A well planned engagement

Recently, Lily and I got engaged. She was completely surprised, which is the only way to do a proposal.

I took her to a very nice dinner at Bella Trattoria. We have been there before and we were very impressed. They home make all of their pasta and gnocchi, which is the only gnocchi I have ever liked. They are super friendly and we, once again, got free dessert!

After that, we headed to the Sundance Theaters to go watch a movie. Inglourious Basterds. I know, not very romantic, but if I had taken her to go see the Time Traveler's Wife, she would have known something was up. It turns out the movie was sold out anyways, so we couldn't go see it there. We decided to head to Daly City to check it out there, but I told her there was something that I wanted to show her downtown before we went to the movie.

I took her to the Palace of Fine Arts:



We walked around and were nearly the only ones there. The timing couldn't have been better. As the only other couple left the area right underneath the dome, Lily was looking up at it and slowly spinning around to look at the view, I went down on one knee and as she finished her turn, I waited just a second and asked her the question. It was a response of shock (that's what I will tell myself anyways). But she said yes. We held each other for a little bit and then got her out of the cold.

We decided that we were going to not go see the movie after all. But, I wasn't thinking, so we ended up driving there anyways and decided to see the movie.

It was a great night. I couldn't have been happier with the way the night turned out.

Now...to plan a wedding.

A new blog, a new post♦

I have decided to update my blog. I haven't done it in quite some time, but I really though that it was time.

For those that don't know, I have moved out to San Francisco after a long journey from Thailand to the Philippines to the Appalachian Trail. It was a great journey, but for now, I must settle down a little bit and figure out where I want to take my life.

Lily and I moved into a nice apartment together in the very southern part of SF and we love it here. We have 4 roommates. Kara, a children's fashion designer and also a baker (which I enjoy). Nate, a food nut and warhammer player. Curtis, a video gamer and programmer. And Navid, a project managing powerlifter. All in all a good group. We have a great big apartment (a whole floor of a building) where we all like to cook and eat.






There is also Kitty.



I have gotten a few jobs since being out here. My first was working marketing for a appliance company. The job was fun at first, but I felt like it was draining the life out of me. I had to work both weekend days and it was a 1-2 hour drive to get where I was going. I never want to commute that long again.

I also got a job as a swimming instructor at Anderson Swim and Scuba. I love it there. I get to teach all sorts of kids from age 3 to 17 how to get comfortable in the water all the way up to competitive strokes. Its a lot of fun and the kids are (mostly) great.

Most recently, I got a job as a warehouse manager for Forgotten Shanghai. They do imported "antique" furniture and silks from Hong Kong. It is a good job because I get to do a lot of organizing and shipping which I miss from my Best Buy days.

Lily has been posting about some of our vacations out here. Check out her blog to get more info on that.

The Buntanding - a really really cool fish!

Wow! What an amazing thing to experience. Swimming with something the size of a small bus. Being the not amazing writer that I am, I am not sure if the words that I use can describe it, but I will try.

The trip from Manila to Donsol takes a long time by bus. I left at about 4:30 in the afternoon and got there at about 6 or 7 in the morning (I was too tired to remember). Not sleeping much on the bus, I needed a nap, so that meant swimming with the whale sharks had to wait a day. I heard it was best to swim with them in the early morning, so I wasn't too disappointed.

The next day, at about 6:30, I woke up excited and scared. I am afraid of sharks. It is one of my biggest fears. I don't like the idea of them sneaking up behind you while you are riding a wave. I don't like that they can sense me without seeing me. They are evil, evil creatures. :) The good news is, Whale Sharks don't even eat fish, let alone people, so I was a little more confident.

We got a good boat with a fun driver and a couple of other tourists. We took the catamaran out and drove around for a good hour or so before spotting a dorsal fin sticking out of the water in the distance. We rushed over to the spot where it was and got in front of the path of the shark. We jumped in over the side of the boat as we were still moving. It stretched my shoulders out when I landed in the water as I was still kind of holding on to the side. Somebody else landed on me. Not a great first go, but I didn't have time to worry about it.


