Philippines: Siquijor

After our adventure at Apo Island Dayton and I were severely sunburned. We spent the next two rainy days in Harold's Mansion resting and trying to get some relief from our painful backs and shoulders. We tried to find some more sunscreen but in Asia all you can find is whitening cream. After lying around watching old NBA slam-dunk competitions from the 80's on t.v. I was ready to hit the road again but this time, it was the sea. We attended church in Dumaguete with our packs on and while still dressed in our white shirts we boarded a small boat to Siquijor. We were both mistaken as missionaries; even our scruffy beards didn't indicate that we weren't. Arriving at Siquijor and not knowing where to go we found a guy willing to take us to the Coral Cay Beach Resort on his motorbike. Dayton had a room reserved for us and we were soon basking in the sun on a white sand beach at this luxurious resort. Surrounded by palm trees and calm, clear water, I was in heaven. The only thing that could make it better was a fresh mango shake, which they made right on the beach at their open-air bar! This was true paradise. They even had a swimming pool, huge book collection, pool table and t.v. Our room was a bamboo hut with super loud roosters right outside our window to wake us up nice and early. I would enjoy a good run on the beach in the morning when the tide was low and the sun just coming up. I immediately fell in love with this glorious place. The resort is about 5K outside the town of San Juan. We found a great place for fried rice and mango shakes called Castaway Cafe. We spent many a peso on this fine establishment with great mango shakes and nice beach front dining. Back at our resort I paddled out in the ocean on a kayak while the sunset one evening and the view was spectacular! I kept asking myself "Why do you live in Utah?". One day while staying at the Coral Cay we rented motorbikes and decided to ride around the island. We cruised around, getting used to the bikes and made our way through the center of the island up a large mountain. The views from this higher elevation were dreamlike. Cruising through tropical forests of palm trees made me lament the fact that I would one day have to leave the island. We ended up losing ourselves on the mountain roads and eventually found a waterfall towards the top of the island. We parked our motorbikes in a paid parking lot where lots of Filipino ladies tried to sell us some drinks but we had our own. We walked down a stair path to the falls and were welcomed by clear blue water and gorgeous green surroundings. There were some teenagers hanging out at the top of the falls so after taking a couple of photos I got ready for a swim and made my way up to talk with them. They showed me a good place to jump off the falls and demonstrated by going first. The falls (which we later dubbed Cowabunga Falls) weren't too high and the water was a perfect temperature. See the video:

Hanging out at these falls was a real treat during our ride around the island and for me was a highlight of the whole Philippines trip. After jumping in a few times and feeling great we made our way back to our bikes where the Filipino ladies offered us more drinks and told us we'd have to pay for parking. The price wasn't much but we didn't have any change so I gave them a U.S. dollar and they were more than happy to accept it. We rode down the mountain back to San Juan and had the "Friend Size" vegetarian fried rice at Castaway Cafe. We were quickly becoming good friends with the waitresses there who made the most delicious mango shakes. After enjoying another great meal we made our way back to the Coral Cay and hung out for the rest of the night around the beach bar. It's a nice quiet place which makes for a good reading atmosphere and the pleasure of making new friends with other guests. I overheard a large group of people speaking Chinese so I started to play pool with their kids. Once the parents found out I had been to their native Taiwan we had a great conversation about my experience there and my reason for going. Back in Dumaguete I had picked up a book called "A Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins. This inspired me to meet more people and to look for new experiences. I'm glad I had been reading this book and was able to meet these nice people from Taiwan. We were about to culminate our time at Siquijor island and this was a great way to spend our final evening. The following day we packed our bags once again and walked away from another great experience. We had no way to get back to the ferry about 20k away so we just started walking. Hoping for a miracle a nice man in a truck pulled over and offered us a ride to town. This was proof to me yet again that people in this world are good at heart. When we are good to those around us we will receive good in return. I think the idea of Karma was really shown to me that day and in days to follow. Next stop: Bangkok

