Phitsanulok

We arrived in Ph... yesterday after 6 hours on the road with only one night booked at our chosen hotel. We had expected we could book another night so skipped any touring for the day. This morning we discovered the hotel was fully booked so we trudged off with our packs and found another hotel for this evening. That meant we could go see the wats (temple complexes) along the banks of the Nan River 

These little buildings were on the far side of the river. No idea if they were of significance. 

This Buddha (considered to be the second most revered Buddha image in Thailand) is the reason people come to Phitsanulok.  It is housed in Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahathat. It was forged here in 1357 during the reign of King Li Thai. (Our hotel tonight is the Li Thai but I doubt the King would have chosen it.)

The temple complex is far from quiet.  There are loud, blaring, competing loudspeakers shouting exhortations and the temple is deluged with visitors, many of them bringing flowers or other objects that allow them to "make merit".

There are many other Buddha images in the temple and in other buildings in the complex. 

The walls of the main temple are decorated with very beautiful detailed paintings. 

Outside are areas where you can also make merit by bringing offerings or lighting incense. The first image here is somewhat macabre and there were many of them on display.  The second image may help erase the first from your mind if you meditate on it. 

There were peaceful areas in the temple complex though. 

He's green because he was under a sheltering canopy. 

These are chedis - towers which often house relics. 

These round balls are only two of a long line to which people were affixing thin gold leaf sheets.

We went to a second Wat next door to the large one. These people were sitting in meditation while several monks chanted. Each had a string tied to his/her head.

These decorations were purchased by rhe devout and then money was slotted into the stem attached and left for merit making. 

And more merit. These banners were purchased empty then filled with money. Sticks were provided to help hang them from the strings strung across the temple. The red bills are 100's, about $3.00. The green are 20's about 65 cents. The ceiling was festooned with them and there were lots of people adding more. 

This Buddha image is probably 700 years old and is housed in the second Wat we visited. 

This is one of the old wooden buildings in the second temple complex. 

And here's a fine specimen that Geordie had a chat with. 

And a final shot from our walk home. 

Upriver to Nonthaburi

This morning we took a trip up to the last Express Boat stop in the Chao Phraya River, the town of Nonthaburi. A trip anywhere on the boat costs 15 baht, about 50 cents, so quite affordable. Here are a few pictures of that journey. 

The express boat arriving. 

A house on the river 

A small pier at the river which belongs to the Wat and the Teak Museum we saw the day before. There are vendors there selling fish food which people toss to the waiting catfish which are smart enough to hang around the area. Our friend Judy Abel reminded us of this phenomena. River plus temple equals catfish feeding. (See next picture)

On the boat it can get crowded. 

A temple complex along the route 

And a Chinese temple too 

The market in Nonthaburi. That's Geordie on the left. 

Crabs for sale

And vegetables

How much ?

The flower seller 

A temple on the other side of the river on our return trip

Love the angles one can get from a boat on the river. This is the Rama VII bridge which we drove over on our way into Bangkok. 

Over-the-top light fixture at our favourite dessert stop where we had blueberry cheesecake tarts after our trip up river. I cheated and used the star widget on my camera. 

Around Bangkok

We've been wandering in Bangkok for four days now. We haven't hit many of the highlights because we've been here several times. We've enjoyed our time though. And I thought a few pictures would suffice to give you a flavour of our wanderings. And here they are. 

The King and Queen are everywhere. December 5 was his birthday, which Thailand also celebrates as Father's Day. Mother 's Day fittingly is on the Queen's birthday. Our friend Margaret stayed at this hotel so we won't looking for it to remind her of her trip. 

Most of the boats we see on the river have theses flower decorations. This is a long tail boat. They have powerful motors that allow them to speed around on the river with great plumes of spray behind them. 

A friendly creature under a bridge over a klong (canal).

Orchids at the restaurant where we ate salt crusted fish. 

Beauty and barbed wire. (apologies for the soft focus - my camera has a mind of its own. 

The Spirit House at Kalaong Home Kitchen

Bangkok food

Christmas breakfast at an Israeli restaurant. Shakshuka: eggs baked in a zesty tomato sauce 

Christmas Dinner at Aquatini

The view during Christmas dinner

Salt crusted fish at Kalong Home Kitchen 

Ghana Business Names

I spent three weeks travelling in Ghana this spring and found it a challenging difficult wonderful exciting country to travel in. And I was on tour with a great group. We travelled with Explore Travel based in England and travelled by bus throughout the country meeting great people, enjoying the landscape, and even meeting a few elephants along the way.

But, one of my favorite activities for the whole trip was recording the names of the businesses we saw along the highway, in towns and cities. Ghana has a strong religious basis and it uses text from the Bible to create names that we might find jaw dropping, funny, laughable - but which they use without a hint of irony.

Here, in no other order except that in which I saw them and wrote them down, is a very long list of business names. Even though it is a long list, I think you'll find them fascinating and need to read all the way through - hey some of the best are in the middle and then there are the ones at the end.

Feedback is welcome. Drop by and say hi.

Business Names in Ghana

By His Grace Cosmetics and Boutique

Joy Spot Catering

Anointed Fast Food

Work Hard Photos and Video Network

God First Battery Service

Only Believe Floral Works

Riches of Glory Guest House

In His Time Living (Housing estate)

Miracle Child Academy

Bed Time Hotel

All Shall Pass Enterprises

Showers of Blessings Enterprises

God Is Good Electrical

His Mercy Seat Ventures

Pillar of Rock Ventures

Kastic Furniture – In God We Trust

Fear Not Phones

Except God Enterprises

The Lord Is My Shepherd Beauty Salon

Jesus Cares Carpentry Shop

Once Upon a Time Funeral Home

Beloved Child Computer Academy

Seek Ye First (Mat 6:33) Supermarket

Run For Your Life Int. Chapel (international? or interment? which do you think?. I didn't know.)