I swam around looking, I was right behind the guide. We couldn't find it, and then, right in front of me a huge black and white mouth appeared out of nowhere. It was easily a meter across and only 3 meters away. Pretty scary to see, so I swam to the side, pulling others with me so the shark could get through. It didn't even seem to notice us. The shark was a medium size one, about 6-7 meters long, but it was big enough for my first one. We swam alongside it awhile, but it was much faster than us and could swim a lot deeper too, so we lost it. It was beautiful with black skin and white spots on top and a completely white stomach.

We got back in the boat with huge smiles on our faces and started the search anew. I spotted the second one about 100 meters away and we rushed over to it. We jumped in again and swam next to it. This one was slightly bigger, but started to dive down right away. I kept swimming with it anyways, diving down myself so I could keep an eye on it. I was so close at one point I could see it's eye looking around. It was kind of freaky. After going down about 5-10 meters, it came back up and surfaced right next to me. I saw the dorsal above the water and the shark below at the same time. The movements were completely smooth and peaceful in the water. It went back down and I was able to swim alone with it for awhile, but then it went too deep again.

Again, we got back in the boat and started our search again. We didn't see anything for a couple of hours, but I did get a good sunburn. Then we ended up "chasing" one around for about 15-20 minutes. It would surface off in the distance, we would rush there only to see it surfacing somewhere else. It was fun and irritating at the same time. Eventually, we caught up with it and were able to jump in with it. It quickly started going under (it must have been really shy). As it did though, while we were all swimming right next to it, it slowly turned over so that it was upside down (belly up) and went down like that. As we got out, you could see an extremely large smile on the guides face. He said he had never seen any whale shark doing that before. I later heard him telling other guides about it too.

Once again, we got back in the boat and searched around. We noticed several other boats congregated together and went over by them. They had crowded a butanding and had way to many swimmer next to them (there is a limit of 7, but there were at least 20 swimmers). So we backed off. Eventually, they lost it and it surfaced nearer to us, so we jumped in by it. The water was perfectly clear at that point, so when it appeared in front of me, it was amazingly bright and a perfect view. It had a good 20 or so remoras sparkling and swimming next to the whale shark. It was really amazing to see up close.

After that, we headed back in and got some food. It was one of the most amazing days of the trip and I was glad to have it right at the tale end of it. I also no longer hate sharks, but I am still afraid of some of them.

We head back to Manila now and next, we go home.

The many islands of the Visayas

After leaving Palawan, we headed for the beautiful Visayas. The many islands were too numerous to conquer in one trip, so maybe I will have to go back at some point to get to the others, but the four islands I made it to were wonderful.

Cebu
I only spent one night in Cebu city. I used it (as I assume most people do) as a hub to get around the rest of Visayas. Cebu City was a pretty large city from what I saw. They had a lot of good shopping and a bunch of good food. (I had some wonderful chorizo there!) Lots of friendly places to stay, which is good, since that's about all I did there.

Negros
I spent most of my time in the Visayas between Negros and Negros Occidental. Landing in Dumaguete from Cebu, I got a nice place at OK Pension. It was more than OK though, it was pretty darn nice, and cheap too! Dumaguete had a lot of great places to eat including Filipino food and others like Italian and British. I also got to eat my fill at the local bakeries. I probably ate a whole cake or pie by myself in the week I was there. A lot more sweet foods than I am used to now.

One of the first days I was in Dumaguete, I headed to Twin Lakes, which are two beautiful lakes up in the mountains. They are 300 fathoms deep at one point (which I later learned was about 1800 feet). Lily and I kayaked around and enjoyed the flooded forest that surrounded it. Being flooded, we were unable to hike around the lake which was the real reason for going, but the kayaking was good anyways.

A different day, we headed up to Mabinay to go Caving with Jeffry, a local guide and mountaineer. He was a lot of fun to talk to and knew everything about the area (born there and grew up there). The cave experience was the best I have had so far. We were at points crawling on our bellies in a stream, looking up at thousands of two inch long stalactites and puckering our lips above the water and below the cave roof to get a little bit of air. It was a great time. I came out soaked and very, very muddy (I don't think that shirt will ever get clean), but I had a ton of fun!

