I've been on a lot of great adventures - and I'm not just referring to the fact that I've been to about 25 countries - but I'd have to say my experience in the Philippines was probably the wildest yet. Still, for the sake of comparison, here's a chronological list of my most notable adventures (note: some of them are perhaps a bit poorly written...):
In 2009, I had my first experience abroad in Greece (we sailed around a bunch of the islands). In 2010, I went to Ireland (where I almost got hit by a terrorist rocket), slept in a closet in Paris in order to save money, made a visa run to the Rock of Gibraltar, and hopped a train in order to catch a flight out of Frankfurt, Germany. In 2011, I went on a trip across America during which border patrol stopped us because they found seven pounds of marijuana under the bus. In 2012, I caught a ride with a truckie down the coast of Australia, worked as a door-to-door salesman, smashed up my friend's car driving through the outback, worked with a bunch of carnies to make money to repair the car, and also worked as a driving instructor for a girl that didn't know how to turn or brake... we went over the roundabout, took out a sign post (as well as her front bumper) and ended up in someone's yard. In 2013, I became a bushman trapping possum and living in the Tararua Ranges of New Zealand, almost froze to death riding through the mountains on the way to Christchurch, worked as a mountain lodge manager at a club field called Cheeseman, almost got stranded doing a 3-day hike in one day, and got a really cool job working in the middle of the wilderness just by rolling up on a motorbike - I later replaced that bike with a super dodgy one, which I then used for a two-day 1000 km trip through a storm. In 2014, I traveled around China (and saw the Great Wall), was locked out of my friend's place during one of the biggest protests in Hong Kong history, went off the beaten path in Malaysia, found a place for cliff diving in the jungles of HK... and almost got caught in a flood there two years later. In 2016, I did a huge scooter trip around Spain with a friend on a beat-up bike, traveled around Morocco in a Swiss friend's old van... we didn't actually even know if they'd let us into the country with it. In 2017, I rafted the Puyallup River (the second time there a friend almost drowned), ate some weird stuff in Vietnam, and rode my old junky Spanish scooter from Switzerland to Duesseldorf.
So yeah, I've been around a bit. Nevertheless, I think my trip around the Philippines might have actually topped them all... The story begins on Thursday, the 16th of January. I woke up to cars honking, as I would for the next couple of days... welcome to Manila - no alarm clock needed. The first day was just that way. I later got ripped off by a trike guy (gotta negotiate the price beforehand!) and spent the rest of the day testing my patience with the public transportation system. After hours of busses, Grab taxis and Jeepneys (ubiquitous WW2 jeeps repurposed and used nationwide as a cheap A to B), I had managed to visit the mall and return to my hostel. At least the day ended well seeing as I met some new friends on the rooftop of the hostel. We shared our stories and ate tasty Filipino BBQ chicken and pork - a major item on any tourist to-do list.
The next day I just took it easy - spent time hanging out with new friends and did some planning. That night Chu Sum arrived from Hong Kong and, the next day, we started our journey. We took a train, waited at a bus station for over an hour, then took a bus the rest of the way to Angeles City. There we rented a motorcycle from one of the only places in all of the islands (AKA the Philippines) where you can get something big enough to take on the motorway. The Filipino road trip had begun!
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