Skiing without Dad

Matt and I are in Utah now with the Hardy family. It is REALLY weird to be here without my dad. The first night I got really scared because the house was so quiet and his room was empty. I started crying and couldn't sleep that night. I thought I was alright after that because I was so excited to go skiing. But every single slope and every single lift have memories of my dad. I have been skiing there with him since I was 4, so that is 20 years of skiing. When I was strapping up my boots and putting on my skis, I started crying because I felt like I could literally SEE him there next to me, putting on his gloves after his strapped his boots. The crying left as soon as ti came, and I thought I would be ok after that. Throughout the day I would just start crying randomly. It is so weird to be here, skiing, and know that I will never ski here with Dad again. His memory saturates everything about this place. Then, I realized that I have memories of Grandpa Hardy from every slope and lift here too, and I started crying again cause I felt like everyone is dying and leaving me. It is completely irrational, I know, but that is how I felt. When we got off the slopes, I was feeling great, because despite my sadness, it was a gorgeous day and the snow was good and it is hard to stay sad with those sort of conditions. Then, I saw my Grandma and all my cousins as I was on my way to the hot tub and I broke down right there in the middle of the street with my bathing suit on. I was really bawling. It is going to be a hard week but I think it will be good for me to have to face the sadness. I am really glad Matt is here to make me feel like I have someone.

Chinese Custard Apple

I just discovered the most wonderful new fruit! It is called a custard apple. Matt and I were down at the Park and Shop and on a whim we decided to buy it. It has the consistancy of custard (with big black seeds in it) and you can eat it with a spoon. It tastes mild and creamy, sort of banana -ey in a way. I think it is delicious, so I am very excited.

While I was googling "custard apple" I found a new blog that I like, so I added as a link to my blog. It is about Malaysian food and has lots of photos.

- Custard Apple (also called Cherimoya)

American Women's Association

My new friend Kelly (who is 25, from New York, and very cool) invited me to go to a luncheon for the American Women's Association. I had never been to any activities with the AWA, and it was a very...um...interesting and devastating experience. If you have been reading my blog, you know that I have mixed feelings about British people. I like them well enough, but in general I feel like they have a tendency towards being extremely arrogant and snobby. But now that I have been to an AWA lunch, I think I had better reevaluate my position on that because the woman at this lunch outdid any British people I have met in the arrogance and snobbiness department. All they talked about were diamonds, how well they treat their servants (which probably means they don't treat them that well at all), boats, and luxurious spas around Asia. It wasn't so much the topic of the conversation, but it was the way they talked about it. One woman was particularly irritating to me. She needed to make it clear to every single person that SHE was from TEXAS. Texas came up in the conversation almost as much as diamonds, I am not sure why. She spoke with a very exaggerated Texas accent and said things like, "Girl, this ain't my first rodeo." She called diamonds "rocks" and said it like "rrrrrooocks" as if she thought she was the sassiest, most spunky cowgirl on the ranch. (See, people from other states can use wild west metaphors too!) Why do Texans feel so superior to other states? Why do they try to use cowboy and wild west lingo all the time? I just don't get it. This lady had lived in Boston for a few years before moving to Hong Kong, but she wanted everyone to know that she was NOT from Boston, as if that was the worst possible place to have grown up in.

Speaking of diamonds (oh, wait...rrrrrooocks), I have never seen such a huge display of jewelry in my life. I don't know how these women walk around being weighed down by so many carats. Maybe that is why they are so skinny and blonde.

I will quit my ranting now...I came home from the lunch feeling devastated, and I needed to vent. It made me feel like I will never find people in Hong Kong that I can relate to. Kelly assured me that most meetings aren't like that, so I will with hold my judgment on the AWA as much as possible.

