February 28, Puerto Princesa

Decided to catch up on my blog while waiting for our flight while Alasdair and the children are by the poolside.



Had an absolutely spectacular day yesterday. Had to get up at an ungodly hour again to catch a two and a half very bumpy ride to Sabang. Took so many photographs on the way there as the views were just breathtaking. Got to Sabang then took a 15-minute boat ride to see the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River.




We arrived at the island where the river is based and we then had to take a paddle boat to see it. (I have not taken so many boats in so short a time span!) The PP Subterranean River is the longest navigable river in the world; it measures 8.2 kms, but we could only visit 1.5 kms of it. Some people opt for a longer visit - seeing around 4.5 kms, but that would require an overnight stay in Sabang as it would take around 3 hours to visit (one-way). The rest of the river cannot be visited because of the rock formations. The river was in complete darkness and quite eerie, and the stalactites and stalagmites were very impressive indeed. The river also housed hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of bats. Some of the cave walls had guano (ie bat shit) stains on them; luckily we couldn't smell it. The tallest part of the cave went up to 64 metres. Wow.



We then had a picnic lunch on the island. With monitor lizards. Egad. They were all over the place, roaming free. Every now and then these prehistoric looking things would come a little too close for comfort, so our guide would have to take it by its tail to move it away. The island also had a lot of monkeys roaming about. Gorgeous little things...

On the way back we stopped by Sabang and stayed on the beach. We then had the 2.5 hour bumpy ride back. Ouch.

So felt completely justified to get ourselves a full body massage (1 hour for £4.50) which completely revitalised us. We then made our way to the 'palenke' or market, to check out the wares, especially all the varieties of fish and seafood, all caught either last night or earlier in the day. Also quite impressive array of fruits and vegetables...



This morning, our last day here, we went to visit the Crocodile Farm and the Butterfly Farm. The Crocodile Farm, although impressive initially, turned quite dire very quickly. The crocs were scary, but the sad state of the nature park and the amount of junk in the animals' cages was very distressing. The visitors need to be educated on how to take care of these lovely creatures. I'm sure that a few signs here and there would not go amiss. The Butterfly Farm was really nice, but we weren't really able to enjoy it as Callum started to feel a bit queasy and ill. Poor thing... We had to make a quick exit.

February 26, Puerto Princesa

Very tired tonight. Got up ridiculously early for 9am flight, only for it to be an hour delayed. Groan. We arrived at our hotel and was greeted by some assistant to the Governor of Palawan – my dad handled the PR and election campaign for the current governor so he feels eternally grateful to him. Ho-hum. She had an itinerary all planned out for us – island hopping today, subterranean river tomorrow, etc. So basically just had time to quickly unpack our bags and change and rush to the neighbouring restaurant to buy a packed lunch (very delicious barbequed chicken for 80p a head) and go to the pier to catch a boat.

Went to Snake Island – one of the many islands on Honda Bay, off Puerto Princesa. It was a 45-minute boat ride from the pier. Our boatman was lovely, and very knowledgeable. The people from Palawan are very proud of their island, as they should be. It’s very much a tropical paradise.

Snake Island is one of the more famous islands – the others are either private, too far or don’t have a lot of fish to see. We all went snorkelling for a couple of hours and saw a LOT of fish, making them all come closer by giving them bread.

The environment here is very well protected, with signs everywhere saying the only thing you should take with you are memories and photographs. Kitsch perhaps, but when Callum was insisting on taking a few sand dollars with him, we just showed him the sign.

Got back to our hotel and got ready for dinner at a restaurant Ka-Lui. Highly recommended by the Lonely Planet guide for its seafood and atmosphere. The food was excellent – everything we ate had been caught today – an assortment of fish, clams, prawns, etc. And the bill for five people? £22.00, including service.

The children were all very tired and are now asleep, and soon I will be going to bed as well. We have a very early day again tomorrow for the river tour – we need to be ready to leave the hotel by 7am. Egad.