Philippines: Apo Island

Situated about 16 miles south of Dumaguete lies the very small but very famous Apo Island. Home to some of the best diving and snorkeling in the world, this small island attracts many visitors from all over the world. Dayton and I loaded up into Glenn's truck again and headed out to a small boat ramp where we were transferred to the care of the captain of a small outrigger. On this small rickety outrigger it seemed that the sea would swallow us whole! Luckily for us, the Philippines is an archipelago and therefor, there are few large waves in the area. Even some small waves were big enough to get us and the four Europeans on the makeshift raft really wet. We arrived to the island with gratitude for our safe journey and walked up the beach to pay our fees. We weren't exactly sure where to go or what to do, but with our snorkel gear in hand we made our way to the other side of the island by walking through a very small village. We learned that there is no hot water and limited electricity on this island. The people were happy though and helpful. We followed a narrow footpath to the marine sanctuary. Once we got there, I looked out over the water and wasn't too impressed. It didn't look like much but I thought I would give it a try anyway. I stuck the mask to my face, put on my flippers and made my way out to the water. I was very nervous since I had never snorkeled before. Neither had Dayton so we were on our own. Fighting the waves, I got out far enough to stick my face in the water. I didn't bother using the snorkel because I wasn't quite ready for it. Once my mask broke the surface of the water I was amazed at what I saw. Right below me was a red starfish stuck to a rock. As I looked around a bit I noticed many tropical fish swimming around the most colorful coral I had ever seen. (the only coral I had seen previous to this was on t.v.) I got more daring and began to swim, this time trying to use the snorkel. Once I took a breath under water I got a mouthful of sea water and came up struggling to breathe. Spitting out the water I decided to give up on the snorkel for the time being. I noticed Dayton was catching on a lot faster than I was. Wanting to get the most out of the experience I reverted back to the snorkel and forced myself to become comfortable breathing under water. Once I got out to deeper water it became so much easier. I even learned that when I got a mouthful of water, I could blow it out and keep snorkeling rather than sticking my head above water and gasping for air. I regret not having an underwater camera because the fish and coral were out of this world! Dayton and I got more and more comfortable with the snorkeling and pretty soon we were spending 20-30 minutes at a time swimming around with the fish and exploring the reef. I felt like I had been transported to another world. Minutes seemed like hours and hours seemed like minutes. Floating face down in the water was a whole new experience for me and even required overcoming my fear of water. But soon I forgot all about concentrating on breathing and got lost in the reef, swimming with fish and gliding over colorful abstract statues. Eventually we had to call it a day, knowing our group would soon be leaving we swam back to shore, gathered our things and walked back to the other side of the island. We arrived back to the beach where our boat was and noticed others of our group were still gone. We noticed a restaurant up on the side of one of the hills and climbed the stairs to be greeted by a nice young woman who sat us at a table overlooking the bay in her open-air restaurant. Liberty's restaurant serves a variety of dishes but the greatest part is the view. Dayton and I got a veggie curry and basked in the view of the island and water. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal after a long day of snorkeling. We couldn't stop saying words like "amazing" and "incredible" to describe the experience we just had. After finishing our meal the others were ready to go and we made our way via outrigger back to the larger island where we were greeted again by our good friend Glenn. We got back in his truck and headed back to the hostel for another much needed evening of relaxing and sleep. At Apo Island I learned that in order to have great adventures, I had to try new things, to push past my fears and open my mind to new ideas. This lesson would change the course of my journey and allow me to experience things I never thought I would.

