A farewell to the Philippines. We´ve had time to relax and stay put for more than a couple of days at the same place, and that suited us just fine. But now we´ve spent 8 days in Boracay, and our restless souls need new experiences :-)

The last couple of days have mostly been filled with water-related activities. Not very surpricing, since this is the main (and close to only) attraction in and around Boracay. One of the days we rented a longboat to go island-hopping and snorkling in the deep waters. We got to snorkle in one spot only - a lot more difficult to do with two kids than you´d imagine. There were enough waves at sea to make it a bit of a hurdle to even get into the water, take the gear on, help the kids in the water and help them get their gear on......we managed eventually, only to discover the spot was a bit of a dissapointment. The picture-perfect, multi-coloured coral reefs we´d imagined, turned out to be grey and half-dead with only few fish swimming among. The one Nemo clownfish we spotted was as exhiliarating as it got. The plan was to sail around the island and make some stops on the way. We were told there was supposed to be some nicer spots to snorkle, but due to the increasing unstableness at sea, especially on the other side of the island, the guys sailing the boat, told us it would be wiser turning around. So we did.

The next day we were supposed to take a tricykle-trip around the island instead. But Sofie had been up all night with a stomache pain throwing up , and needed to rest the day after, so we stayed in our bungalow all day, updating some computer stuff, getting frustrated by the crappy internet connection that will throw you offline every 3 minutes or so (yeah, I know, all of you cursing the snow will hate me for writing about these non-problem-problems :-) - sorry :-) )

The morning after, Sofie was all good again - we try our best to avoid these nasty stomache things by desinfecting hands before every meal and avoiding all the usuals - salads, ice-cream and such, but it´s pretty hard to avoid it completely. Well it was the first of this trip, and a short one.

We took the tricykle tour in the afternoon - a one-and-a-half hour drive excluding stops. Nice seeing the island from another angle. We visited some of the other beaches on the island, climed up the small hill with an amazing panoramic view of the island, and drove through all the small village roads that make Boracay. Very very poor and primitive. As soon as you get outside the beach areas, you´re in a completely different world - another face of the Philippines. Garbage everywhere, stray animals, small kids in dirty clothes begging in the roadside. Many of the things wrong in this world very concentrated, and still, like the rest of southeast asia, you kind of sence the peace. Somehow in the midst of all the misery, all the humbleness, the simplicity of how things are done, the smiling faces , all this back-to-basics and layed-back attitude, still makes me wonder who the losers really are. In this time-warp-like world, where the word stress only is something related to these pale strangers guesting the islands, I believe, hides values long forgotten, or at least about to be forgotten, in our parts of the world. Call it evolution if you want, but I still think all this hurrying along, focusing on effectivity and results, measuring everythings worth, makes us less empathetic and engaged in each other and makes us disconnect.

Ok, I promise - enough pocket-philosophy for one blog :-)

Now, we just landed in Kota Kinabalu - Malaysian Borneo. Looking forward to some jungle time and orangutang spotting :-)

J.