Boracay Island

The boys had 3 weeks off for Chinese New Year vacation. They take this holiday pretty seriously!  We took advantage of the time to take a family trip. There was awhile during the vacation planning process that I was feeling too anxious to want to venture out and leave my fragile status quo of "handling everything." But I'm grateful I finally managed to get over it. 

We came up with the following destination criteria:

1. Relaxing and warm

2. Not too far away 

3. And English-speaking.

Our simple decision matrix led us to booking a trip to the Philippines, to the island of Boracay. 

[This island luckily wasn't affected much by the terrible tsunami the hit the eastern islands this past November. And it felt good to put some tourism dollars where it surely was needed!]

Boracay is known for its absolutely gorgeous white-sand beaches and stunning aqua-blue water! The truth in that claim cannot be overstated.

This was the first vacation that I've ever had in my life with the simple itinerary of relaxing on the beach...and of course playing in the sand, which all of the boys were super excited to do!

 

I think we would have finished satisfied with our 8 days of pure relaxing if that's all it had turned out to be. However, we got the unexpected pleasure of something better: new friends. We were able to meet and became friends with the family of one of Filipino members in our little English church congregation in Taiwan!

 

Knowing that we'd be close to where his family lived, we offered to carry some gifts for his family in our suitcases. We expected a simple hand-off and polite "hi-nice-to-meet-you-bye-bye," but instead they totally took us under their wing and filled our short stay with some very special experiences.

It started with a visit to hand off the gift bags. While the boys instantly bonded over the universal language of video games, Ben chased Theo around the lobby, and I got to chitchat with our church friend's sister-in-law and her mother. When I casually asked advise about the best way to get to the neighboring island the next day in order to attend church, offers to accompany us were given without hesitation. The kind mother, who's day off it was, met us at our hotel lobby at 6:30 a.m. and, figuratively, held our hand during the 4-hour journey to church (by motorcycle taxi, ferry, bus, and another motorcycle taxi). Then she kindly dropped us off for our church service and retrieved us an hour later. It was a good thing we had aimed for the 9 am sacrament meeting because we barely made the last one at 10:30!

Reconfirming the fact that the world truly is a small place, we ran into a missionary at church who went to Ben's same high school in his Idaho farming community with population of 11,000 and who's father had been one of Ben's teachers!  

After church, we headed off to the main city of Kalibo where its annual festival was going on in conjunction with its Saint's Day. Here we are piled into a  motorcycle taxi (the 5 of us, our friend's sister-in-law's mother and his brother who lived on this main island). 

 

Motorcycle taxi's are the main mode of transportation from what we saw in the Philippines. You can squeeze a lot of people in them :) We found we usually had to hunch over inside their cabs though because we're tall compared to Filipinos (a new experience for Ben!) 

  

On the way to the festival, we realized we could walk faster than ride, so we hopped off...

…and enjoyed looking around a bit more. Just like in Taiwan, we stuck out a lot and got a fair amount of attention.  

Fortunately, it was mostly positive and friendly.

This group of guys stopped Ben to ask to take photos of Theo. 

Creative wiring. 

What service!!

Lots of dancing and costumes representing different indigenous people (from what I understood)

I hope this guy only does this once a year! Notice Santo Nino right above Ryley's head. Lots of people were carrying around statues of Kalibo's patron saint and vendors along the road were selling clothes and accessories for the statues. 

This snake man was actually a bit scary. 

To get home, our friends found a van headed that way and we piled in. At one point, there were 21 of us stuffed in the van which was about as maxed out as physical space would allow. Luckily 3 of those people were really little (Theo and 2 other babies). 

The following evening, we got together with our new friends for a special Filipino dinner at the restaurant of the aunties. 

We particularly liked the sinigang soup. The halo-halo dessert was something interesting--an iced milk drink with all sorts of surprises in it: corn, gelatin balls, barley (I think), and a make-it-all-taste-good amount of sugar :) 

Julien riding home in VIP style. 

The following 2 days were spent with our awesome tour guide Johm (not a typo) who works at My Boracay Guide (the same company where our friend's sister-in-law  works). So grateful to continue to have our hand held and to avoid all the haggling over prices from the activity vendors on the beach. 

