Day 1
So when Bob invited us to his wedding we both looked at each other and said let’s do it, so we are, When we travel it never starts well we are usually so tired from the weeks leading up to leaving we end up just throwing things in a bag at the last minute and racing out the door, nothing has changed, 9 o’clock the night before we left I was at my parents place with all the mail that needed posting. But we make it we always do, up and at it at 5.00am to get to the Rocky airport on time the first day was a blur way to much food and a good on time run through to Hong Kong, we had booked the airport motel
The Marriott, where so clever I have died and gone to heaven beautiful room, beautiful bed and I could live in the bathroom marble from top to bottom, and all the necessity for life like showers caps to put over your camera cause it’s raining, and we hadn’t had enough food so at 10pm Ed took me to dinner, I am so lucky, more food, Padi Thai for me and pizza for Ed he’s such a aussie. Back at the room and Ed is standing there with a big grin on his face he reckons they knew you where coming with a coffee plunger and beans in his hand, I grinned morning looks fine now,
Had my padi thai a long hot shower, in my new in love with bathroom and now I have coffee life is good and so is the bed.
Day 2
Up at sunrise looking out the window Hong Kong looks real pretty, I might make me some coffee, and then nick downstairs, cause there is free Internet in the lounge got keep up with facebook and emails you know, Ed is still getting up takes him forever, We decide to catch the train, which is a good idea till you need a ticket, that is always a problem, the little man at the train station must have been killing himself laughing looking at us while we tried to get a ticket out of a machine written in Chinese, never works for me and I can’t find the english button we give up and ask the little dude how to get a ticket and guess what! he sells them, he could have mentioned that we where the only people at the whole station not like he couldn't’t see us, we walked off giggling to each other, cause then we couldn't’t get the card to work, we really wanted to put our card in the machine not just scan it, so little dude finally got up and started yelling about the yellow box, I could see the yellow box it is right there on top of the walk way but nowhere to put the card , turns out you just wave it over the top, off we went poor little man, I got to tell you the train is wonderful, clean and fast, we head to Hong Kong Island for the day, I find a Starbucks, Ed grabs breakfast, and then it rains, while walking around we find out it is maids day off and there all out shopping so we shopped with them this is crazy there is thousands of them but we are a foot taller so at least we can see where we are going it is like a sea of maids, funny funny stuff, today we catch the plane to Cebu, turns out that is where all the maids come from. Cebu is crazy I can hardly wait to get out there with my camera, it’s going to be fun, a bit like Bali 30 years ago,
So when Bob invited us to his wedding we both looked at each other and said let’s do it, so we are, When we travel it never starts well we are usually so tired from the weeks leading up to leaving we end up just throwing things in a bag at the last minute and racing out the door, nothing has changed, 9 o’clock the night before we left I was at my parents place with all the mail that needed posting. But we make it we always do, up and at it at 5.00am to get to the Rocky airport on time the first day was a blur way to much food and a good on time run through to Hong Kong, we had booked the airport motel
The Marriott, where so clever I have died and gone to heaven beautiful room, beautiful bed and I could live in the bathroom marble from top to bottom, and all the necessity for life like showers caps to put over your camera cause it’s raining, and we hadn’t had enough food so at 10pm Ed took me to dinner, I am so lucky, more food, Padi Thai for me and pizza for Ed he’s such a aussie. Back at the room and Ed is standing there with a big grin on his face he reckons they knew you where coming with a coffee plunger and beans in his hand, I grinned morning looks fine now,
Had my padi thai a long hot shower, in my new in love with bathroom and now I have coffee life is good and so is the bed.