Have started speaking to the children in Tagalog, the dialect that I speak. The Philippines has 66 dialects, with the one that I speak the most widely spoken. I think it’s about time that they started learning it. I was quite appalled earlier when I said a few words to them in Tagalog and they told me to stop being silly and speak English instead! So I’ve told them that I’m spending the rest of this holiday speaking to them in Tagalog. I know that I will regret this as it’s not easy, but it has to be done…

February 25, Manila

Left Tali mid-afternoon today and back at Rockwell tonight. Another lazy day in Tali: got up and basically lay around the pool most of the morning. Alasdair, Sandy and Phil took the children to the beach and the children took turns going on Phil's sailboat. Apparently our children were very good.

Got back to Manila to have our laundry done immediately as we leave for Palawan first thing tomorrow morning. Then rushed to Tech's place as the children had music lessons there - we don't have a piano in our rented flat.

Need to get everything ready for tomorrow. So will write again later. Apparently our hotel has wi-fi, but we'll see - it seems we've got quite a lot of activities planned. I might get too tired at the end of the day to write anything!

February 24, Tali Beach

Arrived here early yesterday afternoon and immediately showed Alasdair the beach lot. Fortunately, he liked it. Phew. It was much bigger than I remembered to be, in fact, Phil and Sandy (Mayet’s husband, my other brother-in-law) insist that we include a separate pool house. We’ll see. We’re back here the week after next to meet up with the architect.

(We passed by Tagaytay on the way to Tali, where the children were entranced by all the fruit stalls lining the road. Pineapples are obviously in season.)

Spent the rest of the afternoon by the poolside. The children, in it with their cousins, Alasdair, by the side of it with the rest of the out-laws, drinking rum and cokes, while I sat by the side sunbathing and chatting with my sisters. It’s a hard life. Also had a massage - £5.00 for a one-hour full body massage. Heaven!

Went to attend a get-together for boat owners at the bar in Punta Fuego – the neighbouring beach – and no, I had no idea what I was doing there either. Just sat at the bar and scoffed around a dozen absolutely delicious grilled sardines, to the amusement of the waiters.

Alasdair left very early this morning to golf with Phil and Sandy, while the children have gone exploring. I need to make them do their blog but the thought fills me with dread…

February 22, Manila

So much for an early night... Had dinner at People's Palace, a fantastic Thai restaurant where I ate way too much. Then went for pudding to Myron's Place, a restaurant owned by Mon Eugenio, a friend from university. Because we knew Mon, he gave us a tour of the kitchen, which looked nice and sparkling. We had a lovely chocolate fondue and we had to stop ourselves from drinking the leftover chocolate. After that, we then headed off to Tabu, which I can only describe as a bar with very loud music. (They played a disco version of Leona's Bleeding Love - can't believe she's reached Manila!)

Spent most of the morning today deciding on what we were going to do with our extra time in the Philippines. Have decided to visit Puerto Princesa in Palawan, southwest of the Philippines. There we can visit the Subterranean River in Sabang, the longest navigable river-traversed tunnel in the world - perfect for the upcoming river project. There's also a crocodile farm, a butterfly farm and a penal colony (!) to visit.

The children are all staying for a sleepover at their cousin Sevi's house. The flat seems so quiet without them...

Tomorrow we pick them up and leave for Tali Beach, where we'll be staying till Monday. I look forward to finally showing Alasdair the beach lot that we bought and which I picked, without him, last October. Fingers crossed he'll like it!

Am slowly (ever so slowly) uploading photographs into the blog. So please look back in case you haven't seen them yet!

February 21, Manila

Bit of a sad day today - have scrapped the Vietnam leg of our trip. Because we've left it too late, the cost of our flights is just too expensive and a bit too much to justify. Darn. We're determined not to just sit around though - we'll visit another one of the Philippine Islands.

Went back to the driving range today. After my appalling performance on the golf course the other day, I decided I needed lessons and Emil was there to help me. Hopefully he's pinpointed my errors (I move too much and my elbow kept bending) that I'll do a lot better the next time.

After the driving range, we went to check out a shooting range. I used to shoot ages ago and really enjoyed it. I used to use a 9mm Beretta. Haven't had much of a chance though, so am probably very rusty. Will give it a chance tomorrow - I'll let you know how it goes.

