A plan.: Travel

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 :)

We have been keeping pretty busy these weekends. Both because we are trying to soak up the decent weather before winter descends on us and because after fall we are going into major saving mode to prepare ourselves for our journey back home. Anyways, this has made me fall behind on our weekend happenings.

First, we went to the Andong Mask and Dance festival about a month ago. It was interesting to see the traditional costumes and dances. We were especially lucky because we ran into our Korean friend Hoonmi! (she was not so lucky to run into us) She helped us understand the dance's meaning and the stories being told. Most stories are about the underdogs, or the corrupt Buddhists (I dunno why they were so corrupt) and about forbidden love. They basically hit all the best types of stories. Well here are the pictures.