Category Archives: Travel

SEA: Day 50 – Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls

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“Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to…” – TLC

Dang, this song came out in 1994. Wow, that was 15 years ago. Nuts. Anyhoo, this song is an expression of how people chase intangible dreams with no thought of consequences. If you’ve read yesterday’s post, I literally chase waterfalls. Contrary to popular belief, I actually do think of the consequences, such as “if I hit that rock, it will hurt” and “if I miss that point, it will hurt”. This proves that I am actually responsible for my consequences and will continue chasing waterfalls. So, onto more waterfalls today. I apologize in advance for all the gifs. I really like these things.

I got to sleep in till 7am this morning. It was nice because my body felt a bit sore. Not sure from what. I think it’s partially riding a motorbike for so long. It actually takes a toll on your body. And no, I don’t think any of the soreness came from cliff diving.

Today was quite tame compared to yesterday. I visited three falls, Tumalog, Aguinid, and took another route in the Asyong Falls. I ended the day at the Mabugnao Mainit Hot Springs.

From land.

Tumalog on viewing from afar, wasn’t too impressive. But up close is where these falls become unique and beautiful. From afar, there doesn’t look like much water at all is falling. However, once you get near there, you see a wall of water droplets falling form the sky. I used the GoPro a ton during this stretch and really just want to say again that gifs are awesome.

Approach to the wall.

Standing under the drops of water was really pretty. I enjoyed it but thought, “hm, wouldn’t it be nicer from higher up?”

Hm… I’m stuck. But look at the water fall. Pretty neat, eh?

View was actually nicer, but then I couldn’t go up any further. I initially thought I could jump off, but thought better and climbed down. Also, decided to use both my hands to climb down. See. Responsible.

Bite.

I told my tour guide that I just wanted to climb more waterfalls so off we went to the Aguinid Falls.

Much of the hike was like this.

There were parts where you needed to scale rocks to get up. It might look hard, but really wasn’t. There are groups of tourists going through here after all.

Okay, this portion I could see being a little scary for some who don’t like to climb. I was really glad I wasn’t with a group of people cause this would have taken quite awhile.

Yellow guy don’t need my help.

Then I told my guide, i want to jump off the highest one as possible around here. So he suggested we go back to Asyong Falls but take a different tour. I was not disappointed. Can’t even remember how many jumps I did. Here’s a few of my favorites.

Maybe 25 feet? Not too bad.
Gotta practice my flips, ya know? They aren’t great, but they’ll be insta worthy soon enough.
Maybe a little higher than the one before, but this one you also gotta clear the ledge.

Okay, now here’s the one that my guide saved for last. All these last ones were small compared to the next.

Showing me where I’d be jumping from.

This drop was 65 feet. He said I could chose to drop from 60, but that seems like a waste. Just add the extra five. Before we climbed up, he informed me that when I jump to plug my nose if I wanted, make sure to point your legs, do NOT dive headfirst, cross your arms across your chest, and clench your butt. Just kidding, he didn’t say the last part, but someone else told me this. Not sure if it’s a myth, but sometimes the impact on water can give you a surprise cleansing. I don’t think it’s true, but I clenched anyways, cause.. well, ya know. No one likes those surprises.

Climb and scaling to get there.

Once we got up to the point and were in position, he tossed my helmet down telling me to land there. If you’re not far out enough, you’ll hit rocks. Sweet. Overall lesson learned so far is, jump further if you don’t want to hit the rock wall. Makes sense to me.

Fly helmet, fly.

I won’t lie. I was scared here. Almost as much as the Binalayan fall. 65 feet is a lot higher than I thought. I nailed the landing though. Look at how close to the helmet I got. Also, side note: the helmet comes off at higher dives.

See ya down there.

That was the last one! I don’t think I went cliff diving again the rest of this trip. If I did, it wasn’t as memorable as these couple days. Then finally on the way back, I got to really enjoy the Mabugnao Mainit hot springs. Here’s me just simmering in 42.6 degrees Celsius water. Felt nice to relax.

After almost an hour in the springs, we headed back to the other side of the island, where again, I ate two dinners and fell asleep by 10pm.

