I don’t know if Chad mentioned that it was raining A LOT when we were in El Nido.  Above is a picture of Chad on our first day.  We were famished and dirty from the bus ride.  We just sat and watched the waves.

A view from the restaurant in our hostel.  Watch out for sea spray!

I have to say, yes, I went to the Philippines because I wanted some Vitamin D.  That being said, it was really wonderful to see the islands surrounded by storms.  You never see clouds in a postcard.  Despite the fact that we couldn’t run around in the sand without being pelted by rain drops, it was very beautiful.

One our second day the weather cleared up by the late afternoon so we decided to take a sunset cruise.  Cleared up meaning we could walk without being drenched.  It was a rocky boat ride but it was nice to get out and Chad took some magnificent photos.

On the third day we decided to sign up for an island hopping tour and brave the weather which cooperated above and beyond our expectations.

Island Hopping Boat Tour – Sea Level

Sunshine!  We are so happy!

Next is a video of me waving.  Woot.  You can tell we were adjusting to the underwater filmography.

Kate Waving – UNDER WATER!

My mask was a little tight.

Chad has some awesome nautical moves!

This is probably me favorite video (LaGOONy).  Chad head butts the camera and when the lens is in and out of the water it looks like we have HUGE bodies and tiny heads.  Oh, and NAME THAT TUNE!  Sorry, it’s me and not Chad singing!

LaGOONy

We finally found fish!  This spot was amazing.  We saw more fish here that our entire diving trip in Thailand last year!

Fish

Look forward to another fish video at the marine sanctuary on Panglao.

This is our lunch spot.  Look at the video for a panoramic view!

Lunch Break Beach

Relaxing after a long and wonderful day on the water – wow we got roasted!

The porch area of our hostel.

Our final day we decided to do a cliff climb.  It was fantastic.  Just us and the guide and limestone!

The view was incredible and terrifying!  Look at the video!

Cliff View of El Nido

We could see that red flag from the beach in front of our hostel – it was soooo tiny!

Me with our guide.

Water break!

Whoa Nellie!

So, after the sunset sail we went on an evening swim in the ocean.  I got in a fight with a stray board – it won.  While we were snorkeling my wounds got sunburned!  You can tell that I had fun!

Time to go back to Puerto Pincessa.  Above is the kind of bus we took to El Nido.  Below is the less comfortable option we took back.

Next, Bohol!

In other news, we are doing really well!  I can’t believe that our time here is almost up.  We finish at school next Wednesday, we leave Samcehok a week from tomorrow, then we take off for Beijing on the 4th!  Also, we will officially be back in Chicago on the 19th of April at 3:10 PM!  YAYY!!  We can’t wait to get home and see all of our family and friends!

Thank you for keeping Grandpa Baird in your thoughts – keep it up!  He is improving to the point of serenading Grandma Baird on her birthday/Valentine’s Day!  We are very happy!

Well, it’s time to look for some more Couch Surfers for our trip.

See you two months from today!

Love, Kad & Chate

On the Plane…

Over this…

Palawan is often called the “last frontier” of the Philippines.  It was only claimed by the Philippines in the 1960s after being tossed around between Japanese rule in WWII, American rule earlier in the century, Spanish rule before that, and Malay long ago.  So, as expected this island was much less developed than Manila or our later stops on Bohol and Cebu.  We flew into Puerto Princesa (the capital of the island) and had to stay the night before heading up to El Nido.  We arrived at Manny’s guest house by tricycle (there are no taxi’s on the island – WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!) just in time to catch this great view of the sunset!

We took off into town to find some internet and came across this church.  They had 3 masses a day 2 in English and 1 in the local dialect.  Pretty cool!

I think we were hungry!

The next morning we left at 7am on a local bus for our next stop – El Nido.  We had the option to take a local bus for 300 pesos each (~$4) or a minivan with aircon for 600 pesos each.  We opted for the cheaper version hoping for more of an adventure …   The bus was a huge open air giant of a machine and looked like it had been in use since about WWII or so.  The bus slowly filled with all local Philippinos …. and us (the only foreigners in sight).

