Back to the Real World

The brightly colored trucks that took us around the resort.

A view of one of the lagoons.

Sunrise over Plantation Bay.

A view from our lagoon-side room at about 5 am.

Joe tearing it up at the shooting range. He would have gotten the poor guy right in the throat.

It has been a busy couple of weeks, and I can't believe that I am just now sitting down to finish up my blogs on the Philippines. It's after 11 and Sophia and Joe are sound asleep. I am determined to get this done.

When we finally left the island of Malapascua we were a bit sad. We definitely could have spent more time just lounging on the beach. When we got back to Cebu Island, a car was waiting for us. We hopped in and immediately I began to get the notion that we might not make it out alive. The drive was about three hours, but it seemed that our driver was determined to make it in 1. He was driving like a crazy man on a high speed chase with the police. I was sitting in the back, trying to hold my stomach tight, feeling more and more nauseous by the minute.

The roads in the Philippines are worth mentioning. One of my favorite things from the trip was simply the ride from the airport to the island. It was overwhelming to the senses. In one part, they were doing road construction. That meant that half the road had concrete which you couldn't drive on, and the other half was a sloping, pot-holed mess. Our driver inched along this muddy mess, uttering little grunts every time he scraped along the bottom. Slowly, slowly we inched forward. The whole time I wanted to jump out and say, "We'll walk along the concrete. Meet us at the end."

We made it through that to face something like a two-lane highway speckled with enormous potholes. The driver did not slow down. Oh, no. The potholes only seemed to add to his determination to get back to Cebu faster. Weaving in and out, swerving, slamming on his breaks, he was a crazy man. Then, he seemed surprised when we landed flat in the middle of a pothole!

The road was only two lane, and the whole way there were tricycles going slowly along the side. The driver constantly swerved around them into the oncoming lane of traffic. We've seen some crazy driving, but this driver was definitely in the top 3 of super crazies, our bus driver in Egypt topping the list. At one point, another car was speeding toward us and he nearly took off the legs of some women sitting in the tricycle next to us. Sophia, thank goodness, slept through it all. I'll give the driver this. He did cut about a half hour off the drive.

There was so much to see from our window. The hillside was a bright tropical green. Palm trees covered the hills. At some points sugarcane lined the roadway. In the villages and cities, people were everywhere. They were often sitting on raised platforms near their homes. When we went through on our way to the island, it was Sunday and the roads were quiet. It seemed everyone was just lounging about. When we came back on Wednesday, the roads were bustling. I couldn't figure out why there were so many kids walking along the road or just seeming to hang out in the middle of the week. More than a few stray dogs jutted out into the road along our path. I don't know how, but they all managed to avoid our car of death.

The one word I would use to describe the scenery in the Philippines is colorful. Buildings and cars are both painted in a vivid palette. There were blue, purple, yellow, and red buildings. You can tell that the culture is lively and vibrant. All along our drive, the coast was to our left. I wondered what it must be like to always live near the clear blue waters. I would find it hard to work. I wondered if the setting slowed life down there.

After our long trek, we arrived back on Mactan Island and checked into our one-night-stay at our resort, Plantation Bay. Joe and I had been excited about it because we had hired a babysitter so that meant a night to ourselves. The resort had everything. You could stay there for days and be entertained. It had salt water and fresh water for swimming and huge lagoons with a swim-up bar, slides, caves, and waterfalls. Once Sophia was settled at the kids' club with her sitter, we went our own way. We spent the afternoon and night getting our fortune told, having a Korean buffet on the peninsula between lagoons, shopping, and walking around the complex. Joe even stopped in the shooting range to squeeze off some shots from an M16. The resort was a nice way to end the trip.

Bright and early, we were up to catch our flight back. This time, we had about four hours between flights, so we had time to catch a car and did not miss our flight. Things went smoothly, except for our ferry ride back to Shekou. It was really rocky and all of a sudden about 10 people got up and ran to the back about ready to throw up. Thank goodness they seemed to slow the boat after that, and neither Joe, Sophia or I was too sick.

And now, with all that said, I can get back to the mundane details of our little ol' lives. All-in-all, we would go back. The Philippines was awesome once we got where we were going. Next time, I might arrange for a little more direct travel. Our friend from the Philippines says we should go visit when they are there some time. I think it would be cool to go back and experience it more with the locals. Of course, I would also go back and just laz on the beach again. I highly recommend the Philippines to anyone!

The Philippines Part II: The Island

Our beach front.



Just before we left the island. Outside of the resort where the islanders live.

One of many roosters. Sophia started immitating the rooster's crow in the morning.
Island laundry.
A little restaurant we ate at. There were lots of handmade decorations made from shells.

For some reason, there are lots of hanging things at these shops. Lots of little hanging packages all connected together. Very handy.

Coconut shells everywhere.
Stray dogs everywhere.

Roosters everywhere.

Homemade lights made inside bottles.

You see lots of religious things around due to the majority being Roman Catholic.


Our room.

Sophia happy as can be from the moment we got there. This is the restaurant on the beach. All of the rooms were like the one in the background.

Malapascua Island is paradise. As we walked down the wooden ramp into the surf, I was immediately relaxed. I knew that everything would be stress-free. How could it not. The water is so clear, you can look down and see the bottom, even when far out in a boat. It is a crystal clear blue and then darker further out where there is seaweed growing. The white beach stretches out before you, and the palm trees line the shore. Our resort had several hammocks strung between the trees, beggin to be used.

