2014

I'm a bit behind, but here is a visual snapshot of our 2014.

WHO's vaccinations?

Just before we left Manila Eilidh had her 4-month-vaccinations.  Our pediatrician noted that Eilidh's next round of vaccinations was due at the end of July, when she would be 6 months old.  At that point we would be in Spain.  Just.

So one of the first things I needed to do, when we arrived in Malága, was to find a pediatrician.  Admittedly I had been a bit lax on the research front before we arrived in Malága; I had wanted to enjoy our time in the Philippines as much as possible without thinking too much about the next move.  This meant that I had NO idea about how the vaccination schedule in Spain worked, nor indeed how the medical system worked.

In the Philippines, at one of the last check-ups before your baby is born, you are asked by your obstetrician to choose a pediatrician to be there at the baby's birth.  This was not something I had thought about.  I had just assumed that all the right people would be at our baby's birth, not that we would have to choose one.  But anyway, I asked around for some recommendations and chose one.  Our pediatrician then came to visit us every day in hospital, and she was the one we saw for Eilidh's check-ups and vaccinations.  So we were sorted.

How did it work in Spain?

I contacted a mutual friend, who had had her second baby here in Spain.  She told me that for some of the vaccinations you have to go to a chemist, buy the vaccination and then take it to your pediatrician to administer.  Unfortunately she didn't live in Malága itself, so couldn't recommend a specific pediatrician in the city.

I did a bit of Googling and found a pediatrician.  I phoned up, with my first question '¿Habla inglés por favor?'.  The secretary did, albeit broken.  I went ahead and made an appointment.

When I arrived at the appointment, the pediatrician did not speak English.  And I could not speak Spanish.  We tried to communicate, with Eilidh's list of vaccinations in front of us, in broken English and Spanish.  The Pediatrician was sweating from the strain, wiping his brow as he studied the vaccinations.  It didn't leave me with a good feeling.  He called in the secretary, who explained the same thing I had heard from my friend: you have to go out and buy some vaccinations.  She also said that some are free at your local health centre (Centro de Salud).

My mind was reeling.

I had a small window of opportunity to get Eilidh's vaccinations, and I was fast slipping out of it.  I didn't feel comfortable with the pediatrician I'd seen - his bedside manner with Eilidh wasn't good, and our communication difficulties were just too great.  I needed to find someone else.

At this point, I decided (sheepishly) to ask one of my Spanish friends to help me.  She was a godsend.  She found out about our local Centro de Salud, came with me to register Eilidh there, made an appointment with another pediatrician, came with me to that appointment, helped me buy the vaccinations and came back again for Eilidh's second vaccination appointment at the Centro de Salud.

It was made clear, at this second vaccination appointment, that we had not followed the Spanish schedule for vaccinations (obviously, as we had not been in Spain).  What baffled me was that the vaccination schedules around the world are so different.  When we had been in the Philippines our pediatrician told us that we were following the WHO recommended vaccination schedule.  I assumed (I'm learning slowly not to assume anything) that this would be the same around the world.  But it isn't.  I've spoken to friends in the UK and a friend from Holland and it seems that all 4 countries (Philippines, Spain, UK & Holland) all have slightly different schedules.

So I'm still undecided about the vaccinations that I haven't given Eilidh, we have moved again (out of Malága), which leaves us in the position of finding a new Centro de Salud, new pediatrician and figuring out whether to give her this 'missing' vaccination or not.

Let's not move again any time soon.

The love of texting in the Philippines

I've heard people say that the Philippines is the 'texting capital of the world'.  I'm not sure of the latest stats on this, but anecdotal evidence does point very much in this direction.  There are a number of reasons for this:

1. Texts are very cheap to send - 1 Peso (about 1 pence) each; about a tenth of the cost of a voice call
2. Filipinos are very sociable and will communicate in any way possible
3. Texting is less invasive than calling
4. And probably a lot more which I haven't thought of...

When interviewing for my position at a local telecommunications company I was made aware of a slightly unusual (to me, anyway) behaviour which takes place in the Philippines.  In order to make new friends, some Filipinos will just text random numbers and see who responds.  An interesting application of texting!  That aside, I've been surprised at some of the other (not that I've had random people texting me!) transactions and interactions that I've had via text message during my time in the Philippines.


1) Being asked to attend a job interview
For one of the jobs I applied to I was asked to attend the interview by text.  There was no other communication, it was only by text.  Initially asking me to attend at a certain time, me replying, and then confirmation of the interview.  Granted, it was for a telecommunications company, but I was still surprised.

2) Signing up for broadband and phone
When we moved into our apartment, we wanted to sign up to get broadband internet.  Other than filling in an application form (I can't actually remember doing this, but I'm sure I must have), the whole interaction was handled by text.  This became a bit of an issue when I wanted to end our contract and was told that we were locked in for 2 years.  I had no record of ever being told this (I still don't think I was told this).  As an aside, when I told the broadband-service-provider that I didn't want to pay the early cancellation fee, she asked why, and I told her (because I don't remember ever being told that I was locked into a 2 year contract), so she told me just to write a note of why I didn't want to pay and we'd see what happened.  I still don't know the end result.

