A Memorial Day Surprise

So Tania and I have been back in the States for two months now, and we've filled our time with family, friends, memories, and planning for the next phase in our life together.  We've spent countless hours with our 14 month old nephew Ian and seen him start walking and almost start talking, all the while seen his personality blossom into the most unbelievable little boy around.  We've visited our friends in LA for a bachelor party (Matt DeVille's), to visit friends, to dance our asses off at Coachella, and to celebrate our friends Luke and Thu at their wedding in San Diego.  We joined thousands of people down at the state capital to protest the SB 1070 law.  We've climbed 6 of the 7 summits in Phoenix (your ours next time South Mountain!).  We rooted on the Suns as they beat the Spurs and fought hard but eventually losing to the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.  We've eaten at amazing restaurants and visited beautiful parks like the Botanical Gardens.  And we've spent as much time with the Palumbos as possible knowing that we'd be moving on to the east with the Shershins soon enough.

Our last weekend in Arizona was spent with Tony, Anna Marie, Scott, Emily, Ian, and plenty of family friends playing golf, poker, Scattergories, and barbecuing together in the incredibly gorgeous setting of Forest Highlands.  It was the perfect way to spend quality time with Craig's family before heading onto a fun cross-country trip starting the Tuesday after Memorial Day. 

All in all, the two months after we got back from Asia were filled with family and friends, allowing us to ease back into the pace that only this country can provide.  And we were reminded of all the reasons we love this country so.  But one story from this weekend reminded us of our time in Vietnam, and of why we all get a day off during this national holiday of Memorial Day.

Today, I played the first 9 holes at the Canyon course of Forest Highlands just with my father, Tony, and his brother Mike.  After 9, Mike walked back to his house and a member of the group behind us asked to join Tony and me in our 2some.  Of course we accepted and he tee'd off with us at 10 while introducing ourselves.  When he heard our last name, he asked whether we were related to the kicker from Notre Dame 10 or so years ago.  When we told him Scott was indeed our brother/son and that Ton had attended ND law school, conversation progressed to uncover that both this new member of our group, John, and Tony had been in Vinh Long, Vietnam, in 1969.  Then after much more astonishing discussion about this coincidence, they realized that John's company was moving into the same floor of Tony's building on Central Blvd in Phoenix.  This definition of "it's a small world" blew us away along with the cloudless and windless skies above the Canyon course, a site to be seen by itself.  Yet with this random occurrence happening in the middle of our round together, it was a story to be told as soon as we got off the course.

Any way, this memory of taking Tony back to Vinh Long for the first time since he was there 40 years ago reminded us not only of the incredible time we had with him and my mother there, but of how small of a world it is that we live.  We're grateful of the service they provided, ironically on this Memorial Day weekend, and grateful of the ability we have to relate to the land in which they served so long ago. 

Thought you'd want to hear that story.  We're off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, then onto the cross-country trip on Tuesday.  Check-in with you soon.

Phase 5 - Malaysia and the Philippines

Here's the video from the final leg of our trip.  Tania did an amazing job putting this together, so we hope you enjoy it!

Music by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Metric

Day 133 Tuesday March 23 Going home ☹

We flew out of Manila through Tokyo and Los Angeles, finally landing in Phoenix 22 hours later.  We ate some good noodles and drank some good beer in Tokyo in the hopes of knocking us out for the long stretch of the trip, but no luck, neither of us slept very much, meaning the jetlag is going to be bad; a decent price to pay for what we did over the last 5 months.

And that's all folks.  We hope you enjoyed following the trip through these blog entries and the videos we made.  Along with this being a trip of a lifetime for us, we realize that a lot of people lived the trip vicariously through us, which was our hope all along.  We hope you learned a few things about that far away region, and we hope you gained an itch to explore more of the world yourselves.  All we can say is that wherever you go and whatever you do will be worth it.  It always is.

