Asia Awaits: The Phillipines

Our Chinese New Year break gave us 5 days off work and school which was a great opportunity to discover a new part of Asia. We decided a few days in the sunshine would be wonderful after our very cold winter here in HK. Given travel at this time of year is very popular, it was decided that the flights to the Phillipines were reasonably priced, so we could then splurge a bit on our accomodation.

So we set off on Friday afternoon and had delays even before we left HK - apparently this is very common when travelling to Manila, so we were actually prepared for this, and had decided to stay in Manila the night. As we waited to complete Immigration in the Philippines, we realised that there was actually no rush, as the baggage was SO slow coming through that we were not delaying anything. I even came across a bizarre situation where bags were being unloaded from the plane, put on the baggage carousel for the owner to identify and take off, then the baggage handler would place it BACK through the hole in the wall to be transferred to another flight - that was a first for me......not even in India did that occur.

We have friends from India living in Manila, so a stopover there gave us the opportunity to have lunch with them and see how they have settled to life there. We came to realise that their move from India to the Phillipines wasn't such a big cultural jump and that Manila was very similar in a lot of ways to Bangalore. It was a lovely relaxed afternoon, with the kids and parents catching up on old and new times. That was until we left to go to the airport - what a NIGHTMARE traffic is in Manila. We were told that it is horrible every day of the week, but worse on weekends when they don't have restrictions on the vehicles wintering the city - so there were lots of trucks and buses to add to the chaos. So our very short drive to and from Georgie and Andrew's took us over an hour and then again on the way back!

The traffic on the way back was not supposed to interrupt our travel plans too much because we had checked online and new that we were leaving from the closer terminal - so when we got the airport to check in, it was quite a panic when we were told that we were at the wrong terminal and had to transfer there by bus....... would we make our flight ?? Well, after a lot of stressing and running through two terminals we were told of more delays - no wonder we were the only ones stressed about missing the flight. We were eventually boarded and then had a 2 hour wait on the tarmac in the plane.........

It will come as no surprise, that by the time we landed, received our bags and then transited from Kalibo to Catalan, we were desperately ready for the boat ride to Boracay and then the decadence of the Shangra-La. What an amazing hotel !! We were definitely happy to be go to bed and then wake up in paradise. The boys were super excited (actually we were all excited) to have the buffet breakfast which had a donut wall, pancakes, all the savoury favourites and even had an ice-cream stall...... who says you can't have ice-cream for breakfast ??!!

The resort is truely beautiful and even though it was Chinese New Year, and very busy with lots of guests, we never felt like it was crowded. We enjoyed some kayaking, snorkelling, body surfing, lots of beach and pool time. The boys loved the entertainment centre, where they had lots of games and interests for the kids. They entertained themselves there while Mike and I went for a massage at the spa, which was heavenly. We even had a great Chinese New year buffet dinner, with dragon dancers, a live band and some lovely lovely food.

The only two dampeners on the vacation were some bad sunburn on day one - bad mummy !!! And then Max ate just a bit too much at the buffet and ended up vomiting just after bed time - when will he learn ??

Our return trip to HK was just as long with a variety of transport options to keep us on our toes - buggy, boat, van, plane, boat and then car. It could have also had MTR and Taxi but we were lucky to have a car pick us up after our 13 hour transit from Boracay.....

If you're considering Boracay - the Shangra-La is a must, but maybe plan to be at the resort for 5 days, as the transit was a nightmare.