Filipino Vacation

Here is a blog about our spring break trip to the Philippines which happened about a week back. I wrote it while on the trip but haven’t posted it until now. Also check out the other site to see more pics. Http://homepage.mac.com/doublebassface22

It is now 7am on Wednesday March 29. I could not sleep any longer. I decided to walk out onto our balcony and check out our view for the last time before we leave today. We are in the Philippines, staying at a resort called Coco Beach. It is a beautiful secluded place set into a small valley on the island of Mindoro, just south of the main island of Luzon. Little bamboo huts with grass roofs are carefully set back behind the thick of the trees so as not to disturb too much of the natural environment. Our hut is at the very top of the hill so our balcony provides a wonderful view of the bay. It also allows you to see down on all of the other grass rooftops, which makes me feel like I am living in a community of islanders who have never seen a telephone, a white man, or a car and who probably assume that as far out as can be seen on the bay is the end of the world. Sadly though, I am typing on a computer and there is a fan pointed right on me. Also I am just about to go down the hill to order a delicious breakfast. There is a family that lives in the hut right below us. They are called our “service family”. It is kind of a neat idea and this is the first time I have seen it. They are kind of the groundskeepers and the room cleaners for so many huts in their area. That means they’re whole family lives here at the resort. The family is very nice and seem to be pretty happy. The father’s name is Lando and he is always watering plants. I think there are about four other “service families” living here.

The last three days we have done a lot of lounging poolside or out on the beach. It is a pretty nice existence but I do believe the reason I slept so terribly last night could be the fact that I have done little else this week. Gasp! Is it possible to have too much sleep? Pretty much the most effort I have exerted this week has been to eat mangoes and to ask for more when I have finished. The mangoes here are absolutely incredible. People always say that the Philippines have the best mangoes and they are right. They are so sweet and always ripe here. It would almost be enough for me to stay here except that Filipino food is not that bad but it is not that great. They don’t use much spice. A little curry but where are the chilis?


We arrived in Manila on Saturday afternoon. It was a three hour plane ride with a two hour lay-over in Singapore. Upon landing in Singapore Leah was immediately caned for having chewed gum sometime last week. We spent the evening hanging out in the Malate district which is kind of the young area, I guess. There really wasn’t a whole lot to do there but there was a bar called the Hobbit House, which lived up to its name. The doorman, the waiters and the bartender were all midgets. It is hard to believe that someone could make a business out of another person’s shortcomings, no pun intended. But all of the employees seemed to be happy and enjoying themselves.

The next morning we headed out for our island getaway. We stayed at Coco Beach until Wednesday when we had to head back into the grime and chaos of the city. However, we were looking forward to hour next few days. Sure we were going to a conference that should inspire us and make us want to fill every moment of our lives thinking about how we can better educate the world and blah blah blah…but the most exciting part was that the conference was being held at the Shangri La Hotel…and we had a reservation. Or so we thought. When we arrived they told us that we were supposed to arrive the day before so they gave our room out to someone else. We were tired so we figured we had probably just made some sort of error and it wasn’t our time to stay in this amazing hotel. Luckily they set us up at the Richmonde Hotel…notice Richmonde is spelled with an “e” at the end maybe to indicate its importance to the world. However, for the same price it was no Shangri La. Well long and strange story short we ended up being able to get a room the next day in the Shangri La and it was totally worth it. Plus the conference was pretty cool. There weren’t a whole lot of music seminars so I went to all of the environmental and humanity type seminars. I came away with a lot of things that I didn’t know about and an overwhelming sense of how am I ever going to get any of these kids to understand the importance of the earth? Remember we teach kids who still have a nanny by the time they are in 7th grade. They don’t have to lift a finger EVER but if on the off chance that they do, it is probably holding a video game controller. Plus Asia, and especially Jakarta, is not known for its ability to live as one with nature as most Americans have grown to think of our neighbors to the east.

Overall, we had a wonderful time in Manila. The conference was a lot of fun. We met some great people there and came back excited and re-energized for work again.


Here is a picture of me eating a delicious tempe burger that if I am lucky, our maid will make. They are super awesome and don't make me miss eating meat one bit. This night, Leah ditched me and I had to eat dinner alone. Notice the bottle of sambal next to the plate. It is getting to the point where I can't eat anything without it. Sambal is a chili sause that is sweet and spicy. I love it!