#malls in the philippines insane

[ltleflrt]

hope you're liking the philippines :D haven't been back since I moved to the US when I was 13 so I don't remember much anymore but we have The Filipino Channel on tv so I can still see how it looks like there now... some of my mom's customers will be going back there to visit their family and they said that the weather there is too hot already

excited to read more about your trip!

I loved what I was able to see in the week that I was there. I got home Saturday 😊

Unfortunately I got sick 2 days into the trip, so I spent a lot of my free time sleeping. Most of my adventures consisted of a couple of visits to the Mega Mall, and watching the absolutely insane traffic on the way to and from the office. I was there for work only, but I met a lot of really nice people, and sang some karaoke despite my sore throat. No one seemed worried they'd catch my plague, so I hope they're all ok 😅

I'll probably get to visit again in 6 months to a year, and hopefully it'll be one of the coveted 2 week trips so that I can do some touristy stuff with my new friends. They were all very sad they couldn't take me to the beach lol

I've never met a group of people more eager to be friends. Granted, I knew them all from online interactions because I've been working with them since August, but I feel like they've officially adopted me 💜

[ahmeddawn]

Travel Hack: How to Saves Hundreds on Eyeglasses When You Travel!

Travel Hack That Saves You Money on Your Eyewear (Toronto vs. Manila: Your Eyewear Price Difference Savior)

I always wondered why eyeglasses cost so little in countries like Philippines and Bangladesh and so much in Canada and other developed countries. In Toronto, for example, a recent trip to the optician left me facing a hefty $600 bill for a pair of frames I loved. But here's the secret: that same pair could be yours for a fraction of the cost – in Manila!

Intrigued? I was too. So, I decided to hit an eyewear store in a mall in Manila to check exactly how much the same pair of high-end glasses with all the features like anti-glare, anti-scratch, transition lenses, and unbreakable would cost in Manila.

The Price Difference was Insane! Imagine this: you walk into a trendy optical shop in Manila, find the perfect pair of designer-inspired frames that flatter your face, and head to the cashier expecting a hefty bill. But instead, you're greeted with a price tag that's a cool $400 less than what you'd pay back home. In my case, that was a sweet lesser than $200 price tag! Talk about a reason to celebrate!

Whether you're a seasoned travel hacker, a budget-conscious glasses wearer, or simply curious about the world of international eyewear prices, this discovery can be a game changer. So, the next time you need a new pair of specs, consider venturing beyond your local optician.

Manila, with its diverse selection of high-quality, affordable eyewear options, might just become your new go-to destination for spectacular savings! Also, many other big Asian cities such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, or Dhaka would probably be good candidates to try affordable eyewear at low prices.

Please visit the video below to view my eyeglasses purchase experience in Manila: https://youtu.be/rGyYrPlKqI0 

[celesthar]

Garbage Bag

August 29, 2023 OMG!. I heard my father whispering to my mother about my trash bag I put into the garbage. How hypocrite of them. They were not even shocked when they see me listening to their whispering. They both go to the kitchen, pass by beside me, and saw them both looking at eachother in silence. So I decided to follow her if she will throw it away. Mother stopped near a boarding house on the way to the road. The neighbor named 'Noeme' appeared in the boarding house's door. They talked about me that me and Noeme seen eachother at Gaisano Mall earlier. Mother asked to Noeme if what I was doing at Gaisano Mall. I said to mother early in morning that I will go shopping and told her to buy the whiskeys I'm selling. I was thinking of she is wearing prosthetics, that my mother is fake or that Noeme is fake. I don't think she forgotten what I told her. I looked for the whiskeys I told her to buy when I got into the house. I thought about Monica Frog. Province of Aklan, did you know that Noeme is sometimes Marvin Frog, the Prosthetics King Frog of the Kalibo Municipal Police Station. The no slipper frog wearing yellow shirt and brown shorts. Philippine National Police. I go back to the house when Ji-al called to buy cigars. Then I saw father go out of the gate and back inside the house when he saw me. I go back outside again if mother is still talking to Noeme. I never seen her when I reached the road and Noeme too. I waited and looked at the left side, I saw a old woman so-called by the name 'Bebe' who has a Sari-sari Store on the corner of Kalibo's impounding area. She is closing her store. Then I saw mother right away. She was giving something to Bebe. And I saw she was holding the expired lotion I used before. Ew!. She showed it off to Bebe. I heard Bebe said that maybe the lotion is already expired. Maybe she wants to give it away, my trash. Duh. And Ew!. I smiled nastily smirking to Bebe. I wanted to say that I will be watching her. Bebe just looked down from me. I go to mother and seen the garbage bag that she should throw away in the back of a tricycle near Flor's house. Mother opened my trash to boast my garbage?. Ha-ha-ha-ha. I heard someone talked but I did not see someone but Bebe answered that Flor is looking for mother that is why she was there. I did not believe it because I smelt a Prosthetics Froggy there. When mother saw me, she breathed heavily nervous then she asked if why I was there. I did not answer her. She get the garbage bags and walked to the road saying she is going to throw the trash. She stopped for awhile glancing at me. She just waited on the road. I know she will give the trash to someone she's hiding from me. Seen Badang there also, she been to somewhere. We saw eachother but I did not care. When mother goes to the other corner of the impounding area towards the marketplace where she will throw the garbage, I decided to go back at the house. I want myself to believe that mother is really fake or got insane, her mind been controlled by Marvin Frog. Well, if its Marvin Frog and he wants a follow back, I already did that to him. I followed him before and he just roundtrip the whole Kalibo, Aklan doing nothing. I spend five thousand for my transportation. 😒

[mayadoesfandomstuff]

As I'm currently writing a long post right now based on Persona 3, I've decided to take a break and let my brain rot over some old ideas of my cursed "Filo Thieves" AU in which Persona 5 takes place entirely in the Philippines.

It's so stupid of an idea and I cringe at every thought but hey, misery loves company so imma inject these ideas to other people. Here's just random things in word vomiting out in bulleted list format.

The gsme would start at like 2015. Typically this won't matter much, but in the Philippines, there were a lot of major political and academic changes in the Philippines during this time so the year is a bit more important.

The Philippine elections also takes place on May so it would align with the 2016 May elections.

This means that the thieves may be about a year younger than they are in the actual game. This also makes sense since if the were the age they were in the game, most of them would he college-age because of weird school year stuff in the country and the story just won't work as well.

Joker and the other second years would be 10th graders though. This aligns with their canon age anyway.

The thieves are definitely memed on as the "Akyat Bahay Pangmayaman" and has had supporters since the beginning. Like huge supporters.

Because of this, I do think that even if people think they killed Okamura here, they would still have like a shit ton of supporters.

The international community could not give a rat's ass about these people up until the Okamura case. That's what I think would happen in this case. That country is filled with crazy stories anyway and weird criminal groups so why the fuss about them? When a wealthy local CEO got killed, people started paying attention.

With the other cases like Kamoshida and Kaneshiro, it was expected with the climate of the country.

Madarame was a surprise and did cause waves internationally just for a little bit.

The Medjed incident really got people talking but Okumura was the thing that really sensationalized the whole thing internationally.

Side note, of course all of these names would he different in a Filipino AU. Can't figure it out yet.

The PT case is being handled by the DOJ and none other than Prosecutor Nijima, a bright and trailblazer lawyer who graduated from UP Law.

She's not that directly involved in the investigation as she is in-game as Filipino prosecutors don't have the same insane duties as Japanese and Korean prosecutors, but she's pretty involved as she can be. She handles high profile cases but her backlog still has like a shit ton of drug cases and shit.

Joker doesn't get officially arrested but is sent to the DSWD. There's more context to this that I might elaborate on later but just count him lucky that he didn't die.

He gets sent to Manila from the province since his parents wanted to avoid the stigma.

Sojiro is just a close friend of the family who has to take Joker in since they don't have any family in Manila. I'm debating if he runs a karenderya or a private cafe like in-game or just a small private restaurant. Either way, I doubt it would be as atmospheric as it is in-game no matter what it is.

Joker lives not in the attic but some sort of backroom storage thing where typical house employees would have roomed in.

Some of the palaces would definitely look different but some might stay the same.

I definitely think that Kamoshida's palace might retain it's castle status but I'm torn between that and a hacienda but a hacienda might fit Madarame more.

I'm also torn between having Madarame having a hacienda or retaining a museum or maybe something close to the Philippines Culture Center.

Kaneshiro's palace wouldn't be a bank in my opinion but maybe one of those high-end BGC office buildings where millionaires reside in next to lavish shopping malls.

Futaba's palace could be a tomb as well, but if I want to Filo it up I was thinking of making it a deserted island temple or something like that or maybe an elaborate burial cave system kinda like those caves where archeologists keep finding ancient human settlements in the country.

Okumura's whole space thing could definitely be retained but I just gotta add that I find the idea funny that Haru's confidant would be dealing with her trying to keep the company away from the Jollibee Food Corporation.

