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.