Philippines.Hot.Sunny.Different.
On the 25 we finally got rid of our jackets, long sleeves and pants and surrendered to the hot and sunny Philippines.
We landed in humid, crowded Manila. The plan was originally to spend a few days in Manila and then move on, but after re-evaluating
the plan, we decided to skip Manila and move on straight away. Partly because of Manilas not-so-good-reputation, an partly because, well
frankly, we´d had enough big-city sightseeing for now and wanted something else.
So not knowing the Philippines at all, we consulted our book and decided on a coastal beach area a couple of hours drive
from Manila. We got a cab from the airport and agreed on a price. 2,5 hours drive they said.....
It took us about an hour and a half just to get out of Manila. Sure - we´d read that the traffic could be a killer in Manila,
but I never imagined it this bad.
We finally arrived to the city Nasugbu, 4,5 hours later. We´d read about a nice beach area called Maya Maya and wanted to
check it out. It was already dark and the cab driver didn´t know the way at all and had to stop many times to ask for
directions. Finally we were guided to this little dirt road with no signs what so ever, which we drove on for what seemed like
an eternity. At last we arrived to a beach resort and managed to book us in a hut.
The next day we awoke to a magnificent ocean view from our little terrace. We took a stroll around the resort, found out it
was a beautiful place, but somewhat worn down. It was low season, so they were doing a lot of work on the huts. They
had a pool, but it didn´t work so the water was all green. There was a tiny beach , but it was very rocky and therefore
not very nice. In addition, we soon figured out that the resort was very isolated.
The place is located in an area with a lot of mountains, and the roads are steep and long. The only way to get anywhere from the resort,
was either by boat or with the local motorbike-taxies called tricykles.
Well we had a nice stay anyway. The staff at the resort was very friendly and helpful, and even if the resort was
in Philippino-standard very expensive, we enjoyed ourselves.The first couple of days we were the only guests, so we had the
whole place to ourselves.
Plenty of time for the kids to make good friends with the staff :-)
We went beach-hopping with a boat one of the days. They took us to some caves nearby where we hopped off the boat and swam
in the caves. That was great. They also took us to a beautiful little beach, were half was private owned, and the other half
was accesible to public - but only by boat - so again we had the whole beach to ourselves.
While beach-hopping, we tried to find an alternative to our resort - a place where we wouldn´t feel so ripped-off all the time :-)
But it turned out to be completly impossible. They had a very weird thing about all the resorts being privatly
owned, and strictly for members only. Our´s turned out to be almost the only place around where you could just walk in
without beeing a member.
Day after we repeated the succes with the boat - well there wasn´t exactly a lot of other stuff to do...
It was nice though, we brought lunch from the resort restaurant and bathed again on this paradise-like beach.
Late afternoon the same day, we took the hotel taxi (yes - turned out they had this rusty,worn-out, old car that they used for
short transportation ) to the nearby city of Nasugbu. A charming little city. We had just arrived when we discovered a lot of action
in the town park. So curious as we are, we had to have a look. Turned out there was some kind of inter-scool dance competition.
We had only stood outside looking for a couple of minutes, when we were waved inside by some friendly locals.
So we saw some dance shows before we went on, attracting a lot of attention from the locals everywhere
we went. No other white people were to spot anywhere, and we got the feeling that generally in the town, white,dumb tourists
are not an everyday-sight. Not many even tried to pretend not to be staring, and the brave ones dared themselves to go
ahead and touch the kids :-). Smiles everywhere and very nice people.
Going back home, we took the tricykle. Wow. There were times when I truly feared for our lives during the ride :-)
A 20 minute ride on a homemade kind of motorbike with a self-installed side wagon, going up and down theese very steep mountain
roads, which aren´t exactly well-maintained, in complete darkness. The breaks didn´t work very well and the lights on the motorbike weren´t really stable either and turned
on and off constantly. At one point the road was simply too steep, and the tricykle could´t get all the way up. So Patrick and
the drivers son (who also road along on this tiny motorcykle thing, making us a total of 6 persons on the bike :-) )
had to get off and walk the rest of the way up. Well we made it all the way in one piece
The day after we returned (by tricykle again, yes, we daredevils...this time we took two though...) to see more of the city.
Since it´s completely dark by 6 PM, the evenings are cut kind of short, so we didn´t get to see that much of the city the day before.
We started out in a small alley, and suddenly found ourselves in a huge market area, with small streets and both inside and
outside marketplaces all over. Small stables selling everything from fruit and fish to jewels, shoes and toys.
While stralling around the marketplace, a man told us there was something going on in the park again, so we went back, and
stumbled across a cooking contest of some kind. We again hadn´t been standing long before a very friendly lady approched
us, and told us it was an annual local cooking competition - chefs competing in cooking a local dish - tunafish cooked in saltwater.
She told us the judges were just about to announce the winner, and that afterwords we were welcome to taste the food.
So we waited and got to see the winners, who were very happy :-), and afterwords we were called up on the microphone
as "the guests from Denmark" and welcomed by our names to come and taste the food. Such hospitality :-)
All of the food tasted fantastic. You wouldn´t really expect that much variety in a dish so simple with so few ingredients,
but there really was. They can cook some seriously good fish !
