, it's been talked about already, but one of the recurring thoughts in those discussions is that it's probably already far too late. :cry
I haven't really been a lot of places yet, but I've seen the same thing in other countries like the Philippines and Mexico, and to an impressive extent the foreign-influenced portions of the U.S. (Laredo TX anyone?) and it really lets me appreciate that no matter how much ranting there is about pollution in America from the liberal left, they really have done a great job at keeping America aware and fairly clean. Whether they think so or not.
A quick google search of "China Smog" will dampen your spirits plenty with numerous dark photos including a bunch of satellite images like this one, taken from NASA's "Visible Earth" site. This is China in September 2005, over four years ago.
And yes, speaking from a small room in south China after traveling the length of the country, it really IS that bad.
I've known it's bad in major cities but you'd have thought the country side would be clear. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. From Sequoia & Kings Canyon, you should be able to see the 7 ranges to the coast. That's not always possible.
Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
They have the same garbage ethic in Morocco, quite crazy to me. I don't know how "dump all your garbage in the river" is ever a good idea no matter where you are...
Your right this dueling of the travel posting is fun! I'm working on the next one now
Oh and Moon Cave is somewhere I always wanted to go. I want to climb harder first hehe but I want to go there.
They have the same garbage ethic in Morocco, quite crazy to me. I don't know how "dump all your garbage in the river" is ever a good idea no matter where you are...
Your right this dueling of the travel posting is fun! I'm working on the next one now
Oh and Moon Cave is somewhere I always wanted to go. I want to climb harder first hehe but I want to go there.
There's one 5.9 and a couple harder tens and elevens, but the bulk of the climbs are between 5.12 and 5.14d.
It's a shocking experience for my kids, and most Americans in general, to witness how people in other developing and 3rd world countries handle trash and personal waste. It's normal when you grow up in that environment, unless you're educated and exposed to a different way of thinking. I'm glad I had that chance.
Cuong
"She Was a Little Taste of Heaven – And a One-Way Ticket to Hell!" - Max Phillips
Tonight is our last night in China. There are no celebrations of course, but we're also glad to be moving on to another step in life's adventure. We'll sleep tonight on a bus headed to Guangzhou, and then we're off to the Philippines for a visa's worth of days making friends there.
But first, we leave our mark on Yangshuo with a gift from the frigid north to the Climbers Inn! Kelsey's reputation has now officially preceded him to China.
We haven't been doing much lately with a few dismal and chilly rainy days, but yesterday found us at the rocks again, so here's Tracy on "Lazy Days", a 5.9.
There are of course a few more climbing photos, but they all start blending together when they're all of Tracy following me. We don't have a lot of stuff, including clothes, so that just adds to the similarities. If you're interested, the Yangshuo gallery on my site is here: http://www.morffed.com/2009/Yangshuo-China/10644029_eZsdp
One crazy cool aspect of the climbing area we chose today was its caves, numerous and massive. Routes wound their way through this towering monolith, twisting and dropping, shrinking and blossoming, and all-around confusing explorers. One tunnel I crawled found me sitting on a ledge on the wall of a vast cavern with light filtering in from somewhere I couldn't see, but subsequent hours of wandering the darkness never did find us in the same cavern again. The route pictured above finishes in the mouth of a tunnel leading us gently back down to earth and out again at ground level.
Here's Tracy following me through a bit of a tight spot.
We made our way entirely through the tower, and back again by way of a couple other save systems. The entrance to one is lit intriguingly from above, and just screams for us to come in and explore.
Faint light finds its way some 93 million miles through space, deflects and spreads through a layer of clouds and dense smog, and drops straight through a small opening in the earth to lightly illuminate Tracy as she goes even deeper under the surface. (Compression is pretty serious in these for some reason)
There is much evidence of habitation in these caves that leaves you wondering just how many generations have taken shelter from the weather inside these impenetrable rock walls. Some of the exterior openings are walled with rocks and mud and complete with windows, narrowing the entry point to a simple door, while other openings high above the ground in the cliff face itself are also walled off in a sort of balcony that would rival a king's palace. This room pictured here is probably close to the center of the tower, and features a massive gravel pile on one side obviously made by man and forming a flat platform quite usable for a bed. Around this platform in the walls and features are carved dozens of niches and flat areas for candles, one of which I used to get high enough for my gorillapod to latch onto a wall feature. I'm fairly certain that with the ancient history of civilization that China boasts, people have probably been using these caves for centuries.
And on that note I'll leave you pondering some choice food items as we pack up and hit the road again. If I don't see anything amazing between here and the Philippines, this will probably be my last photo from China. Not sure what kind of internet access we'll have in the islands. So long for now!
Ahh Manila - the smell of the Philippines hits you when you step off the plane, and if you stay long enough, you'll never forget it. It's a unique blend of the tropics, heat, humidity, pollution, and some intangible local flavor that can't be found anywhere else. To truly give you an experience of the Philippines, I'd have to bottle some of this up and send it to you. Serve at around ninety degrees fahrenheit.
And now for some backstory:
Our church in Alaska, combining efforts with a few others across the US, has worked closely with locals all over the Philippines doing missionary work, so I've been here twice before. The Filipino people that I've had contact with through these efforts are some of the best you will ever meet, willing to go to extraordinary lengths to make your life better, regardless of the meager means they have at their disposal to do it. Finer people cannot be found.
We made contact before arriving with Alex, a local Brother who retired after decades of military service and is now devoting his life full-time to helping his countrymen. He oversees a lot of different missionary efforts here, not the least of which is a search and rescue operation based out of a military hospital and reaching all across the Philippines to provide aid in emergencies to anyone and everyone. In the latest typhoon to pass through just a month or two back, hundreds of people lined up in waist-deep water to receive a meal and bundle of medical supplies, as the rains and floodwaters covered one of the world's most densely populated urban areas. Filipino victims of foreign sex slave operations have been greeted warmly at the airport and supplied with clothes and necessities in a culture that coldly shuts them out for their shame. An elderly gentleman instructed by his doctor that he had less than one day to live was given a lift back to his home to be with his family at no charge for anyone. These are just a sample of the things this operation does to help the Filipinos, and the work continues every day. (The old man mentioned above, by the way, is still living today after being prayed for when he was brought home.)
