Let me start by saying that is might be the most productive vacation that I’ve ever been on! That raises the question… is this a vacation if I’m doing work… And you also have to take into account that my work is play for me… So if my work is play, then going on vacation to work makes sense, right? This really gets people confused because they usually go on vacation to do nothing. The idea of a normal vacation that entails laying on a beach and doing nothing sounds more like torture (or prison) to me than anything resembling a vacation or fun. The ideal vacation for me is going to a cool place that invokes a new sense of creativity, thought, and learning, and is coupled with a shit ton of awesome CrossFit style workouts, or other crazy physical adventures! You might think I’m crazy about my interpretation of a vacation, but if you try my way, you’ll never go back to your lazy style vacations. In fact, come with me on my Costa Rica Fitness Vacation in Feb, and I’ll lead you through the whole process.
The last few days in the Philippines have involved crushing out internet marketing (TMBA style), and business building work (I mean play…) with a group of people that are nothing short of amazing! If you’ve never been immersed into a mastermind setting for whatever your business or passion is, I highly recommend it.
Since I’ve been here I’ve seen more rain than sun, practically had an IV drip of caffeine going at all times, and gotten back to my early CrossFitting days by having to modify everything with light dumbbells. If I had some Rogue bumper weights here this could be the ideal working environment! The food has been amazing, and I’ve been consuming at least 1 avocado shake everyday. If you haven’t had an avocado shake, you must try one!
My second experience at the gym was similar to the first… I ran about 10 mins to the local gym, and seemed to be the spectacle of the town with most people either stopping to stare, or yell something at me. I’m pretty sure that they were yelling good things, but the Tagalog language isn’t enough like Spanish (or my Spanish isn’t good enough) for me to understand what they’re saying. My workout again had to be modified with dumbbells and less explosive movements to accommodate for the small space, but I was able to get work done. I finally got a pic (see below).
Before coming to the Philippines and ever since I’ve been here I kept hearing about how you could get $5-10 massages, so being used to paying $50-80 back home, and my body aching from my workouts, I was very interested in giving this a go! The whole time that I’ve been here the timing wasn’t right until last night. We decided not to go out on the town, and my brain had pretty much shut down (so more work wasn’t going to happen). I asked around, and found out that I needed to travel about 8k to a town called Sabang where the massage parlors, and night life was located. At first I thought about running there, but I didn’t really want to show up super sweaty and gross for the massage, and it was my day off working out, so I walked up the street and was solicited by a motorcycle transport. From what I could tell I could take the motorcycle or one of these motorcycle side car things that looked like a sheet metal version of the side car motorcycles that were in Indiana Jones. I opted for the regular motorcycle, and hopped on the back. I was immediately having mixed feelings about my decision due to the fact that it started raining harder and harder, and with every turn of the motorcycle it felt like if I didn’t lean with the driver at the perfect angle we were going to tip over (and these were windy and hilly roads with huge pot holes). Oh, and not having a helmet on didn’t make me feel any better either… After a few minutes of riding I was starting to feel a little more comfortable, but every hairpin turn on the wet roads brought back visions of sliding along the pavement with shorts and flip flops on. About 10 minutes later we dropped down the final hill into Sabang in one piece. Sabang is a very cool, and unique town right on the beach. You could walk down alleys that looked like they were dead ends, but opened up to more and more shops and bars. I walked around for a bit, and found the massage parlor. As you walk in there’s a line of gigging girls that are dressed kinda like nurses that are waiting for people to pick them for a massage. I felt bad picking one, so the lady at the front desk assigned one of the girls to me. It definitely wasn’t the best massage I’ve ever had (or close to it), but for less than $10 I wasn’t complaining, and will probably go back.
I haven’t even hit the half way point of my trip, and I’ve had so many adventures already. In my next posts I’ll tell you about my crazy night out in Sabang, and the amazing scuba diving!
Now get outside and have fun by training hard! 🙂
