Two days in Singapore

What an amazing place! We only had a short amount of time to spend here so we made the most of both days exploring this interesting (and expensive!) city by foot & train. Our home base was in Little India from where we could get anywhere in the city quickly & easily by 'mass rapid transit' or the MRT. Our first stop was the promenade along Marina Bay where we were greeted by an incredible show of lights and a bright waterworks show over the water. We checked out the impressive Christmas decorations in the fancy 'Shoppes of Marina Bay Sands' mall then somehow found our way up to the rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands hotel (the spaceship-looking building below) where we were able to see the incredible nighttime view of the city lights.

 

We spent an afternoon walking around the "Gardens on the Bay" and enjoyed a tasty meal in the park.

 

Clarke Quay was a great place for an evening stroll, drink & dinner - though we could only afford the strolling part! We found there were so many great spots like this scattered around the city it would take at least a week to take it all in, which we plan to do someday when we're not on a backpackers' budget..

The Singapore Zoo is meant to be one of the best in the world but I think we're becoming zoo snobs after having seen so many animals in the wild this year. It was still pretty cool to see the naturalistic, open exhibits & free ranging orangutans as well as many of the animals during feeding time.

another family photo!

We walked and walked and walked, taking in as much as we could in our two day visit and really enjoyed this vibrant, modern city/country. We picked up on a few of Singapore's strange laws while we were there such as: selling chewing gum is illegal, you can be fined for not flushing a public toilet and logging onto an unsecured wireless connection is considered hacking.

"It's More Fun in the Philippines"

(link to previous blog page: http://janelleandjody2012adventures.blogspot.com/ )

Continuing with the theme of countries' tourism slogans, we saw & heard this one on a lot of billboards and TV commercials in the Philippines.
The Philippines only grants visitors a 3 week VISA on arrival so we felt a bit rushed to see all that we wanted to see in a limited time. In the end it seems like we spent about a third of our time travelling via buses, ferries and planes. It was like we were back in Central America with the long, sweaty bus rides where we were crammed between the locals and stopping every 30 seconds to load/unload people/chickens/parcels. But some of the best memories are on those bus rides: staring out the window with the wind whipping my hair around and taking in the tropical scenery surrounding little villages where the locals waved & yelled hello. Another reason we were brought back to Central America was because of the Catholic culture which felt a little closer to home compared to the Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist societies we've been in for the past few months; people were very excited for Christmas (despite the fact that it wasn't even Halloween yet) which got us into the spirit as well.
We began in Boracay which was recently named 'Best Island in the World' by Travel & Leisure magazine. While I don't know if I'd go that far in describing Boracay, we did really like it there. The sunsets, the beach, the food, the buzzing nightlife and people - it's a great spot for a rustic vacation.

an abundance of exotic seafood was ready to be BBQ'd

transport to & from the island

Three boats, one minivan, two taxis, an old school bus & a tricycle brought us to Sipalay (thanks for the recommendation Ben, Kayla, Chris & Kaylee!). It is described by Lonely Planet as having a 'Robinson Crusoe' kind of feel and it definitely does, especially in low-season. I think we were 2 of maybe 10 guests on this deserted beach for the few days we were there. Our hotel was hilarious; the Takatuka Lodge has put a lot of thought & effort into their goofy, themed rooms. We were given the "Superstar" suite complete with a pink convertible bed, a telephone for a showerhead, an old camcorder for a porch light, and many other thoughtful touches (a keyboard for a lightswitch where you have to hit the letter "L" for lights)!

Siquijor was a really pretty island where we found brand new bungalows run by the sweetest Philippino lady we met. She cooked us huge feasts each night with fresh mangoes for dessert (the best mangoes of the trip!) and overflowing bowls of fruit with homemade toast for breakfast. We spent most of our time here in the hammocks beneath the breezy palms and visiting with our lovely host :)

Bohol Island attracted us beacuse it is home to the Philippine Tarsier and the 'Chocolate Hills'. Proving how small the world can be, we met up with our friend Mark (from Vancouver) who we met in Nicaragua earlier this year. We hired a driver together and spent the day touring the island to see the manmade Mahogany forest, the adorable nocturnal Tarsiers, the natural chocolate hills (named for the Hersheys kisses which they resemble?), the oldest church in the Philippines and a massive python along the way (oh and a ladyboy performance and a pig on a tricycle).

pig transport on Bohol

sleepy little Gremlin

Tarsier, the smallest primate in the world

the Chocolate Hills

take a note of the fact that Jody is outside of the enclosure...

On Cebu Island we made our way down to a village called Oslob, where we'd heard it was possible to swim with whalesharks. At 7am we made our way out in a rickety wooden boat to see these gentle giants swimming just offshore, attracted by the shrimp-flavored bubbles the guides stir up in the water. Snorkelling alongside the 'largest fish in the sea' was an incredible feeling but at the same time it was pretty scary to be so close to something so massive - what a thrill!

After Oslob we spent a few days in Moalboal before making our way back up to the Clark Airport to catch our flight back to Malaysia. We really enjoyed the Philippines and would love to go back and explore some of the other 7000+ islands one day.