Pentecostal Church and Herbal Prayer Centre

Stomach Has No Holiday Food Shop

Good Name is Better than Riches Cosmetics

No Jesus No Life Supermarket

Dependable God Store

Up Lord Engineering Shop

God’s Time Is The Best Auto Engineering

Holy Child Circumcision

Prince of Peace Cosmetics

Only Jesus Can Do Fashion

God First Fast Food

God’s Pencil Business Enterprises

God’s Signature No Eraser Enterprises (What Is Written Is Written)

Over To God Enterprises

Patience to All Car Wash

Divine Providence Cosmetic Shop

God Is My Helper Saloon (Beauty Salon – not bar!)

God Is Love Furniture

God’s Gift Dress Making

Let There Be Light Electicals

God Has Done Computer Services

Jesus Is Soon Coming Enterprises

In Him Is Life General Store

Christ In You Barbering Shop

Allah Is The Answer Supermarket

No Way Electricals

Lion of Judea Metal Works

Knock and Ask Shoe Enterprises

Lord Winners Investment

Dr. Jesus Fast Food

Holy Ghost Power (Electrical)

Passover Chop Bar

Fishers of Men Electricals

Jehovah’s Newest Co. Ltd.

God is King Razor Wire and Furniture

My God Key Service

Jesus Power Provision Store

Divine Favor Venture

Romans 8:35 Enterprises

God Peace Electrical and Construction

Holy Ghost Workshop

Papa Yaw Corpse Decoration Services

Let There Be Food Cold Storage

Powerful God Business Centre

Trust God and I African Wear Shop

Don’t Go There Enterprises

Ancient Power Electrical Services

Great Wisdom Book Shop

Blessing and Living Baby Diapers

God’s Way Metal

Jesus Is Evergreen Ltd.

OD Mortuary

Jesus Cares Multiventures

Noble Character Enterprises

Thank U Jesus Fitting Shop

In Him Is Life Electrical Repairs

Heaven’s Gate Funeral Home and Morgue

God Is Good Concrete

Mercy Love Beauty Hair Care

By His Grace Fashion Centre

I Promise Furniture Works

Ultimate Glory Hardwares

Let Bygone be Bygone Beauty Salon

Welcome to Israel Barbering Shop

Loaf Of Life Bakery

My God is Able Enterprises

Ave Maria Beauty Shop

God Will Provide Fitting Shop

God Is In Machine Shop

Last Hour Washing Bay

Messiah Motors

The Lord’s Casket Furntiure Construction Works

Hotel Messiah – A Glimpse of Heaven

Amen Scientific Herbal Hospital

God Is Alive Tailoring Shop

Jealous Transport Services

By Faith We Make You Look Great

Grace Faith Fashion

Relax Jesus Is In Control Unit Transfer

With God All Things Are Possible Beauty Salon

AWAKE! Internet Café

Try Jesus Digital Photo

Maple Leaf Chemists (this one is just for Canadians)

God Will Do Welding

Thy Heart’s Desire Beauty Salon

Future Ladies Beauty Shop

God’s Time Drums

Seek Jesus Keycutting Service

Peculiar Child Academy (We Are Different)

Virgin Kids and Junior High School

The Blood of Jesus Fitting Shop

God Is Grace Communication Centre

God is Able Enterprise

Excellent Faith Enterprises

Holy Child Forex Bureau

Steps to Christ Enterprises (Annex)

Accra

We got our tour today - the first official event of our Explore trip. We are an older group than I expected - we are used to being elder statesmen on tours but on this one we are about average. There are 15 people, and we have a tour guide named Yao who is local and a local driver named Queikoo. (I really don't know how to spell it, so I'm guessing.)

Geordie also changed more money since the atms and banks on the trip will be few and far between. The currency is the Cedi which is pronounced CD - just like the music storage system. The first time it was mentioned I had this image of being handed a handful of round shiny objects with no way to play them.

The tour seemed to be mostly of things along the Ring Road - Yao appears to be ensely impressed by these modern freeways which certainly make getting places more efficient. But there were highlights - the National Stadium where they play football (soccer, of course). Ghana may well be in the top ten of the world when they start the international football competiton in South Africa this summer.

We also saw Kwame Nkrumah's tomb. He was the man who led Ghana to independence; in fact he became president while he was imprisoned and they had to let him out to take power. He is quite revered now, even though in 1966 he was deposed in a coup d'etat and went to Guinea where he became co-president of that country - no easy feat I would think. Along with the mausoleum there is a museum which preserves his desk from his first office and his furniture which is kept huddled together under plastic behind some ropes with the colours of the National flag - red, yellow and green with a black star in the centre.

We also got to see Fort James Prison which is on the coast above a fisherfolk shanty town. Yao assured us we would be ok, but to watch our cameras. And indeed one of our group was hassled and yelled at by a man that she couldn't take a picture of the lighthouse on the coast. Yao did a little protecting, but Geordie stayed with her too, to make sure he didn't get more aggressive.

We drove by the infamous computer dump with its shanties, and its poor children who die far too young in the service of finding the rare elements in computers that they can resell. It's amazing that we send these away to forget about and they are killing children on the opposite side of the world.

We also got a tour of the National Museum - as museums go it is not on the list of the most well serviced. There are examples of the famous woven Kente cloth which is quite beautiful, as well as a loom - the cloth is woven in quite narrow strips which are then joined. There were also musical instruments, drums, fetish dolls, and other anthropological items of interest - including stone age tools - we've seen thousands of those in our day - it feels like "if you've seen one arrow head you've seen them all.

