GROOVESPOOK:
to even attempt to describe a quarter of the last few days of my life in the Philipinnes would take most of the storage capacity of Blogabond so I will try to compact what my eyes have seen and what my body has managed to accomplish, just at Camaguin Island.

The ferry from CDO to Camaguin was really awesome. Thanks to the jumbo sized Red Horse and a stunningly beautiful day. 

Then the ferry landed and again the nightmare (for me) of getting to the next place loomed once more. 

I am slowly getting used to the utter culture shock of getting off any type of transport and being accosted by thirty or so Filipinno drivers of various modes of transport. Thankfully at this point Nuttter brilliantly manages to not only explain where we need to go but how much it it SUPPOSED to cost.  I cower like an utter whimp at this stage of our travels and pretty much dread every minute of it.  My head says "we are literaly thousand of miles from anything remotely familiar and Western and could very well be dinner for these people" were it not for their smiles and good nature that is!

So we get to our hut, meet the obligitory gecko ( if there is NOT one in your room then worry about bugs) and whatch the sun set over the sea on our balcony through palm trunks.

Sucks here.

The next morning we hired mountain bikes and headed for Enigmata, a treehouse art gallery which we rode right past. Twice. In blistering tropical heat. Needless to say it was pretty amazing.  We then (foolishly, we found out later) decided on capigsawan falls. Well, after a 4km ride/walk/stumble/pant up roads so steep that the tricycles were banned, we made it! Just as two German tourists with filipinno girlfiends/daughters/wives motorbiked up there too, arriving about three minutes before.

Our vision of a perfect and private visit shattered, we dipped nontheless into the icy. Fresh water.  After our sweltering ride, a ride that proved that my heart is still able to kick it like a caterpillar engine, diving into that water did make it stop. 

Just for a second.

There is something to be said for gradual changes in body temperature. Wow. So then, miracle of miracles, the germans departed and we were alone.  This pristine waterfall, cascading down about 170 feet, soaking a shear volcanic rock wall infested with foliage that is hell bent on reclaiming  every inch of planet was just picture perfect. Then, as we were thinking of leaving, 28 screaming adolescant Koreans then proved this was a good move.

The mind bendingly arduous journey up, 2 hours that my body is still coming to terms with 2 DAYS LATER, took a magical 9 minutes to fly down.

The next day we jumped on another crazy motorbike filled wih Filipino school kids and jumped on a ferry to Bohol.

The same nightmare scenario of tribesman wanting my flesh to feed thier children got us on a bus that just dumped us on the corner of some street 5 kms from Loboc.  Then an enterprising Filipino named Ta Ta managed to fit us on the smallest motorbike ever and drove us to where I now sit sweating over my iTouch. No internet access again but never Mind. We are in a small hut by the river. This would be idilyc if not for the local tourist boards brilliant idea to place multi-colored spot lights all along the river for the floating restaurants, repleat with cheezy live entertainment, to tool up and down the river.  Lame. But sort of fun too.

Thankfully this is only during lunch so we do get the majority of time listening to nothing but forest and birds and insects. David Attenborough's second home.

written by  Groovespook on July 18, 2010 from Bohol, Philippines
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
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Well, once again access to the wide web world has been completely non-existent over the last few days. Really though, it is a blessing. Forcefully discomnected  from everything makes these days longer and that much more intense. 

From our ferry to Cebu we spent one night in a room the size of the average American kitchen pantry. Had a nice whole fish together in a pretty ugly, dirty city.  Got up and out as quickly as we could and took a twenty minute flight to Bacolod on Negros Island - another in the Visayas group. 

Anyone who has flown like us to Australia and England will know just how fantastic a twenty minute long flight is. Tee hee hee, it is like cheating. You get up in the air, the captain says you can unfasten your seat belts and then - I kid you not - he says "prepare for landing".

From Bacolod it was an awesomely beautiful ride on another local bus to Sippalay through mountains and rice fields. The locals forcing these huge black bullocks with enormous horns over carefully irrigated fields to churn the mud for the hand-placed shoots of rice.

From the bus on the main road we took a tricycle to the sea and the outlet of a small river. We walked to the river's edge as more and more school children gathered around us, asking lots of questions and laughing at our alien entities.

We hailed the small outrigger and a sinewy, shirtless, smoking, mute of a Filipinno paddled us across the river for 20p (40 cents) to a beach nestled between two small forested mountains of molten rock. The sea has eroded a rim around these mountains that makes them look as though they are floating five feet above the earth. 

