The postcard perfect Philippines!

Welcome to the Philippines.  So we have been trying and trying to get this update, but there is just to much to see and do! 

Filipino Jeepney

While we were in the airport waiting for our flight heading to Kuala Lumpur in transit to Philippines, we got an email from our good friend Chris L who was in KL hanging out.  So after a few convincing words he decided to chance it and head to the airport with us and hope he could land a ticket (the flight was sold out)........  Before I continue I have to tell you Chris was traveling with a leg so swollen that it was literally two times bigger then his other.  It even had skin cracks that were bleeding because it was so swollen, pretty scary I thought.  But, Chris said it was no big deal...so we went.  Anyway when we got to the airport they told him that he would have to wait till 30 minutes before the flight.  But, luck was on his side and 10 minutes before the flight, we saw Chris doing the pirate walk through customs with a ticket in his hand. 

We all landed in Manila and found a room to stay and made sure Chris headed to the hospital.  After the hospital we wandered around and checked out Manila.  The city was just a busy noisy hustling city that had lots of billboards for hand guns and other firearms.  Apparently they love their guns, even outside the big hotels and important buildings they have a simple wooden box outside the door that has a sign reading "Deposit Firm arms Please" as a man with a tommy gun stands and smiles.  Crazy.... 

Anyway later that night we got talking as to where we were going and decided that we would get a flight to Boracay for the next day.  We finally arrived on the island after a few long van rides and boat rides.  As we arrived on the island we were greeted by the greatest sights that our three eyes ( well six eyes) have ever seen.  This beach was long white and crystal clear waters.  It was amazing.  We found a nice cheap room on the beach and headed to the beach for a happy hour Pina Colada and then supper as the sun sank down behind the clouds.  

Boracay

Long way from home

The next day we set out for a nice relaxing day on the beach filled with mango drinks and frisbee.  All was going "relaxing"  until Chris decided to go and get a tattoo.  I thought ok, but then he told me how big it was and I thought...."OH MAN THAT WILL HURT"  haha but he went with it anyway and 8 hours later he had very nice tattoo.  We went and visited him a few times throughout the day and boy he was in pain.  But no pain no gain..as they say.

That night we headed to Andoks, a nice cheap place to get some San Miguel beer and had some good chats about old times back in high school.  The next few days were spent hanging out on the beach, reading, relaxing, more frisbee, huge buffet dinners and few (or many) drinks followed by dancing.  

Cheap beer at Andoks

Happy Hour (40=1 CDN$)

Buffet and Rum

The next few days were relaxing and fun as the three of us had a great time.  On one of our final days we rented a sail boat with 8 other people and bought some food for lunch and went sailing for the day.  It was unbelievable.  The waters and scenery were spectacular.  We sailed into a nice little cove where we set up for the afternoon for cliff jumping, eating and beer.  Our Filipino guide cooked up a nice fresh fish, beans and vegetables for a great lunch.  After an incredible sunset we hit the water and headed back to shore.  However, the wind direction change and for what ever reason it caused our boat to go at a snail pace, so a good 3 hours of sailing in the dark, well it was lit up by the moon which was amazing.

sandcastles 

Secluded Bay

Missie has turned into a cliff jumper!

Our sailboat and its sailor.

BBQ Fish

and a Sailboat Sunset

As our days in Boracay were ending we were getting pretty sad as we knew that we would have to say good bye to the lovely beach and our friend Chris.  So the night before everything was ending we had one last fiesta to enjoy our surroundings.  We got some rum and our dancing sandals and headed out.  Funny story when we were at the bar Chris thought that this Filipino guy looked cool with his red bandanna, so he bought it off the guys head! haha anyhow we had a great night and a absolutely terrible flight the next morning. 

