Philippine videos AGAIN

When I posted these videos the first time four months after the vacation to the Philippines, they weren't successfully posted.  Honestly its been so long since I tried posting them, that I've even forgotten why they were rejected by Youtube in the first place.  But I haven't worked on our footage in such a while, that its taken me nearly half a year to get them back up.  In reality, I asked Kyle to do it, but well, men will be men I guess, and I'm now doing it six months after the fact.

We took our vacation to the Phillippines last September and it was FANTASTIC. We've made two videos:
Boracay in a Flash: for people with little time on their hands and don't really want to watch the long version


Trip to the Philippines the extended version part 1 and part 2 : for people, such as our parents, grandparents and others who have a vested interest in watching details of our lives that other people don't have the time, patience or energy for.
 

Boracay (the end)

A day of avid snorkeling without proper amounts of sunscreen resulted in excruciating pain.  We canceled our tour out on the sea the next day to allow Kyle some "get out of the sun" time.  After three days on the main beach we moved to another hotel on the other side of the island, the quieter side.  Basically, I had a hard time figuring out which hotel to stay at so in the end, mostly out of indecision, we choose two. The second was called Ligganay which means "bell" in Philippino. So named this for the shape of the rock near the beach where the hotel rests.  This hotel, was also run by an ex-pat, a German this time rather than an American.  Overall the grounds and general look of this hotel was more stunning, but our room was not memorable, and badly needed a woman's designer touch.  Looking at the white walls, the peculiar paintings, the shell chandelier, the mis-matching sheets, I could just imagine the whiskey drinking, infrequent shirt addorning, smelly German man, our gracious and very kind host, frustratingly and absent-mindedly choosing each decoration. The sheets, which are visible in the photo below, looked like they came straight through a time machine from the 80s, but to top it off, they didn't even match. It was a sad sight, but we didn't spend a whole lot of time in our room.  The pool, on the otherhand was an amazing infinity pool looking out onto the ocean seemingly almost as if they were connected . And we were surrounded by jungle, with a tiny private beach which was lovely and bordered by rocks and caves.

People often ask how I like the Philippines, to which I respond emphatically, "I LOVED it," but in all fairness it wasn't really the Philippines.  Boracay, the only island/city we stepped foot on except for Manila, is not really the Philippines. I mean, technically it is in the Philippines, but its run by ex-pats.  Its a cultural experience for the natives more so than for foreigners.  We plan to go back to see more of the "real" Philippines when we travel.

Because we canceled our tour, we spent the day relaxing, taking pictures, walking along the beach and enjoying each others company.  We walked down to Friday's Rock, a famous landmark on the island, bought margaritas before noon, had to show them how to make a proper margarita because it seemed that no one on the island knew how to make any sort of cocktail of any sort decently, and we even ate at a semi-decent Mexican restaurant.  

For the evening, I dressed in my newly purchased dress, and took more pictures of the stunning sunset.  Sunsets, no matter how many times you see them, never get old.  I could watch the sunset, watercoloring the horizon with God's special paint pallet every night of my life, and never find it dull.  But the sunsets on Boracay were nothing short of miraculous.

For our last dinner we went for an all rib night which was good, but not fantastic.  We met some other random ex-pats.    We were sad to leave, but we will be back.  It was a lovely vacation, and a fantastic way to celebrate our anniversary.

Boracay (part three)

Continuing the story of the Philippines.

Towards the middle of our trip, during the night I had an misanthropic visitor.  I could feel the bite, but I didn't feel his disease fraught limbs crawling across my face.  Waking up, I could feel that something about my eye wasn't right.  It wasn't painful, but it was obviously swollen, tightened and tender.  A glance in mirror begat an infantile scream.  Not only did my hair stick out in all directions (as it usually does in the morning) resembling a Medusa do, but to add to that initial hideousness, my eye had swollen to resemble Quasimodo.
The friendly staff at the "Blue Mango" gasped in horror. I felt seriously disfigured, and self-conscious that it looked like our romantic honeymoon had gone violently array ending in my swollen eye.  Immediately, after I insisted that my husband had not abused me, they suggested the culprit was a cockroach.  I blew it off, until two other Phillippinos suggested the same thing.  So I googled it.  Cockroaches do bite.  And they typically bite near the eye!  Conclusion: Who knows, but I sure as hell have an increased fear of those radioactive-immune critters.

Every morning, as part of our package, a free breakfast, American or Phillippino style, according to our choice, was delivered to our room.  A delicious breakfast, on a balcony overlooking the magnificent the great blue is a fantastic way to gear up the day, with or without a swollen eye that makes you look like the pitiful partner in a disparaging relationship.  It sure beats seaweed soup, rice and kimchi in the school cafeteria.

You'll never believe the vintage shirts in Korea.  Love them.

The morning of my transformation from honeymooner to Quasimodo hiding behind my movie star glasses, we went on a island hopping trip.  First stop was "Crystal Cove."  An island with caves, coves and amazing views.

The wildlife was amazingly friendly. 

Someone was hungry so he bought seaweed flavored Pringles.  They don't even offer that flavor in Korea, but if they did, you better believe we would be buying that delicious green chip everyday.

We stopped to suck on the juice of a coconut.  It wasn't as sweet as I expected it to be.

One of the islands, boys surrounded our incoming boat as a recreational hobby.  They were like fish, born to the water, but occasionally climbing on the arms of he boat.  I especially enjoyed their entertainment when leaving the harbor.  They climbed onto the outer balancing arm, sang a "K pop" song "Nobody but you" and backflipped into the water.  It's on the video when we get it back up on youtube.

Our guide, stopping to allow us time for snorkeling dove into the aquatic blue  to deliver treasures from the deep. This puffer fish surprisingly never showed his displeasure by puffing. We passed him around and were allowed to pet him. He was squishier than I expected.

Two different kinds of starfish were also part of the treasure collection.  They were all thrown back to their homes in the end, alive and well.

This shy child sat taciturn watching the foreigners but refusing to speak.  She was adorable though.

After asking where the best place for seafood, we were directed to the wet market called "Di talipapa"  Here you could purchase your seafood live or dead, depending on your wallet and desire, take it to any of the nearby restaurants and for a small price have them cook it for you.  We choose a dead lobster.  It was delicious both in my mouth and in my wallet.

the restaurant we choose was teeming with folks.

sharing a beer that I could only stomach with three or four slices of lime masking the flavor.