With these great experiences, we left Nasugbu and Maya Maya the next day.
The resort had called a nice, well maintained taxi for us, and we took the trip back to Manila. Stopping shortly by the town
of Tagatay for the wiew of the impressive Taal-volcano islands.
This time, there was almost no traffic in Manila due to a local holiday, so the drive only took 2 hours.
We flew to Cataclan, from where we were headed on to the very well known Boracay beach area. Our original plan had been to drive,
but all the locals kept telling us it couldn´t be done, since you´d have to pass so many islands, it would take you forever.
So we flew.
At the teeny tiny airport in Cataclan, we took a short tricykle drive to the harbour, where we had to take a boat to the next
island to get to Boracay. At the harbour our tricykle driver, (who also assisted us in purcasing boat tickets and such)
left us in the care of a smiling lady, who turned out to be a tourist coordinator - payed by the government to assist
tourists in finding their way, finding a place to stay and so on. Smart.
We told her what sort of accomodation we were looking for, and she walked with us all the way as we checked out different
places. The kids called her Mary poppins - she could make anything happen :-).
We chose a place for the night, and went for a walk.
Boracay is a place I´ve only recently heard of. But apparently that is not the case for thousands of other tourists.
It´s the Philippines answer to places like Goa.
It is best known for it´s main beach - white beach. A long strech of beach which, like the name indicates, consists of
lovely fine white sand, and perfect chrystal-clear turquoise shallow water everywhere you look.
Ofcourse a place like this, is not undiscovered, and we read that tourism is still increasing. Therefore we feared a little of
what tourist-hell might await us. And yes, there is tourism, a lot of it. And yes, there are beach bungalows, restaurants and
street vendors trying to sell you everything you don´t need for "a good price only for you my friend", but still, wether it´s
because high-season hasn´t kicked in yet, or because we expected something worse, it´s actually not that bad at all.
We are also staying at the quiet end of the beach, where there aren´t many other visitors.
Now that we´ve outgrown our party-all-night-long-and-dance-on-the-tables
age, we appriciate not sleeping next to a raveparty :-)
But even in the more lively areas of the beach, it´s okay. There aren´t that many people, and the vendors aren´t that aggressive.
People come here for the waters, there are mostly divers and snorklers, couples on honeymoon or romantic vacation,
families with children and ofcourse your average beach-bum-backpackers and so on.
No loud groups of teenagers or such - they´re all in Sunny beach :-)
And the beach really is worth coming for. It´s said to be one of the top ten beaches in the world, and I agree.
Outside the beach area it is pretty much like most places here - bumpy dirt roads, very poor, small roadside booths selling
food that would kill our western stomaches and small sheds, easily housing big families of a dozin people or so.
Small annoyances here include the mildely said very unstable internet connection which we kind of depend on
since we haven´t bought all our plane tickets yet, the electricity - equally
unstable - that goes off about 4-5 times a day and the small, soundless but very annoying mosquitos.
But we have hot water in the shower (we didn´t in Maya Maya) and water generally in restaurans is purified.
Were all good - no major stomach problems, no major sunburnes or anything more serious.
We started on our Malaria medication on arrival to the Philippines to be on the safe side, and will continue until
arrival to Australia.
The days here are spent mostly in water. We changed to another bungalow by the beach - a really cosy, nice place.
We´ve spent some money on snorkling gear, and are discovering life at sea :-).The kids are doing good at learning to swim,
and have discovered the joys of snorkling.
Swimming, snorkling, walks on the beach, eating, drinking and some homework now and then, pretty much wraps up the last
three days or so.
Most things in the Philippines are like in the rest of southern Asia - same same but different.
A lot of things are western influenced. As the only country in Asia, 90% of the population here are Christian - missionary
doings. They have their own language, influenced by both spanish and english, but english is taught in schools.

We imagin all of you in the snow - feels a bit unreal from here - and hope you find joy in all the christmas preparations.
Apart from a few creativly decorated palmtrees and an occasional christmas song in a beach bar, you really couldn´t tell
it´s that time of year here.
Santa´s elves have found their way to our little beach hut since December 1´st though - with a little calender gift every
morning for the kids. Judging by the nature of their increasingly sceptical questions about santa claus lately - this will
propably be their last year of believing. But this year, still, it was pure joy and astonishement - "How did santa manage
to find us so far away ? " and "I just love christmas" were the reactions :-)
So, wrapping it up, making a long story even longer, the next few days we´re planning on doing about the same as the past
few days - absolutely nothing really. Planning a boat trip to an island where snorkling is supposed to be really good, and
maybe a little island hopping as well.
We also have to buy some flight tickets, and figure out where we want to go next. We´re thinking a week here should be plenty,
by then we´ll surely want to move on anyway.
Sending warm thaughts to all of you, friends, family, work-friends, neighbours, gospel-friends, badminton-buddies, FB-friends
and so on :-). Thinking of you, and hope you´re all good :-)
We appreciate all of the messages,greetings and mails you send - it´s nice to hear news from home :-)
A special, huge and loud thank you again to you house/cat/plant - sitters, we know we owe you big-time for this one :-).
We´ll update again when possible, when the internet is working for more than 2 minutes at a time :-).
J.