Sae's palace is just straight up Resorts World Manila. Yep.

Shido's Palace would still be a boat, but I do want to make it that the entirety of Malacañang would be on said boat as sort of a reminder that Malacañang was built near a riverside. The flood that covers the country is polluted like the floods that cover the country regularly.

I have more but that's it for the brainrot for now. See you next time as I vomit up ideas on how Joker's treated as a Filipino palaboy in the big city in his fancy private school!

[petersasteria]

Whats the best place you've been in the Philippines? (Cities, museums, other sights)

LOVE THIS QUESTION.

I've been to a lot of places here and I personally love the old places. I've been to a few beaches but by far, the coolest beach I've been to was at Baler bc it's THE PACIFIC OCEAN. Like, THAT'S INSANE and I surfed there 😌

I went to Vigan when I was 10 and I want to go back bc as a kid, I never appreciated it. All I cared about was going back to the place that we were staying at bc behind it was the beach 😂😭

There was this science museum thing at Marikina and I went there bc it was a field trip and I LOVED EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF IT. It was interactive and shit and my young self was so happy.

I went to Bataan when I was 15 and it was beautiful and the hotel we stayed at was fancy and the architecture there was amazing and it was definitely my aesthetic. AND THE MALL NEXT TO THE HOTEL HAD THE MOST AESTHETIC ARCHITECTURE EVER. It was like renaissance or smth.

My fave place in central Manilais definitely Intramuros.

[miellimbaga]

Character Traits Common to Successful Entrepreneurs

ELON MUSK

Elon Musk is an American entrepreneur and businessman of South African descent who founded X.com in 1999 (which later became PayPal), SpaceX in 2002, and Tesla Motors in 2003. When he sold his start-up business, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers in his late twenties, Musk became a multimillionaire.

RISK-TAKER

Musk thrives on taking chances, and he does so with glee, and despite all of his mistakes, he has never been afraid of failing; instead, he is afraid of never trying. “I will urge you to take chances now, to do something daring, you will not be sorry,” he said.

PERSISTENT

He's been denied, dismissed, derided, and to a few, thought to be absolutely insane. Constrained out of PayPal. Actually lost everything in 2010. Blamed for not improving at building vehicles. Watched the Bird of prey 9 explode. It seems like a remarkable clothing rundown of disappointments. However, truly he's rarely fizzled, in light of the fact that you possibly bomb when you quit. Like Musk exhorts, "When something is sufficiently significant, you do it regardless of whether the chances are not in support of yourself."

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is an entrepreneur legend. Steve Jobs was a charismatic figure in the early days of the personal computer. Jobs co-founded Apple Inc. in 1976 with Steve Wozniak and turned it into a global telecommunications pioneer. He oversaw the introduction of such groundbreaking devices as the iPod and the iPhone, and is widely regarded as a visionary and a genius.

Persuasive and Positive networker

Steve Occupations was never caught in the creed of others' conviction. He believed that time was less, so one ought not waste it in living for another person's assumptions. He accepted that others' assessment shouldn't allow one's internal voice to get evaporated. Subsequently, a devotee of such solid brain was clear with his objectives throughout everyday life. From the early age of his life, he realized that he needed to accomplish something important throughout everyday life. Where a large portion of individuals were caught up with gathering their pocket cash, he consumed his brain with the prospect of making a major and effective organization.

Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is a media magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist from the United States. He is best known for co-founding Facebook, Inc. and serving as the company's chairman, CEO, and controlling shareholder.

Self-Confidence

Imprint Zuckerberg will in general be extra decisive He generally difficulties and discussions thoughts with his kin, he realizes when to give way and open himself to ideas from his subordinates. He likewise offers his representatives the chance to recommend any upgrades for Facebook.

Henry Sy

Henry Sy is one of the richest tycoons in the Philippines. He is the owner of the country's largest mall SM.

Goal-Setter

As a child, I had the will to take a stab at greatness and to beat the hard climate, yet I never envisioned achieving enormous achievement. Whatever I have accomplished didn't occur without any forethought; since the time my high schooler years I've dedicated many, numerous long stretches of my life to relentless contemplating, persistent work and longing for a superior future."

Video Source:

https://www.byui.edu/information-technology/blog/innovate-by-taking-risks-elon-musk

https://www.inc.com/sunny-bonnell/what-elon-musk-can-teach-leaders-about-perseverance.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/01/24/1887828/how-be-successful-according-henry-sy/amp/

Picture Source:

https://images.app.goo.gl/Dtkx8aUvBWXiP1ZT7

https://images.app.goo.gl/7P1YkjPc7vhEjDnNA

https://images.app.goo.gl/eCfb1f7i1mBj12hd9

https://images.app.goo.gl/DXV57fGf3JtrVi8W8

https://images.app.goo.gl/pHVb5k1GtB1hEC66A

[purplesurveys]

1038

survey by chasingghosts

You consider yourself to have good luck with trivial things. I mean, I don’t think too much about bad luck or take it seriously, but I do tend to experience tiny inconveniences daily that would be tagged as bad luck by anyone else lol, like how I always seem to hit red lights whenever I’m out.

You have purchased a book and never read it. Kinda, yeah. It was given as a gift, though - my mom once got me the entire LOTR book set for Christmas, but when I realized how boring I was going to find The Hobbit from the get-go, I was never able to open the rest of the books.

You have donated a large amount of money, food or clothes to charity. Idk what you would count as large but I’ve donated before, especially clothes.

You have visited a state/country where gay marriage is legal. I don’t think so. I’ve only been around Asia, which is, excluding Taiwan, generally a homophobic part of the world.

You live in a state/country where gay marriage is legal. Not in a million years.

You have a good sense of direction. Like, with maps? Hell no. I need GPS everywhere I go or else I’ll panic.

You dislike all types of gravy. Not able to relate to any of these so far...I love me some gravy, man.

You use more than two pillows to sleep. Engk. I use exactly two.

You find that you have to repeat yourself a lot. Kind of, yeah. Whenever I talk it always sounds clear to me, but now that I think about it I often have people asking me to repeat what I said so I guess I mumble more or talk more softly than I think I do.

You have spent more than $100 on a meal at a restaurant. That sounds insane lol no I haven’t. I’m not on that level yet. I did recently shell out a couple thousand bucks to treat my parents to a ramen place, but that was a thousand bucks for several meals so it doesn’t count either.

You have smoked an entire pack of cigarettes in one day. That’s sounds nasty; I haven’t done that. The most I’ve done in one evening is like four or five.

You use a blue toothbrush. No. Someone else in the family does.

You have given someone a promise ring (or received one). Have never given nor received. Idek what this ring means.

You have worn hemp clothing. I probably have and own some; I just don’t feel like rummaging through my closet.

You are spatially aware of your surroundings at all times. *shrug* I guess. It’s not really something I actively notice all the time but seeing as I’ve never run into a problem about this, I guess I do.

You almost always have your fingernails painted. It is absolutely never painted. I have nothing against it; I just never really built it as a routine or habit.

You are currently in a long-term relationship. I wish I could still bold this, and it crushes me that I can’t.

You are slowly but surely losing your sense of hearing. Eh, not really. My hearing has always been slightly off, though. Phone calls and video calls freak me out because of it.

You have friends in another state. All states would be ‘another state,’ since I don’t even live in the US. But yeah there’s Aubrey who lives in California, and uh...that’s all I can remember for now HAHA. Most of my migrated friends live in Canada.

You attend a lot of local events. I definitely used to in the pre-Covid days. Whether it was a pop-up bazaar, an expo I walked into, an art exhibit in the middle of the mall, etc. I tried to bask in them all whenever I had free time. I appreciate orgs’ and other groups’ efforts to make virtual webinars and parties a thing now, but it’s just not my thing lol.

You have lived away from your parents for more than 5 years now. I still live with them and have no plans to move out soon.

You watch cooking shows on television and Youtube. Sure. I prefer those with gimmicks though, like Binging with Babish’s whole schtick of making the food from pop culture references; Mythical Kitchen making fancier versions of fast food; or Epicurious’ 4 Levels of [food]. It makes the viewing experience all the more enjoyable than just watching a plain recipe.

You have a Youtube account and are subscribed to people on it. Yesssss, YouTube has been my bitch for a few months now. Been keeping me company and keeping my sanity intact.

You don't consider yourself to be a very creative or artistic person. Not a creative bone in my body. All of it went to my sister.

You have taken an aerobics class. Not that I remember. Doesn’t sound like something I would sign up for.

You are a percussionist. Nopes. I’m not musically-inclined in general.

You live in a city of 100,000 or more people. Yeah, well this part of the country is pretty seriously populated so almost, if not all, of the cities here have a population higher than 100,000.

You are currently listening to music. As usual, I have my phone tuned in to a YouTube video for background noise.

