Philippines, Part 2

The past three months of travel have been very indulgent for Nelly and I. We do what we want, when we want, where we want, how we want. We lay on beaches and drink ice cold beer. However, the past 2 days have been the antithesis to our current travel behavior. Earlier this year Matt's mom's church in Piedmont had donated money to an organization in the Philippines, Help International Ministries, that was helping their community rebuild after a devastating flood. The organization is primarily run by a family of missionaries from Montana that have lived in the Antipolo Area (25km outside of Manila) for the past 24 years and they run a birthing center and a baby home (orphanage) up the hill from the community that was devastated. We stayed with them and got to witness firsthand how much their work has and continues to change the lives of so many.
The first day we were there we got a tour of the birthing center which is basically a prenatal and birthing clinic in an old home. When we arrived a baby had just been born and another was born the previous night. Along with that excitement there were around 30 pregnant women in the backyard attending 1 of 9 clinics offered, ranging from breastfeeding to child care. We then went next door to the baby home and saw the children there (some of whom are surrendered at the birthing clinic and some come from social services) and were given our task for the next two days...painting the gate. After we went to the store to buy the paint we began scraping the old paint off with the help of 2 of the missionaries' children, Auden and Bernadette (she was adopted by them from the baby home).

Those are all of the baby diapers drying on clothes lines.

And then we got to painting!

After a full day of working in the sun Matt took all of us, including some of the neighbor children, out to dinner at their favorite restaurant, Balaw Balaw. Before stopping for dinner we drove to a lookout point so that we could get a better view of the city.
Nelly and Berndatte...I love her!
The restaurant is also a gallery of the owner (now deceased) who is a national artist. Before eating we wandered around and saw the higantes. Read about them here.
At the restaurant we had delicious traditional filipino food (sorry, I can't remember the names of what we ate!) This dish is yellow rice surrounded by fish, chicken, pork, squid, crab, shrimp, salty eggs, mussels, okra, eggplant and another local green. We finished the dinner of with leche flan and Halo-Halo. Halo diet when I get home!
The next morning we were out of the door at 7:00am so that we could go and see the work that the community had done to rebuild from the flood. We took a jeepney and a trike to get there. It really rounded out our Philippines experience! Each jeepney owner paints his however he likes. We saw lots of bald eagles and american flags airbrushed on.

Do you think our trike driver was a bit young? And I am betting on the fact that he was born in the birthing center.

The money that the Nelson's church donated helped to rebuild the walkways along the creek, rebuild the foundation and install the hand rails and street lights.
After we were done seeing what amazing work they had done, we walked back up the hill to finish our fence!
Look how pretty it turned out! It will eventually have the handprints of the little kids in the home painted on it, however we ran out of time so another group coming in a few weeks will finish it for us.
We then went inside and played with the kids who range in age from about 4 months to 5 years. I may have shed a tear when a one year old came and sat on my lap and nuzzled her head in my chest for 15 minutes. Or when after kids were scared of Nelly, a nine month old crawled onto his lap and just stared at him like he was the best thing on earth. And I definitely may have shed a tear as we flew away last night. To say the least, the Philippines stole a little piece of my heart and without a doubt I know that I will return.

As an aside: Help International Ministries is doing amazing work and I was in awe and humbled by how they have dedicated their lives to the community. Please check out their website or facebook page to see for yourselves. http://www.helpintl.org/. If you have a few extra dollars to donate, those little babies and expectant mothers would greatly benefit!



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Location:Antipolo

Philippines, Part 1

To say that I have fallen in love with the Philippines would be a major understatement. I posted on Facebook the other day that I never want to leave! In my opinion Boracay has the best overall beach that we have visited. The pictures will have to do the talking because words to describe how perfect it is escape me. But not only is the scenery beautiful, the people are so friendly as well. They are so nice and welcoming and love having us here.
Day 1: We left our friends in Singapore and took a flight to Manila where we stayed the night. We didn't see much of the city as it took us awhile to get to our hotel, so we just went out for dinner and called it a night early.

