Hello from the Philippines

Sorry we have been slacking on our blog. We have been doing a lot of traveling here in the Philippines traveling north & south with no wifi around. It is also the last days of this once in a lifetime trip & we want to thoroughly soak it in. We promise to update our activities & share pictures when we are back in merica!

Here are a list of things we've been up to:

-Banaue & Batad rice terraces

-Visited Aimee's family in Laoag & did sightseeing & met extended family

-Vigan: cobblestone streets & waterfountain show

-Manila for a night to catch a plane to Coron

-2 days in between of just traveling (bus)

We are currently in Coron, Palawan. We took a tour around the islands, lakes, lagoons, & snorkled. Most beautiful & perfect temp beaches! 

We will take a ferry to El Nido & head to Puerto Princesa tomorrow. 

P.S.-Everything is going smoothly here than anticipated.  We see ourselves coming back. 

See you in America! 

-Dusty & Aimee

The Philippines

We are headed to the Philippines!

 It is our last destination for this aimndustwanderlust adventure.  We are excited to explore the North part and South islands of the country. For me it will be a special trip because I get to see where my family came from and learn first hand more about my Filipino culture. The customs, morals, way of life I was taught and wild superstitions I grew up with from my parents and grandparents will make more sense to me. I will have a deeper understanding of everything and a bigger appreciation for them.

Our route will be Manila to Banaue (rice terraces) to Vigan (Spanish cobblestone city) to Laoag (father’s hometown) to Coron (island) and end in Palawan (island). 

In Laoag I plan on visiting my dad’s family home, meet some relatives, and see where my grandparents lived.  I have been texting with my dad and I can feel his excitement for us. He even wants us to meet the mayor of his city. I just wish my mom, dad, and 3 brothers could have joined us for this last leg of the trip.  We always have been talking about going to the Philippines together.  I know one day we will all go.

On another note, honestly, I am also nervous about going to the motherland because of these reasons:

1.       I am Filipino & can’t speak Ilocano/tagalog

 I learned I pass as Thai and Cambodian on this trip. The locals start speaking to me in their native language and I just smile and say English and I am Filipino.  It’s funny because they smile and say “Awwhh, Philippine… you have Thai/Cambodian face”.  At the end of our stay in Thailand a lady started yelling at me because I didn’t understand her.  That was the most frustrating part.

So now what am I going to do in the Philippines???!! I joked with Dusty and said maybe I should tell them I’m Thai.

2.         I have a white fiancé

Dusty and I call it white on rice when we spot an Asian and a white couple.  I never thought traveling as an inter-racial couple could be so entertaining and sometimes frustrating.  We constantly get very long stares, close face stares, smiles, giggles, waves, small talk, and guesses of what we are.  I am sure Philippines has many “white on rices”, I just don’t want to deal with it….

3.       Too much research

The more I research about the Philippines the more stressed out I get. I had to do research about traveling from Manila to the north and staying in Manila. The reviews got me a little worried. Manila sounds crazy with traffic and may be unsafe.  I also heard it’s a very disorganized compared to other the other Asia countries, but the other parts should be safe and in the end everything works out. The trip has been going amazing, maybe it’s just nerves since it’s the last 2 weeks. So from now on I won't do any more research and enjoy the last 2 weeks of freedom.

Our flight to Manila isn't until 10:30P.M. and we arrrive 2:30A.M. We checked out and plan on having a pool day.  The hotel we are staying at let us hangout and use their pool and shower until then.  This is probably one of the top hotels we stayed in. The staff is nice, they have a pool to cool you down in this 1000 degree heat, rooms are clean, and they give free tuk tuk rides into the city. (Botique Cambo Hotel)

Anyways, wish us luck as we travel to the Philippines! It's crazy it is our 5th country of our trip. We are getting anxious to reunite with our families and prepare for other upcoming life adventures in America!

-Aimee

Siem Reap, Angkor Wat, Temples & Cambodian Experience

We have spent this week in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Most known for the location of the biggest religious building on Earth, Angkor Wat, but also a land of wonderful people, food, and pretty sure it is located directly on the sun. 

This has been a long awaited part of our journey. We have been excited to see Angkor Wat since we were in the early planning stages of our trip. Angkor Wat is considered to be the 8th Wonder of the World as it is the biggest religious building on Earth and is deemed the "Holiest of Holies." 

We booked our tour the day before while watching the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight in a local....well restaurant, or bar, or house..not really sure what the place was actually as no one spoke English, there was no menu and when we ordered beers they went into the house to get them. We just kind of sat down at a table and people were very nice, turned on a fan for us and we watched the fight with them. During the fight we were chatting with another customer and as it turned out he was the brother of our favorite tuk-tuk driver from our hotel. So we booked a sunrise tour with him for 5:00 am the next day. He is also taking us to the airport tonight for our departure to the Philippines. 

So back to the temples. Angkor Wat was our first stop and we sat along the outside of the mote with seas of other tourists watching an amazing sunrise and listening to camera shutters go off like the sound of applause. Truly an awe inspiring sight and really makes us want to experience the other wonders of the world.

During the tour we visited Angkor Wat, Bayon, Baphuon, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King and the Phimeanakas Temple. To summarize the experience the temple features that made an impact on us were the gargantuan size, the amazingly intricate details of the rock carving and statues, and we really enjoyed the huge faces of Bayon placed all orund the temple. 216 faces in all. We also saw some elephants and monkeys in between temples.

Siem Reap is a fun place with "Pub Street" providing great food, interesting people watching and a lively nightlife. We were able to hit a lot of top-rated restaurants and bars in our Lonely Planet travel guide. We ate Khmer, Cambodian, French, Western and Indian food here, oh yeah and we ate BUGS. We heard about this place called Bugs Cafe while riding elephants from a Canadian couple that were in our group. The joint has a menu fusing French Cuisine along with Khmer Cuisine in a fashion that has ants, scorpians, crickets, silk worms, snake, crocodile, and a bunch of other insects. The french chef told us before the meal the goal was to marry the 2 types of cuisine along with using bugs to show that insects can be used in delicious and nutritious ways. We went kinda novice and ordered puff-pastry with ants accompanied with pesto and pecorino cheese, but also some table neighbors let us sample their silk worm, cricket and lemongrass veggie stir fry. The food had great flavors and the insects weren't bad, just a new texture to us. We felt a little like Timon & Pumba from the Lion King.

Here is a big ol' pile of pictures for ya!

Holes for the elephants to carry