Negros Occidental
After Dumaguete, we headed to Langub (Sugar) beach on the East coast. The beach only has about 4 resorts on it, so we were forced to go to our last resort in terms of rooms, but we were close enough to get to the other resorts that it didn't really matter. We hung out with fellow travelers Chris and Larry (Canadians), Emai and Wilfried (Dutch), Dave (Californian), and Paddy (Irish). We had a lot of fun chatting around with them during dinner and after. We also went snorkeling here. The reefs weren't as nice as some I have been to, but there was a lot of wildlife to look at besides the coral.

Panay
After leaving Negros, we took a boat to Iloilo City on Panay. We stayed there for a couple of days, but were disappointed. We had gone there to do some climbing, but the indoor gym was closed (moved to America) and the National Park was "dangerous" because the militia was supposedly hiding out there. We did explore the city though and found a nice restaurant or two to eat at. Not a total loss.

Guimaras
Since we didn't do the climbing, we had time to visit the small island of Guimaras. There was a great waterfall near San Miguel that the local kids were using as a swimming hole/diving board. It was fun to watch them for a while. Even our tricycle driver came and watched with us. It looked like fun, but I hadn't brought my swimsuit and only had one clean pair of shorts left.

We also went to the Mango Research Facility. This wasn't much more than an orchard with a couple scientist, but I did learn about the growing of mangos and I did pet a cow. What more can you ask for from a fruit lab?

Next, we are headed back to Manila to get to Donsol to go swimming with the whale sharks. Hopefully, they won't be too hungry.

The beautiful island of Palawan

Palawan is a beautiful island full of waterfalls, "archipelagic" islands, caves and one enormous underground river. It was hot the entire time we were there, but the sun was shining too, so we got to enjoy the beaches. (Except for the ones with jellyfish.)

We started in Puerto Princesa which is the main city on the island. We tried to explore the old cathedral there, but it was closed. We tried to explore the museum there, but we were unable to find it. We did, however, find something better, Shakey's Pizza and Mr. Donut. I ate more donuts in the last week and a half than in the last year probably. The town itself was much like most other towns in the Philippines, but it was a great jumping point for the rest of the island.

Our first trip out of PP was to Sabang and the largest underground river. It was a bumpy ride up there (but what ride in the Philippines isn't?), and when we got there, we realized we didn't have enough money to stay as long as we wanted. But we were able to hike the underground river and take a boat ride through it. The cave itself wasn't as impressive as the caves in Sagada, but it was really impressive that the entire river ran through it. There were a lot of interesting rock formations, like the hanging fruit and vegetable garden, where different structures looked like, surprisingly enough, fruit and vegetables. We also saw some 4-5 foot Monitor lizards that were inches from my feet and some noisy monkeys who enjoyed harassing the tourists.

Since we ran out of money, we headed back to PP to get some more and then we headed to Port Barton (a day after we expected because we got up too late for the bus). The place we stayed at in Port Barton was beautiful, cheap and had a lot of nice people there. We went out on a tour of some of the islands and some of the coral. The coral was somewhat sad, as much of it was dead due to abuse, but what was alive was very beautiful. We saw some starfish, a puffer fish or two and a bunch of other colorful fish and coral. I finally got my tan back too, maybe a little more than I had in Thailand.

From Port Barton, we took a jeepney or two to El Nido, which is another jumping off point for island hopping. We stayed in a rather crappy bungalow, but the beach and town itself were very nice. We did another island hopping thing where we saw some more coral and some more fish. We also had a nice beach-cooked fish lunch on one of the islands which was delicious. We brought a lot more money this time, but we still ran out, so this trip was cut short too.

We spent a couple of days in PP recovering from dusty lungs and a messed up neck from our trip in El Nido. Off to the Visayas next.

