When we found out that we were going to live in the Philippines for a couple of years we wanted family and friends to come visit us.  And our first guest was my brother (that our children call Rah Rah) who arrived December 3 and stayed with us until January 10.  He got a first hand experience to figuring out how to live in  the Philippines with us since we were still very new to living here.  He was with us while we were living in our serviced apartments and then helped us move into our condo.  Rah Rah has traveled with us through Europe and also done his own traveling with friends through Europe, but this was his first time in Asia and in a developing country.  I think he enjoyed his time in Asia and we all LOVED having him visit us.

Ayala Triangle where there was a music and light show for the month of December

We had a lot of fun taking photos at two different 3D art places

Attending Matt’s End of the Year work party at Hotel Manila

Day trip to People’s Palace…or Sponge Bob’s house since he lives in a pineapple

Day trip to Taal Volcano in Tagaytay

Entrance of the Chinese Garden at Rizal Park

Day visit to the American Cemetery in Manila

The Philippines love to celebrate Christmas…even at work with crazy head pieces

Robbie got to meet our cousins from the Philippines for the first time

We went to Cambodia together and Robbie carried Mason for most of the trip

Fish massage in Cambodia…it was nice after walking around all of the temples

We all got a foot massage and Robbie’s lady asked him to take off his pants so she could massage his calves…it was awkward, but gave us all a good life.

Enjoying the view of Siquijor from our resort (Firefly Cove)

Exploring a Tree House Lodge on Siquijor…it was the Ultimate Tree House

Last night with Robbie – Midget Boxing

Last dinner with Robbie was at the Hobbit House…since we did see the movie “The Hobbit”

Using Robbie’s iPod was Mason’s favorite pastime

Christmas starts in September in the Philippines.  They decorate all during the “BER” months (SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER, DecemBER) and the decorations are pretty nice… it’s almost ridiculous how beautiful the Christmas decorations are when you remember that the Philippines is a developing country!  And during the second week of January they start to take down the decorations.  So, for a third of the year Christmas is “celebrated” in the Philippines with music and decorations!

There are over a million people who live in downtown Manila.  During December that number increases as oversea workers return to the Philippines for the holidays.  And then the number decreases as all of the Manila residents and oversea workers return home to their provinces for the holidays.  We decided to go to “our province” as well for Christmas…that being Siquijor island where my grandfather left around 1925 to go work on a sugar cane plantation in Hawaii.  However, he also left a wife and 2 children in Siquijor, whose descendants we recently made contact with.

We spent 5 days on the island with family.  We rented a car and our cousin drove us around.  There were no presents, no Christmas trees, not even cold weather.  But, we all had a wonderful time enjoying the company of our family and seeing the beauty of the land.  God must really love us to have blessed us with wonderful family members.

Enjoying a picnic prepared by our cousins and spending time at the beach

Tia and Mason getting ready to jump off the water slide. Water doesn’t run down the slide unless you pay extra for it…and after Typhoon Pablo many areas of this water park got destroyed

The kids loved playing on the beach, exploring the area and finding sea shells

Village volleyball tournament held at least yearly. (Cousin Judith Grado #18)

While the village volleyball game was going on, our kids were introducing the local kids to an iPad. Not sure if more people were watching the volleyball game or the kids with the iPad.

Cambugahay Falls – We had a rope swing to use and swam in the water…we all loved being here.

Butterfly Sanctuary – Sadly Typhoon Pablo destroyed a good portion of this…and we discovered that there is a local fee “donation” and a foreign fee “donation”.

Capilay Springs – swimming and relaxing … parts of this area was also damaged by Typhoon Pablo.

Enchanted Tree – 400 year old Balete tree.

Cantabon Cave – Exploring where there really were not any rules (swimming and breaking off a stalactite for a souvenir) and our cousin carried Mason the whole time.

Matt and Robbie watched this cockfighting where our cousin had a rooster competing. That rooster lost and I’m sure ended up as dinner for someone.

Our cousin’s finance invited us to his village disco (a yearly celebration) where ages ranged from toddlers to elderly.

Christmas dinner at our cousin’s house warming party. Family was put into a separate room while neighbors ate in the living room area. There was also a “brown out” during dinner so we ate by candle light.

We spent time doing family history. Our cousin would point out a relative while driving who was sitting on the side of the road and we would pull over and Tia would interview them. This old lady is my grandfather’s niece.

Our cousins introduced us to Julie’s Bakeshop and we love it. When our ferry boat got cancelled to leave the island, we hung out here to figure out what to do since we had plane tickets to reschedule.

We were able to leave Siquijor the next morning at 5am and some cousins went back to Dumaguete with us and made sure we got to the airport.

Siquijor isn’t a tourist trap but more of a hidden treasure. We look forward to visiting again and spending more time with family and enjoying the beauty of the island.

More Siquijor photos here.

We knew we wanted to spend Christmas with our extended family in Siquijor (the island that my grandfather is from).  The first time we visited Siquijor we flew to Bohol and took a 3 hour ferry to reach the island of Siquijor.  This time we decided to fly to Dumaguete so our ferry ride would only be around an hour!  An added bonus is that we have a cousin that is living with her daughter in Dumaguete.  So we made arrangements to stay a couple of nights at the Pura Vida resort and meet up with our cousins before taking the ferry to Siquijor.