SEA: Day 49 – Possibly my FavDay

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This might have been my favorite day of my entire trip. Did I already say that before? Well, if I did, add this to the top 5 list. I’m the most excited to write about this day. Below’s the high level recap:

  • 6:30am – breakfast watching the sunrise at MWR
  • 7:15am – Met my all day driver, who was Manol’s brother. I apologize for not remembering your name. You might not even be his brother…
  • Took our motorbike to the other side of the island
  • 8:45am – Hiked Osmeña Peak
  • 10:15am – Started my Alegria canyoneering tour
  • 1:30pm – Canyoneering tour ended and headed straight to Kawasan Falls. Took about 10 minutes.
  • 2:50pm – Chilled (or simmered?) at Mabugnao Mainit Hot Springs for 20 minutes.
  • 3:45pm – Visited the Binalayan Hidden Falls
  • 4:45pm – Headed back to the other side of the island
  • 5:45pm – Ate some BBQ for dinner
  • 7:00pm – Got back to MWR
  • 8:00pm – Second dinner with Manol’s family
  • 9:00pm – Pass out

Let’s begin. Are you guys ready? Don’t worry, it won’t be that long. I think.

My first stop was Osmeña Peak. Hike was great, the views were better, and the guide who was in rain boots and walked as if the wet mud and water didn’t bother her at all was even better. I slipped and almost fell multiple times. She would turn around and laugh at me with her hands in her pockets. What was also great about her was that she offered to take pictures of me during the entire hike. So nice to not have to take selfies all the time. I’d like a photographer to follow me around one day, but NOT a paparazzi.

The other positive of having a guide was that she knew exactly where I needed to stand to take the best pictures. I was very pleased. Except the one time she kept telling me to stand up on a ledge and put my arms in the air. One slip and I would have fallen to my death. She kept laughing at me cause I was scared. Also, a cute dog followed us. I wanted to keep him.

Pretty windy up here.
Water’s fine! Come on in.

Next was Alegria canyoneering tour. This was awesome. Got to hike and swim through this canyon for a few hours. Viewed best in gifs. Actually, a lot of these next images will be gifs. You have been warned.

He said “jump over the rocks.” I agreed saying “yes, i’ll avoid those rocks.”

I thought at one point I’d be cold and uncomfortable, but I surprisingly felt okay through most of it. I had been living in SF for a few years by this point and had lost all my Midwest blood.

I’m just putting words in here to space the gifs out a bit. My head hurts looking at all the movement jammed together.

So for real, I’m just making up anything to say at this point. You don’t even have to read it.

The drop’s not much here, but going headfirst makes this quite fun.

Next up was Kawasan Falls. No jumping of any kind here, but the area was really beautiful. Look how blue that water is. There were rafts you could take across by pulling on some ropes. You can see a guy pulling his raft back below.

Pull me in, homie.
Lots of swimming to get across.

I didn’t want to wait for the raft, so I just swam across. It was actually tiring. I was worried for a split second I could drown. Just kidding. I never thought that. I’m just being dramatic to spice up my writing.

Underneath the falls. So cool.

After the falls, my tour guide suggested I go to some hot springs to rest and warm up. I thought this was a good idea, until I got there and thought “naw, i want to go jump off more cliffs.” I actually came back to Mabugnao Mainit Hot Springs the next day, so I’ll write more about this tomorrow.

No caption needed.

The next waterfall and cliff dive is what made this trip so memorable. Welcome to Binalayan Hidden Falls.

There are multiple levels you can jump from here, all at varying heights. The dangerous thing about this spot is that the pool is not very deep. It may only be 8 feet at its deepest point. I jumped initially from 10 feet, and then 20 feet just to get a sense of how deep the pool was. Not very deep. I touched the bottom from the 20 foot jump.

There’s also a cool jump you can do from behind the waterfall. Here’s my guide showing me how to actually get up there. I laugh when he explains how to swing your leg up to catch the ledge. Then I say “what” to the camera after I see him spiderman up the wall.

Seriously. What.

Anyways, did it. In hindsight, it was easier than it looked.

Not actually too scary. The climb up was more fun.

This next jump actually made me feel a new sensation of fear. It was a mix of “I might die” and “I’m pumped.” It was a 45 foot drop, which actually isn’t too far. But it felt so much higher. Even climbing up there was a bit of a rush.

