When I told my dad that I was going to the Philippines, he told me about a distant cousin.
“Ah kilala mo si Andrea? Mahilig din sa dagat yun! (Oh do you know Andrea? She loves the ocean too!” he said while showing me her social media which was filled with surf photos.
Of course, I was intimidated.
Manila
I contacted her anyway. She’s a distant cousin like my 3rd cousin or something. We all have extended family to some degree but Filipinos keep in touch with, like, everyone. I know it’s not only me that gets lost when I go to reunions, “Oh that’s your aunt from so and so grandfather and that one is this and your nephew blah blah blah.”
I can’t keep track of these things 😵💫
I met with my friends in Manila and then onto Andrea’s condo in Quezon City, Manila.
I didn’t really know what to expect but we ended up chatting for hours. Glad to say my cousin and I hit it off! 😊
It was kinda jokes because apparently my dad gave all my family members, that I might see, a heads up, “Yeah. I told my dad that I’ve seen all kinds of things and different kinds of people at UP (University of the Philippines). I don’t have problems with you being a lesbian,” Andrea said.
“Huh? I’m not a lesbian. I’m mostly straight. I’ve only really been with a couple of women but I’m mostly straight like I’m supposedly pansexual,” I said.
“Ay! Mali! Ang sabi ng Tatay ko kakaiba ka raw! Wala ng ibang sinabi basta yun lang and it’s up to me to interpret! Kakainis! (Ay! Wrong! My dad said you were different! He didn’t mention anything else and it was up to me to interpret! So annoying!)” she replied.
We had a laugh. I’m aware of how I look like and possibly even my demeanour. I shave my head and I have a head tattoo as well as tattoos all over my body and facial mods (spacers 38mm/1.5in diameter, septum ring).
It’s been quite an interesting, inadvertent social experiment walking around looking like the way I do.
A lot of people have impressions of me just on my style alone. It spans from intimidation to fear to hate to admiration and awe.
That’s why I always say, get to know yourself first and seek internal validation vs placing too much worth on external factors. If they’re inaccurate on how they read you: it’s really more of a reflection of who they are (or their reality) than who you are and your reality.
We’re not in control of how we’re received but we can manage ourselves and how we interact with others and our environment.
It’s important to get lost in life at some point or another because sometimes that’s how we find our own path… but try not to lose yourself in the noise.
Though I guess I can’t really blame people for my resting bitch face, my tattoos, my shaved head, my piercings etc you know.
My cousin and I packed up and got ready to go to bed. Her friend was picking us up early morning and onto a 4 hour ride to San Juan, La Union.
San Juan, La Union
We stayed at Shorebeach Hostel which I loved. They kept the walls and roofing bare like without the red brick things; it was just plain cement and they furnished it with wood and other ethnic things. It gave the whole minimalist + wooden and tribal sort of furniture. I loved it. I can’t say that enough. If I had all the budget in the world, that’s how I would want my place to look like.
I didn’t take any good photos unfortunately so here are some from various sources (mentioned in the captions). We stayed in a double bed + single bedroom as there were three of us (first two above).
We just chilled on our arrival day and made arrangements for surfing the next day. We had to get up around 5am because we were instructed to be there at 5:30.
The beach was about a 5-minute walk from the hostel. We had some late lunch along the way at Herbs n Spice before calling it a night.
Surfing
Day 1
So we’re on Day 2 of being in La Union but Day 1 of surfing. We didn’t get the chance to surf the day before as there weren’t any slots on the previous day (plus we were tired from long driving).
I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve never gone surfing before, like ever, in my life. When we got there though, we essentially just signed up and let them know our “level” which was, for me, zero.
After which, the instructors decided that the waves on the beach we were in were too big for beginners like us so they took us to another spot.
In the middle of the session (2 hours total), I started feeling my stomach sting. “Rashes! Soft board kasi kaya ka nagkaganyan (Rashes! It’s ’cause you’re riding a soft board – with texture – which is why you’re getting it),” said the instructor. He recommended rash guards… and I realized why they’re called “rash guards.” I’ve always thought it was something random 🤷🏽♀️
In any case, many falls, minor foot injuries, stomach and arms rashes, burps (I legit tasted my breakfast as I was out in the water that day), wedgies, sunburns, a few cusses, and frustrations later…
I don’t have the surf mount, unfortunately, and there wasn’t anyone who was taking our photos either so I don’t have media of the actual surfing. I can tell you that I fell plenty though. However, I did manage to get up the board and balance for about 10 seconds at the longest. I heard that’s a pretty big deal because people usually can’t even stand on the board during the first lesson so even though I failed plenty, I’m still pretty proud of myself 😎
Apparently, I was walling too? I didn’t even know what that meant but my instructor (left-most) told me I did well on the first time I managed to get up (5 seconds). I was supposedly riding to the left, avoiding the crash of the waves. I was just feeling it out and rolling my balance with it… now I know why they say “ride the waves.”
