African Animals in Philippines?

Two and a half hours on the dirt road hurt.

I woke up at 5 AM today to leave by 5:45 AM for a visit to the Caluit Game Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary. Erich, Sara, Nina, and I decided to visit it because it sounded interesting and different. Several decades ago, the president of the Philippines made a deal with Kenya to deliver zebras, giraffes, and several other African animals to the Philippines. In Caluit, they live in an open field which tries to resemble the native scenery of Africa. The preserve is controversial though because it was thought to have been used by the president of Philippines as a hunting ground.

All I knew about how we were getting to Caluit was that we were going to take a truck then a boat to the island. I thought the drive to the boat was only going to be for an hour so I agreed to sit in the back of a truck with Erich. It was uncomfortable, especially when we started driving off-road. About 90% of the drive was on a bumpy dirt road and the drive turned out to be two and a half hours long. The driver dropped us off on the side of a dirt road and hired a boat for us to take to Caluit Island.

Pier to the banca.

The boat was a small banca that basically took us across a lake. We docked on the game preserve’s dock right in front of the entrance. We talked with a man in the front gate that said that the car that would drive us around the park was unavailable. We paid an entrance fee which I tried to get a discount on but I couldn’t convince the man I was Filipino which I’m not. Instead of waiting for the car to take us around which had a chance of never arriving, we decided to walk the park.

Franek and Nina on the banca.

None of us really knew what to expect and if we could even walk the park on our own. Not far into our walk, we saw some native Filipino deer walking around. Franek went out to take pictures of them. The next animal we saw was a giraffe eating some tree leaves. Pretty cool, I don’t think I’ve seen a giraffe in a “natural” environment. Not much farther along we saw a group of zebras in the distance. The whole experience was a strange feeling of being on an African type terrain in the Philippines.

Zebras take shade at Caluit.

A curious giraffe investigates me.

What side of the cage are you on?

Posing for Erich's and Nina's cameras.

A man approached us and had us sit down in a waiting area. It didn’t take much time for Franek and then me to venture out of the waiting area to take pictures of a giraffe in a holding area. Along the way to the holding area I took pictures of zebras I tried approaching. My zoom lens wasn’t long enough so I had to get fairly close to them. When I got near the giraffe’s cage it approached me curiously. I thought it was funny we both were curious of each other trying to figure each out. After a few shots, Sara, Nina, and Erich joined me along with our tour guide.

Caged bearcat.

The tour guide walked us to different parts of the preserve and showed us various caged animals. The animals we saw didn’t seem happy in their cages which devalued the preserve in my mind from an “eco-friendly” sanctuary to just a big zoo. Some of the caged animals were a bearcat, alligator, a couple porcupines and monkeys. The tour guide harassed the alligator to show it to us with a bamboo stick to the point of cruelty which no one in our group appreciated much. He said they feed it a chicken and a chopped up dog once a month. For some reason, he emphasized chopping up the dog.

Time to eat. Someone in our group entices a giraffe.

My branch was was sadly scarce on leaves.

Walking back towards the entrance we were able to feed the giraffes tree leaves. This was probably one of the highlights of my time at the park. Once we started feeding one of the giraffes, several more walked over to be fed. It was my first time really interacting with a giraffe which was fun.

That's not a giraffe... Erich, save some for the giraffes.`

By late morning we all left the park and headed back to Coron. I didn’t want to sit in the back seat again in the truck and so was upgraded to sitting in the front seat with Sara. I didn’t mind sitting with Sara but I wasn’t sure how we were short a seat because we didn’t have two people sit in the front before. We were back in Coron by 2 PM.

For lunch, Erich, Sara, Nina, Franek, and I walked to our favorite bistro. I had a very tasty mango shake and pork tenderloin with herbs and butter sauce. The bistro is foreign owned so the food was quite good and cheap. Afterwards, I went with Sara and Erich to the local travel agent to book our flights out from Basuanga, Coron to Manila. We then hung out at the Sea Dive restaurant to go on the Internet using my laptop.

For dinner, we went back to the bistro and all shared a couple pizzas and salads. I drank a rum and mango drink which was delicious. Its great how you can mix rum with so many good things. After dinner Nina really wanted to try a halo halo dessert drink before she left. We found a small family owned restaurant where she had her halo halo. I have no idea if it was good there. Next we went to Helldivers bar to have a few drinks and shoot some pool.