Philippines: Casaroro Falls & Twin Lakes

From Cebu we hopped on an OceanJet boat with free wifi for an ocean voyage toward the south to Dumaguete. We loaded up on ginger pills in anticipation of seasickness since neither of us had ever really been on the ocean before. We expected the trip to take about 4 hours from what everyone in Cebu had told us. We watched the sunset on the water as we cruised out to the sea. Neither of us got sick until the sun went down. With the sun went the horizon and there was nothing for us to fix our gaze on as we tossed up and down on the ocean water. To top it all off they played a movie on big screen tv in the boat. The movie was 2012. I watched this movie in horror as the ocean capsized boat after boat, drowning thousands of people in it's wake. Unable to watch the movie, I stared off into the black abyss of the deep, dark ocean. Looking for some sign of land, 4 hours soon became 6 and we eventually got to the dock in Dumaguete which may have been the worst of it. The tide was coming in and while we were on the dock the boat was swaying up and down creating some of the worst seasickness of the trip. Solid ground was home for us as we made our way from the boat to the dock. I felt like dropping to my knees and thanking God for our safe journey. Our bags were tossed to the dock from the back of the boat and I noticed some guy was there hanging around Dayton. I figured he was from out hostel since they offered a free pick-up service. This man showed us to his Tuk-Tuk and we hopped on while he took us to town. (literally and figuratively) He drove us in what seemed like a big circle, stopping at a gas station, he filled his bike then made us front the bill. Then another circle to our hostel, Harold's Mansion. We had been taken, it was embarrassing. I think we both wanted to hunt down that tuk-tuk driver and punch him in the stomach. I'd be lying if I said for the rest of our stay in Dumaguete I wasn't keeping an eye out for him. We were both exhausted and ready for a deep sleep. We checked in with a very nice receptionist whom we came to call Inez. No, that isn't her real name, but she looks like Inez from Bottle Rocket. And no, she didn't like it that we called her Inez. The next morning we joined an "adventure" guided tour to Casaroro Falls and Twin Lakes by our soon to be good friend, Glenn. We rode in the back of a small truck with a married couple. The man was form Holland and the woman was Filipino. They were very nice people and we enjoyed the time spent with them. The truck drove us through some small towns, one in particular was amazing. The town of Valencia sits on the foothills of the mountains near the southern tip of the Negros. It is a small town, with a few churches (one LDS) , a school, a market and a public pool. After driving through I was filled with the desire to live there one day. We'll see. :) We made our way up a canyon road until we parked the truck to walk the rest of the way. We made our way up a jungle road through amazing palm trees and small bamboo huts where local farmers live. I was impressed with their humble dwellings and simple lives. I wouldn't mind living that way myself. We eventually reached the trail head to the falls and made our way down many many steps until we got to the bottom of a deep canyon. Following a path though the jungle we rounded a corner and were awestruck by the view of the falls coming down a wall of green jungle plants. The falls landed in a pool of deep green water which was more than inviting after our hot, humid descent. We took some time to swim around near the falls and even found a decent rock to cliff jump off. It was amazing to feel the current of the water pushing me away from the falls the very moment I landed in the water. We hung out there for a while, enjoying the cool water and surrounding jungle. We made our way back up the stairs to the truck and we were off to our next stop: Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is on top of two sister volcanoes. The two craters are filled with water forming two beautiful lakes. We hung out at one of the lakes, ate lunch, swam in the cold water and enjoyed the sunshine. I was still feeling pretty tired and being able to relax by the lake was really refreshing. On our way back to the hostel Glenn pulled over and got out of the truck to take a leak, then asked us to follow him up a hill to look over Dumaguete. The view was amazing, we could see surrounding islands off in the distance and the entire city of Dumaguete. My desire grew even more to live in this place. Mountains, beach, ocean, hiking, mangoes... what more could I ask for? I was quickly falling in love with this place and was happy to remember that we still had a few more days to enjoy it. Once we made our way back to the hostel we had some dinner and called it a night. I fell asleep to dreams of all the adventures that still lay ahead.

