on the other side of the world….

Hello all!
After a brief outage, I think the site should be up and running again. Our host was having some issues yesterday. We’re in the middle of our spring trip home and are currently in Shanghai, China. Right now we’re working on an organic farm outside of Shanghai for about 10 days. We work for 6 hours a day doing farm work or administrative help (with their website and art projects) and in exchange we get a place to stay and 3 meals a day! It’s amazing! We’ll post more about that when we have more time but just wanted to update quickly with some pictures from the first 2 weeks of our trip! We’re going to put a hold on posting the rest of our Philippines trip pictures, sorry but we didn’t have a chance to get them uploaded before we sent our computers home. But don’t worry we’ll upload them soon enough.

A quick update of what we’ve been up to…
We frantically left our apartment on the 26th of February after being told we had to leave a day earlier because the new teachers were coming! We stayed with some friends in Samcheok then left for Daegu for a Temple Stay. We stayed at Haeinsa Temple for one night and had a great experience with the monks there. Next we headed to Busan (southern Korea City) to visit two friends from IU who just moved there to start teaching English! After a few days there we headed up to Seoul for a day on the high-speed train then flew to Beijing!

I developed a nasty cold while in Korea so we took it pretty slow the first few days in Beijing and stayed in a great hostel just north of the forbidden City. We visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, A few parks in Beijing, The Great Wall, and saw a Peking Opera. The last two nights we stayed with some lovely Couch Surfers named Prometheus and Lucy and went out for a great Hot Pot! Beijing was really a lot of fun and we definitely will go back at some point. (Kate found a number of galleries that have great residency programs!)

Next we took the high-speed train to Shanghai where we are now. As I said above, we’re working at the Biofarm in shanghai and having a great time. This morning we transplanted seedlings and now we’re designing some icons for their new website. (What a vacation!) We’re enjoying getting to know the farmers and staff and having a more intimate Chinese experience - and we’re learning a thing or two about organic farming too!

I’ve uploaded a few photos to flickr so take a look at this gallery for a sample of what we’ve been up to! Check back here as we upload more photos.

Hi Everyone!  here is the El Nido installment!  This is a rather large post laden with videos that I suggest you watching.  We got a little obsessed with our water proof camera case!

I don’t know if Chad mentioned that it was raining A LOT when we were in El Nido.  Above is a picture of Chad on our first day.  We were famished and dirty from the bus ride.  We just sat and watched the waves.

A view from the restaurant in our hostel.  Watch out for sea spray!

I have to say, yes, I went to the Philippines because I wanted some Vitamin D.  That being said, it was really wonderful to see the islands surrounded by storms.  You never see clouds in a postcard.  Despite the fact that we couldn’t run around in the sand without being pelted by rain drops, it was very beautiful.

One our second day the weather cleared up by the late afternoon so we decided to take a sunset cruise.  Cleared up meaning we could walk without being drenched.  It was a rocky boat ride but it was nice to get out and Chad took some magnificent photos.

On the third day we decided to sign up for an island hopping tour and brave the weather which cooperated above and beyond our expectations.

Island Hopping Boat Tour - Sea Level

Sunshine!  We are so happy!

Next is a video of me waving.  Woot.  You can tell we were adjusting to the underwater filmography.

Kate Waving - UNDER WATER!

My mask was a little tight.

Chad has some awesome nautical moves!

This is probably me favorite video (LaGOONy).  Chad head butts the camera and when the lens is in and out of the water it looks like we have HUGE bodies and tiny heads.  Oh, and NAME THAT TUNE!  Sorry, it’s me and not Chad singing!

LaGOONy

We finally found fish!  This spot was amazing.  We saw more fish here that our entire diving trip in Thailand last year!

Fish

Look forward to another fish video at the marine sanctuary on Panglao.

This is our lunch spot.  Look at the video for a panoramic view!

Lunch Break Beach

Relaxing after a long and wonderful day on the water - wow we got roasted!

The porch area of our hostel.

Our final day we decided to do a cliff climb.  It was fantastic.  Just us and the guide and limestone!

The view was incredible and terrifying!  Look at the video!

Cliff View of El Nido

We could see that red flag from the beach in front of our hostel - it was soooo tiny!

Me with our guide.

Water break!