The operation has not escaped the eyes of the government, and has been not only supported, but relied upon especially by the military to bring aid in many ways to the people in need. The many individual stories I've heard in just a day and a half are really awesome, so maybe I'll let a few pass on to you all in later posts. It's rather humbling to leave American society where all is so concerned about schedules and success and see people that are doing so much to help others when, from a mainstream American perspective, they have so little to offer. It shames me really, I wish we did things like this back home.
But FIRST we have to get back to leaving Yangshuo!
We snag the overnight sleeper bus from Yangshuo to Guangzhou, planning on giving ourselves ample time to find the airport in a large Chinese city. Our flight leaves at 22:00 on the 1st of January 2010, and the bus gets to Guangzhou at 06:00, so we're confident that we'll be able to get to the airport in time. We sleep occasionally at the very back of the bus, between bounces that launch us completely off our cots, and it doesn't take long to realize there may be a reason why the beds at the back of the bus were open. Oh well, it's a great experience, and 06:00 on January first finds us hopping off the bus in the dark in a town we think is Guangzhou. We set out to try to find and get to the airport.
At 06:30 we're at the airport. Drat. Our day of trying to reach our destination in time to check in has been shortened to a simple and completely painless 30 minutes. We sigh, settle in, and take on the twelve hour wait until our ticket counter opens up for us to check in.
The trip goes without a hitch, except we had to figure out how to pack a bunch of heavy climbing gear in our carry-ons to make the weight for checked bags, and security stole our convenient little bottles of hand sanitizer. All in all, an international travel experience with nothing to complain about! Stoked, we cruise through customs in Manila and head out to the sidewalk to find Alex.
It's about two in the morning in Manila, and Alex isn't here.
We wait... we wander around the places he might be... we wait some more... we spend a few bucks on a phone card, and once we find out how to use it we get no answer on his phone. After two hours, we wander through the dark streets to a local McDonalds and consider our options. Eventually we settle on trying a room in a hotel, and with brochure in hand we catch a taxi. A run-down looking street sports a dinghy looking joint with a man outside holding in his hands a very serious shotgun, and on his hip an accompanying automatic pistol. From what I've seen the majority of businesses in Manila warrant such precautions, which may enlighten you some about our feelings of walking the streets at night.
We shell out a bit more than we wanted, but we're happy to get some rest. A quick e-mail to Alex, however, is immediately responded to with a ringing phone. Somehow the man is up at 04:30 and immediately gets in touch. "I know that hotel. Get some rest, I'll pick you up at noon!"
Spirits lighten significantly, and with our armed guards outside, we sleep well.
Now it's two days later, and I've barely taken any photos. Sorry! But the experience was a great one, and the pictures probably would have been dark and blurry anyway. Today is Sunday and we got to go to church, an experience which China denied us entirely. After church we had a quick lunch with Alex and family while the dozens of children present each got a little treat of their own in the form of a small bag of assorted candies:
The Military camp where the closest church to home is located doesn't allow foreigners in anymore after what I gather was a sour experience with journalists and cameras, so on this morning we headed an hour down the road to another local gathering, and after service we split quick to run back home before the traffic built up. As we leave, I nab a quick shot of the church. Coincidentally this is one of the last shots that will be taken of it; the group is moving to a new location and this lot is set for demolition this week.
A little American money goes a long way here, and since we pulled an enormous wad of cash from an ATM, we had to play with it a little. This money is for a purpose though, it'll come into play later on and I'll tell you all about it.
Gradually getting the hang of things in the area, we caught a jeepney and headed down to the Ali Mall to get some supplies. If you've never heard of a jeepney, acquaint yourself with Wikipedia's page on the subject, they're really a unique and neat way to get around a huge town. They're everywhere here, and nowhere else, so it's a special experience to travel by jeepney. We shell out our 14 pisos (30 cents USD) and are dropped off on the steps of the mall, a giant shopping complex reminiscent of metropolitan America and inspired and funded by Muhammad Ali after he fought Joe Frazier in the nearby sports dome.
Our errands done, we snagged a tricycle to get back home, and I failed to set the price before we start off. A common error on my part, but this time it didn't cost me much, and I shell out forty pisos willingly. That's a nice taxi ride for two plus groceries for just 86 American cents. Passing a few people on the street I tried to catch some culture.
I think raising two beautiful daughters in a city like Manila would be enough to turn any man's face into a permanent, dark scowl of worry and watchfulness. The expressions on the girls' faces add enormously to this shot.
Catching a panorama inside a moving vehicle is a bit tricky, but it gets you a little closer to being there. I had to do a few bits of touch-up, but the result is satisfying to me. Welcome to a tricycle on the streets of Manila.
So that's my text-heavy story on leaving China and getting to the Philippines. Hopefully in the future I'll have a few more illustrations to go with the words.
We headed out yesterday evening for a walk down to a small strip mall for dinner, and along the way we got a closer feel for the attitudes of the locals. Contrary from being sinister, with suspicion and creepy feelings, the streets of this particular barangay in Quezon City are outright friendly and cheerful. I stand out like, well, a giant white guy wearing a bright orange shirt with a huge red curly mustache and an expensive camera, in a sea of black-haired, short, and well tanned people, so we turn heads along the entire walk Everyone greets us with a nod or a hello, and many of the locals are far more extravagant. These fellows are loading huge bags of recyclable plastics for transport to somewhere else, but they stopped and waved with huge smiles as we walked by and shot pictures.
I don't believe I've mentioned it yet, but Manila is far less polluted than anywhere we went in China. It's even less polluted than last time I was here. It may just be the time of year or something, but it's sort of nice, even though there is still a definite haze and trash here and there.
This tricycle driver flagged us down and asked if we wanted to take his picture. Of course we did!
Even the street people were very nice and outgoing. These two obviously live on this sidewalk under the shelter of a large tree (that's a mattress on the left edge) but they smiled and waved and called us over, and laughed as we took our photos and walked on.
