2. Mindanao - Cagayan de Oro City

After a couple days in Cebu I headed to Mindanao. I wanted to first see Cagayan de Oro City, and then Davao. CDO City is small, not a lot to do, but it was relaxing to hang out and get my bearings. I stayed at a pleasant place run by an Australian. He and his friends took great pleasure in showing me a good time and introducing me to the local favorite beer, Red Horse. It doesn't taste very good, but it really has a kick to it. I don't seem to have any pics of that place, but for some reason I took a pic of this little hut that was directly outside of the front gate. It was so weird to see affluence and desperate poverty juxtaposed like this, but it's everywhere.

The first day I decided to have a walk around town. I stopped in to have a look at the local library.

A manual typewriter and a desk if you had the desire to sit and type something.

It was quite hot for me and my rib hurt so much, so I stopped and rested a lot. There was a small stand that sold drinks and hotdogs and such in the middle of the downtown area, I was struck by how many tiny lizards were crawling on the wall.

It seemed there was a rubber stamp maker on every third block around town. I stopped and chatted with this guy, and drew a picture of a stamp I wanted him to make. He said come back in about an hour to pick it up. I had him make a stamp like the one I remembered in Val Kilmer's first movie, "Top Secret". A Nazi-like character had a stamp that said "KILL HIM". That's what I had the guy make. I guess it's lucky the TSA folks didn't find it in my luggage on the way home.

I visited a tourist center, got a map and continued on my walking tour. There was a small college where I stopped by to have a look around. 

The college had a guard, very friendly. They took my name down
as a visitor and let me in to have a look around.

Walking around on campus I saw a museum. It was closed, but when I expressed interest they opened it up for me and gave me a VIP tour.

The curator of the museum was happy to let me in to have a look around

Museum exhibit with all aspects of Filipino culture on display

They had a copy of Noli Me Tangere, a novel by Filipino polymath and national hero
José Rizal first published in 1887 in Berlin. Obligatory reading for all
junior-high students, it was displayed in a prominent place in the museum.

Very lovely garments worn by natives long ago. The rough cloth was adorned by
coral and seashells sewn into the fabric.

There were many other things in the museum, from old to new, art and artifacts of the Philippine people.

After the tour, I thought I would buy a phone. I don't know why, I didn't know anyone to call. You can pick one up for about $10, and then you buy a SIM card with "load". That's what everybody calls it--minutes, or chat time or whatever. I came across this shop which sold phones, and these two nice little ladies helped me select a phone, install the battery and show me how it works.

I do mean little. They were both about 4'-8" tall.

They then pointed me to a shop down the street I could by a "load" for it. It was tiny, run by a Muslim lady. While she was fixing my phone up with load, we struck up a conversation. She was full of questions about me and my life in the U.S. Then her husband came by, a police officer, real nice guy. I ended up spending the rest of the day and evening with the two of them. They drove me around and showed me the town, and then we went out for pizza. Nice folks.

Driving me around town, showing me the best places to buy a house,
talking about business opportunities

Having pizza, showing off my new T-shirt. I must have been drunk to buy that.

1. 2010 Vacation - Bangkok and Cebu

This is my first trip to southeast Asia - Philippines and Thailand, January and February, 2010. It was at first supposed to be to Cambodia and Thailand but I skipped Cambodia this time. Instead I flew into Bangkok first, spent little more than a day, then went to the Philippines to visit 3 cities in 8 days, and then back to Thailand to spend the rest of my time there. I decided to visit the Philippines because I had met some people who had either lived there in the past or were living there now, liked it and recommended that I should try to see it. I wanted to see if it's a place I could feel comfortable and happy.

I'm not spending much time this trip log with my first destination, Bangkok. I'd really rather forget about my experience there actually, nothing went right. My very first day in Bangkok I went to get a Thai massage at Wat Pho, a very famous Thai monastery that includes a huge reclining Buddha statue, and a famous Thai massage school. On this my very first experience with Thai massage, I hurt one of my ribs. It wasn't the massage guy's fault, I have kind of a messed up rib cage, and I just turned over the wrong way, and bam my rib dislocated. It hurt like hell, and continued to hurt for the remainder of this vacation. Wow what a bummer it was, but I tried to make the best of it. That, and sleep being messed up from the flight, and numerous sleep disruptions from roosters in various places I stayed at (oh, don't get me started on them, how I hate them now!) I was not in a touristy mood, but here's a few pics. I'm looking at the date stamps, and I've got them messed up somehow, some of these first ones are from after I returned to Bangkok from the Philippines....here we go anyway.

I was really struck by this upon arrival at the airport: orchids growing everywhere.

Arriving in Bangkok from the airport in a cab, under a massive Skytrain station.

I stayed at the Prince Palace, a humongous hotel popular
with many different nationalities of travelers. 

It was all kind of luxurious. I think I'd stay some place else next time.

Wat Pho

Here's where my ill-fated massage took place, the School of Massage's building, open to the public.

I didn't get out a lot, but I managed to get lost in China town.

I thought it was just one day in Bangkok. It must have been two days. I can't remember, I'm writing this post way after the fact. Anyway, soon I left for Cebu, via Manila.

I'd read a lot about the Philippines and how English is spoken there. I must say that was a big plus in my thinking of where I might feel comfortable. Two nights in Cebu City was my first stop.

Their were so many of these trikes, all basically the same design,
little cartoon copies of automobiles, all different colors.

Here's the guy who drove me around my first day.

Just some street scenes I shot while riding around in his trike.

Street scene. I took a lot of pics of just regular people hanging out.

This is a market in Talisay, a town just south of Cebu City.

Many people posed like this, with the hand beneath the chin
in this manner. For the longest time I wondered why.
I finally found out it's the trademark of a well-known celebrity.

Honestly, a quarter of them used this pose. Here's a little girl
who doesn't quite have it right, but she knows it's the thing to do

Across the street from the little market. Everybody out and about buying dinner.

I'm sure this crazy guy was hooking up illegally. 

I spent a lot of time just walking around, or taking cabs or trikes

A couple times I hopped on one of the jeepneys. I think it cost about 10 pesos (about 20 cents).
They used to be made from surplus WWII jeeps, but now they are just built to look like them
a little from the front. Rough ride, but cheap.

It being only the first few days of my first experience in Asia, I was rather disoriented, and my rib was in constant pain. I slept a lot and felt kind of dazed most of the time because of the heat and the time difference, and just how different everything was. Two days was really not enough to experience Cebu City, on the island of Cebu. I'll have to go back again some day and spend two weeks instead of two days, and see more the island as well. Recently a friend did some searches on  tours of the islands of Palawan, the furthest western island system of the Philippines. That is a great looking place to visit too.