Lasse Gebbers

The second day in Baguio was very similar to the first one. Amazing views, parks and just exploring the city. I dont think I need explain that we had a good time. The day after we started our travel north to Sagada. It’s even higher, even colder and a lot smaller, but such a beautiful place. I so often was reminded to Germany. The hills, the forests and the rainy and cold climate, all this felt like home. When we arrived we directly started to hike around. Explored valleys and hills, found entrances to caves and saw some hanging coffins. Always taking a minute to just enjoy and admire the view. Alright let me stop here since I have to write about this place 2 more times and this was just half a day! We finished the day by visiting one of the small restaurants, which was needles to say BRILLIANT! So a beautiful day, that set a great start fort he Sagada leg of our vacation!
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So now im back from what seems to be my last real vacation on the Philippines and like always I will write a little report for every day of my journey. It all started on a Wednesday that Simon and me didnt spent in Manila, but on the airport in Tacloban because thanks to a typhoon our flight was delayed by 5 hours. When we landed in Manila it was already night so we just hopped into a bus to Baguio City where we arrived 6 hours later. Here we stayed at a friends house which reminded me strongly to my home in Germany. Stones in the water, homemade medicine, special food and just the nice tendency to the unusual, it was all there. Also the climate, which is thanks to the high altitude of the city very cold compared to the rest of the Philippines, created that sense of home in me. After a nice breakfast, some small naps and a good lunch we started exploring the city. We enjoyed the cheap taxis, the nice parks with all its pine trees, an SM Mall without air con, new views after every corner, good food and of course the company of our charming guides. A really nice and busy first day, so sleeping time was quite early for me.
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So something new. My blog somehow became more and more a photoblog, and today should be no difference. After a pretty boring week with some paperwork thanks to stolen cards, some future planning and a little work the last weekend was just so much better. Saturday was Alex birthday and he organized a climbing competition. I was late so I just took pics (will post them in a bit) Still even as a visitor it was alot of fun and I really enjoyed the event. The night was young and Theo and I danced our asses off. Had a blast in Astro. After around 4 hours of sleep I got up and went to samar to have my first real photo shooting with some beautiful models. Never did something like that, but it turned out great, had a blast again and the pics turned out good as well. Thanks to all the models and the good guys of Pixel 8 and Litratista the camera clubs who made this happen. In the evening I went back to Alex to have another drinking session at the Outdoor store. Just good times, but now I’m tired, happy it’s a normal working week, I need sleep. Haha
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Hi, after a little chaos with all my credit and bank cards it now seems to be settled. I get my new cards within a few weeks and I’m really praying that they will arrive before my trip to Luzon, otherwise Im in some trouble. But lets see what happens.

Today I will give you another write up about Vietnam. Our 5th day started really early in the morning. We got picked up by a car at 5 and drove to the „My Son“ temple. Beautiful old ruins waited for us and I just loved the idea of being there alone in the morning and taking some pics. How ever there was a small group of people who had a tour, but I thought I just wait a bit, give them a head start so that I can enjoy the place alone. My Filipino friend had a different plan, they thought it’s a good idea having a guide tellinfgyou stuff about those old stones. A little bit sad I than followed the group, still I was able to take some nice pics. After that we rested a bit and than went to see Hoi An again, went shopping and enjoyed the rest of the day in this beautiful river town. [...]

Hey,

I dont have alot to report. My mood after the Sangyaw parade was really good. A great day, good food, nice music and amazing friends. Sadly how ever I can’t enjoy it that much since my wallet got stolen last night. Some cash, not reakky the problem, and most of my cards are gone, which is really annoying. A stupid ending for a great Fiesta here in Tacloban.
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Hey, today I’m taking a break of the Vietnam write up. Instead I bring you some pics of the fiesta in Tacloban. I mean I love fiesta and it’s great fun most of the times, but sometimes if you just want to buy some butter all those people also can get really annoying haha. It’s all part of it I guess. This was the Pintados parade, very nice colorful and loud. Today im gone join the Sangyaw parade, so I will keep you updated.
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So another new day in Vietnam. On the third day we traveled to Hoi An, which took 24 hours. So that is day 3 for you…..

