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.

Christmas in Cambodia

We're off on another adventure, but this time with our adult children and the girl's partners in tow. I suspect they decided it might be a good idea to start keeping an eye on their aging, travel addicted parents. Actually, it was our oldest daughter's wish to sponsor a family get together over the holiday season. She is firmly rooted in Switzerland and it has been many years since the rest of us celebrated Christmas with her. Cambodia was her choice destination and although we have been here before, it is new territory for the rest and we are more than happy to return to a country that we enjoyed back in 2012. It took our bodies a few days to get accustomed to the 14 hour time zone difference but we are in full gear now.

We are at end of our first week together and no one has been sent off for a 'time out' yet, although the parents may be the first to be sent to their room when a raucous, late night out presents itself for the youngsters. In Phnom Penh we shared some somber moments at the very descriptive Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields, depicting the ethnic cleansing of over 2 million Cambodians by the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge party, led by Pol Pot during the 1975-1979 period. We had many more happy times together, sharing stories and having lots of laughs, while sitting at the pool, wandering around the city or spending evenings together with cocktails in hand.

We are now in Siem Reap visiting the ancient temples via tuk tuk and catching other city highlights, including the Angkor National Museum (Khmer history), vibrant Pub Street and the many markets. We were also entertained by an acrobatic show performed by disadvantaged street kids, who attend a nearby arts school that the concerts help fund. Another interesting visit was to the Apopo HeroRAT Centre, where they are using trained African Giant Pouched rats (long life, light weight, easy to transport, incredible sense of smell) to detect landmines left all over the country from multiple wars.

Christmas is not a big celebration in this Buddhist country but we have come across Christmas decorations that are primarily set up to draw in the tourist crowd. No turkeys in sight though. There was one common Christmas theme though.......our kids were out of bed before we were on Christmas morning. However, instead of having a sneak peak at the gifts under the Christmas tree, they all headed out at 5 am for the sunrise at the Angkor Wat temple......we joined them a few hours later!

Tomorrow we will move on to the island of Koh Rong Sanloem, a lovely sand beach resort destination located just off the west coast of Cambodia, where we find or create our own New Year's Eve party.

Our first morning in Phnom Penh. Waiting for our Swiss daughter and her partner to arrive,we went for a short walk around the hotel neighbourhood watching out for ATM's (to get Cambodian riels) and supermarkets for supplies. It didn't take long in the 33C heat to stop for refreshments.

The Central Market in Phnom Penh. The local markets are always interesting to walk through, observing the type of goods for sale and watching locals purchase unrefrigerated meat and fish.

Walking along the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh we noticed this well decorated tourist riverboat (among many others) set to take guests on dinner cruises along the river.

Angkor Wat at sunrise. Truth be told, I borrowed this shot from my Swiss daughter since Pocahontas and I were in bed sleeping at the time. We did the sunset picture 8 years ago and knew there would be thousands there attempting to get the perfect sunrise shot, so we joined up with them a few hours later.

The lovely Bayon temple within the Angkor Thom complex. The king's face was carved into the stone facade of all the towers within the temple.  The Angkor Thom complex was more than 10 square miles, once housing over 1 million inhabitants.......at the same time (~1200) that London, England was home to 50,000 people.

Stone wall carvings in a narrow hallway of the Terrace of the Leper King within Angkor Thom. These late 12th century carvings were well preserved due to a location well protected from the elements (and a ways away from the tourist masses).

The Preah Khan Temple. The entrance way ahead led to a long hallway that went for more than 200 metres with access to may rooms on each side. The temple was the home of the king (Jayavarman VII) while the Bayon Temple was being built.

Back in Siem Reap we went to a show under the Big Tent, sponsored by the Phare group who established a nearby school for disadvantaged children. The school features the arts and showcases the students in nightly, near capacity shows that help to support the schools. Many of the acrobatics performed rivaled Cirque de Soleil performances, telling a story at the same time.

The fascinating Apopo centre where we learned about the use of African Giant Pauchon rats from Tanzania that are trained to detect landmines. They are much more efficient and safer than metal detectors because they smell the explosive material rather than just metal objects. We were told that the HeroRATS can cover territory the size of a tennis court in 30 minutes while it would take 4 days to do the same with a metal detector.....and not a single rat has perished in the searches which started in Laos back in 2010.