We wrapped it up and went back to the hostel. We planned on doing another session that afternoon but I passed out and Therese and Andrea just started working smh.
We ended the day by chillin’ at the beach before finding a spot to have dinner… and I found Taho! 😊
That night, we walked around the area to find something to eat. I forgot where we ended up but I defo remember the convos.
I Love You Long Time
“In 1987, the same year that the Philippines ratified its constitution and allowed the United States to retain military bases within its archipelago, the Stanley Kubrick film, ‘Full Metal Jacket’ was released. It was a critically acclaimed adaptation of a semi-autobiographical novel about an American soldier during the Vietnam war. The iconic scene features a Vietnamese sex worker saying, ‘Me so horny! Me love you long time!’ She is obviously not horny. She is poor, brown, and exotic. Holly wood really said, ‘Nevermind that brown women are caricatured, as long as the white soldier is humanized!’ In the years since, pop culture has clouded the racist roots of this phrase, where imperialism is hidden in catchy lyrics and comedic microaggressions. Along the shores of La Union, traces of an American air base linger as bars line the streets of a freeport zone. The story repeats itself wherever US troops decide to enter visa-free with impunity. Up the coast, in a small municipality heaving with local tourists, the phrase has evolved. Soon after foreign surfers retired in San Juan but before the white van joiners rolled along, Urbiztondo became the off melting pot of hardy Ilocanos, bohemian city kids, sexpats, and the occasional backpacker. I LU Long Time, now worn as a badge of honour, reframes the tourist town as a beloved neighbourhood of residents first, drawing the line between transplant and transient. It’s a lowkey flex: I eat breakfast at the sari-sari store, I don’t leave trash on the beach, I watch the sunset from my favourite board rack
This is home, not a transaction. This is Love. Hindi ako pang short time (I’m not for a ‘short time’).”
for reference:
If you know me at all then you would know that I have a lot of… umm… passion, in me?
My cousin picked it up right away. I have a tendency to get fired up over social issues most likely because of my own immersive history with oppression. Don’t get me wrong: we all experience this to some degree most especially on a social level. I catch my own mental, emotional, and physical barriers being affected by these things myself.
I told them everything I knew and had come to witness: race is a big thing everywhere even when you’re living in a country inhabited by mostly its locals. I’m not going into detail on my blog though if you’re curious just reach out. You can either message me here via my Contact page or if you know me in person, I’d be down to grab some coffee or drinks and just chat.
If you have any sense of social awareness and an inkling of recent history (and what’s going on in the world today), the things you’ll hear me say shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.
Day 2
Surfing Day 2 = Day 3 (last day)
We went out to the beach that we took a trike from that morning to see if we could surf there. The instructors initially thought that we should be able to do the waves there but…
Thankfully, we didn’t end up doing it there. I was honestly a little freaked out with the waves on that beach. We went ahead and took another trike to the nearby beach with smaller waves.
“Sige. Balance ka lang. Taasan mo yung squat mo. (OK. Just balance. Squat a little higher),” said my instructor.
“Oho. Matutumba, malalaglag ako. Natututo pako. It’s part of it. Mangyayari talaga yun (Yes, sir. I’m gonna lose my balance, fall. I’m still learning. It’s part of it. It’ll happen),” I replied.
I didn’t break my astonishing 10-second record lol ’cause the waves that I was able to fully ride were short. I’m also tired AF. I forgot to eat that morning so I inhaled my siopao that I bought from 7/11 earlier that day. I also had another swim top but it had texture on it so my rashes were actually worse. I got a little complacent with sunscreen too like I didn’t bother applying it so I ended up burning my face…
It was a workout for sure; paddling, pushing yourself up, balancing, squatting, and such. DOMS kicked in within 2 hours like wtf. It was cray cray.
We still had some time before we needed to leave so we met up with some of my cousin’s friends for lunch. The couple was headed somewhere north of where we were. I thought to highlight the buko (coconut) and buko pandan ice cream 😁
We just kinda chilled before we wrapped it up.
On our way home, Therese’s HR-V (big car) GPS somehow led us to a fucking alleyway that was filled with trikes, pedestrians, stray dogs and cats, and motorbikes. I was losing my shit… but they were chillin’. Manila driving freaks me out. I don’t even use Angkas which is like Uber for motorbikes; you ride at the back with no harness or anything. You just hold on to the driver… yeah… in Manila where drivers play Tetris with space and speed on the road? Fuck that shit.
We had some lunch before we left. It was a little sad at the end. I mean, I won’t get to hang with them until at least another couple of years. Gonna miss these girls.
Therese dropped us off Andrea’s place. Andrea and I met with our other cousins later that night (they haven’t met my first cousins!) before we parted ways. Andrea was headed back to her hometown and I was headed to another town for more scuba diving.
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Next up: Mindoro (Sablayan & Apo Reef)
Gelene 