We were greeted as we got off the boat by one of the many Filipino ladies working at the resort. They all immediately learned our names and called us by name the rest of the time we were there. They gave us fruit juice and the men carried our bags to our room. There was no sidewalk, only white sand along the pathway to our room and even in the restaurant. In front of every room, there was a little foot bath to clean the sand from your shoes.

We had decided to get one of the fanciest rooms on the island, so we had TV and air conditioning. No hot water, as the website promised, but it wasn't freezing cold either. Our hotel also had its own 24-hour generator which was a bonus because in most places on the island, the generators turn off at 11 pm. I guess we were living the highlife because the other teachers who went to the island had cheap, simple rooms without air or hot water. We did really like our resort because you get anything you wanted at their very nice restaurant. The best part was that the island was so inexpensive. You could get a bottle of rum for a dollar, just to put it in perspective.

The island was absolutely beautiful. We could have spent our time getting our dive certificates and going out on several dives as we saw many people doing, but we decided to just take it easy with Sophia. She had a blast playing in the surf and collecting seashells. We are still playing with the pieces of coral and seashells that she collected. All along the shoreline are beautiful white pieces of coral and shell. Joe and I spent a little time snorkeling along the shore as well.

We only felt it necessary to venture away from our little resort a couple of times. We really didn't get far, but it was so interesting to see the life of the people on the island. They live in simple shacks, doing their laundry from washtubs. They all have roosters tied up since cockfights are the big pasttime. Apparently, there was a big cockfight that the other teachers went to the night before we arrived. There were stray dogs and laundry strung everywhere. You could see that it was definitely the simple life on the island. There was nothing more than little villages if you could call them that. Our resort was constantly running boats back and forth for supplies. I was amazed they were able to have the variety in their kitchen that they did.

The four days we were there were beautiful, even the last day when a tropical storm came through. We spent the day reading books and playing with seashells on the balcony. The pictures of the island will probably do more justice than I will.

Travel Blues and Bliss

This is my first attempt at describing our vacation to the Philippines. It may take more than one post. As we set off on our "cheap" and "easy" adventure to the Philippines, we realized that it was a little more complicated than we thought. First off, the ferry to Macau. The ferry takes an hour and a half. Then, there's the taxi to the airport - 20 minutes. Then, the wait for the plane - 2 hours. Finally, we were onboard the plane, on our way to our first stop, Manila - 1 hour 45 minutes. All this plus passport controls and frustration = a long time.

On the ferry. Sophia was not being her best little self.

We had a scheduled two-hour layover in Manila before our flight to Cebu, but as we walked down onto the tarmac, I had that sinking feeling. Crap, it was not the airport that I thought we were going to be to. It was another airport also listed as Manila, but Manila (Clark). Sophia's teacher, who is Filipino, was on the flight with us. I asked her how long it would take to get to the other airport. Two hours. Um, yeah...our connecting flight was in two hours.

We exchanged money, hopped into the first available taxi, even though it was double the price, and hit the road, knowing there was no possible way. We had to stop for a new sim card for our mobile and a phonecard so we could call the airline and reschedule for the next morning. My hotel reservation was no good to us now, either.

There we were, riding along, Sophia hungry and nothing but Oreos to give her (She didn't mind too much, of course) We stopped at a gas station and the taxi driver got out. "Lock the doors," he told us as he went into the gas station. He was the first of many drivers to tell us that. Finally, we arrived in Manila, on a dark and crowded street.

We had asked the driver to take us to a hotel. Of course, he didn't. I knew he wouldn't. Instead, he took us to a travel agent. Hmmm... there we were told we could chose from many hotels. They suggested one hotel. Joe asked, "Is it nice?" The agent replied, "It's a standard room, sir." Guess where the hotel was? Right across the street, and it was not worth the price we paid. It had one dingy bed with surprisingly clean white sheets and no blanket, an unusable cold-water bathroom, and an old-fashioned elevator from maybe the sixties. The door opened with a key and the chain was broken. I knew I'd be sleeping on my wallet. We were all starving and stressed-out. Then, it started to pour.

We began to wonder, what the hell had we done? We should have stayed home! We ate a gas-station junk-food dinner and attempted to pile into the one bed together in order to get some sleep before our 6 am flight. Of course, when everything was already terrible, Sophia was an absolute nightmare. Not just a little, a lot. Poor kid was probably as stressed out as we were.

Sophia being a little devil at the hotel room.

So those were the blues. Manila was crazy. We barely saw the city, except for a few steps from our "hotel" and from our car, but it was so active. It felt a bit like Mexico. Crazy hustle bustle would be the best words for it. It was congested, with jeepneys everywhere. They are these "buses" with jeep fronts. People ride in the back on benches. They are bright, vibrant colors or shiny silver. I didn't get a chance to take a picture, so I put one from the net. The other big form of transportation are tricycles. They are bikes or motorcyles with sidecars attached. They are constantly running along side the road. There could be two people riding in one or seven, basically as many as can fit.

In the morning, our "wake up call" was someone from the front desk knocking on our door. We got up and to the airport on time. We were so happy when we flew into Cebu and picked up our trip from the arranged part. It took three more hours by car to get to the little port of Maya on the north side of Cebu island.

Sophia, being a good girl for our morning flight.

The country side was amazing. I think I will save my next blog to share all the details because it was so rich in images. We were very sleepy on the way up, and thank goodness Sophia slept for most of the ride. We finally got to Maya and took our boat to the island. The ride was another hour. Finally, when we started to approach the island, Joe said, "This is awesome." The horrible day before was forgotten once we saw the white sandy beach and blue, blue waters.

Typical boats in the Philippines.

Off the coast of Maya.

The approach to our island. Thank God!

And that, is where the bliss comes in, but I'll save that for the next one as well.