And go!

The last few days have been a whirlwind of good-byes, dinners, sparkly nail polish, and a pool party. It's bitter sweet leaving Manila, but I'm off to Bangkok today to start a month of traveling! I'll visit Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It's going to be so fun!

Two days

That's all I have left in the office.

I can't believe 10 weeks went so fast.

Boracay

Another island paradise...life is so hard sometimes. Boracay has been voted one of the top beaches in the world, and to be honest, my photos barely do it justice. Think turquoise blue waters and fine white sand beaches that don't get hot in the sun. I had the best weather (sunny with a light wind). I miss it already!

To get there I took a flight then a short boat ride. This is on the dock getting onto the boat.

And this is White Beach on Boracay Island, where I stayed

I enjoyed many mango shakes.

Every drop of them.

This was what my hostel looked like. It was super clean -- no bugs! -- and filled with the best people.

Manila Skyline

Just part of it, but its so beautiful! The green space in the foreground is the American Cemetery.

Smokey Mountain

Smokey Mountain is a large garbage dump in Manila. It is also home to roughly 30,000 people squatting on the dump. Whether or not trash is still actively dumped into the area is debated. It has been operational for more than 40 years and has been know to randomly catch fire, killing numerous people, and earning its name.

The people living there are there for work. They sort through the garbage looking for anything they can scavenge and resell. There are also schools, day cares, clinics, etc, that make it more like a normal neighborhood. There are a lot of NGOs and companies working together to make life better in this area. Some have tried moving people to a different location, just to find that a few months later, new squatter communities spring up.

Incredibly shocking, repulsive, and heart-breaking to see, especially since all the people we met were so welcoming and friendly. Everyone in the pictures below has lived in Smokey Mountain their entire life.

This is all garbage. And apparently this is much, much better than it was.

This is the Field of Dreams, a flattened section of the dump where the kids play organized sports.

Goverment housing built roughly 10 years ago. There are about 20-30 buildings like this in Smokey Mountain, each with about 120 units. Each unit houses one family (Mom, Dad, Kids, Wives, Husbands, Grandchildren, Nieces, Nephews, etc)

Cute school children in front of the school we visited.

Three of the women who showed us around and welcomed us to Smokey Mountain. They were so friendly, happy, and smiley.

Look, I'm on the NYU Wagner Today Blog!

Check me out: http://wagner.nyu.edu/students/blog/2011/07/laura-parewski-new-perspectives-from-manilla.html

Hong Kong 4, plus one other thing

I finished my trip people watching over a couple beers at a restaurant on the patio. All in all it was a great trip.

And now, the other thing: I had to get more pages in my passport today. Exciting, very. Nerdy, yes.

Hong Kong 3

More from atop the peak.

And look, there's me, but please excuse my squinting. It was that fake bright out where it's cloudy but you still need sunglasses...you know what I'm talking about, its just hard to explain :)

To get up, I mentioned I took a tram. Once we go off the tram, we still went up so many escalators.

I decided to walk down, a good idea at the time, because it was beautiful. But, the hour long hike killed my muscles. I could barely walk Monday morning!

Hey, look, it's me again!

Hong Kong 2

I stayed on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong (a 3 minute ferry ride off the main island). This was a statue near the pier I thought was amazing.

And here's a typical street in Kowloon. Its like a poorer, dirtier (with cheaper, yet safe housing!) version of Hong Kong.

As I was wandering, I passed a street food stall that had easily 20 people waiting for a waffle type thing. Of course I got one. And it was delicious. Each of the little bubbles was crispy on the outside and half way hollow and delicious.

I watched the sun go down and the lights come on from the Kowloon side (looking at the Hong Kong skyline -- the NYC part of the city). So beautiful!!

The next morning, I got up early and walked around a park near my hostel.

And saw a shrine.

Then headed back over to the main island of Hong Kong.

I wandered a bit more until I found the tram station to head up Victoria Peak, the tallest peak in Hong Kong (the station is across the street to the right).

And here's the view from the top.

Completely breath-taking.