Philippines: Day 5

June 5th: Journey to Negros

Saturday we made our journey out of Cebu and off to another island called Negros. The island itself is divided into two parts--Negros Oriental (East) and Negros Occidental (West). Negros Oriental was part of Kari's mission and was actually where Kari's first area was.

As a side note, if Asia is/was considered the Far East/Orient, would Europe been considered the Far West/Occident? Just a thought.

Moving on, so like I said, we spent the day traveling to Negros. Now there are several ways to get there--airplane, the ocean ferry (or super ferry), or a bus and ferry combination. We decided to go by bus, which even though it took longer (altogether a 5 hour journey), it was much cheaper and we got to see more of both of the islands.

The first part of the journey was the longest, and made up most of the trip getting to the southwest side of Cebu island to catch the ferry to Negros. It was nice once we got to the ferry and get off the bus for awhile.

Here are some of the pictures once we got to the ferry:

 That would be our ferry.

 Hello Negros!

 Isn't that water beautiful?

 About ready to dock, and just a short distance left to our destination.

Back on the bus, I believe it was another 30-60 minutes to Dumaguete, the city where we would be staying while on Negros. I was so happy when we finally arrived (don't get me wrong the journey wasn't too bad and not nearly as bad as the bus trips in Cambodia, but I wasn't feeling super well that day).

 Our hotel, the Bethel House. Definitely not a nice as the last hotel, but definitely nicer than the hotel we would stay at when we would return to Cebu.

 Dumaguete is right on the ocean and seemed to be kind of a fishing town. Bethel House was right along the water which was nice as we would get the wind right off the water. You could already tell that it was cooler getting out of Cebu and all the pollution. Here are the views from the hotel.

After settling into our hotel we went in search of an internet cafe and real food. We found a place to use the internet, and we even found a restaurant that the Reeds had told us about called Casablanca. For the most part it was pretty delicious and once again it was more of the Italian variety.

 After dinner we walked along the "boardwalk", if that's what you could call it, to explore a little bit of the area. While we walked and stopped to just take in the scenery we also made some friends with some children who at first tried selling us stuff.

 

 Finally it was time to hit the hay (no not literally...the bed was nicer than a pile of hay). The next day was church in Tanjay, to meet with some of the first people Kari met on her mission.

Philippines: Day 4

June 4th: Another Viewing of the Temple and Tops

Friday was sort of a mixed day. Earlier in the week we had scheduled with some of Kari's converts to go through the temple open house together. So after breakfast we met up with the family and headed on over to the temple. Again, it was a beautiful experience to go through the Cebu temple and appreciate all the beauty therein and knowing what a special place this was going to be for the people there. I know it was a sweet experience for Kari getting to go through with people from her mission, especially when some of their testimonies were not as strong as they used to be.

Below are pictures of the group after going through:

 Everywhere you looked there were white umbrellas. 

Lots of people use umbrellas there to shade themselves a bit from the hot sun.

After the temple we went and got lunch and killed some time at a local shopping center, before we headed to the mission home to meet up with the Reeds for our evening activities. The Reeds, who have a car, were nice enough to take us up to Tops, an scenic spot overlooking Cebu City.

As I may or may not have mentioned before, the Reeds were in the MTC with my parents and became friends and stayed in contact. So here are the Brother and Sister Reed at Tops.

It was beautiful up at tops as we went around dusk.

After taking in the view and as it started getting dark we headed off to dinner. There is a restaurant along the road up to Tops not far. You might think it would serve fancy Filipino cuisine, but no it was Italian! It was very yummy though, and Kari and I couldn't help but take a picture with this guy.

I might add that while we enjoyed our dinner there were some nice thunder clouds that had rolled in, so we enjoyed some spectacular lighting show, which was enhanced for a bit when the power went out! Overall, it was a wonderful evening and nice to spend some time with the Reeds. It was back to the hotel after that though, as we had a busy day the next day, heading off to another island.

No Sleep 'til...

I know, I know. I haven't blogged in over a month. But I do have a good excuse. The past months, and especially the last month, have been busy and stressful. As my immediate family knows, I decided to move to a new apartment (for a whole slew of reasons that I won't go into). I was hoping to stay in the Financial District, but instead the right apartment ended up being in...

Yep, that's right. Brooklyn. Downtown Brooklyn in fact (from one downtown to another I guess).

