A Journey is Like a Marriage.....

......the certain way to be wrong is to think you control it (John Steinbeck).

Our introduction to Taiwan has gone very well. We flew into Taipei from the Philippines and were very impressed with the capital city, which is located at the north end of the island country. It is very clean with an excellent Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system throughout the city, including a line to the international airport. It is well used and has resulted in fewer vehicles on the roads making life more pleasant when walking around. There are lovely parks spread around the city making for nice rest stops while wandering about. Highlights for us included the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (tribute to a former leader), the view from Taipei 101 (world's tallest building until 2010), the National Palace Museum (artifacts from China) and a short climb to the top of Elephant Mountain (city views). The winter temperatures are in the low 20's but we seem to be in the tiny minority wearing shorts and short-sleeves, while the locals have sweaters or coats on. Another interesting thing we discovered.......Taipei and other cities have a free bi-monthly lottery where all you have to do is drop off your sales receipts in special boxes throughout the city. It was introduced by the government to encourage legal tax reporting by providing consumers with an incentive to shop at stores that legally report their sales. It seems like a brilliant idea. We have been leaving our receipts with the people who clean our rooms and we get big smiles every time we do.

Following Taipei, we had planned to travel to the scenic Taroko Gorge area, near Hualien along the east coast, and to then continue our trip in a clockwise direction around the island. However, Chinese New Year....nightly fireworks everywhere we have been.....has brought a lot of Asian tourists to the country and every train to Hualien that we tried to book for several days (10-15 trains each day) was already sold out. Being flexible travellers, we opted for the high speed train that took us to Kaohsiung (358 km's in 1.5 hours including 4 stops along the way), near the south end of the country, and then took an express bus from there to Kenting NP at the very south end. We will now work our way slowly back up the west side of the island and travel to Hualien near the end of our time here. And remember, if Plan A doesn't work, the alphabet has 25 more letters!

In Kenting we stayed at a lovely B&B, run by a lively, non-English speaking hostess and her family. It was only a 2 minute walk to the main street but far enough removed to block the noise from the large crowds attending the entertaining Night Market which stretched for 2 km's along Kenting Street every evening. We walked along different sections every night.....which was necessary to get anywhere in Kenting.....and observed new unusual offerings each time. Beyond some basics we have come to know (squid on a stick, pork belly, fried quail eggs, bubble tea) there were others like deep-fried milk, smelly tofu and some additional ones we did not even want to ask about. Everything we tried was good though, with no ill effects later, so that was encouragement to continue with the local offerings. The Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium turned out to be an excellent side trip. It was well laid out directionally with some interactive displays, underwater tunnels (where sleepovers were allowed), and scheduled demonstrations through the day. They even tested everyone's temperature at the entrance (forehead scan) in an attempt to detect any potential coronavirus suspects. We spent a nice day at Little Bay Beach, renting lounge chairs and relaxing. Another day we made our way to Eloubi Park and it's famous, well-protected lighthouse (surviving several attacks) which was located at the southernmost point in Taiwan. The craggy shore rocks reflected the coral reef that used to exist when sea levels were higher.

Today we took the express bus back to Kaohsiung where we will spend 2 days before heading further north along the coast.

Entrance to the impressive Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Park. Each side of the park hosted the National Theatre and Concert Hall, with the Memorial Hall in view at the back.

A closer view of the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, built for the popular, former leader of Taiwan. The top of the hall housed a massive bronze statue of the President, where a Changing of the Guards took place very hour, with a Museum below where we learned about the history of Taiwan and it's 'liberal' leader.

This was one of the amazing artifacts within the National Palace Museum. Carved from one piece of ivory.....I know, they shouldn't be killing animals for their horns......there were 13 more balls inside of this one,as it was explained listening to our helpful audio-phones. Many of these Chinese artifacts were sent over to Taiwan for safety during the Chinese - Japan wars (which later merged into WWII)., where they are now permanently preserved.

The peaceful Zhishan Garden next to the National Palace Museum, where we wandered through after spending time in the museum.

The 508 metre tall Taipei 101, taken from a viewpoint on Elephant Mountain (that most of us would call a hill, especially when buildings in clear view are taller!). There were 600 steps on the trail to the top, with benches placed along the way for those that needed to stop for a rest.