Philippines: Cebu

We took a late night flight out of Hong Kong and arrived in Cebu around 3:30 am. Cebu Pacific is a fantastic airline to fly. They don't care much about anything. We sprawled out across the seats and slept pretty well on the flight. Shortly before arriving we woke up and looked out the window to see a full moon reflecting on the water as we flew over many small islands. The view was nothing short of heavenly. We descended upon the city of Cebu and after arrival and customs we met a mob of taxi drivers trying to give us a ride to wherever we wanted to go. We found an ATM to get some pesos before finding a decently priced taxi to take us to our hotel where we had a reservation for the following night. The Diplomat Hotel offers decent rooms at a fair price and is right downtown. Upon arrival we were told our room wouldn't be ready until noon. (It was about 4 am) We were exhausted and asked if they had any available rooms that we could take until then. Luckily enough, we got a room that we could crash in until our room was ready. We slept for a few hours then made our way down the street to a mall. There are many many malls in every city of the Philippines. I began to notice all the older white men with young, attractive Filipino women walking around. I later found out that most of them are ex-military men from the states who live there on the pension that they receive from the U.S. government. The dollar goes a lot further down there than it does here in the states. We happened upon a little cafe where we could get some bread and mango shakes. I think I paid about 90 pesos for a mango shake (about 2 dollars). It was so delicious and was the first of many shakes to come. We explored around Cebu for the next few days, checking out malls and best of all, the food! About 100 feet outside our hotel we ran into a woman who sells mango shakes ranging from 5 to 20 pesos. It was at this moment that I really felt like I had been ripped off on my first day in the Philippines when I had paid 90 pesos for a small! The fresh mango shake quickly changed my mood as I sipped it's deliciousness while walking around the city. We decided to walk to a newer mall which was further away. We traversed busy city streets, dodging Jeepneys carrying tons of people around the city. Seems like people would jump on and off while they were still moving. We never quite figured out how they worked so didn't use one. Once we arrived to the Ayala Center we found a restaurant called Lemon Grass. This restaurant offers outdoor dining of Vietnamese and Thai food. It was quite good except the portions were small. The Mango Sticky Rice was absolutely amazing though. We had to make our way to another mall across town in order to buy our boat tickets for the trip to Dumaguete. As we pulled up to the front doors of the mall we tried to make our way in but came to find out that the mall was actually closed and we'd have to wait an hour or so before it opened. Sitting on a bench outside the mall we were both reading when a man approached me to ask about my book (Louis L'Amour's Haunted Mesa). We eventually got into a discussion about religion and he said that he's been searching for the true church. The missionary in me couldn't pass this up and I taught him about the Book of Mormon. He was pretty excited about this new knowledge and agreed to go to church the next day. Cebu has quite a few chapels so I gave him the website to find the closest to his house. I don't know if he went or not, or what came of him, but it sure was great to be able to have a good discussion with someone about religion. This left me feeling really good as we walked through the mall once it was finally opened. Of course, the man I had just conversed with then hit me up for some spare money. Pretty typical as an American traveler to be asked for money. I told him that what I just shared with him was more valuable than money and that I didn't have any to give him. He was still satisfied with our conversation and went on his way. We eventually found the place to buy our boat tickets on the other side of the mall and it turns out it was open the whole time, just on the opposite side of the mall. We got our tickets and spent the rest of our Saturday exploring Cebu. I wasn't really impressed with the city. It was pretty dirty and there was a lot of poverty. As we made our way back to the hotel we looked up the nearest church. Turns out it was just about a 3 minute walk from where we were staying. It couldn't have worked out any better. Most of the church members spoke English and most of church was in English. It was nice to feel at home among strangers. Since the gate to the church grounds was open, the local children came in to run around and play basketball in the parking lot. After church I couldn't help but get a photo to remember that place. We went back to our hotel, shouldered our packs and went to the pier for the next leg of our journey.
Next stop: Dumaguete

