“If you can smell the garbage, you are entering Payatas,” said Tita Silver, the mother of my host family.
Our jeepney crackled through the streets amidst the hustle and bustle of vendors and commuters.  The stank of garbage was in the air and the streets and shops were not what you would call clean.
I was on a weekend trip in the Metro Manila area of Payatas (known as one of the main dump sites in Metro Manila) in Quezon City, joining a group of students from Ateneo de Manila University on …

Gawad Kalinga, known as GK, strives to create a Philippines and world with no more slums, no more violence, and no more poverty.  With dignity and honesty, GK and volunteers build homes, aiming to create sustainable villages, and forming safe communities as well as transforming danger and poverty into nation building and lifting each other up.  In the eyes of GK there is “less for self, more for others, [and] enough for all.”
GK provides the materials and builds homes for the poorest of the poor in the Philippines.  People who …

Over a week had passed since my arrival in Manila, the Philippines, and I had eaten countless plates of Bicol Express, pork and chicken adobo, and deep fried “1 day old chickens.”
There was however one notoriously weird, some call nasty, but nevertheless popular Filipino foods that I had not indulged in, and I needed to.  This “treat with feet,” or “eggs with legs,” was featured as an eating contest on Fear Factor where they called it gross.
It often makes the top list of strange or weird foods from around the …

My first day walking around Manila, the Philippines and I happen to stumble upon a food item that I simply could not possibly pass by.  I took one look at the pile of “1 day old” chickens and decided I had to partake of them.

I ordered as the chef quickly threw one of the baby chickens into the boiling oil to reheat it.  He then poked it with a stick and pulled something very small out the mid section of the bird to discard (no idea what it was, but …

Step 1- Flight from Manila to Busuanga

Board a Zest Air flight from the congested city of Manila, Luzon to Busuanga, Palawan in the Philippines for PHP 488 (Philippine Pesos).
Note: Cebu Pacific Airlines also offers affordable flights and some might say they are a bit safer.
Total- PHP 488 (US $10.13)

Step 2- Rent a Boat and Crew

Once you arrive in the town of Coron (a 30 minute comfortable mini-bus ride from the Busuanga airport), gather a group of friends and arrange to rent a boat for the day or next few days.
Should …

One of Melaka (Malacca), Malaysia’s favorite late night food groups is “Satay Celup.” A restaurant offering satay celup skewers up a large and random assortment of edible bite size things, creating a new definition of what it means to eat off a stick.

There are really only two restaurants to eat satay celup at as JasonMumbles.com suggests, Ban Lee Hiang and Capitol Satay.  I chose the latter.
The basic drill is as follows:
1.  Grab a tray and choose as many sticks from the fridge as you want.
2.  Bring them back to your …