RETRO CANDACE: ASIAN TRIP RECAP

Yah, so I never did get around to posting my recaps of Asia...My name is Candace and I am a lazy-ass...I was cleaning out my e-mail account and I did wind up finding them...sweet ass...So for your viewing pleasure here are the upates....2 years later...HA!

UPDATE 1:Philippine Edition

Hoyhoy everyone!

I've just completed my first full week here in the Philippines and it has been quite the experience from the start. 20+ hours on a plane with nothing to watch except the Pacifier with Vin Dissel and the same episode of Sex and the City over and over is not cool. Although for the ladies, Matthew McConghey in Sahara was perhaps the only saving grace. =)

So far, I've visited two islands, Cebu (my home base/where my aunt lives) and Bohol (where my dad's from). Because my Filipino far surpasses my French in extreme crappiness, I teamed up with one of my cousin's to go to Bohol. You may laugh but it's true! When I met my dad's bro and he asked me something in Filipino, my answer came out in french and he looked perplexed...oh, yah, that was some good times.

In Bohol I went on a tour with a guide and his wife around the island. We went to Chocolate Hills (which sadly, despite its yummy name, does not contain chocolate), saw the tarsier monkeys which are the smallest primemates in the world and went on a river cruise on a floating restaurant. That was probably my highest thus far; the Luboc River's surroundings are very lush with various tropical trees and there were huts sporadically along the route. Some of the local kids actually even climbed bendy palm trees, all the way to the top and jump from them as we passed by. It was very cool.Anyhow, that's it from my end for now. Until next update!

Much love,

Candace

UPDATE 2: Shoes + Pink Urinals = Manila

Hoyhoy everyone!

I just arrived in Japan and I am writing from my cousin's place on the Yokata US Airbase. The trip seems to be going quickly and have so many stories to share but I'll stick to the most recent. God bless short term memory...

After hitting up Camuiguin (awesome island! total chill island and I'm pretty sure it's so small, I'm probably related somehow to everyone...) and Cagayan de Oro (my mom's hometown), I went back to Cebu and went snorkeling off Mactaan island. The sea was rather choppy so there wasn't as many fish as I would have liked. We tried feeding the fish with bread pieces; I was a complete suck and freaked out and let go of the bread as one of the fishes charged for the food...Nature 1, Candace 0...

Anyhow I went to Manila on Friday and I have to say of all the places I've visited, in terms of "if I had to live in the Philippines", it would be it. It's the most like Canada in that it has massive skyscrapers in Makati (part of metro manila) and people actually follow (more) the driving rules (unlike in Cebu or Bohol, where the dashed lines are merely "suggestions"). Also, the shopping is AWESOME!!! In one hour, I dropped cash for four pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of pants, postcards and a coffee table book and I only spent at most $200 CAD. I'm not very sure of what the name of the specific mall was but it's in the Ayala Center and it's larger than any of the malls in the Phillippines I've been to -- and I've been to a lot ("Malling" seems to be a national pasttime).

But the city is not without its quirks. First, on the way to see Imelda Marcus' shoes (more on that later), I noticed that there were pink urinals along the highway. Apparently, the municipality wants to train men to pee in these urinals as opposed to peeing anywhere and everywhere. Men in the Phillippines pee against walls, trees and even signs that state not to pee on walls. Eeeewwww...

As for why the urinals are pink - one of the municipal mayor's favorite colour is pink so therefore, everything is pink....even the garbage people's uniforms (well, green and pink lettering)

Oh yah, so I also visited Imelda's shoes...holy crap this woman has great shoes ( size 8 1/2 so if I was evil, I'd steal them and wear 'em...after cleaning them of course)...she had shoes in one style and in at least 10 different colours...she even had her own brand of shoes from a high-end department store in the Philippines. At the time of her exile to Hawaii (what a horrible place to get exiled by the way...) her collection was 1220...since returning its now @ 4000...not including the old shoes...

ok, that's it from me...Japan stories to come...

Much love,

Candace

UPDATE 3: Screw Japan, I'm goin' shoppin' w/LeBron James in Yemen

Moshimoshi everyone!

Even though (comparatively speaking) my Japan trip is a lot short than my Philippines trip, it didn't stop me from having the requisite "Candace" moments. For starters, I nearly lost my bullet train ticket back to Tokyo while getting a drink in a convenience store in the station. I wouldn't have minded as much if the cost was minimal but when I had to drop $150USD to get it, yah, that's not fun. Luckily, my cousin's wife found it on the floor and nearly took out a Japanese man to get it so I was able to get back. We 'celebrated' by having Japanese McDonald's (hey, I went 4 weeks without touching any Western food before that...everyone should be proud)

So yah about the rest of the trip...I did do the tourist stuff; I saw a lot of temples...then I got lazy and by the time I got to the Meji Shrine, I only took the entrance posts' picture and bought postcards. I also went to the Tokyo National Museum...It was good but only really got into it until the samurai section came along. The armor was very intricate and let's face it, samurai swords are cool =)

For reasons only Gwen Stefani only really knows, I did go to the Harajuku section of Tokyo. Unfortunately, I did not see any Japanese girls dressed up as Alice-in-Wonderland-crazies but I saw the stores that supplied the maddness. I did contemplate at least getting a powderblue bonnet but at 4,500 Yen, I opted on not doing so and instead settling for taking pictures of the dresses. Yah, I'm not stylish at all; just a plain-dressed Gaijin (foreigner).

The only place I did do a lot of shopping in Harajuku was at the Oriental Bazaar. I went to town there, dropping a lot on chopsticks, Sake sets and other fun stuff. I think I was there for at least 45 MIN. When I turned to finally get up the stairs to leave, I saw secert-service-type Japanese people at the Kimono section of the floor. As I went closer, there was a tall black guy there and I thought he kinda looked like LeBron James so I pretended I needed to get a Kimono too (which I didnt, by the way) to get a better look at him and it was him! For a split second, I did contemplate getting a photo or autograph from him but I decided that getting roughed up by bodyguards for his autograph wasn't my idea of fun. Maybe if he were Colin Farrell...so I'm settling for the fact I technically went shopping with LeBron...Anyway, my cousin's wife was telling me outside, they were tossing out b-balls to the little kids passing by but no one was taking them. The Japanese people passing by didn't know who he was and didn't really care and the little boys were just scared to take the balls...too funny...to be famous in one place and totally a zero in another...

Since I was in Japan, I did take in the World Expo in Aichi. I've never done so much walking in my life. We did cover the Middle East and Northern Asian countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen, China, South Korea, etc) quite thoroughly but by the time we got to the Americas we were slowing down; by the time we got to Europe, I only managed to go into Belgium, went to a couple of countries in SouthEast Asia and gave up part way through Africa (even though it was a small pavillion to begin with), part because of exhaustion and part because some creepy vendor guy kept putting weird stuff on my arm and petting my cousin's wife's head. The place is freaking huge and I would recommend if anyone wants to go to an Expo in the future, if you want to do it justice, do it in two days, not one. Your feet will thank you.

'Cause I was starting to miss Canada and poutine, we did go to the Canadian Pavillion there (Naturally, I was in search of poutine...sadly, none materialized). We were greeted by a mountie (hehehe) who asked us where we were from and 'cause I said I was from Toronto, we got the full VIP treatment - the line up for the pavillion was 10-15MIN long but we got to go the back door route and scored some swag from the hosts. My cousin's wife tried something similar at the US Pavillion and we got nothing. I guess another reason why I enjoy being Canadian.

That's it for Japan...going back to the Philippines tomorrow and then Hong Kong...see you all soon!

Much love,

Candace