I'm Back

Day ?: Honestly, I don't know what day it is. I experienced two Saturday's without hardly seeing the sun. I got about 4 hours sleep combined between the plane ride and my overnight stay in LA. And then I was in and out of consciousness on the plane ride back to Boston. And when I saw Deidi and my mom picking me up at the airport it felt like a dream. Especially because Deidi had come with a 3 ft tube of extremely long Twizzlers. I was thinking "am I actually dreaming all this back in my hotel room in LA". It kind of felt like Alice in Wonderland for a second. But fortunately it was all real. I had made it back. And it couldn't come any sooner. Life in the Philippines was definitely exciting and to call it an adventure may be an understatement but in the end I was definitely longing the comforts of home and my family. Sure that means that all the responsibilities and obligations return as well but they really don't seem that bad after you have spent soo much time away from them. In any event, last night I got my best nights sleep in the last two weeks. I clonked out around 10 PM and work up around 6:30 AM. Deidi was there passed out beside me and I had this overwhelming feeling.....I'm home.

Marc

Rest and more rest before the big flight

Day 14: Wow!! Two whole weeks in the Philippines. Can you believe it? I'm totally adjusted to the time change. My stomach is finally back on track. And I'm even feeling comfortable navigating around the mall without an escort. I'm not even noticing that I stick out among the crowds of people. What am I going to do with this new found confidence and comfort level? Get on a plane, screw up my sleep schedule and go back to my normal life of a Spanish speaking gringo. And I couldn't be happier. Of course it's always easy to go back home after being away for so long. On this, the two week point of my trip, the whole day was devoted to rest, eating, and souvenir shopping. There really wasn't too many notable things that occurred. I did try to find the cat poop coffee. But when I tried to ask an attendant where I could find that specific brand.....oddly enough she seemed confused and referred me to one of there more popular bands of coffee. I didn't push the issue although I wonder if there is a way to ask for jungle cat poop coffee in Tagalog. Maybe someday I will find this elusive coffee and when I do I'm sure it will taste just like chicken because of course everything else does. The rest of the day was devoted to eating lunch (some more delicious adobo beef), packing up all my souvenirs, and watching Filipino TV. Which is full of weird game shows, super dramatic soap operas (including some sort of General Hospital but with acupuncture), and reruns of all the favorite shows back home and obscure 90 movies like Dark Man and others. Not prime time stuff. Anyway, sorry I can't add much to the blog, the Internet is down in my room and I can't use my labtop to download more pictures. I'll see you all soon after my trip tonight where I will actually travel back in time. That's right!!! I'm leaving at 10 PM on Saturday in Manilla and arriving at LA at 8 PM on Sat. That is awesome. I'm going to be like superman when he went back in time. I could say something at 8:00 in Manilla and then change my mind at 8:00 in LA and the first thing doesn't count. I'm loving this.
Anyway, see you all soon.

Philippine Marc (Only for a couple more hours)

Almost Home

Day 13: What a difference a day makes!!! I feel like a new man. And in one sense, I am definitely a new man on the inside. That being said, and with my stomach problems seemingly behind me I packed up today and left for Manilla. I arrived safely and checked back into the Heritage Hotel. I definitely had mixed feelings leaving Puerto Princessa today. On the one hand I feel like I missed out on alot of things. For a few weeks now I had been reading about how beautiful the beaches where and how incredible some of the snorkeling was in this part of the Philippines. And because of the complications, both work related and stomach wise, I feel like I definitely missed out on a lot of the things to experience in the Providence of Palawan. On the other hand, I had this desperate feeling of wanting to get as far away as possible from whatever I ate that made my stomach a volatile lava pit and I also wanted to start the process of coming home, especially to my wife Deidi and my family and friends. Overall, I have a lot of very nice things to say about the Philippines, the people are soo friendly and genuine. There are some spectacular views to be had. And as a visitor you really are treated like a king in what ever hotel or restaurant that you go to. But there really is something missing when you don't have your loved ones there to share it with you. And you really think about that when you see these large groups of families on vacation in the hotels or on the underground river. They're all having fun and your left with this feeling of longing for your own family. I really did enjoy my experience here and who knows, maybe one day I will return with Deidi for vacation or work. But for now I'm content getting ready for my return flight, buying a few souvenirs for back home, and slowly recovering from two weeks full of adventure and experiences. And if I don't get to write you all tomorrow just let me say "thank you" for following along with me on my adventure and if you ever want to know all the details or see all the pictures from my trip just give me a call or shoot me an email and we can relive it all again. Bye for now.