We disembarked on the other side, walked through the gorge and beheld a pristine beach about half a mile or so long. Bordered on both ends by these awesome mountains and dotted with small boats. We wandered up the beach past a couple of small resorts to Driftwood Village.  We met Babe, the manager, she immediately introduced us to the staff and they all learnt our names. We checked into our cabin, ran down and had a swim in the warm sea and then spent 3 days totally relaxing. Well, when we were not taking part in volley ball games with the staff and other guests on the beach or being royally whipped playing pool tournaments at the beach bar, or just wandering and exploring the rocky bluff.

Driftwood Village really was the most fun we have had so far. It was hard to say goodbye.  What made it really hard to say goodbye was the promise of a whole day in transit and a MASSIVE HANGOVER.

So we couldnt get the bus we needed due to the high tide cutting off tricycles from the river so we walked in the hot sun with our packs on.

Waited for ages for a bus which only took us from Sippalay to Hinnoba-an where we had to wait two and a half hours for the next bus. During  that time we were serenaded by a hermit woman who could not really sing but had a fantastic impression of a homeless woman and we played a lot of cards.

The next bus dropped us at yet another terminal at Bayawan and a mad dash into another bus that we needed a shoe horn to get into. It then continued to pick up people until children hung from the open doors!

Unfortunately the next bus was not only a much longer trip but the bus driver was terrible! Then we got to the hotel and it was fully booked so we had to wander about and find another place to stay.

So we are finally here. If the weather suits we will take a day trip snorkelling to Apo island after the awesome Swiss couple from Driftwood told us it was the most amazing snorkelling in their nine months of travelling.  Then Sunday is off to Palawan Island for 7 days of more random huts on deserted beaches. Ho hum.

As always, we miss you all and are LOVING EVERY MINUTE!!

written by  Groovespook on July 23, 2010 from Dumaguete, Philippines
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
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It was just what we needed. We did a whole lot of nothing, ate well and recharged ourselves. We also met some great people. Most of that warm snuggly feeling was stripped away however by the time we reached our next destination, Dumaguete, a pleasant city (that is saying A LOT for the Philippines) some 5 hours away.

Traveling is never as easy as jumping on a bus and going. You usually have to take various forms of transport just to get to the bus and then, depending on the bus, there are stops galore. By the time we arrived into Dumagete, it was nearly 8 p.m. We left Sugar Beach at 11 a.m. Anyone doing the math? I said it's a five-hour ride from the two destinations. We left Sugar Beach by walking with packs on across the beach, taking a paddleboat, walking 1km in the heat and humidity (still with our packs on...and, by the way, both of mine are heavier than Porl's!). Then a tricycle to the bus stop. Waiting for the first bus, which, when it arrived zipped us to our destination in under an hour. Then waiting two hours or so for next bus. Then immediately getting onto our last bus which was very crowded. This meant sitting in the last row. For fellow motion sickness readers, you know my pain! Even with my travel sickness meds, I was hanging on for dear life -- and a red plastic bag just in case. Slowly, I made my way up as seats became available. Until I was nearly at the front. The bus driver didn't make the journey any easier on our bodies. He sucked. Honestly, the worst bus driver we've had. His idea of slowing down meant SLAMMING on the brakes. Often. On certain bus lines, there are conductors that ride the bus. The conductor is the one who punches out your ticket and who you pay. However, every so often, the bus will stop in some random remote area, and another bus employee will jump on. These are inspectors. They check the tickets and passenger count to make sure no one is riding for free. Typically, inspectors have gotten on a bus about two or three times during a journey. For whatever reason, inspectors got on this bus at least 10 times. Often the bus would pull over to the side and stop while the inspector did his thing. Try to imagine being on a VERY crowded bus in the heat with no air-con while a man looks through tickets. AGAIN. Give the crappiness of the driver (he also had a knack for starting to pull away before passengers were safely off the bus. Seriously!) I can understand why the inspectors got on so often. But after being on this bus for three hours, I was ready to scream.

I'm lucky to report Porl and I both survived. Me, from travel sickness and Porl from being hungover the entire day. My money was on him vomiting during the paddleboat ride, but he proved me wrong!

We were attempting to go to a nearby island for some snorkeling today but both of us just can't bear the thought of getting on anything with wheels today. So it's officially an internet-laundry-chilling out day.

