Pinoys...

There were a lot of reasons why I fell in love with the Pinoys and Pinays. A smile certainly is infectious, when someone smiles at you, you can't help but smile yourself. And because everyone in the Philippines smiles at you, you end up walking around with a big grin on your face all day long.

One of my favourite things about the Pinoys is that they sing and dance to themselves. We had a manicure one day and whilst they were painting our toenails, they were singing to themselves. The security guards will randomly burst out into song at any given moment. People walking down the street are just bopping along and singing to themselves. I think we all know, I have a tendency to randomly sing to myself...so it was great to be surrounded by that kind of attitude and not have anyone stare at you and think you crazy for it! 

One thing to be aware of in the Philippines, when asking for directions...don't expect a clear set of instructions. You will generally get a nod or experience the Pinoy pointing with the lips. Often someone would gesture in one direction, then someone else gesture in another direction. But eventually you get where your planning to go. The pointing with the lips is a funny thing to witness. They'll nod their head in the general direction and then do a little pout in attempts of pointing in the direction to go. So due to vague directions your often late to places. But that's ok because Pinoys aren't exactly known for their time keeping. 

One of the very cute quirks I enjoyed from the Pinoys is the eyebrow raise. Often people would raise their eyebrows at you to say Hello. Or they would use the eyebrow raise to if they hadn't heard what you had said or didn't understand. A kinda of way of asking What?! Pardon?! I find myself raising my eyebrows myself now! 

A lot of Filipino food mainly consists of meat, fish or seafood and rice and often egg too. Not an awful lot of vegetables. After a couple days of being extremely carnivorous fruit and veg is craved, which is easy enough to come by at the markets. Oh the fresh, local fruit is wonderful. It's quite fun when you go to a fruit stall and see new fruits you've never seen before! So we took the opportunity to try these new wonderful fruits. Rambutan, which I can only describe as fuzzy lychee, are wonderfully refreshing. Kinda like skinless grapes. And my new favourite fruit the mangosteen! Ah it's sooooooooooo yummy! A purple outer skin you rip open to get to the sweet, white flesh inside! Mmmmmmm! Soooo gooood!

The kids of the Philippines are the cutest ever. They will come and play with you at any given opportunity. At the beach these three little boys came over and played with us, sand fights were had. They took great delight in finding shells and telling us what they were and teaching us little bits of Tagalog. One of them rapped to us a Tagalog song...so cute! The Philippines is a great place to go for a little ego boost, when you get a few high fives from the cutest kids and people smile at you and raise their eyebrows at you all day long, you know you're having a good day. And with the sun shining radiantly, I find impossible to be in a bad mood in the Philippines. And if you are you just sing and dance your cares away...anywhere you like! 

One of the tunes of the vacation was The Black Eyed Peas - Bebot. Apl De Ap from BEP is a proud Pinoy, and the Pinoys seem to be super proud of him in return. 

bustling streets of Puerto Princesa

the little makeshift stores along the streets

our new little friends

as the sun sets...

Palawan Adventures

In a new country I will always try and live like a local and experience the true lifestyle. Some places make this is easier. In all honesty it's hard in Taiwan because there is nothing familiar. But the Philippines was different. The Pinoy's are so welcoming and happy to have you there, it makes it so much easier to embrace their culture. Starting the day with a bunch of smiles really is a good start. We were fortunate enough to have breakfast included with our stay, so we got to try out traditional brekkies. So rice, fried egg and a very odd sausage it was. Not something I would usually want for brekkie but when a cute Pinoy brings it to you with a smile on their face, it's impossible to resist. 

It was a little strange for a while having all these strangers talking to you out of the blue, but then you come to realise that that is just the culture. They are friendly, smiley and happy with everyone...a kid comes in to a store and is greeted with a Morning Ma'am. An elderly person enters and is also greeted with a Moring Ma'am. Regardless of whether you are a foreigner a Pinoy or anyone, they'll treat you the same. 

Geckos are abundant in the Philippines. I had gotten used to them in Taiwan, but they don't make a daily visit, just every so often you'll see one. Here, it was like a small convention of geckos had congregated. I think our highest count was 7 geckos on one wall...but we like them because they eat all the other bugs.

Though, the mosquitos in the Philippines are hilarious. They are so slow and dopey, just wave your hand in their general direction and you have a good chance of swatting it! 

I sincerely love that the Philippines is a little more Western than other Asian countries! It still has it's own culture and is very proud of it, but it has a great mix of influences that seems to make it more accepting of other cultures. As we walked down the high street just in the little out of the way place we were staying there were traditional places in between a McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts. Needless to say coffee runs were made often! (When you can buy a donut and a coffee for well under £1 it would be rude not to!) There are parts of me that feel bad for paying so little for things in the Philippines as many Pinoys are working all day long and getting paid very little. So I had to try and think of it in terms of our being there and buying things was business for them. 

Walking through the streets of Palawan at first glance looks and sounds like utter madness. Cockrels, cars, trikes, Jeepneys, motorcycles and people everywhere! But the more you look at it the more it, in a round about way, does make sense. It made me chuckle how in Palawan, when you beep your horn of your vehicle, you have no intention of slowing down or stopping. It is just to let everyone else know you are coming! That being said, lots of cars would stop to let you out, or let you cross the road. (Something that never happens in Taiwan!! Ever!!) It is evident that the people are chilled out and friendly, just from those little things! 

At first we thought we would only be able to fit 2 people in each trike so had planned to always be using 2 trikes and go in convoy. The trikes are such an experience! It is a motorcycle with a side cart thing attached. As we explored the surroundings, we saw that the locals were getting way more than just two people in a trike. So for our next trike ride we managed to get all four of us in. One rides side saddle behind the motorcycle driver, 2 on one side of the cart and 1 on the other side. Yes it is cramped, but it gets you from A to B and costs mere pennies. It's a very strange feeling being in one. But a great way to explore. 

We went down to the local beach. There are a lot of famous beaches in Palawan, but as with anything famous that means a ton of tourists spoiling it! So we decided do just ask locals about places to go and go to fairly unblemished places. As we got down to the beach I was just so moved by the beauty of the place. There were little wooden shacks and huts, kids playing, dogs running around, locals swimming. Because of the way the tide was we had to wade through water, up to shin height, to get to the sandy area. So there we were, wading through the lush, warm water...ahead of us were mangroves and trees and if you look to the side you could see for miles ahead the sea meeting the mountains past the horizon. The mountains looked like a haze and the colours of the sea, the sky and the mountains all blended together. It was truly incredible! I just felt so blessed to be able to see the beautiful creation. I had seen photos of beautiful beaches before, but being there in that moment was just so emotive and moving! Photos don't do it justice, but seeing the photos I took from the trip conjures up all the emotions I felt. 

Every so often it would dawn on me that I was on vacation with people 4 months ago I didn't even know existed. It is totally awesome that within a short amount of time, fantastic friendships can be gained. Being with people that have the same kind of goals and experiences, it is easy to form a friendship quickly. We decided to have a British evening whilst watching The King's Speech together...complete with card games, whisky and the girls putting on British accents. To which I also wanted to put on an accent so went Northern for the evening! 

one of my favourite photos...i still can't believe i was actually here!!!

the work of crabs!