 

Boracay

After arriving in Manila again we said our goodbyes to Chris and we headed to Daet, a small town south east of Manila.  Daet is a pretty low key town that doesn't draw too many tourist.  However, we heard that there were some good beginner waves to be surfed.  So after a 8 hours bus ride through a greener then green country side we arrive at this awesome town.  Everywhere we walked people were yelling "HALLO" accompanied by a huge smile to us it was really cool.  The beach were the surfing is done is at Bagasbas Beach, which was a 8 minuted tricycle from town.  After 4 days of getting the crap kicked out of us, we decided that we were going to be pros any time soon and decided to hit the road to Naga, where they have one of the worlds largest cable wake board parks.

Bagasbas Beach

Realizing were not pros.

When we arrived at CWC, which is the name of the park, we saw that there were almost one hundred professional wakeboarders there.  We never knew that the following week there was going to be a world tournament happening, so we kinda felt out of place as every one was doing triple back flips with turns and rotations a human brain is unable to register what exactly happened.  It really made me think "wow I should not be going" But Missie got the fire beneath my butt and I went out and had a pretty good day.  It is so much different then wake boarding behind a boat when there is no wake to jump or boat to pull you.  The next few days we spent riding with the pros and we actually got a lot better.  I was so proud of Missie when she got up her very first time and it was in front of so many pro wake boarders, then she went on the do very well and could do all the tricky turns on the course.  We had some great times at CWC and then hit the road again, this time to Donsol.

Our nipa hut at CWC

Missie's first wakeboard 

Jumping!

Donsol was a sleeping fishing village until about ten years a ago a local fisherman found massive , spotted whale sharks feeding off some plankton that was growing in the area.  Ever since, these 10 to 15 meter whales come to Donsol for 6 months of the year to feed.  It was so incredible to see these fish and fun too.  We boarded the boat where two guys are perched on the top of the sail looking for the whales.  Then out of no where the guys start yelling and you can see this huge grey submarine like thing in the water.  Next, we all get geared up and jump in.  Swimming by these friendly giants was simple amazing, we saw 5 all together at about 11 meters.  It was nuts swimming along side a fish that was 11 meters long!  The whale shark swim was a huge highlight, the rest of the town was pretty cool as well.  It was very low key and laid back, we even were lucky to be there during the towns fiesta!

Looking for some whale sharks

Donsol Farm town

After Donsol we left to Legazpi.  Legazpi is home to Mt. Mayon, dubbed as the world's most perfect volcano cone.  However, after arriving we found out that the trek up took two days and wasn't even that rewarding because you can no longer summit the volcano.  So we just decided to go to a view point that was a 45 minute walk up and it look across to the volcano.  It was a great view and it truly is perfect cone.  We then visited a village that was wiped out by an eruption that occured in 2006.  It was sad to see all the memorials and harden lava.  The following day we were on a plane heading towards Cebu for some diving!

Perfect Cone!

The village that was.

Sorry that was so quick... we will do oour best to keep up with more stories!  Hope all is well with everyone.

Happy Trip

Shaun

Going GOA gone..

Goa! 

Goa was the last stop of this Indian Adventure of ours.  And after traveling for quite sometime in northern India, Goa was a well deserved 'vacation from the vacation.'  haha

As soon as we landed in Goa the entire feel of India changed for us.  The time started to slowly slip away,  our pluses seemed to slow right down and we settled in to enjoy another "Saturday."

We decided to make our way to Anjuna beach, where we would call home for the next week.  Anjuna is an old beach town with dusty unpaved red dirt roads. This little beach town looks like its retained the same vibe and authentic exterior as it did in its hippy hay day.  Most of the tourists still consist of expat hippies, returning hippies and even the young new age hippies. Everything and everyone is moving at a slow nonchalant pace.  It is dry and hot in Goa but Shaun and I just couldn't get enough of drinking hot Indian chi tea.  

The woman are dressed incredibly beautiful, arms covered in bangles, every single toe has a ring and their nose has a large gold hoop right though it, henna covering the palms of their hands, and they wear elegantly flowing saris of every color.  There is a lively Wednesday market that sells everything imaginable and you could get lost for hours shopping around in it.  There are even underground rave parties here which you must ask around about or you may never even know they exist.  