Hong Kong pt. 1

Dayton and I flew separately to Oakland, CA on January 23. I had credit on United so I used that to fly there which was a huge mistake. I ended up flying to Denver first and then to Oakland. Leaving much earlier and arriving much later than Dayton. He had a nice family from his mission in Napa pick us up at the airport. We spent a couple nights with them before they took us to SFO for our flight to Hong Kong. We arrived pretty late in Hong Kong and found a place on the floor in the airport to crash until daytime. We hopped on the speed train to Kowloon where we found a hostel on Nathan Road. Our room was small to say the least. It fit one queen sized bed and had a sink that drained on the floor. We were cozy, but so tired that we didn't care. Nathan road is full of tourists and hawkers. The moment we set foot on the sidewalk we were surrounded by Indian men trying to sell us suits and watches. I almost had a guy buy my watch for 5o0 HKD but in the end he backed out... jerk. With the help of a guide book we found some awesome restaurants. My favorite was called Life Cafe. Located across the bay from Kowloon and along the world's longest escalator this two floor cafe serves organic vegetarian/vegan food. When the weather is good they open the roof for dining. The restaurant is also full of used books to browse through while you dine on delicious food. The walls are plastered with great quotes from famous vegetarians. "Be the change you wish to see in the world." by Gandhi really stuck out to me and was appropriate for me to read at the beginning of this great adventure. We spent one morning at the park watching the elderly practice tai chi and sword fighting. I took a nap on the bench because I was really feeling the jetlag. During the day we made our way up to Victoria Peak. There is a cable car which takes you to the top up a very steep rail. This was my second time to the peak, the first being in 2008. I was a little disappointed because there was so much fog in the air that the islands of Hong Kong weren't visible unlike the first time I went. This photo is from my first trip there right after a typhoon cleared the air of pollution. After spending some time at the peak walking around and reading we went to hop on the cable car to go down when Dayton realized he lost his return ticket. Rather than paying for another, we decided to jog down the mountain back to the subway. This turned out to be an awesome experience! We came across some great scenery and we were surrounded by beautiful green trees. It was a nice break from the busy city center. Once we arrived back to the city from our jog we were doing all that we could to keep busy so we would curb our jetlag by staying up until it was night before going to bed. We wandered around the island for a bit longer before making our way back to Kowloon via subway under the bay. Once we go back we decided to go to the pier and relax for a while. We both brought a number of good books to read so we walked down to the pier and enjoyed the fresh sea air and watched fishing boats sail in while we read. We took care of some business while in Hong Kong. We got our China visas which I thought would be cheaper to get in Hong Kong than in the states but it turns out the price is the same. It is also 4 times expensive for an American to get a China visa than for any European. Even with this minor setback our spirits were high. During our first night in the Hong Kong airport we had purchased our flight to Cebu, Philippines which would be our third stop for our adventure. Upon arriving to check in at Cebu Pacific airlines we were informed that we needed to prove our intention to leave the Philippines by providing a boarding pass for our exit flight. We scrambled quickly and bought a flight from Cebu to Bangkok and we were soon on our way for yet another adventure.

Education of a Wandering Man

Last year I picked up a dusty book off the shelf by Louis L'Amour. I had never heard of him but the title intrigued me. On page 4 of the book L'Amour writes "school was interfering with my education". Few words have impacted my life as much as these. L'Amour also says "education should provide the tools for a widening and deepening of life, for increased appreciation of all one sees or experiences. It should equip a person to live life well, to understand what is happening about him, for to live life well one must live with awareness." It was at the moment of reading these words that I knew I needed to make some drastic life changes. L'Amour traveled the world and so would I. I began to think of where I wanted to go. China was screaming my name. I started looking for flights and found a great deal to Hong Kong from San Francisco for only $640 round-trip. I would use Hong Kong as a jump start city and go from there. I began to talk to my good friend Dayton about this idea and before I knew it, we had not only planned to visit China but the Philippines and Thailand as well. I put my truck in the classifieds and dropped all the classes I had registered for at school. This was turning out to be the greatest adventure of my life. Even greater than I first imagined it would be as I read L'Amour's book. Through this blog I plan to share my experiences through words and photos. Ultimately, what I have learned is that the joy of life comes from new experiences and the building of relationships through those experiences. My greatest hope is to inspire the reader to live life abundantly and to have new life experiences.
Jeff Treft