Journey to Talim Island
I awoke to the shrill horn-blast of an on-coming boat. Traffic of all sorts exists in the Philippines: even out in the water en route to a lake island at 5:46 in the morning. I shook myself to a semi-conscious state and discovered that the world around me had already been wide-awake a long time ago. Bankas, Filipino bamboo boats, charged across the waters carrying students to school, merchants splayed their wares across their ponderous boats, a few elderly men sat by the shores fishing, with a pyramid of silvery fish by their sides as trophies.