Day 2
Up at sunrise looking out the window Hong Kong looks real pretty, I might make me some coffee, and then nick downstairs, cause there is free Internet in the lounge got keep up with facebook and emails you know, Ed is still getting up takes him forever, We decide to catch the train, which is a good idea till you need a ticket, that is always a problem, the little man at the train station must have been killing himself laughing looking at us while we tried to get a ticket out of a machine written in Chinese, never works for me and I can’t find the english button we give up and ask the little dude how to get a ticket and guess what! he sells them, he could have mentioned that we where the only people at the whole station not like he couldn't’t see us, we walked off giggling to each other, cause then we couldn't’t get the card to work, we really wanted to put our card in the machine not just scan it, so little dude finally got up and started yelling about the yellow box, I could see the yellow box it is right there on top of the walk way but nowhere to put the card , turns out you just wave it over the top, off we went poor little man, I got to tell you the train is wonderful, clean and fast, we head to Hong Kong Island for the day, I find a Starbucks, Ed grabs breakfast, and then it rains, while walking around we find out it is maids day off and there all out shopping so we shopped with them this is crazy there is thousands of them but we are a foot taller so at least we can see where we are going it is like a sea of maids, funny funny stuff, today we catch the plane to Cebu, turns out that is where all the maids come from. Cebu is crazy I can hardly wait to get out there with my camera, it’s going to be fun, a bit like Bali 30 years ago,
Day 3 and 4
Shopping today don’t ask me why but we shopped all day, I did get a new pair of shoes, and a couple of dvd’s, while waiting for the shuttle bus I sat out front on the foot path and took some shots of the people on transport, not much in the way of road rules here I got to tell you, big waves from the locals as they drive into town,
5.30pm and off to a bridal shower with me for a massage and facial with 12 other girls and a
2 very large pizzas biggest things I have every seen,
Day 4
The girls are going shopping downtown today which from what I can gather is a lot different to uptown, take out your earrings they will rip them out, take off all jewellery be very careful of your camera, and take your phone out of your pocket and put in in your bag, this should be an experience, and it was, left the camera at home that would be like someone taking my left arm, probably should have taken it but OH well, the two local girls looked after me well, kept me safe, we walked through food stalls, clothes stalls any number of dvd and phone shops, talked to a man selling a monkey for about 20 aussie dollars, spent a little got a lot, The boys are doing their bucks party tonight heading out to a local bar, I am not even game to ask some things are best not known as long as they end up back here before sunrise, So I am doing dinner by myself it is a huge buffet to much food is what it is breakfast lunch and dinner, I will be the size of two houses by the time we get home, anyway had diiner and then meet Mohamed, a local lad that is studying law and selling units to make a living, we talked for about 2 hours while we played on the net, things are not good in this country, the average wage is $5 aussie per day for 8 hours, the cost of living is cheap the quality of living is poor, this lads biggest dream is to go to Hong Kong for a weekend, the cost for this is about $500 aussie and that includes everything for his weekend, not to much to ask, his mate is studying nursing so he can move to Australia and be a nurse, we have a shortage he has been told, he nearly fell over when I told him the wages for a nurse in australia, but that our cost of living is much higher, Ed came home about 11pm with stories that had me giggling crazy night at drag queen girly bar with very drunk aussie boys, why do they do this to themselves the night before they get married.
Day 5
It's the wedding day this will be the best day, about 1pm I find out me and Ed are now in the bridal party and need to to be there by 3.00pm for a practice run, this is not like Australia where you all just walk down the isle this is called a bridal march and there is about 15 people involved, then I got to get my hair and makeup done, that was fun I have spent years watching and photographing this and now it's my turn bit embarrassing I have to tell you cause I am so not a hair and makeup girl, anyway I am just going with the flow at this time, spent the afternoon watching the photographers at work and have some new ideas. The wedding was amazing most enjoyable wedding I have ever been to it was like a big festival of games and fun loved it and so glad we came.
Diving for sea cucumbers
Local Taxi
Local village on Bohol lsland
Smallest monkey in the world
Chocolate Hills
Bohol backpackers,
So today we took oursleves on a tour,to the town of Carcar, works out for our 5 hour tour we get our own driver and tour guide and lunch as well. We headed down the coast learnt all about the the old building, drank some coconut wine,went for a ride on a water buffalo or carabao, and a three tricycle, also Ed help weave a basketand weaving got to take it home, finally we got to go to the markets they where both wet and dry markets with whole roasted baby pig,fish, chicken and meat, it was wonderful,We cant go to the markets in Cebu the locals are telling us they are not safe,someone will put a knife through us to take our camera, so we are going north tommorrow to a local fishing village and another market,
Well we had the best tour guide so we booked her for today, Being me I have reorganised to whole tour guide to take me to the best spots for longer like the local fishing village to watch the boat unload and two markets,We spent 5 hours snapping away today we where ready with a pocket of coins we had people lining up to get photos taken, other where just happy to give a smile and wave to take photos the kids where running after "hey mrs you take my photo" there such are happy people, cause this is a poor country make you appreciate what we have in Australia,
