Next Stop: the Philippines

So next week, my family is going on our second family vacation in 6 months-- the Philippines. Back to the homeland. It'll be my first trip to the PI (Philippine Islands-- there's over 1800 of them) and my second trip to a developing nation.

This trip is causing a stir among the family because the PI isn't just any regular trip. My dad wants to see his classmates (as always), my mom gets to see her family that's still there, and the three daughters? 2 of them are stressing out and I'm okay with it. Jen and Joy have been freaking out the past week because of what will we do in the PI? where will we stay? what should we bring? I figure everything will work itself out-- and I knew Jen and Joy would want to plan things anyway. That's how London worked, too.

What am I looking forward to? I've never been to the Philippines, but from pictures it looks cool. I'm not one for hot weather, but it shouldn't be unbearable. A balmy 82 degrees last week and should remain steady at 82 for this week, too. I really want to go to the bazaar there because I miss that from my Uzbekistan experience. You can always find cool local stuff at the bazaars. The exchange rate is good-- that's what I love about developing nations, everything's cheap! $1 = 48.87 pesos. There will be some cool stuff to see in the Philippines, too-- Magellan's Cross (for full backstory click here), Sinulog (a festival for St Nino-- he's huge in the PI. See pictures of Sinulog 2005), Bantayan Church, but here's my favorite:

Merman Discovered in Cebu, Philippines

(you gotta see these pictures! scroll down when you get to the page)

I'll post again after the trip. We've got a layover in Hong Kong that we're all pretty excited about as well...