3) Booking accommodation
We went away to Palawan in August 2013.  As usual, we left the booking of our accommodation until the last minute.  I was doing some research via TripAdvisor and found a B&B which looked great.  I searched for the B&B online to see if they had a website, but they didn't.  One of the reviews on TripAdvisor included a mobile number for the owner of the B&B, so I just texted the number.  I did try to call the number too, but no answer.  Miraculously our accommodation was reserved!

4) The persistence of some Filipinos
If someone texts you, they expect an immediate answer.  If you don't answer, they will just keep texting you until you do answer.  Sometimes, they will go further and try to contact you in other ways (email, Facebook), just to make sure they get an answer.  And this will be in the space of less than an hour sometimes.

5) Not answering my calls, but answering my texts
There have been a few instances where I've called someone, but they won't answer.  I then send them a text message immediately, and I often get an immediate response!

Some of these transactions have been great - it's often easier to send a quick text than make a phone call, for example whilst at work.  It may be something I have to reverse-adjust to when I move back to Europe.  I don't think that texting is as widely accepted for some interactions in the UK.

The benefits of a lack of organisation

This may just be my perception, but generally things in the Philippines don't seem very organised.  For example, a number of the doctors that I've seen don't work by appointment - you just turn up and wait your turn.  I don't *think* there bus timetables - you just show up at the station and wait for the next one to your destination.  In restaurants it's common for one diner to have finished their meal before another has even received theirs.

But sometimes this lack of organisation works in our favour.  Take the example of the gas canister running out.  Whilst I was sterilising various baby-feeding-paraphernalia on a Sunday I noticed that the gas was low.  Very low.  About to run out low.  First thing Monday morning I phoned the concierge in our building to order a new canister.  Within less than an hour someone had turned up with the new canister and fitted it. 

We're cooking with gas again. 

I'm not sure that that would happen so fast in a more 'organised' country where there are schedules to stick to, which are organised days in advance.

Easter in the Philippines

Easter, or Holy Week, is a big thing in the Philippines.  So big that even all the shops and most restaurants close.  For 2 whole days.

Greenbelt is a big mall near to where we live.  It is a mixture of buildings and green space, with a large semi-open-air chapel in the middle of it.  On Ash Wednesday the chapel is so full that people have to stand outside to be part of the service.

It's a long time since I went to Sunday School, so my memory is a little rusty regarding the significance of the various days around Easter, but I do remember that Lent takes place between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.  During Lent here in the Philippines, a number of restaurants offer special 'Lenten menus'.  A great way of commercialising the occasion and something I've never seen anywhere else.

For Easter itself, the holidays are slightly different to those we celebrate in the UK.  In the Philippines, it's called 'Holy Week' and the holidays are Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Black Saturday.  The Philippines is a predominantly Roman Catholic country, so Christmas is celebrated too.  But at Christmas all the shops and restaurants remain open.  On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday all the shops and most of the restaurants are closed.  It's quite eery wandering around the normally thronged Greenbelt.  I captured some photos of the occasion.

Enjoying the brrrr in Baguio

Eilidh in her car seat

The weekend before Easter we ventured out on our first family holiday.  We hired a car and a driver from Viajero Rent-A-Car and set off on our adventure to Baguio.

Baguio is about 240km North of Manila.  The drive, with about 1.5 hours break, took roughly 7 hours.  For the first hour, we were hostage to Manila traffic but after that we flew along the various tollways (NLEX, SCTEX, TPLEX) at a decent speed.  The last hour or so was a windy climb up the mountain road to Baguio.

Everyone I met who had been to Baguio only had positive things to say about it: Baguio's so lovely, the taxi drivers are so honest, the air's so fresh, it's cooler than Manila...  But other than that I didn't really know what to expect.  I was surprised when we first entered Baguio - it's very hilly, and very built up.  But not built up in a Manila-skyscraper kind of way.  Built up in the sense that all the hills seem to have buildings clinging to them.  But there are lots of pine trees and lots of parks too, so it didn't feel stifling (other than in the very busy city centre).  The air is much fresher than in Manila, and it was definitely cooler than Manila is.

View from Chalet Baguio Hotel

We stayed in the Chalet Baguio Hotel, located on Upper Military Cutoff Road.  Another building built into the side of a hill, you enter effectively on the 4th level and a lot of the rooms are on 'Lower Ground' levels.  The best views were from the rooms on the 4th level - below that, whilst you still have windows looking outside you can't see much.  The lower rooms are also loud as the karaoke room (de rigeur for hotels in the Philippines) is on the lowest level.  On our first night we were slap bang right above the karaoke room.  Luckily it didn't go on until 2am, even though it could have done as that was closing time.

Sunflowers in Baguio Botanic Gardens

Whilst in Baguio we explored the Botanic Gardens, Camp John Hay, Wright Park and The Mansion.  It was great to be able to walk around in green open space.  The Botanic Gardens are small, but have lots of pretty plants and flowers.  They are not the most manicured Botanic Gardens I've been to, but people were very happy wandering around.  The terrain is pretty rough, even the paths.  Luckily our buggy has big wheels, and Eilidh seemed to enjoy the 4x4 bumpy ride by going to sleep.

