Finishing up the adventure!

The last few days were very crazy in a tropical las vegas kind of way, where frisbee players own 80% of the island! I would go from resort to club, from bar to restaurant knowing all of the owners getting huge discounts if not free food, drink, and housing. Many stories that need to be told in person, and some fears I may have for the rest of my life!

But winners of the contests time:
Winner of the Hammock... Jenna Dicarlo with learning a new Philippine game being the most fun activity!
Winner of a hand made marble dolphin.... Julia Hudson with my haircut costing 40 pesos or 95 cents
Winner of a Philippine broom.... Greg Esser with my videokie song at least being from Taylor swift "love story"!

Thanks for everyone that followed and played along with my awesome trip!! It really means so much to me!!

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Catch up we'd- Friday

So I accidentally deleted this post so I am going to be brief because I want to go swim.
First of all the first person to guess which of these 5 things is a lie wins a hand made marble statue...
1) the mayor's son and I are friends
2) since I have left Manila I have swam every day
3) I took my motorcycle off roading through the woods
4)I lost in a game of soccer vs the locals
5) some kids called me Colby after I slam dunked a ball

Wednesday: woke up and went to market to get all of the supplies to host a party at kate's house for all my new friends.  Made tomato chicken sauce from scratch after roasting the tomatoes. Created a giant octopus shrimp scampi with garlic. Also fit  24 bottles of beer into my backpack in the middle of a crowd of ppl that did not think they would all fit.

Thursday: rented a motor cycle and drove it all over the island planting rice, swimming, playing with new animals, and making new friends!

Friday: went to a private beach and snorkeled for hours seeming snakes and creatures I have never seen before. Then went to a fiesta where I lost dozens of dollars gambling with the high rollers! The night ended with dancing in the rain and playing with puppies!

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Epic Tuesday:

Tuesday was probably the craziest day where I accomplished the most... just to scratch the surface I ate dog and balut (half developed duck eggs). The dog meat was very mascara, delicious greasy steak taste... The dog heart and liver were not as tasty! And I enjoyed the baby duck/egg that tasted like soup, until I felt the crunch of the skull.

There are too many things to talk about that occurred on Tuesday, so you will have to ask me in person about training my fighting clock, Cocky.

The highlight of the day was waking up early heading to the elementary school to teach for the morning. When I rode my bike up the entire school (900 kids) were lined up disfunctionally in front of the flag pole for morning exercise and singing of the national anthem. By the way Philippine ppl do not like to walk or exercise much so they counted 10 jumping jacks as their daily workout. As soon as I walked up every kids head turned and the national anthem stopped mid sentence. They all just starred at me then giggled. After the morning announcements chaos happened when all of the students ran in random directions to go do whatever they wanted. A few teachers were absent so the students did not have to go to class, they just got on their bikes and left. They only get substitute teachers if a teacher is planning on being absent for more then 2 weeks...
After meeting the principle I went into a 5th grade science classroom. The teacher asked me to take over her lesson so she could work on grading ;) I asked her what she wanted me to teach about and she replied "science" and they have a test next month on body systems.. so I clapped walking to the front of the room and everyone stopped talking and jumped into their seats. I then winged a few lessons on everything I knew about the skeletal, respiratory, nervous, and circulatory systems. We played a few games like Simon says but Mr Matt says. When I was out of ideas I asked the teacher what I should do next.... she said "yes keep going". Having nothing else to teach I gave the kids a great lesson on basic chemistry that they all enjoyed. After they eagerly wrote down their homework about atoms we all stood up and sung " let it go" as a closing activity.
The most epic aka my favorite thing on my list was teaching the locals twisted... I can't even type the story bc I get too excited just recalling the events so I will have to tell you in person. Just imagine 150 kids learning the game at once during recess in the middle of the rd using chalk...

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Odiongan

So Saturday morning we missed our fairy stop and woke on a neighboring island. We then needed to catch a small Fisher boat to the southern tip of Romblon. The boat that we decided to take would not leave the port until it loaded over 300 50kg rice sacks onto the boat by hand.... so naturally after swimming in the Crystal clear water with the kids I helped load the rice! The natives tried to teach me how to "use my head" by balancing the sacks but it just ended in a crowd of ppl laughing at me! But that is a 24 7 thing for me here. The captain let me ride the boat for free to thank me for the help! Once we reached land we tripled up on a small motorcycle 15k to the nearest village where we got on the roof ( I stood up and surfed a lot ) of a jeep to complete the rest of our 50km trip. We explored town and went out to a nice resort on the beach that had live music and great food. The band that played were all friends of Kate's and were a lot of fun!

