Week 11 - Solomon Islands - Manderley Gits

Vea sigoi, my dearest readers!

A few days have passed in this amazing, colorful, dive-a-licious country and besides the amazing nature you just can’t seem to get enough of (really, it’s like I’m discovering new colors and vegetation every day), I have only one thing to say. IT IS TOO FREAKISHLY HOT IN HERE! I know we have been very (very very) lucky concerning the weather during our trips, but an average temperature of 32°C is a bit too much for me (and this is coming from someone who suffers from severe I’m-always-cold-issues). The tropical monsoon climate of the Solomon Islands causes temperatures of about 30°C throughout the whole year. Fortunately, we have arrived after the hurricane and tropical rainstorm season. (we’re so lucky, I know ;-).

After our scuba diving experiences, we decided to do an excursion to the tropical rainforests of the islands. Unfortunately, there were no guides available when we wanted to go, so we had to change our course to Guadalcanal and Honiara, its capital. 

Guadalcanal is the largest island of the Solomon Islands, and is quite known for ‘the Battle of Guadalcanal’, a battle of World War II where the Japanese tried to take over the island. They thought the Solomon Islands to be a strategic place to put their military base. I have to admit I had no idea of the existence of the island or the cultural background, but hey, one should never stop learning, right?

We let our inner war soldiers reveal during our trip to the battlefields of WWII, although it didn’t take that long for us to become amazingly quiet. It really is a quite strange feeling to walk on a place where so many people have died in a war. We visited the US Memorial in Honiara, which gave us an amazing panoramic view on the battlefield where thousands of soldiers have fought for the Americans and the Japanese. My imagination started working overtime by creating a battle between a young American who doesn’t want to be there, fighting for his life, hoping to return to the girl he’s about to marry, and a Japanese, fighting for the honors of his country, embittered by the many lies put in his head by his colonels.

I must have wandered too much because when I finally snapped out of it, I found myself alone at the Memorial. Although I refuse to admit I got scared, I have to say I might have had some forever-alone thoughts and kind of prepared myself to continue the trip on my own. In the end I found the group at the Memorial souvenir shop (where else) playing with toy swords. (No, I kid you not)

To enlighten the mood a little bit, we continued our tour through Guadalcanal by visiting the botanical gardens, which gave us a rainforest feeling, so that made up for the fact we didn’t get to the original rainforest. Maybe we’ll get there later on, though this botanical really gave us a good impression of how the real deal must look like. We got a good look on the typical plants of the country, but the most amazing view we had was on a lake, entirely covered in lilies!

We ended our day by visiting Guadalcanal’s very own Chinatown! Well, the houses were more slums, rather than anything else, but it had its charm. 

We flew back to our vacation house, enjoying a sunset like the one we enjoyed in South Korea. It looked as perfect now as it did in South Korea, and it brought a good summer vibe into the group. We decided to end our day by enjoying a summer cocktail, providing us some coolness in this still invincible heat.

Lots of peace, love and plastic sword souvenirs to you all

Manderley

Sources:

http://www.worldtravelguide.net/solomon-islands/things-to-do

http://www.landenkompas.nl/salomonseilanden

http://www.travelwizard.com/southpacific/solomon-islands/guadalcanal/

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slag_om_Guadalcanal

http://www.guadalcanal.com/

http://battlefields.com.au/index.php/tours/54

Week 11- Anne Hallez- Solomon islands

We all have that fantasy place in our imagination, that place we go to when we have to work, study or when the weather's really bad. A place with a lot of sun, palm trees and pearl white beaches. If you agree and if you like what you hear, the Solomon islands are the way to go. It's a different kind of beauty than we experienced in other countries. It's a place to go surfing, scuba diving and go swimming with dolphins. And that's exactly what we were going to do.

The first thing that came to mind when we entered the world outside of the Nusatope airport when we arrive in Gizo, was the heat. It was almost to warm and I immediately felt the need to run to the beach and go jump in the water.

But first we took our bags to a little house that was preserved for us just on the edge of the island. For the first time ever, I had no words. The house here is big, white and beautiful. There’s a pool at the back that seems like it’s floating on the real water of the island. While the others were immediately looking for the bests rooms in the house, I ran to this little bed next to the pool, laid down, and forgot why we were there.When I looked at my right, I saw nothing but blue and the only thing I could think about, was that I never wanted to leave this place.