Whoa Nellie!

So, after the sunset sail we went on an evening swim in the ocean.  I got in a fight with a stray board - it won.  While we were snorkeling my wounds got sunburned!  You can tell that I had fun!

Time to go back to Puerto Pincessa.  Above is the kind of bus we took to El Nido.  Below is the less comfortable option we took back.

Next, Bohol!

In other news, we are doing really well!  I can’t believe that our time here is almost up.  We finish at school next Wednesday, we leave Samcehok a week from tomorrow, then we take off for Beijing on the 4th!  Also, we will officially be back in Chicago on the 19th of April at 3:10 PM!  YAYY!!  We can’t wait to get home and see all of our family and friends!

Thank you for keeping Grandpa Baird in your thoughts - keep it up!  He is improving to the point of serenading Grandma Baird on her birthday/Valentine’s Day!  We are very happy!

Well, it’s time to look for some more Couch Surfers for our trip.

See you two months from today!

Love, Kad & Chate

The 3rd post from our Winter Vacation is from one of our more memorable adventures. After Manila, we took a small plane for about an hour to another island called Palawan.  (Video Soon!)

On the Plane…

Over this…

Palawan is often called the “last frontier” of the Philippines.  It was only claimed by the Philippines in the 1960s after being tossed around between Japanese rule in WWII, American rule earlier in the century, Spanish rule before that, and Malay long ago.  So, as expected this island was much less developed than Manila or our later stops on Bohol and Cebu.  We flew into Puerto Princesa (the capital of the island) and had to stay the night before heading up to El Nido.  We arrived at Manny’s guest house by tricycle (there are no taxi’s on the island - WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!) just in time to catch this great view of the sunset!

We took off into town to find some internet and came across this church.  They had 3 masses a day 2 in English and 1 in the local dialect.  Pretty cool!

I think we were hungry!

The next morning we left at 7am on a local bus for our next stop - El Nido.  We had the option to take a local bus for 300 pesos each (~$4) or a minivan with aircon for 600 pesos each.  We opted for the cheaper version hoping for more of an adventure …   The bus was a huge open air giant of a machine and looked like it had been in use since about WWII or so.  The bus slowly filled with all local Philippinos …. and us (the only foreigners in sight).

This was our navigator

This was our seat…

She was our entertainment…

The bus ride took a solid 8 hours to get from Puerto Princesa to El Nido.  We spent most of the trip admiring the amazing scenery, clinging to the railings as we hurdled down rough pavement, gravel, and dirt roads, or we watched the children sitting in front of us.

On top of the bus, people packed on loads of goods to ship, bags, and at one point in the trip… a motorcycle!  When the bus was full, people sat on the roof.  No one fell off, but I’m sure there were some close calls with the rough roads and crazy driving.

One of the many amazing views on the bus ride up to El Nido.

Here’s another…

We made it safely to El Nido.  Luckily it only rained for about 20 minutes near the end of the ride.  We’ve heard horror stories of the bus getting stuck in the mud on rainy days and taking 12-15 hours to get to El Nido.  We also avoided flat tires (another common occurrence).  Video of our arrival into El Nido is below.

The bus ride was definitely an adventure.  We chose it because it we wanted to have a more realistic Philippines experience and we got it.  We saw a lot of beautiful sites, but also so the shanties and shacks of rural Philippino life.  We stopped a few times and encountered some begging children, hungry and dirty.  A sad sight and a strange reminder of Manila.  The restrooms along our trip were shacks with holes in the ground or a basic toilet with no seat or water.  Needless to say we limited our water and food so we could avoid them as much as possible.  Many of our companions on the bus didn’t speak, or didn’t want to speak English so it was hard to know what was happening when we stopped, or how long we had left on our journey.  But that was all part of the experience.  It was one of our more memorable experiences of the trip and I’m glad we did it.

Up Next - the town of El Nido and it’s paradise limestone islands!  Oh.. and some great underwater videos!

Please keep my (Chad) grandfather in your thoughts.  He’s having a rough recovery from knee surgery a few weeks ago.  He’s doing better the past few days but still has a long road to recovery ahead.  Nothing makes us feel farther away from home than when someone we love is sick.  We just thankful for the wonders of Skype that help us keep in touch.

All the best,

Chad