I know this is an extremely delayed blog but the month of December and the beginning of January were very busy for me. I will try to recap as best I can!
After Thanksgiving, the month of December flew by. I basically spent my time counting down the days until Danny would be in Korea when it FINALLY came on December 22nd. Luckily, his flight was in the evening so I was able to meet him at the airport. I was so excited to see him after four months of being apart! Not only that, but he was also bringing the Christmas cookies my parents had made for me and some other treats, :)
At school, our last day was December 23rd (Friday). The day was very easy, in Kindergarten we just had a song contest and then Santa came and gave each kid a present (a present their parents had bought them and dropped off at the school). I am proud to say that my kids did win the song contest with “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” so Friday was a great day to kick off the vacation!
Friday night, Danny and I and the other teachers going to the Philippines headed to the airport. Our flight was really early Saturday morning and we wouldn’t have had time to go in the morning, or it at least would have been nerve wrenchingly close. The Incheon airport is supposedly one of the nicest to stay in overnight but I’m assuming that’s once you’re on the other side of security. Just staying on the departures floor was quite cold and uncomfortable. I barely got any sleep but was excited for the Philippines so it didn’t really matter!
After Thanksgiving, the month of December flew by. I basically spent my time counting down the days until Danny would be in Korea when it FINALLY came on December 22nd. Luckily, his flight was in the evening so I was able to meet him at the airport. I was so excited to see him after four months of being apart! Not only that, but he was also bringing the Christmas cookies my parents had made for me and some other treats, :)
At school, our last day was December 23rd (Friday). The day was very easy, in Kindergarten we just had a song contest and then Santa came and gave each kid a present (a present their parents had bought them and dropped off at the school). I am proud to say that my kids did win the song contest with “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” so Friday was a great day to kick off the vacation!
Friday night, Danny and I and the other teachers going to the Philippines headed to the airport. Our flight was really early Saturday morning and we wouldn’t have had time to go in the morning, or it at least would have been nerve wrenchingly close. The Incheon airport is supposedly one of the nicest to stay in overnight but I’m assuming that’s once you’re on the other side of security. Just staying on the departures floor was quite cold and uncomfortable. I barely got any sleep but was excited for the Philippines so it didn’t really matter!
Saturday morning we flew to Manila (about a 4 hour flight) and then waited in Manila about an hour or so until we flew to Cebu. When we left the airport in Cebu, we had to go to the ferry and wait about another hour. The ferry ride was about two hours and we finally ended up on the island of Bohol. There was nine of us all together so we got a van right when we got off the ferry to take us to get some food, and then to our hostel. It was quite funny because the first place the driver brought us was McDonalds… and we all pretty much said no right away. We didn’t travel all this way just to eat a Big Mac! We ended up eating at this other little fast food place that wasn’t too good but it was at least more Filipino than Mickey D’s. The town wasn’t very big, and at this point we were in Tagbilaran which is the biggest city on Bohol. It’s also the only place that has an ATM so we all had to stop there to get money for the week also. After dinner, we finally got to our hostel which was called Nipa Hut Village and it was really quaint, and by quaint I mean there was literally nothing around us. It was at the end of a road next to the Loboc River and the whole street was pretty much just little houses. The people were really nice though that ran it and we were only staying there two nights. That night we didn’t do much but hang out at our hostel since we had been traveling the whole day.
Sunday (Merry Christmas!) we spent a whole day going around the island with the van driver we had met on Saturday. We went ziplining, did a tour of the chocolate hills, saw the “tarsiers” which are the smallest primates in the world or something like that, and went on a dinner cruise on the Loboc river. It was an excellent way to spend Christmas!
Monday, we were off to our next island called Camiguin. We had some misinformation and thought the ferry left at 9am so we thought we should get there about 7 am to get tickets… Unfortunately, the ferry didn’t leave until 1pm. The only good thing about having to wait for 5 hours is that it was down pouring so at least there wasn’t much else we could have been doing anyway! By the time we got to Camiguin it was raining there also, and it was dark. We had been planning on having more time to do stuff that day but we ended up just going straight to find a place to stay and that’s it. The place we stayed at on Camiguin was one of the coolest places I’ve ever seen. It was a treehouse but they were really into eco friendly stuff and going green and all that. It had tons of paintings on the ceilings and everything. I can’t even really describe it, it really didn’t even feel like we were in a tree because it was huge still but it was awesome!
Tuesday, we headed off to explore Camiguin. We found a driver to take us around the island in his, I don’t even know what to call it. It was a motorcycle or moped type thing but with this metal part over it and extra wheel so that people could sit in that and ride. It fit 6 of us. The pictures will explain it much more! Anyways, first we went to this Sunken Cemetery. It was basically this huge cross they had about 50 meters off the shore to show where it was, but as far as I could, I couldn’t really tell a difference between the rocks in the water and what would have been a tombstone. Oh well. After that, we went to a waterfall and swam in that. The water was really cold but it was really refreshing and it was at least warm when we got out! Our last stop was just to sit at the black sand beach since the island has a volcano on it which was really pretty. Then we went to dinner, had some real Filipino food and called it a night. It was an excellent day.
