יומולדת למילי

^{לכבוד היומולדת שלי שטנו בסירה לכל מיני איים קטנים ליד אל נידו.}

^{היינו בלגונה סודית שנכנסים דרך חריץ באבנים ומגלים לגונה עם מים כחולים ונקיים. אחר כך עצרו לנו בלב הים ועשינו שנורקלים מדהימים!!!}

^{את ארוחת הצהריים אכלנו על החוף היינו צריכים לשחות כדי להגיע לארוחה.}

 החוף היה עם מים שקופים אבל רחוק רואים פס שקוף עבה, פס טורקיז דק ופס כחול כהה עבה.

^{ממש התרגשתי לכבוד היום הולדת .}

^{היום בבוקר קמתי והיו בלונים על הרצפה היו כרטיסי ברכה מהמשפחה ואפילו חבילה מהארץ מסבא וסבתא מלאה בממתקים שאנחנו אוהבים, עוגה ונרות.}

^{הדלקנו זיקוקים....}

היה מאוד מאוד מאוד מרגשששש

North Philippines – Part 1 – Baguio and Sagada

On arrival in the Philippines, we had decided to spend 10 days in the north, with only the first 3 days actually planned. 

So we headed straight from Manila airport and took a 9 hour bus journey to the northern town of Baguio, the plan being to climb a couple of the highest mountains in the Philippines – Mt Ultap and Mt Ulag.  As it happens, Guy seemed to get some kind of virus and so that put paid to those plans, we ended up spending a day in the city park, one day at the Botanic Gardens and the rest of the time trying to avoid the most polluted streets any of us had ever come across.  We definitely didn't experience the best of Baguio but even so, it wasn’t a city that really excited us.

From there, we took a 7 hour bus north to Sagada, a small mountain town famous for caves and hanging coffins.  The virus had passed onto Eyal who suffered much more than Guy so we decided to book a 4 bedroom AirBnB so that everyone could have their own room and Eyal could try and get some decent rest. We ended up staying 3 nights in Sagada and loved every minute. 

On arrival, the owner of the house met us with some perfect Ivrit and proceeded to tell us that she had lived in Israel for 7 years, in Savyon of all places, working for the owners of ‘Tempo’, one of the largest drink’s companies in Israel.  She was a brilliant host and after a month of hotel rooms, it was sheer luxury to have a few days in a proper family home.  Shoshi spent most of her time in the house with Eyal but actually enjoyed the rest.

I went out with Mili and Guy, first day we climbed Mt Ampacao, a 2,000m mountain towering over the village.  It was a great 4 hour hike, stunning views and we had a great guide called ‘Israel’.

On the second day, our guide Casper took all 5 of us to see the Hanging Coffins, which were the traditional burial method in the village for many hundreds of years.  After that, Shoshi and Eyal went back to rest and me, Mili and Guy went to Sumilag Cave and explored for a couple of hours.  It was an amazing cave complex, over 80 meters deep with bats, waterfalls and water pools.  Not an easy hike inside, especially when mostly in pitch black apart from the gas lantern we carried with us, but a great experience.

We loved Sagada, relaxing, calm, interesting, surrounded by beautiful landscapes and very friendly local people.

We then decided to head east to Banaue and Batad.  We found a great guesthouse in Banaue for the first night, then the following morning headed of for 1 night/ 2 days in Batad, home of the remote UNESCO rice terraces. The next couple of days were to prove the most surreal, interesting and beautiful of our travels so far and will be covered in Part 2…

Thailand - these are a few of our favourite things

It's now been a few days since we left Thailand for the Philippines and we've had time to get our thoughts together on an amazing month.

In the past month, we've:

• taken 4 flights
• been on 4 long distance train journeys
• take too many buses and tuk-tuks to count
• walked 212 km
• eaten our combined weight in pineapple, mango and Pad Thai
• travelled the length of this amazing country but only scratched the surface

Each of us decided to pick 5 things, good or bad, that we will remember from our time in Thailand.

Guy

1.      אגרוף תילאנדי- עשינו אימון עם כפפות

2.      המפל הלבן- כיף לטפס במפלים מבלי ליפול

3.      קקי של הפילים- הם לימדו אותנו לעשות נייר מקקי של פילים ואז אנחנו עשינו.