The sound of the doorbell woke me up from my daydreaming. Our scuba instructor entered and told us that he would be teaching us how to use scuba diving gear in our very own pool. He showed us how to breath trough a oxygen mask, teached us how to dive really low, how to handle the weight of the tanks strapped around our backs and finally the necessary signing language that’s used to signal each other while diving. 
It was hard at first, but after a while we all seemed to master all the necessary things to actually go into the water and go scuba diving. After being surrounded by what seemed to be nothing but blue, It seemed like a good thing to be surrounded by the actual blue of the water that surrounds the island. We packed up and got ready to discover the beauty of the see.

We got on a little boat, that drove us to the middle of the ocean and prepared ourselves to jump into the water. When we did, we were surprised by how hot the water actually was. Our diving instructor told us that the water temperature was a good 28 degrees and that the fish living in the water actually need it to be this warm. 

Jeroen was the first one to go in the water, followed by Annelien, Audrey and finally Emily. Manderley, Els and me were a little doubtful to go in but because our diving instructor told us that it was important to stick together, we all counted to five and got in to the warm water. It took me a while at first, to adapt to breathing trough a machine, but the calmness and colorfulness of the water overwhelmed any problems I had adjusting. In my orange bathing suit, I felt one with the colors of the sea. There were so many kinds of fish in the water, that I didn't know where to look first. The colors of the reefs, the corals and especially the multicolored fish were breathtaking. I tended to keep my distance though, cause this underwater world felt very unfamiliar to me. 

Our instructor signed that it was time dive and go deeper into the sea. What we saw there was what we hoped for, but didn't dare to expect. There was a group of dolphins just swimming below us and it felt like there were thousands of them.We could hear them making sounds that I had only heard on Zen Cd's and it made me want to get closer to them. When we got closer, we were amazed by the fact that they weren't afraid of us. It seemed like they were smiling at us and like they didn't have a care in the world, just like we did then. 

After actually swimming with the dolphins, it was time for us to go out of the water and into the light. We got back into our boat and headed back to shore. All the way back, we couldn't stop talking about all the amazing things we saw. Back in our hotel, we all took a swim because it felt like the natural thing to do now. And after working up a real appetite, we decided to eat something and crawl into bed. When I closed my eyes, I knew these weeks would be hard to forget. I'm actually writing you now, really early in the morning, because there's a week left of blue and discovering to do. I hope you enjoy these talks, and for those of you who would like to know what we saw and experienced, down below there's a little film I got from our scuba instructor to show what diving in the pacific sea looks like. I hope you enjoy it, I'm off to have breakfast.


Write you soon!


Anne

Sources:
http://www.tropicalparadise.net/solomon-islands.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Islands
http://www.diveadventures.com.au/pages/destinations/Solomon/solomons.htm
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2xCbQGHvRA
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMWz9pnWlqE
 http://www.diversiondivetravel.com.au/dive_travel/south_pacific/solomons/diving_solomons_r27t.html?gclid=COWT7u-Zna8CFQdJ3godTWETcQ

Annelien Pattyn - Week 11 - Solomon Islands

Hi, you there!

Actually, I shouldn’t laugh with the fact that most of you are sitting at home (some of you in our own home country: the rainy (?) Belgium), but actually, it’s stronger than me so I still do… SORRY! Hopefully, I can cheer you up with my story and let you dream a little bit…

Yes, we’re still in the Solomon Islands and I amuse myself very well here, just like my other travel friends. I can’t describe this place any better than Anne has already did: “A place with a lot of sun, palm trees and pearl white beaches.” Unfortunately, it’s our last weekend here L. Actually, I want to stay here a little longer but there still is another country on our planning that we have to see: Perth, Australia! One thing I know for sure is that I’ll ever come back again to this beautiful place for a longer time!

Wednesday, Manderley wrote about that we wanted to do an excursion to the tropical rainforests of the Islands but then, there were no guides available. Glad as we are, today  there were some(!) guides available to show us the rainforests. I repeat: “some guides” so, we still could choose a guide… I agreed with the other girls that it would be Ricardo ( see photo ;-)). Although there also were girls available to guide us, Jeroen had nothing to say on our choice J.