Wednesday, we were planning on heading back to Bohol with our return ticket for the ferry but since we didn’t get enough time on Tuesday as we thought, six of us decided to stay Wednesday as well to go hiking up the volcano. I ended up staying with Danny (of course) and then three other teachers I work with, Rachel, Christine, and Laura and also our friend Bill who works at a different school. The hike was probably the hardest I’ve ever done. It was about 3-4 hours to the top and the terrain made it very difficult. At a lot of points I wasn’t even really sure where the path was! The top had a really cool view even though it was harder to see down because there were clouds below us blocking the view. Every now and then we’d get a clear view and it was beautiful. The way down was even more difficult. I think I slipped at least 3 times as my knees were ready to give out. Luckily, the bottom of the volcano was also the location of one of the hot springs on the island. I’ve never swam in hot springs before but they were awesome! They had just made these natural pools of warm water and it felt so nice after hiking all day.
Before we started the hike, they told us we needed a permit to hike the volcano which is just another way to make money because obviously no one is waiting at the top to check this permit… Luckily we met a really nice guy who told us he would be our “guide” and said we definitely didn’t need to get a permit. He actually was behind most of us and laughed because he was more out of shape than us and was supposed to be “guiding” us where to go. He was really nice though and he didn’t even make us pay him to be our guide. We did find out through him that there was no ferry back to Bohol on Thursdays, which is when we were then planning to go back after deciding to stay an extra stay. After finding this out, we decided to go to a little island off of Camiguin for just the day to go to the beach. It’s only about a 15 minute tiny motor boat ride away. So, Wednesday night we went to the grocery store and got some snacks. I was most excited about the fact that they had Cheetos!! I of course had to get a bag…
Sunday (Merry Christmas!) we spent a whole day going around the island with the van driver we had met on Saturday. We went ziplining, did a tour of the chocolate hills, saw the “tarsiers” which are the smallest primates in the world or something like that, and went on a dinner cruise on the Loboc river. It was an excellent way to spend Christmas!
Monday, we were off to our next island called Camiguin. We had some misinformation and thought the ferry left at 9am so we thought we should get there about 7 am to get tickets… Unfortunately, the ferry didn’t leave until 1pm. The only good thing about having to wait for 5 hours is that it was down pouring so at least there wasn’t much else we could have been doing anyway! By the time we got to Camiguin it was raining there also, and it was dark. We had been planning on having more time to do stuff that day but we ended up just going straight to find a place to stay and that’s it. The place we stayed at on Camiguin was one of the coolest places I’ve ever seen. It was a treehouse but they were really into eco friendly stuff and going green and all that. It had tons of paintings on the ceilings and everything. I can’t even really describe it, it really didn’t even feel like we were in a tree because it was huge still but it was awesome!
Tuesday, we headed off to explore Camiguin. We found a driver to take us around the island in his, I don’t even know what to call it. It was a motorcycle or moped type thing but with this metal part over it and extra wheel so that people could sit in that and ride. It fit 6 of us. The pictures will explain it much more! Anyways, first we went to this Sunken Cemetery. It was basically this huge cross they had about 50 meters off the shore to show where it was, but as far as I could, I couldn’t really tell a difference between the rocks in the water and what would have been a tombstone. Oh well. After that, we went to a waterfall and swam in that. The water was really cold but it was really refreshing and it was at least warm when we got out! Our last stop was just to sit at the black sand beach since the island has a volcano on it which was really pretty. Then we went to dinner, had some real Filipino food and called it a night. It was an excellent day.
Wednesday, we were planning on heading back to Bohol with our return ticket for the ferry but since we didn’t get enough time on Tuesday as we thought, six of us decided to stay Wednesday as well to go hiking up the volcano. I ended up staying with Danny (of course) and then three other teachers I work with, Rachel, Christine, and Laura and also our friend Bill who works at a different school. The hike was probably the hardest I’ve ever done. It was about 3-4 hours to the top and the terrain made it very difficult. At a lot of points I wasn’t even really sure where the path was! The top had a really cool view even though it was harder to see down because there were clouds below us blocking the view. Every now and then we’d get a clear view and it was beautiful. The way down was even more difficult. I think I slipped at least 3 times as my knees were ready to give out. Luckily, the bottom of the volcano was also the location of one of the hot springs on the island. I’ve never swam in hot springs before but they were awesome! They had just made these natural pools of warm water and it felt so nice after hiking all day.
