Abi was in Don Bosco, Pasil

27/7 After spending pretty much the entirety of my gap year in Taunton it was definitely time for me to take a trip abroad and after planning to carry out voluntary work for a long time beforehand I decided the Philippines would be a great place to go. As my Mum has relatives in the Philippines I thought it would be a great opportunity to go back and see my family, as the last time I visited was nearly 10 years ago so there was plenty to catch up on! I am spending just over 8 weeks in the Philippines but staying with my relatives for 3 weeks mostly within and around the capital Manila and then carrying out voluntary work in Cebu (an island south of Manila) for the rest of my time.

I set off on my trip with Mum and Nicola from Taunton on Monday 21st July and travelled to Heathrow where we caught our flight to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The trip was a pretty tiring and lengthy one, having spent a large amount of the time just waiting for our flights which totalled about 17 hours but the flights were fine (the food was pretty decent too and the films even better) and we arrived Wednesday morning at the airport where we were met by my grandparents and my uncle and his family. One of the things I remember most from my last trip was the heat stepping off of the plane and coming into land the humidity was pretty clear from the windows which started to steam up outside. For the first week were to stay with my grandparents in Paranaque, a district not too far from the airport but still pretty central of the city. It has been 5 days now since I arrived and in the past week we have just been settling into life over here and getting used to the heat! We're 8 hours ahead of the UK and despite my best efforts I haven't managed to kick my afternoon nap habit, I've probably suffered the worst from jetlag! We have spent the last few days within the city and haven't really ventured any further due to the weather, which has been quite honestly depressing although not surprising since it's right in the middle of the rainy season! However we've been able to explore the surrounding area a great deal. Yesterday we went to the local market to see my gran in full market sales mode. Despite her age she still gets up at 3am every morning to buy fish from a local wholesaler which she sells at the market, not finishing until midday-and I thought getting up at 7am was bad enough! The local market here is a hive of activity and noise, there's rows of stalls selling everything freshly prepared from coconuts to cockerels (which can be used for cock-fighting, a sport which is enjoyed by many people here including my granddad!). I've also managed to get in 2 trips to Mall of Asia, a massive shopping mall which has been built by the bay and is about 3 times the size of Cribbs causeway!! It's incredible to think that something so huge and of such enormous expense can be built in a district where people nearby are living in slum environments.
Instead of travelling by bus the local people use two main modes of transport: tricycles, which are motorbikes with a side car attachment and my favourite: jeepneys, which are ex-army trucks converted into people carriers and are amazingly decorated on the outside. The people here aren't bothered about taking a comfortable ride and don't mind cramming 15 people into a jeepney in one go!! The other aspect of living I have had to adjust to is the lack of flushes and toilet seats. I still don't understand why but you are hard pressed to find a toilet with a seat on it! I have maintained my routine of showering in the morning however this time it's using a bowl and a bucket of water-not the quickest of methods but still does the job! As a result of this I decided to get my hair cut in a local salon, in an attempt to reduce the amount of time I have to spend washing it! It cost less than a pound to do so, which is lovely when you're used to having to fork out 30 quid back home for the same thing. Tomorrow we are going to visit my aunty and cousins who live in a district known as Laguna, about an hour or so out of the city. We will be staying there for a few days and I am looking forward to having a break from the city since the pollution and smell are quite intense at times!