Ricardo told us that around 80 % of the Solomon Islands are covered with tropical rainforests and that they are important reservoirs of global biodiversity and fixed carbon. Of the 163 land birds that breed in the Solomon Islands, an astonishing 72 species (44% of Solomon Islands land birds) are found nowhere else in the world, while another 62 (38%) are considered unique subspecies. the Solomon Islands rainforests also support numerous endemic amphibians, reptiles, molluscs, insects and several endemic plant groups reflecting unique patterns of speciation, isolation and dispersal. I found this excursion very spectacular because I’ve never had seen a rainforest in my life. Now, I got a different view on nature… It’s so beautiful!

After this trip, we were so one with the nature that we decided to go to the Kwaibala Waterfall. Ricardo joined us because it’s on private land and difficult to find. If you need to refresh yourself (and that’s what we did), nothing can beat this Waterfall. It’s about 3 km from the centre, but we took a taxi to the Kwaibala River, from there we had to walk 25 minutes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our swimwear with us…

After a long day, we returned to our hotel. I don’t know yet what we are going to do this evening, but I’ll see. Maybe, we are going to a restaurant or a pub…

I will write you next week in Perth, Australia!

Hugs & kisses from the oh so beautiful Solomon Islands!

Annelien

Sources

http://www.illegal-logging.info/approach.php?a_id=110

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/biologicalsci/staff/details/d.burslem

http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5416/

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/solomon-islands/things-to-do

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Week 10 - Annelien Pattyn - Papua New Guinea

Dearest readers

Waaaw, this country is truly amazing although I think you know it already from the stories of Audrey and Els but I wanted to repeat one more time. Hehe J

Unfortunately, it’s our last day here but I can’t wait to go to the Solomon Islands because I think it’s also very beautiful… I’m curious!

Jeroen wanted to go to the Parliament Haus today and that’s what we did… Actually the other girls and I didn’t want to go but we wanted to do him a favor… but I have to say: it was quite impressive…

The Parliament Haus was officially opened in 1984 with Prince Charles on hand. The main building is in the style of a Maprik, or Sepik-style, haus tambaran, while the attached, circular cafeteria building follows Highland design principles. The façade is quite stunning, with a mosaic featuring unmistakably PNG motifs. Photographers with wide-angle lenses will be rewarded with great shots in the late afternoon light.

The cavernous lobby is entered through doors whose handles are stylised kundu drums, which is an hourglass-shaped drum with lizard skin. Inside, huge Sepik masks share space with several display cases full of fantastic butterflies, including the native Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (the world's largest at 30cm wingspan across), beetles and some very large stick insects. The display cases are easy to miss; they're under the stairs. Photography inside Parliament Haus is forbidden. That’s why there aren’t any pictures here (I’m sorry for that). I’ve looked on the internet, but I can’t find any…

It's possible to visit the chamber and witness parliament when it's sitting. A taxi from Boroko costs about around K15 or around K20 from Town. Alternatively, take a PMV along Waigani Dr, get out at the white, empty Pineapple Building, and walk about 2km northeast. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to visit it. Maybe next time if we ever come again?

I’m so hungry, guys so I’ll end my blog here.

C u in the Solomon Islands ;-)

Xoxo, Annelien

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/papua-new-guinea/port-moresby/sights/museum/parliament-haus

week 10 - Bekaert Els - Papua New Guinea

Hi everybody

Here I’m again, writing from the beautiful country “Papua New Guinea”. I can’t believe how beautiful it really is here.  Today we went for a backpacking trip through the seaside resort in the province “Madang”. Madang is located nortside of the island and it is known for the fertile grounds and high peaks. Offshore they are a couple of volcanic islands. These volcanos are still very active and you can see the hot lava bubbling in the craters. Madang has also a very interesting history. It was destroyed in the Second World War through very severe and bloody fights. The town of Madang, which is the capital of the province, was completely ruined. When it was rebuild after the war, they’ve build many beautiful public gardens and ponds.  Madang is now known for their art. After a guided tour through the province, we rested at the beautiful beach with palm trees. The coastal waters are perfect to snorkel and scuba dive. Inland, in the rainforest, you’ll find hundreds of tropical birds. I still can’t believe how enchanting they are.