The area is definitely poor, but still bustling with business and overtly happy. These two are transporting some goods by tricycle, one of many common means of transport.
On the side street where we're staying, a jeepney driver takes the evening to relax as the sun sinks below the horizon and temperatures begin to settle into the high seventies.
A group of children playing along our street stopped to be photographed as we walked by. You might note the hand signal of the little guy with finger and thumb open under the chin in the same manner as the tricycle driver above. I noted this in about half my pictures, so I googled it and found one place that said this is considered a gesture of handsomeness or intelligence. Sounds good to me!
And lastly before we made it home we passed by this guy doing some computer maintenance outside his home. I didn't ask him what the problem was... maybe a cockroach in the fan?
We've got some downtime today before some business tomorrow, so we may wander out to the Ali mall again and see if I can't find a cheap haircut. Hope you enjoy these shots!
The jeepney is one item unique to the Philippines, and if you visit and don't try out this transportation system, you'll really be missing out. The long van-like jeepneys have one door at the back and benches along the sides, and it's not at all uncommon for them to be packed full enough that the only room left is hanging off the bumper.
Some of the things we often do in our missionary efforts in the Philippines are medical reliefs and childrens feeds. In our discussions with Alex, he told us that with ten American dollars, we can feed up to 300 children a good healthy meal, and with a paltry sum by American standards, we can sponsor a medical relief to give medicines to people who otherwise will not have them. This is one thing that we came here for, so we set it up. We may not have much money, but when our money can do so much for so many others who have even less, I think we'd be ashamed to keep it all for ourselves.
We head out in the morning to what Alex calls a mountain in the town of Antipolo. I can't see the mountain anywhere, but he says we're at the top of it, so I believe him. The area is very poor, which is shown clearly by the construction of the buildings providing homes for hundreds of families. Houses are simply pieced together from whatever trash and materials could be found for free. Alex tells me this entire area is owned by the government, and everybody who lives here is squatting and subject to displacement whenever the land is developed. Still, spirits are high in the locals, and they greet us kindly, if somewhat uncertain as to why we're there.
A small creek, barely even a trickle, flows by, and one of the locals says during the recent typhoon the water in that creek was higher than the nearby homes. His home's foundation was washed out in a landslide, leaving the whole building dangling from uphill supports. His solution? Simply take all the rocks that washed away, and hike them back up to his house. It sounded like a lot of work, but given the alternative I suppose he had little choice.
The lack of money here certainly doesn't mean these people have nothing. Their need has simply been satisfied by a sort of ingenuity that we of the wealthier world seem to have lost somewhere. The yard of the home where we stopped is even decorated with lush vegetation of all sorts and sizes, arranged in a wide variety of hanging baskets and pots.
We sit by helplessly with our knowledge of only a single spoken language as Alex and Benny explain in Tagalog to the gathering crowd why we're here, and who we are. Mothers holding babies take seats in the few plastic chairs, and the family providing us a yard to work with brings out all their furniture from inside for folks to use.
My shirt and shoes may have holes in them and are definitely the worse for wear, but these feet have probably never seen socks, and have certainly never enjoyed the high-tech stickiness of climbing shoe rubber that protects the soles of my own feet.
Introductions behind us, we get on with the meat of things. This fellow is the one whose home was almost wiped off the hillside. He's starting the process of cooking a huge pot of food to feed the children flocking around us. The stove is rather ingenious from an American fireman's perspective, but I'd guess the design is probably used in poorer homes worldwide, I had just never seen it before this visit.
Unfortunately for us with short notice and small funds we don't have a doctor with us who would be able to dish out prescription meds, but anything is good, and the kids and moms are stoked to receive even the general medicines we have to offer. They'll probably go a long way in a culture like this area's.
When the food is ready, the kids line up out the entry of the yard and into the alleyway beyond. Each is served with a cup of soup, and when the line finishes up, they go through again, and even some of the younger adults around are invited to share in the feast.
A young girl eyes her portion as it's scooped up, hot and fresh and probably delicious! (I didn't get any, this all went to the kids)
This poor guy of about nine or ten had a single staff of bamboo for a crutch, and wasn't using his bandaged foot at all. Must have hurt quite a bit, although I never learned what was wrong.
As we left, a whole pile of kids stacked up for a picture.
And on a photographic mindset, my eye had scoped out a few of the alleyways as we traversed them on our way in, so I kept the camera handy on the way out and got lucky when a shy young lad following us hesitated while peering at us around a corner.
Fortunately for the happiness of the world, poverty's threats are often wasted on children. These ones just go right ahead and have fun anyway.
And lastly, I may be the only one to find this as funny as I do, but I'll leave you with a parting glare from one of the few locals who didn't seem happy to see us. Maybe we should have brought a few cheezburgers?
Well Manila, being one of the world's biggest cities, isn't really our favorite place. There's just not much for us in the city life... we don't drink, so we don't hang out in bars or enjoy night life, and we're too poor to just shop all the time. We're working with the local church when we can, helping out with whatever they're doing in the area, but besides that we're killing a lot of time, and spending the rest just sort of walking around, getting a glimpse of the culture.
We're convinced so far that Filipinos are definitely awesome people. They're friendly, open, and resourceful, and everybody we meet goes out of their way to make our lives better. It's a bit humbling, and just makes us want to do something in return!
Here's a few assorted shots from our wanderings on foot yesterday.
Cats have the run of as many alleys as they could ever strut.
Trees and vines grow straight out of the concrete... where do they get the water to grow when it's all flushed down the storm drains?
Cats have got the hang of things. Sleep, eat, repeat.
As we hung around a small corner diner, I had the chance to capture some passing characters.
A chef fans his coals with his hat, while a few young girls wait for the food to finish cooking.
The cook at this stall immediately jumped out of the shot when I aimed the camera, but I got this anyway.