4.      לא אוהב שהאחים שלי מרביצים לי

5.      שייקים- אני אוהב שייקים: אבטיח, אננס, תפוזים, מנגו.

Eyal

1.      Street Food – very tasty, too much oil, my favourites were Pad Thai, spring rolls and Mango shake.

2.      The Sticky Waterfall – my favourite waterfall because we could climb up from the bottom and I love to climb.

3.      Monkeys – seeing a whole family of monkeys in Khao Sok jungle

4.      Elephant – we got to feed the elephant bananas and the elephant was free and not chained up like others we saw.

5.      Thai Boxing – it was great to punch and fight, especially with the big boxing gloves.

Mili

1.      Elephant – we saw a free elephant who was not treated badly and she was very pregnant, we fed her bananas and she ate bamboo.

2.      Elephant PooPoo – I learnt that we don’t need to cut down trees to make paper, we can use elephant poopoo and although I thought it would be איכסה, it was nice.

3.      Amazing month – we did so many things in 1 month, it went so quickly and was so much fun.

4.      Wat Ben Dan Temple – it was a huge temple and the nicest temple I saw in Thailand, with a huge Buddha lying down.

5.      Food – I really didn’t like the food at the beginning but now I love Pad Thai, spring rolls and fried rice.

Shoshi

1.      חופש- כמה שאני אוהבת את הרגשת החופש.

2.      טבע- המקום בו אני מרגישה הכי רגועה.

3.      קו סאק- כתבנו עליו הרבה. פשוט מקום מקסים.

4.      פאי- מקום שהייתי יכולה לעבור לגור בו לתקופה ארוכה.

5.      אוכל רחוב- טעים, פשוט, אמיתי ומהיר.

Darren

1.      Khao Sok – just an amazing place that will live long in the memory, especially our day on the lake and seeing a group of monkeys in the wild.

2.     Kids – Getting kids up for school in the morning can be tough enough so traveling 24/7, week after week is a challenge for anyone, especially a Scotsman who lacks patience.

3.      Pai – a magical place that we would happily have spent much more than our 6 days there.

4.      Cities – confirmation that we really don’t like cities and how that will affect our planning for the next 9 months.

5.      Beers - sharing 2 beers with my wife in 4 weeks wasn't my expected alcohol intake but it's certainly good for my health.

The Life of Pai

It's hard to explain how much we enjoyed our 6 days in Pai. We really didn't want to leave and if we hadn't had flights booked to the Philippines, then we would have stayed for at least another week or two (or perhaps the rest of our lives!).

It is one of the most relaxing, magical places I have ever visited.

A big part of that came from the brilliant guesthouse we stayed at, on the river, quiet, serene...if it can make our kids relaxed, then there really was something special about this place. Hopefully this isn't the last we experience of Pai, we might very well be back sometime over the coming months.

We spent our 6 days eating street food, visiting countless local beauty spots and doing some great activities - planting trees for conservation, meeting an elephant, hiking the Canyon, bamboo bridges, waterfalls, hot-springs and much more.

A special day was at  Conserve Natural Forests who are a truly ethical conservation project, where we planted trees and spent some time with their elephant, Kamee, who is 25 months pregnant.  Unlike almost all other elephant sanctuaries in Thailand, this place is truly about elephant rehabilitation and the kids got to understand why riding, washing and playing with elephants might seem like good fun but is actually contributing to elephant cruelty. Miguel, the owner who is part Scottish, part Mexican was real inspiration and made a killer Passion Fruit G+T!

We also got to spend some time with Alina, Leonid and their kids, a family from Israel that we first met in Chiang Mai and who are also on their own year-long travel adventure.  The kids had a great time playing with other kids, it is definitely something they are missing and hopefully we'll meet up with them again over the coming months.

On our final evening, after 27 days in Thailand without a Thai massage, Shoshi and I decided to treat ourselves. The kids sat outside the massage parlour for an hour, like Glaswegian kids sitting outside the pub waiting for their Dad.  I had hoped to get a massage from the Thai version of Gal Gadot but it turned out to be more like her Grandma and Shoshi has to make do with her Grandma's best friend. Not since Tyson v Spinks has someone received such a beating but, as they say, no pain, no gain and we awoke the next day feeling 20 years younger.

In keeping with the peace and quiet of Pai, we'll just let the photos tell the rest of the story.