The country depends for the greater part of the export of wood, fish and minerals. Approximately 72% of the economy depends of this. But these land reclamation is made more difficult through the rough terrain. It really depends on these natural resources. Also Cacoa, oil palm and tea are famous products for the export.  There isn’t an export of industrial products, because of the high shipping costs, high wages and limited domestic market. So Papua New Guinea has to import all the industrial products. The country also depends on the support from other countries, like Australia, the European Union, Japan, China… Australia is the biggest contributor of all and Papua New Guinea knows strong ties with Australia.

After this trip through the province of Madang, we went more inland in seek of a native tribe. It was my wish to see how these isolated people live. And yes… after a long hike, we met a local who would guide us towards a little village.  The whole group was exited and we couldn’t get our nerves under control. Finally we would meet these intriguing people.

It was a real culture shock. The man were only dressed with a koteka for their penis. The woman with a skirt made of grasses. Their boobs were uncovered and danced with every step they took.  I couldn’t hold a little smile. The tribe was very curious when they saw us, because they don’t see often ‘white people’. But after a little acquaintance, they were at ease with us. They began to show us their way of living and invited us in their village.

It was really an extraordinary day. I still can’t believe that my dream came true.

Sweet dreams (I’m sure I will),

Lots of love

Els

Week 10 - Papua new guinea - Audrey Vanderstraeten

Dear readers,

Els already wrote about our first day in Papu New Guinea and how we arived in Port Moresby. Since I was very impressed by this city I wanted to write a bit more so that you as wel can experience what we saw.

This was the first time that we visited Port Moresby, the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea.

Port Moresby has relatively constant temperatures throughout the year that vary from 24°C up to 32°C depending on time of year. I already heard a lot of this city and couldn’t wait to see it with my own eyes.

My first impression was confronting and intimidating. It might be the largest city of PNG but it’s definitely not the cutest. Port Moresby is known as one of the world’s least livable cities. However, it does have some redeeming features.

The most impressive building is the Parliament Haus, the mosaic façade of Parliament Haus will excite any photographer.  Another place worth visiting are the National Botanical Gardens they are definitely one of Port Moresby highlights and when the orchids are blooming, it’s perhaps the city’s most charming spot. 

Outside town, Varirata National Park is heaven for bird-watchers. 


It’s a small part of PNG’s future and it’s fascinating to talk with locals to sense what it’s like to live in a city rated one of the earth’s most dangerous and least livable.

Being mindful is necessary in Port Moresby but there’s no need to be paranoid. With so little work available, most people sit around smoking, chewing betel nut, reading the newspapers. At the end of the day the locals will regale you with good manners and thoughtful conversations.

Experiencing Port Moresby is about people rather than sights.

Write to you soon!

XO-XO
Audrey Vanderstraeten

Sources:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/papua-new-guinea/port-moresby http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Moresby

week 10 - Bekaert Els - Papua New Guinea

Hi my dear readers,

After an amazing trip through the zen-world of Japan, we arrived at Papua New Guinea. There’s a lot to tell about this fascinating country. I think Papua New Guinea is still rather unknown for most of us. It is a country not yet damaged by tourism. Maybe because of the fact that Papua New Guinea is the last discovered country by the western people.  You can find this magnificent island North of Australia and bordering Indonesia.  Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern part of the island New-Guinea and a few surrounding islands.  It’s the second largest island in the world, after Greenland. And it’s the highest tropical country with mountains as high as 5000 meter.

Papua New Guinea is a land with lots of opposites: rainforests, rivers, valleys, highland, mountains, shore, coral reefs and forests with mangroves.  It’s known for its incredible nature and wildlife. It has the most unique fauna and flora of the world. Nature has had all the time to expand and develop without human interference. I couldn’t wait to explore this country. And today it finally happened. We arrived at the capital ‘Port-Moresby’, located on the southeastern coast of the main island. Port Moresby is a city with almost 200 000 inhabitants. It’s a surprising modern city, in contrast with the rest of the country, which is still very rustic. After visiting this city, we decided to leave the capital in search for the countryside.