Camp John Hay was a former US Military base, and now has lots of open space, hotels and some shops & restaurants.  We only had a small wander around there as it started bucketing with rain.  We did discover a great restaurant inside Le Monet Hotel where we had lunch on both days we were there.  The seats were more like sofas so Eilidh could lie on the seat between us, which she enjoyed, meaning we could have a relaxing lunch.

The water feature in Wright Park

Wright park is very small, with a long body of water, and at one end, over a main road, there is The Mansion.  The Mansion is the official summer residence for the President of the Philippines.  Maybe they were trying to recreate the Taj Mahal effect of having the building reflecting in the water of Wright Park?  Anyway, it sort of works.  But the water was a very rusty brown colour.  I had someone ask me why it was that colour.  I thought he was going to tell me, but it turns out he didn't know either.  Rust?  Dust?

So it was a good trip, even though the journey there and back was long.  It was refreshing to get out of Manila and great to see another part of the Philippines.


Travel information

We hired a car with driver from Viajero Rent-A-Car:
+63 918 948 21 91
+63 905 288 21 56
+632 836 79 97 / +632 890 01 68
Rm 401-B 4/F RCI Building
Rada Street, Brgy. San Lorenzo
Legaspi Village
Makati City, Philippines
reservations@viajerorentacar.ph
www.viajerorentacar.com
https://www.facebook.com/viajero.carrental

The route from Manila took us on the North Luzon Express Way (NLEX), and then onto the SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway), then onto TPLEX (Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway), and then the MacArthur Highway onto Kennon Road.  Baguio is well signposted.

We stayed at the Chalet Baguio Hotel (http://www.chaletbaguiohotel.com/)

A year in the Philippines... and some other adventures

Christmas in Manila

Enterprise Center's Christmas tree

When we first arrived in Manila, back in the first week of January 2013, we noticed that there were still some Christmas trees up around where we lived.  2 thoughts crossed my mind; either Filipinos love Christmas, or it's like I've seen in other Asian countries where the Christmas decorations just stay up all year round.

It turns out that Filipinos love Christmas.  In fact, it appears that whenever there is an event to celebrate (Valentines, Easter, Summer, Halloween), Filipinos really go to town for the celebrations.

But Christmas is the big one.  Christmas in the Philippines starts in September.  September, October, November & December are referred to as the 'Ber' months.  Can you see why?  Anyhow, if you're in a 'Ber' month it must mean that you're ready to celebrate Christmas.  Back in September Christmas trees and decorations started popping up in shops, Christmas music started playing in the malls and shops... Christmas really was on its way.

For someone like me, who can be a bit Scrooge-like about Christmas, I really tried to ignore it.  But as time went on, it became impossible.  Every office block has at least 1 Christmas tree in its lobby, and probably exterior decorations too.  Some of these trees and decorations are very impressive and very beautiful.  Poinsettias started appearing in outdoor spaces - lining staircases or replacing whatever greenery had been in plant pots before.  And the music became louder and more pervasive.  Christmas street lights were put up on the main road through Makati.  The upmarket department stores switched to beautiful Christmas window displays.  For some, it was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Gift giving is a big thing over Christmas.  Every employee at the company I work for was given a huge Christmas package filled with food and 4, yes 4, hams.  Gifts are given to people who have helped you throughout the year (household staff, condominium staff), to your boss, to your staff if you have staff and of course to friends and family.  As it was our first Christmas I was a bit stumped as to what gifts were appropriate for whom.  I went for homemade gifts (delicious chocolate brownies, if I do say so myself.  In fact the receivers seconded this) for colleagues, a food hamper for our part-time cleaner and a small gift of M&S biscuits for each of the 30 or so staff in the condominium block where we live.

The 'Christmas Package' given to all employees where I work

The big day in the Philippines is Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day.  The feast families share together is called Noche Buena, eaten at around midnight on Christmas Eve.  I believe some families will also have a meal together on Christmas Day.

The Christmas tree in our condo lobby

Our Christmas Day meal was taken at the New World Hotel, right next door to where we live.  It was an international buffet and the food was pretty good.  We gathered with a fairly international crowd to enjoy our meal - a Spaniard, a Swede and a Chinese guy.  It was very different from the traditional Christmas meal we have at home, but there weren't the hours of preparation, nor the dishes to do afterwards!  It was also a glorious, sunny day.

Boxing Day was not a holiday in 2013, so sadly it was straight back to work after Christmas.  Still, it was an interesting experience to have Christmas in the Philippines and it probably meant that I ate less than is sometimes the case!

A healthy weekend

'twas the weekend before Christmas... so we decided to go on a healthy weekend break.  We'd heard about The Farm at San Benito through the Lonely Planet originally and then from friends who mentioned it during our time in Manila.  It's a coconut plantation which has been transformed into a health farm/retreat.  It sounded wonderful, if a bit expensive.  And if I'm completely honest, I never thought that we'd manage a break there.

But, we decided to treat ourselves.  Our options for getting out of the city are becoming more and more limited as the due date of the baby nears.  The Farm is only a drive away.  And it's Christmas, so why not treat ourselves!

We were picked up by The Farm's transport on Friday afternoon.  Traffic was thick getting out of the city, but once we were past the airport the rest of the drive was fairly quiet.  On arrival, we were given cold coconut water with a slice of cucumber - very refreshing.  It was dark, but the whole resort was atmospherically lit, including our room.  We stayed in one of the Sulu Terrace rooms.  On the ground level there is the bathroom and a Thai-style chill out area.  On the first floor, the small but perfectly formed sleeping quarters.