Our penultimate stop was at one of the famous coffin carving shops of Ghana. These are so popular and so interesting that folk musems come to buy for their collections. We saw coffins in the shape of a Star beer bottle, a flour sack, a Lockheed L1011, a crab, a papaya, a bus and a giant fish. There were also miniature versions for ashes - in the shape of a rooster, a shrimp, a cellphone, and an elephant probably for a baby instead

Our final destination was The Accra Mall. Today being Easter Saturday it was quite busy - getting into the parking lot was a little like getting into a parking lot on Christmas eve in North America, I think. But inside was a little bit of a bomb - there wasn't even a MacDonald's so we could buy our usual ice cream cone. Maybe I should be celebrating that. What was also odd was that the aisles were full of people but the shops, except for the supermarket, were devoid of customers. It was a little strange to see. I think people were there only for the opportunity to see their friends in air-conditioned comfort.

Tomorrow we take off into the country side. We will stop at a place where there will be demonstrations of kente cloth weaving and local dancing - please, please, don't pick us as the stupid tourists to embarass - I'll do my best to stop Geordie from pushing me forward. There's a guy on the tour who was conceived in Accra - we even drove by the place where his mother worked especially - he's the type I think who would love to be our guinea pig, so I may be pushing him forward if they ask.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the tour. Little of it will be in big cities, so that will be better - we are hoping there will be less pollution and we'll start to see the birds and animals which are part of the beauty of this country.

Home at Last

Ah, Manila to Vancouver is a long haul. We were up at 5 am to get to the airport where after check in we spent three hours waiting for our flight. It always seems silly to check in so early, but then we look at the line up behind us and are thankful. I'm a very impatient liner-upper so Geordie has to suffer my complaints as we stand waiting and waiting. Our flight to Narita Airport in Tokyo took another four hours, but it arrived early so we had even more than our alloted four hours of waiting time there. When we arrived we had to transfer to the terminal which took another interminable line to snake slowly through a new security check.

Finally we got to take off at 6 pm Tokyo time (7 Manila time) and a matter of 8 1/2 hours flying to Vancouver. It was a long night of little sleep, since there was turbulence and the staff couldn't clear the traytables which meant that they had to keep the lights on an extra hour. I amused myself by watching Where the Wild Things Are, while Geordie played Solitaire or read his book - which he finished and left on the plane. We breezed through customs and immigration - it's so nice when there are so few people there - we were first in our line-up - which is a first in itself. Outside we headed to the new Canada Line terminal and got a cheap ride into the West End - well, Yaletown anyway, and then a bus down the street from which we hopped off to have a late and much tastier breakfast at The Dish (instead of the pretty awful food of Japan Airlines). John whom we saw in Manila just over a week ago was working, so we had a lovely reunion with him and the rest of the great staff there - and I got a wonderful warming bowl of oatmeal - it was after all only 5 degrees and we were wearing only t-shirts and a long sleeve shirt on top of that - no, we don't travel with jackets, although I did suggest to Geordie that it was a perfect time to buy a nice warm fleecy hoodie at the Olympic shop right there in the arrivals hall. He didn't go for it.

After our breakfast we walked, yes, walked, down Davie Street and home, shouldering our backpacks - which were lighter on the return journey than on the first leg - 6.5 kilos for G and 7 for me.

At home it was a little like Christmas, because we found gifts from our house guests to open and then a stack of Christmas cards and letters to read. And the tree outside which is always lit for Christmas is still beautifully bright with coloured lights. Looks like they've decided to extend the lighting through the Olympics. Speaking of which, we also found out today that the official Olympic Torch Relay will pass directly in front of our building - we won't even have to go outside to watch - well, we will go outside, but still...

And then we went to the library - we had books we'd reserved ready for pickup, I had a package at the post-office (origami stuff), and Geordie did a little shopping while I walked up the hill to Melriches to have a nice knitting session - my first since we left on November 6. Although come to think of it, it was more of an un-knitting session since I discovered an error six rows back after I'd knit two rows and I couldn't just leave it alone so had fun ripping back the stitches and picking them all up again. Really, I do like knitting!

We have a busy weekend planned. We should be zombies by the end of it. We are going out for a special Steak dinner at our favourite place, the Hamilton Street Grill (Steak frites for $20.10), then on Friday we will have lunch with friends James and Terry, then dinner with Marje who is arriving from Calgary along with our friends Steve and Karen. On Saturday we're having lunch with Kimm from Calgary too, and Saturday night is the house warming party for Holli, Geordie's daughter, as well as a celebration of our son-in-law's big 4-0!

I'm feeling exhausted already but then again maybe it's the fact that by the time we get to bed we will have been on the go for about 35 hours total. We'll be popping the melatonin, I assure you.

Small La Laguna

Getting here to our new location for our final week of beach was a comedy of errors, it seems. Things started out well - we were picked up even before 10 am by our driver in the nice big Toyota van with great air-conditioning and we set off for the Sofitel where the other couple who were to go with us were ostensibly waiting.

That didn't take too long, maybe 20 minutes - I had wondered why we were picked up so early since the story was that the couple would be ready at 11 am. Well, first we had to go through hotel car security and then weren't allowed to wait in front of the hotel. Security was serious - we had a sniffer dog to check us out. But we were shunted off to a parking lot where we were left by the driver - with the air-con on, at least - and were left there for about 30 minutes before he came back without them.

So they were at the airport? He had gotten a call from his office. Off we went to the airport where we parked again, and the guy checked - no passengers for him there. So back to Sofitel - and just before we arrived there he got another phone call - and only two blocks from the hotel we made a U-turn and went back to the airport - to another terminal (there are 3). More phone calls - I even got to talk to Katherine at our hotel who explained things a little and said she would make amends when we arrived.

Finally at the second terminal we found the couple - who were Americans here to dive at El Galleon (a present for Dave's 60th birthday from his wife Karen - nice - my 60th is coming up this year - wonder what I'll get?

So we spent almost two hours in the van before even finding Dave and Karen. There had obviously been lots of crossed wires. They were fun companions for the travel though and apparently Karen is going to be spending her time here knitting, so we can talk about that - lol - as well as hear about Dave's dive adventures.