Back to our rooms, there was no water pressure which was really annoying. I can work around not having electricity for a while but not having water to shower, brush teeth, and clean up with was inconvenient. I had to fetch some free bottled water at the Sea Dive restaurant just so we could brush our teeth.

- jason

Wrecks Underwater Circus

Erich and Sara pose, in what looks like a Coke ad in Australia.

Today Erich, Sara, and I planned on doing three dives—two wrecks and one dive in an unusual fresh and saltwater lake called Barracuda Lake. We left for diving at 8:30 AM and I didn’t have time for breakfast. The first dive we were scheduled to dive was at the Irako wreck and the second dive was to the Tangat wreck. It was the same wreck we first dived where Erich was lost then found. I was a little concerned because I didn’t enjoy the strong head current last time.

A haunting hatch in the wreck.

Our dive guide for the day was a British guy named Kevin. He was a good guide that was nice and thorough. In our dive group, I dived with Nina, Erich, and Sara; Franek was grouped with another group. The Irako wreck was a great dive especially compared to when I went on it the first time. As usual, the visibility was bad at about 7 meters. The Kevin was pleasantly surprised that all of our air consumption was good; not sure if he knew we were two Divemasters and one instructor. My underwater camera housing is designed to function up to 40 meters depth but my shutter button got stuck at 33 meters. I couldn’t take pictures and was only able to take video.

Outside the wreck, a dense school of fish.

A relatively large nudibranch on the wreck.

A jellyfish and a small filefish wait with me at my deco-stop.

The second dive at 12:10 PM to the Tangat wreck was good also. We explored more around the wreck but saw a good amount inside. There was a slight current but it really wasn’t an issue. Around the wreck, I saw more sea life than the other wrecks—scorpionfish, and a large white nudibranch. For the dive, I went down to 30 meters for 48 minutes. At the end of the dive I had to do a required decompression stop at 3 meters for 6 minutes. There, Franek was waiting for his buddy to complete his 25 minute deco-stop at the same depth! A huge difference in dive computer algorithms based on similar dive profiles. Franek was bored so he decided to play tic-tak-toe on his dive slate.

The sharp and slightly scary rocks we had to climb over to get to Barracuda Lake.

The last dive of the day was at Barracuda Lake. This dive, by far, was the most unusual dive I’ve ever dived. To get to the lake, you have to swim to then hike over sharp rocks with all your scuba gear. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wear wet suits for the dive because it gets to be over 100 degrees F / 39 degrees C. The lake consists of layers of freshwater and saltwater varying in temperature from 102 F (39 C) down to 84 F (29 C). The top layer is cool freshwater but as you descend down you feel the warm then hot saltwater. The hot saltwater is easy to see in the water

At the bottom, there is a soft, thick layer of silt that you can dig your hand deeply into. The best though was when a Divemaster rammed his head into the silt and layed there vertically head first. It was a hilarious sight to see. Several others in the group including me tried it out. It’s weird burying your head in the silt, upside down, and still being able to breath. I tried blindly taking a picture of myself but just shot my pressure gauge. Too bad.

Erich takes his BCD off to cool off?

Walking around with a tree underwater. Really strange.

Diving with only a tank and regulator...Strange!

Reflecting rocks at the surface.

The silt part of the dive was just the beginning. While we swam along, the temperature of the water got to a point where it was suffocatingly hot—similar to being stuck in a hot sauna with a mask on and breathing through a regulator. For some reason, Sara and Erich were taking off their BCDs then putting them back on. I noticed the Divemaster that stuck his head in the silt before was only diving with a tank and regulator—no BCD—and was walking around carrying a tree? Erich stole Sara’s fin off her foot and swam away. The whole dive felt like an underwater circus. Was everyone having a case of nitrogen narcosis? Everything was so surreal and unlike a dive I almost lost forgot to keep track of my dive time and profile. All good things come to an end and so did the dive at Barracuda Lake. Once we got out of the water, we hiked back over the rocks, and swam back to our boat.

Tranquil evening waters in Coron bay.

After cleaning up, I and several others hung out at the Sea Dive Resort where we went on the Internet with my laptop. Despite having free wireless Internet conveniently close, I didn’t get a chance to get much journaling done. It wasn’t like I had several hours a day to write and update my journal. We were all busy doing other things plus whenever I had my laptop out, others wanted to use it to. It was fine, I was on vacation. Maybe I should get away from the computer anyway.

