A cool thing to do in the Philippines is going to “dive bars.”  I walk around listening for music, walk into a bar, sit right on the bar, order a San Miguel lite, and experience culture.  I traveled the world and nowhere comes close to the underground bands in the Philippines.  This is where stars are born.  I thought I was at a Mariah Carey live concert.  She was so good!  

Then you get hungry and find some local shop to eat at.  Most people don’t recommend taking chances but I’m not most people.  I like to experience local cuisine and go as deep into the culture as possible.  Welcome to Marlboro Eatery where your meal comes with a free cigarette.  Haha, just joking.

I wake up and it’s pouring rain.  Lighting and thunder the previous night.  Then I get this loud alert on my phone.  Emergency Alert:  Red Rainfall Warning for Cebu.  OMG, I check the forecast and it’s 100% heavy rain for the next week.  Then I call my friend and he said the waves on his island were small and onshore.  I tell him, ok, let’s try again next time.  Now what?  Plan B was to ride a motorcycle deep into the mountains but Red Alert means heavy flooding, flash floods, and landslides.  Mother Nature is whispering something in my ear not to go and I always listen to her.

So I immediately head to the airport while booking flights hoping to get a flight home.  30 hours and 3 flights later, I’m back home last night.  I walk in my house and it felt like I just left???  Haha.  That’s part of traveling and that’s what I love about it.  You just never know but you should always listen to your gut feeling.  In this case, Mother Nature answered for me because the last thing I would want is to disappear in the mountains in a Third World country.  It happens all the time in the Philippines so instead of sitting in my hotel room for the next week, I rather go surfing…

You have to be very careful walking around in the Philippines.  The infrastructure is not up to par.  Uneven sidewalks, metal rebars sticking up, potholes, and not a safe place to walk.  Check out the electrical wires?  OMG!

How do you know which wire is for what and who?  

The best way to get around is by bike.

Or by ride sharing.  I use the Grab app and it’s just like Uber.  Really cheap and reliable.

I just walked and walked around for the first couple days.  I wanted to experience the local lifestyle.  It’s very interesting to see how hard people work there.

My domestic flights were delayed and they changed the gate last minute.  I almost missed a flight because of that.  Thank goodness it was delayed.  Haha.  

If you book early, a flight from Manila to Cebu will cost you $22.  If you book last minute like me, it will cost you $122.  

I was craving to eat Balulo which is a local filipino dish.  It’s a beef shank soup with bone marrow.  I asked some locals where a good place to eat it and these 2 little girls told me to follow them.  They took me down side alleys and there stood a local bulalo stand.  

I ordered the big portion that is good for 3-4 people.  

It was so delicious.  Very tender beef shank that fell off the bone.  Refreshing soup base with a touch of calamansi (Philippine lime).  This was the best I’ve ever eaten.  I would fly to the Philippines just to eat this!

Gosh, I finally get a good enough wifi signal to upload a blog.  It seems like I left Hawaii months ago.  Time surely goes very slow in countries like this.  I was really excited to jump on an airplane and just have some relaxing time.  BUT, since I booked my ticket last minute, I had to sit in the middle of 2 people.  And once the door of the airplane closes, I get a text from United saying that our flight is delayed so we won’t be making the connecting flight at Guam.  OMG!  

We arrive at Guam after the connecting flight was supposed to leave.  OMG, I was stressed out because I didn’t want to spend a day in Guam.  So I started running to the next gate because I didn’t want to get left behind.  They ended up holding that airplane back an hour just for some of us connecting passengers.  When I walked on the airplane, I got stink eye from everyone because they knew they waited for us.  Thank goodness!  

It took 2 days for me to get to Cebu after another layover in Manila.  So after 3 airplanes and 2 days, I was almost to my final destination.   

I was so happy to arrive in the Philippines!  When I check into my hotel, the staff told me that there was a typhoon coming so it was going to storm the whole week.  Wow, great news.  Haha.