Just don’t look down?

It took me a few seconds to really convince myself to jump (want to hear me yell, go here). But when I finally did, I didn’t regret it. I mean, once I landed in the water anyways. If i went again, I’m 80% sure I’d do it again. What’s insane is that people actually jump from the TOP of the waterfall at 60 feet. That is insane. I don’t know if I could ever do that. Or maybe…

Woo!

SEA: Day 48 – Whale Sharks!

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The title says it all. One of the top things on my bucket list was to go swimming with whale sharks. I got to take care of that on the first full day in Oslob. Manol (the MWR hostel owner) just happened to be very well known in this community. He helped me plan my entire stay in Oslob, lining up drivers for each day, each activity, and when I should be back to eat dinner with his family. Ticket costs were discounted and settled ahead of time. I would say the best benefit was his connection with the whale shark tour.

Manol mentioned that typically, people head to the location extremely early to wait in line. The government has become more aware of the environmental impact an all day feeding could cause. So a strict limit was set by them on how many people can visit the whale sharks each morning. This meant that if you were too late, you could be waiting in line and not be able to go out to the ocean. Luckily for us staying at Manol’s, we didn’t have to wait in line or get there as early as possible. When we arrived at 6:30, there was already a long line. Manol simply walked us up to the front of the ticket line where we grabbed some gear. Then before we knew it, we were set to depart in the second group. My number was 83, which I took as fate, since I was born in 1983.

Headed out!

We got onto long canoes and headed out a little bit offshore. Water was surprisingly warm and really easy to float around in. Assuming this was due to being salt water? Anyways, this experience was simply awesome. I’d do it again bu aim for open water next. Having your head above water, you don’t really see much, but as soon as your head is under water, the ocean water becomes clear and you see so many whale sharks! I saw 2 or 3 immediately and could see several more in the distance.

Wow.

We spent around a half hour swimming with these majestic creatures. Here’s a short video clip of two of my close encounters. Terrifying, but so amazing. I want to go again.

After the whale shark tour, it was only 8am! I headed off to Sumilon Island where I got to go canoeing, snorkeling, hiking, swimming in the ocean, swimming in a pool, napping in the sun, and drank at the bar. Around 5pm, we headed back to the main island where I was picked up and grabbed a bike to check out a recommended BBQ spot. Ate there, then came back to the hostel where I had dinner number two with Manol’s family. Think I was asleep by 10pm this day.

SEA: Day 47 – Oslob Adventures Begin

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Going to be super lazy for today’s post. Partly because I spent a third of the day traveling on buses to Oslob from Cebu City, partly because I’m just feeling lazy today.

I did have a new experience this day that I want to talk about again. It was attending a cock fight. I posted this on instagram and facebook, which lead to some angry and upset comments. I am not condoning this, but this is part of their culture. Maybe it gets changed overtime, but who knows.

Afterwards, I walked around the Oslob Market and just saw some random sites while walking back to my hostel. I saw a random goat in a cemetery. I’m not sure where he was trying to go, but they climb really well.

When I got back to MWR Pension House, the hostel I was staying at, Manol (who was the owner) asked me to join him and his family for dinner. I was so blessed for him to ask me to join them! Dinner was so, so good. We just ate out in the courtyard listening to the ocean. Amazing night.

SEA: Day 46 – Hungover.. AGAIN

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I was hungover. Again. I woke up super late, past noon. Again. Lesson that I continue to not learn is that alcohol gives you a great time for that moment in exchange for your next day. Or in my case, in 2019, the next 2 to 3 days.

Regardless, I was absolutely determined to do something this day no matter how horrible I felt. It took me over 2 hours to fully regain the ability to function like a proper human being before I headed out of the hotel. Here’s the list of things I did before I came back to the hotel 6 hours later.

  • found a Korean restaurant for lunch
  • visited Cebu Metropolitan Church and was somehow let in even though there was a wedding
  • checked out Basilica Minore Del Santo Nino
  • saw Magellan’s Cross
  • went through the Plaza Independent and watched some skaters/bikers do tricks
  • sat around in Fort San Pedro and just enjoyed the park and all the activities
  • went looking for a GoPro chest strap in Ayala Mall

Too exhausted to do anymore, or even look for something else to eat, I just headed back to the hotel around 8pm. I ordered room service for dinner and watched The Town. I may have thought I should go back out, but who was I kidding. I watched more Netflix and slept until 9am the next day.

hahah these kids were hilarious

SEA: Day 45 – Yummy Lechón

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I am so hungover today. Like actually today, and also on this day two years ago. I guess I don’t really learn lessons well when involving alcohol.