You have been using the internet regularly since 2007 or earlier. So close. I didn’t start using it regularly until a year later, in 2008. From the early 2000s until ‘07 I merely watched my mom behind her shoulder as she would connect to the dial-up internet to email my dad whenever he was working abroad.

You are the type to keep every single promise you make. It’s both benefitted and hurt me overall.

You find it personally insulting when people break promises they make to you. It’s annoying and breaks my trust, but it’s not insulting.

Your favourite type of candy is anything fruity. Yeah and I’m ashamed to admit it, hahahaha. But yeah, I like artificial fruity flavors in my candy, but cannot for the life of me learn to appreciate fruit itself.

You have cable/pay television. Used to. My dad cancelled the subscription a few months ago because we solely watch through Netflix now; we have everything we need to watch there.

You have a lot of celebrity crushes and can't pick just one. I’ve graduated from that phase lol. The last women standing for me are Kristen Stewart and Kate Winslet.

You have given money to a homeless person. Yes, I give whatever I can whenever I have change and someone knocks on my window.

You are a very skeptical person and hardly trust anyone or anything. Half of this is right. I’m generally trusting of people, but I’m skeptical of things I read or hear about.

You have one or more friends who are in bands. Yeah there’s Leigh, Redd, and Jofab who are all in their respective bands.

You live in a place where it snows at least a foot every winter. There is no winter at all here.

You live at least 10 miles from the nearest supermarket. 10 miles will give you at least 50 supermarkets in the Philippines.

You own a pair of noise isolating headphones. Nah but this closing question stressed me out big time because I’m in charge of buying these expensive-ass noise-cancelling headphones for an upcoming PR thing we have planned and everything about it is just a pain in my ass atm.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

So I’m currently in the Philippines for just this week. I thought I’d share some fun stuff that happened here during my trip:

1) Of all the shops I spent money at in the SM mall (the main mall in Manila), it was for Krispy Kreme.

2) It’s monsoon season over here. Just recently, my cousin drove us over knee-deep water. It’s crazy just how much water we had to drive through.

3) The Bumble dating app I’m using suddenly got 20+ requests over one night. I guess I’m a snack over here in the Philippines (wow, that was corny, sorry).

4) While attending this webinar for some important, non-interesting stuff next month, my dad and my aunt decided to watch Iron Man 3 in the next room. I think they were tempting me to watch with them since they jacked the volume up.

5) The drivers here are batshit insane. You have to be a professional stunt driver/racer to drive here.

6) I drank this fancy, ube boba milkshake while at SM. Now, I don’t usually care for boba so believe me when I say it was one of the most delicious drinks I’ve ever had.

[jimmiegoransson-blog]

New Post has been published on http://www.travel.boozted.com/2018/07/03/foreigners-reaction-to-insane-filipino-mall-manila-philippines-vlog-77/

Foreigners reaction to INSANE FILIPINO MALL | Manila, Philippines - Vlog #77

Foreigners reaction to INSANE FILIPINO MALL \ We spent our first day in Manila, Philippines doing some shopping in the huge MALL of ASIA! This might be the biggest Filipino mall we’ve visited thus far, and they had EVERYTHING! We ate there, shopped for clothes, checked out their entertainment hall and even went to the cinema! Great day 🙂

Welcome to our huge travel vlog series on the Philippines. We are looking forward to sharing all our experiences with you! If you haven’t already seen the previous episodes, you should definitely check it our here ▪️ https://bit.ly/2JmepBF ———————————————————————————————————–

New vlogs 3 times per week!

SUBSCRIBE to follow our journey! ▪️ http://bit.ly/2u1Sayl

LET’S CONNECT! Follow us on social media: Instagram ▪️ https://www.instagram.com/jjsjourney_/ Twitter ▪️ https://twitter.com/jjsjourney_ Facebook ▪️ https://www.facebook.com/jjsjourneyupdates/

We are also really happy about every single like, comment and share 🙂

🎵Music🎵 ▪️ ▪️ ▪️

Music in Intro: Adventures by A Himitsu https://soundcloud.com/a-himitsu Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b… Music released by Argofox https://youtu.be/8BXNwnxaVQE Music provided by Audio Library https://youtu.be/MkNeIUgNPQ8 ——————————————————————————————————–

OUR GEAR: Main Camera (Sony) ▪️ https://amzn.to/2s4Q8K9 Action Camera (GoPro) ▪️ https://amzn.to/2xauxFi Drone ▪️ https://amzn.to/2x6lHIq

We also shoot a little with our phones: Huawei Nova 2i ▪️ https://amzn.to/2J5Aecf Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge ▪️ https://amzn.to/2GImi2I Motorola Moto G5 Plus (died in seawater…) ▪️ https://amzn.to/2kliH1W

We edit on this laptop: Acer Swift ▪️ https://amzn.to/2x7oaST – Works really well with all the Adobe Programs, and you save a lot compared to buying a Mac. Very good “beginner’s editing laptop”

Camera Accessories: Camera Bag for SONY ▪️ https://amzn.to/2s8Xw6v JOBY Gorillapod ▪️ https://amzn.to/2kjGfUH

TRAVEL GEAR: Julia’s Backpack ▪️ https://amzn.to/2GJP6YI Fridtjov’s Backpack ▪️ https://amzn.to/2Lpd6np

$25 off Airbnb ▪️ http://www.airbnb.com/c/juliat6646

* Note that all of the above are affiliate links, which means that if you buy something through one of our links, we get a small percentage of the fee, without ANY additional cost to you 🙂 ——————————————————————————————————–

Hello everyone and welcome to our channel 🙂

We are Fridtjov and Julia, a travel couple from Norway and Germany on our very first trip around the world.

Here at JJ’s Journey, we upload daily vlogs to collect our travel memories and share all our ups and downs along the way with you, so that you get an honest insight into how it is to travel together as a couple.

We will also try to provide you with helpful travel tips and recommendations for places to visit 2018 that we pick up together with you on the way.

The truth is, we are just an everyday couple that fell in love with travelling. We do not know yet, what the future holds for us, where we will be in one year and for how long we can afford to travel. For now we are just grateful for every single day we have the opportunity to live the life we always have been dreaming of.

[shimmerjjang]

VIP Diaries: (Meeting Seungri!!!) The Great Seungri Show in Manila 2019

Hello 안녕 안녕 shimmers and VIPs! Wow, I’ve been wanting to publish this post for a while now because this experience I had during The Great Seungri Show in Manila is a FIRST in my whole life as a BIGBANG VIP! I met Seungri and I got the sweet sweet chance to be in a photo with him. Not a standee, not a poster but the real Seungri!! Gurlll, I could go on and on about this but let me compose myself for a bit and talk about The Great Seungri Tour which happened in MOA Arena last January 19, 2019.

So, if you know me or if you’ve been following my SNS and happened to see one of my posts from last year, you’d know how much I loathe this area. I swore I won’t even go anywhere near Mall of Asia after the trauma I had from this horrible incident. And after that, I never attended any sort of event if it’s held around this area.

THIS IS MY FIRST TIME back here in months. Only BIGBANG can bring me back! The bitter memories are now replaced, thanks my Panda Seungri!!

This VIP concert experience is made possible by K-Music Insider! I’m beyond grateful for this chance because the truth is, my budget didn’t allow me to shed 10k upfront that time for the VIP seats and photo-op opportunity. I would’ve settled for a cheaper lower box ticket but I still made sure I hop into giveaways with the goal of getting a photo-op pass in mind. And dear heavens K-Music Insider blessed me with one! 넘너무 행복해 ㅠㅠ

Gates opened at 7pm and I entered the venue at around 7:15. There weren’t crazy lines so I just went straight to the entrance. There weren’t any chaos (thank goodness) and I know it’s a good thing, but I’m kinda sad too because we weren’t able to fill the entire arena. The show was announced late so many VIPs weren’t able to prepare them fundsss (including me haha)

BUT when the show started, it didn’t feel like the arena isn’t full! It was a whole new party out there!! Just exactly as how I expect a BIGBANG concert should be. I mean, Seungri is a total charmer and I’m sure all VIPs know that he’s the best at sweeping the crowd off their feet compared to the rest of the members. Seungri has been my bias wrecker since 2012! Oh well, but yo gurl is tough and my heart for G-Dragon won’t be swayed by anything!!!! \\(^^,)//

Here are some fancams I managed to take. I know, I wasn’t able to take that much because I really want to savor the moment. Also, this is my first time to attend a concert without my sister or cousin (huhuhuhu) so I don’t have someone to take turns with recording. But then again, all throughout my life as a K-Pop fangirl, I have learned how important it is to really get into the moment instead of recording each and every part of the show. So yep, enjoy my mini fancams! 