We found the cutest ( one of our favorite places we've stayed in up to date ) little room in a place called The Blue Nest. Our blue room was large, comfy, clean and very refreshing,  just perfect and for only 200 Rupees!! It is owned and operated by a local Goan Family. True Indian Hospitality doesn't begin to describe how wonderful the family was.  They definitely took us under their 'wing', always up for a chat/laugh and making sure we were well taken care of at all times.  So as we settled in to our new favorite place and went to scout out a new favorite spot to eat to go along with it.  We found THE BEST Indian restaurant in ALLL of Goa ( maybe even all of India! Except for Raju's home cooking back in Udaipur, of course. ) We ate here at our "Oasis" for almost all of our suppers. The Indian curries were to die for and the portions were well beeeyyyyoooondd our western standards! haha.  So far Goa was treating us rather nicely! 

Here are some of Anjuna's finest: 

Yum! Yum! 

The families bike which they lent to us. 

Local Indian woman who sold handy crafts on the beach

This is quite a common site in India. One Shaun just couldn't get use to. haha. It is common to see most men in India holding each others hand or showing one another close affection. 

Most of our days in Goa were spent quite simply.  We enjoyed sleeping in, then ate an amazing breakfast at Oasis before heading to the beach for some relaxation. We would sit all day and soak up the sun and sand...not to bad hey?!  We always bought fresh fruit from the same cheery old Indian woman, who might I add; carried all her fruit in a basket balanced on her head out in the hot sun ALL day. One day I offered to help her lift her basket and put it back on her head but it was so heavy I could not lift it to help her.  I am always amazed by the different people around the world, especially here in India.  The people are working so hard, even the people as old as my grandparents and the young children that are made to work. All without complaint, and a smile on their face too.   

And some more:

A lady selling Indian spices at the Wednesday Market 

Anjuna sunset

These were the homes of some of the locals who lived near the beach. 

Coming back to the beach.. we would purchase our pick of  her fruit for the day ( usually mangos or watermelon, papaya, coconut or banana ) and we would be right back to our lawn chairs soakin up that sun.  I forgot to mention the cows... by the way, there are cows everywhere! It is the funniest thing in the world to see a herd of cows hanging out on the beach!  The cows will come up right next to you while you are in your lawn chair and sit beside you in the sand where your umbrella is casting a nice bit of shade for them. It definitely freaked us out and had us laughing  first few times this happened.  But then ( like everything else that is strange in India ) you get use to sharing the beach AND your umbrella with the cows.  There was even one day Shaun and I had just bought a kilo of fresh mangos and before our Indian lady left she warred me "watch out for cow, cows like mango! hehehehe" and she took off quickly. I wasn't sure what to make of this until I turned my head and saw a cow coming full steam ahead right toward me and my mango! I jumped out of my lawn chair and started running down the beach to get away from this cow that was chasing me for my mango.  I couldnt not get away from this guy, I would run to the left and then stagger to the right then sprint as far as I could away.. then look behind me and there he was...still full steam ahead! Shaun was dying laughing the entire time,  along with a number of others watching and I ran as fast as I could right into the water with my mango in hand.  Finally! The cow stopped, stood there in the surf , quite unimpressed and watched me eat my mango. haha 

Here are the mango thieves here! 

When a festival comes to the town it is always a MUST as a tourist/traveler that you attend. 

I mean, who wouldn't want to be included in local tradition or celebration or excitement or the enjoyment of festivities? So when we heard that Goa was home to one of the top 5 destinations to spend Mardi Gras ( ranked by the Lonely Plant ) we absolutely had to go! We thought it was going to be then next best thing to Fat Tuesday in New Orleans! So, we rode 2 local buses 50km to Panjim, Goa's capital city, ran around like crazy trying to find any vacancy for the night and when finally found one ( the dirtiest dingiest smelly-ist place imaginable! But thats another funny story  itself which Jan and Terry were our only saving grace that night!) we hurried downtown to watch the parade. 