Sunday: went down the st to the neighbors and bought materials to make omelets and cooked up a big breakfast with coconut milk on the side. Then Kate and I rode our bikes to the base of a large blue river and walked up the river until we were climbing waterfalls and exploring underground rivers and passages. It was epic to try to rock climb up small holes in the ground as a waterfall pounded you from the top! We chased fish in the clear deep holes and jumped off waterfalls into shallow waters. After the waterfall trip we met some of Kate's friends and went to the local spring made pool. We had the entire place to our selves which ment there were no lines for the water slides and we could sing videoki (karaoke) at the top of our lungs. I took a quick mo-ped ride to the market to get some fresh fish to grill up... We ended up with a full yummy tuna. It was the best fish I have ever eaten! At the pool I also taught a young Philippine girl to swim ( you would think ppl on an island would know how to swim, but many do not) while we were there a roaming brown out took away the power for about an hour, but we just swam and ate under the super moon!

Monday: we woke up and went to Kate's work and I went out on my own to try to get money (which was very hard, and no one on the island took a card and no one could break a 500 peso bill ( 12$ American). I then got a great pedicure and manicure that took about 2 hours because they had to sand my feet for so long. I also made friends at the market and all over the place because everyone stairs at me because I am the first or second white male they have seen. Children are scared of me and all call me Joe after GI Joe. But I make it a point to talk to everyone and in turn get interviewed by 20 ppl a day. We got pizza for lunch and went swimming in the ocean afterward, where we walked around some exposed coral and collected awesome animals in a frisbee. I harvested sea urchins and ate them with a coconut that I harvested from a tree!!

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"No one on my island can break a 10$ bill."

On Friday Kate and I woke up and headed for her island of Romblon, 500 miles south of the city. We started on a trike. A trike is the number one mode of transportation in the Philippines, but realistically it is a small motorcycle with a third wheel welded on and a cage so you don't fall out. Greg put me up to the challenge of trying to flip a trike while in motion, so I gave it a shot. I was able to rock it up on one wheel but did not flip it. After the trike ride we jumped in a jeep/bus and took that to the bus station. We decided to take the bus to a massive active volcano island .

We took a 30 min boat ride to the volcano. On the small boat the driver decided to blast American music to keep us entertained.... when we landed we argued with the locals that we did not want a guide to show us to the top of the crater. They thought it was crazy of us to walk to the top instead of riding a donkey. People in this country will not walk anywhere and think we are crazy to walk around town for a mil;e. Locals also think it is weird to sweat! Manny people ask me why I am sweating so much after carrying 100lbs rice sacks onto a boat for an hour. But anyway we hiked to the top of the crater and took in the view. It was a beautiful island with a big Crystal clear lake filling the crater. I wanted to go swimming in the beautiful lake so I bribed some locals into letting us descend the crater and swim. It turned out to be one of the hardest hikes of my life for a few reasons... there was no trail, it was steep, I had all my possessions with me, and the beautiful water was very very hot and not as refreshing as I wanted!!

But we survived the trip and even made it back to our boat before our driver abandoned us. The next challenge was to catch our over night party boat at 9pm, and we where running late to say the least! But don't worry I ran out in front of a bus forcing him to stop and let us on. The bus was running  late only because the drivers would stop for long breaks whenever they felt the need. We arrived at the boat terminal 15 min late very worried we missed the boat. To our surprise the boat was delayed 2 hours. Luckily the boat was  awesome there were preformers and 50cent beers! I did a lot of videoki and we danced a lot getting some great cheers ( not on the singing). I hung out with the captain and helped drive the boat and climbed all over the restricted areas before falling asleep in my cot.... then we missed our stop in the morning.....

Question for the prize of a Philippine broom: name one or both of the songs I sung during karaoke ??

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Being vanilla in Manila

The first two days of this trip were epic to say the least. I already crossed off many think bags from my list and had an amazing time.
When I got off the airplane after about 30 hours of travel I met up with my friend Kate whom was waiting for me. Then we used her phone to call a friend I met online that is in charge of the ultimate frisbee leagues here... to my surprise he was waiting in his car right outside the airport. He picked both Katie and I up and took us to a very nice hotel he arranged for us for 30$ a night!