Bamboo huts that were our rooms at Pura Vida

Sleeping under mosquito nets. Reminded me of mission in El Salvador!

If there is a beach, our kids want to be buried

Farley Totem Pole

Chicken fighting in the pool

Candle light dinner on the beach

Walking from our resort to the road to catch a “bus” to take into the city

First time for all of us to ride a Jeepney

Mason found a “Bat Mobile” at a “county fair” type place

Kalani (age 8) with her new found cousin Kennybie (age 13) on a “Ferris Wheel” at the fair

All of the family that happened to be at the mall in Dumaguete

We were all born within 4 months of each other…all cousins

Aftermath of Typhoon Pablo that came through about a month before…this boat isn’t going anywhere

More photos of Dumaguete here.

When we found out that we were moving to the Philippines, many people told us to take advantage of living in that part of the world by traveling to “nearby” countries.  Every person that has been to Cambodia told us that out of all the Asian countries they visited, Cambodia was their favorite.  I must agree that it was pretty amazing.  However no one told us how HOT it would be, and we even traveled in December when it was cooler than other times of the year!

We booked a vacation package through HAS Travel and we were very happy with what we received.  They were there to pick us up at the airport in an air conditioned van.  All of our dinner and lunch reservations were made through them, they paid for any fees, and they were always on time and very friendly.  We only stayed in Cambodia for 3 days/2 nights, but we were able to see some amazing sites.  We visited at least 6 temples, bargain shopped at the local markets for souvenirs, ate a variety of food, stayed at a 5 star hotel, and didn’t kill each other.  Overall I would say it was a successful vacation!

Sokha Angkor Hotel pool

Cambodian roads were clean…at least the areas that they tourist see

Our fabulous tour guide giving us information about the temples…notice the long sleeve shirt, pants, scarf and hat to protect from the sun and getting darker skin

Cambodian schools are held in 2 sessions. A morning and afternoon session with each session lasting 4 hours. This school was taught by monks

Palm Sugar. They take the natural sugar from the palm tree fruit and boil it down and then pour them into these molds to sell.

Super steep stairs were pretty common in the temples

Amazing stone sculptures seen throughout the temples

Amazing detail. And this was just one small area of the Banteay Srei Temple

Stone warriors on a bridge leading into the 12th century city of Angkor Thom.

Inside of a functioning pagoda…It was pretty amazing with the art work all over

Angkor Wat (one of the Wonders of the World)

Banyon Temple is known as the “Face temple” with Buddha faces all over

Family photo at the Banyon Temple with locals

Ta Prohm Temple is referred to as “The Tomb Raider Temple” Angelina Jolie stood in this very spot (so they say)

Kalani and Robbie got to see the Banyon Temple from the back of an elephant.

Robbie bought these cool wooden puzzles that entertained Mason

We paid the $2 to have fish eat our dead skin cells for 30 minutes. It tickles a lot!

Kalani got her first massage in Cambodia and loved it.

This lady really ran through the night market after Mason. Glad so many ladies think our 3 year old is cute, but it is kind of creepy too.

The kids were troopers to see the temples, even in the middle of the day…but it sure was hot

More photos of our Cambodian vacation here.

Kalani went to a “real” school for the first time last week.  We have been homeschooling her for the past 3 years, but with our move to the Philippines we decided to enroll her in the International School of Manila or ISM as it is referred.  So far things have worked out well.  This “night owl” daughter of ours that stays up until midnight in the states and doesn’t wake up until 9am, is now waking up before 6am and starting school by 7:30am!

We started the enrollment process in August since there is a limited amount of space available.  The class sizes are about 23 students.  In the 3rd grade, there are 6 classes.  Kalani didn’t start school right when we arrived since the school was on a week long holiday.  Then she needed to take an assessment test and have an interview with the elementary counselor.  The assessment test was done on a computer, and I was told it would take 90 minutes to complete.  Kalani finished it is 45 minutes and I was told she did well  (not sure what her score was, but it doesn’t really matter).  She took the test one day, interview the following day, then gave the teacher a full day to prepare for a new student and finally she had her first day of school on Friday, November 9, 2012

Elementary School playground/courtyard

She wears some kind of uniform everyday for school…it is nice not to fight over what she wears.  There are some options.  There is a PE uniform that she has to wear on the 3 days that she has PE. (and she could wear the PE uniform everyday if she wanted to AND if we let her)  Then she can choose from 4 different color polo shirts, and shorts, capris or skorts to wear.

Happy and ready for the first day of school

On the first day of school she woke up at 5:30am and ate breakfast at 6am.  (we are still living in the serviced apartments and breakfast starts at 6am)  Traffic is bad in Manila.  The school is only 3 miles away from where we are staying.  But, because of traffic it takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes to get to her school.  So we leave at 6:30-6:45am to make sure she is at school by 7:30am.  I was so happy to pick her up at 2:20pm and to see a big smile on her face!

Big smile after her first day of school

Kalani asked me if I was going to homeschool her again when we return to the states.  I said that I would like to continue to homeschool her if that is what she wanted.  She said, “yes” that she wanted to be homeschooled again when we returned.  I said that was fine, and then followed up by asking if she was happy to be attending ISM.  She said yes, that she is enjoying herself by going to school.  Then I asked if she wanted to homeschool because she gets to sleep in…again she said yes!