Johm took us on a land tour which included a hike up to the highest point on the island to get a 360 look. So grateful to have had the extra adult to make sure no child plummeted to their death!

Right after that unsettling climb, I can't believe I let my babies zip line into the jungle (after inspection of safety and soundness of equipment, of course). 

They absolutely loved it! Ben did too. I absolutely had no desire to join them, even though they reassured me I could strap Theo to me and go down no problem. 

We visited some animals,

and a gorgeous, more remote beach (with bigger waves). Notice how we tried the "don't get wet" instructions again. Will we never learn?!

The following day, we went on a "We Found Him" (Nemo, that is) glass-bottom boat ride and got to see some coral and fish. 

It was my kind of activity--I didn't have to get wet :) 

…although it was an option, and some were takers. 

On Thursday, it was Lyn's day off and Jumer didn't have to work until 1pm, so they took their boys out of school and we all went on an island hopping boat ride. 

Here's our boat.

Here's where we stopped to picnic.

Here are the amazing stuffed squid Jumer made for the occasion!

Here's Ben enjoying them ;) 

Here is the youngest sister of our Filipino friend in Taiwan who joined us that day too. 

Our last day on Boracay, as we were last-minute souvenir shopping, we happened to cross paths with Lilibeth again (who accompanied us to Kalibo that first Sunday)!

Here are the boys' "Oakley's " they got for their souvenirs. 

Then we traveled all through the night again and made it back to home-sweet-home in Taiwan :) 

Chinese Temple visit

After staying up late for fireworks on Chinese New Year Eve (a tradition we kind of skipped out on, except for the fireworks Ben and I saw from our bedroom window), the next tradition on Chinese New Year morning is to dawn all new clothes--shoes included--and go pray to ancestors and gods at the local temple. I didn't get my act together enough for everyone to have the new clothes to wear, but we rose bright and early and met up with Amy and her husband at the beautiful 300-yr-old temple near their home. 

I've been so shy about taking any photos at temples up until this point, not knowing what would be disrespectful, so it was wonderful to have an escort this time! Since she didn't know either, Amy called the temple in advance to ask about picture taking. The monk simply said to pray and ask the gods first if it was okay with them.

We assumed the same would go for a video:

 Amy loves this temple due to its ornate carvings and statues!

 

 

The incense smoke was a bit intense and both Ryley and Amy's eyes had troubles with it.

 

 

 On several walls and columns throughout the temple there were spots to have your name and addresses affixed if you wanted to ask the monks to pray for you. It's especially important for those who's fortune tells them it will be an unlucky year.

 

 Amy bought some ancestor money that we put in the big furnace to send up the ashes and smoke.

 

Right around the temple was a market with lots of vendors.  

It was so fun to see a little booth where these cute girls were selling punches in a similar game to what the boys had learned the night before. All three boys eagerly paid their NT$10 and with squeals of delight got cooler prizes than what their smaller game board had yielded :)  

 

Chinese New Year Dinner

Since we have no family in Taiwan to gather with for the traditional New Year's eve dinner, and since that's not exactly something to invite foreigners to crash, we knew the only solution to have the cultural experience was to host our own dinner.

Our tutor Amy and her Japanese husband were the guests of honor and provided the expertise at shaping what we needed to prepare. We then invited any other of Ben's fellow American expat families who were still in town as well as a couple other foreign friends.  

Here's a video Ryley made to show his old schoolmates: 

 Dessert in Taiwan is always an adventure. Tutor Amy helped us out by making a traditional dessert soup and explaining (with pictures, no less) exactly what was in it.

 Everyone tried it. There was a lot left over, however :) 

 Ben liked it more than he is letting on.

After the meal, Amy introduced the kids to a popular game kids play here at New Year's time:

Normally all the cousins form their own little community and play this game where a player has to pay the game owner a coin for the chance to punch out one of the boxes and get a prize.

 Having no other kids at the party, the adults humored the kids with donating a coin for a punch, and then usually donating the toy surprise back the boys. They thought it was the greatest game ever!

One more tradition not to be missed: the red envelope with money!

Tutor Amy covered this one as well (have I mentioned what an incredible person she is?!)

It's tradition to sleep with the "hong bao" (red envelope) on New Year's Eve night. Ryley said he learned it was to keep the monster "Nian" from attacking you. That's a good reason.