Goodbye Philippines

Monday, 24th October 2011

It took a while to get to sleep last night, thinking about everyone and going over our time here. We will definitely miss everyone.

Well, today is the day, the day we fly home. Last breakfasts, final packing and off to the airport. Our adventure in the Philippines has come to an end. Some days, I thought this day would never come, and now that it has, I wish it wasn't.

Thank you to all our friends who have followed our journey. Those from the Philippines – we won't forget you. Those from Australia – we will see you soon.

May our God bless you all.

Intramuros Again and Manila Ecclesia

Sunday, 23rd October 2011

Having promised Silas at the beginning of our holiday that he could have a ride on a horse and carriage, we made good our promise this morning, by taking a taxi to Fort Santiago and taking a horse and carriage around Intramuros, with a guide.

Pretty fancy, hey

It was very informative, and Silas enjoyed sitting up next to the driver. Our horse's name was Richard. We were able to hop off at particular tourist spots for photos and Eden saw her very first wedding at the oldest catholic church in the Philippines. Apparently you have to book two years ahead for your special day, and there are about 6-8 weddings there a day!

Inside the church

Original road

Golf course around the walls

More of the original wall

Towards the end of the tour, we stopped at the souvenir shop, which offered 60% off the marked price to those people who had taken the tour. Not sure how much the prices were inflated in the first place. We had a look anyway, and saw lots of lovely souvenirs, but didn't buy anything, as our bags are already full to overflowing.

The tour ended at the entrance to Fort Santiago, where we tipped the driver and guide (and made their day), and then walked over the moat and through the ruins. It was really good doing this the second time, to hear a lot more about the history of the Philippines and feel like you understood a bit more about the place. We, in Australia are a very young nation.

Silas and Noah - the sentries

Our taxi drivers were really good today, using the meter automatically. Most of the time they are really good, it's just the few that try to overcharge you, which leave a bitter taste in the mouth.

After having our final meal at The Old Spaghetti House, which was a disaster as far as Noah's behaviour went (sleep time is not a good time to be eating out), we went back to Shalom to get ready for the memorial meeting at Rothman's. Last time we were at the meeting here, it was at 9.00am, this time at 2.30pm.

It was good to see everyone again and even some faces we weren't expecting to see, like Sis Janet Alabab. She is working in Manila, but originates for Bangui, Laoag, right at the very top of the Philippines. We weren't able to get up there this time, although we would have liked to – three months isn't long enough.

Matt gave the exhort on Mark 6 – Christ stilling the storm, and working together as an ecclesia. I really enjoyed it (maybe because Noah slept through most of it). After the memorial meeting, Bro Jeyrold did the lecture on “The Goodness and Severity of God”, which was done in Tagalog, but the powerpoint slides were in English.

After the meeting we took photos, and photos and photos. It was really nice to see Vads and Carina, and their baby Zain. We would have liked to spend more time with them, but alas, our time has come to an end. Another person it was great to see was Jet Jet Gimeno – Noah is named after Jet (Noah Ryan Jethro). The last time we saw Jet he was 12, and now he is all grown up. Time flies. Hopefully it won't be eight years before we see everyone again.

The Manila Ecclesia

Jet and Noah

Zain and Carina

With Sis Janet

Noah with Eman and Lovely

Jeyrold and Jet

Zain with Uncle Matt

Irene and Emerson

Emerson, Irene, Sarah, Noah, Carina, Zain and Vads

Saying goodbye was hard, and the walk back to Shalom was quiet. In a way, it would have been nice to go straight to the airport, and hop on a plane, but instead we went back to Robinsons for our final meal, and went back to Shalom to pack. How much stuff we have accumulated over three months is unbelievable. Even with all the things we have left behind, fitting everything in is a squeeze.

Another late night, again – actually an early morning. We need to go back to Australia for a rest.

Visiting Bro Sonny Ramos and Pangsanjan Falls

Saturday, 22nd October 2011

Sis Irene and Sis Marilou arrived at Shalom at 7.00am to accompany us to Bro Sonny and Sis Releesa's house. Sarah and Noah stayed back at Shalom for a quiet day, as Noah needed a rest day. The rest of us piled into a taxi to go to the bus terminal along with Sis Irene and Sis Marilou.