Stay curious.  Stay energetic.  Stay passionate.  Stay open-minded.  And most importantly, stay happy.

Thanks to everyone for all of your support.  Now that we're back, we hope to see all of you very soon.

Cheers.

The Palumbos

Day 132 Monday March 22 Manila, Philippines

Not much to report here.  On Sunday, Tony drove us from Punto Fuego, past the Tagaytay volcano (actually a volcano within a volcano - so cool), and back to Manila.  We tried to get massages once back in the city, but there were no available therapists, so we just headed back to their condo for a quiet evening.

Monday was all about prepping to head back to the US on Tuesday morning.  We washed our clothes, packed our bags, bought some last minute gifts, and of course went to get one last massage.  Man we're going to miss being able to get such inexpensive and quality massages on a regular basis, because we know how expensive they are in the US, along with just about every other thing one needs or wants to buy.  Yet this is the exact type of thinking we spend all day stopping ourselves from concentrating on because we knew that if we dwelled on it too much, we really would be depressed when we got home.  Instead, we focused on all of the positive aspects of what going home would offer, including family, friends, comfortable surroundings, and especially for me, Mexican food.

We spent our last night of the trip taking Tony and Annie to a nice Italian dinner inside the Fort Bonifacio Global City.  We were so lucky that Diana organized for us to stay with her parents while we were in the Philippines, because not only did they provide top-notch accomodations, they were such amazing people to spend time with.  They are such amazing people that we will cherish having gotten to know and gotten to share their lives in this amazing country with.  The last few days really were the perfect way to end our trip.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Tony and Annie for everything!

Dinner with Tony and Annie

The last picture of our trip

Days 129-131 Friday-Sunday Punta Fuego, Philippines March 18-21

Let's just get it out of the way...Tania and I are the luckiest people in the world.  We are lucky to have the family and friends that we do, lucky to have had the greatest wedding in the world, lucky to be on this trip, and lucky to have found the perfect love with each other.  We admit this, and could never describe how truly fortunate we feel every day of our lives.

Now that that's out there, we'll tell you about our time in Punto Fuego.

After saying goodbye to the Child Fund team in Taal, Hubert and another team member drove us to Annie's sister's, Jenny's, house at Punta Fuego, which is a private coastal town west of Manila.  Jenny is one of the sweetest women in the world, and her house was equally beautiful.  We spent the weekend lounging by the pool, chatting over meals with her other sister and husband, the Colombos, taking the boat out to remote corners of the area for some swimming in the crystal clear water and snorkeling through the exotic marine life, including some giant clams that were opened to expose a transluscent blue inner shell, and just enjoying this incredible corner of the world with some incredible people.

 Sunset on the golf course above Jenny's house in Punto Fuego.

The view from Jenny's house in Punto Fuego.

We could not have imagined a better way to relax after the week we had in Taal.  And on top of that, we couldn't imagine a better way to wrap-up our 5 month journey through this region.  It gave us a chance to reflect on everything we had seen and done, and to prepare for what was about to come when we return back to the US.  Would we be changed people when we got back?  How much would we miss being on the road, experiencing something new and different every day?  What did we miss the most about the US, and what would we do/see/eat during the first few days back?  These were just some of the things that we pondered in the waning days of our trip.  There were no clear or easy answers to any of them, so we decided to relax and simply enjoy the home, setting, and meals that our immensely gracious and generous hosts were providing for us in Punto Fuego.  We could answer the questions when we got back to the US, or maybe during our 22 hours of travel we had ahead of us on Tuesday morning.

 Captain Tony driving our boat around different snorkeling areas.

Tania with the ladies at dinner.

Thank you Jenny, Annie, Tony, and Colombos.  Your homes and lives in Punto Fuego are amazing, and we appreciate you taking us in like you did more than you know.