The drive down to Batangas took another two hours - mostly on a good toll road so except for the bottle-necks of the toll booths, we made good time. Until we arrived in Batangas where it seemed every vehicle in the city was on the road - it was really a jam. Turns out one of the bridges that crosses whatever water course we had to get over, is out so everyone is channeled through the same route.

At the private pier where the hotels for Puerto Galera/Sabang moor their boats, we were ushered to our very large 50 seater boat - all four of us! The ride over took an hour through some decent swells - thank heaven the outriggers are flexible because they took lots of stress. At one point I was moved to the other side of the boat to help balance it out and then at another point a big wave breached the plastic water screen and drenched my shirt and pants. The sailors were quite apologetic and immediately came over to swab me, and the cushion I was sitting on, down. No other mishaps although when we arrived at the beach it took the pilot quite awhile to maneuver the boat into the wharf.

Our hotel, El Galleon, has a small pool and our room was right outside it - if someone had jumped in we might have been swamped there too since it was a foot lower than the pool. It was a nice room - smaller than expected but comfortable, and with hot water in the sink as well as in the shower (that's a luxury in this country). We relaxed there until the couple in the room above ours started moving the furniture around - maybe they are amateur interior decorators. It was quite noisy and accompanied by an odd wailing tone.

Later we realized that the couple was having a little tiff - this is an American man and his Filipina partner. She appeared to be in a little snit - cried, whined, went off in a huff - at one point the guy said sotto voce, "It's going to be a long night!" Geordie wasn't too thrilled with the sound effects so while I sat drinking a beer, he went off to the hotel desk and when he came back he announced that we were moved. He had been gone about 10 minutes which I thought was a little long, but in that time he had been offered an upstairs room and had moved all the stuff. Now we get to be the people who are redecorating the room for those below us.

Today it poured rain in the early morning - I slept in quite late, so missed the serious rain that G sat through wondering if I was ever going to arrive so he could have his breakfast with me. He is a patient man. The weather is really nice now though and since we seem to be in the shadow of a hill, it's actually cooler in our room at night so after awhile we didn't even need the air-con. That's nice.

Today we went exploring a little and found out that we can get a direct boat/bus transfer to Manila at a sensible hour - 9:15, for only about $7.00 for two. About a ninety percent saving from the hotel transfer costs. Guess we should be sensible and take it. It even gets us to the area near where we are staying so we can walk to our hotel.

Back in Manila two nights ago we had a great time with John (Vancouver), his good friend Gary from Manila, and James from LA/Mobile, Alabama. We ate in a really good Filipino restaurant - some of the best filipino food we've had on our trip. And so close to our hotel. Then we walked to the gay area of Malate and had a wonderful evening sitting outside the O bar with lot of great people watching and laughs with our friends. It was a late evening for us and made it hard for us to crawl out of bed at 8 am so we could have breakfast and get ready for that 10 am pickup.

We are back in Manila in a week - so we'll have to get in touch with Gary again - John will be flying home by then. It's a Saturday night so we could have a great time with all the people hanging out in our hotel neighbourhood. We will look forward to it.

Fun, food and Film in Manila

Lots of firsts yesterday. Who would have thought that we would take our first public bus ride this late in our trip. I think we were spoiled in India where we had personal taxi service all over the country which was so freeing that we can't give it up anymore.

In any case yesterday morning we left Tagaytay on an almost sunny day taking one of the motorcycle trikes down to the bus stop area. I got to ride pillion, just like Geordie did the night before - side saddle on the bike itself. At the bus stop a bus pulled up as we arrived and after confirming that it went to Manila (well, to Baclaran, which we'd never heard of) we got on. The bus was airconditioned - we were glad we were still wearing our long-sleeved shirts.

Once we were settled we pulled out the guide book and found that Baclaran was indeed in the neighbourhood of Manila and actually closer to our hotel area than the area we thought we needed. The ride down to Manila through the province of Cavite was lovely - the road for a long way was full of garden centres selling plants which lined the road. Certainly if one lived here one could have a gorgeous garden. We had seen a bonsai in a garden centre in Tagaytay itself that would have set us back about 65,000 pesos (about $1500.00) - a goodly bit of money but so beautiful.

Baclaran turned out to be not quite as easy as we hoped but as usual we coped. We were let off in a sea of buses and had to walk about 10 minutes through buses, jeepneys, people, cars and a large open air market before we found a street where we could locate a taxi - a bit of a rattletrap that still got us where we wanted to go. Good thing we'd been there before because we did have to help the driver find it.

At the hotel things did not go well. We had reserved a room on the 2nd floor (so we thought), although we also knew that we would have to spend one night climbing to the 4th floor. But when we showed up we were informed by a couple of surly and sullen young women that they didn't book specific rooms, that the room we wanted was occupied and we would have to spend all four nights climbing to the 4th floor. We went to look and discovered the "executive room" was about a third the size of the one we'd had back in November, and on the side of the building where the huge condo is being constructed with lots of banging, slamming, and other construction noise to entertain us.

No go! We went to have a coffee at Starbucks (attached to the hotel) and Geordie went off to check out other hotels in the neighbourhood. He came back about 5 minutes later and sent me off to look at room 301 of the Rainbow Hotel across the street. I went off and 5 minutes later was booking the room for us. From the little tiny noisy room we were to pay $1700 pesos, we moved to a large room with a queen sized bed, and a sitting area with a "pleather" sofa and two chairs, breakfast included in the price, $1600 pesos. In a hotel with an elevator!

Ok, on to more fun stuff. While we were on the bus heading down to Manila, Geordie's phone rang and our friend John from Vancouver was at the other end, checking on our arrival in Manila. We arranged to call him as soon as we arrived which we did. He and his brother Joey then made plans to meet us in Manila after we arrived.