I took this picture from the outdoor Observation Deck on the 91st floor. The Guinness World Record breaking fastest passenger elevator made it up to the 89th floor indoor Observation Deck in 37 seconds on our trip. The cabin is pressurized to avoid motion sickness during the ride. The skyscraper also claims to be earthquake proof by utilizing a massive internal damper (visible for visitors) that controls swaying.....but my better half didn't want to stick around long enough to test the theory. Later on, we found out that 34% of Taiwan's smog blows in from China.....not much they can do about that.

The Little Bay Beach in Kenting near the southern end of Taiwan. We found a quieter spot further down the beach where we secured one of the few loungers that were available (for those that wanted to spend some extra money!).

Walking through one of several underwater tunnels at the Aquarium. 

There was a separate building, named Waters of the World, which featured marine life from other places in the world. We happened to be there at feeding time and noticed a second person tracking the penguins to make sure they were all eating their fair share and remaining healthy. It brought back good memories for us from our Antarctica trip.

Some very colourful jellyfish, quite different from the translucent ones we have encountered.

The Kenting Night Market which takes over the outside lanes for temporary stalls and people traffic every evening. The small town of 30,000 people came alive at night with tourists from all the neighbouring towns joining in on the action.

Squid on a stick. Your order was cooked on the BBQ and then cut into small bite-size pieces which were then put into a paper cup for consumption while continuing with your walk along the street. I will try this before we leave the coast but that evening I opted for Scallops on a Stick which were large, tender and delicious.

One Beat, One Love, One World

While we left Kalibo feeling unfulfilled by the portion of the Ati-Atihan Festival that we attended, our next Philippine stop in Cebu delivered the goods with the wind-up of the Sinulog Festival. Both festivals celebrated Santo Nino (baby Jesus)......reflecting a "miracle inducing" Santo Nino gift that Ferdinand Magellan presented to the King and his wife when he arrived in 1521......but Cebu City took it to another level. We were around for the final 5 days of Sinulog and there were events scheduled every day and night, usually capped off with fireworks. The 2020 theme, "One Beat, One Love, One World" is a vision we should all strive for. Sunday was the final day of the festival, featuring the Grand Parade and it started at 9 am and didn't finish until 10 pm.....13 hours! It was supposed to finish at 7 pm but the Philippines president, Duterte, flew in this year for the parade, causing a 3 hour delay when his plane was late arriving but not before the roadway security had already been established for him, which halted the parade as well. No one seemed that disturbed with the delay but perhaps that is why he decided on arrival to announce that he would find the money to fund a much needed metro train system for the bumper to bumper traffic. Fortunately for us, we paid for shaded seats at the grandstand so that we could watch both the parade and the 24 dance groups from many Philippine islands who put on a colourful, costumed dance performance that was being judged for prize money. We lasted until 4 pm, catching 21 of the dance groups, and fortuitously missed the 3 hour delay which started shortly after.......which we found out about the next day! We weren't as lucky however, finding a quick route back to our hotel, 2 km's away. We tried many different streets away from the parade route but they were all congested with festival street parties and people trying to get  to the parade or away from it. Apparently there were over 2 million people in the streets on Sunday, almost 3 times the actual population. We not only had to weave our way through the massive crowds but also to be on the lookout for the face and arm paint that was freely being shared amongst the party participants. It was all fun though and we managed to escape with only a few minor 'tattoos', even though we received a few playful looks along the way.

The festival turned out to be the highlight of our time in the Philippines. "Lechon", roasted suckling pig, became a favourite dinner order for us as well. We decided to skip our final planned stop in Manila and head directly to Taiwan instead. Tagatay and a visit to the Taal Volcano were on our to-do list but with the forecast that an additional eruption was imminent we thought it best to stay away from the area completely since even parts of Manila were affected by the initial ash fall. We are now safe and sound in Taipei........at least for the time being........Chinese New Year celebrations are under way and Jan. 25th will bring us into the Year of the Rat.