Days 124-129 Sunday-Friday March 14-17 Batangas, Philippines

Sunday morning I went with Tony to the Manila Country Club to watch the Pacquiao/Clottey fight which was such a treat to be a part of.  Watching a Pacquiao fight in the Philippines is like watching the Super Bowl in the US.  EVERY person was watching, and the entire country's energy and attention was given to the fight during the week leading up to the event.  Not only that, it was surreal to watch an event at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium while I was on the other side of the world.  Tony's friends were great, and it was a blast watching the fight with them, even though it was quite uneventful due to Clottey's pure defensive approach.  I was very appreciative that Tony brought me with him (as Tania and I have been for everything they're doing for us while in their country), and also happy that Pacquiao won because I think the country would have burned if he lost.

After the fight, Tania and I packed our bags and got picked up by two reps from (Christian) Child Fund (CF), the foundation that brought us to the Philippines in the first place.  Carmen, Tania's mother, has sponsored a child within this organization for a long time now, but has never actually met any of these kids in person, so we thought we'd utilize this opportunity to become personally familiar with her charity while we were in the region.

It turns out that one of the men who picked us up, Hubert, was going to be our guide/rep for the week.  After the 3 hour drive to Taal, which is in the Batangas region, we were shown to our hotel, the Little Bridge Resort.  It did have a pool and was on beach-front property, but that's as far as the resort aspect of the hotel went.  The pool did serve us well throughout the week, though, because we swam man laps with our snorkel masks.  It's amazing how much more we like swimming as a source of exercise when breathing is easier by the snorkel mask.

Several CF staffers took us into the main area of Taal on our first night to grab food.  We got a pizza to go and some groceries from 7-11 and headed back to the hotel so we could get a good night rest before our big first day in Batangas.

Monday morning we headed over to the elementary school with Hubert and encountered a sea of children who were in a parade line walking out of the school gate.  The parade, and subsequent singing/dancing performance, were all commemorating the kids' awareness of El Nino and its effect on our planet.  We walked with the kids for about 20 minutes before returning to the school and over to the outside stage where the rest of the morning would occur.

Taal kids and a sign they made on recycled plastic during their El Nino parade.

 One of the incredibly well choreographed and performed dance pieces during the El Nino show.

Several groups of kids sang songs like "My Heart Will Go On" and "Nobody" (apparently the biggest song to ever come out of Korea - actual song begin after the 2:00 mark in the linked video).  Other groups of kids performed choreographed dances that rival some of the best we saw on last season's So You Think You Can Dance.  The kids put so much effort into the performances, and it was so cool to witness in person.  They also treated us like celebrities, giving us seats up front and coming up to us to say hello.  Such a great way to get to know the kids of this area.

After the show, we walked over to the CF office and met the child who Carmen sponsors, Janric.  His father brought him and his sister to the office, and we got to spend an hour with him, just long enough for him to warm up to us, and not too long to remove him from his daily routine.  Tania had thoughtfully bought Janric some children's books which they read and played with during our visit.  Janric especially took to a book that came with stickers that he could place throughout the book.  He was quite timid during the first half of our visit, but as more stickers were stuck and the more time he spent next to Tania, he definitely took a liking to my beautiful wife.  When the visit was done, we all exchanged hugs and took some pictures so we could share the moment with Carmen and Tony.

 Tania with Janric (blue), a CF staffer, and Janric's little sister (orange).

Tania with Janric and his sister at the end of our visit with them.

Even though our primary purpose of coming to Taal was to meet Janric, CF knew that we wanted to spend a week with them to experience what the organization does for the local community, and to get to know the community in which Janric lives.  One day we toured all of the villages within Batangas and around Taal.  We sat with a group of mother's and their children while a local elder taught the mothers about pre-adolescent development and care.  We toured a few plots of land on which CF funds go towards locals growing their own food and raise their own cattle.  And we ate lunch with a few families at their homes while asking questions about their lives and community.  

 Mothers and their children at the pre-adolescent community class.

One of the children at the class, after I made her cry (ask Tania).