It was great. Joey arrived in his car with John, we had our excited reunion and then we headed off to the Mall of Asia for a little tour of Filipino food. Joey apparently has learned the lessons of his mother well, according to John, and insisted we eat as much food as he could think of. We had grilled chicken on a bamboo skewer at Mang Inasal - a big chain that has restaurants all over the country. Then we had to go have huge fresh lumpia (a filipino egg roll) at Mannan Hang, and from there around the corner to have halo-halo - shaved ice with sweetened black banana, a milk based topping and a garnish of slices of creme caramel.

Joey thought this was hardly enough - there was so much more to try, but we were bursting at the seams. It was great fun. We also did a little shopping - got to go to the Costco of the Philippines, and looked at tv tables at the Mall. Joey is still refurnishing his house after last October's typhoon damage and needs 7 tv stands!

Our final stop was for coffee - Joey thought we needed dessert there too, but we resisted. Honestly, even I can't eat that much food. I think I've gained back the 3 pounds I'd hoped I'd lost in the last couple of weeks of eating my high-fibre, no beer diet.

And finally - we said goodbye to our two wonderful hosts and sent them off. We stayed because we wanted to see Avatar, and although Geordie didn't find it so comfortable, I thought seeing the movie in 3D at the Imax theatre was incredible. If you haven't seen this movie, the special effects alone are worth the price. This is the most vividly realized alien planet that I've ever even imagined in all my science fiction reading. The plant life, the animal life, the sky - it is impossible to put into the words the glorious detail. Certainly there are gaps in the storyline - this is not a perfect movie. As I'm sure you've read in reviews, the notion of a sentient planetscape does take simplistic aim at organized religion, the references to recent conflicts here on Earth ("shock and awe"), and the in-your-face racism of the military, and the "big business is king" attitude are way over the top. And the Avatar concept itself needs a little more development. Finding out only half way through the movie that the avatar just collapses when the original mind comes out of stasis was a stretch too.

However, go see this movie. And if you can see it in 3D all the better. The effects are astounding, the scenery is impossibly phenomenal, and the animal life is wild.

The Wind Doth Blow

We have been living a very sedentary life at the resort with nothing extraordinary happening at all. Geordie has had a dip or two in the "pool" (the ocean), and I have been his erstwhile lifeguard at times. (Not all the times - one night he decided to go in at 9 pm and the hotel guard watched him. I wanted to read!

The only news - is that the wind has been up for three days, so it's actually quite cool on the beach - last night we almost needed wraps to keep ourselves warm. Not quite like shivering in - 40, but hey, compared to the usual.

We have now arranged all our accommodation until we get back to Canada. We leave here early on Sunday morning for a short hop to the mainland of Panay and then a short flight to Manila, from where we have to figure out how to get to Tagaytay most efficiently. I'm hoping we can book a van from the airport but failing that we'll have to catch a taxi back to Manila then a bus to Tagaytay from one of the bus stations. (Yes, I've figured out which one.)

We will be staying at the Tagaytay Econo Inn for 3 nights - some people think that may be too long but we have our books to read so we'll be fine. From Tagaytay we make our way back to Manila and our hotel at Malate Pensionne. In Manila we will get to hang out with our friend James from LA for sure, and our friend John from Vancouver, maybe, and maybe his cousin Henry who we have communicated with about hotels.

From Manila on January 23 we are transferring to the island of Mindoro and the hotel El Galleon. It has a pool as well as being on the beach - maybe by then we can both go swimming. We are spending a week there before we transfer back to Manila for our last three nights at Malate Pensionne and then we will wing our way home just in time to be part of the Winter Olympics festivities in Vancouver. I may have to go down to the stadium and stand outside begging for tickets to see the men's figure skating, since we don't have tickets to anything, but I won't be standing on any ski hills watching the slalomers schuss by.

It will be nice to be home even though we won't be able to drive anywhere for a month what with the Olympic road closures, but at least I can go visit my regular coffee shop and get a little knitting in - there are socks to knit and lots of yarn at home to knit them with. Geordie is looking forward to getting to the library and stacking up on books too. Ah the comforts of home.

Hey, You! Out of the Water!

Yesterday I got to go into the water at Boracay for the first time on this part of the trip. And the first time in over two weeks. Geordie gave me a clean bill of health even though there was still a scab on part of my scratch wound at my ankle. It was lovely to be there with my brand new swim goggles so I could finally do a little length swimming too - to get ready for our return home in February.

Oh that things would stay the same! I had not shared with Geordie my little niggling worry that there was something going on with the area where I suffered when I was in Thailand - the time that I rode on an elephant in agony because I didn't want to spoil our holiday and the time I had to go to hospital in Chiang Mai for an operation, and a healing process that took a year. But last night I decided that I had better let him know. Things weren't looking too bad but we decided that, yes, I should go back to the medical clinic and have an expert look.

So today we walked up the path to the clinic. Since it was Sunday the doctor was not in, but she was called by telephone and was there to see me in 10 minutes. This woman was not the child that I was expecting from my last experience. It appears that she is in fact the regular doctor and the two who were there the last time were just filling in for her for 10 days.

She invited me in, got me to get my clothes off and examined me. At first she didn't see the problem but I made her look more closely and she was able to determine that my diagnosis was correct and indeed my old problem had resurfaced. But, the good news was that this time I hadn't waited so long to seek help so the doctor felt certain that we had caught it in time.

Then she did her prescription. First an anti-biotic. Then the pronouncement - NO SWIMMING! Sigh and double sigh - what's the point of being at a beach if you can't go in the water. Then she announced a few more things - a high-fiber diet, at least 2 liters of water a day, no alcohol. Hmmm, I think she had noticed my weight and decided to be pro-active and has put me on a diet. Nothing to do with my new infection at all. Seems sneaky to me!

But she was really wonderful. We laughed a lot. We had a good conversation - she was on an Alaska Cruise recently that had landed in Victoria, BC, she was thrilled that we were a married couple. We discussed finance - I gave her a couple of pointers so she could retire early like we did and then when we were saying good-bye she hugged me and then Geordie. Now when was the last time your doctor hugged you good-bye?

