Most memorable of the Philippines

Traveling through the Philippines was a unique experience. Here are some of the highlights in no particular order!

- Hey Joe! Random people would say to Justin "Hey Joe", after a few times we were thinking what is going on? When we got to Caramoan we asked our tour guide and he said they say that because it is a popular English name from the movies. We got a chuckle out of that!

-Jeepney's- One of the most popular modes of transportation in the Philippines. They were originally made from US military jeeps left over from World War II but have now become a symbol of Philippine culture. They are all very different but known for their flamboyant decoration. They are always loaded with people, chickens, boxes and whatever else someone brings on board. We saw them with people hanging off the back and riding on the top.

- Stepping in wet cement. Opps, I was just cruising along the sidewalk and all the sudden it felt sticky. I looked down and I was walking on a fresh paved sidewalk! They had no barriers up or anything to prevent this. The workers were just sitting there laughing, they really did not seem to care. We checked the next day to see if my Teva marks were still there and sure enough they were.

- Shoulder ride from the ferry. This is something I will never forget. Apparently the ferry was too big to make it to the dock when we arrived back in Sabang from Caramoan. The ferry stopped out in the bay near the shore. There were tons of men in black shirts standing chest deep in the water with their hands on their heads. Justin and I thought they were already trying to get people on their vans because when we arrived in Sabang 10 men must have been trying to open my door to help me (they are after my money), luckily my door was locked. Anyways, it turned out these men were our transportation to shore. They gave everyone on the ferry a shoulder ride to the shore. I was dying laughing when I got on the guys shoulder. Can you believe he said to me "Heavy weight". There goes his tip!

- Fresh fried chicken. We had the best fried chicken we have ever had in Caramoan. The crust had curry powder and black pepper. It was so fresh, tender and juicy. We had it for lunch the day we arrived and also for breakfast on our last day. That was a first, fried chicken and rice for breakfast!

-Roosters. Oh the roosters. Every morning while in the Philippines we woke up with the roosters. I think they start at around 4:00am in the morning. Cock fighting is huge so it seems that everyone has at least one rooster. Actually, when we were in the van on our way to Sabang we stopped to drop a man off along the way. When he opened the van door you could hear all the roosters outside and then we heard a rooster in our van. A guy in the back had a rooster in a cardboard box! I could not believe it, so once it heard the other roosters it was all over. The rooster went on cock-a-doodle-dooing for the next 10 mins or so.

- All the people working in the stores. You would not believe the number of people working at the stores. We went into a department store looking for a waterproof bag and 10-15 people must have been working in the bag section alone. It was out of control. Even in the grocery store there was an abundance of employees. They had people just standing with signs saying "Shorter line this way". Also, they have tons of security guards. Usually you assume the more security the more dangerous a place is but I am not sure if that is the case or not. But every store including the fast food chains had security guards. We we at a neighborhood coffee shop and there was even a security guard there watching the door.

-Walking into a real grocery store. I really forgot what it is like to walk into a grocery store that has everything you can imagine. I am so used to shopping at the home plus express in Dadapeo that never had anything I was after. They stores are more like super Wal-Mart in the Philippines, so much stuff and so many options. Crazy! It was a good reminder why a high percent of American's are overweight. So much junk! But also the produce section was unreal, every vegetable and fruit you could think of.

- Mangos. I never thought I liked mangos but boy was I wrong. The mangos were killer. Now that is all I crave.

The icing on the cake was being being filmed for a promotional commercial to promote tourism in the Philippines. We were just walking around killing time in Manila waiting for our 9:45pm flight when we stumbled upon "A different Story Productions". We ended up spending a little over an hour working with them. It was the real deal with a make-up artist, director and takes 1-5 and counting. I had a hard time putting on a serious face. Justin and I had a scene together pretending it was our first kiss and then I had a solo scene running along the sea wall. Really a fun and exciting experience! What was really funny is all the locals thought we were famous and we gathering around taking photos! I am not going to lie, I sorta felt famous for hot second! They were so happy that we were willing to help them out and in return treated us to dinner and cash us some $ and paid for our taxi to the airport!

So in love!

The crew!