This was our navigator

This was our seat…

She was our entertainment…

The bus ride took a solid 8 hours to get from Puerto Princesa to El Nido.  We spent most of the trip admiring the amazing scenery, clinging to the railings as we hurdled down rough pavement, gravel, and dirt roads, or we watched the children sitting in front of us.

On top of the bus, people packed on loads of goods to ship, bags, and at one point in the trip… a motorcycle!  When the bus was full, people sat on the roof.  No one fell off, but I’m sure there were some close calls with the rough roads and crazy driving.

One of the many amazing views on the bus ride up to El Nido.

Here’s another…

We made it safely to El Nido.  Luckily it only rained for about 20 minutes near the end of the ride.  We’ve heard horror stories of the bus getting stuck in the mud on rainy days and taking 12-15 hours to get to El Nido.  We also avoided flat tires (another common occurrence).  Video of our arrival into El Nido is below.

The bus ride was definitely an adventure.  We chose it because it we wanted to have a more realistic Philippines experience and we got it.  We saw a lot of beautiful sites, but also so the shanties and shacks of rural Philippino life.  We stopped a few times and encountered some begging children, hungry and dirty.  A sad sight and a strange reminder of Manila.  The restrooms along our trip were shacks with holes in the ground or a basic toilet with no seat or water.  Needless to say we limited our water and food so we could avoid them as much as possible.  Many of our companions on the bus didn’t speak, or didn’t want to speak English so it was hard to know what was happening when we stopped, or how long we had left on our journey.  But that was all part of the experience.  It was one of our more memorable experiences of the trip and I’m glad we did it.

Up Next – the town of El Nido and it’s paradise limestone islands!  Oh.. and some great underwater videos!

Please keep my (Chad) grandfather in your thoughts.  He’s having a rough recovery from knee surgery a few weeks ago.  He’s doing better the past few days but still has a long road to recovery ahead.  Nothing makes us feel farther away from home than when someone we love is sick.  We just thankful for the wonders of Skype that help us keep in touch.

All the best,

Chad

I’m also in the process of uploading videos from the event.  They’ll be up soon. UPDATE: They’re up now!

As always – click the image to see a larger version.

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This is MinJae – one of the students in our skit.  He’s amazing… and has the best smile around!

Here are two videos from our most recent school field trip that illustrated this   The first one they’re trying to get us to hold hands… in the second, she’s asking if we will get married.  :)

Enjoy…

There are also some more videos up on the videos page.

The hostel owner recommended this restaurant and I have to say it was the best Bibimbap meal I’ve had in Korea.  Will definitely go there again the next time we’re in Sokcho.

Dave decided to eat a pepper…!

Then he made me eat one :(   I was sad

Soraksan National Park (a bit hazy but still quite pretty.)

This buddha is near the entrance of the park and probably stands a good 40-50 feet tall.   Its amazing.  Here’s a quick video I took while we were there.

We took off from here and hiked up Ulsan Bawi.  This giant rock mountain is quite impressive and proved to be quite difficult – despite the many stairs and ropes that define Korean hiking.

Kate about halfway up Ulsan Bawi.

Dave and Eve help each other up the mountain

We’re almost there!

Eve is pumped and ready to climb the last leg of the mountain…

..Straight up these stairs!! eeek.  they keep going and going….

These older women had no problem with it.. These ajumas weren’t even phased by the climing.

Ulsan Bawi!

Kate and I trying to get a good photo …

The nice man with the megaphone and coffee at the top took our picture for us.   (See this video)

The Party on top of the  mountain… only in Korea…

Ulsan Bawi again.. (BTW.. That’s north korea to the right Eep.  And we were there the day of the “Satellite” launch.  See this video from later in the hike.  A helicopter was circliing around over the park announcing something.  Was it about the North Korea Rocket launch?? I don’t know.  No one seemed too alarmed though.. so I think we were fine. )

After a rest at the top we headed down…

…and found some lovely treats at the bottom of the mountain.. hah yes that’s a corndog with sprinkles on it,  and another with frenchfries in the batter.  Again, only in korea…

That’s Soraksan.  We had a great time as usual with Dave and Eve… we’re sad to see them go, but they will have a great time wherever they end up, and we’ll see them soon when they come to our wedding :)  Right dave and eve?! 