If you've been here, you're probably familiar with the concept of "Filipino Time." Urban Dictionary defines it as: "things get done whenever they get done. Official Timing of The Phillipines." In our case, Filipino time means we're in a constant state of relaxation, even on the verge of boredom. Never in a hurry, never pressured, never under a deadline. It's relaxing, but sometimes we just wish we had something to do!
Hope you're all still enjoying our leisurely stroll through Asia!
What a great thread, I'll keep coming back! I love the open-ended way of your traveling, though being a control-freak myself I couldn't ever do that. The pollution part reminded me of my travels through the Caucasus and Russia, very unfortunate what we're doing to our little planet.
Street & Portrait because of the people. Landscape because it's pretty.
Disappointed with AF of Tamron 28-75 2.8, me less happy.
Things are quiet for us lately, but here's a couple to keep your interest!
Yesterday while eating dinner on the side of the road, a couple locals started harvesting mangoes from a tree over the road. They saw us watching, and put on quite a show, laughing and going to great lengths to show off, so when we finished eating I wandered over and got some photos up close. They loved it. Very friendly people here.
The sun was already below the horizon, but the event was memorable enough to shoot in dim light.
Lately we've been spending a lot of time in our hotel room, which has led to at least one interesting discovery: We're not alone in here! In the quiet times, and especially when the lights are off, we hear noises and catch flickering glimpses of movement out of the corners of our eyes. It's never anything tangible, only the barest idea that someone or something is present besides ourselves, and always there's that little feeling that we're being watched!
So last night I set up a trap to catch this apparition in action once and for all and be clear of suspicion and doubt. A few minutes of setup and camouflage and a few blurry and barely recognizable shots later, and I had the proof that I wanted!
This is real, absolutely not photoshopped, irrefutable evidence that there really IS another being in our hotel room, watching us!
Well we leave tonight for Bangkok, Thailand, and we'll be doing our best to get onward from there as quickly as possible. No clues when we'll find internet next, but our efforts will probably be focused on finding work, hopefully in the neighborhood of Phuket or Krabi. Need to make a bunch of money so we can keep on going! This might take a while, of course, so stay tuned and hopefully we'll have a few months worth of adventures in Thailand coming at you very shortly.
For now, here's a parting shot of Manila, taken with the "Photojournalism" theme of the current photo contest in mind.
Our departure from Manila was uneventful - this time we lost only a small pair of scissors and a yarn needle at the security checkpoint - and we arrive in Bangkok just past midnight. From one of the world's biggest cities to another in just a couple hours. We find a nice bit of floorspace in the airport and settle in for a bit of a nap until daylight comes.
With the rising of the sun, our adventures in Thailand begin. We plan on catching an overnight bus to Phuket, so we take off to find the bus station, and a taxi ride takes us directly there. Sweet, we'll get our tickets set up and then walk around some and check out the area. We head inside the terminal and up to the third floor where the ticket booth marked "Phuket" is empty. A local police officer says the bus is just about to leave, and rushes us downstairs to jump aboard, where we find our seats as the bus rolls out. We haven't even had breakfast yet, and we haven't taken the time to buy food anywhere along the way. Another planned long day of traveling foiled by accidental efficiency! We settle in and try to sleep to make the ride shorter.
Arriving in Phuket later in the evening, we make our way to a hostel we'd noted beforehand and shell out almost fourteen dollars for a room for the night. This is pretty spendy, especially on our rapidly dwindling budget, but it is the high season here. Our room is complete with cockroaches, a cold shower, and lots of mosquitoes. Overall an experience geared to move us onwards!
I apologize at this point for taking no pictures for the first few days. I guess the stress of travel and trying to make living arrangements got to me!
At any rate, the following couple days saw us moving across the island to Kamala Beach and arranging with a local dive shop to go through some more advanced SCUBA training in exchange for working for a few months. The divers are friendly, and we quickly begin settling into the routine. We're a pair of the poorest travelers there are, but what we lack in the way of money is more than made up for in the incredible blessings we've been given in life!
I'll pause for a moment here to invite anybody and everybody to come see us while we're here! I don't think I'll have to explain why it's a good idea.
Once we finally get ourselves out of the expensive hostels and into a nice cozy room off the beaten path (105 US dollars for a month!) the pressure lightens up a little, and on my first trip out on the dive boat I finally break out the camera. As we cruise up the coastline heading for our dive site, we pass the only competition in this small town with a load of their own customers headed for the same place.
Cruising along at a good clip over small chop and against a slight wind, I somehow managed a bit of a pano. It took some photoshop and a little tight cropping, but it came together.
This is my second experience diving outside the cold and murky waters of Alaska, where heavy thermal protection is a necessity and the wildlife is much less plentiful and interesting. I have to say, this is probably much closer to why SCUBA was invented. The water alongside our boat is positively teeming with colorful fish, the seabed is visible some eight meters beneath us, and here I am too poor to buy any of the various bits of underwater camera equipment! This is very hard for me! I have to say though, it's got to happen one way or another!
I mean seriously. This is REAL.
I made two dives, coming across a variety of critters such as barracuda, clownfish, anemonefish, butterflyfish, pennantfish, lionfish, oysters, lobster, and even a good sized octopus. Plus a whole lot more. There was ocean life everywhere! And there I was without a camera! :cry
Between my dives, Tracy headed out with the mask and fins and did some snorkeling with the rocky shoreline of Racha Island in the background.
Tomorrow I head out for a few more dives, and for now we're still getting used to the area. Once we get ourselves established and find our income, it might just be hard to leave this place! The beach and town are a little crowded, but there's enough paradise left to make it a nice place to stay!
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The cheapest way for us to get around in Yangshuo is by bicycle, which we can rent for just under a dollar a day. I have really come to enjoy the way Chinese traffic works, as it's every man for himself and drivers, riders, and pedestrians whiz by in all directions and wherever they need to be in the road to get there. It's practically a giant video game, with the mind judging vectors and velocities and pairing associated masses, and then gauging proper course redirections to attain collisionless travel to the destination.
Our riding a few days ago led us to Moon Hill, a popular tourist attraction and climbing area at the top of one of the small local mountains. Old ladies come RUNNING as we pull up, trying to get us to buy things or offering to get us into the park for a lower fare. We evade them and pay our tiny entrance fee, and head up to the rocks.