"Prepare to Meet God"

One thing that was very striking about the Philippines is how religious it was. Catholicism is very prevalent and it seems to influence the lives of the Filipinos quite a bit. Every town we went through, no matter how tiny, had it own church. Every single tricycle, which there are tons and tons of on Bohol and Panglao Island, had a religious slogan painted on the back of it. They said things like "Pray to the Rosary Daily" or "God loves my Family". They were all different, and some of them were very creative. My favorite said "Prepare to Meet God", which isn't exactly a comforting sentiment when you are about to get into one of those little, old, rickety tricycles to whiz through traffic. I wonder if the tricycle drivers are required to write things about God on the back of the tricycles. Do they think of the slogans themselves? Oh, and everything in the Philippines was decorated for Christmas. They really go all out. Our boatman, LouieGie, said that Christmas is the time when Filipinos from all over the world come back to the Philippines to see their families.

Luckily we made it out of the Philippines just before a huge typhoon hit, and over 500 people were killed. The typhoon hit Northern Luzon, which is much further north than we were, but it was still good to have left before then.


Tricycles in front of the Bilar Market 


Matt at the tiny Tagbilaran Airport 

Snorkelling

Panglao Island is famous because it is a great place to scuba dive. Matt and I, being completely lazy, didn't go scub diving because we would watch the divers get up in the morning and put on full wet suits, including booties and head gear, and it did not look fun, so we decided to go snorkelling instead. One night we were walking on the beach and this man approached us and asked if we wanted to go snorkelling and watch the dolphins from his boat. He showed us his little trimaran and said he would pick us up at 5:30 (!) the next morning, and we agreed. His name was LouieGie, and his boat was named that too.

Going out to watch the dolphins was really funny. Matt and I probably didn't need to do it, since we have both seen dolphins before and alot closer than the boats could get. There were 4 or 5 trimarans chasing these poor dolphins around, and none of us could get close, and we were all trying to beat eachother. It was hysterical. One of the other boats was full of Chinese women, and everytime we got close to them, we heard squealing and saw cameras. We finally told LouieGie to stop chasing the dolphins and just take us to the snorkelling area. When we went snorkelling, it was amazing. It was infinitely better than any scuba diving or snorkelling I have done before. There were about a zillion different types of fish in a zillion different colors and a zillion different sizes. It was truly amazing. and there were all different types of coral too. At one point we say a huge spiralling mass of silver jack fish, and you could swim through the spiral and they would all be around you. LouieGie went snorkelling with us and it was very fun. Then we had breakfast on an island and LouieGie told us a little about himself. His wife was only 19 and they already had 2 kids and she was 4 months pregnant. He was telling us how if he was president he would make it a rule that all Germans had to leave the Philippines and none could ever come back. They really don't have good feeling for Germans on Panglao Island! The taxi driver couldn't stop taling about how ugly they were. But there were tons of them around! Every morning we woudl hear them saying "Guten Morgen". LouiGie said that they married all the Filipina girls because their own women were fat and ugly and wouldn't even say hi to you when you walked by. Hmmm...I hate to say it, but it was strangely gratifying to finally be the nationality that was not reviled most by the locals.


Trimaran on Alona Beach 

Food in the Philippines

While we weren't in the Philippines long enough to explore alot of the food in the Philippines, I think that aside from the Halo Halo, it isn't my type of food. It seemed like alot of sausages and pork products. The seafood that we ate was excellent, and I pretty much subsisted on grilled squid and pancakes for the entire trip! The grilled squid was so yummy, I kept trying to tell myself to order different things but I couldn't because I don't have many opportunities for squid here in Hong Kong. I noticed that there were alot more bread and sweet shops than I have noticed in other countries, and they sort of reminded me of the panaderias in Mexico. At one of the markets we went to, they were even making fresh donuts! The girl in the picture sold us these really yummy rice bun things. They were made of glutinous rice and coconut milk in a banana leaf that is then steamed. It was delicious.


