Monday, April 23, 2012

Other things from Katherine's visit

 Katherine helped us make chocolate chip banana bread and I actually made it into a baking picture with Ashley.


Thank you again-cousin Ian-for teaching Ashley to make such great funny faces!  She demonstrates them a lot for us!
 We visited the Coconut Palace-official residence of the Vice-President of the Philippines.  We think he may have even been there the day that we visited-security was very tight-our driver had to argue and explain repeatedly that we had an appt. for a tour before they would allow us to go through the gates.  We also weren't allowed to see the fancy dining room with an enormous coconut inlaid table because the room was in use!
 The view of Manila Bay from behind the palace-before renovations were begun, you could rent this patio for wedding receptions.
 Doesn't every house need a coconut lamp?
 Pretty floor and table designs-we were even told how many pieces were inlaid in the tables and how much of the work was done by children-I don't think mine would have the patience!
 The Master bedroom suite-a beautiful ornately carved bed.

 Out of the porch-overlooking the bay
 in front of this Vice Presidential seal in the front lobby
 The boys with a statue outside the front door
 A native Philippine deer that was tied to a tree out front-I believe Katherine was the one or maybe Greg (that night when he heard about it) suggested that maybe it was the Vice President's pet deer?????
 The outside of the palace


Other funny things Katherine saw while she was here-
 People selling all kinds of things (in this case wash cloths, often snacks, drinks, brooms, toys, anything really) in the middle of the road when traffic is stopped
 Katherine snuck up the exit for the roller coaster and took this picture before they left for the ride-this roller coaster was one of the first things Greg took us to do our first day in Manila-I was so tired and out of it that I didn't take my camera that time!
 Katherine saw these at the mall and the kids were happy to pose behind them for her!



 Katherine took these pictures at the grocery store and had plans to take more until one of the security guards came over and told her that she wasn't allowed to take pictures of the food.

She had tasted durian fruit in Singapore on a mission trip in college and told me how gross it was-she was very amused to find it in ice cream here!
 Here is the actual fruit-looks like you would need an ax to open it!
 This is about half an aisle full of scented baby oil and baby cologne-not something we had in SC grocery stores.
 This was the sign that we laughed at the most and were the most grossed out by on my first trip through this grocery store-I have not ever bought any bottled fish!
 Cheese is pricey here (as are all dairy products) because it usually has to be shipped in from somewhere.  It's an island and cows grazing take up fields where rice could be grown instead.  However I find it funny some of the things that are cheese flavored-there is ice cream that is cheese flavored too.

 A couple of restaurants she saw-Chow King is a Chinese fast food place that is in most malls and Jollibee is a Philippine version of McDonalds.

Katherine thought she had come up with a brilliant business idea since nowhere in while we were there could you buy actual chocolate hills to eat-until we saw these at the airport while we were waiting a VERY long time to fly back-sorry your business idea had already been done.


Saturday, April 21, 2012

Katherine's pictures from Bohol

I know that it is hard to believe that there is anything I haven't posted about our 5 days in Bohol but there really is more.

 I laughed when we pulled up and saw the airport-it makes the Cayman Islands one look large and our Greenville airport enormous.
 This was the plane we flew from Manila to Bohol
 Greg, the kids, and I are the group on the right walking to the arrivals area.

 I had Katherine take these pictures of their emergency station
 This is a lovely picture of she and Ryan
 Scuba diving may have very weird looking attire but the diving in Bohol was amazing-visibility was terrific.  We saw tons of different types of fish, about 5 different kinds of sea stars, eels, multiple kinds or sponges and corals, and on our last dive 5 sea turtles about the size of dinner plates and then one enormous one sitting on the bottom that we swam up behind and touched his shell and then we watched him swim away-one of the coolest things I have ever seen diving!
 A cute girl and her handsome Daddy!
 It's a lot easier to get a good picture of one person in front of the chocolate hills than of 5!

 We ate ice cream when we climbed down all the steps!
A funny picture of the 5 of us (kids all in their new shirts from Bohol) together on the rear seat of the bus that drove us from the plane to the terminal upon our return to Manila. 

One funny story from the morning that we left for Bohol-I went in to wake up Ryan and he balled up under his covers and hid under his pillow and really didn't want to wake up-it was around 5.  Then I went to Ashley's room and with just a little prodding she was awake enough to ask me "is the airplane here?"  I guess we hadn't explained that we would have to go to the airport to get on the plane-she expected to find it pulled up on our street out in front of the house! 

More pictures from Bohol

These are the Chocolate Hills because they are somewhat brown during the dry season-we had lots of laughs about being sad that you couldn't eat the chocolate hills but keep watching-we found a way later on!
The Chocolate Hills form a rolling terrain of haycock hills – mounds of a generally conical and almost symmetrical shape.[5] Estimated to be from 1,268 to about 1,776 individual mounds, these cone-shaped or dome-shaped hills are actually made of grass-covered limestone. The domes vary in sizes from 30 to 50 metres (98 to 160 ft) high with the largest being 120 metres (390 ft) in height. Bohol's "main attraction", these unique mound-shaped hills are scattered by the hundreds throughout the towns of Carmen, Batuan and Sagbayan in Bohol.[6]
During the dry season, the grass-covered hills dry up and turn chocolate brown. This transforms the area into seemingly endless rows of "chocolate kisses". The branded confection is the inspiration behind the name, Chocolate Hills.  Info copied from wikipedia
Not everyone wanted to have a family picture made as we walked up the 214 steps to the top viewing platform!  Scott counted on the way up and again on the way down and said there were only 180 or 190 something steps.


Going Down!

This is what Ashley did most of the 2 hour ride home-I was in the back of the van with the boys reading The Last Battle-we are finally finishing the Narnia series-it has been great!
More sites on the van ride home



I took these 2 for my friend Stan who is a builder-I laughed when I saw this posted sign with the building permit number on it!  Different standards than in the US

Here is the entrance sign to our resort.