Hopefully by tomorrow we will be ready again to take on the Philippines in all it's transportation glory!

written by  Groovespook on July 23, 2010 from Dumaguete, Philippines
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
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We had an awesome vegetarian extravaganza last night and Nuttter is still in heaven.  The staff were so suprized to see us they took pictures and made us fill in a guest book. Too funny.

Speaking of food, I decided to splash out yesterday in Dumaguete and get a filet mignon. 

NOTE:
Never ever ever order a steak in a country with no cows.  

Not only was my filet mignon simply an eighth of an inch slab of frozen london broil, but it tasted not completely dissimilar to cardboard AND it was the equivelent of three of any of our total dinner bills so far.

So, degected, I left Nuttter in the hotel in search of a whisky. Yeah, good luck with that!!! Honestly, you would have thought that the Speyside region of the Scottish highlands had never been invented.  

I eventually found some Chivas Regal in a dodgy bar, so, sitting next to some 300 pound Swiss giant of a man, downed it and then went to (I know) McDonalds for 2 burgers! To nullify my crying stomach that was still coming to terms with the "thought" of filet mignon and the "reality" that it was forced to digest- or "let ferment" might be a closer analogy.

AAAAARGH I AM SO SICK OF ALL THESE COCKS!!!!

Every single place we go to seems to have a cockeral tethered to it somewhere, mostly underneath where we are sitting and I tell you now that I would not hesitate to cut the head off of every single one of them given a machette and two minutes.  

Let me explain why in one numeral and two letters. 4AM. from 4am until noon these friggin creatures cock-a-doodle-dooing is enough for the most patient man - or in lieu of him, me - to lose his marbles.

Right now for instance I can hear at least 7 of them and one is four feet away from me.  My death stares only seem to make him louder. 

So our eleven oclock departure time comes. And then goes. Not until 11:40 do we finally all cram into a Nissan Urvan built for fourteen people, revurbished for many more "Asian statured" peeps and housing - today for this eledged five hour trip - seventeen. This includes Nuttter, Groovespook and Adriane, a six foot Romanian stuck in the back!

The first five hours of our five hour bus trip were pretty sweet really. The driver tore through north Palawan as if the Philipino Police were chasing us whilst firing their M16's.

Then, during our last stop, the driver - a wisoned old man with a disconcerting perma-smile - let out air from all the tires. Hmmm I thought. Curious. Until we hit the dirt road. Then I realised why he let the air out. Never in all my born days have I been so glued to the "road" ahead. This guy - and he would make a brilliant rally car driver - continued the  "being chased by cops with guns" theme on roads NOT SUITABLE BY A LONG STRETCH!!!!!!

Needless to say I left finger nails in the seat in front of me.  What sucked about this the most was the view we all just ccould not look at.  We have all seen pictures of massive islands of rock surrounded by turqouise seas but has anyone been forced to ignore said views for fear of flying off the road? 

Anyone on the private van from Puerto Princessa to El Nido has I will bet.

We got to El Nido and wandred around searching for accomodation. Finally found a sweet cabin 10 minutes out of town, got settled and trundled into the first beachside restaurant we could find and ordered a whole grilled Red Snapper. GORGEOUS!!

I then made the mistake of attempting to get a martini. Ugh. First try they gave me a glass of vermouth. Second try was half a glass of vermouth with a splash of vodka, which is where I left it.

Amd so to Tuesday. Feeling refreshed and vibrant from walking out the door and seeing a view that puts most postcards to shame, we took a tour on a small outrigger to a number of the small islands around the locale of El Nido for some snorkeling.

To describe what we saw today, picture the most amazing aquarium you have ever seen, make it the size of Manhattan and dive in. Every tropical fish you have seen in schools of ten to over a hundred, oblivious to us ungainly white snorkelers peering into their pristine world.

Those awesome little Neons that everyone thinks are so cute? Pests compared to the schools of Angel fish beneath them and the Parot fish below them. 

We swam through thousands of neons, darting to avoid our flippers and all catching the sunlight at once as the swam around at lightning speed. Awesome.

Molusks and bright blue star-fish and space-like, spikey things creeping around along the sea floor amongst luminous yellow, blue and white corals.  Visability of at least thirty feet.  We spent the whole day in awe of the coral and the giant, magestic, molten rock mountains covered in forest. Protecting all this natural wonderment from the ravishes of the open sea. 

