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

Work, Work, and more Work

Sorry it's been so long since I wrote on my blog but its been crazy at work and I really haven't been up to anything new. Still just shopping and partying on the weekends. My project was due last Friday so I had to pull some extra hours last week and this week I'm just making some changes and hopefully I'll be moving onto the next part of my project which will be great because I've been working on this business plan for the last 2.5 months and it would be great to start something new.

Right now its suppose to be rainy session but we haven't had much rain maybe three or four times a week for like 2 hours but nothing like I expected but lets hope it stays that way. It's about 35 degrees here today and the sun is out so I will probably go outside and work this afternoon as long as I don't find it too hot.

I have booked my flight to Malaysia and I will be visiting Farah on Aug. 17th which I'm so pumped to see and shop with. It will be nice to get out of the Philippines and see some of the rest of Asia. So that is what I'm looking forward too in the next month. Also, hopefully a short trip this weekend but we have been saying for the last three weekends that we will be going out of the city but with work and other stuff never found the time so we will see if this weekend we will actually get out.

Well that's all for now I actually have to get back to work but I just wanted to write something in order to stay in touch with all of you who are reading.

Take Care,

Amy

Party Weekend June 15-17, 2007

I have to write something about this past weekend cause it was just crazy. Friday night we ended up getting free tickets to this Marlboro party which was awesome. Seven of us went around 10pm and walked down the red carpet, got our picture taken on the way in, and then was handed a free drink when we got in. We got free drinks all night and free cigarettes (to bad I don't smoke). It was great though cause free drinks all night long and it was really fancy.

Saturday was even better my birthday was on the 9th but I was out of town and usually people have birthday party around their birthday and invite the office and other friends so since I missed mine and one of the other interns has his birthday on the 25th we decided to have a huge party together so we rented out part of a bar and got drinks and food for everyone for about $50 CAD each but it was a blast we probably had about 30 people attend and everyone really had a good time. I have to say that the music wasn't that great but after a few drinks people didn't care.

Then on Sunday we bought tickets for 500 pesos ($12 CAD) to go on a yatch from 4pm till 10 pm with free food and drinks. Fifty people were on the yatch from all over the world: Germany, France, Philippines, Poland, America, and of course Canada. The sunset was great you would think in the middle of the city with so much pollution that a sunset couldn't be that beautiful but apparently the pollution makes it even better. Pictures will be posted on Facebook later this week.

That's all for now thought I would give you all a little taste of my weekend!!!!! Cheers

La Union and Others

Its been a few weeks since my last posting and a lot has happened, from seeing friends from Hali to celebrating my birthday. Where do I start well with my visit with Woon and Richard which was so nice to see some friends from home. You don't really realize how much you miss home until you are half way around the world and the littlest things from home are the best such as friends hehe. Yep, they arrived on Saturday and stayed till Tuesday and during that time we did some tourist stuff like rizal park and rode on a jeepney. We also enjoy the wonderful night life that Manila has to offer and cheers goes out to woon for trying the local beer (red horse) which doesn't even have the percentage on the bottle. It was really a sight to see and I must thank both Woon and Richard for coming and making my weekend a great one :) As much as they appreciate me for letting them stay with me, I really enjoyed sharing my life here with them and seeing both of them.

The weekend after that, the one that just past, was my birthday weekend and thanks goes out to everyone that left a birthday wish on facebook. Thanks for that, it means a lot being so far away. So for the weekend we went to La Union which is one of the provinces on the Philippines. Seven of us went up and had a great time. We left Friday night around 1am and got to La Union around 6 am which gave us plenty of time to get a hotel and figure things out before we hit the waves. Now most of you have probably have seen my photo on msn and facebook, the one of me surfing, which looks awesome well I really spent most of the time in the water. Surfing is hard so hard but fun at the same time. We also did a lot of drinking over the weekend which was awesome when you are next to the beach and can go for a midnight swim. We also played some volleyball and I got a nice tan. It was a great weekend except when we got home I got sick and have been sick for the past five days. Yesterday I finally went to the doctor and I have bugs in my stomach which was caused probably from the seawater or from some kind of food but I have finally started to get better now that I have drugs into me but thats part of going to a foreign country and it could have been a lot worse.

So its Friday night here and I'm heading home soon but not going out tonight still not feeling the best plus tomorrow night a friend and me are having a birthday celebration for the two of us because I wasn't in the city for mine and his is on the 25th so we thought we would have a party together which is great cause I get to celebrate my birthday twice like a week apart.

Well that is all for now from the Philippines. Hope all is well in Canada and you are all more than welcome to come visit.

