Harris World Tour

Thursday, June 20, 2019 Today was an amazing day and probably one of the highlights for me! We bought a tour to visit different islands. The boat was waiting for us at 9:00am. We had to show our eco cards that we bought at the bus station and the coast guard actually checked them. Our boat had 8 other passengers. I honestly do not remember the names of the islands but I have never seen so much beauty and life in one place. I first got very excited with the first stop at a reef in the bay. We jump out of the boat with a mask and snorkel and when I saw all those corals and so many colorful fish, I just couldn’t believe that it was real. I was thrilled to see so much sealife and soon I immersed myself in another world. I completely lost track of time and space, to the point that Gregory had to come and get me to tell me that it was time to go. We had lunch on the second island. It was almost 11:00am and I thought it was too early but it took them a while to cook our lunch. Meanwhile, Sun

Wednesday, June 19th, 2019 Today we set up the alarm for 7:30am because the van to Port Barton was picking us up at 9:00am. We left our suitcases in the Hotel and only took our backpacks to Port Barton, our next destination. Gregory and Sunshine voted for this place mostly because the coral reefs are undamaged and you get to see more sea life compared to El Nido. It is also less known and therefore less touristy. It only took two and a half hours to get here. I cannot say that the ride was smooth because the driver drove very fast and seemed to be in a competition. He didn’t like to have a car in front of him and every time he did, he would pass, even if it was forbidden. There are no driving rules in the Philippines, or if they are, no one pays attention. The van only made one stop for food/bathrooms but since it was only 10:00am, only the driver ate. I didn’t know what to expect and I hadn’t read anything about Port Barton but Gregory had warned us that it was a village. Well, let m

Tuesday, June 18th, 2019. Today we spent all day at the hotel. It was supposed to be a relaxed day but I can not relax when I know that we have to plan a trip. The only thing we knew was that we were leaving tomorrow and when I was ready to ask to get a van to El Nido, I asked Gregory if he was sure and he said no. We started the conversation about where to go all over again. Sunshine had researched El Nido and it is very well known for its lagoons but it is also very touristy. Gregory wants to avoid touristy places. I told them to talk to each other and come to an agreement. I left and went to the dining room area to catch up on my blog. To my surprise, the internet was good and I was able to post on the blog, not to publish yet because it needs to be proofread by Gregory or the kids! Around 1:00 Sunshine and I went for a swim. It helped me a lot to relax and not to think about the plans. I don’t like to leave things undecided, I like to sit down, make a plan, make a decision and sti

Monday, June 17th, 2019 Today we went to breakfast as usual, half an hour before they finish serving it! To be honest, no one is really excited about the buffet  because most of the food is meat, beef, fish, and pork. We, the only Westerners in the hotel, go for the eggs and toast. Daniel and Sunshine eat cornflakes with milk. After breakfast, we spent some time in the dining room enjoying the brief moments of good wifi and then we got ready to go to the beach. I texted RJay, our driver, to pick us up at 11:00. As much as I prefer to go to the beach early, it's hard because no one likes to move fast in the morning. The driver took us to Emerald Beach because we were told that the public one was dirty. It was a little farther away but not bad. When we arrived, we had to pay an entrance fee of 80 pesos per person, about $1.40 and if that’s what it takes to keep a place clean, we should do it everywhere! The place was empty. There was one other family with three boys and a dog. We

Sunday, June 16th, 2019 Today we didn’t do anything special. As a matter of fact, we didn’t even remember that it was Father’s Day until I saw the Facebook posts. We mostly hung around the hotel and did our usual, read, write, swim, etc. Gregory chose to go to the only shopping mall in this area. We were the only tourists there. At first,it looked small with only a few stores, but after we ate lunch, we walked around and found it was quite large. Sunshine and I were not thrilled. I honestly do not like shopping malls, I don’t like to look at stores and I don’t like to be inside a place for many hours but since we didn’t have anything else do to or go, we just walked around. [ Gregory's note: that's interesting, because her behavior in the mall didn't exactly match her words.] On the ground floor, we found a souvenir shop where I spend half an hour learning about cultured pearls. There are so inexpensive here that I got earrings for my aunts in Mexico and other small prese