Day 2: After being dropped off at the wrong airport, we eventually made our way to our correct spot and boarded this turbo prop plane. It shook a lot and I tried not to let myself think about the last time it had been serviced! They had to weigh us with our carry on bags so they knew where to seat us in the plane to keep the weight balanced.
After we landed we took a small boat to the island of Boracay and then took a tricycle (a motorbike with a sidecar large enough for us and our luggage) to our hotel in the hills. We decided not to stay right on the beach (don't ask) and the views we had from our room were amazing. This is from our balcony on night one.
After hanging out at our pool when we checked in, we grabbed a drink by the pool that night and then headed to d'mall, the heart of the beach area, and had dinner right on the beach. For under $20 I might add!
If your hotel does not have a shuttle to d'mall, there are no taxis so you have to take a tricycle. From the beach to our hotel it cost us around 100 pesos which is roughly $2.50.
Day 3: Our first night there we met a Filipino family that was vacationing at our hotel for the weekend and they really took a liking to us. When they left the next morning they wanted to take a picture with "the foreigners".
We then headed back down to the beach and walked the length of it. It is not too long so it took us an hour or so. But I could have done it all day.
The Philippines is predominately Catholic, so it did not seem out of the place to find this shrine to the Virgin Mary on a rock in the middle of the beach. Finding the culture displayed in so many different ways is what I am loving about traveling.
We spent the rest of the day at the beach and then watched the most unbelievable sunset.
Day 4: More of this....
And this....
Day 5: More of this...

Lots of this...

And this....
Followed by drinks at the Hobbit House, a restaurant staffed only by little people.
Day 6: We woke up to this view from our hotel and then sadly headed to the airport for our flight back to Manila where we will be spending a few days.
Notes of interest: it really made me sad to think that Bali could be this beautiful but isn't. For anyone that has any desire to go to Bali, please reconsider and come to the Philippines!

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Location:Boracay

$ingapore

If you have a really heavy wallet that you are looking to unload, please by all means visit Singapore. $50 for two martinis? Check. $300 for a Thai dinner for 4 people? Done. The exchange rate was around US $.80 to S$1, but still?!?! All kidding aside we did have a fantastic time in Singapore due to our company. We were graciously hosted by the Boston couple we met in Perth in their fantastic condo.
We arrived in the afternoon on our first day there and headed straight to the Quinn's. Jaci greeted us with cocktails and cheese and crackers before we headed downtown to meet up with her husband, Ryan. This picture was taken at our first stop of the night with the Marina Bay Sands hotel/casino (Google it!) in the background. It is basically three hotel towers joined on the top by a 'boat' that holds the pool, a viewing deck and a restaurant/nightclub.

From there we headed to a great dim sum dinner and then out to some local bars. It was a very interesting crowd and great people watching. Let's just say that there were lots of women there but I think Jaci and I were the only anatomical females!

The next afternoon Jaci took us into Chinatown for lunch where we went to the Maxwell Road Food Centre for chicken rice. This place is a market (called a hawker center) full of different stalls selling different foods. The place we ate at was by far the most popular and has been featured on Anthony Bourdain's TV show, "Without Reservations".

Here is our yummy chicken rice. It is a flavorful boiled chicken breast on aromatic rice with three different sauces to add to it...garlic, chile and thick soy. We also had dim sum and red bean pastries.

Then we walked through Chinatown which got me really excited for Hong Kong. Oh, and one of the vendors asked if he could sell Nelly a razor :)

This is the largest Hindu temple in Singapore.


Then it was off to the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel...the birthplace of the Singapore Sling. It was good however with a bill of $88 for 3 of them it was definately a one time indulgence.

We met up with Ryan after he got off of work for a drink at ku de ta which is the bar at the top of the Marina Bay Sands. From there you have a 360 degree view of the city.

We were informed by our cab driver that the haze comes all the way from Indonesia. The cheapest way for them to clear their fields is to burn them and when the weather changes and it starts raining the pollution finds it's way all the way to Singapore.
Here's Jaci pointing out the good spots. That's the infinity pool in the background.

This is the other angle of the pool.