Opening MV - Where R U From

BANG BANG BANG

Intro Talk (Some in Tagalog)

GG BE

If You

Where R U From

Fire - 2NE1 Sandara 

I am the BEST - 2NE1 Sandara

Go Away - 2NE1 Sandara

Dahil Sa’yo Tagalog Cover - Pandara (Seungri & Sandara)

Seungri calling his mom (haha!)

Tagumpay (Seungri’s self-composed Tagalog song LOL)

We Like 2 Party

셋 셀테니 (1,2,3)

In My World

I’m so proud of Seungri! This is his first ever solo world tour and I can see that he did so well in pleasing and wowing the crowd despite the absence of his hyungs. 

Did you watch the whole video? BOYYY I CHOKED WHEN HE SLAYED THAT TAGALOG SONG!! I swear that song by Inigo Pascual annoyed me for a while because I hear it everywhere. But gurllll, who would’ve thought that I’d learn how to love it. I’ve been singing it subconsciously right after the concert. I mean, I’m gonna be honest, he sounded more native than Sandara and Ryan Bang (he showed up briefly on stage too along with Anne Curtis) LOL

Dara was also a guest for Seungri’s show. Well, Sandara has always been a steady guest whenever BIGBANG would show up here for a tour! That’s OG YG Family for you, children! The 2NE1 songs she performed were immensely nostalgic. How can my eyes well up over happy songs? I’m still hoping for a 2NE1 reunion to fulfill my empty Blackjack heart! :(

Seungri has always been the life of the party and he’s so good at being in variety shows! That’s what he served us during his concert. For a short moment we all thought we mistakenly entered a comedy bar, not a concert LOL Seungri made my stomach burst out of laughter the entire night. He’s just GOLD! He even savaged his fellow BIGBANG members in front of us. haha! Ang lakas ng loob kasi everyone’s in the military haha

Seungri showed us funny photos of every BIGBANG member for him to roast... EXCEPT for T.O.P... So naturally, us VIPs will ask and look for him. When he wrapped the photos up without including TOP, all of us went “Where’s TOP?!!!” I honestly thought he’ll just brush it off, considering all the crazy controversy surrounding TOP, I won’t be surprised if he’ll just ignore us. But Seungri didn’t. He heard us and he gave us a very reassuring answer.

VIPS: “TOP!!! TOP!!! Where’s TOP?”

SEUNGRI: “Ah, TOP? He’s fine! I just wanna say he’s okay.”

ME: Wooooh!!! OMG OMG *hyperventilating*

SEUNGRI: “He’s super okay. Yeah. He will come back soon, don’t worry!”

VIPs: *crying and going wild*

SEUNGRI: “You know what, now in BIGBANG, TOP is MOST OKAY! hahaha We are all okay..”

ME: LAUGHING WHILE CRYING UGLY TEARS

Watch the full clip of that comedic/unexpectedly emotional part here..

The entire show lasted for around 3 hours, I think. Seungri gave us major K-Pop throwback as he also sang a lot of his great hits from his early solo career (Strong Baby, Gotta Talk to U, GG BE..), as well as BIGBANG’s! It was an amazing show full of nostalgia. 

Here’s my only #OOTD shot from the concert, together with my fellow mod at BIGBANG Philippines - Chi! 

We, along with the ladies of 2NE1 PH, as well as other VIP friends lined up for the photo-op right after the concert. Each photo with Seungri will be done by 10s and we’re fortunate enough to be the last ones in line so there were just 8 of us.

AND NOW! TADAAAAAA!! Here’s our official group photo courtesy of LOONG Studio, the official promoter for Seungri’s Manila leg of the tour.

I mean, let that sink in for a short moment. Gurl, MY EXISTENCE GOT PULVERIZED! I wasn’t sure of what was happening and if it really was happening at all. For the first time in my 10-year VIP fangirl life, I was able to see and interact with a BIGBANG member. INSANE!

As I was walking towards Seungri, my mind went blank. I just stretched my hand for him to shake and I told him that he did great on stage. OH DEAR I remember him just looking back at me, smiling and thanking me for coming to his show. I’m in a trance! And because I went straight to him and approached him first, I totally forgot everything I initially planned. I have my phone in hand to secretly record everything just for my personal memento but totally forgot!! Also planning to stand beside him (I was 2nd in line so I could’ve done that) but chose to just talk to him first so by the time I was done talking, everyone got settled already while I’m still lost in front of him! Also planned to stand on his right side because that’s my freakin’ angle but totally forgot!!! HAHAHAHA Basically, my mind stopped functioning LOL but I’m so happy I got to interact with the King of all Maknaes, SEUNGRI. Everything happened so fast and when we were asked to leave, I made sure I told him I love him! HAHA He’s probably tired of hearing that from everybody but at least I let it out my chest. ^^

Say hello to my very nervous smile!!!! HAHAHA My heart was about to pop out of my mouth! SEUNGRI is just super handsome and I’m not just saying this because I’m a fan. Like he’s legit handsome and his smile is so dreamy. He’s just genuinely friendly and there’s this warmth from him that makes you forget he’s a star. I guess I’m used to seeing K-Pop stars being cold in real life, but definitely not Seungri! 

Ah, seeing him so close is definitely one for the books! Ah also, I would like to thank my Moonshot x Innisfree combo for keeping my foundation on point despite going crazy the entire night. hihihi~~ (I will review these two soon, promise!)

I’m beyond happy to see Seungri’s last show before he enlists. Their OT5 comeback may take a while because of their military schedule and all these sad controversies that still stir everything up unnecessarily! But hey, we’re all waiting at the Flower Road (꽃길) so I can only hope that the kings stay healthy and happy. 

My next goal is to see all BIGBANG members in their Final world tour in Seoul - 2020, 2021, who knows! Really hoping to have the same amazing opportunity like this to meet all of them next time. IT WILL HAPPEN I CAN FEEL IT! <3

Read more of my VIP Diares here or my other K-Pop shenanigans here.

[written-rebellion]

Perfect Distractions

A/N: You have no idea how happy I am to have this posted on time. I’m at Niagara Falls with my relatives from the Philippines rn but I had the tiiiniest spare moment to schedule this chapter. 

btw, since it’s mentioned this chapter and it’ll be semi-important later on, a Jeepney Bus is a form of public transport in the Philippines. They’re huge jeep-buses that come in all sorts of colours and designs. Here’s a picture of one. They’re pretty cool!

Claire wishes she was home, Jamie wishes he could fly, and as always, all the facts of this fanfic are contrived specifically to make fluffy university/modern-day au scenarios. Please let me know what you think!

Part One: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] | Part Two: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] | Part Three: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] | Part Four: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] | Part Five: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] | Part Six: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] | Part Seven: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] | Part Eight: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] | Part Nine: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] | Part Ten: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] | Part Eleven: [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] | Part Twelve: [Chapter 1]

Part Twelve: Message Received | Chapter 2

It had taken Claire roughly two decades to find a place she could confidently call home, a place she could pin her heart to and refill her soul regardless of how exams, classes, or life in general drained her.

And that place was Jamie.

Nothing else on earth smoothed the static tremors of her life like the way his large hand squeezed her waist or the feel of his lips on her forehead.

At the moment though, the prospect of a softer bed and Rose’s cooking after weeks of work came pretty close.

She drummed her fingers against the armrest, dispassionately staring at the bumper-to-bumper traffic she’d quickly become accustomed to. The closer they got to Manila, the less it felt like nighttime as the neon glow of billboards and giant shopping malls lit the highways and reflected off the shiny, brightly coloured Jeepney buses.

Joe, in the seat next to her, patted her shoulder before leaning over to one of their mentors in the front seat.

“He’s got that pocket Wi-Fi thing,” he said, turning back to Claire. “We’re finally in range again.”

She nodded in thanks, thoughts floating anchorless as her body slowly came down from the adrenaline she’d ran on the last few days.

Within seconds of connecting, her phone buzzed so incessantly she thought she was getting a call, but the only Jamie she saw was the one frozen in time at Lallybroch on her lock screen.

It made sense, of course. They’d been off-grid for a while, who knew what kind of emails and notifications they’d missed?

She was heading straight for Jamie’s message history when the car pulled off the highway and down towards Rose’s neighbourhood.

Slipping her phone in her pocket for now, she and Joe slid out of the car once it pulled over.

She waited on Joe to grab the bags from the trunk, thumbing back and forth through her apps till she saw it.

31.

31 messages from Jamie in a small red circle on top of the app.

All manner of anxiety flushed through her. She’d expected a few, but to send 31 required just a bit more intent. Could she have missed an emergency?

Joe’s voice stopped her from opening the app, coming over with her bags.

“You okay there, LJ?”

“We’re fine,” she said quickly, locking her phone.

“I asked if you were okay,” he said, regarding her with raised brows.

“A-and, that’s what I said, I’m fine.”

He nodded slowly.

“I just mean, y’know, I know you and that kid were close…”

She bit down hard on her cheek. Inhaling quickly, she gathered up her bags.

“I’m fine,” she said, nodding to convince the both of them.