This day started super late. I woke up at 1pm starving. Lucky for me the restaurant that Lionel had recommended, House of Lechon, was not too far from the hotel. This place is delicious. I ordered and ate there as long as I could. I stayed at this restaurant for over 2 hours eating and reading. Great way to start the cure for a hangover.

Nice mall.

Next I visited Ayala Mall. Why a mall? Well, I was hungover and didn’t want to do anything, but felt like sitting in my hotel room would be a waste of a day. So I went back to my high school days and instead wasted the day at the mall. But at least this was a foreign mall, so that counts as being proactive. Plus I got a lot of planning done and read at Bo’s Cafe while also people watching.

I’m looking at my calendar and I don’t think I ate another meal after House of Lechon. Instead, I went to the Lanai Bar in the hotel, then went out and started another bender night at El Gecko. It’s a strange bar where girls ask you to buy them drinks. Wait… that’s every bar. Except these girls worked at the bar and partied with you. I guess that’s a pretty good concept to get your patrons to spend more money. Definitely worked on me. I also got along with their live band very well. Drunk James must love bands. Or I subconsciously wish I was in a band.

I was singing along. Probably ruined the song, but whatever.

I also did something incredibly stupid and quite possibly dangerous. I decided that I should walk back to the hotel in my drunken state. I didn’t think the neighborhood was dangerous, but I remember being a little scared walking home that night.

SEA: Day 44 – Ontu Cebu

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I had posted the day before on insta that I had a poor dining experience at a restaurant in Manila. Luckily, Anne Maria, friend from college, read it and gave me a bunch of other recommendations, which I happily tried and really enjoyed! Before I left for the airport, I ate at Noodles North Park for lunch where I ordered two dishes for myself. In hindsight, when people ask me which cuisine I enjoyed the most, I say the Philippines! Even though it’s an island country, they surprisingly eat a lot of pork. I was down with that since seafood ain’t my thing.

Traveling to Cebu City took me quite awhile. The flight was only an hour and a half, but my trip to the airport took longer than the actual flight. Also, was delayed at the airport for a bit. But it’s okay cause they had TV there and Mission Impossible was on. Big fan of Tom Cruise movies, even though people say he’s crazy. Whatever, his movies are entertaining. Comparing his personal life to his work is like saying Jeff Bezos is crazy so I won’t use Amazon. Are you crazy? I’m trying to rely less on Amazon, but it’s so convenient. Him and Elon are going to rule the world one day, if not already.

I eventually got to Cebu City and checked into The Golden Prince. Around this time, I had increased my budget for hostels and was very pleased with this selection. I was happy to be staying in the first hotel of my trip. I was originally booking all my lodging on hostelworld.com then eventually switched to booking.com since they had more options in more cities.

Look at his ears.

I got to the hotel pretty late, maybe around 10pm. I wasn’t tired at all so visited their hotel bar and listened to someone playing some live music. It was nice, but the place was pretty empty and the vibe was dying down. I did some quick research and found a bar, Cubana, which had live music and served hookahs. I headed over and spent the rest of the night there. Recommend it, especially if this band is playing. Sorry, I’m not sure who they are … I should have asked. They took song requests and somehow knew how to play every request that came in. Really impressive. I liked their version of You To Me Are Everything by The Real Thing the best that night. I have a lot of video clips of them, but loading those takes some time, so here’s a picture of Cubana and a picture of Miggy that my brother texted me that day. Look how cute he is. I love him.

Lots of Koreans were here, supposedly in the Philippines to study English.

SEA: Day 43 – One Day in Manila

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Manila traffic is insane. I landed at 6am and was out of the airport in a cab by 6:40. I thought I’d get to my hostel within a half hour at the latest. Short distance and pretty early in the morning, figured traffic shouldn’t be too bad. I was very wrong. It took over an hour and according to the driver, that was a “light” traffic morning. Mental note, try to avoid cabs as much as possible in Manila. A couple hours later, my next mental note was, Manila is huge and you cannot walk everywhere, idiot.

