Philippines part 1 (Sabang Beach)

Linden Ballonoff Journal-

3/22/22

Today we are on the longest flight of our trip. 11 ½ hours! This is the flight between Honolulu, Hawaii and Manila, Philippines. We had to get up at 630 this morning to get on the flight at 11. That did not go as smoothly as we would have hoped. So, this is how it went… We got to the airport around 7:00 and went to check in. It was a tiny stand outside of the airport and a line in front of it. We got in line and soon it was finally our turn after waiting maybe 15-20 minutes. We were being checked in by a very nice man. He checked our passports and vaccine cards and that was a success. Then, he proceeded to check our Covid and travel insurance. Dad showed him the Kaiser email that said we had insurance, but did not say how long it extends for or when it started. The man checking us in informed us that he could not let us go in without it. So that is where the real problem began. We found a sitting area just to the side and sat down with about 25 other people. I assume everyone was having the same problem. Quickly, Dad pulled out our laptop and starts looking up “covid insurance,” “travel insurance,” and “covid and travel insurance.” All tries were dead ends. Every link we tried would make us enter something that we did not know, or was invalid, or some other reason. Then, Dad started pulling his hair out which apparently he did in med school when he was stressed. I knew we were in trouble now. Then… Mom had an amazing idea! What if we asked the guy for help? And sure enough, after doing so, we had a step by step sheet of instruction on how to do it. We followed all the steps and 200 dollars later, was waiting for 15 minutes before we got an email from the cite as confirmation that we would have to use to get allowed in to the airport. At that point, Dad was frozen, I was anxious, Mom was doing lunges, and Asher was being himself bumping into anything and everything. Not a very successful environment. Somehow, I don’t know how, we made it in with 1 hour and 15 minutes until the plane took off. As anyone reading this knows, I am very punctual and less than 3 hours in the airport is way too late. We got our bags checked, went to the bathroom, got through security (which was a ghost town luckily), and made it to the gate. They had not even started boarding! After knowing this, everyone calmed down and Dad and I got Starbucks and filled up waters and promptly got on the flight. So that is the story! Hopefully it is smooth sailing from here…

3/25/22

We made it to the Philippines! We have now been here for 3 days. The first night, we stayed at the Belmont Hotel in Manila. That was an adventure. We got out of the airport and noticed that we needed a ride to the hotel. We went over to the “meter taxies” and got a ride with a Philippine dude. He loaded all our stuff into the trunk which was amazing because it looked like not even one would fit. We started off and almost immediately, the guy started trying to give us a fixed rate, 200 pesos per person for a 10 minute drive. Rip off. We got that sorted out and made him use the meter. We made it to the hotel and got checked in while bugs swarmed Asher and I but did not bite. The rooms we stayed in STUNK! It smelled like some sort of gasoline or rot. As you can probably guess, not very pleasant. That night was very short and consisted of going to the rooftop swimming pool and sleeping. At the pool, there was a small bar and they offered us food. We ordered a bit and the guy said it would take 30 minutes. It was a little long to wait but doable. So, we waited 45 minutes. No food. We asked the person if he could cancel it but he only could deliver it to the room. That was fine. We got ready for bed and it was on 8. We had just gotten out of Hawaii so even though it was 8 where we were, it felt like 2 am for us. Also, we were in the future thanks to the international date line. In the morning we got a redeeming breakfast buffet which was surprisingly very good. We finally got out of that place and boarded a plane to another island, Palawan and got to a much nicer place which was amazing to walk into. It was air conditioned and only smelled like leaves. That is where we are now for 2 days. It has an amazing ocean view, and the ocean water is about 87 degrees. Sometimes, we have to get OUT of the water to cool off! One thing I have noticed here in the Philippines is that at first it feels like everything is cheaper because you can buy a “full meal” for about 4 dollars, but the portions are about ¼ the size of American portions, so is it really cheaper? Well that was my spiel. We will see how the next adventure goes! Noa Noa island!