Friday, June 14th, 2019 Today we decided to spend the whole day at our new hotel. We were looking forward to the buffet breakfast included. Well, the excitement didn’t last long because most of the Filipino food they serve was meat and fish. We settled for the eggs and the fruit. Better than the previous hotel but nothing like in Thailand or Laos, sigh… The best thing about the hotel is the pool, it's nice and clean. I always thought I like to sit by the pool and read but not really. I like to swim and then almost immediately shower. Actually, on this trip, I've had to relax and not worry so much about hygiene. [ Gregory's note: what? Gross!] At night, our tricycle driver first took us to Shakey's Pizza, but it was very pricey so he took us to a local restaurant he knew and it was fantastic! The place is called Neva's and the wood fired pizza was very tasty and reasonably priced. We enjoyed our first decent meal since arriving in the Philippines. We bought garlic

Thursday, June 13th, 2019 Today we had to wake up early because the hotel only serves breakfast from 6:00 to 8:00am! We were not excited to have eggs with tuna fish and rice. Luckily they made our eggs without the tuna but the whole place smelled like fish! Daniel was not happy. Afterward, the kids went back to the room and Gregory and I went for a walk to the Baywalk, where Sunshine and I went yesterday. It is a beautiful and clean port. The cruise ship we saw yesterday was gone. Today, every single food store was closed and it was so hot that we had to run from one tree shadow to another. Our walk was short. When we got back to the hotel, I went to the front desk to ask the lady to call our next hotel (awkward) to see if they could pick us up for free. I would have never thought about doing that but Gregory’s idea worked. First, our hotel offered to take us for 300 pesos (about US$6) but the new hotel offered a free airport shuttle. I said, just pretend you're picking us up at t

Wednesday, June 12th, 2019 What a day! We had to wake up at 5:30am to be at the airport by 6:00am, which was 2 hours before our flight but they warned us that the Manila airport is notoriously slow and crowded. We chose a hotel close to the airport for convenience. Well, I felt like the airplanes were going to fall on top of me every time they took off. I had a terrible night but was ready to go rest in Palawan. When we arrived at the airport, we were happy to be there early. At 6am, there were big lines just to get in the door! It took us about an hour to get in and go through the first security screening. We didn’t have to check in luggage so we were able to move faster. Gregory and the kids went to see if they could sit in the lounge while I waited at the boarding gate. I didn’t want to pay for an extra person when we only had less than an hour, and the gate was packed and people were sitting on the floor. It turned out the lounge was only for international flights. The Philippines

Tuesday, June 11th, 2019 Everything went pretty smoothly today except when the small car with a tiny trunk arrived to pick us up to take us to the airport. Gregory was ready to cancel when the driver grabbed our suitcases and somehow fit them in the trunk. Of course, we drove with the trunk open but who cares, we had traveled with our suitcases on the top of the car in India! OK, not that smoothly. When we got to the airport, after going through security, there was a huge line to check our luggage. Gregory was upset because, for the first time, he didn’t do the online check-in. If we had done this, we could have saved maybe half an hour. Plus we didn’t eat breakfast because we were counting on having breakfast in the airport lounge but we didn’t have much time left after checking in the luggage. We still had immigration and security to pass through and only an hour before takeoff. We had to buy overpriced, gross sandwiches near the gate and get in line to board! We were upset that we

Monday, June 10th, 2019 The title describes what we did today. Feeling lazy? Just a little bit. All I have to add is that coming back to the Smart Suites felt like coming home. I guess we call home the place that we recognize and where we feel comfortable. The receptionist at Smart Suites informed us that they were full! Uh-oh! They let us leave our backpacks with our big suitcases (which they have been keeping for some weeks) while we walked to the Terminal 21 shopping center to see a movie. The interesting thing in Thailand is that before the movie starts, you have to stand and honor the king while they play a small video of his majesty. Check the video! On the way, we stopped at an American-style diner that had burgers, hot dogs, chili, and other American favorites. Lucky for us, they also serve Thai food. We saw many locals taking pictures and ordering hamburgers and milkshakes. But we wanted Thai food. Street food is always great, but I wanted to sit at a table with air