I have to go back to see her on Wednesday to see my progress, so I'm expecting another hug then. Maybe it's part of her therapy - hugs are said to help with healing, so I'm expecting a quick recovery and the opportunity to get back in the water by the time we get to the beach in Sabang, Puerto Galera.

Back on the Beach

We finally left Siquijor four days ago taking the ferry to Cebu where we stayed two nights then flew to Kalibo on the island of Panay, then took the air-con van to Caticlan and finally the little boat to Boracay. Because we couldn't quite get the organization of flights to get us to Palawan we decided the least we could do was come back here to the nicest beach we've found on our travels.

It was like homecoming for us - as we walked down the beach we were greeted by all the people we'd said good bye to 3 weeks ago and welcomed back with open arms. People here really are friendly and genuinely welcoming. We are at the same place we stayed for the last 12 days we were here, and are quite comfortable. The beach is as nice as we remembered although I can't yet enter the water. I haven't mentioned that I scratched my leg somehow about two weeks ago and haven't been able to swim again, because it too got infected. I thought I was safe swimming in the pool at Coral Cay, but I was a little too cocky. The pool. water is mostly salt water pumped in from the ocean so whatever is in the water affected my leg. I'm taking care, it's almost fully healed but I don't dare go in until I'm certain it's complete. I think it may take a couple more days. Sigh.

We are off to lunch shortly with folks we met at Coral Cay. Charlotte and Anders and their their very young daughter are staying a long walking distance from us although on the same beach, so we are going to catch a tricycle on the main road to get there. White Beach where we are staying is 4 kilometers long which explains why we are so hot by the time we get to D'Mall where our favourite restaurant is. In order to look less than soaking wet, the tricycle makes eminent sense. And it's cheap enough.

We do have good news of a different kind. Our friend James from LA is in Thailand right now and is flying to Manila on the 21st of the month. Because we haven't seen him for some time and it's so close, we have rearranged our schedule again so we can meet up with him in Manila for at least a day. We are going to fly to Manila early then head to Tagaytay which is a community about 2 1/2 hours from Manila near a non-erupting volcano. We will spend several days there and then head back to Manila the same day James arrives there to spend two nights before going off to Puerto Galera and our last stint on the beach before we finish in Manila for the trip home to Vancouver and the Olympic games which we will watch on TV.

We look forward to your messages both on the email and on the blog. Do continue to keep in touch. We really do miss you all.

Siguijor Christmas

We've been on the move, but did want to share our enjoyment of the Christmas party we had at La Casa de la Playa. One of the owners is German and the clientele are also German in the majority, so the Christmas celebration was on Christmas Eve.

We had been staying at La Casa in the Casa Bouganvilleia which is in the garden of the resort. There are some lovely cabins down on the beach level but our place was up 50 steps from the beach and nearer the restaurant. The place wasn't air-conditioned which was one of the reasons we hastened our departure. We had a standup fan and Geordie and I tended to bicker about its positioning - which is quite usual for us. We managed.

Here are a couple of photos of the cottage. We sat on the deck quite often and read our books. The bathroom was miniscule -I bumped my head on the wall on the first day getting up from the toilet (maybe too much information, but I'm sure it gives you the image strongly).

The Christmas Eve buffet was fun. The piece de resistance was the whole pig roasted in the fire pit somewhere on the grounds for about 9 hours if we understood the explanation correctly. It was burnished gold and splendid on its special table, designed to look like a pig too. Then there were lots of different dishes from the menu - potato vegetable souffle, pork ribs, noodle dishes and on and on. Dessert was a coconut gelatine and watermelon. Not a thing on the groaning board was familiar to our Christmas traditions but we got lots to eat.

The party after was really a celebration for the staff. There was a local band with a blind singer/guitarist named the "Stevie Wonder of Siquijor",

and a banjo player, a huge bass guitar and other guitars. The music was a mix of Christmas songs, bluesy songs by the blind singer, and local songs in Cebuano. Emily, who is the Filipina owner of the resort was in full majesty, directing the evening. gathering all the staff to sing the Casa song and leading them in the synchronized dance. Then there were singers who carolled us with local Christmas songs as well. They were in fine voice and we enjoyed it all.

After the singing entertainment the staff and the guests got to do a little dancing - including Geordie and I who were hauled up by Linda, one of the management staff. The group danced late - we went to our cottage at 11:30 pm but the staff danced until 1:30 and only stopped because the band went home!

On Christmas Day we finally got into the sea. We discovered that the resort had some sea booties to rent so we found two pair that sort of fit and went down to the beach. We had to wade out a long way before we were able to swim. As usual I counted steps - it took over 230 strides through the water before we were at waist depth. From then we could at least float and swim. We are obviously out of shape - in the evening my legs were quite tired and I realized it was from the wading.

We left La Casa on the 27th. We moved back to Coral Cay because we missed the opportunity to enjoy both the pool and the air-con. For our first three nights we have been in the newest cottage which is a palace compared to the cottage at La Casa. It's huge. As a matter of fact the whole cottage at La Casa could fit in our bathroom - which even has a section exposed to the outside with plants and sand.

We will be at Coral Cay until January 3 when we will travel back to Dumaguete and then on the 4th we will continue on to Cebu. Then on the 5th we are flying from Cebu back to Boracay. I've decided that Boracay is like Puerto Vallarta - a home base for us as PV serves when we are in Mexico. We enjoyed the location and the beach where we can actually swim from shore rather than wading out for 230 steps, and we can enjoy the good food at the restaurants there.

