Oma Opa visit, Boracay, Halloween and more....

Mum and Papa visited us in October and we had a number of adventures with them.  The first was going to Boracay!  It's the most famous Filipino island and it's due to the white sand - which is beautiful.  The sand is raked everyday by all the resort owners - and at night the local children do beautiful patterns in the sand with candles.  We had a great holiday, making most of the cocktails at Happy Hour and the sunset sailing.  Martin even got into scuba diving again!

After we got back M,P and me spent one day driving up to Batabgus to collect Maritess's daughter, Charmaine, to bring her back for our Halloween Party.  I also wanted to check out Martiess's house to see if I can help her set up a Sari sari store before we leave. She has to travel 3 hours to work for us - including walking up a long flight of stairs - mostly in the dark to reach her house.  Her husband prepared the local specialty noodle dish for us when we visited - (it was cold when we got there and a bit claggy!).  Anyway it was interesting to see how she lives with no running water, no fridge, wood stove, one room hut all sleeping in the same bed.  The contrast between our 4 bedroom , 5 bathroom, 300sqm condo is massive!

The Filipinos love to celebrate Halloween - and every other Christian event - so we are finding out!  The boys loved having Charmaine staying with us - even though they don't speak the same language.

It was sad to see Mum and Papa leave - but they had the best time - even surviving the Qantas strike!  Getting a bed in a hotel instead of trying to sleep in the plane!

The boys after soccer on the beach at Boracay

Ready for bed with special hairstyles

Electrical wiring Filipino style

Mum after new haircut

Filipino service

view from breakfast

Rust bucket

Charlie's new found sunglasses

typical Opa

sunset sailing - great fun!

Mum enjoying resort life

Opa at happy hour

These girls entertained the boys at the airport going to and from Boracay

Coconuts at Maritess house

Drinking them

Steps to Maritess's (our maid) house which is 3 hours from our place

Charmaine (Maritess's daughter) school

Maritess's family which she sees one daya week

Maritess's house - quite different to ours

Getting ready for Halloween

Opa's scary costume

William and Charmaine

Kiss Charlie

Adults dinner before Oma and Opa leave

Oma and Opa and the boys before they leave

Tagaytay and visit from Richard

Just farwelled my brother Richard - our first visitor over here.  It was really good to have him and sad to see him go - he might be back though sooner than we think though?!?

Before Richard came - we did a day visit to Tagaytay.  It is the"Blue Mountains" of Manila - or so I heard it described by someone - not sure if it is an apt description?  It is an hour and a half drive to an area where there is active volcanos on a large lake called Taal.  We caught a boat across to the volcano and hired horses to take us up the mountain.  It was an interesting trip especially the journey of trying to bargain for the boat trip and the horse ride.  Luckily Martin did his research and bargained the boat down from $80 round trip to $25! 

Richard arrived last Tuesday just before the big typhoon.  The following day school was cancelled - so we decided to take a trip out to The Mall of Asia to show Richard some of the sites.  We didn't realise that this was one of the worst areas in the typhoon and we went at the worst time!  Alot of shops were closed and areas roped off - didn't really realise why until we saw big sections of ceilings collapsed below us.  Got the boys out quick and went home to hibernate while the storm took its course.

Alot of people were affected by the typhoon - some died from falling signs.  30 000 people flooded and made homeless.  This happens most years in the Philippines and it affects the poor.  We made donations of clothes and 50kg of rice to those affected.

Did lots of going out with Richard - took him to all you can drink cocktails at the Shangrila for 500 paseos - $12. He had a good time here - especially meeting a really nice Filipino girl Kate who the boys loved!

Had a party for the AFL grandfinal - it was a rainy day - so went well in our apartment up in the sky!

Looking forward to our next visitors - Oma and Opa!!

William on his first horse ride

The trek up the mountain

Charlie feeling pretty hot

Looks beautiful from up here!

At the top of the volcano - which is active - but no sign of lava today

William wanting to be on the same dodgy scaffolding as Martin - a bit of an ordeal getting him down

Charlie and me on our horse Sunshine

Trying to dodge the mud puddles

Taking the boat back to the mainland

Charlie didn't quite make it to lunch

Eating and drinking with Chard at the fish markets

Guys trying to sell us lobster and crab

Fish markets

Maritess, our helper, cooking Lumpia for our AFL grandfinal party

Kate Richard's friend with the boys - William thinks she is his girlfriend

The boys chilling out on the couch discussing life! 

Bohol paradise!

Last weekend was a long weekend - so we flew to Bohol which is one of the many islands South of Manila.  It is a small paradise - with humble village homes - everyone looks really happy - poor but happy!.
We stayed at a place called Ananyana Resort which was really beautiful - simple thatched roof buildings on the beach surrounded by a beautiful tropical garden.  To get to it we had to be taken down a bumpy dirt track surrounded by cows and chickens and people sleeping - we were a bit worried at first - but it was an oasis!

The only problem was that there was a big festival in the village for the Saint Augusta church - we thought this was going to be fun until we were kept up all night with heavy base music pumping from a schoolyard not far from the resort.  They partied on for 2 nights until 5:00am!

The boys had their first experience of snorkelling.  William was excellent after stressing out about being scared when we were taken out on a small native canoe with a motor!  He managed to brave the waters after we convinced him there was no threat of sharks!  Charlie opted to stay in the boat and entertain the driver with a shell he found on the beach - winnie the Pooh also came along for the ride.

We had 4 fully sunny days which was a real treat after being in Manila for 6 weeks.  We flew out in  typhoon and came back into one.  Weather isn't great here at the moment!

Just arrived on the beach the boys getting stuck into the sand

An artistic photo Martin took

The locals watching the show at the festival

Charlie outside the kitchen

The Chocolate Hills

They turn brown in summer and are dubbed the chocolate hills

A Tarsier - the smallest monkey in the world William thought they looked like Goblins

This is how small they are

Excited about seeing the Tarsiers

Chicken soup in a coconut at the Bohol Bee Farm an excellent spot

Going out to the reef on the boat

Part of the beach we stayed at

Coming back from snorkelling