As the previous blog discussed a portion of the trip to Banaue and Sagada. Here are some pics of the last day up in the hills of the Philippines. I think any one could appreciate the life that these people lead. They are not influenced by any corporate greed nor are they hungry for money they just want to be with their families and have food to eat. They get food to eat by growing it in the rice terraces. They do really care about garbage and keeping their little slice of heaven clean as possible. I found the only thing that is out of place here are all of the cell phones. Everyone has a cell phone and is texting non stop. We are in a beat down jeepney people mover in the middle of Now Where Philippines on a dirt road and these folks are enjoying a 3G cell phone network. Just imagine that I can not even get this type of network connectivity on my Iphone in Monterey. Yeah, I know something seems off.





Here is one of the many broken English signs which depicts that they do care about their towns up in the hills. Give it a read, I am sure you will get the main idea.


This here is my New Friend Bibby which I pronounce "BB". He is from Taipei Taiwan and decided to take a 10 day trek around the Philippines. He hung out with kyle and I for a few days and then we went our separate ways when we got back to Manila from the Mountains.



When you live in a third world country you use what even you can get a hold of for building materials. Up in the Maintains they have pine trees. Yes, I know it is a bit strange to think of pine trees and palm trees growing side by side but I am here to tell you that they are living in harmony and are thriving. Since there are many pine trees available every thing is made out of pine. The interiors of all the building are just spectacularly done with EVERY thing pine and accented with pine. Looks and smells great. These are places you would picture to be Oregon Log Cabins. This is the town while we were in a mini market a little girl walked up to kyle and punched him in the junk. hahahahaha. Maybe you had to be there.



This is just one of the billion black smoke billowing 1970s motorcycles cruzin' around the Philippines. Usually they have some thing inspirational to say about jesus.


The Filipinos love their pool halls. In the most run down and remote places of the Philippines you can find a pool hall. If you are coming bring you Cue.


I thought I should take a pic of the third world country social security. If the U.S. Government sent me a letter saying that they will not give me social security when I am able to receive it what hope do they have here?


I did not try one of these but I guess the name is memorable.



Yesterday was one of those days which will be hard to top. It started off like any other day and seemed to be normal but then quickly progressed in to a top ranking day. I use the word "top" as being a day with the most clear coherent memories and one with the most documentation of the days events to prove my innocence in a court of law later on.

10:00 am: crack my eyes open to see the incredible view off of the 37th floor of the Salcedo Tower. Still a little groggy from the bus ride back from the mountains the night before but not to bad.

10:30 Lenie has my eggs, toast, and fresh mango shake ready to go for me.

10:45 Mike's roomie Glad stopped in the living room to finish his breakfast and chat with us for a bit.

11:45 seems like a good idea to get a hair cut today since I still had some remenance of my accidental mullet month earlier but first I needed to go for a swim to cool off.

12:30 Got down to the pool to take a dip.

1:15 Shower get ready to go get my hair cut with mike.

2:00 we show up at Bruno's Barber shop. For some reason there are only white males there.




While at Bruno's I went ahead got my hair trimmed up and the guy was really good and you can see pictures below. After the hair trim I had them give me a shave and a five minute back massage. All of this was very worth the $8 it cost me. Amy you better watch out if hair cuts ever get out sourced to the Philippines.


Here is a close up just to show how close of a shave this actually was. I did not even know this was possible.

3:00 Mike and Glad suggest the kyle and I go with them to this cruise ship to document it via video footage and still photographs. This initially did not sound exciting but we agreed to go.

4:15 we arrive at the 7101 Cruise Ship and Find out that it is no problem to take a tour but they would be filming a movie on the ship so some areas would not really be accessible. This did not seem like an issue at the time so we just continued on our merry way.


Here is the 7107 Cruise liner out of Manila and you can get tickets at mike's Travel Website if you are going to be coming to the Philippines since it goes to Boracay, Cebu, and Palawan.


5:00 we end up in the ships bar room where the movie crew is set up. Out of now where a lady comes running up to us four American dudes and says "Are you the hired foreign talent?". This was really a turning point in the day and I did not even realize it at the time. Of course we all followed that questions "well no but what kind of talent are you looking for?" remark. Then she followed with "would you like to be in our movie?" who could say no? We all jumped at the opportunity. They gave us places to sit and told us to be energetic. I guess when you bring to much energy they split you up. Mike got put up front and then I was still of to the left.


5:15 On my way to becoming a Filipino movie star.


Kyle, Myself, Glad's GF, Mike, and crazy Russian Lady on set.


Due to my unique looks and charming qualities one of the directors asked me to do a quick walk across the stage for an opening of a scene which you can watch below.



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After this took place there we people approaching us asking who we were and where we were from and how happy they were to meet us. hahahaha. I know I was laughing to myself the entire time.


Then we got to watch a sun set in the Manila harbor off of the 7107 cruise ship deck.

8:00 You can imagine that we all grabbed a plate of free food and enjoyed after our hard work on the film. :)

9:39 made it back to Mike's apartment and just relaxed for a while by taking another dip in the pool. The pool here are hard to stay away from.


12:00 Midnight we all decided to go out and go to a bar called heckle and jeckle because they have projectors to watch the soccer games on. While there I bumped into a old Oregonian friend. I have not seen this guy for 10+ years what are the odds of running into him in Manila?




Hey Natalie, Some how I met up with JT in Manila.


2:45 seems like a good time to move to the next bar.

3:15 we finally arrive at Cuisines bar after the taxi driver literally drove around in circles trying to run up the meter. Yes, he got to see a LOUD American.

3:45 meet a couple of guys who could get us into Embassy (A 2000 person capacity club) VIP status. We got in there and we start having all these dudes approach us trying to figure out who we are and why are we in Manila. Strange? Yes.

6:00 Time to go and get some fast food. Normally it would be Jollibee but today it just happened to be McDonalds. I got the rice and egg breakfast, mmmmmm. (Not available in the U.S.)

6:45 Make it back to Mike's place. Then Some how (thanks to Kyle) the neighbor found out we were there. She enjoys talking with us so she was trying to talk to me as I was attempting to pass out. you can just imagine how great this convo went.

7:00 Time for bed.