Sunday, June 9th, 2019 Another rainy morning. I kind of like it but it's a shame that we couldn't visit the most beautiful islands due to the rain. After the rain passed, we decided to walk to the other beach that we hadn't seen, Nopharat Thara. Of course we had to drag Daniel but we need to push that kid to get him off of his electronics. The walked turned out to be fun because we found so much sea life on the sand, which was good and bad. Good that we got to see hundreds of hermit crabs, oyster shells, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and more. The bummer was that they need water so we tried to save them by putting them back into the water. I was very frustrated with the mounds of trash on the beach so I started to fill a plastic bag. Sunshine joined me and together we filled two or three bags of trash. An Indian man approached me and asked if he could take a picture. I said yes, but I was hoping he would help instead! Well, at least he noticed. Sunshine said, "[glad he

Saturday, June 8th, 2019 Today we woke up to rain. We ran to the dining room where we enjoyed our breakfast while we hearing the raindrops pelt the metal roof.  It rained the whole day, and hard. It was fine, because we all got to do what we wanted: Gregory writing, Daniel playing online games, Sunshine watching Netflix and me, reading. In the afternoon, Sunshine and I went shopping. Later, Gregory and I watched a movie while it continued to rain. At night, when it finally stopped, Gregory, Sunshine and I walked to the night market, which was very small. It had a few food and souvenir stands. Not many people were there, probably because of all the rain. We bought chicken shwarma from a stand for dinner and Sunshine had her coconut. Street food is really good and cheap in Ao Nang, I recommend it more than the restaurants. For pictures please click here https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZpCAg4uYpb7e7Mc7

Friday, June 7th, 2019 It is great to be on vacation, no alarm clock or anything to worry about. The kids slept in. I went for a swim in the pool. Even if the water was murky, it felt good. We had late breakfast, just before 10:00, when they start to clean up. Afterward, Gregory and Daniel went back to their rooms. Sunshine and I went for a walk on the beach. We cleaned up a bag of trash, took some pictures and went shopping. The weather forecast had predicted rain all day but it was only cloudy and actually got hot while we were looking at the souvenir shops. We stopped for a coconut and then continued our shopping. I like to make conversation with the people at the stores. We met a man from Burma (as he called it). I told him that he must have left Myanmar a long time ago, if he called it that. He said he was 10 years old when he came with his family. We chatted for a bit and of course, was happy to hear that we liked his country. We also met a man from Nepal who shared his story wh

Thursday, June 6th, 2019 The breakfast buffet was fantastic. The kids were thrilled to have more options than the previous hotel. After eating, we walked to the beach to take advantage that it wasn't raining. We walked through the small town full of souvenir shops, restaurants, Thai massages, and tour operators. We walked for five minutes and found the beach across the street from the shops. It was just a strip of sand because of the high tide. The kids and I swam for a little bit in the ocean, the bummer was that I saw a jellyfish and after that, Daniel didn't want to swim. Sunshine's dry skin itched with the salty water and well, it wasn't really a sunny beach day. Later Sunshine and I went for a walk and were sad to see so many plastic bottles and trash on the beach. I promised myself to bring a plastic bag every day to clean up trash! After that, we walked back to the pool, where we swam for a short time because it started to rain. I barely had time to swim. We sho