Our transport for today was very efficient, the bus was leaving as the taxi arrived. The conductor told us the journey was only two hours, but with the traffic it turned out to be closer to three hours (which is what we were expecting). Bro Sonny arrived with his trike to collect us from the side of the road about 10 mins after getting off the bus. Irene and Marilou both managed to sleep on the bus, mum and I managed to get very sore bottoms from the terrible seats.

Silas on the bus with Aunty Marilou and Aunty Irene

It was very nice to see Bro Sonny again (it was also very nice to be remembered) along with his wife Sis Raleesa. There are ongoing renovations at their house, they are raising the floor by nearly half a metre. The kitchen and dining area still has a dirt floor, but the bedrooms and bathrooms are concreted and tiled.

Bro Sonny and Sis Raleesa on the left

Lunch was served early (so we would have time to visit the falls), it was bbq fish, crumbed chicken drumsticks, rice and senorita bananas. Then Silas went with Bro Sonny to fetch the car from a friend that had borrowed it. Whilst returning to the house Silas was leaning across and sounding the horn at any and every opportunity.

The Pagsanjan falls are located out of town, up stream. The usual way is to take a boat trip from the town to the falls. The other way that we were going to do costs only one tenth of the price. We drove to the top of the falls and were going to take the steps down to the bottom (Bro Sonny's father owns some of the land at the top of the falls), but then we ran into a problem, the national park people won't allow anyone below 12 to use the steps, so we drove back into town to take the boats.

Silas was disappointed that we wouldn't be climbing down the side of the cliff, but this was soon forgotten by the excitement of taking a canoe up the river and through the rapids. We were reasonably wet by the time we arrived at the falls. The view along the way small waterfalls and the green forest is majestic. At the base of the main waterfall we took a raft that took us under and behind the falls into a small cave. Then we all had a short swim in the cave. It was very noisy in the cave – the screaming of Silas and Eden didn't help. We all had another swim once we had returned from under the waterfall.

The journey back downstream to the town was just as pretty. The rapids were more exciting. I must also tell we were paddled upstream in our canoes by two guides per canoe – they had a tough job getting us up to the falls, and the return journey was much faster. I am always astounded by the lack of information that tourists get in the Philippines, nowhere were we told what this boat trip involved, that we would be entirely saturated or how long it would take. The only reason that we were prepared was because we had looked up on the internet the day before and read other peoples reviews of the place.

I was amused to see some tourists (Korean I think) wearing face masks on the boat trip, perhaps they were not used to breathing fresh air!

After the boat trip we we returned to the Ramos house for more food, we were given an early tea (more fish, chicken and rice along with bbq pork, veges and sweet potatoes). Our stay was rather short because we had to catch the bus before 6:00pm.

The return trip to Manila was quicker as there was less traffic. We were treated to the sights of lightening and a thunderstorm on the horizon.

A Day of Vile and Detestable Things

Friday, 21st October 2011

Well, today it was back to Mall of Asia, so Matt could swap his shoes for a bigger size, and while we were there, we shopped, and shopped and shopped some more. The magic wore off very quickly, and the most exciting things were spoiling ourselves to Krispy Kreme Donuts – very yummy! And watching the ice skating again.

Don't you just love them

Iceskating in the shopping mall

I (Sarah) found the most wonderful pair of shoes on the sale rack in a shoe shop. They were the right size and very comfortable, and very fancy with all their feathers and stuff, so you would think that I would buy them, wouldn't you, but when I showed them to Matt (big mistake) he said “what – are you a indian squaw?”, so that was the end of that. I will always remember them, our love was short lived, but it was strong. Sigh...

Matt has come down with a cold, so was feeling pretty terrible, (not that it stopped him buying another pair of shoes – yes, that's right – I have no pairs of shoes, zero, zilch, not one single pair, and he has two pairs! Something's not right here -what's going on....wahhhh, I just want to cry. I'm the one who loves shoes. Maybe I should have gone shopping without my darling husband.