With my big belly and increased need for night-time toilet visits I was a bit wary of the steep steps up to the room.  But, this is where we were to stay so we just compared it to camping and got on with it.  There were no broken bones to report at the end of the trip.

Upon check-in we were reminded that the resort only serves vegan food.  The receptionist was keen to double-check with Mr H that this was ok.  His face must have given away the impression that he couldn't survive 2 nights without meat!

The food throughout our stay (2 dinners, 1 afternoon tea and 2 breakfasts) was very impressive.  I just couldn't believe the variety you could achieve using only vegan ingredients.  The highlights were the chocolate and pecan pie on the first night and the granola for the first breakfast.

The portion sizes are not vast, but if you go for the set menu you can choose between 2 to 5 courses.  On the first evening, we weren't sure we were going to be full, so we ordered some bread.  It was delicious, and it came with 3 spreads (cashew 'butter', pesto and coconut 'butter') but it was rather overpriced for what you got - 300 Pesos (almost £5) for 6 very thin and small slices of bread.

What is there to do at a health farm?  Each day there is a set of activities which you can choose to join, or you can simply find one of the chill-out points around the resort and enjoy the silence doing nothing.  There were 3 yoga classes a day, various other exercise classes, walks around the resort and flower arranging.  We didn't do any of these.  We lay by the pool, or in the chill-out area under our hut and just really relaxed.  I've been having really swollen feet recently, and at the end of the weekend my feet were back to normal size.  It was brilliant.

It was all over too quickly, even though it was nice having 2 nights in a place for a change.  As we headed back to Manila, the air became thicker and smoggier.  But it was wonderful to have fresh, clean air for a whole weekend.

I'd recommend a trip to The Farm, even more so if you can get a good offer.  It's not cheap, but it is very special.

A flying visit to Mactan (Cebu)

Photos from Crimson Resort & Spa, Mactan (Cebu)

Between arriving back in Manila from our UK trip and the baby arriving in February, we had a long period of potentially being 'stuck' in Manila.  December seemed the perfect time to get some weekend breaks in before it would be a bit more difficult to travel (being unable to fly after 35 weeks of being pregnant) or just too risky to be too far away from a hospital.  So we decided to go to Cebu, or more accurately Mactan.

There are numerous flights everyday from Manila to Cebu, and once you get there, there is a good variety of resorts to choose from.  It should be an easy hop, skip and a jump from smoggy city to beach.  If you don't have flight delays of over an hour in each direction.  But we won't let that ruin the trip.

We'd booked in to stay at the Crimson Resort & Spa.  It was delightful from the moment we arrived.  We were greeted with a refreshing welcome drink (I can never tell what's in these welcome drinks, but pandan perhaps in this one?) and then driven in a golf buggy to our room.  The room was a 'Garden Deluxe' and very spacious and luxuriously kitted out.  There was a big opening between the bathroom and the bedroom, but luckily there was also a wooden blind which could be pulled across.

The resort was extremely well kept - neat pathways lined with gardens and trees between all the rooms and the public areas.  3 swimming pools, 4 eating spots, a bit of beach (although all beach on Mactan is man-made) and lots of sun loungers for chilling out on.  The weather was fine, so a perfect break all round.

The only disappointing thing was that we were there for such a short time.  We made the most of this by mostly lying on the very comfortable loungers at the pool bar.  We also had a bit of a dip in the infinity pool at sundown, whilst the resort staff performed a dance symbolising the fishermen coming home after a long day at sea.  

The food at the Azure pool bar and for the breakfast buffet was very good.  We had a little extra entertainment at breakfast too when we spotted a couple wearing matching PJs.

A perfect way to spend 24 hours, and to feel rejuvenated after the smog and craziness of Manila.

Haggis, kilts, ceilidh dancing & free flowing whisky... and we're still in Manila!

I think I'm from the 'Gordon' clan.

An annual event in Manila is the St Andrews ball, organised by the Manila St Andrews Society.  Ostensibly it's to celebrate St Andrews Day (30 November), but really I think it's just an excuse for a good knees up.  And a good knees up it was.

The ball was held at the Manila Polo Club.  I've been past the Club on a number of occasions, and I've always wanted to go inside.  It has a grand entrance and you can just peek at a nice driveway and manicured lawns through the entrance.  That was definitely one of the deciding factors when I saw the event advertised.  It is also more reasonable than some of the other balls (tickets were 3500 pesos each) and the word 'haggis' was included on the poster.  I couldn't pass up another opportunity to munch on some haggis (we'd missed the Burn's supper in January this year).

Being a Friday night, traffic was, well, to put it the Filipino way 'very traffic'.  In other words 'very heavy traffic'.  It took us about 20 minutes to find a cab, and then about half an hour to travel maybe 3km.  I don't think we were the only ones who suffered as the room wasn't quite full when we arrived at 7:50pm (we were meant to be seated for dinner by 8).  People kept filtering in and eventually there must have been about 250 people there.  I never thought I would see so many kilts in one place in Manila.