Coming up for a break from snorkeling, it's like looking at Tolkien's Mordor, 500 years after Frodo and after the sea has risen eighty feet and some serious climate change.

We just got back to the room, it's raining and the freshness is so nice. We are both a little burnt but still totally blissed out. Who knows, we may have to devour another hour old whole fish for dinner!

The tour today was so we may be doing something very similar tomorrow.

written by  Groovespook on July 27, 2010 from El Nido, Philippines
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
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We ate whilst finding it impossible to ignore the massive looming mountain jutting out of the turquoise sea not half a mile in front of us. The gentle sea lapping against the edge of the restaurant our soundtrack.

Doing nothing today but deciding on a snorkel tour for tomorrow. We might get a chance to upload some pictures tonight if all goes well!

written by  Groovespook on July 27, 2010 from El Nido, Philippines
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
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Time is not flying. Time too is on holiday. The cool breeze off the crystal sea cools our heels. Shaded by cleverly folded palm frons we sit on the silent porch of Pukka's. The staff quietly chat and laugh their simple laugh as I sip a cold beer and we read our books.

Beside me a wall of paper thin clam shells, strung together as a wind chime rattle in the breeze. Boats lay dormant and scattered across the bay of El Nido as the sun bakes off another layer of bright paint.  A random snorkeling tourist spouts past us. 

This place is a dream.  Electricity is only on from 2pm to 6am so any form of noise is virtually stilled. Only the occasional tricycle or motor from an outrigger interupts the lapping waves.

Somewhere behind me a girl is singing beautifully. Nothing could be better than this.

.…..............

I don't how this happened but VOOOM and it is the next day. We ho-hummed and did another snorkeling tour of some different islands around El Nido - the place I never ever want to leave - but just a half day tour, nothing too frantic.  

During our last 2 hours it bucketed rain but suprisingly, under the warmer sea water, you just shrug and continue to irritate Nemo with your flipper, stare in wonder at the blue and black striped Napolean snake eel (yet stay safely five meters above them!!!!), marvel at the friggin longspine lionfish (I SAW IT I SAW IT I SAW IT!!!!) etc,.

really, we are now (recouperating) sitting in a cafe overlooking a view that is really beyond description and I have borrowed the restaurants copy of "bullshitly beautiful tropical fish you just saw but can't believe or, more importantly, name" and am rudely crying out "I saw that... I saw that" with reckless abandon.

So yeah, we are doing more of the same tomorrow and the tomorrow after tomorrow.

So boring.

Sorry.

written by  Groovespook on July 29, 2010 from El Nido, Philippines
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
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We happened to pass a small shop whilst idling down the streets of El Nido and, written on a blackboard was the phrase "Affordable day of diving - no PADI Certification required"

HELLO!!!!

DIVING!!!

We walked into the shop and Yoshi, an ex-Tokyo, Japanese (surprised?), pen-pusher sized us up for wetsuits, weights and other SCUBA what-nots for a day that featured (at least for me) 2, one hour long, thirty feet deep dives. Thirty feet is the max that you can go, assisted by a trained frog-man type.

The first session we both completed in turn. First I went in and Yoshi took me through the safety precautions. You know, how NOT to breathe in seawater if you lose your regulator, how NOT to have your sinus cavities in your head implode every 3 feet, how to keep breathing despite being THIRTY FEET BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE SEA (did I mention we went thirty feet below the surface of the sea yet?). That sort of boring rigmarole. Blah blah blah. Whatever mate, I'm an Australian. Sort-of.

Then Yoshi finished the training by holding my hand as we slowly swam out to coral magnificence THIRTY FEET BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE SEA.

It was utterly beyond description - even for me - and only really ruined by being completely in love to the point of dreamy extacy and then turning to find you are holding hands with a wrinkly but spry forty-something Japanese man and NOT your loving wife who made all this come true.

We surfaced - slowly enough so that the air trapped in the bronchials in my lungs did not explode (the bends) - and I sat on the snow-white, powdery beach, nestled amongst angry station-stones of razor sharp rocks covered in tangled, rain-forest. I made a magnificent sand castle whilst Yoshi stole Nuttter for her intro into a different magical world.

Porl on Miniloc Island

Unfortunately, Nuttter's right ear did not seem to adjust too well to being taken THIRTY FEET BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE SEA so for the rest of the day and even now as she sleeps beside me, her right ear "feels like there is a small balloon inside it".

