Easter Backpacking 2013 - the summary

Seeing dolphins at the start of your trip brings good luck as they say. It was also believed that it meant good weather.  And it was true with my recent trip.

My whole trip was just for 10 days.  But the 10 days felt like months having found new crazy friends and met the old crazy ones! It was a memorable trip.

Here were the stops:

• Pola, Mindoro - short visit at my father's hometown.  
• Iloilo, Panay - dinner with my friend with his Mom's home-cooking
• Bacolod, Negros - some card game and beer while waiting for the bus
• Cauayan, Negros - community life and start of the intense island life
• Sipalay, Negros - secret paradise, card game under the rain, sea snakes and a barracuda
• Dauin, Negros - some more big fishes and serious flunky ball game
• Dumaguete, Negros - calamansi collecting and fighting cock concert
• Lake Balinsasayaw, Negros - tri-kayaking, mau-mau, and last chance for the boys to win the flunky ball

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Highlights:

• We've visited different ecosystems and seen lots of wildlife (including our wild life)... Dolphins gave us luck then we found a seahorse and pipe fishes while snorkeling.  We also had a short mangrove tour that leads to a waterfall.  Swimming through the seagrass forests was also very cool.  It is like being in a dream world.
• Our trip was a working holiday - Kerstin grated some coconuts, Simon picked the leaves of Malunggay for the soup, and I was cooking a dish.  The best one we did and with full of love is baking bread - the banana-choco bread and the garlic-chili bread.
• We had too much tuba the whole trip - from Mindoro to Negros.
• We had a straight trip for 30 hours (from Mindoro to Negros).
• We saw lots of sea snakes, some moray eels, and a hunting barracuda.
• The sea glittered and the forest as well.
• We heard a whale splash in the lake and killed some tiny people (only Simon did).
• Flunky ball is soon to be a national sport --- and we will be the pioneers.  
• Mau-Mau is gonna spread in the Philippines.  Thanks to the German influence.
• Meeting my family and friends along the way was great.  It's not everyday I see them and I always make sure I keep in touch.
• Regularly high on seaweed.  
• Finding eco-thingys like the eco-cigarette and eco-wine.
• The main highlight would be finding people I can be very open with.  People who seem you have known and to have known you all your life.  Like long lost friends... and friends you don't want to lose in any way. Thanks a lot Kerstin and Simon!!!

I am still with holiday hang-over.  My sunburn itches.  And I am sick (since I am back to work... hahaha...).

Raves in Berlin

Five months in Berlin was not that much.  Five months is too short for this great city that got so much under it's skirt for one to discover.

I've had so much experiences there that I am really holding on to like a treasure that I would never exchange for anything.

One of the best things that happened to me is meeting Tobi whom I consider to be a real dear friend.  He's one of my great finds in this city.

It was Easter Break and I've got free time from the training though I've got no way of going out of the city or the country since I was broke.  Why was I broke, I cannot remember.  So I decided to sign up in the CouchSurfing site to find activities around the city.  I stumbled upon one of the invitations to go to a rave that starts at around 12noon and ends "until the police comes".  That was the interesting part.  It was something "thrilling" and "daring" and I've got not much of an idea what a rave is.

So there I go with just my written instruction of how to go to the area where the happening is and Tobi's number.  The place was actually quite in the outskirts of the city.  Well, I just followed where the young people with beer in hand seem to go.  The place is just an open space and there were lots of people, music and the works.

I went to these raves for the whole week... in different locations in Berlin... in Goerlitzer Park... in Hasenheide... and wherever there are invitations coming.

It was really an exciting experience.  And I miss it a lot!