The Journey of a Lifetime
Hey, I love flying, but SEVEN FLIGHTS is a little ridiculous. Ah, well, It was worth it! Last weekend, I returned from a beautiful 3 week vacation after 6 months of constantly working in the winter darkness and depression. It was amazing. I flew home to visit with family and friends, then fly off to St. Louis to see my sister and her little ones, and then I ended up on the beach in the Philippines with James.
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I'm so glad I got to see everyone and spend a lot of time with people! I hate being away from home so much, so that was just what I needed. I got to eat gluten free pizza from a restaurant, fill up on Target clothing, and speak English with people that understand me. It was wonderful! Since I got to see most of my blog readers while I was home, I'll head straight to my description of my Philippines trip!
I arrived on a lovely warm morning in Puerta Princessa, a busy city with lots of people and lots of tourist spots. But, our focus for the trip was just to lay around and do nothing because we'd been going going going for the past half year. We got picked up at the airport, and we headed about an hour away from the city into basically the middle of nowhere.
Our resort was filled with palm trees, and on the edge of a river with the ocean just a walk away. There were dirt paths that you could walk along, and we stayed in a beachy hut, which was very nice, and there was a main house where we got all of our food and drinks. Breakfast was included, but they made us the rest of our meals, because we were far away from other restaurants. If we wanted to go anywhere, we had to hire the motorbike to ride out. We were in a palm forest, basically. All you could hear was the chirping of unusual birds, the breeze moving against the palm trees, the occasional thud of a coconut falling, and the lapping of the river against the dark sand beach. It was just what I was looking for. I spent my days ravenously reading with a straw hat on a lounge chair. It was deeply relaxing, and my tired, jetlagged body took comfort in this. One day, we rode the motorbike out to a popular waterfall, and I jumped into the clear clean water. It was beautiful and refreshing! Then, we rode through bumpy dirt roads that were squelching with mud because the rain clouds were heading in, but it was gorgeous! The mountains were the backdrop to the long brilliantly green rice fields along the way. Everyone waved and smiled as we rode along.
Another day, we hired the boat to go to the famous Arena Island, where we snorkeled and were made a delicious lunch! It is a tiny island, where people can have private beach houses, and it's also a turtle rescue center. So, we got to climb up in a tree house, meet some turtles, drink on white chairs by the white beach, and swim in the emerald sea with striped fish and amazing coral. Sounds perfect, right? It was.
But, most of the time, we just chilled and let the mosquitoes eat us alive. Might as well let them have fun too. I found a new favorite drink entitled Roni's Ruin. It was a certain kind of rum with kalamanzi juice and a slice of kalamanzi in it. It was like a lemon, lime, fruity taste, and they went down easy! But, weirdly enough, we were the only guests at the resort: off-season. So, we felt kind of awkward showing up for meal times because it was family owned, and they sort of hung out until we were ready for something. So, sometimes we felt as if it was an imposition to ask for food and drink!
But, they were super nice, and when they had the food available that we wanted: fresh seafood like crabs, it was amazing!!
So, even though I didn't get to see a lot of the Philippines, I would definitely suggest it for a relaxing vaca (getting to travel writer right now?) And, I will definitely go back. But, I am happy to say that I am officially jetlag and illness-free now that I've had a week to settle in! America was FREEZING. Taipei is cold now too, but it's like 80 degrees today, so it's getting better.
Sorry for my lack of posts lately, I've been crazy busy! But, hopefully I can update more in the future. Love you all and miss you!
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I'm so glad I got to see everyone and spend a lot of time with people! I hate being away from home so much, so that was just what I needed. I got to eat gluten free pizza from a restaurant, fill up on Target clothing, and speak English with people that understand me. It was wonderful! Since I got to see most of my blog readers while I was home, I'll head straight to my description of my Philippines trip!
I arrived on a lovely warm morning in Puerta Princessa, a busy city with lots of people and lots of tourist spots. But, our focus for the trip was just to lay around and do nothing because we'd been going going going for the past half year. We got picked up at the airport, and we headed about an hour away from the city into basically the middle of nowhere.
Our resort was filled with palm trees, and on the edge of a river with the ocean just a walk away. There were dirt paths that you could walk along, and we stayed in a beachy hut, which was very nice, and there was a main house where we got all of our food and drinks. Breakfast was included, but they made us the rest of our meals, because we were far away from other restaurants. If we wanted to go anywhere, we had to hire the motorbike to ride out. We were in a palm forest, basically. All you could hear was the chirping of unusual birds, the breeze moving against the palm trees, the occasional thud of a coconut falling, and the lapping of the river against the dark sand beach. It was just what I was looking for. I spent my days ravenously reading with a straw hat on a lounge chair. It was deeply relaxing, and my tired, jetlagged body took comfort in this. One day, we rode the motorbike out to a popular waterfall, and I jumped into the clear clean water. It was beautiful and refreshing! Then, we rode through bumpy dirt roads that were squelching with mud because the rain clouds were heading in, but it was gorgeous! The mountains were the backdrop to the long brilliantly green rice fields along the way. Everyone waved and smiled as we rode along.
Another day, we hired the boat to go to the famous Arena Island, where we snorkeled and were made a delicious lunch! It is a tiny island, where people can have private beach houses, and it's also a turtle rescue center. So, we got to climb up in a tree house, meet some turtles, drink on white chairs by the white beach, and swim in the emerald sea with striped fish and amazing coral. Sounds perfect, right? It was.
But, most of the time, we just chilled and let the mosquitoes eat us alive. Might as well let them have fun too. I found a new favorite drink entitled Roni's Ruin. It was a certain kind of rum with kalamanzi juice and a slice of kalamanzi in it. It was like a lemon, lime, fruity taste, and they went down easy! But, weirdly enough, we were the only guests at the resort: off-season. So, we felt kind of awkward showing up for meal times because it was family owned, and they sort of hung out until we were ready for something. So, sometimes we felt as if it was an imposition to ask for food and drink!
But, they were super nice, and when they had the food available that we wanted: fresh seafood like crabs, it was amazing!!
So, even though I didn't get to see a lot of the Philippines, I would definitely suggest it for a relaxing vaca (getting to travel writer right now?) And, I will definitely go back. But, I am happy to say that I am officially jetlag and illness-free now that I've had a week to settle in! America was FREEZING. Taipei is cold now too, but it's like 80 degrees today, so it's getting better.
Sorry for my lack of posts lately, I've been crazy busy! But, hopefully I can update more in the future. Love you all and miss you!
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