Take Care

Donsol

Things are good, went to Donsol over the weekend which is 12 hours south of Manila. Left Friday around 6pm and got to Donsol around 8am on Saturday (another long bus ride). Looked for a place to stay and we got one right beside the beach. Wasn't the best beach but it was still a beach. Five of us went this time, four from the company and one local friend. After finding a place to crash we rented a boat for 2000 peso's for the day which was 400 peso's each which is about $10 CAD which was so cheap. The boat took us out and we went snorkeling for the afternoon and swimming in the warm water. Got back to shore around 5pm and we just hung out the rest of the night enjoying the heat. Got up Sunday morning early and rented another boat to go find the Whale-Sharks. They are Sharks but they don't eat humans and they are safe to be around. So we head out around 730am and we are out in the boat for a good four hours and we are almost ready to give up and just head in but then we spot one. All of us then jump in the water with fins and snorkeling gear and race towards the Whale-Shark. I'm swimming underneath the water and all of a sudden I see this 5 foot shark with like grey dots all over it. It was great. They move really fast so only got to see it for about a minute but it was great to swim with a shark. After that we stayed on the water for another hour or so then headed back to shore cause we have to get the bus back to Manila. Got home around 430 am on Monday more and headed to work after a couple of hours of sleep but I slept some on the bus so I made it through the day without being to tired.

It's Monday at 8pm right now and I'm working like crazy to get something done for tomorrow but I'm stop around 830 and just go home. I'll come back early in the morning to get my work done. It's funny I really don't mind working the long hours but I know if I was in Canada I would be completely exhausted. It's really funny how that is, maybe I'm still on a travellers high or something like that.

Well that is all for now. Going to be a busy week at work but a good one. I've put more pics on Facebook and I'll be adding more later on this week. Hope everyone is well and let me know if you guys have any questions or anything at all.

Amy - From the Philippines

Sagada and Much More

Each and everyday I fall more in love with this country. There is so much to do and see and what makes it even better is that it is cheap to do everything. Last weekend my roomies and I went to Sagada which is about 12 hours from Manila. The trip was awesome, we left friday night after work and took the bus to Banaue which is about 8 hours but I slept most of the trip so that was good. Arrived in Banaue around 7 am on Saturday, checked into the inn which was actually good quality for the Philippines and for the price we got it for. Then we rented a Jeepney and drove to the rice terraces on top of the Jeepney which are on the side of mountains. We rented a guide and started are long hike across the rice terraces. We walked an hour to the top of one mountain, then another hour to a small village in the middle of the rice terraces, and then another hour to the waterfall which was the most beautiful creation I have ever seen and swimming in the fresh water was such a great experience. But then we stopped swimming and we started back to the beginning so an hour to the village, another hour to the top, and then another hour to the Jeepney. Now sure easy no problem ... ya right so hard. In all we walk probably 7 hours give or take sometime but it was like straight walking. We walked down the mountain, up another, then down that one and across a valley. It had to be the most painfull and physical workout I have ever done, three hour swim practice with a run after would have been a piece of cake. Not that I am complaning cause I have never seen anything like it. It was so beautiful. So we got up around 6am on Sunday morning and we got another Jeepney to Sagada and then we spent the afternoon on another hike to another waterfall but this hike was only 1 hour each way. Then on Monday we got up at 5am and went caving. Not like lets walk into the cave and look around, we started at one cave and travelled through the cave to another cave. It took about 4 hours and it was crazy. We climbed through small rock holes, walked through neck high water, and saw lots of bats. So then after that we got a Jeepney to Bontoc and then got the bus from Bontoc to Manila which was about 12-13 hour bus ride however are bus got a flat on the way home and it took about 15 hours. It was the longest bus ride ever, I did sleep through most of it which again was great. Got back home around 5am and then another week of work.

Work is going great. I have so much responsibility it is amazing but I have to say I'm a little over my head but my manager and employees are great and I'm learning a lot. I would never get this experience or responsibility if I had stayed in Canada. Work goes fast, its so busy I don't even notice the hours go buy which is great cause we work from 9am-6pm and I"m usually in early or leave late but how many people can say they love their job.

This past weekend I just stayed in Manila. Saturday did some touring around to the city with AIESEC people and then celebrated a roomies birthday with a good old fashion house party. Sunday was shopping time, started around 230pm and did stop till around 8pm. I love shopping and when you have like 1000 stores to go to and the things are so cheap, shopping is the greatest thing ever. I bought 5 pairs of shoes yesterday and the average price was $10 CAD. Five pairs of shoes for $50 can't go wrong with those prices.

Well that is what I have been up to the last week and a half. Been keeping myself really busy, even with everything to do I still get a little lonely but that is expected. This weekend coming up roomies and I are planning another trip this weekend so I'll write more next week and I'll put pics up on Facebook. Hope everyone is well at home and please write stuff on my Facebook wall so that I still know whats going on at home.

Cheers