Wednesday, June 5th, 2019 Sunshine and I went for a walk on the beach before breakfast. It was cloudy and the sand had tons of different shapes made by the tiny crabs digging holes. After a short walk, we went for breakfast. We decided to leave our cute but deserted and isolated hotel for Ao Nang Beach, where there should be more people. I personally didn’t have a problem being by ourselves here, the only thing I didn’t like about the hotel was the construction going on and the noise but aside from that, the place is gorgeous! The hotel gave us a break to check out late because the van is coming to pick us up at 2:40. I went for a long walk on the beach by myself. I found an estuary, which is where a river meets the ocean. The water coming from the river wasn’t that clean. On my walk, it started to rain so I took refuge in a small massage business that was closed. After the rain passed, I walked back to the hotel and although it was cloudy, it was hot and sticky. I took a shower and t

Tuesday, June 4th, 2019 This morning Sunshine woke us up at 8:30 for breakfast but we said to wait till 9:00. It's a vacation after all. I know we live at the beach but still, coming to the beach on an island and staying in beautiful bungalows, well you really feel like you're on vacation. Breakfast was ok, nothing fancy but hey, it is included with our $30 a night room. We can’t complain, there is no way you can find such a nice beach resort with breakfast at this price in the US! After breakfast, I was going to sit down and catch up on my blogging but then I realized we wanted to take advantage of the nice day before the rain came -- it is rainy season after all! We put our swimsuits on and went to the beach. Sunshine and I went for a walk and it was sad to see so much trash on the sand. I’m sure it was mostly because of the storm. The beach might have been a bit dirty but the day was gorgeous! We went into the water afterward, and Gregory caught up with us and actually got

Monday, June 3rd, 2019 Today flew to Krabi. I was a little anxious because we were going to leave our big suitcases at the hotel -- again -- but we hadn’t asked if we could. Gregory said "we're not asking them, we are just telling them." No wonder why he always gets what he wants. [ Gregory's note: ha!] Gregory met with his friend Axel in a cafe at the airport while the kids and I went to the lounge (which we call the Beep Lunch, which is how Uma pronounces VIP Lounge). I’m glad I only had a yogurt for breakfast because there was so much delicious food to chose from. I had corn soup, sushi, chicken basil with  red curry and  steamed rice, fruit, and guava juice! I also grabbed some snacks to go for Gregory. I think we have really taken advantage of my Priority Pass card. We left at 2:00pm. It was a fast and pleasant flight but when we arrived, we didn’t know how we were going to get to the hotel. Gregory was negotiating with a van service that started at 600 baht p

Sunday, June 2nd, 2019 Today we got up early. Our taxi driver came to pick us up at 7:00am. It was tough to get up early after getting up late for so long. We made it to the airport and everything went fast and smooth. Our 8:30am flight was on time and in about an hour we were in Bangkok. I have noticed that I don’t get as stressed as I used to and now I know that we will figure out what’s next when the time comes. I guess what I’m trying to say is that as much as I like to plan in advance, things can go different ways and you just have to wait and see. When we got to the airport, Gregory checked different ways to get to our hotel, including the Skytrain, but since there are 4 of us, it was cheaper to use Grab. Traffic wasn’t as bad as it normally is. We arrived at Smart Suites hotel and it felt good to be back. I was looking forward to seeing the receptionist who had become our friend. She wasn’t there but she told her friend to reserve two deluxe rooms for the regular price. Our roo

Saturday, June 1st, 2019 Today we decided to do a self-guided walking tour in the city. The bummer is that we left late in the morning (as usual, I don’t fight it anymore) and it started to get hot. After visiting two of the temples, we were hesitating about finishing the tour. Sunshine was upset because she wanted to go to the pool before it rained. Daniel didn’t want to see more temples. Gregory, I don’t know and me, I felt the need to cover the city before we left. This is the hardest part for me when no one wants to do anything. I told the kids that we would cover most of the temples in the morning, go out for lunch and then have the afternoon free and that’s what we did. I don’t remember the names of the temples, but each one is unique. They all have Buddhas statues inside but again, different architecture and different decorations. One of the temples had a huge Buddha statue outside. We walked in the old town and we saw parts of the wall that were constructed for the protection