Yet the highlight came at the end of the week when we spent two days with a youth group that uses the CF office as their activity headquarter.  These teenagers, some of whom were CF sponsored children earlier in their lives, worked to raise funds for a computer, choreographed and practiced dances and songs, and simply enjoyed each others' company in a very positive and productive atmosphere.  Tania spent Thursday afternoon really getting to know the kids, asking about their dreams and aspirations.  One girl was so obviously ready to be a leader in the real world, and we will not think twice about hiring her if she ever wanted to work in the US.  And on Friday, as a farewell gathering for Tania and me, the kids performed several dances and songs to commemorate our visit to Taal.  We couldn't help but get choked up as we watched how happy and appreciative these kids were to have support from the outside world.  I even got into the mix and joined them on stage for a dance, but quickly fell behind because I didn't know their choreography.  It didn't matter, though, because it was the fact that we were all together, two completely different worlds joined with the hope that we can all live and work together to make this world a better place.

 The CF youth group singing for us at our farewell ceremony.

The two of us with the CF youth group.

Along with Tania's sunrise boat ride to a beautiful choral reef, a climb up to the roof of the Taal Church (and subsequent magnificent views of the ocean and inland areas), walks to other villages and their markets, tours of local museums, and a few dinners at the Taal Bistro (we did eat sisig, a local favorite that we saw on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations), that was our time in Batangas.  It was a complete departure from the luxury shown to us by Tony and Annie in Manila, which gave us an eye-opening perspective on the country because both sides are incredible in their own ways.  This dichotomy is seen on a much smaller scale in many areas of Manila where the opposite ends of the spectrum sit less than a block from one another.  But like we said, both lifestyles are rich and beautiful in their own ways, and we're forever grateful to have been able to see and feel firsthand why the Philippines is a land of people who are very proud in their history and culture.

Days 122-123 Friday-Saturday March 12-13 Manila, Philippines

The primary purpose of us traveling to the Philippines was to visit Batangas and the child, John Ric, who Tania's mother Carmen sponsors through the group (Christian) Child Fund.  She has been active with this organization for a long time now, so we were excited to see first-hand how her contributions were affecting someone so little and so far away.

Yet, as we have done the entire trip, we wanted to milk every last ounce out of our time here, so we organized to spend a few days with (follow me here) Tania's friend Diana's parents, Tony and Annie, in Manila and the surrounding cities.  This was the last leg of our trip, so we also wanted to make sure we enjoyed a little more beach time before heading home, which we thought we'd do on our own, but turns out Tony and Annie would provide us with that opportunity, amongst others.  More on that later, though.

When we got to Manila, we took the two hour bus ride (because Air Asia was located that far out of town, not in the conveniently located Manila airport, of course) into the city, where we experienced that chaos that is Manila traffic.  I mean this place puts LA to shame.  Once our bus got to the station and we grabbed a cab, it took us 1.5 hours to go 1.5 miles.  We'd hit this traffic again during our time in Manila, but boy oh boy was it mind blowing to see for the first time.

When we finally got to Tony and Annie's place in Fort Bonifacio, we were pleasantly surprised that they lived in an incredibly beautiful condo in an upper floor of a tower overlooking Manila Country Club and the rest of the city.  Tony and Annie greeted us and made us feel so at home, which was so incredibly kind of them, and made us feel very comfortable during our time there.

We took it easy that first day because we had been traveling very odd hours, but we did have a delicious dinner with our hosts.  The following day Tony and their driver Leo took us on a guided tour of the city, hitting all the important spots including Intramuros, the Mall of Asia, St. Augustine Church, and many more malls since the company SM seems to be popping monstrous buildings all over the city (with their logo emblazoned prominently wherever possible).  It was a quick day tour, but as always, we had a good idea of the city's layout because of it.

 Tania and Tony outside of the house in which Diana grew up.