Clan paraphernalia decorating the ballroom

There was a lot of ceremony, lots of food, free flowing booze and ceilidh dancing.  A great night.  We had a bit of a delayed start - we weren't eating until about 10pm.  This was after a demonstration of Scottish dancing by some local children (they were fantastic), the chieftan's address (sadly he couldn't be there, so it was read by Roy Espiritu who gave up his piping duties for the night) and the piping in of the haggis.

Starter was tomato and basil soup (tasty) followed by haggis and neeps (they forgot the tatties.  They did rectify their mistake by bringing us cold scoops of potato), and then onto fillet steak, chocolate pud for dessert and a cheese selection.  Very indulgent.  There was wine and whisky on the tables and you could order beers and other drinks from the waiters.  They even made me freshly pressed apple juice!

  

Plenty of ceilidh dancing followed, in amongst a performance from a band called The Spirits (a Celtic fusion dance band apparently).  Plenty of fun.  We lasted until about 1am, but the party was still in full swing when we left.  I'm sure there were plenty of sore heads in Manila on Saturday morning.

Buzzing Boracay

Puka Beach, Boracay

We were lucky enough to have some visitors for the first 2 weeks in September - my parents, Jill & Peter, and my sister, Sarah.  It wouldn't be a fair representation of the Philippines if all we'd shown them was Manila.  We debated, at length, where else we should go in the Philippines.  The main spanner in the works of choosing where to go was the weather.  We hadn't lived through a rainy season in the Philippines yet, so had no idea what effect these much fabled storms would have on travel plans.

In the end, we settled on Boracay.  It is one of the highlights of the Philippines, there are very frequent flights there and on paper it's a short easy journey.  On the weather maps, which show the 4 main weather regions of the Philippines, it also seemed to be one of the places that escaped some of the worst weather.

There are 2 airports which feed Boracay: Kalibo and Caticlan.  Caticlan is much closer (a short tricycle ride, followed by a short ferry ride, followed by a van/tricycle ride to your hotel.  Kalibo has an additional 2 hours bus ride to get to the port for the ferry across to Boracay.  2 benefits of Kalibo though: bigger planes fly there, and it's considerably cheaper to fly there.  So we flew into Kalibo (with delays, a 7 hour journey!) and out of Caticlan (no delays, 4 hour journey).

View from our apartment at Argonauta

We had booked to stay in an apartment, part of Argonauta resort, about 10 minutes away by tricycle from the main White Beach.  We were greeted with a refreshing fruit juice on the terrace overlooking Banyugan beach.  Stunning.

The accommodation at Argonauta was great.  A 2 bedroom apartment, with a lovely verandah was perfect for us to be able to enjoy the time together as a family.  The breakfasts served were hearty and delicious.  You could choose from various options including healthy (muesli, yogurt and fresh tropical fruit), light (fresh fruit, pancakes and 2 boiled eggs), Filipino (fruit, rice, longanissa sausage) and one which included eggs and bacon or ham.  They would easily keep us going all day, with perhaps a light snack in the afternoon.  The service was warm, friendly and efficient.  A definite perk was the free shuttle which provided us with transport to anywhere on the island, with the very friendly driver Alan.

Puka beach

We had a good mix of weather.  Our first full day was spent sunning ourselves on Puka Beach.  No complaints at all about the weather that day.  The second day was a bit mixed.  In the morning we managed some beach time at Ilig Iligan beach before the rains arrived.  On the third day it was a bit grim, but we decided to make the most of the fact it wasn't raining and headed out on a round-the-island boat trip.  This included only one snorkelling stop, at Crocodile Island.  I was a bit disappointed as on visits to other islands in the Philippines there had been numerous snorkelling stops.  Still, it was a fun way to see the whole island from the sea!  We had a bit more rain the next day, but decided to go up Mount Luho for views of the island from an alternative perspective.  Even with the rain, it was great being able to see the island and the sea.

Along with the sightseeing, we had a few good meals.  Our first meal was at Kasbah, which also has a branch in Manila.  We sat with our feet in the sand and enjoyed a delicious North African supper.  Next was at Cyma, a greek restaurant which also has a branch in Manila.  Very good Greek food including their famous flaming cheese, which is delivered to your table with the entire staff shouting 'Oooompa!'.  We also enjoyed a beach barbeque, again with our feet in the sand, wood-fired pizza at Aria and a home-cooked meal at Argonauta.  Not bad choices for such a tiny island.

Because Boracay is one of the highlights of the Philippines, it is busier than a lot of the other places we've visited.  But it is a deserved highlight.  The beaches are long, white and beautiful (especially white beach), the sea clear blue and warm, and the food options great.  Would I go back?  I wouldn't rush back, but if we have more visitors, it might be a place I recommend to them.

More photos from our Boracay trip.

We've been infested

This is not something I wanted to take a photo of.

A few weeks ago, I went to take some sunflower seeds out of the plastic container (a recycled peanut butter jar) they were stored in, but noticed some movement inside the jar.  I had a vague recollection of my mum talking about weevils when we lived in Swaziland.  They must be weevils I thought.  I checked the package they had come in and it too was full of the little critters.

I threw them in the bin and didn't think anything else of it.

Until a recent Tuesday.