Girl selling goodies 

Boat Cruise, Tarsiers and Halo Halo

After the Chocolate Hills, we stopped to see the tarsiers. I had never heard of this animal, but apparently it is the smallest living primate and it was the Spielberg's inspiration for ET. It was probably the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life! It was tiny and had huge eyes like saucers, and had these little delicate hands with big bony joints on them. They can almost rotate their heads 360 degrees and they can jump 3 meters, but when we saw them they looked very lethargic. They are endangered and only live in a few places in the Philippines. I felt very sorry that they were being ogled by so many tourists in the little cage by the side of the road, even though the place had a sign that said "Government approved Tarsier breeding facility".

After that we went on a boat cruise down the Lobok River. It was really fun! THe interior of the island is realy lush and green and the water was extremely green also. It was sort of misting while we were on our cruise and I felt like we were on the jungle boat ride at disneyland! You could see all of the kids playing and bathing in the water as we went by and there were villages and little huts also.

After our boat cruise, we ate at a restaurant on the river. Then we went to an old church and then we persuaded our driver to take us into Tagbilaran for Halo Halo ...the dessert specialty of the Philippines. Halo Halo is quite spectacular and very yummy. On the bottom, it has sweet red beans and pieces of purple yams. Then it has assorted gummy/jelly type sweet things, then pieces of fruit, then shaved ice, then corn sprinked ver the top, then a scoop of ice cream, and then corn flakes on top. They serve it with a shot glass of cream or creme caramel, which you pour over the top and it soaks into the ice. I loved it! It looks like a spectacle and it tastes like one too.


Matt and I on our cruise down the Lobok River 

Bohol Island

Once Matt and I had sufficiently relaxed, we decided to hire a car and driver to take us on a tour of the sights of Bohol Island. So, our hotel hooked us up with a driver named Bobby. He was really nice and didn't talk too much. (The taxi drivers that had brought us from the airport talked WAY too much and they annoyed me alot. The kept laughing maniacally and did not stop talking to us for one second. They thought Germans were ugly and told us that over and over again. Matt liked it but I didn't.)

The first place we went was the Chocolate Hills. In the summer they turn brown but when we went they were green, so not very chocolatey at all. They still looked cool though, cause they just popped out of the rice paddies randomly and it looked sort of unearthly. Even more interesting than the Chocolate Hills was the drive through the island. There were lots of rice paddies and since it was a Sunday there were lots of people at public markets and coming to or from church.


Chocolate Hills 


Matt and Bobby 

The Philippines

Matt and I had a wonderful time in the Philippines. We didn't want to go to one of the ritzy, extremely touristed areas, so we randomly chose an island out of our Lonely Planet guide. We decided on Panglao Island, and it was absolutely gorgeous. We stayed on Alona Beach, which had perfect white sand and crystal clear water. To get there, we flew into Manila and stayed the night, and then early the next morning we flew on a little plane from Manila to Tagbilaran. From Tagbilaran we took a 45 minute taxi ride onto Panglao Island. The first place we stayed was called the Alona Tropicale and our bungalow was right on the beach. It was fantastic! It was unbelievable to wake up in the morning and open the door to the most gorgeous beach you have ever seen. The only problem with the Alona Tropicale was that we could only stay one night, as they were already booked up for the rest of the weekend. Another problem with it was that it was only hooked up for salt water. This meant that we had to shower and brush our teeth with salt water, which doesn't leave you feeling very refreshed! The next morning we moved on to a hotel called the Crystal Coast, which had alot less character but was a good deal because it was cheaper and had air conditioning and hot water.

For the first couple of days Matt and I just sort of relaxed and tried to take in our stunning surroundings...the beach was so white and the water was so blue and the sky was blue also, it was almost blinding. It is the sort of place where your eyes can't really comprehend how gorgeous it is so all you can do is keep looking and looking. It was nice because Matt had had a vacation for quite awhile and it was nice to finally have some time together!



Matt in front of our bungalow at the Alona Tropicale 

Alona Beach