The Tao of Graeme: January 2015

Making friends the world over....

Winter Break! Woo Hoo! 3 weeks of tropical vacation!! We planned a foray into the Philippines visiting 2 separate islands (there are over 7,000!) planning to celebrate Christmas in Siargao Island in a sleepy surf village called General Luna, New Years Eve in Manila and Graeme's Birthday on Palawan Island.

THE GOOD

Finally landing in Siargao was like a dream (more about the flights to get there below). Pristine tropical island, manicured rice paddies surrounded by coconut palms as far as the eye could see. We had a tricycle meet us at the airport for the ride to the beachfront, rented "cottage" we booked.

How we roll...

Both hands on the wheel dude

Lineup...

It's one of the more economical ways to get around in the Philippines and we were up for the adventure. Our drivers name was "Boy", of course. We were glad we did not have any loose fillings. While chatting on the 40 minute journey, Boy managed to set us up with a motorbike rental, complete with surfboard rack, for our stay on the island (which was scheduled to be 11 days). We usually shy away from the motorbikes in SE Asia. We've seen way too many things we didn't want to see as a result of motorbike craziness in Vietnam, but it was super mellow here and without one we'd be pretty restricted as to getting to surf spots.

Our abode....

Brrraaappp!

After unloading we dug in. After the scenery we saw on the way in and then the scenario we saw out front of our house, all of the hassles to get there melted away. White sand in either direction for about almost a mile and about a mile of lagoon that reached out to the reef. The lagoon was about waist deep at high tide and provided some of the best tide pooling at low tide that may exist. Our mornings over the next several days involved a stroll down the beach to a sand-side resort for breakfast with a view and then it would take us several hours to make it home as we'd play in the water and on the beach. Tons of local kids were around playing on the beach as well and it didn't take long for them to find Graeme and partake in the international relationship of playing.

To the right....

To the left....

King of the reef...

Who's gonna drive?

Look what I found!

Future Cloud Nine shredders

Plywood = Skimboard

What??

Sleepy General Luna...

Everyone on the island was nicer then the next. Pretty much the status quo was a guy from Australia or Europe owned a "resort" (these were pretty basic for the most part on this island) or restaurant and was with a local Filipina. Younger locals were "surf guides" or "surf instructors" or driving boats that you'd hire to take you surfing on the outer reefs - there were only a few spots on the island that were accessible for surfing by paddling from shore. If you were a beginner you could hire these guys to push you into waves and if you were experienced you could hire them to show you how to get to certain spots, they'd even block for you to catch waves.

This time of year the Pacific Ocean is alive and kicking, so swell was not a problem. Also this time of year in Siargao, the wind is alive and kicking, which is a problem. It pretty much rendered an island of 100 surf spots down to a handful of options. I didn't care though....I still got in a solid session at an outer reef and Erin was able to catch a bunch of waves with the help from a "guide" as well as myself...

Need to paddle to catch 'em...

Wave of the Winter candidate?

Erin shredding a nice A-Frame...

Look out when Erin learns how to paddle into these!

The place is pristine. Most shells we weren't able to collect as they still had something living inside of them! Tide-pooling helped us discover multitudes of starfish, octopi, crabs, baby fish of all kinds, etc... It was "rainy" season here so each day a pretty good soaker would come through in the afternoon. We are used to this and it usually coincides with nap-time anyway so it's all good. Not only was the ocean water pristine (on my surf at the outer reef we boated over reef in about 40ft of water and you could see the sea life on the reef below it was so crystal clear), the runoff was as well - virtually unheard of anywhere. Little streams emptied into the ocean coming from the jungle and the water was see-through. No trash, no septic, nothing but rainwater. We went on a motorbike ride to the interior of the island but have no photo's to show for it. Graeme fell asleep sitting sandwiched in between Erin and I as soon as we took off. He set a new "Hawken" record - a 2 hour nap while riding on a motorcycle! We didn't want to stop and disrupt him so we just cruised and enjoyed the scenery. Add to this scene an abundance of the best looking stray dogs ever accumulated. Some had homes, some just had the island as their home. One had the idea to walk us home (over a mile) after dinner one night. They were everywhere and a welcomed sight in our eyes.