We arrived downtown 3 hrs early to save ourselves a nice front row seat for the celebration to come.  Some people were dressed up, decked out and covered in sparkles and wacky makeup while were buying and selling hats and waving flags. It was all getting to be quite exciting.  About 30 min before the parade began is when most of the Indian people arrived. That is when everything got crazy!

 

Both taken before it got crazy! 

The streets flooded with people, roof tops were at capacity and people were hanging from the downtown buildings to get a good view. The music blared and the elaborate floats marched past the street.  Some people who were in the back were not so impressed at the crowds of people blocking their view, so they started throwing bottles and all kinds of food at the crowd (which we were now part of). It was all so crazy to be a part of. Later there was dancing and live music and tons of food food food! It was definitely a night to remember. 

It wasn't long before our Indian adventure was coming to a close. Already a month had gone by. We were feeling bittersweet, both happy to what was to come as we moved on and at the same time we were very sad to be leaving the most interesting country yet. 

We were going GOA gone... 22 hours of a train ride across India to Chennai and on to Malaysia (where we were in for a surprise!) and then off to the Philippines! 

Thank you for continuing to read and keep up with us, we have much more to come. 

xo Melissa

On the road again

Wandering India

After our amazing time at the Taj Mahal we headed South-West to Ranthambore National Park in search of seeing a wild tiger.  We arrived after a great train ride we arrived at the train to a sign saying "Shoan" I assumed that was me and we hoped into the back of his jeep crammed with 6 others and we were off.  We met a Canadian/New Zealand couple and a older 'world traveled' coupled from England in the jeep as we were all headed to the same resort.  Yeah resort......only option for the park, but it was worth every penny of the 17 dollars!

The first evening we all decided to go and see the old Fort that is situated in the heart of the park perched on top of a cliff.  As we were driving out there some one yelled something to our driver and suddenly all the Indians became panicked and I figured that there might be a tiger around.  Sure enough as we turned the corner out of the jungle casually strolled this cool cat.  I could not believe how calm it was just kinda looked at us and keep going.  After it looked at us it walk into the bush and our jeep along with few others hurried as we all wiped out our cameras and tried to get the money shot of the tiger.  

It was pretty humurous as all the people in the jeeps were looking so intense and just waiting for the pretty shot.  It seemed as though everyone was hunting with their cameras!  After we saw the tiger we headed on up to the Fort.  It was a very impressive fort built right in the middle of a mountain which was filled with monkeys.

The next day we woke up at 5:30am to do our actual did our actual safari.  It was a chilly morning out in the park so we bundled up and hit the road in our Cantor. 

 Once we entered the park you could feel the anxiety and want to see a tiger.  Everyone was on the edge of their set.  As we drove through the park our guides began to get very serious and you could tell that they wanted to find a tiger.  At one point they stopped and got out to examine some tracks and sure enough it was a tiger's.  So we all got excited and followed the trail, which eventually lead to no tiger.  However, along the way we saw numerous spotted deers, Indian Moongoose, Owls, parrots, wild alligator, many exotic birds, several langoor monkeys, a huge bald eagle, many peacocks and many other exotic birds that I have no idea what they were, but they were cool to see.

The safari was drawing to an end when all of sudden the monkeys starting acting weird.  They were sitting on what looked to be watch out duty on the tops of palm trees in a specific area and they were all making noises to each other. Our guides told us to be quiet and again every one had their cameras out ready for the money shot.  After 10 anxious minutes the guides gave up and said that the monkeys were warning each other that leopard was coming.  It was a great day and we enjoyed every bit of it.

After the safari we relaxed bought a train ticket to Udaipur.  Our train was a few hours late and of course we met a local who was ever so interested in planning our trip and insisting that we call him if we ever need help.  For some reason we got that on every public transport we took in India.and we boarde.  We arrived in the beautiful white city of Udaipur and checked into our guesthouse and took to the streets and explored the city.  

Our Guest house

Udaipur in considered one of the most romantic cities in all of India and just happened to be Valentianes day coming up!  