I'd just come in from a swim (with my swim cap still on), and wanted to start preparing dinner.  I went to take the brown rice out of the cupboard, but noticed a few dark marks on the floor of the cupboard.  I picked these up and the looked like baby weevils.  Nothing to worry about I thought.  I measured the rice into a jug, added some water to let it soak.  And then I saw that the rice packet was alive.  The bloody things had made it into the rice as well.

"Oh no" I thought.  They're probably not just in the rice, they're probably in many of the other packets of grains etc. in this cupboard.  Right enough, they were in the flour, the cornflour, the icing sugar, the cous cous... they didn't seem to like baking soda though.  Time to chuck everything away and give the cupboard a proper clean.  This cupboard does get cleaned every week.  And we had eaten the rice on the Sunday.  So, it is entirely possible we'd had a bit of extra added protein.

That wasn't enough for me though.  I felt so creepy-crawlied out that I had to go to the mall to buy some good food canisters.  Luckily, the mall shuts at 9, so I did manage to find some canisters.  I will need more, but for now my muesli is protected, as are my oats and pasta.  I haven't re-stocked on anything else.

I have done some reading, and it turns out that weevils are most likely already in the grains when you buy them.  In the form of eggs.  These eggs hatch if you don't make your way through the ingredients quickly enough.  One solution is to freeze anything you buy for 4 days before putting it in your cupboards.  Apparently this kills the eggs.  Just remember to put whatever ingredient into a sealed plastic bag so that the moisture in the freezer doesn't ruin your grains or flour.

No doubt we'll have another infestation during our time here, but for now I'm going to buy smaller packets of rice and make sure that everything is in a sealed food canister.

Seemingly simple tasks

Before I continue, I'll point out that I realise these are distinctly First World problems.  But having spent the last 14 years, or so, in a First World country, I have been conditioned to think in a First World kind of way.

We set out to do 3 main tasks on Sunday morning:

1) Buy tickets to watch The Killers live in Manila
2) Find a copy of Swim Philippines
3) Do the weekly shop

The first 2 tasks took us close to 2 hours.  2 hours?!  Both should have been possible within about half an hour based on the location of the venues where we needed to complete the tasks.

To get The Killers tickets, I knew we needed to head to SM Makati.  The walk, from our apartment, to SM Makati takes us through 2 malls: Greenbelt & Glorietta.  Within Glorietta there are a number of sports shops.  Mr H had it on good authority that at least one of these sports shops (Planet Sports) would stock the free Swim Philippines magazine.  So we headed there first.

Mr H's enquiry was met with a blank stare.  We know that the magazine is stocked in this store, as we've picked one up there before.  Next stop was a running store, Athlete's Foot.  This time, it was suggested we head to the Speedo store.

Speedo, for those of you who are not familiar with the brand, makes swim wear and related kit.  It's all about swimming.  Mr H's enquiry again was met with a blank stare.  Sense of humour failure was starting to set in.

We ventured to another store, Toby Sports.  At this point Mr H had decided to use my phone to bring up the Swim Philippines Facebook page to avoid any confusion due to potential misunderstandings in Brummy English vs. Filipino English.  We were directed to another store, Toby's Arena.

I should point out that Glorietta is a big, sprawling shopping mall set over at least 3 floors.

As soon as we walked into Toby's Arena we had 2 shop assistants half a metre behind us, following us to the checkout.  But they also just looked blankly at us when we asked.  The person behind the checkout went to enquire in the back room whether there were any magazines (we *think* they knew what we were talking about), only to find that they don't have any.  And they didn't know when they would get any copies.

We ended our search there.  Unfulfilled.

Our next task would surely be easier.  I'd read that you could buy The Killers tickets from SM ticket outlets, and I knew there was a ticket outlet in SM Makati.  We found the ticket outlet, and it was all going well.  We were shown a venue layout, shown the different prices, shown that tickets were available... we made our decision and I brought out my Smart Money Mastercard to pay.

"Oh, sorry ma'am, but you can't pay with a Megalink Mastercard, you can only pay with a credit card."

*Sigh*

So we went in search of an ATM.  The first one we found kept refusing our transactions (with multiple cards).  It must have run out of money.  The second one spat out some cash.  In fact it spat out a lot of cash.  5000 Pesos in 100 Peso notes!!  We were finally able to purchase our tickets.

2 tasks done.  At least 2 hours down.

And we still had the nightmare of the weekly shop.  Which is rarely weekly, because we both hate doing it so much.  It wasn't such a nightmare, about about an hour later we were home eating salami sandwiches on great French bread.  Epic over.

3 days in Palawan

Photos from our Palawan trip

With a Filipino public holiday falling on a Friday (often they fall midweek), we thought it was too good an opportunity to miss going somewhere like Palawan which needed more than a weekend, mostly because of the long journey.  We took the Thursday off work, so had 3 nights away.

We had heard that El Nido is the highlight on Palawan, and one of the highlights of the Philippines, so that's where we headed.