The guidebook for the area isn't at all clear on the exact routes, so I start off on one that I think is 5.12b, a rather hard grade that is currently either at or past my limit of ability. Steep climbing gets me to the anchor without a fall, but my celebration is short lived when I scope things out closer and find that the route I climbed isn't IN the guidebook. Not only that, but it's not in any of the revisions and hand-drawn updates at the local climber cafe, so I don't know what I climbed. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.11 though. Tracy follows me to clean the draws with Moon Hill's famous arch framing a village far below. Believe it or not, there are actually climbs directly up the underside of the arch, and all the way out and up to the top!
My other photos of the area are simply scenic and not too spectacular, as I quickly hit my limit climbing and cheating my way up a 5.12a nearby and we leisurely spent the rest of the day wandering back to town.
A parting glimpse of Moon Hill as we turn our back on the really hard climbing here and ride off into the sunset.
Anything resembling authenticity in Yangshuo is purely accidental and quite rare. The entire town is based on tourism, and positive hordes of people are out to profit from the money of visitors to the area. Here a local relaxes after a day of rafting up and down a small portion of the Yu Long River with tourists.
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Our biking leads us to the end of the road, where a large group of rafters are hanging out awaiting customers beside the Yu Long River. Riding back and forth eventually reveals a dirt path that looks well-traveled, and we take it, past another group of raft operators huddled around a game of Chinese Chess. This path seems to do what we want, traveling alongside the river and off the road system out into the farmland, where water buffalo graze and the people are fewer and friendly.
The scenery is awesome, and not really even tempered by the heavy smog always present here. Our path leads across a small stone bridge, and we stop to shoot the view:
Tracy rides ahead across the vast farmland that stretches from horizon to horizon between towering the mountains.
An elderly Chinese gentleman leads his carabou across the fields.
A small portion of the Yu Long River's raft traffic poles along through the smog.
Our trail eventually brings us back to the road system and we seem to be rejoining civilization. The riding is pleasant and the experience is well worth any work involved.
We pass by several fish ponds with small huts adorning their shores.
A large quantity of local construction utilizes baked mud bricks, and stacks of the thin ceramic shingles can be seen alongside roads near new construction.
The bamboo rafts that are used all over the place around here are a very simple construction, but seem to be incredibly buoyant.
At length we reach the Dragon Bridge, which is so boring I barely edited one shot of it and I won't post that.
The trip back to town is just as scenic and enjoyable as our first passage through this terrain. Here a seldom-used bamboo gate blocks entry to a residence's backyard alongside the trail.
While waiting for the others to catch up, I paused to snap a shot of a local woman, showing her years in her gray hair and stooped shoulders and yet still carrying double buckets of something to someplace far away. The Chinese definitely do not have a lazy culture.
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Anyway, we worked a few climbs under the noise of the bells and drums, but the hanging belays discouraged photography, so I only brought the camera up the last one, a 5.9 with an unknown name.
I led and Tracy followed, making her way up a slight overhang and past a few bulges to the anchor.
The rock, carved by millenia of exposure to the elements, is awesomely featured and very pleasant to climb and photograph.
Our climbing complete, we return to the hostel where our host Lily has arranged a dumpling cooking lesson as a sort of Christmas party. A group composed of climbers staying at the hostel comes together and enjoys the camaraderie involved in making dumplings.
Some dumplings are crafted with more care or skill than others, so when they're served back to us randomly out of one pot, questions of "Who's making these giant footballs?" are elicited.
More than four nations come together to enjoy dinner on Christmas eve at a climber's hostel in southern China.
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A tiny cat wanders the street in a small village somewhere in an interdimension.
Unperturbed, we wander over to the nearby Thumb Peak and climb the first pitch of Paparazzi Pete, a relaxing 5.9. Evidently when this route was first put up in the early days of climbing in Yangshuo by a fellow named Pete, the strangeness of the ascent stopped traffic and caused an impressive horde of onlookers along the highway below the climb.
Tracy works through an overhanging section as the climb traverses around the steeper stuff above.
The banana trees at the base of this route are Tracy's first introduction to the growing of the fruit. It's rather strange really, the heavy oblong fruits grow in an UPWARD direction in their clusters, rather than the downward droop that most uninitiated would assume.
The ascent marks our peak of excitement for this year's Christmas day, and we leisurely head back to town to enjoy wonton soup and rice before staying up late editing photos.
Our time in China is drawing to a close in a few days, but we'll have more for you before it's over. That is assuming that the present heavy rain diminishes sometime and lets us back outdoors! Enjoy!
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Thanks so much for sharing and here's to a Happy New Year!
Thanks Ian! We should spend our new year trying to get on a plane to the Philippines. A life of leisure has no holidays.
The haze in China really is amazing. I try not to let it get me down, really. The whole culture has an acceptance of littering that is just appalling. It's perfectly okay to throw your trash wherever you want, out the window of the train, into ponds, on the side of the road, it's not even frowned upon here. Evidently that ethic extends to the skies as well. I'm sure it'll change someday, it's been talked about already, but one of the recurring thoughts in those discussions is that it's probably already far too late. :cry
I haven't really been a lot of places yet, but I've seen the same thing in other countries like the Philippines and Mexico, and to an impressive extent the foreign-influenced portions of the U.S. (Laredo TX anyone?) and it really lets me appreciate that no matter how much ranting there is about pollution in America from the liberal left, they really have done a great job at keeping America aware and fairly clean. Whether they think so or not.
A quick google search of "China Smog" will dampen your spirits plenty with numerous dark photos including a bunch of satellite images like this one, taken from NASA's "Visible Earth" site. This is China in September 2005, over four years ago.
And yes, speaking from a small room in south China after traveling the length of the country, it really IS that bad.
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Your right this dueling of the travel posting is fun! I'm working on the next one now
Oh and Moon Cave is somewhere I always wanted to go. I want to climb harder first hehe but I want to go there.
