Ok.  So I'm here in Boracay.  My last entry was kind of a recap of the past week, so here's what's going on here and now.  For those of you who don't know, Boracay is a major beach-paradise-tourist destination-thing.  It's the Philippines' Phuket or Bali.  The tourists are mostly Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese.  This is kind of nice, because it makes it feel less 'Americanized'.  Though Boracay has definitely lost it's Philippine-ness in a wa...

So here are a few things I've noticed thus far. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are weird. The Good:The Fruit - One of the best things we've found here in the Philippines is the fruit markets. They're everywhere, and they all have inexpensive, delicious fruit. Especially the mangoes. For some reason, all the mangoes here are about half the size of those you find back in the states, however, they're much sweeter. Imagine all the goodness of a reg...

Ahhh...we can breathe again So I started off the trip with a major screw-up.� Thinking it would be a good idea to book our first night's stay ahead of time, I checked the internet and found a place in Manila that seemed like a good deal.� When we exited the airport and got into a cab, the driver kept telling us that we should stay in the Ermita area, and that where we were staying was "residential." � I told him we h...