“Get some rest, Lady Jane,” he said, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “You’ve earned it.”

She smiled at that.

“You too, Joe. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Rest sounded heavenly. This level of exhaustion, she’d quickly learned, was fast to call dreams to her and made it much easier to imagine the small arms she hugged tightly to her waist were Jamie’s instead.

It was two even smaller arms wrapping around her when she walked into the house, though.

“You’re back!”

She held Angie to her for a moment, one hand coming up to bring her close, and finding her backpack instead of her back.

Claire looked up as Rose walked into the doorway, keys on hand.

“I’m working tonight,” she said after hugging Claire too. “Angie’s going to stay with a friend.”

“But I don’t wanna go to Tita Lina’s if Ate Claire’s here!” Despite her protests, she ended on a yawn and Claire smiled, leaning down to rub her cheek.

“I’ll tell you all about my trip tomorrow, okay?”

Tantrum successfully avoided, Claire waved the two sisters off and locked the door, waiting until she was completely alone to melt into the couch.

It started as a sigh, but in no time turned into hot tears streaming soundlessly down her cheeks.

There was nothing she could do. Nothing at all.

She dragged her feet to the bathroom, not bothering to assess the damage in the mirror as she stripped and got into the shower.

The cool water was an unmitigated blessing, doing well to ease the weight of those last few days in Cavite.

Settling into bed in just a shirt – not Jamie’s, because the scent had long since been washed away – she was ready to let dreamless sleep pull her in.

Her phone pinged and her eyes shot open again.

31 messages she’d momentarily forgotten had now turned to 32.

 >         I expect ye’ll be overwhelmed by the messages when ye get them. Apologies, lass. But, if ye read any at all, I hope it's this one. I love ye, and I’m proud of ye. I miss ye, aye, but I’ll be waiting right here for ye when ye return.

How the bloody hell did he do that? From halfway across the world no less.

She skimmed through the other messages, feeling the tears bubbling anew. But below, her smile was trembling much like her fingers as she wobbly typed a reply.

 >           Busy? Can I call?

She’d barely taken a breath after clicking send when—

 >          5 min, mo graidgh.

---

He sprinted back to the dorms, nearly crashing into John at the door of the room.

“Lost Wi-Fi again?”

“Nay, we—” He stopped, looking his roommate up and down. “Where are ye off to?”

“Chess club,” he replied, “And I’ll probably stay over at a friend’s tonight so don’t wait up.”

Jamie waved him off, watching his roommate’s back walk down the hallway with increasing curiosity, but a squeeze to his phone – like the squeeze of her hand in his – reminded him.

He sat on his bed, watching the call connect and already imagining her smile, her laugh as she shook her head at him.

“32 messages, James Fraser?! Are you quite insane?”

When he actually saw her, his entire body tensed.

“Jamie,” she said, attempting so much less than the smile he’d expected.

“Claire… What’s wrong, mo chridhe?”

“Wrong? N-nothing’s—”

“Ye’ve been crying, lass.”

He could almost see her trying to pull a feeble excuse from the thoughts swirling around her head. Then, she sighed.

“What’s happened, mo graidgh?”

Tears were precariously balanced on her lashes. She took a breath and – to his surprise – smiled at him.

“I bloody love you, you know? I just got your messages.”

His cheeks pinked but he said nothing, his eyes gently urging her towards an explanation.

She swallowed, understanding, before she started again.

“There was a little boy, Elijah.” She smiled faintly. “We all called him Eli…”

She’d worked and lived at a centre in rural Cavite, providing any medical assistance needed in the morning and teaching health lessons to locals in the afternoons with Joe taking the opposite shift.

Eli had been a particularly frequent and particularly young student amid mostly teenagers and adults. Only 6-years-old or so, he’d had the kind of bright-eyed curiosity and eagerness that would undoubtedly draw Claire to him.

“He’d want to carry my medical bag everywhere, even though it was basically half his size,” she chuckled. “Followed me around like a little chick so often, Joe started calling him my tail. And he’d have all kinds of questions. We could barely understand each other at first but he was—was so smart and—”

“What happened to him?” He could see her slowly collapsing into herself and his heart physically ached, yearning to break out of his chest and fly across the world just to comfort hers.

“I was getting ready for my second shift on our last day there and I saw a woman talking to one of our supervisors. She was… she was crying, trying to explain something in Tagalog I couldn’t understand and then—I… Eli didn’t show up for class.”

She took a breath and Jamie simply watched her try to ground herself, wanting nothing more than to reach through his phone, take her face in his hands and kiss her tears away.

“Hush now, love. Dinna cry, my heart, my brown-haired lass, I’m here,” he murmured in Gaelic.

“Dengue fever,” she said after a time. “It was sudden. It was fatal. It was—It’s—” She sniffed, despair shifting into frustration. “—we have medicine that could have eased the pain or— Or we… I could have—”

“Christ Claire…” He crossed himself. “I’m so verra sorry, mo chridhe.”

“I could have done something. I should have. I just didn’t… No one knew and—”

“And that’s no’ yer fault, mo nighean donn. None of it was yer fault.”

“I… I just—”

She knuckled away her tears, doing what Jamie wished he could. Every inch of him was on edge, straining to break across borders, distance, time itself to get to her, to tuck her into his chest and shelter her from the rest of the world.  His palms were sweaty from both his sprint to the dorm and the sheer will to keep himself from jumping on a plane and flying to her side this very moment.

“I miss you, love,” she said, sounding thoroughly shattered – exactly like his heart. “I… I need—”

“Anything. Anything at all.”

“I need you, Jamie.”

His phone nearly slipped out of his hand.

Read Chapter 3

[meitanreax]

day 2

hello!!!

here is my challenge for today >:) here are the most interesting things/funny things that i saw today!!

ok this first one is me bc the lighting was nice hAHAHAHFSLKDFJLSKFJ and i am very interesting (: to u (: LOOOLLL but yeah i thot the lighting was nice HAHA and my skin is nice thanks birth control!!!! 

ok this is. the 2nd one/..so i was just in the mall and i see this and im like kJFDLSKJLXCKVJLJ imagine a family wearing this? IM JFDSLKF i just like specifically how the shirt says fucking KIDDIE....LOOOOLL yah but watch white people wear this. omg i just realized they all have matching bottoms too im going INSANE LOL

3rd thing. OK! like i said!! my cousin plays shooting games...really funny tho!! lOL i did not expect that!!! at least she is a gamer and she draws anime chibis so im like wow. lOOOL #relatable #measakid #wow! she knows what league of legends is so i guess!!! she is a real gamer (but she doesnt know csgo or overwatch, but she is a huge COD fan LOL ???)

4th. i got gongcha and i dont know why this random dude is on the cup LOOOL isnt it most boba places like the cups are clear and stuff?? IDK LOOL philippines gives out like these paper cups and STRAWS TOO OMG..the straw was made out of paper and it got SUPER like...soggy after 2 minutes god please help me LOL

5th!!! this is the view from my hotel room ;_; i dont wanna leave this hotel cuz its so nice and i have my own space away from my actual botch mom...omfg...we hate to see it!!! but its super nice and close to this popular mall (whcih is ok, i am indifferent it is just big) LOL but yah!!! its super pretty sigh TwT lets get a hotel room together sometime again!!!

- - -

ok! for today, i woke up at like...4 am then 5 am...cuz of jet lag. (it really be like that) and then i just lied in bed pretending to be asleep(actually on my phone) so my parents wouldnt bug me!!! today i found out that there are actually lil bugs on strawberries..if u dont wash it thoroughly...scary...i am no longer buying my own fruit and chopping it up HAHA

so like i got up and got ready for the day around like 7 am!! my parents left to go to the gym at 6 and i was like wtf LOL they r probably eating breakfast w/o me..and I WAS RIGHT DUDE I TEXTED THEM and they were like yah come down?? and i got lowkey annoyed like BRO!! why u drag me out here and say u wanna spend ‘famIly tiME’ and then continue to do shit like this LOL but it’s ok!! so the breakfast buffet i went to was super fancy!! here are the photos below

they had filipino breakfast, and then chinese food too o.0 like dimsum! and the lil soup dumplings!! they also had sushi..which was weird!! LOL but it was brunch i guess but at 7 am...LOOOL i had a green smoothie (LMFAO but it was like...not thick consistency it was more like pressed juicery and p like nice consistency! it was mango, spinach, and ginger so it tasted nice!!)

i had fried fish and bacon and then breakfast meat thingy for breakfast!!! and i had a sugar donut!! also i had this filipino dessert that uses like almond jelly/soy jelly, syrup, and boba ^__^ it’s called taho!! 

it looks like this! O: i think u would like it hehe

anyways yah my parents kept asking me about my friends/you back at ucla and i was getting rlly uncomfortable cuz they were being oddly nosy....idk how but i ended up talking about how im close to jess lee and my mom told me i should become an influencer to get free shit ~_~ so im like dO U WANT ME TO BE A DOCTOR OR A INFLUENCER LOL which is it!! bro !! so annoying!!!