When we left the city and walked in the middle of the beautiful nature, I was speechless. I saw flowers that I had never seen in my life, and mammals that I only knew from television.  I saw the most colorful birds, birds with feathers in all the colors of the rainbow. I’ve never seen a bird-of-paradise in real life, but it was really impressive.

There also live more than thousand different tribes divided over the island Papua New Guinea. All these tribes have different cultures and rituals. I’m hoping that we can visit one during our trip in Papua New Guinea. I’ll find it fascinating to see how these tribes live, work, love…  

I’m going to end my blog for today because I’m very tired, but Audrey will tell you a bit more about our day in Port-Moresby. I’ll write to you soon from this fascinating country called Papua New Guinea.

Sleep tight,

Love

Els 

Week 9 - The Philippines - Manderley Gits

Kamusta, once again, dearest readers!

If you’re reading this blog you’re probably wondering how our night out in Boracay ended. Well, I wasn’t hungover this time (yay for me!) but Audrey on the other hand had a few drinks she probably shouldn’t have had. (the poor thing had to sit through a few boat rides, which wasn’t that fortunate for her, but oooh so funny for us)

But, well, our trip has no mercy for hangovers, so we went on and visited some more places in the centre and south of the country, before we headed back to Las Piñas and later on Manilla to get our flight to Papua New Guinea.

First of all, we went to Bohol, an island province in the Central Visayas region. Since it’s surrounded by water, it can only be reached by boat (which we decided to do) or airplane. Immediately we could see that tourism was the most important part of their economy. They have beautiful beaches (but then again, you can find those throughout the whole island group) and some churches and ruins from Spanish colonial times. Also, they have the coolest tourist attraction ever! The Chocolate hills.(no, I kid you not) They’re a geological formation of little hills on top of a plateau.

Because of the dullness of the historical origin of the hills, I would rather tell you about the legend that forms a more interesting (and romantic) base concerning the origin of the hills. There once was a giant named Arogo, who had a lot of power. He fell in love with Aloya, a simple and mortal girl. When Aloya died, the pain of losing the one he loved so intensely dreadfully cut up Arogo. In fact, he could not stop crying over his love. When his tears dried, they formed the Chocolate Hills. Romantic, right?

Afterwards we took a ferryboat that sailed slowly through the cane of the island and showed us the Pintadas, or the ‘original’ residents of the island. We could see it was nothing more than a cultural attraction for tourists, but still it gave a warm feeling, sailing through the peace and quiet of Bohol.

We met another group of young travelers who took us to a little island near Bohol, of which we had never heard before: Balicasag. It felt like paradise on earth with the amazing view, and exquisite diving and snorkeling facilities. We had a quick dinner at the island and then decided to leave our fellow travellers to go back to our hotel for a good night sleep.

Our last day in the Philippines we have spent shopping (what else ;-). We visited Las Piñas and its amazing malls! The most fascinating one was the SM Mall of Asia, the largest mall of Asia! Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long because we wanted to some of the more local markets as well. One of the locals took us to a smaller mall where you could find local products, souvenirs and, well, a lot of counterfeit goods. We had just about enough time to find all of our souvenirs, when we found out it was time to go back to Manilla and catch our flight.

So here I am, at the airport, writing this blog and hoping that Papua New Guinea is an equally beautiful country. And secretely I’m hoping for another Bayani ;-)

Lots of peace, love and souvenirs!

Manderley

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_Hills

http://www.boholboard.com/bohol-sightseeing.php

http://smmallofasia.com/moa/?p=1097

Heleen Callens, a friend who visited the Philippines

Week 9 - Philippines - Manderley Gits

Kamusta my dearest readers, and Maligayang pagdating to the Philippines ! (my foreign languages are improving, right ?)

I have to admit that at first I wasn’t a big fan of the Philippines, but these last few days van been truly amazeballs ! (because just plain amazing doesn’t cover it) Els already mentionned our first days over here, and we already got a pretty good taste of what this country is like. Then she came up with the idea to go diving and search for coral reefs. At first we weren’t very eager (Philippines and hygiene aren’t exactly best friends, so we were quite worried about the hygienic part of the diving experience) but when we finally agreed (seriously, that girl can carry on her point like her life depends on it) we had the chance to look at some of the most beautiful coral reefs I have ever seen. Admitted, they were the first, but still, they were amazingly beautiful.

