#expierience

It is almost two years now that my friend Simon and I traveled around the Philippines. This country full of stunning natural beauty, unbelievable big cities, remote villages in the mountains and its thousands of islands. Also is the country where I found the extremes closer to each other than anywhere else. In Manila rich appartment blocks rise next too slums just a few meters apart. And families with little children in ripped cloth await you, some of the most fancy clubs I have ever been to. These people are worth nothing to the rest and chased away, whilst we got in for free and were invited to free drinks. The color of your skin and the looks of your face also makes you highly attractive to the many barely dressed girls, which see as their only way out of their misery. And that’s why one sees all these old fat white guys hand in hand with the short skinny Filipinas which could easily their children and appear to fragile to even be touched by them.

It seemed to be impossible to approach these people on the same level. Talk about their everyday lives, be part of what they do and experience their passions not only as a tourist. However, Simon love basketball and insisted on playing whenever possible. All the islands are different, the vibe, the look of the tricycles, the local foods and their nature and landscape but no matter how deep you walk into the mountains in the north or hike through the Jungle to reach one of the remote fishing villages in on Palawan - if there is anything available everywhere it is a basketball court. So we ended up playing everyday in every place we visited. Amongst the many We played with the local kids and teachers schools in Manila, the tourist guides in Banaue, children in the world famous rice terraces of Banaue and Tricycle drivers in Donsol.

We got into contact with the people we played with but also with the people crowding the surrounding the court. Often it was one of the centers where daily live took place after work was done. The guys brought their cocks along which they trained for the next cockfight, women with their children watched the daily games and the old men bet on which team would win the game. In the richer places the players would wear basketball shoes, often their biggest treasure as they explained. Most of the time however,the kids played in Flip-Flops, often the only shoes they possessed. As its their daily business they often were skeptical in the first moment whether these white tourists were good enough to play in their teams, which for my case was fair enough. I ended up sitting next to the court watching them play and tried to capture these moments or talk to the people. They shared their live story with me,their problems and were curious how we got the idea to spend our valuable time playing basketball with them. Although we must have seemed to be from another world which they know of but could never reach, they accepted us as and often invited us for dinner or drinks afterwards.

5 Hotels With Living Walls

Snippet #1: These properties take sustainability to new heights with green walls that bring the outdoors in

Snippet #2: Research suggests that there are significant psychological and even physiological benefits to convening with nature. A 2015 study by Stanford University, for example, showed a tangible link between time spent in nature and positive mental health. Similar studies have shown that views of nature help hospital patients recover more quickly, that natural daylight improves students' learning in school, and that people who work in offices with indoor plants get sick less often. Nature has even been linked to decreases in blood pressure, heart rate, and the stress hormone cortisol.