Boracay

Quick update on my weekend trip, I got back this morning from Boracay (little island in the south of the Philippines). It has to be one of the most beautifulest places I have ever seen ... it was paradise. Even though the island was very beautiful it was very commercialized which took away from much of its beauty but if you could look past the 100+ merchants trying to sell pretty much anything, from sunglasses to messages, to you could appreciate the wonderful view.

Boracay is made up of three different stations (1, 2, and 3) along the beach front. It is awesome to see all the restaurants, hotels, and shops along this huge beach. Not only is the merchants fun to watch you can pretty much find any water sport know to man on this beach, from snorkeling to wind surfing to water skying ... on a small Philippines budget I could only afford to go snorkeling with some of the other interns but it was great. There were hundreds of fish in so many different colors and you could feed them crackers and they would eat right out of your hands. Also, the boat that we took snorkeling took us around the entire Island and we got to see all the different beaches and the great view. Pictures are posted on Facebook for people that are interested.

Boracay is also known for its night life, however, due to the off session and my not so strong stomach I didn't really get to experience that much of it. All in all it was a great weekend. We were a little nervous that we weren't going to get much sun because its raining season but after about three hours in the sun with sun screen I have a wonderful burn that I am currently nursing, hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight with only one layer of Aloe.

Well that's all for now, this Saturday and Sunday we will be heading to Tagaytay which is just a small city out side of Manila but its suppose to have an awesome view of and from the volcano. Should be good times. So I'll let you all know how that goes next weekend.

Hope everyone is enjoying my blog and please keep the comments coming. I love hearing your thoughts on my experiences and what you guys have been up too.

Cheers from the Philippines

Malaysia and Other Stuff

Alright so I'm really really bad at writing this blog on a regular basis so my apologies. Everything is going great, I have just returned from Malaysia where I visited Farah. It was a great weekend, we visited the KL Tower and the Petronas Towers which I have always wanted to see so it was a pretty big deal for me. We also got to do some shopping and we went to the Sentral Market which was great and I got some Malaysian treats. However, the best part of the entire weekend was having dinner with Farah's entire family and having a real Indonesian meal and wearing their traditional clothing. It was a great new experience and the food was so good :) I enjoyed the weekend immensely and I would definitely consider going back to Malaysia and spending more time. Compared to the Philippines, Malaysia is quite similar in the land scape, however, there are many differences also ... KL is definitely smaller than Manila and the shopping is even different. It was a great weekend and I hope to put pictures up soon but my digital camera broke and it will take awhile to get them developed and scanned onto the computer but Farah should be posting some soon on Facebook. :)

So that was my weekend in Malaysia but my traveling doesn't stop there ... it has only begun. This upcoming weekend I will be heading to Boracay, a small island in the south of the Philippines, with the other interns. Boracay is suppose to be known for its beaches and party scene but since it is rainy season we might not see that much sun but hopefully we will be lucky and the rain will miss us. Either way it should be another great weekend away. Then the next weekend we (interns and I) will make a quick trip to Tagaytay which is known for its Volcano. It's only about three hours away from Manila so it will only be a two day trip but apparently the view is to die for. Then the weekend after that I will be heading to South Korea for a long weekend in Seoul to visit Richard, which should be a great time.

Those are the plans for the next three weekends so its going to be crazy busy especially with work and trying to get my project complete. Oh well all in all it is a great experience and Asia is a beautiful place and I want to see as much as I can before I have to leave and I can't believe that I have almost been here for four months now ... I feel like I have just arrived the other day. Approximately eight more months to go so I want to make sure I make the best of it.

Well thats all for now ... Cheers from Manila