Friday, May 31st, 2019 Today we slept in and we all wanted to be lazy and stay at our nice cozy hotel. After a nice breakfast, I went out by myself looking for a beauty salon that could dye my hair. I had bought the dye yesterday. The receptionist recommended a place near the hotel and I went there. But I found a temple on the way, the Elephant temple. It was very beautiful. Afterward, I walked to the other direction and found the salon. The lady charged me 300 baht which is the equivalent of $10. She did a great job and now my hair doesn't look like a rainbow. Around noon we went out for lunch. We walked around and  ended up eating in a cute place across from our hotel. After lunch, I took Daniel to get his hair cut and then we went back to the hotel where everyone had some homework to do. Gregory worked on his novel, Sunshine on her Girl Scout project, me on the blog and Daniel, probably playing games! (He had me do my math and more flag studying, and then I recorded a YouTube v

Thursday, May 30th, 2019 We enjoyed our last morning in our cute hotel Rom Po. The reason we wanted to find another hotel is that we wanted to be closer to Old Town and we found other hotels with better price. We checked out at noon and then we walked to see other hotels that Gregory had researched the night before. There were just ok but we were not convinced so we kept walking in the street where we wanted to stay. It is a charming street full of life, full of restaurants, coffee shops, Thai massage, and spa salons. We just fell in love with this street last night and we want to stay here. We were not worried because it is full of small hotels and guesthouses. We stopped in a nice cute hotel and we all voted yes on it! It was a little more than we were paying and we were looking to save money but Gregory said that this would be the place where we could splurge so we stayed here. The rooms are bright and cozy and it has a small pool. Daniel was even more excited because the inter

Wednesday, May 29th, 2019 It was hard to open our eyes today. We slept in and had breakfast past 9:00am. We had an Asian breakfast of rice soup with eggs. Not my first choice but not bad! After breakfast, we were trying to figure out what to do. Well, mostly me, because Gregory was absorbed in his book. That's great but I also like to make plans to see how long are we going to stay in Chang Mai. We had planned to visit some temples but then I found the Tiger Kingdom and thought that the kids would love to see real tigers. Gregory was happy with the choice so around 1:30 we went to the Tiger Kingdom. I can’t believe that it was me who found this activity and wanted to go inside the cage with the tigers, what was I thinking? When we got there, we had to choose which tigers we wanted to see. I had read that we had to choose the size of the tigers and because I had seen pictures, we all had agreed to go see the cubs. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any so Daniel and I chose the small

Tuesday, May 28, 2019 Today was our last day in Luang Prabang, Laos, and I have to admit that I wasn’t ready to leave this beautiful city and country. We got up late and had a delicious breakfast on our terrace upstairs. We got ready to check out at noon. We left our backpacks with the manager, who has been extremely friendly, and went to check the library's book store. Sunshine and I got a book, even if we both already have one. The money goes to help Lao schools so it was a good cause! After that, Gregory and Sunshine walked to buy sandwiches. ( Sunshine's note: all the stands open in the evening for the night market. So we walked a long way in the heat to find a sandwich.)  [ Gregory's note:  Actually, Sunshine had a particular stand in mind and wouldn't stop anywhere else along the way.] Daniel and I walked back to the hotel, it was unbearable to be outside in the heat. You really don’t see the locals outside at this time, they are hiding from the heat and napping!

Monday, May 27th, 2019 Let’s try again, today is Monday so we got up early to go volunteer at Big Sister Mouse. This is a school outside the city of Luang Prabang. It was founded by an American who saw the need for children to learn and to read. It is actually a private school where parents pay $15 a month, but the students get a much better education than if they were to go to public school and it gives the teachers a paying job. [ Gregory's note: a lot of people get a teaching credential and end up teaching for free in Laos, so a paid position is not a foregone conclusion.] We arrived at Big Brother Mouse a little before 9:00 am. We told the lady at the front desk that we were there to go to Big Sister Mouse. They asked for a donation of 100,000 kip per person for gas and lunch but we gave half because we also have expenses. The owner was happy to have four volunteers. He explained that it was the low season and they were lucky if they got even one volunteer. I was disappointed