 

After our relaxation day, we picked up our backpacks and took a bus from Manilla to Banaue to see the rice terrasses. Over here, they’re considered to be the eighth wonder of the world! We even had our own tour guide Bayani who lead us through the fields and terraces on our hiking trip. I have to admit, I had a secret crush, but unfortunately our imaginary romance wouldn’t stand a chance since we have to leave soon. (but hey, look at him, wouldn’t you guys fall for him?) He took us on a two day trip through the Batad rice fields to the Tappiya waterfalls, with breathtakingly beautiful views on the green surroundings, which you can see on the youtube video.

Further on our trip through the north of the Philippines, we visited Sagada. This part of the country is known for its caves and their hanging coffins. In the Lumiang Burial Cave wa saw a lot of coffins hanging on the cliff, which was equally scary as it was fascinating. Anne especially got very scared when she thought she heard noises inside the coffins, and forced us to go somewhere else. (to make it clear, those people are already dead for many many years)

On our way back to Manilla, we decided to make a stop at Boracay. It’s a small island in the shape of a bone where you can find beautiful white beaches, and it’s a great place  to go on a night out with your friends. Or at least, those are the plans for tonight. Jeroen, Emily and Els are on their way to get some motor-tricycles to guide us through the island (yes, unfortunately I had to say goodbye to Bayani, but hopefully one day I will see his glowingly handsome face again). We are going to grab a traditional Philippine bite at the Blue Mango Boracay restaurant, and afterwards we’re going to experience our first Philippine party. I’m pretty excited about what’s left for us, but no worries, we’ll keep you posted!

Lots of peace, love and cocktails!

Manderley

Sources:

http://www.thepinaysolobackpacker.com/tag/tappiya-waterfalls/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxiSfHz_RwI

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Philippines/Cagayan_Valley/Ifugao/Banaue/photo905299.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagada,_Mountain_Province

http://www.boracayrestaurants.com/boracay/restaurants/blue-mango/

http://www.visitsagada.com/

Heleen Callens, a friend who visited the Philippines

Week 9 – Bekaert Els – Philippines

Hi there, Bloggers,

Here I am again writing from the beautiful Philippines. I was excited to visit this country because I knew so little about it. When I hear the name of this country mentioned, I always think about sex tourism. Don’t you?  Look at all the older European guys – mostly ugly also- who visited this country and returned with an obviously younger woman. That was the image that I had from this country; poor people that desperately wanted to find a way out. But now I know… I was all wrong. The Philippines is an amazing tropical country that certainly is a Must-See for all of you.

When we arrived at the airport in Manilla, the heat fell on our shoulders. It wasn’t a normal heat, but a tropical heat, with very high temperatures and a high humidity. We were lucky that we arrived in the month of April, because the monsoon begins in June. And when the monsoon is visiting, you don’t want to be there, because it’s raining cats and dogs then. So we begin our journey through this amazing country with lots of water in our backpacks.  We made a plan to stay for the night in Manilla, which is the capital of the Philippines, and we to leave the crowded city in the early morning. 

But first a bit more about our day in this extraordinary city. Manilla is a very crowded city like I mentioned earlier. Over 10 million people live in this place. So I really had the feeling that I could disappear between all these people in the streets. But you can’t see Manilla like an ordinairy city. No, it is devided in more or less than 17 small cities which surround the actually city of Manilla. My first impression was that the city was very chaotic. All the cars drove wherever they wanted and the pedestrians slalomed between them. I was nearly run over by a little van with more than 10 people inside it.  But these drivers are used to this traffic and know how to find a way through this mess.  Though the people are so friendly that you have to love them! Quickly we found out that the city has lots of hidden places where you can find peace and quiet. We walked past the Rizal Park, that gave us lots of information about the history of Manilla with all those monuments. Also the walled city of Intramuros was an eye catcher.