I’m going to post a bit differently today. The following is what I did over the next 18 hours.

  • checked into Our Melting Pot
  • walked to M Cafe
  • had breakfast at M Cafe
  • cabbed to Rizal Park after realizing it could not be walked
  • sat in cab for over an hour
  • visited Rizal Park for a half hour
  • saw the National Museum next
  • went to check out Intramuros for over 2 hours
  • cabbed to Milkway Cafe
  • had lunch at Milkway Cafe. If i remember correctly, I did not like this place.
  • cabbed to Max’s Jupiter
  • ate again at Max’s. Think it was some fast food chain. I may have eaten again cause I didn’t eat much at Milkyway Cafe? Shrug.
  • walked back to the hostel
  • washed up and rested for a couple hours
  • walked to Commune Cafe to attempt to do some work. Internet was horrible so could not. Not even sure what “work” i had to do. Assuming it was travel logistics related.
  • went back to hostel to call it a night
  • somehow started to chit chat with a guy named Lionel
  • discovered that Lionel is pretty cool
  • Lionel offers to show me some of the scene around the area
  • ate some street food
  • visited a bar
  • got back to the hostel to pack
  • got an awesome swedish massage at a discount cause the owner of the hostel also owned the massage spot
  • finally slept

SEA: Day 42 – Finding an End

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My entire trip was around 90 days, so I’m almost half way through. Today’s post will be fairly short since I spent a good part of the day planning the next month of the trip and when I’d be flying home. I bought my ticket for the future caving expedition, a flight back to Singapore from Cebu, another flight from Singapore to Hanoi, and the biggest of them all, my flight back home from Singapore to Korea to San Francisco. I remember being stressed while booking my flight back home. I was buying a flight departing from Singapore when I didn’t have a date I’d be back to make that flight. I would be in Hanoi on March 7th, and my flight back home was for April 9th. Where was I going to be during that last month? Shrug.

Earlier during my travels, I mentioned that Singapore was the best hub to fly in and out of for other countries in the surrounding area. I made sure to take advantage of Singapore and the fact that Chris and Ahnah were there. I flew back and saw them another couple times before heading home eventually. It was nice to leave some stuff there to lighten my backpack. As my travels went on, I realized I had actually overpacked. If I could do it again, I would definitely pack less.

In the afternoon, I bought some soap and toothpaste, shaved, watched Ahnah be super mom, had dinner at home with my hosts, then jumped in a cab to head to the airport at 11pm. I was on a redeye to Manila landing at 6am the next day.

SEA: Day 41 – Michigan Friends

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Michigan Monday! Today, I got to see Diana and Eugene, friends of mine from college. Diana moved to Singapore for a church plant and Eugene just happened to be in Singapore for work. Lucky for Diana, Ahnah, their babies, and me was that Eugene works for Facebook. We got to visit the Singapore office to grab some food and take some fun pictures. I think I enjoyed the pictures more than the kids.

Let’s get the kids out the way so we can be in the picture.

The Facebook visit was during the evening. Before all that, I actually had met up with Dino earlier for breakfast, ate at Putien, scheduled the next couple weeks of my trip, and applied for an apartment in LA. My brother was gracious enough to figure out my housing situation for me, so that was great.

My big touristy event of this day was to go to Gardens by the Bay. It’s pretty much a giant man made attraction with several different “gardens.” It’s actually really large and impressive. My favorite by far was the Cloud Forest. I’d give it an explanation, but the website already does that, so below’s a quote.

“Explore the tropical highlands amidst orchids, pitcher plants and ferns from the cool-moist Tropical Montane region. Be amazed as you encounter the world’s tallest indoor waterfall at 30 metres and descend through the surreal mist-filled Cloud Walk and Treetop Walk.”

The indoor waterfall is very cool but take that with a grain of salt. I really love waterfalls. And a side note, I believe that Singapore will be the first country to be entirely under a dome. That’s right, the entire country will be under a dome like in the picture below. It’ll be all air conditioned. It’s the future of the world as climate change comes upon us. Get a citizenship there if you can!