More to come soon…

-Chad

Enjoy…

A long string of emails between the other EPIK teachers followed… complaining about how we signed up to teach English and not dance and sing like English monkeys and about how if we don’t do a performance they might take away our banana privileges (as English monkeys) and how we wish we actually were paid in bananas because they’re probably worth more than the won right now… etc.. All said, no one was pleased with this idea.

Over the next couple of days, reports came in from other EPIK teachers about their schools asking (or telling) them to perform. Two Fridays ago Teacher Kim came to our house after school to give us our subpoena to the dreaded performance. She understood how awkward it was for us but said the Principal would be very sad if we didn’t do a performance.. (so, we had to…) We talked with some other teachers and came up with a plan to sing only the choruses of a few Korean pop hits and dance like fools. We put it together last Monday, rehearsed it on Wednesday and had the performance on Thursday evening. Here are two videos from the evening… try not to laugh too much.

All in all the evening turned out to be just fine. Everyone who performed was nervous and everyone messed up a bit, so it was entertaining. Although we were in a nice hotel conference room, with round tables and glassware (with forks/knives!!), and the entire administration and other school principles were there… it was fairly laid back and everyone understood how hard it was for the EPIK teachers to do this. So, our humorous rendition of k-pop songs was greeted warmly. (Thank goodness!!) And hey, we each got 20,000 won in gift certificates and two boxes of traditional Korean cookies for our performance!!

We all were dreading it, but it turned out well and now I know the words to a few choruses of Korean songs. It’s strange coming from singing classical music in foreign languages everyday (in college) to this… but I’d like to think everyone could hear all the training over the terrible sound system

All for now…
-Chad

Here are some links to the songs we covered in our mix…
“Arirang” (Traditional Korean Song.)
“La La La” (SG Wannabe)
“Nobody” (Wondergirls) — (the youngest girl in this group is 16.. oldest 20. whoa!)
“Ochada” (Brown Eyed Girls)

Hummus and homemade pita.. and a bit from the broken Pink Blender (Sorry Kate)

Hanging the clock… Long Nails into Cement walls is no fun and proved to be quite dangerous, hence the Elton John Glasses

After Sports day All of the teachers and staff went out for a traditional Korean Meal. We ate lots of Samgyupsal (삼겹살) and had a great time. The meal is basically strips of pork that are grilled at the table with a few veggies, then wrapped in lettuce with a spicy pepper sauce, radishes, and other veggies. It’s very interactive and communal – like most other Korean food. Kate and I are veterans to this meal as we had it the first night we were in Samcheok. Many of you know that alcohol is a huge part of the Korean dinning experience and their general culture. In small doses this can be kind of fun and freeing. People who never even make eye contact with you normally are “empowered” and want to say every English work they know for you. As this was our first full gathering of the school since we arrived we were treated like the guests of honor and asked many questions about everything from the states to what we call noisy children. :o) I sat across from the principle which was very intimidating as he is known for being “the best with Soju”. Soju is a drink, a lot like vodka, but not quite as strong (but just a gross). So you can understand how sitting here made me weary. The tradition is that you never pour your own drink; someone hands you their glass and you take it – they pour soju into the cup and you drink it. Visa versa… in other words everyone uses everyone’s glass and it’s very jolly and scary. It’s not polite to refuse so you learn (quickly) to say just a little, and thank you quickly as they pour. Then pour it into the other glass you have and sip slowly… That’s my strategy at least. This is only important to understand how the next part of the post happens so naturally. But enough about that… (Hi grandma :o)

We ate and were merry, then decided to go to Nore-bang. (I’m leaving out a pretty important part about a shift in dynamic between the men and women that Kate and I were pretty happy with, but I’ll leave that also for her to explain.) So Nore-Bang… literally “Singing Room” – aka Korean Karaoke, only in a smaller room with just the people you are with… not a bunch of strangers. For those of you from IU – Think Japonai. So imagine what Kate and I were expecting – from our experiences with karaoke in the states… awkward fun. …. no……..

There you can follow more photos and videos as they are posted. The pictures will eventually be more organized, but now almost all of our pictures are up there. (Same with the videos).

Enjoy..
and thanks for checking in. We really appreciate it
-Chad