Franek writing notes for his journal.

After everyone was bored using the computer, Erich, Sara, Nina and I went to downtown to get some food supplies for the next day at Caluit—SkyFlake crackers in various flavors and a few other things. Later in the night, we stopped over to Helldivers Bar for some drinks and pool. Back at our rooms, there was no running water—which wasn’t a first at our rooms and is very annoying. So, I had to go to the Sea Dive restaurant to get some fresh water. Additionally, we frequently lose electricity and have cockroaches in our room. Well, at least it was only 280 pesos/night total with two persons per room.

- jason

Two Wreck Big Pizza

Inside the Olympia Maru wreck.

This morning I was slightly congested with a sore throat which had me question whether I should dive or not. As usual, Sara, Erich and I met at the Sea Dive restaurant to have some coffee and a small bite to eat before going out on our dive at 8:30 AM. Like the day before, we planned on diving two WWII wrecks—the Akitsushima and Olympia Maru. This time, Chris was our dive guide. I decided to dive despite my morning congestion.

It took us close to two hours before we arrived at our dive site. Chris did his dive briefing which was better than Al’s, we geared up and jumped in the water. Once I jumped into the water, I immediately noticed that there was a strong surface current. Everyone gave the okay to descend and we did. Not far below, I had equalization problems because of my congestion and had to ascend slightly to relieve it. This posed a greater problem for me because it kept me swimming against the strong shallow current; the rest of the group was able to descend deep enough to get out of the current. Despite my best efforts to kick hard and make it to the descent line, the rest of the group faded away into the distance.

I eventually descended down to 23 meters / 76 feet which was the depth of the wreck but didn’t see anything. Visibility was so poor all I could see was grey sediment all around me. I was alone, had no clue where I was, and so decided to ascend and abort the dive. The current was so strong I surfaced a far distance from our dive boat and signaled to the crew I was okay. The hardest part now was to swim to the boat which was a little tiring especially going against a slight surface current.

Olympia Maru wreck.

Olympia Maru wreck.

The second dive at the Olympia Maru went well. There was no current and no problems as everything went as planned. Swimming through different rooms and corridors was fun like a ride at an amusement park. After the dive, we took a relaxing ride back to Sea Dive Resort. For what it was, it was a good day of diving despite missing the first dive. At least the weather was good.

Waiting on the ascent line for our deco-stops.

The bridge connecting Sea Dive to downtown Coron.

Once we got back to Sea Dive, we cleaned up and checked Internet on my laptop. Franek told me he wanted to eat dinner with us and we scheduled to eat at 7 PM at a European bistro. By 7 PM, everyone was already really hungry. Nina, Timo, Franek, Sara, Erich, and I went to the Bistro and ordered 3 large pizzas.

Sunset near Sea Dive.

Fun nighttime activities at Helldivers Bar.

The pizzas were so large they were served on food trays. The food at the bistro was delicious and not too pricey; it was definitely one of the best restaurants around. After dinner, we walked to Helldivers bar next to Sea Dive where we got a few drinks and shot pool. There, Sean and Pillon that we met on the ferry were there and we shot a few games of pool with them. Sean was by far the king of the table.


- jason

Wreck Diving and Downtown Exploring

The islands on the way to our dive site made the ride more interesting.

Erich, Sara, and I met at the Sea Dive restaurant at 8:15 AM to leave for our first dives in Coron. The two dives we planned on doing were to the Irako and Kogyo Maru WWII shipwrecks. It was my first time diving a historic wreck and first time I’ve ever penetrated a wreck. Most places won’t penetrate wrecks unless everyone has prior wreck diving training; there’s certain techniques and safety concerns related to wreck diving.

Sara and Polish instructor Franek talk on the top deck.

We went for an hour boat ride on Sea Dive’s two story banca with kitchen and a nice dining table at the top. It was by far the most luxurious banca as bancas go. Just before our first dive to Irako Muri, our Divemaster Al briefed us on how we were going to penetrate the wreck. My buddy for the dive was Erich and we dived with a Polish instructor Franek who buddied with Al. Sara dived with another group because she didn’t want to penetrate that deep into the wreck.

Low visibility made our dives more challenging to stay together.