Anyway, getting back to Matt not feeling well, he stayed at the hotel with the kids, while I went out with Mum and got them McDonalds for tea, brought it back, and then went out shopping with Mum. Again, it was not very successful, as we were both very tired and sick of the sight of shops – all that glitz and glamour - yuk, so after walking around and around and getting nowhere, we decided to get a pizza for tea and take it back to the hotel to share with Matt. Well, that was another big mistake – we ordered it (couldn't get the one we wanted, as they had no bacon!) and then sat in the appointed seats to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait! We could see a pizza box on the bench, looking lonely and going cold, but no one seemed to care (except us). When we eventually went and asked, they said nothing, and then went and got our cold, soggy pizza and tied some string around it and gave it to us. I asked if we could get a discount on account of it being cold, but was told “no, sorry”. Not very happy. If anyone had tried to steal my money on the way back to the hotel, they would have come off second best!

One good thing to be remembered about today was that the taxi drivers used their meters without being asked to, and didn't try to rip us off, which made us much more willing to give them a tip.

Sleep well everyone, 'cos it's another big tourist day tomorrow.

Tagaytay and Taal Volcano

Thursday, 20th October 2011

Irene met us at Shalom this morning at 8.30am so we could travel to see the smallest volcano in the world. Being at Shalom at 8.30am meant she had left home at 6.30am and risen at 4.00am!

Into the van we hopped, and started our journey down to Tagaytay. It takes about 2 hours to get there. As we neared the People's Park, there were men dotted along the road with signs “Boat Ride to Taal Volcano”. When we eventually found a carpark, we were flocked by people offering us this, that and the other. We couldn't understand any of them of course, and Matt was getting pretty annoyed, so he made a comment along the lines of “I tell you what Irene, you're getting hounded by a bunch of scabs”, to which they backed off a little – I guess they understood the tone rather than the colloquial terms used.

We were guided to a picnic table – umbrella table for P150 or family table for P300. After negotiating with the “tourist guides” they changed the price of the boat ride from P4800 to P1500. (checking the internet for prices paid off), we took a little walk around the park, carefully stepping over the live wire running down the steps and across the ground.

Matt and Silas decided it would be absolutely the best way to spend P200 each, for 11 seconds of their life, going on the zipline. Mum, Irene, Eden and Noah went on the cable car instead. This was a lot slower, so they actually got to enjoy the scenery as they went across to the other side. Mum had to fight a big urge to ride on the zipline, after seeing how much fun the others had.

At Picnic Grove

Noah and Silas sitting at an Umbrella Table

The Zipline and Cablecar

Enjoying the cablecar ride

I, being a big wus (a big girl) and scared of heights, took the path, which turned out to be a bad decision, as there was one of the famous wooden bridges to cross, with missing planks. There was a young girl at the other end who thought it was most amusing to wobble the bridge as I gingerly took each step. I cut my finger on the rusty railing, and then the girl's father took pity on me, and verbally talked me through the rest of the way, while trying to cut a bargain to take me across to the volcano “I'll do it cheaper – it's very dangerous to go to the volcano – don't go there alone”. Anyway, once off the bridge, I raced up and down the flights of steps to get into prime position to take photos of the others coming across on the cable car. They looked like they were enjoying themselves and the scenery. I went down a bit further to catch Matt and Silas flying across on the zipline, only to find out that included in the price were two photos taken from the best spot to get a good photo, oh well, live and learn. We had to tip the ride operators into the tip box on our way to wait about 10 minutes to get our photos.

After gooing and gahhing over the photos, and deciding which ride was the best, we went to the van and negotiated with the driver, who wanted more money to drive us down to the boats, as that was no longer Tagaytay, and Tagaytay was where we had paid him to drive to. Our guide came with us to guide us (!), and as we went down the steep incline, I decided it was probably worth the extra money the driver charged.

We were led to some very nice nipa huts to rest and have lunch – fantastic filipino food, all for a small cost of course. Noah ate about three servings of rice with banana catsup again – way to go Noah.

Once our stomachs were full to overflowing (although Noah said his hadn't gone down to the bottom to his legs yet) we put on our life jackets and got in the boat. It was about a 45 minute boat ride across the lake to the volcano – very nice indeed.

Our boat

Arriving at the island, we were again greeted by oodles upon noodles of people waiting to help do this and that and take us here and there and expecting a tip, of course. We decided, after much persuasion, to take horses up to the top, which was a great decision for the kids and Mum, but Matt and I decided that walking down would be much more comfortable than having the horse's back bones jab your buttocks, as we had to sit behind the saddle and our children. Irene decided this was the best way too.