anyways we just chilled at the hotel room and my young cousin came over n stuff!! my mom left with my aunt to go get her plastic surgery or sumn idk and then me and my younger cousin and dad went to the mall!! that’s where we got potato corner and gongcha LOL

my younger cousin was shy and quiet at first but she opened up once i asked her about video games and she was more comfortable!! when we got back my dad just took a nap but me and my younger cousin (ez) decided to watch horror game let’s plays. she actually like knows some of the horror games i know cuz of horror lp’ers LLOOOL 

we watched one called the doll shop?? it was creepy it was like this japanese dude who worked at a doll shop, and he has a doll stored in the back of his private room that’s his ‘favorite doll’ and like literally throughout the game theres posters of a missing girl and then turns out the guy is hallucinating/mentally ill and the favorite doll in his room is like this dressed up corpse of the missing girl im KJDLFKJF I CALLED IT. DUDE LOL i was like yo that guy is fucked up!!!!! i bet he is hiding something!!!

we watched another one called ao oni KFJDLSKFJ its some funny pixel rpg horror chase game and idk it’s funny ill show u HAHAHA it’s dumb bc the monster looks dumb it’s like... SOME BIG ASS PURPLE CHIBI DUDE LOOOL

and then my mom came back whatever and went to bed...cuz my dad wants to leave at fuckign 1230 am for the next place we’re going to...im deceased cuz like i will literally have to nap for 3 hours then sleep another 3-4 hours on the way there and im pISSED CANT WE JUST DEAL WITH THE TRAFFIC LOL i dont want to leave at fcking 1230 am!!! what the heck!!

but yes!! im getting jollibee with my dad and im prolly gunna pack and then get ready for bed ^__^ but that’s my night for today!! ill update you more as it goes along :3 

OH ALSO our commissioner says she will give us our lineart for the chibis so ill send that to u later hehe!!!

OK i wanna try giving u a challenge too!! so ur challenge: take the prettiest photo of the sky/view tomorrow on ur hotair balloon!! and tell me if it’s like up!!! plus points if u edit pupy in it LOOOL & also add more songs to the playlist!!

okie!! that’s all for now!! ill update you more tomorrow! hopefully we’ll be able to call tomorrow night or the following morning ;w; its gonna be hard cuz im gonna be out most of the day/on the road but ill try my best!!!

i love you so much bebu!! thanks so much for putting this effort into making it work ;_; it’s a lot more bearable with ur contributions!! u make me so happy !! i am happy pupy too hehe i love you and miss you sososososo much!!! 12 more days at this rate <3 _ <3 i love you! so much, forever, more than anything, with all my heart!! 

[aventurasdeunatortuga]

Alona Beach Okay, picking up where we left off last time, I had been posting but I realized none of them went through so here is a mega post. We've been in Alona Beach for 4 days, here is what has happened Day 1 -Much to our shock and amazement we were woken up at 6am to find a police officer and our cab driver from the previous night at our door, and lo and behold the cab driver had my phone and returned it! He apologized for not having 'reported it'? I have noooo idea what transpired there or why a cop was there but I was just beyond shocked that the phone had made its way back to us. Faith in humanity restored. -So this place is a little confusing. We are staying in the "town" and I say that very loosely of Alona Beach, which is on the teeny tiny island of Panglao. This island is connected via bridge to the slightly larger island of Bohol, whose city is Tagbilaran. We had to get to Tagbilaran to go to the visa place so we got on the back of a motorbike (me, Emily, and the driver on one bike) to take us there. It started completely POURING down rain while we were going and it was a crazy ride to say the least. -We spent the morning in the town of Tagbilaran figuring out our visa extension, and we got it all done in about an hour. It did not take THREE DAYS like the office in Cebu City had told us. After that we went to the mall and then back to Alona Beach where we spent the afternoon on the beach watching the sunset, we had dinner along the beach after that. Day 2 -The next day we spent all day at the beach. It was a lot sunnier than the day before and the water was crystal clear it was amazing, I've never seen water that clear before. We saw lots of giant starfish. We also got badly sunburned, even though we were in the shade most of the time. Oh well. We had dinner at an Italian Asian fusion restaurant which was interesting. Day 3 - On this day we initially were going to rent a motorbike for the day to drive around Bohol but then it quickly became clear that we did not know how to drive one and it wasn't one of those fake it til you make it type things. So instead we hired a tricycle to take us around for the day. Here tricycles are essentially tuk-tuks, a motorbike with a big sidecar attached and a roof and windshield. -We drove first to the Tarsier Sanctuary in the village of Corella. Tarsier are teeny tiny primates that only live on Bohol and they are known for their gigantic eyes and very cute appearance. They kinda look like a bushbaby. There are very few of them left, because unfortunately due to their extremely acute hearing and vision they are horribly sensitive to external stimuli. In the wild they sleep all day and hunt insects at night but tourists now constantly wake them up and make loud noises and flash cameras in their eyes. This causes them enormous distress and it becomes so unbearable for them that they bang their very fragile, thin skulls into walls of the cages people put them in until they die; essentially committing suicide. The sanctuary we visited is the only place which tries to conserve the tarsiers in captivity and keep them from becoming overstimulated but protected from predators. They only have 6 tarsiers there. They live in a fenced off wood without cages where everyone has to be dead silent the entire time and not get too close to them or put stuff if their face. They were very cute animals but gosh I was worried about those poor things. After seeing the tarsiers we rode across Bohol to see the Chocolate Hills. They are called this because in dry season they turn dark brown and are such strange, unnatural looking shapes they look like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but they are completely natural and no one really knows how or why they are there. The road was very steep and twisty and it downpoured again and again. We drove through rice paddies and villages and through a "man made forest" (whatever that means?) which looked exactly like a forest in Oregon. When we got to the hills we climbed to the top of one of the hills to look out and it was so surreal looking; it was like we were on another planet. Hundreds of these comically round mounds sticking straight up out of the ground just went on and on. After we made it back to our hotel we got in about 30 minutes of relaxing before the power went out. We had no idea what had happened until the next day because everything was cut off. No internet or lights or AC or anything. Restaurants had to shut down, the only lights were those from motorbikes. We thought it would just last an hour or so but its lasted over two days now. We found out later through a series of alert texts to our thankfully returned Filipino phone that there had been a 6.7 earthquake about 300 miles northwest of here in Northwest Visayas. (Visayas is the collection of over a thousand islands that make up the center of the country, Alona Beach is in South Central Visayas). Anyway it was a big earthquake and the power supply for all of Visayas was located on the island where it happened and so those are shut down until further notice. They apparently got 1 out of 3 of the power supplies back up and are doing rotational brown/blackouts throughout Visayas for the time being (so we get 2ish hours of power, then it goes off for 4 hours, then back on, etc..). Apparently this happens a lot so most buildings have big scary sounding backup generators that sometimes but not always work. So we've been on and off the grid for the past 2 days, it's been a minor inconvenience but fine. We went and got dinner at the dark beach and everyone was still in a pretty good mood. There was candlelight and some places had generators and gas stoves so they could still serve food. We watched a huge lightening storm over the ocean while we ate. It was a nice evening. Day 4: The power was off all last night and it was like 100 degrees in our room, we couldn't open anything to let in air because mosquitoes. We slept on and off. At like 10am we got some breakfast, slept again because the power was back on for a bit, then went to go get lunch. At lunch a cloud of mosquitoes attacked me (I got like 7 bites in about 5 minutes) and I had an allergic reaction to it. Usually when I get bit by mosquitoes I swell up a bit at the site of the bite and it is fairly swollen for a few hours at least and will go away on its own but I think because I got so many at once it was too much and my whole entire foot started swelling up really big and painful and I couldnt fit in my sandals anymore. So we left our lunch half eaten and limped to a pharmacy and bought a single antihistamine pill (apparently they are sold by the pill here?) for 8 cents. We decided to go to the movies to get some AC and escape from the bugs, so not five minutes after getting the antihistamine we hopped on the back of another motorbike to take us to Tagbilaran to the mall. The wind and sitting on the bike and the pill made my foot calm down. We were going so fast my hat blew off! I had assumed it was gone but before I knew it, someone on another motorbike had found it on the road, somehow knew it was mine, caught up to us, honked and then handed it back to us as they drove by waving and smiling. I was so flabbergasted. People really do go out of their way to be so nice here. When we got to town we got stuck in the most insane traffic jam of hundreds of motorbike, tricycles, the occasional cars and some random pedestrians walking down the middle of the road. Literally the craziest traffic of my life including Mexico City. We realized after the fact that we had been dropped at the wrong mall and had to wander around the crazy streets and traffic for two blocks until we found it. It was like that scene in Mulan when the grandmother is crossing the road. There was just absolute chaos in the streets but for pedestrians the rule is to just close your eyes, put your hand up, and go and people will go around you (its crazy traffic but everyone is going at like 3mph) If you hesitate thats actually worse because it clogs up the flow. We got there and fought through five stories of karaoke singers and zumba dancers and shops to get to the movie theater. We got our ticket and watched the new Spiderman movie. After the experience of getting there, an action movie was pretty relaxing honestly. We got back pretty uneventfully and have been in our powerless hotel ever since. We're leaving Alona Beach first thing in the morning. While it has been beautiful here I do think it is time for us to move on. It certainly has been anything but dull. We are going to the biggest Filipino island (there are over 7,100 islands in the Philippines total) tomorrow, Luzon, where we will be for the next 2.5 weeks. It is where Manila is although we aren't going to stay there. We are going to be in the mountains mostly, first going to stay next to a lake/volcano in Tagaytay and then after that at some rice terraces in Bananue. Yesterday while the power was out I was reading my book about the Philippines and just man, this country has been through A LOT. I won't go through it all but it has not caught a break since the 1500's. They were colonized by the Spanish for 350 years and treated brutally by them (kept in essentially medieval serfdom by the monks and forbidden from education), became independent from the Spanish in a violent revolution only to be immediately taken over by the Americans. While the Americans treated the Filipinos better than the Spanish and installed basic infrastructure and schools; they manipulated the Filipinos to their advantage in just about every way they could think of. They granted them independence in the early 20th century, but continued to occupy it. In WWII they were forced by the Americans into conflict with the Japanese and were absolutely crushed. Manila was practically obliterated and the Philippines was forced to surrender to Japan and the Japanese did like death marches and horrible stuff to them. The city of Manila has been compared to Hiroshima and Warsaw as far as level of destruction caused by WWII. Then after that, a brutal dictatorship until 1989-ish. Now the dictatorship has been overthrown but there is a corrupt government, rampant poverty, limited infrastructure and education, and constant economic and political manipulation by the US and China. Not to mention volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis. So through all of that the Filipinos have every right to be angry and bitter; but all of that hardship has just made them kind. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met and time and again they have shown that they will go beyond out of their way to take care of us and of each other and make the best of whatever is going on. Like our minor island wide power outage today. Sure businesses shut down and there was no electricity or internet for a couple days but they made it work and took care of each other and didn't let it get them down. It was just a minor inconvenience and people figured it out. Everyone has been happy and singing karaoke and there to lend a helping hand to their neighbors. Because while the government may not have their back, they will always no matter what have each other's backs. Until tomorrow,