This feeling is slowly dissipating and we are assured will be gone - at worst - in 3 (gulp) days, thank the lord who made eardrums!. But sadly this prevented her from wanting (understandably) to go for the second dive.

Boo. :-(

The second dive was from the boat. Yeah, you have all seen it, the backward-roll thing into the sea! Jacques Cousteau PAH!. I've done it!!!

Yoshi and I then descended once more THIRTY FEET BELOW..... you get it. This time we were amongst giant fields of cabbage shaped coral that would have been enough to behold if it were not for a school of (curse alert!) fucking thousands and thousands and thousands of beautiful Yellow-Striped Whiptails (Sea Bream family) that swam around us for ages.

Completely uninterested in making contact with us and explaining the secret of life, the universe and everything, You can tell they all smuggly know the answer to that question but they won't share it the smug little things.

These happy fish perfectly swished through the ether whilst I looked like a complete drunkard in a gravity fee environment, struggling to turn right-side-up to reach that pint of Boddingtons. Oh god, why did I just mention a real beer.

We spent an hour down there, Yoshi and I, like two very big, black, ugly-looking fish with monstrous deformities on our backs instead of elegant fins and - of course - spouting turbulent fractal blooms of molten glass, powering away from us up to the surface, THIRTY FEET... sorry.

Yoshi would occasionally wave his big metal rod at me (please- children might be reading this so keep the "that's what she said" comment to yourselves boys) and would point out various wonders of nature. He also had one of those kiddy's magnet-drawing, sketch-pad thingies and would let me know what fish was what and which thing was male or female.

Barracuda, crocodile needle fish chasing schools of neons for lunch, Red and White Snapper, Angel Fish and Parrot Fish galore. Stupid really. I will scoff at any aquarium for the rest of my life.

Little flowering polyps I could touch that would violently shoot back into crevices and holes in the enormous coral structures and then gingerly creep back out.

Damn! It is so amazing.

We surfaced and checked on poor nuttter. Stuck on a small boat not even comfortable enough to snorkel where we were anchored. So sad.

Then we motored back to town through a torrential tropical rainstorm that has not let up since!!!

We changed, Nutter improved a bit more and we most had to swim back to town through the rain for dinner. Pizza of all things. Welcomingly good as it turned out and then a native acoustic guitarist and his odd American electric guitar soloist companion got up and started serenading one and all.

Mariaand El Nido Beach

After three tunes I sucked up some Dutch courage and went up there and banged away at the random percussion with them! Yay! I think the Dutch courage came from Jockam and Sussana, two awesome Amsterdamians we met that were really helpful and fun, let us know the secrets of El Nido's restaurants and tours.

So I am still wired from it all and of course just want to dive again and again now that I have seen that brilliant world.

It is about midnight, the French family in the cottage next have discovered a cockroach or something and are yelling and jumping around. I daren't laugh at them. We have had a couple of big scary insect moments during the trip but thankfully my lightning-like Australian reflexes and my always handy flip-flops usually save the day- that is - when the 7-8 inch long geckos don't. Those beautiful but secretive lizards tend to keep a pretty good tab on the big nasty creepy things.

The really big geckos make an awesome sound, once or twice a night, I am trying to get some audio of it but it's tough, sometimes it seems right next our heads and realistically, we both don't quite feel at home without one these days!!

Apparently they are worth 500pesos each on the street! Hmmmmm.

The rain is expected to continue tomorrow so we may lay low, especially if Nuttter's ear is still even slightly dodgy.

Hoping to upload a few more pictures ASAP! And then we are just about done. Reality returns sharply in the form of 20 hous on a plane in a few days time.

I care not. This has been an event that has brightened my world view and released a lot of tension that came from stuff I don't think I could ever look at, or get so wound up about, the same way again.

Love!

written by  Groovespook on July 30, 2010 from El Nido, Philippines
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
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Watched Nuttter, my financier, pay the bill and I grabbed a coffee. The sea out front is still, like a mirror, and wonderfully reflects Cadlao Island. 

Even the cockerals don't bother me this morrow. I am a little excited about the 6 hour van ride as we have had a lot of rain so the roads might be muddy and dodgy.  We secured the front seats with the driver so we will have the most leg room and a panaramic view.

The Flip is fully charged so I can get this rollercoaster ride in HD.  Maybe. One never really knows how this will pan out...

SIX HOURS LATER...

We didn't end up in the front seats of the nicer of the two vans. At the last minute we were shunted into the older, smaller, unhappier van. 

