GREAT NEWS: After much skepticism from everyone we asked, we are climbing Mt. Kinabalu (the highest peak in SE Asia) in two days! We talked to a number of people who had climbed it/are booked to do it, and the consensus response was "Good Luck" (what the Albanian sex kidnapper tells Liam Neeson in "Taken", our de facto mantra over the last 10 days)
Apparently, though, good luck is what we had, because you're usually supposed to book weeks or months in advance. Pumped!
Anyways, we did 12 hours of travel yesterday (including waiting at the KK airport for 1.5 hours for a bus that never came) and a day of hanging out in Kota Kinabalu, we are now safe and sound at a Coffee Bean with free internet in KK, Malaysia (and thankfully away from the hustle of Manila). Goodbye, Manny Pacquio!
Life is on an even keel and KK is very cool with the urban grit of night markets and street vendors without the rampant filth and scammy-feel of Manila --- there's not too much to do, though. Case and point: we got sucked into a mall food court (which actually has great food) and since it was raining, ended up seeing a movie and saw...wait for it...Avatar (how American)! It was only 15 ringeets or $4.50 US and Logan is still giddy and beaming about beating out the US prices and saving $12 since he never saw it in the states.
Anyways, the sunset on the walk home was pretty epic (KK is right on the water and the sunset sets over a nearby island right next door, apparently the city is famous for them). As we walked home to get my camera, it just kept getting better and better (typical) and I got home, ran up to get my camera, walked the block back to the waterfront...and by that time, it was pretty much dark (also typical). Logan got some cool shots, so I'll upload em when I get the chance.
For now, I'm gonna throw up some pictures from our time in Dumaguete, trying to be in chrono order.
Mural of the founding Sinco, the original king of Dumaguete
The main lawn at Foundation, right at the front door of the Lola's house/Sinco compound
Day 2: Farm and FU/Silliman scrimmage: We spent like 3 hours our second day in the afternoon at the Sinco family farm. It's pretty massive and very green for all you hippies out there -- these huge water buffalo (below with Logan) take massive dumps and they collect all their waste and put it into chambers to create methane gas that essentially is the power to make the farm run. It's sustainable!
Beside that, there's pigs (Logan's new BFFs) and chickens (they lay eggs and then they get eaten, just like the pigs). On the second farm that we checked out, there's a bunch of mango trees (like 1000) and more sustainable stuff (like a fat box with worms that they sell to people). The farm is a serious, sustainable factory. It's big time.
We make it to the farm, the clouds descend
Our feast at the bamboo hut, with fat bottles of Coke (standard Filipino beverage), Jack fruit (good name, okay fruit), and those banana leaf things are this Filipino dish that's essentially a rice tamale (kinda bland but good)
Me being Asian leavin the hut, ready to hang with the pigs
These methane gas making beasts were apparently imported from Belgium, so Logan kept asking him if they liked it better in the Philippines and they all nodded! Except one who took a dump when he asked (so he figured that meant he didn't like Belgium at all)...
Logan finds the only creatures on the Philippines that DON'T like eating pork and makes friends with his Star of David (they swarm him)..."I come in peace," he says
The Scrimmage: Below, that's Josh, the son of Kurtz, who was the score keeper of the FU-Silliman scrimmage.
The two refs for the game were from Silliman (the bad guys), so the assistant coach Kurtz (who is actually an ex-pat from Milwaukee named John and owns a bunch of Mr. Donut chains in Dumaguete now) asked if we would ref the second half. I kept complaining about how bad the reffing was (like I do in pretty much 99.9 percent of any basketball game) so I agreed. Terrible idea.
After about 30 seconds, I realized my error --- "I immediately regret this decision" or "I've made a huge mistake" --- and wished I was back in the rafters. Kurtz turned on me and started telling me that I was missing a bunch of foul calls for FU (typical coach), so I made even less calls to spite him. I forgot how annoying people can be when you ref.
Filipino basketball is essentially lawless, anyways, since everyone travels about every time they touch the ball and there's an insane amount of contact on defense that is generally accepted, which makes calling games by the book totally difficult. It made me indifferent, so I stopped making calls entirely (I compared it to how a police officer will stop being a good policeman in a lawless, crime-riddled country -- nothing you can do!)
Anyways, after a lot of complaining, eventually FU won on the final basketball like 45 painful minutes of reffing later. But again, I got another check off my bucket list ("Ref a college basketball game in SE Asia and almost call a technical on a whiny assistant coach who owns a donut chain.") Done and done.
Logan is waiting patiently to go eat and hit the food market for dinner, so I'll stop there... Will check in with more Dumaguete days tomorrow.
PS Send me an email or a text! I love hearing from y'all and I can receive texts for free on my American phone (doesnt cost you extra, either)... love, jack
No comments:
Post a Comment