Borrowedmind

I have a collection of food porn shots on my phone and camera that I keep forgetting to post.

Wow - what an amazing trip it has been so far. Monday afternoon we took a little ass boat out to Apo Island - about a 70 minute boat ride. We stayed at a little place called apo island resport - it was basic but nice. Everyone there was super nice. We did 5 dives with Rene, the divemaster there. I can't praise him enough - one of the best guys I have ever gone diving with. The diving is simply insane - best I have seen since Australia. 1000s and fish, huge coral and sponges bigger than a person. Water was nice ad warm, good vis - basically nearly perfect diving. I am so ready to come back and dive for a week or more.

I broke out the poi and spun a few nights. Gabriel (Abby) was way into it so we ended up staying up late practicing and drinking. At the end of the night I gifted him my poi - the boy has talent. In one night he learned more than most students do in a month! Bro'd out with Rene and Abby for a few nights and got invited to a local jam session - which was ummmm interesting.

Off to Boho Island - a more upscale tourist area. So need good food. The island food was rough.

Well looks like I survived the trip over. Just got up from a solid nights sleep and I am ready for adventure (after I locate coffee, that is).

Jim has a cute little two bedroom apartment over a little middle class cafe. They were hosting a woman's Lib party last night. It was really cute - lots of local teens were celebrating women's right by sing songs on an open mic.

I promised to be nice about the food at the cafe since Jim had made friends with the owner - so let us just say that it is about like eating at TGIF or the likes.

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Long flight, need food.

It is becoming very clear that Jim and I have very different takes on food. I think I am going to have to take control to ensure we get some good local eats.

His first suggestion was a mall buffet that more or less completely horrified me. A quick talk with our driver and a little exploration lead us to a more local establishment - still a bit mainstream for my tastes but what the hell. I have been traveling for 30 hours and need some damn fried pork and a beer.

Sisig (chopped up pork head bits), two type of lechon and a soup (which I can't recall the name of right now). The sisig and soup were great. The rest just okay.

An hour to kill before the ferry, so we wander around the mall and have a starbucks coffee (yes - I felt a piece of my soul wither away with each sip).

Off to the ferry - 4 hours then we should be at the island where Jim is living.

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My father just invited me to join him in the Philippines for a week...and who am I to say no to a free trip. So the Philippines....hmmm... I actually know almost nothing about the Philippines beyond what hits the front page of news-sites and from what I've read recently - I am so never even going to even mention politics while I am there.

Diving, relaxing and food... it looks like this could be another good food vacation. I'll start doing some research to see what I need to seek out while over there. My dad is not really a foodie, oh he likes food and all but I think he thinks I'm a bit crazy for the amount of time and energy I spend tracking down interesting food and visiting markets while I travel.

Cebu - lechon - whole roast piggie....that is mission number 1.

We decided to just not talk about the giant white elephant. Move along, nothing to see here.
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A final walk through a lovely garden before the 4 hour drive to HCMC - if we are lucky we'll be able to get our passports back. Oh ya - I think I forgot to mention that we left our passports at the dodgy backpackers hotel in HCMC. It has been a bit stressful working out how we are going to get them back.

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The floating market is our last stop of the cruise. Basically it is a wholesale market where the local vendors come to buy the veggies they resell I'm their shops.

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It is our first night and I went down to just get a couple bottles of water before bed.

It is now 2 hours later and Chesney and I are both overfed and drunk as skunks. Upon entering the kitchen, I found the crew shirtless, doing shots of a local bannana/rice whiskey and starting up a hotpot for dinner. Before I knew what was up I was seat with a shot in front of me and a steaming bowl of shrimp, fish balls and greens. Smiling I downed the shot to an encouraging round of cheers. The southern style of drinking shots is to share one glass and pass it to the person next to you after you drink. All too quickly it was my turn again. Stuff was not half bad actually. At this point the asked if Chesne would like to join and our guide raced upstairs to get her. We found out that it was the 1 year birthday o the boat that they were celebrating. We were already stuffed to the gills from our 4 course dinner but had little success resisting the very friendly offer to share dinner and drinks with the crew. We escaped after about and hour - having killed the entire bottle of local brew and a few rounds of beer.
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Sometimes you think that perhaps in a past life you just might have lived a good life. We booked a 3 day trip on a rather fancy river boat - it was our big spend for the trip. A 3 day guided tour of the Mekong river on a restored and converted traditional trade boat.

If you want to checkout the boat - search the web for 'le cochinchine'. To say the it is a beautiful boat is an understatement. It is amazing! All wood, beautiful staterooms and a crew of 5 to wait on your every desire. Funny thing is - we are the only two passengers! Yupe - a boat and crew for 10 and we have it all to ourselves for the entire trip. A personal guide, a personal chef (who is damn good) and an amazingly fun crew. It is like being the stars in some crazy adventure movie!
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