Alasdair and I have been invited to the opening of some designer's shop tonight, but have bowed out of it. My brother and his wife Ditas will be there though, so we will join them after for dinner. Hopefully it won't be too late a night, as I am feeling a bit tired. Am getting old...

February 20, Corregidor

Had a fantastic time last night - went to the opening of Greenbelt 5 where they had some of the Philippines' best singers perform. Went to Nuvo after for a few drinks (or just fresh juice in my case) with Tech, Phil, Sofia, her husband Patxi et al. Bumped into the owner Louie Y. and I suddenly felt that I was back in the 80s, with the atmosphere and Rick Astley in the background. [Comment from Al - Louie Y is one of the main night club owners in Manila and Chinot used to be a real regular in his club, so they are buddies. It's possible that Nuvo was built on the profits from all the mineral water Chinot imbibed in her early 20s.]

Thus, am slightly suffering today. Had to get up at 6am to catch the 8am ferry to Corregidor. However, it was truly worth it. Corregidor is the second most bombed island in the world, Malta being the first. Fierce fighting went on in the island - the Japanese first bombed it in 1941 when they tried to take it from the Americans, then it was bombed again in 1944 by the Americans, to get it back. That was when the most damage was done.

It was fascinating to see all the gun battery and barracks ruins. Corregidor has the world's longest barracks, housing 8,000 soldiers at one point. We also visited the old cinema, a museum with artefacts from the war, the solemn Japanese cemetery and the old lighthouse, where Euan got vertigo, poor thing. The most impressive though was the Malinta Tunnel, built by the Americans initially as a bomb-proof storage and personnel bunker, but was later equipped as a 1,000 bed hospital. The main tunnel is 831 feet long, 24 feet wide and 18 feet tall, and is under 400 feet of rock. Gen. MacArthur stayed in the tunnel to hide from the Japanese till he left in 1942 for Australia. For more information, you can visit: http://corregidorisland.com/

A bit surprisingly, the children really enjoyed this trip. The ferry ride was an adventure, plus walking into dark caves with bats and hermit crabs was an added plus. Callum was the one who really got into it as they'd just been studying WWII.

Went back to the flat late in the afternoon where the children and Alasdair went for a swim, and I went shopping. All in all, a lovely day.

February 19, Makati

I'm afraid that posting has to be quite intermittent as we still don't have access to the Internet from our apartment. Alasdair's sorted it out though, so hopefully we should be up and running by the end of the week.

Currently is Starbucks, which thank goodness has Wi-Fi. It's amazing how one can get too dependent on the Internet.

The past couple of days have been quite uneventful. Our planned trip to ride the rapids at Pagsanjan Falls sadly had to be abandoned because it rained quite heavily on the day, so it would've been too dangerous, especially with the children. So we ended up just going back to Manila, where Alasdair took the children to the driving range, and I ended up for a pamper at the beauty salon. Bliss...

My sister Mayet runs a casting agency for commercials in Manila, and she asked the children to submit a screen test, which they did yesterday. As a consequence, Nikki has been nagging me wanting to know when her commercial will be coming out! Oh dear...

We went to play golf at a 9-hole course this morning - I was quite impressed with the children, and terribly disappointed with myself. I started off quite nicely, but just lost it and ended up actually losing 4 balls. Pathetic. Alasdair played really well, shooting 2 over par.

Am going out tonight with Tech and Phil - our friend Sofia has invited us to the launch of Greenbelt 5, a new addition to Manila's biggest shopping mall. It should be great fun because they will be featuring the top Filipino singers in the country. Am quite looking forward to it.

February 16, San Pablo, Laguna

Alasdair and I went for an early morning run this morning – just a short one, around 2.5 kms. Was a bit nervous initially, as it’s only my first time to run with Al. But it seems that his previous knee operation has worked to my advantage – he’s had to slow down so I can now keep up with him. Better remind myself to kick him in the knees once he gets better so that we can continue to workout together. Ha-ha.

We’re now at my parent’s holiday home with my sister Tech and her family. We also have a staff of seven, which includes the two nannies for the two babies, and a driver. At times like these I wonder how I can survive with my day-to-day living in the UK with my staff of… err, none.

