Holiday... Extended!

We packed and said our goodbyes to Boracay on the 27th... but our flight from Caticlan (the small local airport) to Manila was canceled and we had to reroute to another airport about 70 minutes away. The only problem was that this meant we missed our connecting flight from Manila to Macau. Needless to say, I wasn't in a great mood trying to book a hotel room at the terminal at ten p.m.
We finally got to our rooms at 11:30 p.m. and crashed for the night. The two positives of all of this were:
1) We got to see a bit of Manila, and
2) I purchased travel insurance so the additional expenses will be covered.
We slept in and then spent the afternoon at the Mall of Asia, a Canada-like mall that had many excellent shops. Jackie and Emily picked up some tops while I picked up a new Timex watch to replace the one that conked out just before Christmas. The one impression I was left of Manila? Crazy traffic!!

Boxing Day in Boracay

Boxing Day was our last full day in Boracay so we wanted to spend most of the day on the beach. We headed down after breakfast and made ourselves comfortable on the sand. The parents did some hiking along the beach which included a pit stop at Starbucks while the girls spent their time between building sand structures and swimming in the emerald green water.

Spa Day

December 23rd was spa day in Boracay. It started with a couples massage at the Nami resort for Jackie and me. The spa area overlooked the beach and we could feel the sea breeze and hear the waves while we had our massages. It was heavenly...
Later in the evening, the entire family went to a fish spa for a 20 minute "session". Danielle had been wanting to do this for some time so we all went to have small fish nibble our feet and lower legs, thus removing dead skin etc.
It was definitely a weird sensation and Jackie couldn't stop squealing throughout! We all left with very soft feet.

Hike Along White Beach

Boracay is famous because of White Beach

, a six-kilometre long stretch of one of the nicest beaches to be found anywhere. We are presently staying on Diniwid Beach which is a five minute walk from White Beach. Jackie was feeling particularly energetic today and wanted to go on a hike down White Beach so we headed out after breakfast. I'm not certain how far we walked but I'm guessing at least 4 km. The sun was out and it was very hot, so we had to stop a few times to jump in the water and cool off. We walked as far as D'Mall and had lunch there before returning to our Hotel via the shuttle.

Boracay - Day 2

Travel day left us tired and weary. So we decided that our first full day we would do nothing but relax. After breakfast by the pool we planted ourselves on the beach; the girls swam and the parents joined them after spending some time in the sun.
We had to take a short trip to D'Mall area of Boracy (10 minute shuttle) to get some money, buy a few snacks and have lunch. Upon returning, the girls swam in the pool while the parents had a nap. We finished the day with dinner on the beach.

Travel Day

Our journey to Boracay turned out to be a long one. Check out this itinerary:
1) taxi to Taipa ferry (5 min.)

OK, the cool part of this was that all of the retired NBA players who played the previous night at the Venetian were on our ferry. While walking to the ferry I had a chat with Scottie Pippen. He was very well spoken and he asked where we were traveling to. We talked for five minutes and shook hands prior to taking our seats.

2) ferry to Hong Kong (1 hour)
3) ride to airport (30 minutes)
4) flight to Manila (2 hours)
Up until this point everything was going fine...

5) flight delay (2 hours and fifteen minutes)
6) flight diverted to different airport due to darkness (&$%#&@)
7) bus ride to jetty port (1 hour and fifteen minutes)
8) water taxi from Caticlan to Boracay (15 minutes)
9) transfer to hotel (15 minutes)

We ended up arriving at our hotel five hours later than scheduled. After a late dinner we all crashed for the night.

PBAA at the Venetian Macau

The Venetian hosted a Professional Basketball Alumni Association game Sunday night. I was fortunate enough to get a VIP ticket and watch Clyde Drexler, Penny Hardaway, Gary Payton, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman among others play against each other. It was a bit like an all-star game, plenty of offense and very little defense.
Earlier in the day Emily took part in a clinic led by the two PBAA coaches: Moses Malone and Nate Archibald.

It's Holiday Time

Hooray, school is over for 2011. It's been a busy four months since we arrived in Macau. We've been looking forward to the break for some time and we are busy preparing to depart to the island of Boracay in the Philippines for some rest and relaxation. We are staying at two separate hotels/resorts: the Microtel and the Boracay Beach Club.

Preparing for Christmas

We spent Saturday morning decorating our tree and hanging stockings in the apartment. The girls especially enjoyed it as we had brought many of our decorations with us from Canada. Danielle's only concern was the stockings were hung rather high and she was worried that Santa wouldn't be able to reach them. I assured her that Santa would have no problem filling the stockings!

Dumpling Town

Last weekend we were in Senado Square

for some shopping. Located there is one of our favorite restaurants which expats have nicknamed dumpling town. It a small, hole in the wall type place where groups of two are regularly placed at small tables with other groups. We have three bowls of ox-tail stew and two plates of fried dumplings. Yummy!!

Korean BBQ

Last week we joined another family for dinner at a local Korean restaurant. The son of the owners is a student of mine so he agreed to teach us about Korean food (cooking and eating it). Some of the food arrives at the table cooked while the meat arrives raw and must be cooked on a small grill in front of you. The service and the food were excellent and the kids especially enjoyed it as they cooked the meat for the adults.