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There's one 5.9 and a couple harder tens and elevens, but the bulk of the climbs are between 5.12 and 5.14d.
Happy birthday Shasta!
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OK. I'll say it too :bday
Cuong
But first, we leave our mark on Yangshuo with a gift from the frigid north to the Climbers Inn!
We haven't been doing much lately with a few dismal and chilly rainy days, but yesterday found us at the rocks again, so here's Tracy on "Lazy Days", a 5.9.
There are of course a few more climbing photos, but they all start blending together when they're all of Tracy following me. We don't have a lot of stuff, including clothes, so that just adds to the similarities.
One crazy cool aspect of the climbing area we chose today was its caves, numerous and massive. Routes wound their way through this towering monolith, twisting and dropping, shrinking and blossoming, and all-around confusing explorers. One tunnel I crawled found me sitting on a ledge on the wall of a vast cavern with light filtering in from somewhere I couldn't see, but subsequent hours of wandering the darkness never did find us in the same cavern again. The route pictured above finishes in the mouth of a tunnel leading us gently back down to earth and out again at ground level.
Here's Tracy following me through a bit of a tight spot.
We made our way entirely through the tower, and back again by way of a couple other save systems. The entrance to one is lit intriguingly from above, and just screams for us to come in and explore.
Faint light finds its way some 93 million miles through space, deflects and spreads through a layer of clouds and dense smog, and drops straight through a small opening in the earth to lightly illuminate Tracy as she goes even deeper under the surface. (Compression is pretty serious in these for some reason)
There is much evidence of habitation in these caves that leaves you wondering just how many generations have taken shelter from the weather inside these impenetrable rock walls. Some of the exterior openings are walled with rocks and mud and complete with windows, narrowing the entry point to a simple door, while other openings high above the ground in the cliff face itself are also walled off in a sort of balcony that would rival a king's palace. This room pictured here is probably close to the center of the tower, and features a massive gravel pile on one side obviously made by man and forming a flat platform quite usable for a bed. Around this platform in the walls and features are carved dozens of niches and flat areas for candles, one of which I used to get high enough for my gorillapod to latch onto a wall feature. I'm fairly certain that with the ancient history of civilization that China boasts, people have probably been using these caves for centuries.
And on that note I'll leave you pondering some choice food items as we pack up and hit the road again. If I don't see anything amazing between here and the Philippines, this will probably be my last photo from China.
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And now for some backstory:
Our church in Alaska, combining efforts with a few others across the US, has worked closely with locals all over the Philippines doing missionary work, so I've been here twice before. The Filipino people that I've had contact with through these efforts are some of the best you will ever meet, willing to go to extraordinary lengths to make your life better, regardless of the meager means they have at their disposal to do it. Finer people cannot be found.
We made contact before arriving with Alex, a local Brother who retired after decades of military service and is now devoting his life full-time to helping his countrymen. He oversees a lot of different missionary efforts here, not the least of which is a search and rescue operation based out of a military hospital and reaching all across the Philippines to provide aid in emergencies to anyone and everyone. In the latest typhoon to pass through just a month or two back, hundreds of people lined up in waist-deep water to receive a meal and bundle of medical supplies, as the rains and floodwaters covered one of the world's most densely populated urban areas. Filipino victims of foreign sex slave operations have been greeted warmly at the airport and supplied with clothes and necessities in a culture that coldly shuts them out for their shame. An elderly gentleman instructed by his doctor that he had less than one day to live was given a lift back to his home to be with his family at no charge for anyone. These are just a sample of the things this operation does to help the Filipinos, and the work continues every day. (The old man mentioned above, by the way, is still living today after being prayed for when he was brought home.)
The operation has not escaped the eyes of the government, and has been not only supported, but relied upon especially by the military to bring aid in many ways to the people in need. The many individual stories I've heard in just a day and a half are really awesome, so maybe I'll let a few pass on to you all in later posts.
But FIRST we have to get back to leaving Yangshuo!
We snag the overnight sleeper bus from Yangshuo to Guangzhou, planning on giving ourselves ample time to find the airport in a large Chinese city. Our flight leaves at 22:00 on the 1st of January 2010, and the bus gets to Guangzhou at 06:00, so we're confident that we'll be able to get to the airport in time. We sleep occasionally at the very back of the bus, between bounces that launch us completely off our cots, and it doesn't take long to realize there may be a reason why the beds at the back of the bus were open. Oh well, it's a great experience, and 06:00 on January first finds us hopping off the bus in the dark in a town we think is Guangzhou. We set out to try to find and get to the airport.
At 06:30 we're at the airport. Drat. Our day of trying to reach our destination in time to check in has been shortened to a simple and completely painless 30 minutes. We sigh, settle in, and take on the twelve hour wait until our ticket counter opens up for us to check in.
The trip goes without a hitch, except we had to figure out how to pack a bunch of heavy climbing gear in our carry-ons to make the weight for checked bags, and security stole our convenient little bottles of hand sanitizer. All in all, an international travel experience with nothing to complain about! Stoked, we cruise through customs in Manila and head out to the sidewalk to find Alex.
It's about two in the morning in Manila, and Alex isn't here.
We wait... we wander around the places he might be... we wait some more... we spend a few bucks on a phone card, and once we find out how to use it we get no answer on his phone. After two hours, we wander through the dark streets to a local McDonalds and consider our options. Eventually we settle on trying a room in a hotel, and with brochure in hand we catch a taxi. A run-down looking street sports a dinghy looking joint with a man outside holding in his hands a very serious shotgun, and on his hip an accompanying automatic pistol. From what I've seen the majority of businesses in Manila warrant such precautions, which may enlighten you some about our feelings of walking the streets at night.
We shell out a bit more than we wanted, but we're happy to get some rest. A quick e-mail to Alex, however, is immediately responded to with a ringing phone. Somehow the man is up at 04:30 and immediately gets in touch. "I know that hotel. Get some rest, I'll pick you up at noon!"
Spirits lighten significantly, and with our armed guards outside, we sleep well.
Now it's two days later, and I've barely taken any photos. Sorry! But the experience was a great one, and the pictures probably would have been dark and blurry anyway.