Saturday night Diana's cousin Niko and his girlfriend picked us up so we could party the night away at their friend's birthday party at Establishment.  Luckily for us, "party the night away" for Niko meant the same as it now does for us, meaning we had a few drinks with the party, had many laughs, stopped by another club and shook our tails for a few songs, then retired home by midnight so we could get a good night's sleep.  It was very nice of them to include us in their plans, and it was good to see what the night life in Manila is like for the large amount of expats living in the city.

Sunday morning we packed our bags because Child Fund was sending a van to pick us up and drive us to Batangas for our week of volunteering with their group.  We didn't need to say good bye to Tony and Annie since they invited us to their sister's beach house at Punto Fuego on Friday, meaning we'd get our beach time in before going home AND would get to spend more time with them before leaving.  So perfect.

Days 119-121 Tuesday-Thursday March 9-11 Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

The flight from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu was easy, but as always with Air Asia, the walk from the plane to the terminal was abnormally long because, well, this isn't really a commercial airport.  Imagine Southwest Airlines only flying out of the most remote terminals and/or airports.  Makes one wonder whether the discounted airfare is actually worth it.

Enough of that.  Back to the trip.

When we got into KK, we grabbed a taxi and took the short ride to our hotel, the Hotel Eden54, which we obviously picked because of Lauren and Matthew's daughter Eden who was born the same day as my nephew Ian.  KK isn't the biggest town in the world, but it was definitely bigger than Sandakan, and had much more of a vibrant day and night life, which we were excited about after 4 days of quiet time on the waterfront.

We had several great meals while in KK, but that didn't start during our first night, which was spent at an Italian restaurant which was highly recommended in our books, and had a 50% off deal.  Well, there's a reason they offered such a discount because they didn't offer such great food or drink.  Tania's pina colada was not really a pina colada (that's what she gets for ordering a pina colada in Malaysia).  The wine was garbage.  And the food was not even close to the standard set by Anna Marie's famous Italian.  Luckily, though, we kept exploring KK eateries and found an incredible sushi joint that we visited several times, and some other decent restaurants that revamped our impression of food in KK.

Our first day we grabbed a speed boat out to two of the several islands just off the coast of KK for some R&R time on the beach.  It was a nice day of grabbing some sun, only interrupted by a swarm of Japanese tourists snapping pictures of girls in bikinis, and a hellish wind storm that forced us to the other side of one of the islands where the wind was being blocked.  We got in some good snorkeling in that quiet area, and I even braved the windy side of the island where the waves were 3 foot choppy, but paid off with incredible views under the water.  Gorgeous fish and choral of all shapes and colors.

 Where did these tourists come from, and where are their bathing suits?

 Shallow water snorkeling on one of the islands off of KK.

Our other big activity in KK was a bus tour up to Mount Kinabalu.  We were grouped with a fun set of people from all over the world, and got to take in the breathtaking views of the country's tallest mountain.  Snow capped the peaks and clouds skirted the edges, so we snapped some beautiful pics of the views.  We also got to enjoy a nice lunch, walk through a tree-top canopy park, and soak up the natural hot spring water before jumping back on the bus to return to KK.

Mount Kinabalu

KK seems to be where Malaysia as a whole is going in the future.  Catering to tourists, they're building a ton of malls (because it's so incredibly hot most of the year), opening nice restaurants, and expanding the city limits to allow for new developments perfect for prospecting home buyers.  Let's hope they grow gradually so that the worst scene we saw (more garbage floating in the water at the docks) doesn't start showing up over more parts of the city.

 Think twice about buying that case of water bottles next time you're at Costco.

We were delayed at the airport, so I walked around and snapped the below picture of a group of Muslim women dressed in a wide array of beautifully colored burkas.  They humored me and allowed me to take their picture as long as I sent them the picture to their email addresses.

 Women in beautiful burkas at the KK airport.

This Muslim country has its supreme differences from the US, but many similarities, which we hope bodes well for the middle east and west one day learning to live harmoniously together.