[tirsaroundtheworld]

Philippines

After a night of indulging in the luxury of Singapore airport, I arrived in Manila nicely on time for Bamsi's arrival. How great it was to be reunited after 7 months!! 👯 We literally took hours to catch up still at the airport. 😂 The remainder of the day we spent designing our itinerary, before we took off to start our 5 weeks of adventure. As the situation in the south was very unstable, we decided to stay on Luzon. Our stay in the Philippines ended up to be short, but sweet. Of the 9 days that we spent exploring Luzon we probably spent over 50% in any type of bus, but luckily many adventures happened along the way and these were the highlights: # After a night in Manila we made our way up north to Vigan, an old Spanish colonial city with a lovely old center. The Spanish street style combined with the horses and carriages, the old buildings, the helpful and friendly people, the magical fountain show and the shining sun made it a perfect place to warm us up to Luzon. 🌞 # Using a public bus, 3 different but all very local and overused minivans and a typically Philippino jeepney we made our way past countless stunning views from Bitalag to Cervantes to Abatan to Bontoc and finally to Sagada. This sleepy village in the heart of the cordillera used to be home to the Igorot tribe that has some interesting traditions for the burial of their ancesters. The deceased men who past 80 years of age are buried in foetal position in tiny coffins that hang from the wall of a cliff. This way they are closer to nature and closer to heaven when they decease. The women and younger deceased are buried inside various caves. Over the years with the American influence, more and more people became catholic so this type of burial isn't very popular anymore. There are however still some people opting for a hanging afterlife and the newest coffin was placed in 2010. An interesting tradition with an interesting view! # Being in such tiny places with rich histories and little modern developments is very interesting, but has some disadvantages as well. One of them became very real in Sagada; we could not get any money from the only ATM in town, our cash was running out quickly and not a single place would accept any of our cards. Sooner than planned we thus continued our way to our next destination, hoping we could get some cash in the larger Bontoc on the way. When in Bontoc, with the next 1 hour jeepney to Banaue already full and waiting for us to leave, we tried all ATMs, banks and other possibilities but none would accept our cards. Oh oh... This left us only one option: to go out of the way to the closest big city. This city was Baguio, located a 6 hour drive away in exactly the opposite of our desired direction and we did not even have enough cash left to pay a ticket for the bus. 😫 Luckily we met the friendliest local lady who prepaid for our tickets, had her husband fetch us upon arrival in Baguio, took us along different ATMs until we found one that would give us cash and then got us back on a minivan that took us straight back past Bontoc to Banaue through the night. So a 14 hour detour, a LOT of hassle and discomfort later we finally reached Banaue. A big shout out to this lady and her family, if it wasn't for them we would not have made it!! 🙌 # Completely exhausted we first checked into a little hostel to catch some sleep, before we continued our travels to the tiny village of Batad. For first part of this route we took a tricycle, but the last part of the route to Batad, located in the midst of the mountains and countless terraces of rice, can only be crossed by foot. On this last bit of the route we were overtaken by a local guy carrying a large number of concrete bricks running down the narrow and rocky path, who stopped to ask if we were interested in a local guide. We were, so we would meet each other in the village and he ran off. At the end of the path we were welcomed into Batad with the most breathtaking view of the bright green ricefields with stunning stone walls covering the mountains as far as we could look, decorated with the tiny village in the valley and a river running along its side. The sun was shining and countless colourful dragonflies flew around us; what a beautiful place!! The guy with the bricks introduced us to a local homestay and after a short lunchbreak his wife Eliza took us along into the valley. Eliza was an amazing guide, telling us all about the history of the rice terraces, the life in the communities and the local traditions. While we walked up and down the steep mountains and through the terraces on the narrowest paths with 5m drops, she amazed us with her stories about that the rice harvest isn't even enough to feed the local communities, that richdom is measured in the amount of children one has and that insane prices are paid for pigs and buffalos for traditional celebrations. After a rather intense walk we reached the highest viewpoint, which gave us a majestic view over all of Batad and behind and it absolutely blew our minds! Still dazzled, we descended into the village of Cambullo where we visited local homes and baught some ridiculously overpriced water before we headed back to Batad for the night. In the morning Eliza took us all the way down the valley to the waterfall, where we had a lovely refreshing swim before we had to climb right back up the mountain. On the way we passed tiny local shops selling "I survived Batad"-shirts in different colours, quite on spot! 😂 It sure wasn't easy, just like our adventures to get there, but the struggle was worth it for sure. Batad truly is an amazing place!! 🙌 Another nightbus took us from Banaue back to Manila, where we spend a final day of riding jeepneys, visiting malls and exploring the rather disappointing Intramuros and surrounds. And then it was time to head back to the airport, with mixed feelings and so much ground left unexplored. I will have to come back to the Philippines one day, but for now: off to Indonesia! 👯🏝🇲🇨

[purplesurveys]

811

What do you like to drink in the morning? I’m not really a drinks person and I’m fine having all my meals with just water. I like coffee, but I usually drink it in the afternoon or at night. What color is your favorite hoodie? Don’t have one. My favorite sweater is gray though. Do you have a string of lights in your room? No. I remember wanting those as a teenager but I figured it was such a waste of electricity just to make my room look a little cuter, so that turned me off from the idea lol. Do you know what you are going to do today? Yeah, well today I was going to finally register for a social security number online, but given that I’m from the Philippines and the government only gives their 15% in everything they do, the website is absolute garbage and I can’t get past the first step of the process. Not surprising anymore. Other than that, I don’t have anything else to do. Does your heart hurt? My heart is missing so many people at the moment, but it’s not really hurting.

Who is not in your life that you wish was? I wish that my late maternal grandfather was still alive, if he counts. Who hurt you last? Probably Gabie. She doesn’t have a good hold of her emotions when she’s mad and tends to spit out hurtful things without thinking if it would affect me. I plan to have a talk with her about it once we can see each other again because it’s beginning to suck. Can you see the moon out your window right now? Continuing this survey four hours later, except now I’m tipsy as fuck haaaaaa. I dunno, I probably won’t be able to. It’s been raining all day and evening so I might only see clouds if I look out.