For the dive, Al was planning on penetrating and swimming through several narrow corridors and rooms ultimately ending up in the boiler room. Our descent to the wreck was fairly easy. The visibility at the wreck reminded me of diving in Los Angeles—5 to 7 meters. In the wreck, we moved at a fairly brisk pace. I found it hard to at times to maneuver in the tight spaces especially with my camera setup. I managed to use the flash light on my camera strobe along with my weak little torch.

Buoyancy control was challenged getting through small holes.

About halfway into the wreck, I noticed I couldn’t see Erich’s light anymore. I stopped and looked back several times for him but the visibility in the wreck wasn’t that good. I stopped a couple times to take some pictures to try to help him catch up but Al was moving too fast to really stop too long. By the time we reached the boiler room, I signaled to Al that I didn’t know where Erich was. This was a very scary situation to lose someone in a wreck. Al looked back a little but didn’t see Erich. We decided to exit the wreck and hope to find him outside of the wreck. He wasn’t around and now there was a very strong current pushing against us.

Moving along the wreck against the current caused me to overexert myself to a point where I was hyperventilating. I had to crawl along the wreck, hand over hand, in order to get to the ascent line. When I eventually made it to the ascent line, I was already really exhausted. The current was frightening to fight against because I didn’t want to be swept away. Holding onto the ascent line was painful because of all the sharp barnacles and stinging sea life; ah, that’s why people wear gloves on this dive. We did a long safety stop at 5 meters but Divemaster Al surfaced to make sure Erich surfaced. If Erich hadn’t surfaced, Al would have to get another scuba tank and look for Erich at the wreck below. Thankfully, Erich was on the surface.

It was frightening to not find Erich in the wreck during the dive. Erich said couldn’t see anything at one point, lost us, then found an opening in the wreck to exit and ascend. Al said when he looked back during the dive he saw two lights so he thought Erich was with me; what he saw was me using two lights instead. I probably should have signaled to Al earlier that I couldn’t see Erich’s light anymore but it was hard to get to Al. I also think we should have been briefed a little better in terms of signals, safety, and light use before the dive. Diving wrecks have very specific techniques for safety reasons which is why there is separate training for it. All that matters though was that Erich was safe.


While on the surface eating lunch, I was debating if I wanted to go on the second dive because of how stressful the first dive was. Franek and some others mentioned it was a great dive with no current which persuaded me enough to do it. For the second dive, Sara was comfortable enough to come along with the group I was in. Sara buddied with me while Erich buddied with Franek.

Small school of fish in the wreck.

The dive went well; no current, no problems and it was interesting. It was nice to penetrate the wreck and swim up and around corridors and rooms. Visibility was poor which made it hard to see a lot of things in the rooms and corridors though. The whole experience felt like I was on a guided tour in some old haunted mansion; there was an eerie, haunting feeling about the place as we went through different rooms—current swayed coral like cobwebs in the wind while silt dusted everything around. Definitely being able to swim through a historic WWII wreck had a lot more meaning towards the experience than swimming through a ship sunk just for the divers to explore.

Sara tanning her body and tongue.

Erich chasing Sara (seen on the other side, in the far left window) around the boat.

After the dive, the boat set out for a reef dive nearby. Erich, Sara, and I decided not to dive it and just hang out on the boat. It was good to just rest and get some sun. I forgot why, but for some reason, Erich chased Sara around the boat until eventually he threw Sara into the water. Funny times. We left the dive site and when the boat ported, we got off and went to our rooms to clean up. We saw that our Dutch friends from El Nido—Timo and Nina— just arrived in Coron. We later met up and decided to walk around downtown Coron with them.

Avon and an odd posing chicken.

It’s funny to think it was Erich, Sara, and my first time leaving the Sea Dive Resort after a day and a half. In downtown, we went through the market where there were a lot of food stalls selling fruit, vegetables, and little snacks. We all got some bananas, mango shakes, and Skyflake crackers at the market. We briskly passed the meat market selling fish because it was too smelly to hang around. People in Coron are very friendly as a lot of them greeted us while we walked through different neighborhoods. Children were not shy and often wanted their picture taken.

Beautiful sunset as we were walking back from downtown Coron.

Walking back to our rooms was a beautiful sight as the sunset was shading the clouds a nice orange color. We all decided to eat a nice dinner at La Serenata that was directly on the water. Great food, good service, beautiful view.


- jason

Ferry to Coron

It was sad to see Martine go. She's a great friend and was good to have her along our journeys.