It was a great two nights and we are so thankful to Ryan and Jaci for hosting us. We can't wait to see you guys back home and return the favor in San Francisco!

Just a quick funny story...when we got in our cab this morning to catch our flight to Manila the driver asked what terminal we wanted and I automatically said "international". He started chuckling and said "mam, all the terminals are international". I guess that's what happens when your small country is an island!
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Location:Singapore

Indonesia

Nelly and I just finished an amazing week in Indonesia. It wasn't always pretty or how westerners romanticize Bali, but it is was still amazing nonetheless. After arriving late at night we woke up the next morning ready to explore Kuta, Bali. Our plan was to head to the beach but instead with one wrong turn we found ourselves weaving through the heart of the area for 2 hours. I feel like we got to see the real Bali....from the way people live to how they cook to how they drive. After China and India, Indonesia and the US are raked the 3rd and 4th most populated countries in the world and, seeing how many motorbikes are on the road, that seems more than accurate! Imagine trying to cross a street with no signals or crosswalks (they do not exist here) with thousands of motorbikes coming at you, not including cars and vans!


We also came across some amazing statues in the middle of the street.


After wandering for a couple hours in the heat and humidity, we finally found our way to the beach where we relaxed our feet and anxiously guzzled our first Bintangs (local beer) to quench our thirst. Once we'd regained our energy, we headed back to the hotel for the night (of course with another detour on the way). The next morning we were supposed to board a boat to the island of Lombok for a few nights however we ran into some problems and had to stay another day/night in Bali. We spent the day at the beach doing more 'touristy' things. The locals set up little bars on the beach where you can stop and buy a Bintang from them and chat. The beach is also littered with vendors selling everything from watches to sunglasses to bows and arrows.


The next morning we were up bright and early to catch the boat to Lombok. After an hour and a half car ride to the harbor, an hour and 15 minute boat ride across the Lombok Straight and then another forty minute cab ride to our hotel, we were definitely in need of these!


During lunch we chatted with a local and chartered a boat to the Gili Islands for the following two days. The Gili Islands are a set of 3 islands about an hour off the beach from the resort we were staying at. When you see the boat we took, you will understand why it took 1+ hours.


The first day we jumped on the boat (literally)and set out for Gili Trawangan, which is the most populated island of the 3 (with tourists, not locals). It is where most of the backpackers go and is full of little beach bungalows that you can rent for around $10/night. We started off the day by walking around the island which took us about 2 hours and included a climb to the highest point of the island.


These pictures are quite deceiving though because the island was full of trash. It was very hard to find a beach to lay out on because there was garbage everywhere...it was really a sad sight to see.
After our tour of the island we stopped for lunch at a nice beachside cafe. Everything on the island is brought in from Lombok, including most of the people who work there, and as we were eating a boat full of locals from Lombok pulled in with supplies for the hotels and restaurants. This woman was unloading crates of eggs.


After lunch we made our moms Mother's Day presents! The reef around the islands is pretty much dead so along with trash the beach is full of dead coral that we were able to use.


After lunch we took a quick dip and then headed back to the boat for our journey home. The next morning we headed out to Gili Air which was a lot more low key (the 3rd island is sandwiched in-between the two and is called Gili Meno. Lonely Planet describes it as the place to go if you want to play Robinson Carusoe.)
We again walked around the island and then stopped for lunch. Motorized vehicles are not allowed on the islands so it was very easy to walk around. Not like Bali at all! This is all coral washed up on the beach.


That night we explored the town we were staying in on Lombok, Sengiggi, and then enjoyed some drinks at the beach bar (for the 3rd night in a row!)


Due to our mishap with the boat a few days prior we were not able to explore the island of Lombok itself which I was quite disappointed about because it is absolutely beautiful. These pictures were taken on the way to catch our boat back to Bali.


Overall we really enjoyed Indonesia. If I were to come back I know for sure where I would spend the least amount of my time (Bali) and the most amount of time (Lombok). The people were amazing and so hospitable and with some exceptions, the countryside is gorgeous.
Next stop: Singapore!








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Location:Indonesia