It seems Alasdair and I were very positive about the children’s blogs, because it seems that it will be like pulling teeth. Although we did manage to get them to start it, they’ve written around 2 sentences each. Oh dear.

My parents have just arrived with my niece Samantha, who’s 13. They’ve also arrived with 2 househelp and a driver. There are now 12 of us here and a staff of 10. Disbelief, really. Tomorrow my sister Mayet arrives with her husband Sandy and her 3 children. I wonder how many other people she will come with…

Alasdair, Phillip (my brother-in-law), Callum and Euan have gone for a hike around the area. A bit too energetic for me, methinks.

February 15, Manila

Arrived this morning and felt quite disoriented as didn’t manage to sleep during the flight. Was so envious of Alasdair and the children who find it no problem to sleep on a plane. Am so tired and all I want to do is rest my head, but I know that I’ll never get over my jet lag if I do so.

Checked out the flat that will be our base in Manila – nice and cosy and very central, which is a good thing considering the massive traffic problem here. The flat rental also includes membership to a gym which is a great, if we ever use it. We’ll see. Both Alasdair and I have said that we’ll lose weight while we’re here, but with the abundance of food and no need to cook (we have a lady called Grace who will be our housekeeper/cook while we’re here) it might be more of a challenge.

Had lunch with my family and I finally met my new nieces, Clara and Emilia, our goddaughter. They are 2 and a half months old and absolutely gorgeous.

Went shopping to buy the basic necessities for the flat such as washing up liquid etc. Also leaving for my parent’s weekend house tomorrow, so need to stock up on snacks for the car. It will take us a little over 2 hours to get there so we must be fed! Went around the supermarket/shopping mall in a zombie-like state though as really suffering now…

Alasdair and I were sorting out our itinerary tonight, as with all the places we can visit, we also need to accommodate my family who’d like to spend as much time with us

and the children. We’ve decided against visiting Cambodia – apart from the lack of time (in 8 weeks – how silly is that), the tourist website also contained a little bit too many warnings about landmines and such that I think I’d rather visit it when the children are a little bit older.

Although I lived in the Philippines for 26 years, there are so many places I have yet to visit here. Reading the Lonely Planet guide has made me realise how beautiful this place is, and how unappreciated, because it has not had the tourist push of Thailand and as it’s separated from the Southeast Asian mainland by several hundred kilometres it is more difficult to visit. But once here, it is a lovely place. The Philippines has 7,166 islands (at low tide - apparently when the tide comes in we lose a few of them as they become submerged) and boasts some of the best beaches in the world. The inspiration of Alex Garland’s book The Beach was actually a beach in Palawan, rather than Thailand.

Valentine's Day

The adventure begins!

Managed to get all our bags packed (5 suitcases, 2 golf carriers, 1 saxophone and 1 flute) by around 11pm last night. A miracle, to say the least. Still though, got up this morning to a flurry of activity attending to last minute things we couldn’t do last night. Nearly forgot to pack proper British tea which would have been a disaster… Children a bit hyper while Shona (cat) very subdued – she knows something is up. She was actually fine until she saw all the bags lining the hallway. Poor thing. I do hope she’ll be fine. She’ll be taken care of by Jackie, our cleaning lady who will be housesitting for us while we are away.

Currently on our flight to Amsterdam and after a short stopover there, we’ll be on our way to Manila.

The Day Before

The day before leaving for the big adventure, and strangely, things are very calm in the Thomson household. The children are watching TV (a sin, since it is such a beautiful day), Alasdair's off to the gym and I'm still in my bathrobe in the kitchen. Have started packing and the terrible thing is that I do not know where to start. Alasdair has packed all five sets of golf bags and I've packed all the presents for my family in Manila, which came out to not too much as I did not really have much time to shop.

Clothes should not be a problem - we are going to Southeast Asia at the hottest time of year, so no need for heavy clothing. And should I forget anything, I can always borrow from my sisters, and the children from one of their many (12) cousins. If I'm honest, not knowing where to start is not the problem. It's that I tend to think that the packing will be easy, so I leave it to the last minute, and ultimately end up going to bed at 4am the night before a 6am flight.

So I suppose I really should get going. After all, not only am I packing for myself, I am also packing for three children. Joy.

A demain, then.