Well ok that’s boring I guess, so day 4. After a not so relaxing bus ride (if you find pieces of glass on your seat it’s not only annoying because it hurts, it’s also throws up the question where do those come from…) we arrived in Hoi An. It was early morning so we tried to find a Hotel, checked in, took a shower, got some rest and than went to discover this small town. I wont tell you anything about the history, that’s what the links are for, I rather describe what I saw. I saw a lot of really nice old houses, temples and a lot of Museums. In every street there where new details to explore and another shoe or suite maker. We spend the day visiting a lot of different houses and temples, explored un – or organized the streets of hoi an and spent the evening at the beautiful river which was illuminated by all the old houses. A really beautiful place to be, even with all the tourists around.
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Ja es hat mal wieder länger gedauert. Aber wie schon gesagt ich kränkle so vor mich hin und habe die letzten Tage dann lieber im Bett oder auf irgendwelchen blöden Schönheitswettbewerben verbracht.

Nun also zum 2 Tag. Der war ganz von einem Touristenbüro geplant und so setze man sich morgens in einen klimatisierten Bus und kam Abends wieder zuhause an. Zwischendurch hielt man erst bei einer Fabrik wo Menschen mit Behinderungen wirklich schöne Kunstwerke herstellten, welche für mich aber völlig unerschwinglich waren, dann bei dem Cao Dai Tempel und zum Schluss im Cu Chi Tunnel/Themenpark. Hier wurde sehr anschaulich gezeigt wie der Vietcong Tunnel zum verstecken baute, Waffen und Fallen herstellte um den gemeinen Amis Widerstand zu leisten. Ich fand das ganze recht amüsant, schließlich gab es sogar kleine Männchen die auf Knopfdruck anfingen (genau wie im Legoland) sich zu bewegen und ihre Arbeitschritte zu zeigen. Zum Abschluss gab es noch einen schön populistischen Film und dann ging es wieder zurück nach HCMC. Lustiger Tag, der wieder mal früh im Bett endete.

Yup, I said it before right? I felt weak the last few days so I spent most of the time in bed or at some boring beauty contests. Anyway!

So day 2. We booked the day at a tourism office, so of course we got a very touristic program. Getting in a bus in the morning and getting out in the evening. In between we visited a fabric where handicapped people produce beautiful artworks, which were way to expensive for me, than we visited the Cao Dai Temple and last but not least we went to the Cu Chi tunnels/theme park. Here you could see how the Vietcong tried to stop the evil American by attacking from the underground. I thought its quite funny, since they even had robots that showed how the Vietcong build weapons. It really felt like I was in a theme park. To finish the day we saw a very populist movie and than arrived in HCMC.

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It’s been a while, a long while since I last posted. I’ve been to Vietnam and during the next few days or maybe hours I will post pics and write ups about my vacation there. I’ve been out the last few days since I had fever and some other stuff but I’m getting better already. To make it easy for you to follow (almost) each vacation day gets his own topic.
So after 2 days in Manila, which I spent in a lot of Malls, Fastfood places and at the very nice place of Leanne and her family, we flew out to HCMC (Ho-Chi-Minh City). Thanks to construction works next door we woke up at around 7(4 hours of sleep) and started our marathon through the city. But not without a nice noodle breakfast which is not only cheap and large but also super fresh and good. After that we visited a lot of different museums, parks and other stuff. All very interesting and nice, but just too much to write down here. After that day we felt super tired, so we went to bed really early.
As you can see my texts will be kind of short, I dont think everyone wants to read every single detail of my vacation so I try to make it random and interesting for everyone. Also check out the pics, since they tell their own storys.

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Schoen Gruss aus Hoi An, Vietnam. Ich mache hier immernoch Urlaub, werde aber Heute 24 Stunden zurueck nach Saigon fahren, um dann nach Manila zu fliegen. Zum Urlaub schreibe ich natuerlich bald noch mehr und es kommen viele Bilder auf euch zu.

Heute moechte ich aber wieder auf einen Text eines anderen Freiwilligen Aufmerksam machen. David, mit dem ich schon Weinachten verbracht hat, hat einen sehr interessanten Text ueber das Land verfasst. Sehr sehr Lesenswert.