Monday again

Phew... weekends are kinda tiring too, although fun...

Friday evening we had Hana's friend Malek and his mum (my friend Pernille) over for pizza, play and movie (for the kids) and pizza, wine and lots of talking (for mums) and kids went to bed way to late.

Saturday started off with regular "Saturday Soccer" practice for Kai. At 8.15. And in the afternoon we headed for the Swedish Compound for a swim and barbeque. Again, kids went to bed way to late.

Sunday another afternoon by the pool, with Nemo, Leo and Sara in Ciputra, including dinner at their place. Kids could hardly make it home on the motorbike, but once we got back quickly passed out at a rather normal time.

Today kids are back in school and I am relaxing, as "only" have to sit in front of computer and write. Although should be on reports, not blog. Thursday is deadline and after that I will be a full-time moving-country organizer!

Oh, how boring with posts without photos. Have to go get myself a new camera. Soon.

A week of work

Phew... Not being used to "single mum" life and planning, and although it is just temporarily, travelling and working long days and evenings gets pretty stressful.
Monday morning I handed over a complicated schedule to Thoa, either requiring her to stay over night, or showing up here at 6.00 a.m. to wake up the kids and take them to school, while I headed off to some province nearby, or working late as I had evening meetings or came back with very late flights, hoping she would get it and kids would not be abandoned at any point. Of course she got it.
All in all, another interesting week learning about a completely new subject and seeing new parts of Vietnam. Although seems like every time I do this kind of trips, my camera is broken.
Now looking forward to hanging out with the kids all weekend!

Home sweet home

Back in Hanoi again, the kids and I have thrown ourselves straight back into routines, with school, playdates and for mum even some work. Next week I have to go down to southern Vietnam for a couple of days, leaving the kids with the nanny, but noone seems to be making a big deal out of that. Except for possibly me.

Also, the last day on the beach in the Philippines my camera was accidentally dropped in the salty water and consequently is no more. I will have to dig out some old photos to post instead - until I get myself a new one as a birthday present. Perfect!

Weekend house

Just as we thought, so far we like outside Manila more than inside and have been talking about finding a nice weekend place, somewhere we can escape the big city and relax, maybe rent a house or so.
I already found one. I want this.

Could even consider a smaller. Like this.

Apparently all land surrounding this pocket beach, situated a stone's throw from "ours", belongs to the Ayala family, one of the most influential in Philippine economy and politics. Basically, it seems, the country is run by a bunch of extremely well off families who control more or less everything. They have probably bought about every island and beach in the country already, so guess we'll have to do with a smaller place in the mountains... The people in these houses certainly did not catch the bus and local boat to get there, but where taken there and back in helicopters, the yates anchored outside probably just used for sunset coctail parties. Not my kind of style anyway. But house is still nice.

Mum taking a close look...

And oh... the crowds...

Inside Manila traffic and consequently air is horrible almost everywhere. Although distances are short you spend hours in the car or taxi without moving. The two metro lines doesnt help a lot and buses and jeepneys didnt really feel like a substitute either.

And then our beach getaway coincided nicely with Easter break, the BIG travel week of the year when as good as everyone in Manila escapes the city, for a visit home - or an escape to the beach, for example Puerto Galera...

Step by step we made it down with the crowds.

Step 1. At snail's pace down the four lane southern super high way.

Step 2. Finally reached the port town of Batangas. Part 1. Do the boat ticket line (luckily at least this part could be done by only one person).

And it sure helps to have cool kids, used to being dragged around here and there as they are.

Step 2, part 2. Once you get the ticket, get all family into the line (?) to pass the bottle neck security check and get into the waiting hall, necessary to be able to reach further steps.


Step 2, part 3. Inside the waiting lounge there were a couple of others ahead of us. Nothing to do but find a spot on the floor - preferably close to a ceiling fan - and wait for our turn.


Step 2, part 4. Eventually let out of the waiting lounge, to the waiting bunch on one of the piers. Step by step, and truly amazing we didnt see one single person being upset or trying to pass the line. Definitely a different style than both Latin America (screaming/pushing) and Vietnam (ignoring/squeezing), although I kept thinking the Philippines is some kind of cross-over culture between the two continents.

Step 3. On board! And it really was worth it all (see below).

Hana and Kai, so brave throughout, passed out almost immediately, gently waved to sleep by the fresh breeze and movements of the boat.

The beach - a little one in Puerto Galera

Over Easter break, we took the bus down to Batangas where we jumped onto a tiny boat that took us over to the next island, Mindoro, and spent four days doing very little but swimming, snorkelling, building sand castles, kayaking and hanging out on a small beach. So close to Manila, and so beautiful. Definitely a pleasant surprise!

Arriving. At last (see coming post).

Swings on our bungalow doorsteps.

Happy local.

Just beautiful.

Ice cream break in the shadow with newly found friends, our Indian bungalow neighbors.

First snorkelling tour ever. A great success to say the least.

Some serious kalaha tournaments took place on the beach...

... as well as some less serious sand castle competitions.

We'll definitely be back!

The mountains - a trip to Tagaytay

Early a Sunday morning we went off for an excursion to the cool and breezy town of Tagaytay about an hour and a half south of Manila. A lovely little place where we had lunch at Sonya's Garden and then tried to make our way through the Manila weekend hordes at the Picnic Grove, where we got some great views of the the Lake Taal and its volcano. The drive up to Tagaytay, made us think about Central America again and we felt far away from Vietnam. But in a better way than inside Manila.

Manila - first impressions

Wonderful climate. Too much traffic. Fantastic people. Too many shopping malls. Beautiful surroundings. Too "american". Great to be able to communicate in English. Too many armed gards. Western style super markets. The list of pros and cons is already long, but without doubt it will be possible to live a comfortable life over there, and as I belong to the - possibly stupid - category of people who thinks it is (partly at least) possible to decide yourself whether you are going to like and enjoy a place - or not, I am convinced I will both like and enjoy life in Manila. Although I also know that the first six months in a new country is rarely the best time of your life.

Here, a few things we did during our first weeks in the city - or cities, as Manila is actually a big messy chaos of about 14 cities that just grew together into what is today referred to as "Metro Manila", where twenty-something million people crowd together, trying to make a living as good as they can. It isnt exactly the centre of equality and differences between rich and poor are pretty striking, to say the least.

Happy to see daddy again!

And we did spend some time watching TV in our giant living room in our temporary apartment.

Or in the pool. Until they closed it for maintenance. Then we watched TV again.

The view from the 31st floor. Makati City business district. Or if it was Fort Bonifacio Global Village. Or something else. I dont remember. And I never seemed to get the directions right

We also spent some time in a small playground area close to the hotel, where kids quickly made a bunch of new friends, Japanese, Filipino and others.

Every day we passed the tiny Ayala triangle garden, about the only accessible green space in the city it seemed...
One day we made an excursion to the actual old "Manila City" to visit a childrens museum and leart about mangrove forests, how to drive a helicopter and much more.

I also went on a couple of house hunting tours and saw many giant and ugly houses. In June I will have to do much more of that - and hopefully find something we like - to a price we like... We also checked out a couple of schools for the kids, and more or less made our decision. It will be a big difference for them.

Didnt try the street food though. Food is definitely much better in Hanoi...

We also celebrated Earth Hour and concluded we will try to make an effort to be at least a tiny bit environmentally aware in Manila - needed everywhere but extremely obvious in places like this...