We watched as racial favoratism reared it's ugly head and all the Filipinos got comfy in there whilst all the backpacking, gangly, longer-legged, white-folk joined us and bitched about the lack of leg room.

SIX HOURS LATER...

Tried to get a bit of the trip but aside from a twenty minute section of one-laned, mud-splattered madness it was a pleasant, non-event.

We are now sitting in a slightly less dodgy, cold-water-only but AIR CONDITIONED room waiting it out till our flight tomorrow morning for Manila, then, after a night there, STEAK AND WHISKY, I mean, HOME!

This whole trip has been a bit of a rollercoaster with what seems like 3 seperate, dream-like vacations mixed in. 

Nuttter has done such an awesome job of organising everything and managing to deal with yours truly at the same time. I am so blessed and there is no way in the world I would have ever experienced SOOOO MUCH AWESOME WORLD without her.  She is a trooper!

THE NEXT DAY...

Especially today she troops.. We are at the airport awaiting now, our plane to arrive and take us to Manila. Palawan has seen fit to gift my wonderful Nuttter with a cold. 

Boo Palawan, boo!

Traveling is always touch and go with Nuttter. It amazes me that she has managed to "local bus" it around almost all of S. E. Asia knowing what I know now about her motion sickness - let alone some ugly, stuffy, sinus yuckiness.

Crazy!

CUT TO 10pm in Manila.

We beat the local taxi driver in Manila into actually using the meter as opposed to making up some ridiculous fare, with the help of the local police - I kid you not - and just got back from the Green Belt Mall in Makate.  An awesome, restaurant-filled mall, replete with everything from TopShop to Rolex to an Apple store!!!

I just spent more pesos on a meal - Porl style - then 3 days of our usual budgeted meal allowance and am pretty damn content.  Nuttter is still ill unfortunately and it is 10:10pm which is 10:10am at home.  I am about to get onto home time by staying up as long as possible so that I die on the plane and be well rested when we get to EWR.

Or I might fall asleep now.......

written by  Groovespook on August 2, 2010 from Manila, Philippines
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
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We have now been home for 5 days. We stopped taking the Malaria medicine on Friday - as prescribed - and well, we have both been in some strange haze. Feeling a bit like travelers and marveling at the weird things people do in this country.

3 reasons for our malaise.

1. The first and most obvious being jet-lag. A lethargic "almost" headache coupled with the expected muscular death as we do not continue getting up super early and walking 4 or 5 miles a day, either with or without backpacks. Oh, and drinking LOTS of water (always on hand as we trump around the Philippines).

2. The second being a certain nameless (enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli) bacteria that managed to lodge itself in BOTH of our respective digestive tracts and has been playing havoc with certain necessary movements since - and unfortunately during - our return. We are beginning to feel better, but this could last anywhere up to a month according to Doctor WWW.

3. Thirdly? HELLO… WE ARE NOT SNORKELING IN EL NIDO ANYMORE.

The reality of the end of this monumental vacation has been tempered nicely with the wonderful news of Nuttters sister giving birth to her TWINS! Little nieces A and B (long, long story - no names yet) are a trifle small and "pre-me" but otherwise are happy little creatures spending time in a greenhouse till they are properly grown and really prepared for the outside world.

Plus, the almost completely painless purchasing of a car that actually resembles something other than a PILE OF CRAP like we have been driving for years.

So tomorrow I go back to work in the big bad city of New York, laughing at the luxury of it all and hopefully with a better outlook. After all, I have been swimming with thousands and thousands of brilliant-yellow, tropical fish amongst giant techni-colored coral. I am looking forward to the lavish air-conditioned coach that will be driving me in style on paved roads. The free and drinkable water that spouts from everywhere. The BEEF I am taking in for lunch, cooked by myself in an incredibly hygienic kitchen (by Philippine standards, ahem). Seeing my fun-time co-workers and regaling them with stories of thousands and thousands of brilliant-yellow, tropical fish amongst giant techni-colored coral.

Once again, I extend a HUGE thank-you to my darling Nuttter, who organized everything and kept us on track. It truly has been a world-beater of vacations and I will not forget it. Thanks Babe.

And thanks to all the well wishers and followers too, it was really great to get a little feedback here and there from all our beloved friends and family who followed our little trek.

Anxious, dubious and pensive, I am off to work.

love to all!

Porl (aka Groovespook)

written by  Groovespook on August 9, 2010 from West Orange, United States
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
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