The Military camp where the closest church to home is located doesn't allow foreigners in anymore after what I gather was a sour experience with journalists and cameras, so on this morning we headed an hour down the road to another local gathering, and after service we split quick to run back home before the traffic built up. As we leave, I nab a quick shot of the church. Coincidentally this is one of the last shots that will be taken of it; the group is moving to a new location and this lot is set for demolition this week.
A little American money goes a long way here, and since we pulled an enormous wad of cash from an ATM, we had to play with it a little.
Gradually getting the hang of things in the area, we caught a jeepney and headed down to the Ali Mall to get some supplies. If you've never heard of a jeepney, acquaint yourself with Wikipedia's page on the subject, they're really a unique and neat way to get around a huge town. They're everywhere here, and nowhere else, so it's a special experience to travel by jeepney. We shell out our 14 pisos (30 cents USD) and are dropped off on the steps of the mall, a giant shopping complex reminiscent of metropolitan America and inspired and funded by Muhammad Ali after he fought Joe Frazier in the nearby sports dome.
Our errands done, we snagged a tricycle to get back home, and I failed to set the price before we start off. A common error on my part, but this time it didn't cost me much, and I shell out forty pisos willingly. That's a nice taxi ride for two plus groceries for just 86 American cents.
I think raising two beautiful daughters in a city like Manila would be enough to turn any man's face into a permanent, dark scowl of worry and watchfulness.
Catching a panorama inside a moving vehicle is a bit tricky, but it gets you a little closer to being there. I had to do a few bits of touch-up, but the result is satisfying to me. Welcome to a tricycle on the streets of Manila.
So that's my text-heavy story on leaving China and getting to the Philippines. Hopefully in the future I'll have a few more illustrations to go with the words.
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Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
+1 - Goes great with my morning coffee.
We headed out yesterday evening for a walk down to a small strip mall for dinner, and along the way we got a closer feel for the attitudes of the locals. Contrary from being sinister, with suspicion and creepy feelings, the streets of this particular barangay in Quezon City are outright friendly and cheerful. I stand out like, well, a giant white guy wearing a bright orange shirt with a huge red curly mustache and an expensive camera, in a sea of black-haired, short, and well tanned people, so we turn heads along the entire walk Everyone greets us with a nod or a hello, and many of the locals are far more extravagant.
I don't believe I've mentioned it yet, but Manila is far less polluted than anywhere we went in China. It's even less polluted than last time I was here. It may just be the time of year or something, but it's sort of nice, even though there is still a definite haze and trash here and there.
This tricycle driver flagged us down and asked if we wanted to take his picture. Of course we did!
Even the street people were very nice and outgoing. These two obviously live on this sidewalk under the shelter of a large tree (that's a mattress on the left edge) but they smiled and waved and called us over, and laughed as we took our photos and walked on.
The area is definitely poor, but still bustling with business and overtly happy. These two are transporting some goods by tricycle, one of many common means of transport.
On the side street where we're staying, a jeepney driver takes the evening to relax as the sun sinks below the horizon and temperatures begin to settle into the high seventies.
A group of children playing along our street stopped to be photographed as we walked by. You might note the hand signal of the little guy with finger and thumb open under the chin in the same manner as the tricycle driver above. I noted this in about half my pictures, so I googled it and found one place that said this is considered a gesture of handsomeness or intelligence.
And lastly before we made it home we passed by this guy doing some computer maintenance outside his home. I didn't ask him what the problem was... maybe a cockroach in the fan?
We've got some downtime today before some business tomorrow, so we may wander out to the Ali mall again and see if I can't find a cheap haircut. Hope you enjoy these shots!
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Some of the things we often do in our missionary efforts in the Philippines are medical reliefs and childrens feeds. In our discussions with Alex, he told us that with ten American dollars, we can feed up to 300 children a good healthy meal, and with a paltry sum by American standards, we can sponsor a medical relief to give medicines to people who otherwise will not have them. This is one thing that we came here for, so we set it up. We may not have much money, but when our money can do so much for so many others who have even less, I think we'd be ashamed to keep it all for ourselves.
We head out in the morning to what Alex calls a mountain in the town of Antipolo. I can't see the mountain anywhere, but he says we're at the top of it, so I believe him.
A small creek, barely even a trickle, flows by, and one of the locals says during the recent typhoon the water in that creek was higher than the nearby homes. His home's foundation was washed out in a landslide, leaving the whole building dangling from uphill supports. His solution? Simply take all the rocks that washed away, and hike them back up to his house. It sounded like a lot of work, but given the alternative I suppose he had little choice.
The lack of money here certainly doesn't mean these people have nothing. Their need has simply been satisfied by a sort of ingenuity that we of the wealthier world seem to have lost somewhere. The yard of the home where we stopped is even decorated with lush vegetation of all sorts and sizes, arranged in a wide variety of hanging baskets and pots.
We sit by helplessly with our knowledge of only a single spoken language as Alex and Benny explain in Tagalog to the gathering crowd why we're here, and who we are. Mothers holding babies take seats in the few plastic chairs, and the family providing us a yard to work with brings out all their furniture from inside for folks to use.
My shirt and shoes may have holes in them and are definitely the worse for wear, but these feet have probably never seen socks, and have certainly never enjoyed the high-tech stickiness of climbing shoe rubber that protects the soles of my own feet.
Introductions behind us, we get on with the meat of things. This fellow is the one whose home was almost wiped off the hillside. He's starting the process of cooking a huge pot of food to feed the children flocking around us. The stove is rather ingenious from an American fireman's perspective, but I'd guess the design is probably used in poorer homes worldwide, I had just never seen it before this visit.
Unfortunately for us with short notice and small funds we don't have a doctor with us who would be able to dish out prescription meds, but anything is good, and the kids and moms are stoked to receive even the general medicines we have to offer. They'll probably go a long way in a culture like this area's.
When the food is ready, the kids line up out the entry of the yard and into the alleyway beyond. Each is served with a cup of soup, and when the line finishes up, they go through again, and even some of the younger adults around are invited to share in the feast.