To get there it is a bit of a trek... an hour's flight from Manila to Puerto Princessa followed by a 6 hour road journey to El Nido.  The last 1.5 hours is on dirt road!  We had heard some horror stories about the minivans; mostly to do with them being completely packed and the roads being really bumpy.  We were very lucky both ways - on the way North to El Nido we had a row of seats to ourselves and on the way back we booked onto a 'daytripper' minibus which has very comfortable seats, and only 9 of them (not 14 or 17 as on the others).  And the journey passed quite quickly - lots of lovely rural scenery to look at (including countless carabao, or water buffalo, lounging around in big muddy puddles) and a few comfort stops along the way.  The minibus dropped us right at our accommodation too, which was an added bonus.

We stayed at Treetops in Corong Corong, just south of El Nido.  It's a very small B&B, with only 2 rooms.  The rooms are more like mini-cottages, built all out of local lumber on a platform so you really felt like you were in the treetops!  It's run by an English gent and his Filipina wife.  Fresh fruit and juice when we arrived, a clean comfortable room and very peaceful.  The breakfasts were superb, and Dave (the owner) cooked us a Thai meal one night.  Delicious.

The weather wasn't amazing whilst we were there, but it is the rainy season after all.  We arranged an island hopping / snorkelling trip (Tour A) for our first full day there.  There were only 4 of us on the boat and we visited 5 or 6 sites including a small lagoon, a big lagoon and a secret lagoon (obviously not so secret anymore).  The sun came out for our first stop; it really made it feel like paradise with swimming-pool blue water.  Stunning.  We are so lucky to live in a place where we can escape to gorgeous beaches so easily.

We had a barbecued lunch on the beach - freshly caught white snapper (not caught by us!) and meat kebabs with rice, salad and mango for dessert.  It's the stuff that dreams are made of.

The rain really came down at our last stop and by the time we got back to El Nido we were soaked.  The only answer was a cup of tea.  Well, for the girls anyway.  Beer for the boys.  A great day.

On our second day we decided just to go for a half day trip, mostly so we could have some chill-out time in the morning.  Again the weather wasn't amazing, but it didn't rain until we got back so we managed to stay fairly dry.  Until we had to get off the boat back at El Nido and the water came up to our waists!  Mr H had changed into a dry pair of shorts so he was less than impressed!  Oh well.  The islands that we visited were gorgeous - Helicopter Island with a long beach and Paradise Island which we had all to ourselves.

El Nido is a small town, but due to the number of tourists there are lots of eateries and shops selling souvenirs.  We ate at Altrove, an Italian restaurant run by a Czech guy.  It has great promise (a wood-fired stone oven cooking the pizza), but perhaps because it was the low season it didn't quite deliver.  The food was ok, but they didn't have a lot of the more interesting options on the menu.  On the second night we ate at a French restaurant - La Salangane.  The service and the food were excellent.

What it does lack though is an ATM.  There are 2 establishments which take credit cards, and for the rest you have to pay in cash.  Luckily our B&B would accept a PayPal payment otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford to eat for half of our trip.  I had totally underestimated the amount of cash we would need!

We had a bit of a wait for our flight in Puerto Princessa, so we stopped off at Cafe Itoy.  A great place serving many varieties of coffee, cake and food.  An unexpected find in a provincial town.

Definitely a recommended trip if you have a few days to spare.

Frozen peas and other miss-cellaneous

Like any big decision, the decision to move far away from home involves a lot of thought, discussion and thoughts of 'what if'.

Before Mr H even had his confirmed job offer, we were playing through lots of scenarios in our heads related to 'if we moved' and 'if we didn't move'.  A lot of the 'if we moved' centred around being so far away from friends and family.  When we lived in England, we were about 2.5 hours away from Mr H's family and about 4 hours (if we flew) away from mine.  It wasn't as if we could just nip round for a cup of tea.  But being on the other side of the world, 15 hours minimum flying time, is slightly different.  You can't just nip back for a weekend.  We rationalised it based on 2 key factors: 1) we wouldn't stay away forever and 2) technology is so good these days that it's easy to see each other via e.g. Skype.

When we first arrived, we had a really shoddy internet connection.  This made Skype calls, with video at least, nigh on impossible.  A big priority for us, when we moved to a more permanent abode was to get a very decent internet connection.  It was such a relief when we did - we managed to have decent conversations with our families for the first time in about 3 months.

My other big considerations in the 'if we move' category were the availability of food I liked to eat, or ingredients for baking.  Would there be decent flour so that I could make bread?  Would we be able to get cheese easily?  When I lived in China back in 1999/2000 I would wake up dreaming of macaroni cheese or beans on toast.  Both bread and cheese were very difficult to come by.  Where you could get bread it was inevitably sweet.  And where you could get cheese it was processed.

It turns out you can get flour here, but it tends to be very white all purpose flour.  I have yet to find any wholegrain flour.  Or self-raising flour.  I have been able to find recipes where I can use all purpose flour e.g. to make pizza base or cinnamon buns, I guess because it's a common flour in the USA.  But it is just SO white.  But you can buy bread here, which isn't sweet.  And I even found some decent-looking wholegrain bread the other day at The French Baker.  I didn't buy any (I had too much shopping as it was), but I will venture back out to try it at some point.  You can also get cheese in many varieties.

