All Driving, No Sleeping: Wedding Crashers
Trip Start
Dec 16, 2011
1
3
45
Trip End
May 15, 2012
San Juan, Ilocos, Philippines
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Instead, my mom convinced me to get in a car (more sitting...) and travel 5+ hours to the coast starting at 4:30am. I tried to change the plans several times from leaving at 8am, and then being talked into leaving at 4:30am. We stopped in the town of Madaong (I think that is how you spell it) to visit the Church of Our Lady. In order to get inside the church, we passed through a small street of vendors with people and children coming up to us trying to sell us things or panhandle. When we finally bought some food from a stand, we bought extra for some kids instead of buying their items. There are some rings of child slavery in which the children are sent out to the streets to sell the items, but are kept in horrible conditions and used to feed others wealth. So, buying them food directly us much more beneficial.
Before we were able to see the adoration, we actually had to walk through someone's wedding! We walked towards the altar, and the priest was saying the ending prayers to this couple's wedding. When the mass was over, my uncle told me to walk to the altar, in the same fashion that kids do during communion, however instead of kids a hoard of people followed suit and gathered around the altar. I did not know what was about to happen, as all the people around me started lifting their hands towards the priest. It turns out at the end of the mass the priest sprinkles holy water, and people come forward to be blessed. The devotion of the people around me amazed me.
The next stop was Chow King. My first Chow King experience of the trip. And it got me hooked on it for the rest of the trip...Chow King is fast food filipino style, rice included. Oh it is heavenly, and that Buchi? Delicious. They have sit down style food but at fast food price and time. By the time we got to the resort, I was feeling the effects of jetlag. I was only able to sit by the pool for 2 hours (oh problems) and then I was knocked out by 4pm until 4am the next morning. But it allowed me to catch up on that sleep, that I desperately needed.
The Kahuna Resort is a new, small, but cute resort in San Juan, La Union. It has a infinity pool, direct access to the beach, and small villas as rooms. Best part? It's relatively cheap compared to other beachside resorts. I say relatively because it is expensive for the Philippines, but the prices I know for hotel rooms in other places, it was cheap. The room was only $120 with gratuity and resort fee. Not only that, but you can get a full house (two stories 3 bedrooms) with private pool area for $500. CRAZY. Food and drinks were incredibly cheap, too! As well as their surf lessons which were only about $10 an hour (rental included). The only real downside to this resort is the location in terms of accessibility. It is quite a trip to get to San Juan, and even more to find the Kahuna resort. However, once you get here, you never have to leave the resort they have everything you need, and the service is wonderful. The resort has a TON of workers more than really needed for the amount of people here. The reason for that is that most are students working for free as "on the job training" which could be considered and unpaid internship. There are a lot of students studying Hotel and Restaurant Management, and they get class credit and are not paid to be there.
We visited where my mom was born, and the graveyard of my grandmother. My mom's family is extremely large because both of her parents were widowers with children from past marriages. The town she grew up in was incredibly humble, and it reminds me how blessed I am to be born where I was and have the things I had. One thing I have noticed is how most people have no desire to be tan, unlike the states. I believe it is because it can be seen as a sign of status. As the richer, are able to afford A/C and stay indoors on hot days, but the poor spend a lot of time outside in the sun therefore are usually tanner.
My first real morning in the Philippines was spent eating breakfast next to the beach, a great way to start the day, lazily. Tomorrow, we drive to Baguio, which is a relatively cool city in the Philippines because it is high in the mountains. The roads are windy and narrow, and the city is crowded.