A young girl eyes her portion as it's scooped up, hot and fresh and probably delicious!
This poor guy of about nine or ten had a single staff of bamboo for a crutch, and wasn't using his bandaged foot at all. Must have hurt quite a bit, although I never learned what was wrong.
As we left, a whole pile of kids stacked up for a picture.
And on a photographic mindset, my eye had scoped out a few of the alleyways as we traversed them on our way in, so I kept the camera handy on the way out and got lucky when a shy young lad following us hesitated while peering at us around a corner.
Fortunately for the happiness of the world, poverty's threats are often wasted on children.
And lastly, I may be the only one to find this as funny as I do, but I'll leave you with a parting glare from one of the few locals who didn't seem happy to see us.
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Well *I* don't have any awesome panos of world famous architecture!
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We're convinced so far that Filipinos are definitely awesome people. They're friendly, open, and resourceful, and everybody we meet goes out of their way to make our lives better.
Here's a few assorted shots from our wanderings on foot yesterday.
Cats have the run of as many alleys as they could ever strut.
Trees and vines grow straight out of the concrete... where do they get the water to grow when it's all flushed down the storm drains?
Cats have got the hang of things. Sleep, eat, repeat.
As we hung around a small corner diner, I had the chance to capture some passing characters.
A chef fans his coals with his hat, while a few young girls wait for the food to finish cooking.
The cook at this stall immediately jumped out of the shot when I aimed the camera, but I got this anyway.
If you've been here, you're probably familiar with the concept of "Filipino Time." Urban Dictionary defines it as: "things get done whenever they get done. Official Timing of The Phillipines." In our case, Filipino time means we're in a constant state of relaxation, even on the verge of boredom. Never in a hurry, never pressured, never under a deadline. It's relaxing, but sometimes we just wish we had something to do!
Hope you're all still enjoying our leisurely stroll through Asia!
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And what a good thing you two are doing for the people of the Philippines.
Disappointed with AF of Tamron 28-75 2.8, me less happy.
Yesterday while eating dinner on the side of the road, a couple locals started harvesting mangoes from a tree over the road. They saw us watching, and put on quite a show, laughing and going to great lengths to show off, so when we finished eating I wandered over and got some photos up close. They loved it. Very friendly people here.
The sun was already below the horizon, but the event was memorable enough to shoot in dim light.
Lately we've been spending a lot of time in our hotel room, which has led to at least one interesting discovery: We're not alone in here! In the quiet times, and especially when the lights are off, we hear noises and catch flickering glimpses of movement out of the corners of our eyes. It's never anything tangible, only the barest idea that someone or something is present besides ourselves, and always there's that little feeling that we're being watched!
So last night I set up a trap to catch this apparition in action once and for all and be clear of suspicion and doubt. A few minutes of setup and camouflage and a few blurry and barely recognizable shots later, and I had the proof that I wanted!
This is real, absolutely not photoshopped, irrefutable evidence that there really IS another being in our hotel room, watching us!
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For now, here's a parting shot of Manila, taken with the "Photojournalism" theme of the current photo contest in mind.
So long for now!
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With the rising of the sun, our adventures in Thailand begin. We plan on catching an overnight bus to Phuket, so we take off to find the bus station, and a taxi ride takes us directly there. Sweet, we'll get our tickets set up and then walk around some and check out the area. We head inside the terminal and up to the third floor where the ticket booth marked "Phuket" is empty. A local police officer says the bus is just about to leave, and rushes us downstairs to jump aboard, where we find our seats as the bus rolls out. We haven't even had breakfast yet, and we haven't taken the time to buy food anywhere along the way. Another planned long day of traveling foiled by accidental efficiency! We settle in and try to sleep to make the ride shorter.
Arriving in Phuket later in the evening, we make our way to a hostel we'd noted beforehand and shell out almost fourteen dollars for a room for the night. This is pretty spendy, especially on our rapidly dwindling budget, but it is the high season here. Our room is complete with cockroaches, a cold shower, and lots of mosquitoes. Overall an experience geared to move us onwards!
I apologize at this point for taking no pictures for the first few days. I guess the stress of travel and trying to make living arrangements got to me!
At any rate, the following couple days saw us moving across the island to Kamala Beach and arranging with a local dive shop to go through some more advanced SCUBA training in exchange for working for a few months. The divers are friendly, and we quickly begin settling into the routine. We're a pair of the poorest travelers there are, but what we lack in the way of money is more than made up for in the incredible blessings we've been given in life!
I'll pause for a moment here to invite anybody and everybody to come see us while we're here!
Once we finally get ourselves out of the expensive hostels and into a nice cozy room off the beaten path (105 US dollars for a month!) the pressure lightens up a little, and on my first trip out on the dive boat I finally break out the camera. As we cruise up the coastline heading for our dive site, we pass the only competition in this small town with a load of their own customers headed for the same place.
Cruising along at a good clip over small chop and against a slight wind, I somehow managed a bit of a pano. It took some photoshop and a little tight cropping, but it came together.
This is my second experience diving outside the cold and murky waters of Alaska, where heavy thermal protection is a necessity and the wildlife is much less plentiful and interesting. I have to say, this is probably much closer to why SCUBA was invented. The water alongside our boat is positively teeming with colorful fish, the seabed is visible some eight meters beneath us, and here I am too poor to buy any of the various bits of underwater camera equipment! This is very hard for me!
I mean seriously. This is REAL.
I made two dives, coming across a variety of critters such as barracuda, clownfish, anemonefish, butterflyfish, pennantfish, lionfish, oysters, lobster, and even a good sized octopus. Plus a whole lot more. There was ocean life everywhere! And there I was without a camera! :cry
Between my dives, Tracy headed out with the mask and fins and did some snorkeling with the rocky shoreline of Racha Island in the background.
Tomorrow I head out for a few more dives, and for now we're still getting used to the area. Once we get ourselves established and find our income, it might just be hard to leave this place! The beach and town are a little crowded, but there's enough paradise left to make it a nice place to stay!
More to come!
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