But I hadn't considered missing the British countryside.  Or a good British pub (granted, Mr H had mentioned this a number of times before we left.  I just didn't 'get it', according to him because I had spent so much time outside of the UK already.)  Or the big sporting events (Wimbledon and The Ashes).  Or having a car and the freedom that brings with it.  Or the convenient banking hours.  Or the reliable postal system.  Or the reliable public transport system in the bigger cities (and the amazingly awesome journey planner).  Or the clean, fresh air of little Wokingham.  Or being able to see independent cinema (I don't know how many more action blockbusters I can stomach).  Or being able to listen to decent chat and music on the radio (at least I'm getting to fulfill my guilty power-ballad pleasure during every taxi journey I take I suppose).  Or being able to kick back and watch something decent on TV (which is not Asia Food Network).  Or frozen peas.  

Beautiful Bohol: Part 2

It's been a while since we were in Bohol, and a while since I blogged about the first part of our stay... but I should finish it off.

Day 2 started again with breakfast at Arts Cafe.  Delicious, freshly prepared food.  

We hadn't quite finished eating when I saw Ramon, our driver, waiting for us outside our hotel.  I ran down to ask him if it was ok to wait 15 minutes or so.  He was so punctual the whole time we were there.  It may be because his watch was set at a time about 15 minutes ahead of the actual time.  Later on in the day, we asked him if he'd take us to the airport the following day at 1pm.  

He said: "What time is it on your watch?"  

Mr H looked at his watch and read out the time.

Ramon looked at his, read out a time about 15 minutes ahead and said "Ok, they're roughly the same time, that's fine.  See you tomorrow."

So Ramon took us on the 'Countryside Tour' of Bohol.  The full tour includes 9 stops:

1) Blood Compact Shrine

This is the site where the Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi and Datu Sikatuna the chieftain of Bohol performed a blood compact, on March 16, 1565, to seal their friendship as part of the tribal tradition.

It's marked by a monument.  A lot of the other tourists didn't seem to have any qualms about climbing all over it to have their pictures taken.

2) Baclayon Church and Museum

The second stop was this church, which is considered to be one of the oldest churches in the Philippines.  Ramon told us that it's built from coral.  It was really impressive.  We didn't look around the museum, but did wander into the church.

3) Python Sanctuary

And then it was on to meet Prony, the the longest and largest snake in captivity.  I think it's the longest and largest because it gets fed pretty big meals (a pig every few months) and doesn't have very much space to move around.  A sad sight to behold.  There were other animals in the sanctuary, also in pitifully small cages.

4) Tarsier watching

From Pythons to Tarsiers.  Tarsiers are one of the world's smallest primates and are indigenous to Bohol.  I'd been worried about the conditions the tarsiers would be kept in, but I was pleasantly surprised.  There was a really big enclosure, full of jungle where the tarsiers seem free to roam around.  I was a little concerned that there were paper markers pointing out where a tarsier was sitting.  I looked really closely, but couldn't see anything tying them to the spot.  I spoke to one of the rangers who told me that they sit so still during the day because that's when they're resting.  It's at night that they come to life and move around.

Other than some really inconsiderate tourists who were intent on waking the tarsiers up by blowing on them, speaking to them etc. it was really pleasant to see these cute bug-eyed beasts.

5) Man Made Forest

After the tarsiers we drive towards the Chocolate Hills.  Our route took us up 'chicken intestine road' (so called because of all the sharp bends) through the Man Made Forest.  Essentially just a standard forest with lots of tall, straight trees planted in nice straight lines.

6) The Chocolate Hills

Other than the tarsiers, Bohol's other big tourist attraction is the roughly 1200 Chocolate Hills.  They have a very distinctive shape and apparently look at their most beautiful at dawn and dusk.  We arrived in the middle of the day, in the rain.  They were still really impressive.  We were driven to near the top, and then could walk up some 200 odd steps to the top of one of the hills to get a great vista of some of the other Chocolate Hills.

There were 3 other things on the tour, but we didn't do them:

Loboc River cruise

Butterfly Conservation Centre

Hanging Bridge

Instead, we stopped at another church this time on Panglao island - Dauis 'Our Lady of Assumption' church. It is famous for a well that is at the alter.  Another beautiful church.

We arrived back at the hotel at a reasonable time (mid afternoon) thinking that we'd be able to enjoy a cocktail or 2 during happy hour, only to be met with a sign on our room door saying that no alcohol would be served until midnight Tuesday!  All because of the election.  So we had to make to with enjoying some sunshine as we lay by the pool.

We did manage to find some alcohol later that night at a hotel bar along Alona beach.  Phew.

On our last morning, again we enjoyed an Arts Cafe breakfast before getting in some last minute pool time.  The sun was out in full force and it really felt like we were on holiday.

I'd definitely recommend a trip to Bohol.  It's an hour away from Manila, by plane, but feels a whole lot further.  It's quiet, clean and beautiful.

Walking to work

I've probably said this a few times on the blog, but I love being able to walk to work.  No more being at the mercy of other drivers on the road, and it's so close that I don't spend hours of my life commuting.  I thought I'd put a few pics up of the walk itself:

1) The first crossing from our apartment block

 2) Left turn onto Gamboa

3) Right turn to walk through Washington Sycip Park (one of 4 parks in Makati - really pretty and quiet).

4) Across the road and another right turn onto Thailand (Rada) Street

5) Left turn onto Dela Rosa Street (see the elevated walkway to the right of the picture)