Philippine Marc

Exhausting Day

Day 12: On this the twelfth day of my trip to the Philippines I'm writing to you totally wiped out. Not because of the quantity of things I did today but more because of the physical tole the trip is taking on me. The day actually started with some stomach issues in the middle of the night. Let me tell you, all those fish I ate with the head still on are seeking their revenge and their winning. So, to start the day I was already tired. Maybe one of the funniest moments of the day was at breakfast when the waiter asked me what I would like to eat and my boss, who has been suffering with his own bought of stomach woes, ordered for me. "He'll have the continental breakfast" which basically consists of bread and fruit. Nothing crazy to eat today. But in retrospect, I kind of figured that I was going to encounter some sort of complications, I mean I'm eating food that is totally different then anything I'm accustomed to. From breakfast, our group with Imodium in hand took off for the Underground river in Puerto Princessa. The drive down was nice, if not intense, with our driver speeding along at high speeds along curvy roads. That was not helping me out. I even saw a Kingdom Hall on the way back. It was a small hut on stilts with a sign on it reading "Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's witnesses". When my other workmate saw that he said "man, you guys are everywhere" and that was an accurate assessment because it did seem that at times we were in the middle of nowhere. Finally, after a hour and a half we arrived at the take off point for the river. The first thing you have to do is take a boat to a secluded beach and then walk down a small jungle path that leads to the river. The views were beautiful and every time I dipped my feet into the warm water it felt sooo goood. Then we took a smaller boat down the river with my boss holding a search light in front of the boat to guide us. Our guide was awesome. He kept on cracking jokes the whole time and came up with names for many of the rock formations. The trip itself was "ok" at best, I mean it was cool being in a cave in a boat, there were a bunch of bats to look at, and the guide was hilarious but I think my enthusiasm was a little sapped from all the work we accomplished on the trip and my bout with stomach problems. As we returned home I was so tired that when I got to the hotel I slept 3 hours and finally forced myself to wake up. And in a little bit I'm going back to sleep. All in all a very tiring day but soon I'll be coming home and seeing all my friends and family again. And I'm definitely excited about that.

Philippine Marc

Great Day!!!

Day 11: What a day!!! No I didn't get to go and do the tourist thing but I did have a good day. First, we fixed all the remaining problems with the boat. Every since Batangas my fuel gauge was reading zero. We knew that there was fuel in the boat but I never knew how much was in there while I was driving on the high seas. So, that could have hypothetically contributed to me running out of gas. Ya think! Anyway, I had been trying to fix it since we started this trip and today, we figured it out. I was so happy that I started dancing on the boat and letting everybody know I was "dancing in the Philippines". It was not my usual low key soulful dancing that I usually do but rather it was some serious "Look out, white boy dancing on the dance floor" moves. Every now and then that side of me slips out but I try to keep it under control 99% of the time. Anyway, with my problems behind me we went to a Vietnamese restaurant and ate a big fish with it's head still on it and it's flapper hand things. It was good but I'm kinda getting tired of my food looking at me. I kind of feel a little guilty. Afterwards, we filled up the boats with gas and while I was doing that, some of the guys asked if I played basketball. I told them "yes" and even agreed to play with them on the spot. Now, I knew that in saying that I would play I kind of perked the interest of everyone. Because now they were waiting to see what this "really tall guy" could do. And I knew that the first shot I took meant everything. Make it I'm a star, miss it and your some goofy American who can't play. I could feel all eyes watching as I dribbled, got about 15 feet.....nah make it 20 feet from the basket, squared up, jumped, and released .........and with that..........a legend was born. Nothing but net. Suddenly, I heard a roar from the onlookers as I sunk a couple jump shots and went in for a layup. Mind you, this wasn't a game yet, just shooting around.....but a star was born. Suddenly, I got all sorts of questions like "Can you dunk?"(apparently white stereotypes do not exist in the Philippines), "Did you play in the NBA?", "How tall are you?" I was really laughing on the inside. Even during the game I did one cross over move and I heard someone say "that's incredible!!!" It was fun. I didn't try to dominate the game because I wanted to get my other guys involved and because I am really out of game shape, especially in such a humid environment. So the work day ended on a positive note and the night was even better. Later on I went to a Tagalog meeting of Jehovah's witnesses. My buddy Philip picked me up on his motorcycle and brought me to the meeting. That's right, on a motorcycle. It was so cool buzzing around town in my meeting clothes and going to the meeting. The meeting was really nice and the hall was a very old building with no AC only fans to cool you. It was kind of open air so you could hear the neighborhood dogs and cats and roosters crowing in the background. Also, I saw little salamanders crawling on the walls and eating the bugs that would swarm around. It was awesome. And the real purpose for going to a Tagalog meeting was to get Philip to go. I guess some of his neighbors who are witnesses were surprised to see him there and are going tomorrow to visit him and maybe start studying the bible with him. I really didn't get anything from the meeting but it was nice to see how everything was the same and how their second school was up stairs on the second floor. I guess everything seems cool when it's different. Then after the meeting the friends were great. It's so nice to go to the other side of the world and find home. And that's really how you feel, safe, secure, and loved. So all and all it was a great day. And maybe tomorrow I'll get to take in some sights. Bye for now.