With English being the predominant language (there are over 50 dialects of different Philippine languages so English and Tagalog are the common languages used for communication), island life was becoming pretty easy and we were getting used to it rather quickly! We were making plans on a return trip in October (better surf) and noting that this was definitely a place we would keep coming back to over and over again.

Christmas was coming so we signed up with a few resorts for Christmas Eve dinner as well as Christmas dinner. They did not hold back! Roasted pig, roasted chicken, fresh caught Mahi Mahi, and some local delicacies we are not certain what they are but were really yummy!

Santa found Graeme here and we woke up Christmas morning to a few gifts and the notion that the bulk was under our tree in Vietnam to come home to.

X-mas buddies

These were swimming a minute ago...

He was oinking a minute ago..

Frosty - Island Style

Shortly after Christmas we became friends with a couple of different traveling crews and we all quickly became our own "crew". A couple from Australia - who happened to be staying in a construction site next door to us, an Aussie taking a gap year from his business in Australia, and a family with a son a little older then Graeme to play with as well as a new little baby - they live outside of Manila.

THE BAD

When you travel, whether it be as much as we do or less, things are bound to happen. Over time, travelers will accumulate similar stories of despair, although happening in different locations around the world. When writing this blog in the past, I have shied away from dwelling on any travel hardships we've encountered. There definitely are some stories to tell, but I am trying to keep a positive position so Graeme can grow up and look back at the good times...plus, who wants to read about people whining while they travel the world? What happened to us in about a 4-5 day span on this trip is rather surreal so, here we go.

Graeme got "inked" by an octopus. Yes, you read that correctly! I was in our hut getting ready to leave for a surf and Graeme and Erin were tide-pooling out front. They were about 1/2 mile out and I heard a noise that only a parent can hear. That noise that may or may not be a voice, but it is at a certain decibel level that makes your brain snap to life just behind your ears, bringing an sense of clarity and an instantaneous need to locate your child. Graeme was screaming his lungs out and I could see Erin carrying him hustling back to shore. Keep in mind, she is on a reef carrying a 4 year old (actually still 3 at that time) trying to step carefully enough not to destroy it or them. Apparently Graeme was sticking his head in places it didn't belong and among some tall reef grass he came face to tentacle with a small octopus who unleashed his ink in an effort to diffuse the situation and seek refuge in a hole somewhere. Did you know that octopus ink stings like a jellyfish sting? Me neither. Did you know the ink is kinda gelatinous and looks just like a blue Bic pen exploded? Me neither. Graeme knows now....a quick rinse off and some TLC and he was all good. I've been in and around the ocean my whole life and have met some salty people in my day, never have I heard of someone getting inked.

Tropical Storm Seniang decide to pay us a visit. She knocked on our door for 2 days straight before deciding to move on...sustained 85kph winds and rain pummeled us for 2 days straight. The "cottage" was rocking and rolling, rain was coming through any seam and crack possible. Impressively it took almost 48 hours for the power to go out on the island during this, also knocking out the running water. Don't worry about Graeme, he slept through the whole thing! Something good coming out of this was spending some quality time with our new crew, huddled up for hours in a restaurant while the kids played and we drank instant coffee (don't even get me started on that - no brewed/ground coffee in Philippines, they LOVE instant coffee!). TS Seniang went on to kill over 70 people on neighboring islands with mudslides and flash floods, but we ended up just fine. It actually didn't bum us out at all (although no showers and no working toilets got old after a few days), as we were enjoying time with our crew and planning what to do when the weather cleared.

How do the coconuts stay up there?

85KPH and standing tall..