The beauties of Northern Luzon

Northern Luzon is not as famous for its beaches as the rest of the country, but it has a ton of offerings for those that want to look. There are the rice terraces of Banaue, Batad and the surrounding barangays and countryside. The caves, hanging coffins and festivals of Sagada. And the bustling city of Baguio.

Banaue
First, Lily and I headed from Manila to Banaue. It is an overnight 10 1/2 hour bus ride. It is also freezing cold on the bus when they have the air on full blast all 10 hours, you are wearing shorts and your vent won't close because it is broken. It was a nice change from the extreme heat that I have been feeling though. We left at 10 at night which got us in at around 8:30 in the morning. We grabbed a hostel room and took a quick nap.

Batad
The next day, we decided to do the hike to Batad. It was a long 2 hour hike up to the saddle (the valley between two mountains) and then an hour or so down to the city of Batad. The view was beautiful, the engineering of the ancient filipino people
genius and the air was crystal clear. The sound of chickens was everywhere, and you could see ant-like people working in the terraces far below and far away. We grabbed some food, ran out of time and started the hike back.

Sagada
The next day we took a private van for a two hour ride to Bontoc since we missed the much, much cheaper jeepney ride. (For those that don't know a Jeepney is an extended Jeep that people ride all over the Philippines in.) We got to Bontoc with just enough time to catch another 1 hour Jeepney to Sagada. We got to Sagada and then I had to go back to Bontoc because the only ATM in Sagada wasn't working for international cards. The ride back, I rode on top of the Jeepney, as it was too full for me to fit inside. I much prefer this style of ride to the normal "in the back of the Jeepney" sort.

We did some caving in Sagada. It was amazing. We squeezed through holes that I had to twist and turn and scrape my head to get through. We walked barefoot up 45 degree rocks because they were just that "grippy". The water was freezing, but we waded through it to see some of the other parts of the cave. The rock formations like the turtle, the pregnant lady and the t-rex footprint were all amazing in there by lamplight. There were also a lot of bats, but they didn't bother us. We did remember to close our mouths when we looked up at them though.

We also checked out the hanging coffins of Sagada, which were interesting, but not that great. The history and culture behind them is much better than actually seeing them.

We were also in town for the Sagada yearly fiesta. There was a beauty pageant that lasted hours and hours. There was a street market and dancing and a parade. It was a great experience to see the "small town" side of the Philippines.

Baguio
We headed back from Sagada by long bus ride to Baguio. We both did not enjoy the rumbling, turning, up and down of the mountain road back, but we got there 6 hours later. We spent little time in Baguio, as we were trying to get back to Manila, but it was a very modern town with a huge mall where we grabbed our first McDonald's in a long time. (Strangely, they have McSpaghetti here). We then took another 6 hour snore-filled ride back to Manila, finally getting to our Pensionne at around 11:30. It was a long day, but the travels to Northern Luzon were definitely worth it.

Next is the island of Palawan with its underground river, archipelago and beautiful beaches.

The country of over 7000 islands

Hello all. I am in the Philippines now and it is beautiful here as well. Although the weather hasn't been the greatest since we got here. Cloudy and a little bit cold. (I know 65 isn't cold to most of you in the states, but it seems kind of chilly to me now.) The countryside is still pretty amazing. I am in Luzon, which is the "main" island of the Philippines. Manila is there and I believe that it is second only to Mindinao in size.

We shacked up in Malate for a night and then walked around Manila a little bit. It really isn't that great to look at, a little dirty and cramped, but it has its highlights. The food in Manila is really Americanized, which is good for my homesick tummy. We were going to stay another night, but we met up with Patis Tesoro, one of Lily's mom's friends from years back and we were whisked away on a weekend adventure.

We first went to Patis's home near San Pablo which also houses a restaurant, about 10 dogs and about 400 tropical birds (not really that many, but it was too many for me to count). It is set right next to a stream and the "room" that we stayed in was open to the air. I slept better there than I have since I left for Thailand. It was cool, windy and the constant noise of the stream was very soothing.