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3/26/22

· Yesterday we went to the underground river! It was a 8 km long cave with an amazing river running through it. To get there, we had to walk with a nice guide, Jimmy about ten minutes on the beach to get to the pickup zone. We had to take one boat to get to the part of the island where the river was, and another to go inside. So, while we were waiting for our first boat, we got SWARMED with people trying to sell us things. Most of it was jewelry or artwork. It was like every time we turned around, there was a good in our face and being pushed into us and following us around. For me, it is easy to say that that is wrong and unethical, but I am not in their shoes. Me, myself, have great food, house, pet, water, and family and some do not have any of those. It is a challenge for me to put myself in their shoes. Anyway, after our boat arrived, number 47, we got on. It was a small, narrow boat with big pontoon type pieces of wood on each side for stability. It was completely not what I would have expected in the US. In the US, we would have a nice motor boat that glides through the water and was QUIET! That, we did not have.

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Ari - Day #9

3-25-2022

Sabang Beach, Palawan, Philippines

Well, our adventure has officially begun. Sabang is a very poor town which was decimated by a typhoon just 3 months ago. It also has been hamstrung by the COVID pandemic which seems to have closed it’s tourist business. We are at Daluyon Beach and Mountain resort which is the only operating hotel in the area. In addition, it has one of only 2 operating restaurants. The remaining hotels and restaurants were destroyed by the typhoon.

The poverty here is striking. Although most people seem to be well-nourished, the majority of people live in thatched roof homes with dirt floors. They cook their food on fires and are either farmers or fishermen. There are dogs everywhere, overall friendly, but hot.

Speaking of hot, this place is…smoking hot and humid. I am an incredible wimp, I go outside for an hour and run back to the air conditioning. Not sure how these people work in the rice paddies with long sleeves/pants in this heat.

The beach is all soft, white sand, and the water is aquamarine and clear as can be. Swimming is heavenly, every other activity is a challenge. Linden was able to surf—this girl is getting quite good!!! Asher did some kayak surfing, something I didn’t know existed, yet he’s quite good at it.

We went to the Puerto Princessa Underground River today, one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. It is a river that goes for at least 21 km underground into the sea. We went on a banca (Philippino boat) to the mouth of the river, then took a smaller one into the cave. We went 1.5 km into the cave with a narrated tour through a headset. Despite being a bit cheezy (referring to one of the stalagmites as Sharon Stone from Basic Instinct), the caves were amazing. There are millions of bats flying all around, and caverns up to 250 feet high.

So this is the beginning of our education about the world. I am very stimulated and not super comfortable in this heat. Also, after getting pummeled by a surfer in my ribs in Hawaii, my old fractured ribs are acting up, making swimming/running/sleeping a bit of a challenge. As the book that I’m reading discusses (Book of Joy), a bit of pain and suffering is what makes life so sweet and rewarding. Although we are not suffering in any sense of the word, this discomfort of being out of our normal life is already teaching me so much. More so, the book discusses how true joy stems from compassion for others. Seeing people’s lives in Sabang and imagining what their daily lives are like certainly changes my perspective on my own life. If I can figure out how to transfer this understanding to some way of helping others through empathy, maybe that will be the source of true joy for me also (the book is based on thoughts from the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu).

Tomorrow we go to Noa Noa island to snorkel. Who knows how that will be…

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Asher's -

From Honolulu to Manila was 11 hours. We had 2 meals and 2 snacks on the flight. The airline was one that I have never been on. Philippine Airlines. In Manila we went through immigration and got out of the airport. I noticed that some of the police and guards had full sized rifles. All they were doing was patrolling the airport. Then we took a taxi to the hotel. He tried to rip us of by making us pay 20 dollars per person. Then when his scam didn’t work he took a detour to get more money. The hotel was so stinky we decided to not go back to after the Palawan trip.

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