It was then time to teach a frisbee clinic to the local kids. We showed up at the local mud field with a few clumps of grass sticking out.... there are about 25 kids waiting for us with big smiles on their faces! I introduced my self but many of them already knew me expressing " I watch you in Major League Ultimate on YouTube!" I was excited to teach these kids! We did some fun drills together with the rules in place that if anyone made any great layouts or cool plays they got some free mlu swag! (The mlu gear took up 90% of my luggage space) every kid left with a giant smile and some awesome gear! The kids were great and I already miss them!

Ping and Spy then took us out to dinner at a local club and ordered some crazy food to eat.... on the plane ride over every time they gave a meal I asked for two extra meals, so I was still not very hungry but I ate again anyway! After eating we went back to the frisbee pitch and played some high level pickup with an older cloud. The level of play was great! And the free gear even put smiles on their faces at the end of the night!

That night I slept like a baby in air con but still woke up at 6am excited for the day ahead.... Kate and I decided to go for a walk around the town of BF. We went to a Local bakery and I ordered one of everything there and spent 1.50$ and had enough food to feed an army. So I ate it all while drinking some interesting powdered milk. Everywhere you walk in this city and probably country conversation stops and you hear whispers "kana" "American look" groups of small children follow us around with their backpacks just to look at us. The bold walk up "Joe, Jane can we get a picture" ( they call all Americans Jane and Joe...)

There are too many crazy happening to write about... including my haircut, the American tax, more frisbee, American food, the full service 6$ massage, me bartering a new pair of Crocks from 3$ to 2$ ( the nerve of that woman trying to sell me a pair of new shoes for 3$!) and the trike ride that you will need to ask me about.

But the real story of the day is the Cock fight! Kate and I round a corner at the maket and see two full grown men petting and talking to their chickens in a crowd of ppl. As soon as the crowd sees us they go crazy clapping and cheering and asking me if I want to bet... all the sudden a circle forms in the middle of the crowd and these two clocks equipped with razors on one foot start flailing up their feathers! Everyone starts cheering and moving in the circle always leaving a path for us to see the action! The fight lasted only 30 seconds before one chicken caught the throat of the other and ended the battle in a pool of blood. The group quickly dispersed kicking the blood into the side walk to leave no trace of the epic showdown.

Question for the souvenir... closest to the right answer wins..( The prize for the last question will be a local hammock)
How much did my haircut seen above cost me in pesos? Hint 43 pesos is one dollar.

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List of things to accomplish

Hanging in South Korea
After 20 hours of travel I am one short flight from the Philippines!
The plane ride was great fun, I asked for seconds on all my meals and even thirds once! I also watched 3 movies, made countless new friends, and walked probably 100 laps around the plane.

I created a list of 25 things that I plan on accomplishing on my trip
1. Play a game of Twitter with the locals
2. Spear a fish and cook it on an open fire on the beach
3. Get a crazy haircut from a local hair dresser
4. Learn a fun phillippeno phrase
5. Participate in a local religious or ceremonial tradition
6. Teach someone an obvious scientific concept
7. Teach Frisbee to the locals
8. Eat the craziest local food ex half developed egg
9. Sing and dance to a local and American song
10. Climb a coconut tree, harvest and eat the but
11. Do a handstand on top of the tallest mountain around
12. Jump from a waterfall yelling "wee" as loud as I can
13. Do a rainbow while playing pick up soccer with the locals
14. Play with sea turtles
15.  Run after and pet.craziest new animal species
16. Drive some kind of off road buggy
17. Sleep.on a beach under the stars
18. Go for a run in the rain jumping in every big puddle
19. Learn a new Philippine game
20. Build an awesome fort
21. Barter down prices at a market
22. Get a massage
23. Attempt to create my own local artwork of some kind
24. Swim through an underwater arch or cave
25. Cook both a local and an American meal and feed it to locals

I Matt Esser will.do.everything in my power to complete everything on this list no matter what it.takes!

Your first chance to win a sovereign will be to guess which of these things will be the most fun for me to complete, and which one will I do last?? Answer both those things correctly and you will be the big winner!

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