31/7/08

We have spent four days in Laguna now and it's been a great chance for us to see some more sights outside of Manila. On the Monday we left Manila early and went via Cavite to visit some of our other cousins (there are quite a few seeing as my Mum has four brothers) before heading onto Calamba in Laguna. We had a great first evening, starting off with a massive meal and buko salad (coconut salad-currently my favourite) for dessert followed by some karaoke.
Despite the rain's persistence we've managed to make the most of our stay. On Wednesday we got up super early and made a trip out to Tagaytay, a massive lake about an hour and half's drive from Laguna. The lake is famous for the volcano, Taal, which is located in the centre and is still active. The setting was absolutely stunning and we were lucky enough to have a few hours sunshine whilst we made a trip out to the volcano by boat. Upon reaching the volcano Nix and I decided to take the trek up to the crater by pony, something which I had wanted to do for ages!! It was an exciting trek up, the paths weren't exactly laid out and there were some bumpy bits but the view at the top was definitely worth having a sore bum! After that we went to Calaca in the district of Batangas further south of Tagaytay to visit some of my Mum's friends. So far we haven't been to any beaches, so after a bit of pestering we went down to the local beach. I think we were both a bit disappointed to find the beach was not only located about half a mile away from a power plant but was completely littered, so we couldn't go swimming! Throughout our stay Nix and I have been keen to check out some of the beaches the island has to offer, however our plans have not been as straight forward as we'd originally hoped. The typhoon Frank, which hit the country a few weeks before we arrived, has caused a lot of disruption to many areas making it difficult to access them and has affected our travelling plans. We have however managed to book tickets to go to Boracay island for next week, which I am really excited about so hopefully the weather will hold for it!!
12/8
We ended up staying for an extra few days in Calamba and in that time we were able to sneak in a trip to a resort called Hidden Valley springs, which was well and truly hidden in the middle of a rainforest in Alaminos. The resort is a popular spot with tourists and visitors from Manila, but we were lucky enough to pick a quiet day and were able to enjoy the resort's numerous spring water pools without the masses. The location had a vast array of plants and trees including coffee plants, papaya trees and cocoa plants, which we were able to sample thanks to the help of a very kind gardener! We also decided to take the hike to the hidden valley waterfall which was about 15 minutes away from the main resort and required overcoming some slippery pathway and rock hopping. It was supposedly too risky for tourists to swim in this particular waterfall, the height of which was about 30m but there was a queue of local kids gathered at the top waiting for their turn to jump off-rather them than me! We travelled back to Manila for one night before heading out on our long awaited trip to Boracay. We caught a flight from the Domestic airport and in 50 minutes we arrived in the sun filled town of Caticlan. We decided to book a package holiday as the trip was so last minute and although the price was rather steep the experience was worth every penny and it was nice not having to worry about booking everything ourselves. The island itself is only 5 miles by 2miles, so pretty small but already a massive tourist hotspot thanks to its beaches and great diving. It was incredibly beautiful, with amazing stretches of white sand and crystal blue water and although we only had a short stay of 3 days we managed to experience plenty of the island's goodies in that time, including island hopping on the second day which would prove to be one experience I'd keep with me for longer than desired! We set out early with a group of about 26 people and went by boat to different beaches and islands where we got the chance to do some cave swimming and snorkelling. It was my first time snorkelling and the shallow water was perfect for it, there were fish of all shapes and sizes, urchins, starfish and I even spotted a couple of sea snakes! After a day of swimming Nix and I decided to give the banana boat ride a go, so after gathering another 8 people from our group all 10 of us set out on the ride-big mistake! We seemed little tight for space with 10 people but it started out fine until the lads decided to bounce up and down and soon enough we fell off in one fell swoop. However in the process I managed to collide with another guy and got a lovely great lump on my forehead-ouch. We were taken straight back to land and both went to the local hospital but luckily we didn't have anything serious and just went home with some painkillers. The rest of my evening was spent with a bucket of ice in bed, not the best of endings to an otherwise perfect day! I was fine by the next day and we decided to check up on my poor counterpart to make sure he'd made it through the night and luckily he was fine too. We had to go back on Friday, which came around much faster after the accident and I went home with some great purchases and the best souvenir I could ask for: a black eye!! It is now 4 days since we got back from Boracay and after returning to Manila I spent my last couple of days there with my cousins making the most of our time together-which included watching a ridiculous amount of Hannah Montana, a Disney channel show that my younger cousins absolutely adore! I was sad to leave Manila again, the time having gone so quickly however it was great to have spent that time with my family catching up with them again and making up for all the lost time. I was definitely ready for the next leg of the trip: Cebu. It took less than an hour's flight from terminal 3 before I arrived in Cebu International airport, even though I'm quite used to travelling by myself I was still quite nervous. But I had no reason to be as I had an incredibly warm welcome at the airport where I was met by Brother Carlo, Dahlia and Naoko. As with visiting new places my first trip to the provincial house was an opportunity for me to take in all the new sights of the surrounding area and start to familiarise myself with what would be my home for the next 5 and half weeks. The provincial house where I have been staying for the past two days is located in area away from Pasil and usually volunteers would stay for a week to settle in however since I have already spent 3 weeks in the country I'm going to be moving to Pasil community tomorrow and will get stuck in with work straight away Abi, BOVA Volunteer and Pass Plus