Philipines Part 1 in Everything

I haven’t written in so long, the last thing I wrote was that I was going to the Philippines. So I should probably talk about that. My girlfriend is originally from there and every 2 years or so she goes back to visit her family. When she asked if I wanted to go this time I figured why not, when am I ever going to have the chance to go and have a tour guide and a place to stay.
We left early on a Thursday and flew to Detroit, then from Detroit to Seoul Korea. That was about 13 hours. On a plane. In coach. Let that sink in for a moment. I can sleep just about anywhere, I’ve fallen asleep standing up, in a bathtub, on the toilet, on the ground (indoors and out), once while driving. Delta has somehow figured out a way to make the seats so uncomfortable and cramped that I could not fall asleep. I tried. We got to Korea and I fell asleep almost immediately in the terminal across 3 seats. I snored, loud. We flew the rest of the way on Asiana Air, it was only about 5 hours and the first thing that stood out was the seats were comfy and the flight attendants were, how do I put this, I guess you could say, more professional in just about every way. They all had matching uniforms that were perfectly clean and pressed, their hats were all tilted to the exact same angle, and they all appeared to be the same age, height and weight. It was almost like they were clones of each other. It’s what I imagine American flight attendants used to be like before equal opportunity hiring practices went into effect. Anyway we got there around 1:30am Saturday morning. I met most of her immediate family on the sidewalk in front of the airport. We drove back to her house and I made my way to our room and basically passed out.
Her family lives in the city, in a 3 story house. The city has very tight blocks, the house is surrounded on all sides by other 3 and 4 story buildings. It’s a congested place. Walking out in the daylight I was a little taken back by it all. It’s hard to describe, just different. It’s mostly 2,3 or 4 story single family (although multigenerational) homes. More than half have little shops set up on the street level floor. They will sell soda and candy or BBQ chicken (I hope) and beer or fish and the like. Walking around her family’s neighborhood I noticed a lot of people looking at me, I suspect they don’t see a lot of white guys.
Her family (her parents and younger brother and sister) went out of their way to make me feel welcome and comfortable. When I got there they had plenty of bottled water in the fridge and her parents set up their room for us. It had A/C and its own bathroom. The bathroom, and I suspect all bathrooms around there have a toilet that you have to pour a bucket of water into to flush. That same bucket is the one you fill up and dump over yourself to shower. Add ice and I would have made a shitload of money for MS. It took a bit of getting used to and by the second day I had already clogged their toilet. Her family didn’t speak much if any English except her sister who spoke it perfectly. The first couple nights we took her whole family and some extended ones out to dinner and at some point my credit card info was stolen and all sorts of things started showing up on my card. Capital One was all over it though and cancelled the card and I wasn’t on the hook for any of it. Although it meant I didn’t have a credit card for the rest of the trip, which was 3 weeks. I did bring a shitload of cash with me though for just such a situation.
The weather was 9o something and sunny, every day. We went to a hotel/resort right on the beach and it was beautiful. I especially enjoyed the running water and flushing toilet, both of which I used to the fullest! I have more to write but I’m running out of time so I’ll make this part 1.