Some of you may remember our original plan was to go to Palawan. That plan didn't work out when we discovered that we should have made reservations to fly there some time ago. The cheap seats are all sold out and the cost to fly there was more than we wanted to pay. The flight to Boracay was good, as were flights to Manila. So our plan now is to spend 10 more days in Boracay, then fly to Manila and from there head out to Tagaytay which is in the highlands and then finish up in Mindoro, an island not too far from Manila with some good beaches out of a town called Puerto Galera.

Not to worry, we'll keep you posted.

Christmas Is Coming

We are still in Siquijor although we have moved resorts. Our present location is Casa de La Playa which is about 35 km north from our last place. Our room is on the cliff top - in a garden. We have a distant view of the ocean and can walk down 50 steps to the beach for a little sunning. The gardens are pleasant - with orchids in one area, and other flowering plants we don't even know the names of in other areas.

This resort is cheaper than the last place, but it means we don't have air-conditioning or a beach location. You gets what you pays for! We were scheduled to spend about 9 days here, but we are going to move back to Coral Cay on December 27th. After one day here we realized that we would miss our beach view and our air-con, but we had already paid a deposit for three nights. We decided that it would be odd to move on Christmas Day, so gave ourselves two more nights - of course vacancies at the Coral Cay were also not available without our moving cottages three times if we came back early so we just compromised.

The resort here is not as efficient as it might be. So far at almost every meal there has been some error in the order. A case in point - this morning both Geordie and I chose French Toast with Syrup because we thought that would be easy and safe. Margin for error tiny. So - we heard the kitchen beating eggs then after 10 minutes, the young waitress arrived with one plate of French Toast - no syrup in evidence, but G thought it must have been on the toast.

After five minutes of him eating, we heard the sound of eggs being beaten again - then 10 mintues later, the watress arrived with my meal which was oddly covered in some kind of dark syrup - I thought molasses, but asked anyway. The answer? It's syrup. What kind of syrup? Chocolate! (That wasn't mentioned on the menu.) The litany of errors continues - we have to order our dinners in the early afternoon since food is frozen and needs to be defrosted. I ordered A fried chicken breast last night for dinner - it arrived as a n overcooked chicken leg! Garnish? some cucumber. That's it, folks. I had ordered french fries too - but they took another five mintues to arrive.

And we ordered a bottle of wine last night. First the waitress told us it wasn't cold so did we want ice. We decided on an ice bucket. Five minutes later the owner came out and told us the wine wasn't cold and did we want ice or to have it put in the fridge? I voted for the fridge for 10 minutes. Two minutes later the food arrived. We ate it. Then we asked for the wine - 15 minutes later. It was delivered, without a corkscrew. We asked for one and waited. 10 minutes went by. I got up and asked for the corkscrew directly. The waitress brought it and asked if she or I would open it. I decided that I might be the better choice.

So she went off and I used the corkscrew, inserting it into the cork and attempting to pull it out. The plastic legs(?) of the winged corkscrew bent dangerously but didn't pull the cork at all. So we had to ask for another corkscrew and this time were given an all metal winged one which miraculously pulled the cork. So a half hour or more after eating, we finally drank the bottle of wine.

Tonight the resort is celebrating Christmas - with a buffet dinner. We are guessing that at least that means they can't screw up an order. The main piece de resistance will be Lechon, a large pig roasted on a spit or in a very large oven we are guessing. There is also music - featuing Siquijor's version of Stevie Wonder apparently. Most of the guests are German so I'm expecting wonderful renditions of Stille Nacht (Silent Night) and O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree).

I will not go on - it seems uncharitable at Christmas - and we are staying on for three more nights - I guess we are masochists. We are on the island until January 3 after which we are planning to head for Palawan, the spur of islands which head left from the main islands pointing to Borneo. We have not found great sounding accomodationt there that we can afford so we have a Plan B in place - we have emailed Marzon Resort in Boracay, and if things don't work out, we will head there for the last week or so of our trip to enjoy the beach - hey, maybe I'll do that open water dive course.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

And a Happy New Year
From the Philippines Sandman

And Nigel and Geordie too.

Coral Cay

As Geordie said on a recent email we arrived at Coral Cay Resort on Siquijor two nights ago and are now enjoying our little house on the beach.

It really is a lovely hut. Here's my only whine of the day though - the beach is so so shallow that when the tide goes out it's about 100 yards to the water. And out there the water goes out for yards and yards more, not even up to our knees. Of course the pool was supposed to be our saving but as some of you know, it's under repair. The good news? Word is that they are going to start filling it today! Yay. We will be at Coral Cay for a week and on December 22 move to another resort called Casa de la Playa. That's where we will celebrate Christmas and New Years.

As you can imagine there isn't a lot to do. The island of Siquijor is it's own province in the Philippines, but the coastal road around the island is only 72 km long! Not so big. There are caves inland and this is also an island of magicians. In fact some people in the Philippines refuse to come here for that reason. We have not seen any sign of magic but we may take a tour of the island soon and see what we can find.

Yesterday we walked to the little town 2 km from our resort to check things out. It has a public market down by the beach where people are selling fish and vegetables. On the road we also found a little park which has a natural spring that the townspeople have turned into a swimming hole. The water spills out into a stream which meanders to the beach. Along the stream we found women washing their clothes and children enjoying the cool water. But no - no pictures.

What we are planning to do other than walk is read a lot. Here is a look at some of our reading material and Geordie ensconced in his seat of splendour under the ceiling fan in our living room.

Yesterday while we were at JJ's Resort nearby I found an illegal copy of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol in perfect condition on their bookshelf. I know it's illegal because it's a photocopy. We saw many of these photocopied books while we were in Viet Nam where it seems everyone sells them willy-nilly. Not one to pass up an opportunity I asked if I could have the book and the staff said yes. So I took it back to the resort, finished the last 200 pages of Pillars of the Earth then stayed up till midnight to finish Dan's book, another 500 pages. Gee, I do hope our 25 books are enough to keep us going. (No matter, our own resort has a very large collection of paperbacks to pick from too.)

