Philippines

The Philippines were adventurous and amazing. Adventurous...well, lets say that roads, busses and ferries are somewhat off your normal expectations (that is, European!). Amazing...it is a beautiful country with a really happy, smily and cool bunch of people.  Funny that we (A+M+D) barely noticed the change into 2010, since we did not sleep the night before but instead were traveling to our destination island (our plane left 1.25am from Taipei). So we were pretty much just sitting in a restaurant, eating, getting drunk and feeling slightly off this world and just managed to stay awake when the clock showed 12. The next days we did what you do in the Philippines (or on holidays in general), relaxing on the beach, driving tricycle, windsurfing, snorkeling and drinking the local brew! Perfect, apart from the obvious coupling between too old white men and too young Philippina women going on in our hotel. Honestly, I was shocked and disgusted by this prostitution at first and felt sorry for the girls, but since it seemed to be the most normal thing to do there, we just ignored it as good as we could.

In short, I have an ambiguous image of the Philippines...the people and nature are the treasures of the country, but it is sad to see the poverty and prostitution.

Pictures will follow soon!

My sister left on wednesday, it was good to have her here :) Here is a pic form the last day after we went to Taipei Zoo:

Now it is exam time and study mode. But not too long fortunately, next Saturday the 16th it is time to say goodbye to Taipei and our trip to SE Asia starts! Can't wait to travel again (honestly, I do not know how I can manage to live a life without traveling at least every second weekend...hehe) For now, we only booked two flights: Taipei --> Bangkok and Singapore --> Taipei...in between those two flights we hope to see Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, but we do not have concrete plans yet! Let's see where our route will take us!

Alli