After arriving in Cebu City, I wandered around trying to get my legs moving again and came across this Taoist temple at the top of  a hill overlooking the city. The Caretaker told me it was called the Heavenly Temple of Charity. It was equally beautiful inside.

On my way back from the Heavenly Temple along a different route, I stumbled over La Vie Parisienne. It looked interesting so I decided to pop in and purchase some French pastry to take back to my sweetheart. When I discovered their wine cellar inside I also purchased a couple of nice bottles of French wine, some camembert cheese and a baguette which became our meal for the evening.

The finalists for the Sinulog Idol contest were performing one evening so we took in the show. The  evening started with them showing off their dance moves as a group. The judges were tougher than we expected on the individual performances when they were singing but everyone was on-side for the eventual winner.

Sinulog events were held every night in several locations, including this one. The Fuente Osmena Circle was in the centre of a very large traffic circle not far from our hotel. The Idol contest was held on the stage here and there were lots of food and drink stalls there as well. Traffic was re-routed in the evenings so that people could get off the island safely.

This is a Jeepney, the most common form of public transportation in Cebu, with the route listed on the side. Pocahontas wanted no part of it so one day while out on my own I decided to give it a go. With traffic moving very slowly at many points it was pretty much a jump in, jump off experience at a cost of 8 pesos (20 cents) which got passed through the crowd to the driver. The one I was on was crowded like this one but at least I found a seat and didn't have to stand on the rear bumper or sit on the roof like I observed a few other times.

Several hundred thousand worshippers participated in the mid-week foot procession of the 'original' Santo Nino statue that Ferdinand Magellan presented as a gift to the King's wife when she was baptized into the Catholic religion (which he had introduced shortly after his arrival in Cebu). The artifact, recognized for its miraculous healing powers, was encased in bulletproof glass and protected by tight security.

The puppeteers came up on stage together to show off their moves in front of the judges and the large grandstand crowd. They were quite entertaining with well designed costumes.

We were quite surprised to see this float come through, especially when we only saw one other country outside the Philippines (Australia) participating. Niagara College sponsored the float so they must do some student recruiting over here.

One of the many colourful dance contingents we watched. Several professional photographers attempted to climb up on the makeshift platform at the front of the grandstand to get the perfect shot but every time they tried the grandstand observers behind them vocally let them know they were not welcome to stay there.

The festival also recognizes the indigenous groups that inhabited the island before the Spanish arrived. Many of the dance performances involved some of the tribe becoming very ill or dying, only to be brought back to life with the appearance of the Queen holding the Santo Nino statue over their bodies.

This float's message was all about saving our oceans. The floats and other parade groups were ushered through in between the stage performances by the dance groups, who also walked the entire parade route.

One of the final dance groups we saw perform and really enjoyed. We learned later that this contingent won several awards for their efforts. The monetary awards were not large enough to make their participation a sound financial investment, it was purely for their love of the festival and its meaning.

When You Reach the Top of the Ladder, and Realize it is Against the Wrong Wall

Our Philippines segment started on Conde Nest's "Best Island in the World", Palawan. Located on the western side of the country the 650 km sliver of an island has been historically safe from the typhoons that have ravaged other parts of the Philippines, which usually hit the south-east islands first. We started at the north end of the island in the popular beach town of El Nido. It is also the gateway to the Bacuit Archipelago, home of 45 jagged limestone islands (reminiscent of Halong Bay in Vietnam), sandy beach coves and lagoons and crystal clear water with corals below. We booked a day trip from El Nido (Tour A of four available) where we swam into the Big Lagoon (narrow, shallow approach), snorkelled near Shimizu Island, had a seafood lunch on another island and finished up on 7 Commandos Beach. There were some 'invisible' tiny jellyfish in the waters emitting some minor stings but the bigger hit for my better half was the persistent itching that continued for the next few days (no impact on the tougher skinned author!).

A 6 hour A/C bus ride took us back to the provincial capital, Puerto Princesa, where we spent our final 2 days on the island. The highlight there was a day trip the Underground River, one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. The world's longest navigable underground river at 8 km was fascinating to discover even though we were only allowed to go about 1 km in, and then back out. The part of the cave we experienced on paddle outriggers reached heights of 65 metres and the river was 9 metres deep at some points. It was full of stalactites, stalagmites and bats, with some colourful limestone formations on display. Back in Puerto Princesa wandering around the downtown area we came across Plaza Cuartel and learned about the merciless Japanese killing of 143 American POW's near the end of WWII.