I have only been in the apartment for about a week now, although technically I was out of town for 4 1/2 of those days on a business trip to Orlando, but I'm already feeling the effects of this major change in my life and I'm loving it. I will miss being in FiDi because let's face it, that was my neighborhood and home for the last 4+ years, plus the only area I had lived in in New York. I will also miss being in the Union Square 3rd Ward. It really is such a great ward, and although I'm sure I'll come and attend once in awhile (Brittany is still living in the ward), there is a part of me that is excited for something new and different. We all need to make changes in our lives sometimes, and mine seemed to be in need of a major overhaul.

So, that's the update on me...oh, plus we just moved into our new offices for work (lots of moving all at once, and quite literally all in the same day!). Once I get internet set up in the apartment, I will try to do better about updating the blog. I think at this point I will just do one big post of Philippines highlights, and then a little bit about other events that have occured in the past 4-5 months. Anyway, I am alive and doing well (if anyone in the blogging world was concerned), so look for more consistent posting coming soon. :)

Philippines: Day 3

June 3rd: A Visit to Mandaue turns into a Tourist Day

On Thursday we started off the day with plans to visit another area Kari had served in called Mandaue. We got to the area and after getting some breakfast at our fast-becoming-our-favorite-go-to-restaurant  Jollibee's, we headed off in search of members to visit. Unfortunately, we didn't have a guide to help us that day and we weren't a fruitful. After walking around and asking quite a few people for directions or if they knew where one of the family's lived, we finally found one of Kari's converts but she was busy and seemed kind of uneasy. We continued to search for some other members, but it seemed like many were at work or had moved, so we finally decided give in and make other plans (it was very hot and tiring walking around like that).

So we got a taxi and decided to go check out the Taoist Temple, which was located in a really nice subdivision of Beverly Hills (yes, you read that correctly), and was apparently build by the Chinese community. There wasn't a whole lot to do there, but we enjoyed walking around and enjoying the temple and the grounds, plus taking funny pictures.

 

 

 Kari and I with a picture of the temple and grounds.

 

 

 Dragons were everywhere!

 View of the city below

 

 

 I thought I was closer to patting the little one of the head.

 We got a decent jumping picture of Kari (after several hilarious attempts).

 Temple with the "big" dragon in front.

  Trying to get a picture of us both with the dragon.

 

After getting our fill of the Taoist temple, we decided to chill (literally, we needed some AC) and relax at the mall, because that's what you do in the Philippines. We ended up at the Ayala Mall, which we would end up visiting a couple of times, and enjoyed some lunch and some window shopping. It was a very nice mall, I believe the nicest and newest in Cebu and there was even a True Value hardware store (it should have been an Ace!).

We started to get a little bored and needed to figure out something else to do. We had remembered that Brother and Sister Reed had suggested we go to this museum called Museo Sugbo, so we said why not and went on our way. We learned so much while we were there about the Philippines and the history of Cebu (Sugbo is the original name for Cebu). It was actually quite enjoyable, especially since we had pretty much our own personal tour guide for most of the time. His name was Ray and we learned that he had been heavily involved with establishing the museum (has only been around for 2 or 3 years) and had even contributed some artifacts, photos, etc.

The museum is divided into rooms by Pre-Spanish Era, Spanish Era, American Era, and present times. Oh, and fun fact...the building was originally a jail just up until a few years ago and was the location of the famous "Thriller" Cebu prison dancers that swept the internet several years ago.

The museum courtyard. Just imagine a bunch of dancers here.

 Kari and I in front of the museum sign...

...and now with Ray.

There was also this wishing well there (we would run into a couple on our trip).

The instructions were to make a wish and then drop a coin in the the well without looking and with your back turned. Your wish would come true if it landed in the plate at the bottom of the well.

 

 My first couple of attempts were over the shoulder...

 ...but then I realized a much better technique. Still not looking!

 Then Kari took her turn.

 There were these really pretty flowers in the courtyard as well.

After our visit to the museum we decided to head back to the hotel, eat some dinner and go to the internet cafe and check email and such. Although the day had started off kind of uncertain, it turned into a really enjoyable day and full of bonding time for us sisters. That happens when you give us a camera and ask us to spend time together. :)

 

Anyway, onto day four....until next time.