Tropical Storms? Inking octopi? Showering in the ocean? Getting creative to flush a toilet? No problem for this family. We were enjoying this island and our friends so much we didn't care. The storm passed and we carried on. We were enjoying ourselves so much, that at dinner with everyone on the 3rd to last night of our stay on the island we decided to extend our stay and hang with our friends, bailing on the 2nd leg of our journey. On the motorbike ride home after dinner I told Erin I'd get online in the morning and rearrange our plans and we'd just stay in Siargao until Jan 9th...Upon getting back to the cottage that plan changed. The door was wide open, everything was pitch black (still no power - it took almost 7 days for it to come back on eventually). I had a flashlight and was able to keep Erin and Graeme back while I checked it out. No one was there and at first glance looked as if nothing was touched - surfboard, SLR camera, Ipad, phones, etc. all still in place. On closer look, we got robbed. They were very specific about what they touched and what they took. Our Peso's (Philippine currency) were gone. The hut had no safe and really no place to hide anything, so the money was somewhere hidden in one of our bags. Aside from leaving behind all of the other goods, they also left behind our USD, Credit Cards and passports. Interesting. Our friends staying next door came over to help us out and after gathering the caretaker and his crew and the police we stayed the night on their floor.

Our view of this pristine island a bit skewed at this point, the next day we checked into a resort our friends had been staying at and we'd been hanging out at during the storm, to feel a bit safer. Plus, they had a generator and we could shower and ummm, poop. We spent the day taking a boat with friends to drop the kids and others at a beach on an island and me and the others surfed a reef break, washing off the crap we had dealt with the night before. It's amazing how the ocean has a way to provide clarity. Leaving the beach, Graeme got stung by a blue bottle jellyfish. Did you know that blue bottle jellyfish stings hurt just like any other jellyfish sting? Graeme does now.....some more TLC and a shower and he was good to go.

That night, trying to settle into a well deserved nights sleep, the resort started shaking. I mean, like rattling off it's hinges. Over the course of about 5 hours throughout the night we were hit with 5 earthquakes ranging in magnitude 5 to 6. Locals were firing up their motorbikes and bailing, worried about tsunami's (not sure where they were heading as there was almost no elevation on the island). Another sleepless night....

We ended up riding out our original plan and staying on the island until Dec.31 (New Years Eve). There is only one flight a day and they hadn't flown for a few days because of the storm and were backed up so we couldn't leave early anyway. Landing in Manila and getting a taxi to a hotel near the airport, we saw firsthand why most people told us not to bother visiting Manila other then to get to/from the airport. I'll just leave it at that. Tired and run down, going on 5 nights of no sleep, we figured this would be perfect to be in bed early and head to the airport in the morning. Well, it was New Years Eve and we were in a pretty big city filled with people who have a great affinity for fireworks and shooting firearms into the air. Sleepless night number 6.

We made it to Palawan Island but changed up our length of stay (to return to Ho Chi Minh about 5 days early) and our resort - opting for a resort 10 minutes from the airport versus a 5 hour SUV ride away as we had originally planned. We were a bit spent so we headed to bed early that night in anticipation of our first full nights sleep in almost a week. Around 1a.m. Graeme started screaming in his sleep - a bad dream and he popped up, eyes wide open but still asleep, screaming that there was a bear in the room. One touch and it was obvious he was burning up with a fever. Not huge, 102.5 but with everything that was going on we had another sleepless night. He broke the fever easily with some acetaminophen and we got on with the rest of our stay in Palawan.

This one is an overall calamity that took place on all of our flights for this trip. All told, we had 8 legs booked with Cebu Pacific Airlines. From the minute we got to the airport to start the trip in Ho Chi Minh City to the time we got home almost 3 weeks later, we have never seen such a poorly run operation. Our first layover in Manila was 4 1/2 hours and we almost missed our flight - can't blame that all on Cebu Pacific as Manila airport is probably the poorest designed airport we've ever seen. Not one flight left on time, or was even recognized as being late for that matter, utter chaos at check in counters - people standing on the counters yelling, screaming, pushing...it was surreal. Ultimately we arrived safely at all of our destinations but travel is stressful enough without the added burden of a ineptly run business you are counting on. I should have known what was to come when I bought the tickets online and it took 6 1/2 hours to just pay for them - at one point on a 3-way call with my credit card company in Atlanta (where it was 3 a.m.), myself in Ho Chi Minh and someone from Cebu Pacific in Manila. Let's just say we won't be flying with them again...

So, if you are keeping track, in the span of 6 sleepless nights, we had no electricity, no running water, a tropical storm hit us right on the chin, multiple earthquakes with people running for the hills, octopus inking, jellyfish stings, fevers, unrelenting explosions through the New Years, and we were robbed. We arrived in Palawan a bit tired, confused and disillusioned. It took us a day or two to appreciate it and then we were able to dig into more tide-pooling, playing with kids also staying there and taking tricycle rides for dinners...

