Phenomenal Philippines

I'll explain the fire dancer in the sequent bikini later... this is social experiment to see if I get more blog hits with a scantily clad girl as the 'thumbnail' photo... thank you for contributing to my research.

Happy belated Easter!

Last Wednesday was a holiday here called Qingming Festival.  This day off from work (ahem, for those who work) is a dual purpose holiday.  It is a day designated to "enjoy the greenery outside during springtime" as well as "tend to the graves of departed ancestors".  True story, I just checked wikipedia because I had no idea why we had a holiday.  It is also referred to as "tomb sweeping day". [Side note: Ontario has 8 stat holidays, including 'Family Day', Hong Kong has 17 stat holidays.  We'll safely call this an upgrade.]

Anyhow, last Monday Mike emailed from work saying that he booked the Thursday off, giving him 6 days off, (since Easter Monday is also a stat here, naturally).  He said I should look into a short vacation, leaving two days later.  Although flights were slim (Expedia pulled through when 3 different travel agents told me there was 'absolutely nothing'... and they wonder why the industry is dying... sheesh), we booked a last minute trip to the Philippines, to an island called Boracay.

It was stunning.  We spent Wednesday evening to Sunday morning in a wonderful beach routine of "rinse, heat, repeat".  Aside from one scuba dive, delicious meals and taking sunset photos, we rarely left the beach.  [Photos of scuba diving will be posted later, once the film is developed from the disposable camera... I can't believe we used to wait like this for all pics... nutty.]  So there honestly aren't many stories to share from our time here, but I did want to post plenty of photos so you can see the incredible beauty of this place. 

Our last night there we had a dinner on the beach where local performers entertained us as we ate with waves crashing a couple metres away.  This performance was where we saw the fire dancing girl in sequent bikini (likely a very authentic and traditional Filipino costume).  I have uploaded a clip to youtube of their impressive performance.  In the words of Mike Foley, "I can't be certain, but I think I just watched a Filipino ninja manipulate fire."  It was a great way to spend our last night in paradise. 

A wee sand crab... look at those black beady eyes.  I followed him like a paparazzi for a half hour to get this shot.

One of his many talents... see youtube clip.

 Makes me giggle that the man front&centre is taking the 'wrong' pic. 

It is a remarkable thing about living here, that we can explore incredible places within a couple hours of 'home'.