Back to Dan Brown. I am at least impressed that in his latest book he compresses time even more than in his earlier books. In those the time frame of the book is about 24 hours which is pretty impressive when you realize how far the hero and his lovely helpmate have to travel during that time. But in this book he manages to compress the action into 10 hours - and still manages to get in lots of action. At least he divides the action among several of the characters so that things are happening simultaneously. I wonder if he'll get it down to five hours in the next one. And before you know it he'll be writing "One Minute Mysteries".I think I'll post a few more pictures and let pictures speak louder than words for you. Click on the pictures to see them bigger.

1.Oceanjet ferry to Dumaguete 2. Christmas Decorations 3. Orchids of Siquijor

1. Dancing and Ukelele 2. Nigel and Proney 3. Bablayon Church interior

Lost Horizons

I am melting. It is so humid - I have to run to my air-con room to cool off. The humidty must be 99.99 %. I'm expecting more rain this afternoon - like our 2 hour shower yesterday. The barber last night kept having to wipe my brow with his toilet paper - not the best absorbent! He certainly didnt have to spray my hair so he could cut it more easily.

I think this afternoon we will dip into the cool water of the pool here. We were going to yesterday but then the rain got in the way.

Just so you can check it out, our hotel is Lost Horizons in Alona Beach (check their website with the link.) One little problem - I have awakened with itchy legs both mornings we've been here. Maybe there are bed bugs. Geordie doesn't have the same problem. But it's only a few! The time Geordie slept with them in Mexico he had hundreds of bites, so I'm fine in comparison - and I have Calamine lotion for the itches. (I know - we could move couldn't we?)

Alona Beach is unfortunately not any Boracay. The beach certainly has white sand but the water is not as swimmable because of the weeds near shore, and the shallow depth. I guess we should take up the offer of all the guys on the beach suggesting we go "island hopping". We are doing our best to avoid the sunglass sellers since we both wear prescription glasses, but they are also all vendors of the ubiquitous Viagra - who needs a pharmacy or a doctor's prescription around here?

We are heading off on Saturday back to Tagbilaran for one night since we have a reservation for the 8 am ferry to Dumaguete for Sunday morning. We'll stay two night there and then we are off to Siquijor for our Christmas and New Years locations. We are certainly hoping the beaches are more swimmable, but since we are going to be on the island for three weeks in all, I guess we had better spend some time island hopping to help pass the time other than by reading all our books. I just finished the 1000 page World without End by Ken Follett and after Geordie finishes his "Pillars of the Earth" by Follett I'll read that. (I know, I'm reading them backwards. No matter.)

Off to a little air conditioning.

Bohol Tour

(Note:click on red high-lighted text to see a link, (often from Wikipedia).

Yesterday we took a ferry from Cebu City to Bohol Island and the capital city of Tagbilaran. We had met a young man called Yam at Malapascua who was also heading to Bohol, so we agreed that we would do a tour of the island with him. So this morning we walked to his hotel and met him and our driver for our tour.

It was a great day. We drove off in a well-air-conditioned van and stopped first at the site of the Blood Compact, a rather macabre treaty but it worked for Spain and the Philippines at that time. Then it was off to see the Chocolate Hills where we got to climb one of the more than 1200 mounds in the area and get lots of photos. The hills weren't chocolate coloured since it wasn't the right season for that, but seeing them covered in green vegetation was actually quite beautiful.

On the way down from the hills we asked the driver to stop if he saw a water buffalo plowing the land, and he found one lickety-split. We got lots of picture of the muddy creature with its muddy master plowing the rich fields to plant the next rice crop. Bohol gets three rice crops a year from its fields and grows enough for export. Not bad for a small island.

From there we went to a really cool butterfly farm where I got to hold moth caterpillars in my hands - yeah, I know it sounds wrong, but the butterfly caterpillars are more likely to cause skin irritation so the moths had to stand in. We did see butterfly caterpillars too, and lots of butterflies flittering about. (No moths though - it was too early in the day, I guess.)

And then on to see the tarsiers. These are wonderful animals - tiny simians, the smallest in the world and normally nocturnal, but they seem to have roused a few from their beds so we could have a look. They are delightful with their huges eyes, soft brown fur and elongated toes.

From the tarsier cages (yes they were caged but they were walk-in cages), we got to have an hour-long tour on the river while eating a buffet lunch. The river is the Loboc and is very green (the water I mean), the landscape alongside is hills covered in a wide array of vegetation - including lots of palm trees of course. While we dined we stopped at a riverside wharf where we were entertained by a village group playing Ukeleles and singing songs of their culture. There was dancing too, including a rice dance with woven baskets and rice pounding women.

And then it was on to see the python - the largest and longest in captivity as the sign says. Its name was Proney and we were told about its history by a very flamboyant lady-boy who sat in his/her bright red dress with very red lipstick and told us how they python was captured when it was only 5 kilos. It is now 8 meters long and eats a pig or goat a month - whole! Of course! I got to go inside its cage and pet it while getting my picture taken. Geordie stayed outside for some reason.The lady-boy also showed us a python skin bikini but said it would be itchy to wear, but if anyone wanted one they did mail-order

Finally we went to see one of the oldest churches on the island, Baclayon - a church made of coral stone. The most unusual thing I saw there? A statue of St. Lazarus. He was wrapped from head to toe in white bandages except for his face, and there was a gold halo sticking up from the top of his wrapped head. I have never seen a statue of Lazarus before so this was certainly unique.

It was a great day - we finished relatively early and got to go back to our hotel to relax. We are at the Bohol Tropics Resort and considering how much I'm perspiring right now, Tropics is the word. Tomorrow we are off to Alona Beach. We got a reservation finally, at a higher rate than we'd like but it's an expensive beach and an expensive season. We have only one week before we head off to spend our three weeks on Siquijor Island. We'll be making the journey by ferry from here.

Until later.