Major tides in Palawan

We had to email Uncle Keith to ask what we have found

Inter-tidal life....

Some sort of starfish, Uncle Keith???

Where hermit crab shells go to die...

Puerto Princessa Mangroves

THE UGLY

We had found it. We found the spot we are always looking or on all of our travels. The spot that ticks off all of the boxes. The one you start scheming where to build dream hut on a hill surrounded by rice paddies and coconut palms blowing in the breeze. The place you always want to come back to. The place that has something for all of you. The place you don't even have to think twice about when deciding where to travel to for a vacation. We were trying to extend our stay - in all of our travels we have left places early but never extended. We were going to plan a back up trip in the Fall to see it in a different light during a different season. We were going to start asking around how to make this dream a reality.

We were salted...

These things (petty theft, non-violent crime, robbery, whatever you choose to call it) happen everywhere. It's not a Siargao problem or a Philippines problem. It's a global problem. Poverty, destitution, drugs, and corruption are a vial concoction. Without getting into too much detail here for sake of length, there are some scenario's in Siargao that make this particular problem a bit amplified and more common (If you want to know more feel free to ask me over a beer). Unfortunately, after something like this happens to you on a trip you cannot help yourself but to look at everyone you see as a possible culprit. The general feeling of uneasiness is daunting. You just want to run as fast as you can to somewhere comfortable. You want to run home as fast as you can. Traveling with a family is a bit different as well. We were all safe and sound, but you run "what-if's" in your mind over and over again adding to the discomfort. We had some folks in our corner to really help us out during our last few days there and are grateful to have had them be there for us.

We've run into some other travel hiccups over the years as well. Surprisingly, there are some good things that come out of all of this. It's funny, you figure the memories of the excursions, culture, foods, people, etc. are the things that add to your character and growth from all of these travels. What I think we learned on this trip, having all of these things happen just about at once, is that it's the trials and tribulations while you are traveling that really add to your character. How you handle the situation, how you can adjust on the fly when needed, the people that are put into your life while things are happening - these and others are the traits that get added to your cache and help you grow as a person.

Graeme has been handling it all really well. It has been interesting watching him process the theft. We don't shelter him from much, but it was impossible to even try this time as he was right there with us. He's gone through a few different stages and I think we are at the point where he has a solid grasp on what happened, why it might have happened and that we are all safe and will remain that way.

At one point when Erin was trying to get him to the house when the octopus inked him, he was very upset and crying and screaming. Attempting to calm down the situation, Erin mentioned to him that one day he would think this would be a really cool and funny story. His repsonse, in between sobs, was "I don't find one thing cool or funny about this!". Ha!

It's not all bad. It takes a lot more then this to hold us down. We saw some of the most beautiful islands, reefs, water, beaches, and wildlife. We ate some OK food (sorry, Philippines isn't a culinary destination, and instant coffee? C'mon!). We met some really friendly locals and played with more kids and dogs than we can count. We made some new friends to add to our global network. We celebrated Christmas making snowmen on the beach out of sand - this was Graeme's 4th Christmas and he has spent each one in a different country so far! We celebrated Graeme's 4th Birthday on a beach discovering Chocolate Chip Starfish and chasing armies of crabs all over the place. We grew.....

We'd like to take a minute and say many thanks to our friends we made while on Siargao who really came through for us during a tense few days. We are certain we will see them all again in our travels and hoping they take us up on our open invite to visit us in Vietnam. So Lachlan, Katherine, Marco, Maria, Nash, Baby Luna and Johny - we raise our glasses to you and our fond memories in hopes of many more! Mot, Hai, Ba - YO!

And to everyone else - the invite is still open! Not sure we've "announced" anything but we've officially signed on to be here through June 2016 at least. For now that is as far ahead as we are looking, so get your act together, buy a plane ticket (they were down to $750usd round-trip from USA a few weeks ago!) and get a visa - we will take care of the rest!

To see all of the pictures from our trip to the Philippines CLICK HERE.

Hoà Bình,
The Hawken's in HCMC
#thetaoofgraeme