The Philippines have a free market economy marked by a large agrarian part; including the agriculture, fishery and forestry. A huge part of the population makes a living in these areas. There’s also a huge part of the population employed in the services industry. The Philipinnes are also known for their cheap workers. All these people are payed with the Philipinne Peso, which is the local currency. Because of the chaotic atmosphere in the city, we really had a huge problem finding a currency exchange to convert our money to the local currency. But just when we were about to give up, we got lucky. We found an elderly woman who guided us through the chaos to a currency office. She wouldn’t accept any money from us, but insisted to show us another part of the city. She brought us to a local market, which had a colourful atmosphere. All the people were so friendly to us, even if we didn’t bought anything.  Though we couldn’t speak Spanish or Chinese, they welcomed us in rather fluent English. 

After this long day of walking through this restless city with boiling temperatures, we found ourselves so tired that we couldn’t stand one second on our feet. So I was happy to get to my room – with air-conditioning- and see a nice bed waiting for me.  But I couldn’t go to sleep without telling you first  what a wonderful day I had. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, but I’m hoping that my alarm clock won’t wake me up too soon.  

Sleeptight my dear bloggers, I will write again soon.

Love,

Els 




Sources 

http://www.philippines.hvu.nl/

 http://www.philsite.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines

http://kathrynvercillo.hubpages.com/hub/15-Places-to-Visit-in-Metro-Manila--Philippines

Week 9 – Bekaert Els – Philippines

Hi everybody

Here I am again writing to you from this beautiful country. There was a small change of plans. Normally we would have spend the night in the city of Manilla, and then in the morning, we had planned to take off for the countryside and the beaches. But because we were so tired last night, we took a cab to a quiet hotel on the beach.  It was heavenly to sleep in such a nice bed and shower all the sweat and dirt of my skin. And luckily for me, we decided to take it slowly today. After a little breakfast on the beach, we lingered a bit longer at the beach and pool and enjoyed its tropical atmosphere.  Hmm, imagine great white sands with lots of palm trees moving in the wind. The clear blue waters and the exotic fruits… Coconuts, bananas and atis are famous fruits in this country. You can just gather them of the trees. The atis is a fruit that is not well known to us. It also goes by the name of ‘sugar apple’ ; ‘suger apple’ and is a small and delicious fruit.  

When we arrived yesterday, I consulted a brochure with information about things to do in the surroundings of the hotel. I read that diving is a must do in the Philippines.  Through that the Philippines are situated in the Western Pacific, the islands are surrounded by very warm water. I can’t wait to take a swim.  In such warm, shallow water, you can find the most amazing coral reefs.  But I’m afraid of scuba diving, so I will stick to snorkeling. The hotel also offers massages on a bed overlooking the tropical beach. I’m thinking of taking one and allowing my tired muscles to rest.

But first, a little breakfast with my friends on the beach. I already can taste the freshly squeezed juices and fruits awaiting us. So I have to end my blog here.

Write to you soon, from a different country,

Love

Els

Week 8 - Japan - Audrey Vanderstraeten

Hi there

Today was a good day! We started out by packing our bags to move on to the next city which is probably the best known city next to Hiroshima: Tokyo.

Since we are students, and Tokyo has many universities, junior colleges, and vocational schools, we decided to visit these. Just to see how students live over here and if the methods that are used over here are the same as in Belgium.

Many of Japan’s most prestigious universities are located in Tokyo. To name some: University of Tokyo, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Waseda University, and Keio University.
Than there are some national universities and one non-national public university: Tokyo Metropolitan University.

There are also a few universities well known for classes conducted in English and for the teaching of the Japanese language. They include: international Christian University, Sophia University, Waseda University and Temple University Japan.

So that was a little overview of what Tokyo has to offer when it comes to Universities. We thought that we would have enough time to visit a coupe of these universities but that was a big miscalculation. We only visited one, the University of Tokyo.  

It is a research university with 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. The university has five campuses which are located in Hongo, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. The university of Tokyo is considered to be the most prestigious university in Japan. It ranks as the highest in Asia and 21st in the world in 2011 according to Academic Ranking of World Universities.

When we look at the organization of the university we can find 10 faculties like I’ve mentioned before. They offer Law, Medicine, Engineering, Letters, Science, Agriculture, Economics, Arts and Sciences, Education and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

If you want to know more about the universities in Tokyo you can always visit a list:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Tokyo

BYE BYE my lovely readers!

XO-XO

Audrey

Audrey Vanderstraeten
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Tokyo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo
http://www.moveonnet.eu/directory/network/members?id=EAIE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Tokyo