TravelBio

Our school required us to be back in Hangzhou by Sunday, February 21 st for a teacher meeting. Spring semester classes didn’t start until Wednesday, but we still had to show our faces by the 21 st . That’s literally all the meeting was; we only talked for 10 minutes about a tentative schedule – they’d meet with us again later when it was set – and then we were free to leave. Joanna told me that the teachers were supposed to be back in Hangzhou nearly a week before classes started for fall semester back in August. She skipped out on that meeting, and I guess since it was her second year here they cut her some slack. Basically these meetings only exist to check if teachers will show up for the upcoming semester; the school wants some lead time if a foreigner gets cold feet and the administration has to scramble to find a new teacher. Fortunately this one was only a few days before the start of spring semester; if I re-sign I ain’t coming back a week early from summer break! Th...

I wrote this a few months back but forgot to post it; better late than never! Before I move on to my Chinese New Year break, first there’s the Western holidays. Fortunately we had Friday, December 25 th off for Christmas, so Steve, the history teacher who is in his third year here, invited a group over to his place. Each of us brought a dish – Trevor mashed potatoes, Ralph soup, Joanna and Justin the turkey, Tom dessert – and Steve supplied the alcohol. Opening gifts at Steve's apartment Good friends know that I’m useless in the kitchen, not so much due to lack of skill as lack of experience. Back in Italy I ran into this problem when we invited the host families for dinner and every summer camp teacher cooked a dish. I do have one trick up my sleeve; my mom makes asparagus wrapped in ham, and I’ve watched / helped enough times to pull it off. Back home we put cream cheese on the ham so it sticks to the asparagus. I found cream cheese in Italy, and although th...

Despite one of my friends crashing his motorbike, and despite more than our fair share of rain, a week in Siargao was well worth it. I’d extended my stay three days already, and by Monday the 15 th it was time to get a move on. I needed to drive all the way back to Davao City to return the bike, then fly (yet to be booked) to Manila before catching my return ticket to China. The most direct route from Surigao to Davao is about 400 kms, which would have been an easy two day trip. That route was almost entirely on the highway; well, there aren’t really highways in Mindanao, but it would be far from a scenic ride, driving mostly over flat land alongside trucks and numerous cars. I was heading from Surigao (all the way at the top of the map) to Davao; The most direct route would be through Butuan and Tagum on the main road, but I wanted a coastal drive Instead I decided to take a roundabout way, crudely planning a seaside drive with my pixilated printout map. I co...

After 300 kms on the motorbike – with a flat tire in Surigao City and a sore ass to boot – I wanted a good night’s rest. Problem was the ferry to the island of Siargao left early; my guest house advised me to take the 5 am trip because later ones might not have been able to accommodate the bike! Not only that, but I had arrived in Surigao after the ticket office closed, so I needed to get there even earlier to ensure a seat was available. So I packed the night before (not that I carried much) and was up and at em by 3:15. I drove straight to the port, only to find that it hadn’t even opened! At 4 am I was the first to buy a ticket, and we didn’t take off until after 5. I managed to take the bike on the 3.5 hour ferry trip, although they got their money’s worth. My ticket was 250 pesos (a bit over $5), and I had to buy what I thought was a ticket for the bike at the ferry port. Then on board they charged me 500 pesos for the actual ticket – apparently I had just paid the lo...

When you search Davao City on Wikitravel, this warning pops up: Many governments, including the US, UK, Australia   and Chinese, strongly dissuade any travels to the island of Mindanao because of the threat of terrorist attacks, bombings, shootings and kidnappings of foreigners. Davao has been targeted by bomb blasts in both 2013   and 2015. Davao is on high terrorist attack alert. Sound like a nice holiday getaway? Well the website also says this: “ In Davao, the contemporary fuses with the traditional as migrant settlers from all over the country peacefully co-exist with a sizeable expatriate community and numerous ethnic tribes who continue to live as they did centuries ago.” Talk about a contradiction! Yes, it’s true, parts of the island of Mindanao are dangerous. There is a Muslim insurgency in pockets of the southwest. Hostages, some of whom were foreign tourists, have been taken and held for ransom. But Mindanao is vast, and Davao City far from those hotspo...