Time to Start Planning our Next Trip

The drive from Grande Prairie to Jasper was another scenic journey, reminding us once again that you do not need to leave Canada to experience beautiful scenery......we have it in abundance throughout our 10 Provinces and 3 Territories, which we have been fortunate to visit. The reward of the drive was arriving in the Jasper area, surrounded by mountains, lakes and rivers. We were unable to secure a campground site in the National Park due to the holiday w/e crowds, so we had to settle for an RV Park outside the park boundary. It required a 40 minute drive each day back into Jasper but we never tired of the highway views and the different species of wildlife that came out to greet us on each trip (bears, moose, sheep, goats).

On our first day we drove to the colourful Patricia and Pyramid Lakes and the magnificent Maligne Canyon where we walked along the trails observing the river blasting it's way through the narrow canyon. We also discovered the Folding Mountain Brewery which was crowded with locals and visitors enjoying their craft beers and tasty food. Canada Day followed, so we headed into town early to find a strategic parking spot for the day, in order to experience the many events going on to celebrate our 152nd birthday. The day started with a pancake breakfast in the central park, followed by a flag raising ceremony, a parade through the town, a historical town walk and a Party in the Park with live entertainment. Unfortunately, it rained on and off during the day, cancelling the Royal Canadian Air Force fly-by and diminishing the crowds for the park party. The fireworks show had previously been cancelled due to the fire ban in the area, only to have it rain for several days leading up to the party. When the rain became more persistent later in the day we decided to leave the town site and return to the craft brewery near our RV Park for some more local brews and dinner. Our final day was filled with sunshine, which worked out perfectly for us since we had made an advance booking for a round of golf at the Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course, a jewel set in the heart of the Canadian Rockies and one of Canada's top ranked courses. It was a lovely day and we didn't mind that our scores were a little higher than we hoped for.

We finished our trip with a visit to my sister's home in Lac Le Jeune, where we had a heartfelt family re-union, lasting 5 days. Lots of wonderful memories shared, small tasks completed and games played. We are now back home, exactly 7 weeks after starting out on this trip, which completes our travels to all 50 U.S. States and our final Territory. Life is good.....everywhere.

The bridge across Pyramid Lake to Pyramid Island. The lake was 6 km's north of Jasper and popular with bike enthusiasts who got their workout on the way up and only had to use their brakes on the way back to town. There was a nice trail circling the island with gorgeous views everywhere.

Maligne Canyon which is a lot deeper than this picture displays. The rushing water continues to carve it's way deeper into the canyon and there were spots where we could no longer see the river below in the narrow canyon.

Mountain Goats on a cliff beside the highway. A bit further down the road we found some more goats patrolling the highway, walking right down the middle of the road on the centre line, causing traffic in both directions to come to a halt until they were finished observing us.

Enjoying some excellent craft beers at the Folding Mountain Brewery, outside the Jasper Park gates. They had 12 different brews to select from and their tasting tray marked the choices each individual made.

Mini-Mounties following the real ones at the Flag Raising Ceremony on the Visitor Centre front lawn. At the end of the ceremony, birthday cake was served to everyone.

The Lumberjack float at the Canada Day Parade, which included a flag covered bear. Almost all the floats had people tossing candies to the crowd......I had to control my competitive spirit to not outrace the youngsters to the prize.

The St. Mary and St. George Anglican Church which we had special access to during our historic downtown walk in Jasper. The church had some 1930's stained glass windows on one side and more modern versions (and equally brilliant) on the other side which replaced the original ones damaged at the turn on of the century when a tree fell on that side of the church and caused significant damage.

Mildred Lake, on our way to the Jasper Park Lodge which was on the opposite side of the lake.

Showing off my form at the Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course.

A panoramic shot of Little Hell's Gate which we discovered on our drive from Jasper along the scenic #5 highway to Kamloops. The deadly whirlpools at the bend on the left side required a 6 km portage for the early settlers and gold rush miners heading up river.

A family Marbles game. Our parent's taught us card games when we were young and the tradition has followed in each of our families.

The beginning of a campfire that lasted into the early morning hours, with neighbours and friends joining in on the celebration. Later on after burning close to a face cord of wood, several wooden pallets were added to the fire, resulting in 7-8 foot high flames.