From the island of Palawan we flew to Panay Island and the city of Kalibo, where we are stationed presently. My backpack however took a slightly different trip. After collecting my checked bag in Cebu, where we had a 6 hour stopover....a longer wait than planned due to a cancelled flight......the check-in desk in Cebu advised me that it would be much cheaper for me to send my backpack via Cargo rather than paying $50 to have it checked, since it would still travel on the same plane. Having extra time, I quickly decided I might as well follow the advice that was given, and walked over to the Cargo terminal to pass it along to them. I forgot to rationalize that my backpack would not roll off the baggage carousel in Kalibo and that I would once again have to walk over to the Kalibo Cargo terminal to retrieve it......which cost us an extra 15 minutes upon arrival (and could have been worse if it wasn't in the direction we were already heading). Note to self......don't do this again.

While most tourists arriving in Kalibo head directly to the north end of the island to take a short ferry over to the resort island of Boracay, we arrived as the famous Ati-Atihan Festival ("The Mother of All Philippine Festivals") was starting and the schedule indicated there were fun festival activities to amuse us every day of our 5 night stay. The initial festival intent was to celebrate the various indigenous tribes on the island but the Spanish changed the focus to Santo Nino (baby Jesus) when they took control of the region, spreading their religious beliefs among the locals. The colourful, festive event today is a mixture of both, featuring dance groups in aboriginal costumes demonstrating their skills at street parties throughout the city. Unfortunately for us, it took us two days to realize the on-line schedule (3 different web sites listing the same scheduling of events) did not reflect reality......so we showed up several times to city parks where nothing particularly exciting was happening, other than near the Cathedral being blessed by an older lady, touching our upper body parts with a small baby Jesus statue......we must have appeared in need of a blessing. Action seemed to ramp up in the evenings with drum bands parading around the streets but the colourful costumes and dance events have so far evaded us for the most part. With the Grand Parade date still a mystery (was supposed to be yesterday), we settled for a School Parade today. It was fun to see the younger students, dressed head to toe in colourful outfits, doing a simple, rhythmic dance to music played by the school's band. Overall so far, Ati-Atihan for us has not achieved the same level of amazement that the audience engagement festivals of Songkran (Thailand) and Holi (India) delivered but perhaps it peaks during the upcoming final week-end, which we will miss in order to catch the finale of the Sinulog Festival in Cebu where we are headed next. We can only imagine what our time in Boracay might have been like.

The El Nido beach at the north end of the Palawan Island. The beach was the launch point for the Island Hopping tours so it was not swimmable but there were other nice beaches nearby.

We had to climb through a small hole in the rocks to access the Secret Lagoon but once we were there we realized it wasn't so secret anymore as other boats had arrived before we did.

The beach near the Secret Lagoon. The steep karst landscape caused by erosion was evident throughout the Bacuit Archipelago making for a scenic boat ride.

One of the snorkel pictures we took using our underwater camera. The coral wasn't as colourful as we have seen in other reefs but it was plentiful and there were schools of tropical fish swimming around us.

The seafood buffet lunch for those on our outrigger boat, after stopping on another small island.

On our way across the sea to the Underground River following another outrigger boat. These specific type boats seemed very popular in the Philippines where most departures and landings were along the shore line rather than at a pier or dock.

Posing for a shot before entering the Underground River so that all the young people on our boat would have hope that they might still be able to do this when they are 40 years older.

After a 5 minute walk through the jungle we arrived at the launch point for the Underground River. Audioguides were provided in order to keep it very quiet within the cave.

We observed bats throughout the one kilometre river path our guide paddled us through, before turning around and heading back out the same way. The river continues further into the cave but those areas are still being explored so for now it is off limits for tourists.

Inside the entrance to the Museo It Akean in Kalibo. The small museum focused on the history and culture of the Palawan Island, so we gained some knowledge of the indigenous groups who were being celebrated as part of the Ati-Atikan Festival.