Before we started the hike, they told us we needed a permit to hike the volcano which is just another way to make money because obviously no one is waiting at the top to check this permit… Luckily we met a really nice guy who told us he would be our “guide” and said we definitely didn’t need to get a permit. He actually was behind most of us and laughed because he was more out of shape than us and was supposed to be “guiding” us where to go. He was really nice though and he didn’t even make us pay him to be our guide. We did find out through him that there was no ferry back to Bohol on Thursdays, which is when we were then planning to go back after deciding to stay an extra stay. After finding this out, we decided to go to a little island off of Camiguin for just the day to go to the beach. It’s only about a 15 minute tiny motor boat ride away. So, Wednesday night we went to the grocery store and got some snacks. I was most excited about the fact that they had Cheetos!! I of course had to get a bag…
Thursday morning, we headed off to Mantigue Island for the day. We spent the day reading, napping, swimming, and walking around the island. You had to pay to go there and then could only stay for about 4 hours which was the perfect amount of time. It was a nice relaxing day after hiking the previous day.
Friday we finally got back to Bohol on a ferry and headed to Panglao which we heard had really great beaches. I immediately didn’t like Panglao as much as Camiguin. It way way more touristy than Camiguin. This was our last night anyway so we just ate dinner at sat and hung out on the beach before going to bed. Danny and I woke up really early Saturday to try and watch the sunrise in the morning but it was pretty cloudy in the morning. It still had some really cool clouds and reflections on the ocean though. We got really lucky with the weather while we were there. It rained most of the nights but then it would be clear during the day.
Friday we finally got back to Bohol on a ferry and headed to Panglao which we heard had really great beaches. I immediately didn’t like Panglao as much as Camiguin. It way way more touristy than Camiguin. This was our last night anyway so we just ate dinner at sat and hung out on the beach before going to bed. Danny and I woke up really early Saturday to try and watch the sunrise in the morning but it was pretty cloudy in the morning. It still had some really cool clouds and reflections on the ocean though. We got really lucky with the weather while we were there. It rained most of the nights but then it would be clear during the day.
Saturday was pretty stressful because we had to back to Tagbilaran to get a ferry back to Cebu for our flight. Our flight wasn’t until 9pm but we talked to a place that sold ferry tickets in Panglao and they said the later ferries were all sold out, and the next one was at 11:30. It was about 10am at this point and it took about 45 minutes to get back to Bohol. We all rushed back to our rooms, packed, decided to pay for a taxi instead of waiting for a Jeepney ( a big bus type vehicle that just has two long benches in it, it’s how we got to Panglao). Luckily we made the 11:30 ferry, got back to Cebu about 2 and just went to the airport to wait until our flight. Danny, Rachel, and I were all on the same flight back but everyone else was leaving Sunday. Our new years was spent in the airport but it meant we got back to Korea early Sunday morning so we had time to settle before going back to work which was worth it to me! Not to mention the flight leaving Saturday was about 300 dollars cheaper than leaving Sunday!
Overall, I would recommend the Philippines to anyone. I wish I had more time to spend there to really learn more about their culture but the people were very kind and simple. There isn’t a lot of technology there and everything is done very plain; things aren’t complicated. Also, it wasn’t very expensive at all. Especially Camiguin which isn’t as tourist oriented as places like Panglao. It was a great vacation and I was even more thankful that Danny was able to visit and be there to share it with me.
Coming back to Korea was hard, not only with the shock in weather change but going back to school… that will have to be another night!
I was writing fast so I apologize in advance for the grammatical errors and just the poor structure in everything I just said. I think you’ll get the overall gist of it though… the Philippines is an amazing place and it was a wonderful vacation!
Hope everyone had a good Christmas!
I also forgot, I deleted my flickr account because you could only put up 200 free pictures, so I reuploaded them all, including the Philippines onto a new site... That link is:
http://s1068.photobucket.com/albums/u451/mfaricy2/
Hope that works, there aren't any captions anymore of what stuff it but that's going to be a task for a different day!
Overall, I would recommend the Philippines to anyone. I wish I had more time to spend there to really learn more about their culture but the people were very kind and simple. There isn’t a lot of technology there and everything is done very plain; things aren’t complicated. Also, it wasn’t very expensive at all. Especially Camiguin which isn’t as tourist oriented as places like Panglao. It was a great vacation and I was even more thankful that Danny was able to visit and be there to share it with me.
Coming back to Korea was hard, not only with the shock in weather change but going back to school… that will have to be another night!
I was writing fast so I apologize in advance for the grammatical errors and just the poor structure in everything I just said. I think you’ll get the overall gist of it though… the Philippines is an amazing place and it was a wonderful vacation!
Hope everyone had a good Christmas!
I also forgot, I deleted my flickr account because you could only put up 200 free pictures, so I reuploaded them all, including the Philippines onto a new site... That link is:
http://s1068.photobucket.com/albums/u451/mfaricy2/
Hope that works, there aren't any captions anymore of what stuff it but that's going to be a task for a different day!
Meghan, Sounds like a fantastic trip, glad Danny was there to share it with you. You guys will have to go back. Stay warm, Uncle Mike
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