Silas and Matt led the way

Eden and Sarah followed

Irene and Noah making their way up hill

Mum bringing up the rear

On the way up we were offered surgical face masks for the kids and the “poisonous gases” at the top for P30 each. Matt was not impressed with all the ripping off, in his grumpy mood he made some threatening remarks about carefully placing the masks up the nostrils of the seller if he didn't stop hounding us. But it was only to get better, when we reached the top, there were people selling drinks, and asked us if we wanted to buy a drink for our guides! (it must be noted that as we neared the top, our guides took to breathing heavily and sighing about how steep it was). These drinks were P50 each, although it only costs P6 to purchase them in the first place – pretty good mark up hey. Once again Matt was is fine form and very sweetly told the sellers that if our guides were thirsty that they could buy their own drinks. Fortunately there was no one selling oats for the hungry horses we had just ridden!

Matt enjoyed taking photos, while I stressed about the kids falling over the edge into the lake at the bottom, as safety precautions are just not heard of here. There were little pockets of steam rising out of the ground everywhere, and Matt and Silas went exploring.

Beautiful views

The crater people mistake for the volcano

I slipped on the way down and banged my arm rather hard, and got very dusty from dirt and horse poo – yum! We returned the unused face masks, and followed the horse with Noah on it. He fell asleep on the way back, and the guide was sitting behind, holding him so we wouldn't fall off. We tipped her and one of the other guides, but couldn't find the third one, so bad luck – he missed out.

The return boat trip was pleasant, the view of the houses built on the water with a setting sun in the background was nice.

On the way back

Fish farm

Lots of fish farms

Matt liked looking at the engine set-up on the boat. A Toyota 18R engine and gearbox driving the prop shaft, complete with gear stick and clutch pedal. They take off in third and then shift into top just like in a car! Just for safety there is no air filter or flame arrestor on the carby.

On the mainland we piled back into the van for the trip back to Manila. First of all we had to drive 30mins up the windy road from the lake to the town at the top of the hill. The road was still under construction and in parts only one side was completed. This was reinforced part of the way up the hill as the driver drove off the finished part of the road and half onto the dirt. The drop is about 30cm's and the undercarriage took a beating on the edge. So out we all got, while the driver and the guide examined the situation.

Oops

The solution

The rest of the journey back to the hotel was uneventful. We stopped at the gas station to put gasoline in the van (starting to sound like Americans), and here our guide left us. The driver enjoyed changing lanes as often as he could, and seemed to take a “short cut”, although I don't know if it actually saved any time. The children all fell asleep on the way back, which was very nice and peaceful for the rest of us.

We really enjoyed visiting the volcano. But found the rudeness and persistence of the people trying to sell boat rides, extra for life jackets, extra for breathing. Take a seat in this free nipa hut and buy overpriced food etc...

On Taal isand (the volcano) the local population derive their income from the tourists, so they deserve to get paid, however – don't believe what they say, they will tell you how steep the track is, and that you need a horse and guide. Interesting how the guide can walk up with you in about 20 mins, in their thongs and without water. The walk up the mountain can be done in about 40 mins by anyone capable of walking along a dirt path up-hill (you cant miss the path, it is worn about 2 metres deep in parts. Part of the fees include a separate guide for each group– again don't expect to get too much, the guide will mysteriously disappear part of the way along.

The guides with the horses don't stay together with the group and they don't do much in the way of guiding. It would be nice if they told you something about the place (history, details, or about their lives), they don't get paid much (only a small portion of the fees go to them) and so expect a tip, it's just the frank and abrupt way they ask for a tip that they expect that puts me off, I thought a tip was something extra that you give in appreciation of the good service. Having said this, mum's guide was really good, an 18 year old girl, who told her about the place, carried our large water bottle, and gave her tips on horse riding, so she deserved the generous tip she got.

Mall of Asia

Wednesday, 19th October 2011

Another nice sleep in this morning, but only until 7.00am today. Anyway, it was too exciting to stay in bed today as we were going shopping at the Mall of Asia. A shopper's nivarna - a husband's nightmare. Apparently the Mall of Asia is the biggest shopping mall in Asia, so of course we had to go and visit it to be able to say "been there, done that".

