The Philippines seemed different than the other SE Asian countries we have been to (I have been to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam).
EVERYONE seems to play basketball. The guys (boys and men) wear jerseys as t-shirts - just like my cousin Eric. They play basketball on dirt courts with nets that are shabbily built out of boards, or they just play in the street with no hoop.
They are the fastest sms-ers ever. Apparently you can get unlimited texting for about 50 cents per day. They text all over the place all the time.
The language, tagalog, sometimes sounds like Spanish and sometimes like Bahasa (Malaysia, Indonesia). Numbers and days of the week are the same as in Spanish.
They use so much garlic. They must be very healthy and not make out. Ever.
The traveling infrastructure seems to be getting more sophisticated recently. Everywhere said that the number of people traveling through has grown dramatically in the past few months. It seems that it has been oppositely affected by the recession - they all said tourism has gone up.
It is really cheap to fly places, and it is really expensive to get to other places. It was 2200 pesos ($40) to fly from Manilla to a local city, and it was the same amount to take a boat for eight hours, or a taxi for one hour.
Philippines is not cheap traveling in SE Asia. You can certainly get by cheaper than what we paid, but this was by far our most expensive traveling yet. I do prefer a nice plate of fried rice in Indonesia for one dollar. ($7 crabs seemed to break the bank).
Since we got back, Matt has worked very hard, and I have played. I went to Moody's to see some of my old co-workers and get some ideas from my old boss. I got my eyebrows threaded, I bought some gifts, I ate satay, I met my friend Rachel from INSEAD who lives down the street.
Maybe I should start to think about packing, since I'm leaving for six weeks, and I honestly believe I have very little here in Singapore that will help me in Philadelphia. For example, the only pair of closed toed shoes I have in my possession here are sneakers. I have one sweater, and it has been sitting in a closed box for two years.
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