Today we planned on leaving El Nido to go to Coron, Palawan via ferry. We didn’t want to take a plane because we didn’t want to pay for overweight luggage fees. I wasn’t looking forward traveling on a ferry for 8 hours.

Martine woke everyone up at 6:15 AM to get ready for a 7:30 AM ferry which I thought was leaving at 7 AM. I rushed to pack my bags. Martine stayed behind because she planned on meeting a friend somewhere else. It was sad to say goodbye to Martine because after she visits her friend she’ll go back to the Netherlands.

Waiting for our ferry to arrive.

In my mad rush to get to the pier for the ferry, I forgot my large camera backpack. Martine noticed this and brought it out to me. Phew. On the way to the pier, we picked up some food for the ferry ride. We got to the pier at around 7:15 AM and the ferry wasn’t even docked. I waited around with Erich while Sara bought more food. It wasn’t until I got to the pier that I found out that our ferry was actually leaving at 7:30 AM.

The ferry was less than what I thought it would be—it was just a large banca. I thought it would at least me a steel ship. I was hoping we wouldn’t have any rough seas along our travels. About 10 minutes after leaving port, the engine of the boat started smoking a lot. The boat crew though was quick to fix it. Hm, ok, this will be an interesting 8 hour journey I thought.

Most of the passengers on the ferry passed time by taking naps.

Six other travelers traveled with Erich, Sara, and I. Two of the passengers were our rude neighbors that played music really late in the night in El Nido. One of the guys was a slightly intimidating Irish guy named Sean with two sets of tattoos on his feet—“You’ll Never” on the right foot, and “Walk Alone” on the left foot. The way he wore his sunglasses and hat reminded me of my friend John back in the US. The other guy is a less intimidating French guy. After taking a short nap and settling in a little bit on the ferry I talked with Sean who was actually a nice guy.

The ferry ride wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. The seas were calm, weather was sunny and nice, and the islands we passed were nice to look at. We mainly passed time by sleeping, chatting, eating, and enjoying the scenery. The 8 hour ferry ride didn’t feel long at all.

Houses along the bay.

The ferry conveniently dropped us off at Sea Dive Resort where we were going to go to anyways to look for a room and diving. The restaurant has a nice view of Coron bay. Erich made free coffee at the resort while Sara and I looked at room and diving prices. The rooms were simple rooms with two beds and a shared bathroom for 280 pesos/night—we booked two rooms.

At the dive shop we signed up for two wreck dives for the next day. At the shop, I met Chris, an instructor that was an IDC student of Warren Dixon, my instructor. In fact, Chris said that Warren used to work at Sea Dive Resort. It’s interesting to see how many people know Warren around the Philippines.

Sunset in Coron on the roof of Sea Dive restaurant. Beautiful way to end the day.

For the rest of the evening Erich, Sara, and I hung out at the Sea Dive Resort restaurant area. We had some coffee and beers while we watched the sunset. The view of the bay was very beautiful and it was the perfect way to end a long day of traveling and rushing around. For dinner, I ate two nice tasting steamed crabs for 240 pesos. The rest of the night we just hung around the restaurant and went on the free wireless Internet.


- jason

Island Hopping and Our Fictitious Lives

Looks like a nice day.

Today Martine, Erich, Sara and I planned to do an island hopping excursion with Timo and Nina. We ate breakfast at the Dutch owned restaurant where I ate eggs and toast and had coffee from a French press. By 9 AM we went out on a banca with four other people. Driving out to our first destination was beautiful as we passed several limestone rock islands and beaches.

Our first island destination where we went snorkeling.

Sara takes the plunge.

Our first destination was a snorkel spot just outside a beautiful beach resort. Snorkeling was more fun than I thought it would be. Swimming around, free diving, taking pictures and just goofing off was a nice change of pace compared to diving. The water was shallow enough that I didn’t need a flash on my camera to get decent photos. I cut my back on some rocks though when I was taking pictures of Sara and Martine at the surface when I was underwater.

Vista view from Snake Island.

The underwater "snake" of Snake Island.

The next stop we went to was Snake Island which had a nice small beach and vista view of the surrounding islands. Its called Snake Island because of a sand bar underwater that looks like a snake. You really can only see this after you climb up a small hill to the vista point. The island and the beach was the most beautiful I’ve seen in Philippines yet. Lots of pictures.

Sara as "Fiona".

Erich looking mighty, uh, femme.