We toured some city sights, as we saw a vegetable and spice market, a gorgeous garden made for the prince, old tombs of the royal family and some other Hindu temples all made out of pure white marble.  

Women always work in their saris.

Musician 

Opium Smoker

After the city tour we went to a traditional Rajasthanie dance showed, which showcase how the Rajasthan women dressed and danced.  It was very entertaining and to top it off a lady danced with nine vases on her head at once time!

The next two morning we did yoga on the roof top of our guest house.  It was very hard, but felt good after the fact.  But man I am so unflexible, Missie did very well though.  On valentianes day we went into a cooking course, where we learnt how to make 10 Indian dishes!  It was fantastic, 10 dishes, we learnt how to make Masala Chi tea to a sweet fruit curry.  And of course after the class we did what we do best and ate to much.  

Two of our 10 dishes!

Making the naan

Right after supper we hurried and bought some beer and bacardi breezers and made it up to the moonsoon palace for sunset.  The view from the palace was so incredible, we could see the entire area surronding two cities.  The sunset was unbelievable, what a way to spend valentianes day!

Moonsoon Palace

The following day we went to go visit the City Palace.  This palace was constructed of pure white marble, just as the rest of the city, but this Palace housed the royal family.  Every little detailed of the palace was unbelievable.  We kept thinking how cool it would be to live during these times.

City Palace

This is Missie's henna that a 16 year old girl did.  It was the daughter from the family run guest house which we stayed at.  She loved it and would look at it every morning to make sure it wasn't going away too fast!  It is an Indian tradition for women to have henna work done ( by the other woman in her family ) to their hands and feet when the women is getting married.  Since it was wedding season when we were there, we saw many women with henna all up their arms.  Missie loved and admired the beautiful work on the Indian woman and wanted to experience the tradition herself. Many local people would comment on her henna and how beautiful it was.  She was very happy! Locals told It is suppose to mean that you have a happy healthy relationship when your henna is very dark and if you look at hers it is!!

 

The next day we boarder a bus ride from hell headed to Jodhpur.  We have been on some rough rides in the past 4 or 5 months, but this was seriously crazy.  The driver seemed like he had a trillion dollars waiting for him in Jodphur if he made it there faster then some rediculous time.  I mean he was swearving in and out and in and out of traffic.  You could feel the entire bus swaying as he turned.  He would drive through villages at like 8okm an hour and just lay on the horn the entire time.  And for what ever reason Indian horns are all different and his was the most annoying little tune that would play for 10 seconds when he just pushed his horn once.(we never got to hear it only play for ten seconds it was more like 10 minutes straight.

But we made it safe and sound and the following day we set out to visit the magnificent Mehrangarth Fort, which is the most majestic and one of the largest forts in all of India.  The fort was built right on the end of the city and it over looks the entire city.  It was so impressive, we got the audio tour, which made us feel like the biggest tourist as we had headphones on while looking at this big map.  

The next morning we stopped for a famous omelette from a guy who claims to go through 1 000 eegs a day.  So for 50cents we enjoyed two omelette sandwichs  each.  After that we hopped on another train and headed for Jaipur.

In Jaipur we were lucky enough to stay at a families house.  The lady picked us up from the train station and took such good care of us.  When we arrived at her house we met the family and sat down for some Chi tea and talked about our different lives.  After a couple hours of conversation, Missie and I went to a Bollywood movie in a very famous theater called the Raj.  After the movie we stopped for some good old Indian sweets and headed back to the house for supper.   The family made a outstanding supper and yes again we ate to much, but it feels so good at the time to taste all that food.  After supper we skyped with the family and their daughter who now lives in Dubai and then we watched her wedding video.  Indian weddings are very colorful and are a big deal to the Indian people.  They spend lots of money and put a huge 3 day event on.  

Inside the theater

Supper!

The next morning we ate again too much, but the breakfast the family made was wonderful.  After our goodbye ( one daughter even took the morning off work to say goodbye!) we headed to the airport where we were off the GOA.

Take care 

shaun