Palwan, Philippines

Oh, hey there! I know it's been a long long time since I've updated, but what can I say, I've been lazy. I am not making any promises to 'be better' with posting but now that winter is on it's way out I'm ready to shake off the dust and get doing. I have less than 6 months until I leave Korea and I'm planning on making the most of it, gosh darnit! So hopefully this means I'll have some more motivation to update this here blog, because me and Korea are not going to last forever. First, let me show you the fun stuff, my vacation!

Derek and I went to the Philippines for 2 weeks. After some debate, we decided to stay on the island Palawan. It's a little less traveled that Boracay or Cebu and more relaxed, perfect for a tropical vacation. Our first stop was Manila airport for an overnight layover.

It was definitely THE WORST part of the vacation and Derek and I have vowed to never do that again.

Next, we went to Puerto Princessa. It is the largest city on the island with not much to do honestly. We were happy just being in warm weather for a few days, walking around and hanging at our nice hotel :)

A mini airport

A nice welcome to our hotel.

public buses

Trike taxis

 We did take a day trip to the underground river, which was awesome. It is a river that goes through the mountains for a very long distance. Inside live many, many bats! Eeek!!!

And we did some climbing, not very strenuous but it was fun!

Next, we went to a camping site outside of Port Barton. It was paradise, literally! We took a boat to a private beach where there are only 7 tents for rent. The man who runs it is Canadian and his wife is Filipino. All meals were cooked by his wife and were amazing! They also had a bar, kayaks, snorkeling and my favorite activity a fresh water shower outside! Best shower ever. Everyone staying there was so nice and we had nice chats over dinner. The days were spent lazing away and taking in the beautiful scenery. I can honestly say I will go back someday.

Our ride to Port Barton

We made up games coconuts. This is coconut curling. 

After our wonderful camping experience, we headed to El Nido. El Nido is the main tourist destination on the island and it's main attractions are the islands with beautiful snorkeling, beaches and hidden lagoons. First we went on a boat tour of some of the islands, there are 4 differnet tours but we only did 2.

Next we did some cruising. I hopped on a scooter, Derek hopped on a motorbike and we cruised around and went to an amazing beach.

This kid serenaded us with multiple Christmas songs. 

Then we went scuba diving! Here are some pictures before getting in the water. 

And lastly the beautiful sunsets and some food :)

Happy New Year and Birthday!

I know I've been absent but I'll be posting what I've been up to the past few months soon. I just wanted to say Happy New Year. I am excited for what this next year holds for me including soaking up all of Korea I can, going on a tropical vacation this winter, a 3 month long travel journey home and COMING HOME! I'll be seeing you all this year, that's for sure.

In Korea, on New Years everyone turns 1 year older. So a baby born in December is already considered 1 years old as of January first. I can never seem to get a straight answer on how Koreans calculate age but I do know that womb time is added in and New Years is everyone's birthday too. So in Korea I am the grand age of 29 and Derek is ...31! Eeek! I am glad to grow younger again when I head home :)

Busan Night Hike

A few weeks ago we went on a night hike in Busan.  Our vision was to hike to the top of this mountain to get a good view of the sunrise over the ocean, with a hot cup of coffee and oatmeal in hand and bask in glorious nature... What we got was quite different.

We took the last train from Daegu to Busan at 11pm, which with some pit stops and travelling to the trail, would put us at a 2am start time. The hike was supposed to be 2 or so hours and we would be set up for the sunrise with time to spare. What happened was the trails were not so clearly marked and the names kept changing so we hiked an hour on the wrong, grueling trail until we realized that something wasn't right. So we flagged down some guys on a motorcycle... in the mountains...at 3am... to help us? They didn't speak much English so they weren't much use but we did decide to go back down and up the other trail.

This was the right trail and with a few more minor detours we saw the lookout point. The lookout point was bare, and windy, and cold. So we made some coffee and waited out the sunset ,wrapping ourselves sheets people who sell chicken in the park give you to sit on (maybe this deserves an explanation but that's for another time.)

An the sun came up... into the clouds. And we saw it get light... but no spectacular sunrise. After which we quickly packed up to get out of the horrendous wind and cold, and we went home to Daegu... to sleep.

our cute friends Alyssa and Jeff