When we arrived there, guess what we found? Shops, shops, and more shops – it is very big, and the prices are very big. Lunch was yummy at the Pizza Hut restaurant, quite fancy in fact. The suvenir shop was large and interesting to look through.

Only one picture - too busy shopping today

Silas is really pleased with his smelly-feet-proof sandals he purchased, and Matt was really pleased with his fancy dancy shoes too, until he got them back to the hotel and tried them on with socks. Alas, they were too small, maybe they shrank in the box on the way home, maybe they were too small all along. Next time don't curl your toes up when you try on shoes Matthew.

After spending 5 hours shopping, being ripped off by the taxi drivers and getting quite tired, we went back to Shalom. Matt helped Eden play Angry Birds computer game, and then Silas had a turn while Mum, Eden and I went to Robinsons shopping mall for more shopping. Yes that's right, we didn't get enough of the shops, so we had to have some more. The boys met us there for tea.

We did the readings together back at Shalom, and put the children in bed, while we tried to get the blog updated a bit more. Only about 6 days behind now.

So that was our Wednesday. Back at Bugallon, Bro Joel was to do the Bible Study. They have a roster now, where they each take it in turns to prepare something to talk on for Wednesday night, after their combined tea at the hall. It is a great idea, from Cesar, and we hope they will keep it up.

Manila Ocean Park

Tuesday, 18th October 2011

 

A nice sleep in this morning, until almost 8.00am. It's amazing what happens when the curtains are thick enough to block out the sunlight.

We took our dirty washing down the road to the local laundry. A lot cheaper than having it done by the hotel.

Sis Irene met us at Shalom at about 10.00am and then we made our way to the Manila Ocean Park, to spend the day as tourists. For the price we paid to enter, we were expecting great things!

We really enjoyed watching the Sea Lion Show – fantastic!

Waiting for the show to begin

Still waiting...

This is Sandra

Doing an endo

Bet you can't do that

The Oceanarium was very interesting too – lots of fish. I found it interesting to see which fish each child was most interested in. Silas liked the brightly coloured ones, and wanted to know the names of each type of fish, Noah liked the slow moving fish – the ones that stared at him, Eden liked the pretty fish. Matt saw an Aunty Laida fish, then Noah saw an Uncle Cesar fish and then a little Cally fish – very cute.

Silas and his friend

Brilliant colours

Matt's underwater photography skills

Our three beautiful children

Eden, Silas and Aunty Irene

The Antarctic Exhibition is not complete, but we enjoyed taking photos and reading the information anyway and standing on the wet paint displays.

Scientist Silas at work

Where's my ark gone?

An antarctic jeepney

We had a delicious lunch at The Pancake House – only Eden and Noah ordered pancakes, which were a bit dry, until we discovered there was maple syrup in a jug at the end of the table. The menu was rather extensive – highly recommended. The hamburgers sat about 6 inches high on the plate, but Matt and Silas still managed to get their mouths around them.

Feeling hungry?

Feeling happy!

After lunch, we retraced our steps back to the Glass Bottom Boat ride, which was quite nice too. The human fish we could see were “very expensive”, according to the guide.

Deep in concentration or amazement

The Dancing Jellies was very relaxing, although a bit of a scam – you walk through a night club looking at the different displays of jellyfish – so they make money day and night. The music was very nice though, the first classical music I have heard here.

One Dancing Jelly

Pretty Dancing Jelly

Lots of Dancing Jellies

Quite spectacular

All in all, we had lots of fun, and the favourite part was the sea lion show.

Out to Robinsons again for tea, and a bit of shopping. Getting sick of eating out already, but not much we can do about that until we get home.

Did the readings again with Silas reading in turn, good to see he hasn't lost his ability to read most words.

Wanted to get an early night again, but also need to update the diary and the blog, we thought we would have plenty of time, but alas, we are not good time managers, or managers of our time, not sure which. Matt is sleeping peacefully next to me, while I type up the diary, and the boys are also sleeping soundly. I think it is time to turn off the light now and go to sleep. Goodnight.