We took a short boat ride to our next island which had a nice small white sand beach. Here, we settled in a little bit and ate lunch. The boat crew setup a small BBQ grill and grilled fresh fish accompanied with salad, rice, and fruit; it was delicious. This island hopping tour was more luxurious than I thought; I thought we would just eat sandwiches on the beach. It made the whole experience feel like I was more in paradise. I got a few mosquito bites on the beach so I tried staying in the water as much as I could.

The back of a wave seen underwater.

Self portrait with camera underwater.

I became obsessed with taking experimental pictures underwater while just sitting on the beach in shallow water. I was first interested in taking pictures of me being on a beautiful beach just sitting in the water. Then I was interested in taking pictures underwater of waves as they passed me. Next, I was interested in taking self portraits of myself with my camera underwater and my head above water. I think most people wondered what I was doing and thought I was a weird loner taking pictures of myself. After taking a ton of pictures, I swam around with the rest of the group.

Timo looking around inside the cave.

The fourth destination we went to was a cave on another island. The entrance to the cave is a small hole that we had to crawl into. Inside the cave smelled like bat urine which wasn’t that pleasant actually. In another chamber, people climbed up some rocks to get to a plateau. There, our tour guide climbed up a vertical rock face without any safety ropes. Erich climbed up also. It was all very scary to watch. After we crawled out of the cave, we did a little snorkeling in the area.

Sara looking below before free diving down.

Snorkeling was fun as we tried seeing who could free dive the deepest. My free diving abilities and breath holding improved a lot since just earlier in the morning. I was happy enough to descend down to 7 meters/21 feet which isn’t that much but better than what I was doing earlier. Erich had the record at 10 meters/33 feet. Descending down then looking up at the surface at depth was sometimes frightening because I would wonder if I had enough breath to make it to the surface. It was also strange to hold my breath and ascend quickly because in scuba diving those two things are the biggest things you shouldn’t do. Our fun was cut short because of impending rain in the distance.

Sara ascending after a free dive.

The weather got cold and it started to rain. All of a sudden, the paradise I enjoyed all day turned into cold undesirable weather. We had one more stop at another island which I didn’t really care for. I wanted the sun to come out or to just go home. We didn’t stay long at the last island as a good amount of people just remained on the boat. On the way back to El Nido beach, we saw wild monkeys playing on a beach on an island; it was cool to see there’s still a little wildness in the area.

Rain clouds coming straight for us.

At El Nido, we relaxed for the rest of the evening at Art Cafe. After some beers, Sara, Erich and I walked back to our room while Martine did some things she needed to do. Once we got to our room, it started raining a lot. The rain was so intense having an umbrella did little. How was Martine going to get back home? We had no electricity at our room so I took a shower in the dark with just my small flashlight. Eventually, Martine made it back to our room and Timo and Nina met up with us. We went out to dinner and at ate at a restaurant that also didn’t have any electricity.

Partying with the Filipinos.

After dinner, we decided to get some Tanduay rum and Coke and hang out on the beach. Shortly after we got our rum and Coke and sat on the beach, a group of Filipinos hung out with us. Among other things, they asked us where we were from, what our names were and who our boy/girlfriends were. We lied about everything.

My name was Daniel Kim from Korea and I had nukes while Erich was my gay lover mountain man from Lithuania. I stored my nukes his moutains. Sara and Martine were lesbians from some Eastern European country and Timo and Nina was a married couple. It was hilarious seeing the Filipino’s reaction after I told them Erich was my gay lover; it’s something that’s foreign to them, something they can’t comprehend. I asked them if it was okay, and they said it was.

A Filipino guy with us was passed out on the beach and Erich decided to use his “rescue skills” on him. Erich went up to the obviously unconscious guy and said to him: “Hello, my name is Erich, I’m an emergency first responder, can I help you?” No surprise, there was no response, so Erich put him in the “recovery position.” Watching this and hearing Erich speak with his Austrian accent made me laugh so much. It’s something one had to be there to laugh at because reading the story from my journal isn’t that funny.

The passed out "Exploited" Filipino that Erich rescued.

At some point after two bottles of Tanduay rum were consumed, nobody really remembered anything. The Filipinos, Timo, and Nina were gone as well as Saras money pouch (500 pesos) and cell phone. Erich, Sara, Martine and I looked for Sara’s stuff but couldn’t find it. I guess the Filipinos took it because when we called Sara’s phone it was off even though she knew it was left on. Regardless, it was a fun filled night.


- jason