While there, we visited a bunch of cool things with Patis. We saw her 100 year old house that she just bought. One of the old presidents went there quite a bit. We saw that mountain that she and several other families bought land on to develop eco-friendly. She is moving her new house there. We saw a private botanical garden that is being turned into a racetrack. We met Ado, an historian. We met Emil, a retired banker and antiques dealer. We met Freddie, a textile designer. We met Dado, another retired banker and his family. All of these people have been incredibly nice to us, giving us hints on what to do in the Philippines while we are here. Offering places to stay and even more people to meet. They have really made our first week here amazing.

We were going to head to Donsol to swim with huge whale sharks, but it isn't quite season for them yet. So we will have to do that later. Now, we are going to go up north to see the 8th wonder of the world, the rice terraces of Batad. I have seen pictures and it looks absolutely amazing. There is also some amazing hiking up there and caves to explore as well. So much to do in so little time. I hope we get to it all.

Because of that, we are probably extending our stay in the Philippines a little longer than the original 3 weeks, but thats ok, because I want to get everything in.

Last Days of Thailand

Today is the last day that I will have my feet on Thailand's soil....or sand. I have been there for 60 days, as long as my visa would allow. It was a great time and I look forward to coming back at some point in the future to climb and explore the North of the country...Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

I already miss climbing with Nung and Thong and the Brits. Hanging out by the beach and eating calamari that is cheaper than chicken. Drinking Singhas and Changs (won't miss the hangovers though).

Next is Malaysia. I will only be there overnight before Lily and I head to the Philippines. I was hoping to see the Petronus Towers, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen as our hotel is really far from Kuala Lumpur. Oh well. My guess is I will be back in Malaysia as that is one of the main hubs for several of the airlines around there.

The Philippines sounds like it is going to be amazing. It is 7000 islands and has more coast line than all of the US. There are underground rivers, rock climbing, hidden beaches, ancient ruins and so much more. Plus, Lily and I are going to probably visit some of Lily's family friends who they haven't seen in so long. It will be nice to see where she came from. :)

I have also decided that I will be hiking the Appalachian Trail after I get back. I am planning on getting back to the states around early March and hitting the trail up in April with Joey. 2100 miles isn't going to be over quick, but it is going to be a hike of a lifetime for sure.

Miss you all.

Back to Haad Ton Sai

Ahhh...home. Or so it feels right now. It's the closest thing I have on this side of the world. I really liked it here the first time I was here, so I thought I would come back for the holidays. There is so much to do here, it is friendly, it is cheap, it is beautiful and we have friends here too.

We met Bruce and Smithy the first time we were in Haad Ton Sai. I saw them playing cards with board with matchsticks in it and knew immediately that we would get along. How could we not if they play cribbage. We weren't sure that they would be in Ton Sai when we got back, but we took the chance. They ended up getting back a couple of days after we did too.

We went climbing again and met some fellow Americans. We ended up hanging out with them again on Christmas Eve and shared a few beers and a few stories. They were nice people, but aren't most Californians?

Christmas was rainy, but it was still good. Lily and I got each other some nice little presents, some that we could carry around with us or were temporary (chocolates :)). We ate a delicious dinner of kabobs and potatoes and a nice order of bruschetta. Called home and said hi to the family. I missed the holidays with them for the first time and I really felt it.

New Years Eve was a huge party. We went to one of our favorite bars and met with the Brits and the Swedes, then we headed down to the beach were the real party was. There was a Thai Ska band that we all danced to. We met with Noeng, our climbing instructor. It was also his birthday, so he was completely gone that night. He just smiled and rubbed our heads. :) I drank a little too much and was hung over the next day, but hey, it's new years. Who wasn't hung over, right.

We have done a ton of other things out here too. We hiked up to a lagoon that is completely surrounded by cliffs (we had to rock climb down to it). We did a bunch more climbing. We saw monkeys, a spider the size of a baseball, an ant army and a cat fall out of a tree onto a tin roof. I have a hammock now, a beach mat, and fisherman pants. I think I fit in pretty well here.

Don't worry though, I am still coming home.