What makes you feel inspired? Seeing other people with insanely good work ethic. Are you mad at a friend right now? Nope, no reason to be. Do you have a friend who hurt you and doesn't care? I mean I’m pretty sensitive, so yeah I’ve had some friends say stuff to me that they probably didn’t think anything of, but hurt me in actuality. Is your room clean? Sure, it’s not too cluttered at the moment or anything like that. Can you see the sunrise from your window? No, it doesn’t happen on my side of the house. If you were a writer, would you have a pen name or use your real name? I’d use my real name. Idk, I’ve always found pen names to be a tad bit confusing. Did you go to Goodwill yesterday? I didn’t, and I don’t, because we don’t have whatever that is here. What is your friend's cat's name? I don’t have friends who have cats.  Do you celebrate your pet's birthdays? Continuing this survey 15 hours later because I was too dizzy to continue typing, lmao. I typically buy him a dog-friendly cupcake from the pet supply store at the mall near my school, and I serve him more food than usual for lunch and dinner. March is a busy month for me with school and stuff, so I haven’t gotten the chance to throw him a party. :( As a kid, did you celebrate your dolls' birthdays? (if you're a girl) I never liked playing with dolls. But no, I didn’t celebrate the ‘birthdays’ of my other toys. None of them lasted that long with me anyway haha. Are you wearing a hoodie right now? Nope. It’s chilly right now, but it’s not wear-a-hoodie cold. Did you ignore the last facebook post that bothered you, or did you comment? I had to ignore it because it was from my grand-aunt, and old people like to throw fits when you call them out so it was going to be a waste of my time if I commented. Do you need to go to the pharmacy today? No, no need for meds anymore yaaaaaay. Are you realizing that one of your friends isn't a real friend? Not at the moment. I’m happy with the circle I currently have. What was the name of one of your stuffed animals as a kid? I didn’t like stuffed animals either. This is more of my sister’s turf. Do you have a car? If so, did you give it a name? I do have a car but I’ve never given it a name. With my dad having plans to sell it soon, I’d rather it stay nameless for the remaining time it has with me so that I don’t get any more attached to it. If you were a famous singer, what would you want your hit song to be about? I’d want it to have an important message so I’ll probably write something about the bullshit that the government keeps pulling on us.

Did you skip church last week? No, unfortunately my mom makes us watch YouTube recordings of masses from a certain church. I usually hold up one of our couch pillows so that I don’t have to see the TV screen, but nevertheless I’m part of the audience and 30-45 minutes of my time are always wasted every Sunday. Do you have any big regrets? Just one big one. If you had to re-design an alien, instead of making them green with slanty-eyes and an egg-shaped head, what would you make it look like? I’m not creative enough for this question, so pass Do you have anyone who loves you, besides God? Do you have anyone who cares about you, besides God? Do you have anyone who you can go to for support? Yes, there’s a number of people I can think of. Do you normally write in cursive or print? Print, I write faster that way. Does your heart ache for something? Right now I’m kinda wanting pizza actually lol. Do you fit the millennial stereotype? I’m not even a millennial, dude. Would you want your first child to be a boy or a girl? Girl. I don’t want sons. If you were to write an article for a magazine, what would it be about? I’m in the mood to write an opinion piece about, again, the government. Do you have a blog? I have this Tumblr but it’s really more of a journal than anything else, so no, I wouldn’t say that I have an active blog. I did have several classes where our projects required us to make blogs and I never deleted those, so those blogs are still up albeit untouched for years now. If you were to start a blog, what would your first post be about? I can see myself starting a food review blog where I journal all the restaurants I dine in. Do you think you are good at writing poetry? I absolutely suck at it and hate when I’m required to make poems. Have you ever tried a science experiment that didn't work? I don’t think so. Have you ever had a teacher who looked like an alien? I dunno what an alien is supposed to look like but I also haven’t had a teacher who I thought looked weird. Do you take gummy vitamins? Not since I was 14 or 15. Are your feet wide? No. At least I don’t think they are lol. If you could do research right now for an essay, what topic would you choose to right about? Welp today is our Independence Day, so keeping in line with the timing it’d be nice to do a paper on something about Philippine history. What are your strongest attribute? Personally, I like the fact that I’m detail-oriented. That trait has been responsible for presentable Powerpoints, has saved otherwise careless co-workers, and has made sure that all research, written articles, etc. are free from critical errors, be it in data or grammar. Have you ever been tempted to commit a crime? Of course. I think we’ve all been tempted to do something like that at least once. Have you ever started writing a suicide letter? I’ve written a couple ones throughout the years. ...and then realized you wanted to live? No. Do you know anyone who had to evacuate for the latest hurricane? Not the last typhoon, no. But my friends in Marikina have had to evacuate for past calamities many times because they live right beside a river, and one that easily overflows at that. Do you write letters to friends? Only for special occasions, like for Christmas, retreats, if they were graduating, etc. Do you like to write letters? I do but it can get so tiring, especially because I prefer handwriting my letters. I used to write 40+ handwritten letters, one for each of my classmates, every year when we would go on retreat. The practice was super tiring though so now I typically just write letters for Gab. As a kid, did you find diagramming sentences fun? The what sentences??? I’ve no clue what you’re talking about. Whatever those are, I’m positive we never did that in school. What is your dream? Money. Where would you travel if you could? I’d go absolutely everywhere, but I’d start by finishing off Asia first. When it comes to traveling, I’ve always imagined myself taking my sweet time going local first before venturing out to farther countries. That being said, I’d love to go to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Brunei. Do you feel all alone in the world? No. Do you own a piece of jewelry with an owl on it? Haaaaaaaaa, no. That’s such a Tumblr-in-2010 trademark. I did have owl stuff before, though. If you have a class ring, what color is the stone? Not a thing here. Does looking at the starry sky make you feel peaceful? It does. But if I’m really hellbent on feeling peaceful, I’d rather look at either a skyline at night OR into the sea during the day. Do you have a pen pal? If not, would you ever want to have one? No and no. Like I said, I’m pretty much retired from handwritten letters after writing 40+ of them every single year for around a decade lol. Do you drink hot chocolate? Only La Creperie’s San Gines hot chocolate. Sometimes I’ll drink hot chocolate at hotels too. Do you like apple cider hot or cold? I don’t drink that. Are you hurt by something a friend did to you recently? No, none of them have done or said something hurtful to me lately. Are you under 30? Yeup. Have you made a "30 Things to Do Before I'm 30" list? No. I don’t like keeping myself under a deadline. Do you paint rocks and hide them in your town? I’ve never done that before. Do you have a secret crush? Nope, am very vocal about my crush heh. What was the name of your first crush? Andi. Have you ever had a crush on a teacher? Yes, groan. Do you like parodies? Not always. Some of them can be a little too cheesy for my liking. Are you a Taylor Swift fan? Not a chance. Have you ever kissed a picture? I probably have. Do you use window clings (stickers for your window)? No. Do you decorate for fall? We don’t have fall. What do you want to be for Halloween this year? Not really sure yet...I don’t even know if we’re getting Halloween this year. Has suicide crossed your mind a lot lately? [trigger warning] Not these days, and I’m really thankful for that. I’ve self-harmed twice during the course of the quarantine and while that’s disappointing at least I haven’t thought about being dead, and that’s what matters to me. Do you have supernatural abilities? ............No. Do you get enough hugs? Definitely not these days. I haven’t been hugged since March. I think I might cry when I get my first one. What labels do people try to put on you? I don’t know. You’d have to ask others because this isn’t the sort of thing people say to your face lol. Who do YOU (or rather, who does God) say you are? Are you happy? I’m not happy with the Jesus questions on here lmao but kidding aside, I wouldn’t say that I 100% am. I just feel like I’ve only been floating or existing recently, but not fully happy. Have you asked yourself recently, Why am I here? I hate questions like that, so no. What family member did you get your hair color from? Everyone of them. Filipinos have the same features. Have you ever found a secret compartment? No. If you designed a house, would you give it a secret room? I’ve seen some interesting ones on the internet that make me want a secret room of my own, but I think it’ll stay as a fantasy. Do you read horror stories? When I come across them, sure. I don’t actively look for them though. Do you ever comfort eat? Yeah, I did it a lot before quarantine. Yabu’s a great example of me comfort eating haha. Does stretching feel good? Yesssss. Do you have your wedding planned in your head already? I have scenarios that play in my head but I don’t have the specifics – color scheme, flowers, centerpieces, location, etc – mapped out yet. Would you ever adopt a child? Not my first choice. Are you ok today? I’d say so, yeah. It’s not hot today so that’s already good enough of a day for me lmao. Was the last book you read good? It was okay. It holds a great life story with okay writing. Wrestlers write autobiographies ALL THE TIME which means that not all of them will be a home run, and AJ’s was neither earth-shattering nor bad. I definitely didn’t appreciate the unintended-but-casual sexism/misogyny in it or the extreme hyperboles, but it’s AJ and I love her work nonetheless.

[minamioroi]

The Filipino Shopping Mall are INSANE!: MALL OF ASIA PASAY MANILA, PHILI...