The Student Parade today where we finally had a chance to observe the colourful outfits we expected to see more of during our 5 day visit. The private schools will be featured in another parade tomorrow that we will take in, our final full day in Kalibo.

Another school with their tribal garb in the parade. This group, like several others, covered their bare skin with soot reflecting some of their Borneo ancestry. Almost all the groups also carried a baby Jesus statue at the front of their school group but that would have been foreign to the indigenous groups before the Spanish arrived.

Lots of Love to Go Around

After finishing our activities in and around the fascinating Siem Reap, we made our way to Koh Rong Sanloem, a small beach resort island off the south-west coast of Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand. It was a vast change of scenery, moving from the busy city streets to a paradise with no passenger vehicles or roads at all. It was all about total relaxation and our Swiss daughter found the perfect resort on the island for us to settle into (Saracen Bay Resort). It was located near the quieter end of a 2 km white sand beach, with a wide beach area in front, yet only 500 metres from the main island ferry pier where most of the restaurants and bars were located. Each couple had their own villa for our 4 night stay and it was pure bliss.....lots of card games, beach time in lounge chairs with a book, frequent dips into the crystal clear water (pure sand bottom 100 metres out from shore), frisbee tossing and $1.50 beers. We did get some exercise one day, walking across the island to Lazy Beach on the opposite side, a 30 minute walk through the jungle.....the only time shoes were required while on the island. New Year's Eve was quieter on KRS but there still were some fireworks set off throughout the evening. I can proudly say we were awake partying longer than most of our friends back home......but that is because it was 2 pm the next day when your clock struck midnight!

With the new year upon us we took the ferry back to the mainland and moved on to the small town of Kampot, where we stayed at a small father-son run establishment right on the wide Preaek Tuek Chhu River. The wide bar area featured a diving board into the river which was used frequently by our crew. Kampot is famous for it's pepper, so some of our posse, including Pocahontas, made a trip to a Pepper Farm, while the rest of us wandered around the downtown area and had lunch. A short 2 night stay had us back in Phnom Penh for our final night together, with most of the late afternoon time spent at their rooftop pool, overlooking the city.

"All good things must end", the saying goes but we were still sad to see our 2 week family time together finish up on Jan. 4th when our young adults and their partners had to return home for work. They would have liked to prolong the adventure as well but everyone remembered that is the way it was for us when we were their age. Hopefully there will be more family travel trips together down the road.

We are now settled in the Philippines, made up of over 7,500 islands. Our first stop is on one of the most western islands, Palawan. We have made our way to El Nido at the north end of the island, renowned for it's lovely beaches and access to the scenic Bacuit archipelago.

The Koh Rong Sanloem pier as our ferry was unloading. I was thankful to be wearing a back pack since there were no paved roads for luggage with rollers.

Our fabulous Saracen Bay Resort. The villas were very clean with wide shaded decks. There was also a large guest-only area for relaxing with the public beach in front.

The only motorized vehicle we observed on the island. It was used to transport luggage to the more secluded Lazy Beach resort on the other side of the island. The guests there had to walk this same path, like we did, to get there.

The opposite side of the bay from our resort. The beach bars and restaurants, along with the accommodations on this side, had much smaller beach areas than we did, with more traffic in front.

There was always fresh seafood available for dinner in the evenings along the beach.

One of the many family card games played throughout our 2 weeks together.

During the middle of our one hour ferry ride from the island back to the mainland,  the music got cranked up and a foam party erupted. The foam eventually engulfed Jeff and Dan's table forcing them to retreat to the back of the deck where we had fortunately selected our table. Others either moved to the upper or lower decks, or starting dancing to the music in the open centre of the middle deck disappearing at times from the foam dropping from above. I am doubtful that our safety laws would have allowed this to happen but it was quite entertaining to watch and no one seemed to mind.

The bar and deck area in front of our bamboo huts at The Hideaway retreat just outside Kampot. The Kim Jong Un banner on the left had the saying "Live, Love, Laugh" posted with a submarine lurking in the background.

The 'bo tree Pepper Farm', where the pepper (black, red, white) was grown on vines.

Goodbye Cambodia, a country with a checkered past and a promising future.