Philippine Marc

P.S. This is a video of the friends singing in Tagalog at the hall see if you can guess which number of the song.

Final Delivery of the Boats

Day 10: I have reached the home stretch of my Philippine trip and am just about done with the work aspect of the trip and almost ready to start playing a little bit. Today was a good day. It actually started out with a traditional Filippino breakfast. I had smoked fish with rice and eggs. Not bad even though the fish was looking at me the whole time. Then we refueled the boats in the morning and started up the coast of Palawan to the beautiful Honda bay. I've read a lot of nice things about this bay although my book says that Honda Bay is the "poor step child" compared to the islands around the city of El Nido. But at the same time my book says that Honda Bay holds up well against your average Caribbean beach. Anyway, the trip up was nice. The weather cooperated as we slowly went up the coast. But then as we entered the bay we slowed to a crawl as we navigated the many shallow spots and reefs in the bay. I was kind of neat because there was a rain storm coming over some nearby mountains and you could see it pouring down on the countryside and towns. Then as we entered the dock the real action began. During our whole voyage to Puerto Princessa we had been carrying a spare motor on each of the boats. Each one weighs hundreds of pounds. Now was the time to off load them. Originally when the police told us that they had arranged for a crane I was thinking "Wow, great, this is going to be easy". The problem was their idea of a crane was much different then mine. Their crane was actually a flat bed truck with a crane apparatus on the back. And as we docked and I'm thinking "how in the world are we....", my boss turns to me and says "Well, Marc you can take care of this, you know more then me". "Great" I'm thinking "somebody's going to die". Not to mention we had to do all this while the boat was in the water and in only about 5 ft of water under the boat. And that rain storm I told you about reached us as we started to do the first motor. But as the guys said "Manny Marc Pacquiao" was on the job. So, with the help of my guards from yesterday we slowly got all four motors off the boats and I was ecstatic. I'm just glad nobody asked me if I knew what I was doing because I wasn't all that sure at times. But it all worked out well and I think I even made a couple new friends in the Philippines. Especially the one at the top of the page. It's a lot easier to work with someone when you're on the same team. Blog you tomorrow.

Philippine Marc

I'm Alive!!!

Day 8 & 9: I'm alive everybody. Sorry, I was not able to post the other day. The resort lost its power a little after dinner time yesterday so I was not able to access the WiFi or do Karaoke last night. The last few days have been a little more frustrating for me but like any adventure you have to overcome several obstacles to feel a real sense of accomplishment. And the last few days have certainly had their challenges. It started on Sat. when we had a problem with the motors on one of the boats, where we found there was a little bit of water in the gas that we purchased in Coron. Well, turns out that it was actually more like over 50 gallons of bad gas that took us all day to get out of the tank and finally get the engines running again. But even that had it's funny moments. For one thing I have a new nick name from the guards accompanying us on the boats, "Manny Marc Pacquiao". I got that name because I removed a really tightly screwed on fuel filter and because I looked strong they gave me that name, referring to the famous Filippino boxer Manny Pacquiao. I guess the guy is a hero here in the Philippines and every time he fights everyone stops what their doing and watches, according to the guys even the criminals stop and watch the fight and there is not crime in the streets. So, every time I did something good the guys would say "that's Manny Marc Pacquiao". It was funny. For lunch time we were treated to squid for lunch, tentacles and all. It was delicious!!! And finally by the end of the day we got the engines running and got some dinner, right before all the lights went out. Quite a day. But at least I got to see all the people from Karaoke and they all said "hi" and we got to talk a little bit. Then after a good nights sleep we woke up today and took off from Puerto Princessa. It was extremely long with another round of PB & J sandwiches and water for the whole trip. During the trip we would past the time singing songs from back home. The guys know all the American songs, everything from "Faithfully" by Journey to Beyonce's "If I was a boy". It's actually quite funny when were all singing it together. Finally we reached Puerto Princessa running on fumes. One of the boats actually ran out of gas so we had to tow it in. Okay, it was my boat. But that's what happens when you plan on a trip being 150 miles and it turns out to be 195. Woops! But I'm here now and tomorrow we may actually finish up with what work is left on the boats. I'm let you know what happens tomorrow.

Philippine Marc