A Holiday in the Philippines

Three years ago I experienced my first tropical winter in Thailand and loved it so much, I vowed to spend every winter vacation thereafter in the tropics.  This year, after only 6 months away, I went back to the Philippines for my sunny holiday (it was the only affordable option).  Two weeks of diving and surfing = two weeks well spent.  

Another holiday without taking many pictures: the majority of the time I was in the water or on the beach and not exploring as I usually do.  I find that sometimes I get so obsessive with taking shots and looking through the lens that I can miss out on just enjoying the moment...

With a backpack full of tank tops, bikinis, and rash guards, I left the 20 degree weather in Qingdao and headed to the Philippines. I got more stares than usual and actually had quite a few people taking pictures of me with their camera phones- they were bundled up in their winter finest, and I was in sweatpants, and flip flops, using my sarong as a scarf.  In my defense, I only had a backpack- any sort of boot or jacket would have taken up half the bag.

clown fish, Coron Bay

I met my girlfriends in Manila and we flew to Coron, Palawan (an island in SW Philippines) together for a week of diving. Coron is known world-wide for its WWII shipwrecks.   I was not the biggest fan of wrecks prior to the trip...they tend to have poor visibility, but I have definitely changed my mind after Coron.  The ships were HUGE and really intricate which made it fun (and dangerous, so even more fun) and there was plenty of sea life in and around the wrecks.  The first day we dove with 3 Japanese divers which we thought was cool considering the sites we were diving:  70 years post-war, Japanese and Americans are brought together to explore what their two countries destroyed.  We also got a couple reef dives in, where I took my underwater housing for a spin, and one lake dive.  The lake was actually the crater of a volcano and it had thermoclines reaching up to 100 degrees- a pleasant temperature when in a jacuzzi on a cool night, not when your entire body is submersed on a boiling hot day.  

After Coron, we headed to Angeles for Christmas with Bonita and Sarah's family. We had an amazing home-cooked feast and rested up for the next leg of our journey the following day.

Part two of the trip took us to Baler, Aurora (on the main island of Luzon) for a week of surfing.  The waves were insanely big and strong-way out of our league- but we managed to catch some great rides.  Half-way through the week we made a few friends and ended up hanging out with them pretty much the rest of the trip.  It's always nice to meet people on the road, especially when you don't often run into English speakers (let alone Americans!)

local beach bum, Baler

Overall it was a very successful holiday- the perfect mixture of sunshine, saltwater, and friends to make me feel relaxed and refreshed enough to begin the madness at work once again.

My Resolutions for 2012:  
1.) take advantage of the fact that I live in China and travel within the country as much as I can.

2.) Learn enough Mandarin to survive solo