Aftermath of the Typhoon/Tropical Storm Ondoy in Manila

First and foremost, we are ok. We live several hundred miles south of Manila and experienced nothing more than a little wind and rain from the storm. This is considered the rainy season here in the Philippines, so nothing seemed out of the ordinary for us. Manila, and its surrounding provinces, were not as lucky. So far, over 100,000 people have been evacuated around the city to over 200 evacuation sites. More than 435,000 homes have been destroyed by the storm. Over 10,000 people had to be rescued by either boat or emergency vehicles as a result of the storm. Many people as of today are still held up in the 2nd and 3rd floors of their buildings due to rising floodwaters. The latest tolls by the government confirm that 106 people lost their lives during the storm, with countless others still unaccounted for.

Our red snapper dinner...

Rodney filleting the fish...



Nice job!...only head and bones left. Not to shabby considering we had to used a chopping knife and a sharp pocket knife out of a Mayballine brand swiss army knife.

Random Pics of Us and the Island...

Me before hanging out the laundry.
Rodney is Food Manager and I'm House Manager...he takes care of the cooking and I do the laundry and dishes.

Our new walk-way to the beach...

Filipino grill...

Just another day on the beach...it's a little overcasty

The end of White Beach...

Lifeguards hard at work at a BAR...

Notice the small child alone in the ocean...haha, just a funny snapshot.

Filipino wine glass rack...Joe, this one is for you

Bom Bom bar @ night...this place is really cool, just tables out on the beach and a stage where they play acoustic music...very chill and a nice place to sit back and relax and enjoy the night breeze

Rodney getting his Mary Poppins on, collecting rain water to drink...too cute.

Some of Rodney's Fabulous Dinners

Chili Shrimp with Rice

Clams with homemade marinara sauce and spaghetti...

Our Crab Dinner

We bought crabs from the market and made dinner...it was delicious.Cooling our crab in the bathroom sink...

Rodney...is that thing dead yet???

Boiling our tasty crabs...

And this is what they looked like when we bought them...

Roxas and a funny yet AMAZING breakfast...

THIS POST IS A BIT OUT OF PLACE IN THE TIME LINE, BUT IT IS DEFINITELY WORTH NOTING AND SINCE I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO VIDEOS THROUGH YOUTUBE...HERE YA GO. ENJOY, Sara :)

Before arriving in Boracay...or I should say, as part of our 24 hour travelling experience to get to Boracay, one of our stops was in Roxas where we caught a ferry to Caticlan. We arrived from Manila in Roxas at 6 am. We sat in the ferry port, which didn't leave until 10 am, and hung out until we found a small restaurant that served the BEST breakfast I've had here in the Philippines. It was called tapsilog...which is marinated beef strips and garlic rice with a fried egg. We've had it a couple of different times since Roxas, but Roxas was definitely the best and the cheapest...Only P50! that's like...$1.02!!! But upon finishing our meal and enjoying our coffee...we noticed the background music and thought we had to take note...

Yummy Tapsilog (Beef Tapa)

A little explanation of our journey to Boracay. We planned to get here by RoRo Bus or Van or something of that nature. Which is where you drive in a bus (well we thought it would be a bus but ended up being a van) and then that bus gets on a ferry and then you get back on the bus and drive and ferry and drive and ferry and so on until you get to where you need to be. So our first leg is getting picked up from Friendly's (our hostel in Manila) by a black 9 passenger cargo van with tented windows by two Filipino guys who really didn't speak English. We are the first to get picked up at 6:30 pm and our "VAN" is supposed to leave for Batangas at 8 where we will catch the ferry. We then spend the next 3 1/2 hours driving around Manila picking up more and more people until we are riding 15 deep in this van with all of our luggage packed on top. It's now around 10pm and we're still in Manila! The whole time Rodney and I are like WTF is going on and "is this right?" "what are we doing?" Finally we pick up a young girl who speaks English and we ask her what's going on and is this right? and she informs us that we are now on Filipino time and that not to worry we will get there eventually. So we then head out for Batangas which is a 3 hour van ride from Manila. We then take the van onto a ferry, get out and spend 3 hours taking the ferry to Mindoro. Once we port in Mindoro it takes a good hour for everything to get off the ferry and everyone to load back on the van which is still packed with 15 people and Rodney and I kept 2 of our small bags with us that contained valuable materials, like the laptop and passports and such, so we had those under our feet along with no leg room or feet room...so we're riding with our knees in our chest the entire time. They also stuck 2 other small people in our seat that was only meant for 3. We said we felt bad for the 12 year old little girl sitting next to us b/c she was seriously squished up in the van...haha. We all were... Anyway, so when we got off the ferry and back on the van in Mindoro it was another 3 hour drive to Port Roxas. Along the way we dropped off our english speaking girl...not from our seat...and continued on the way, now with 14. When we arrived to Roxas we were the ones getting dropped off. The van driver unloaded our luggage, we paid him for our trip and as the van drove off we were left standing in the middle of the street like.."now what?" We found out that we had to buy tickets for the ferry from Roxas to Caticlan...but that the next ferry didn't leave until 10am. It was now 6:15 am. So we sat around until 8 or so until we found a place that would cook us some breakfast. We ate and at 9:30 boarded the ferry for a 4 hour ferry ride to Caticlan. Once at Caticlan it was only a short 30 min. jetty boat ride to Boracay! So in all it was over 24 hrs of travelling but we made it and it was defiantly an interesting experience...haha.

Rodney walking to our ferry to Caticlan...

Our Ferry...

Views from the ferry...

Rodney eats BALUT!!!!

Check out the video of Rodney and I eating chicken brains and Rodney getting his first taste of BALUT!!!!! Also...check out the post below "Images of Boracay" for a virtual video tour of our house here on the island.

F.Y.I. For those of you who don't know or have not seen the Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman episode where he goes to the Philippines, balut is: (according to Wikipedia) a fertilized duck egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines. Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors in the regions where they are available. They are often served with beer. Balut are most often eaten with a pinch of salt, lemon juice, plus ground pepper, though some balut-eaters prefer chili and vinegar to complement their egg. The eggs are savored for their balance of textures and flavors; the broth surrounding the embryo is sipped from the egg before the shell is peeled and the yolk and young chick inside can be eaten. All of the contents of the egg are consumed, although the whites may remain uneaten, due to its cartilage-like toughness depending on the age of the fertilized egg.

So Rodney and I helped our friend "Sir" Don celebrate his 38th birthday Filipino style. Don manages a bar here called Balero and Rodney and I have made friends with some of their staff. Rocky and Ley are probably the two friends we've gotten to know the best and hang out with. The night was crazy with lots of drinking and eating really good traditional Filipino food consisting of marinated pork and tofu, sauteed squid, freshly caught and killed chicken (prepared adobo-style), and deep fried chicken intestine (Rodney's favorite, I preferred the squid). In the middle of the festivities Ley disappeared only to show up with 2 balut for Rodney and him to eat...it was great. Ley says that this is the first time most of the people there had ever seen a "white" person eat balut! Go Rodney!

This is Don...he manages Balero and it was his birthday...
Ley and Rodney...
Rodney, Me, and Rocky...and Jose, aka THE DEVIL!
Richie and some of the other Balero staff...
(sorry about the angle on this one)


Chicken intestine on the left and marinated pork and tofu on the right...
Me eating freshly killed chicken adobo...this picture just happens to be of the chicken's neck I'm chewing on...
Me eating fried chicken intestine...
The remains of the balut experience...

Images of Boracay...