The thing very terrible about JLC is that he's a very consistent blogger. This means that after reading his post on the Philippines trip, I no longer have any motivation or desire to blog about the trip :p Instead as a very sad cop out, I shall post in er point form about the trip from my perspective.

- MANILA AIR IS TERRIBLE. I was already recovering from a flu when we landed in Manila on the 9th. By the 11th I had trouble breathing, swallowing and I couldn't even speak anymore. Luckily I was able to recognise rather belatedly that I wasn't suffering from a continuation of my flu but instead was suffering from a rapidly worsening asthma. This led to me buying Seretide from Mercury Drug in Market Market! (which I described to the pharmacist as a powerful purple upgraded Ventolin). It was only in Palawan that my asthma properly disappeared. On the return leg of the trip when we flew back to Manila I instantly felt my lungs gum up with mucus and I started coughing again. Same for today -_________- It felt like April 2007 all over again.

- The room that I shared with Cheryl and Mai (and Patrick and Gerald for the overall suite) was infested with cockroaches. Luckily they were small baby roaches, so I managed to kill quite a few with tissue without getting freaked out. The thought of them was quite disgusting. I killed more cockroaches in those few days than I ever have in my life.

- The cockroach infestation then led to me meeting Roach Killer Man (or Boy). I confess I actually developed a mild crush on him, only because he was so amusing. When I open the door, the first thing I saw was him standing there right in front of me holding a can of bug spray in each hand. He looked me in the eye with a sly smile of his face and cocked his cans of bug spray. As my mind exploded in a thousand LOLs and WTFs, he went "where's the bug problem?" in this really suave voice. This repeated itself again the next day when I called him to the room.

- The water heater died. I swear this made my asthma worse because everytime I had to shower I literally felt my respiratory system contract. I was never happier to get hot water in Palawan.

- In Manila the tv had MTV on cable. This led to the discovery of the most wtf song/video every seen in ages: Wyclef Jean's Touch Your Button. It makes me think of The Color Purple -__-

- Shoppersville has nice clothes (and is abnormally huge - Cheryl and I got lost there). I wish I spent more time time. I also regret not buying the '70s style maxi dresses there. URGH WHY WHY WHY DID I NOT BUY THEM ):

- Filipino food is really delicious. I loved sisig and chicken inasal, along with random other dishes where I forgot the name. I also found it mildly fascinating how almost every fast food place there sold spaghetti, as if it was a staple in their food.

- I rode a rollercoaster for the first time! This was mainly because everyone moved so fast that I didn't really have time to start thinking and panicking till I was strapped in and stuck with Joash. During the ride I screamed, which made my asthma even worse. When the rollercoaster went upside down, I also thought my bag fell out so I halfway during the ride I ended up reaching about and groping for my bag to hold on to. I also spent the ride either closing my eyes or staring at my lap.

- Amusement parks in the Philippines are damn dodgy. Right before we were set to go onto the Viking Ship ride (which I spent clutching Elliot and screaming), the safety release mechanism failed, trapping a guy and a girl on the ride after every one got off. The Filipino solution: attach cable ties after they freed the guy. Ta dah!

- The airport in Palawan was a open air shack covered by a tin roof. Immigration was a guy sitting at a desk, recording names in a lined booklet. It was a surprise the luggage carousel was actually powered by electricity, and not some random pinoy cycling madly away at the end. The excuse given was that the main terminal was being renovated.

- I also experiened the worst touch down ever in an airplane. This took place on last night's flight back from Manila airport to Singapore. The plane seemed to be going too fast to make a good soft landing and when we finally hit the tarmac the plane lurched uncomfortably low for a nanosecond before springing up and rattling the insides of the plane and everyone inside. I guess the pilot was trying to make up for lost time as we had left Ninoy Aquino airport late.

- I rode on a motorcycle for the first time! It was actually as a pillion rider on the tricycles that are common in Palawan. Still it was interesting and rather fun. Pity that it was uncomfortable because I was too tall and kept having to stoop to avoid hitting my head on the roof of the tricycle.

- Manila traffic is terrible. I almost want to cry thinking about how bad it is. I would really go crazy if I had to deal with traffic like that everyday, so kudos to all those in Manila who bear with the traffic on a daily basis.

- We played Laser Tag and got owned by a bunch of 9, 10 and 11 year olds. The first round I ended up at the bottom of the player list, which made me really sad. Apparently everytime I kept my back to a wall, it turned out there was a hole in the wall that they were shooting through to get to me -_- In the second game I was in a team with Patrick, JLC and Mong and we ended up grouping together to get the high ground. I ended up sniping a lot of people in the back and ended up 2nd highest among all the class people (below the top 4 who were the kids and 5th who was JLC), so YAY!

- I have never ever felt so terrified by the prospect of terrorism before. On Pandan Island in Palawan, we were walking by the beach side when JC suddenly told us to turn back to the more populated area. This was because he had espied two suspicious characters on a boat docking on the shoreline there. Later on we found out that they were muslim wanderers (and thus an association with the Abu Sayyaf). This feeling was amplified by the countless security checks any time we entered a public area, like shopping centres.

- I have finally been introduced to the oft heard of 'Bleeding Love' by Leona Lewis. This is because it was the only song that the van driver we hired on Palawan had, a fact demonstrated by how the song was constantly on a loop for 3 hours+. Oh my.

- Emergency exit seats are excellent. They offer a lot of leg room, more than that even on a normal economy flight on a non-budget airplane. Emergency exit seats ftw!

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What a horrid mess of random thoughts about the trip! That is all my mind can spare at this juncture however as asthma + lack of sleep = bad organisation of thoughts. Oyasumi!