Harris World Tour

What have I learned from traveling for a year? The last homework assignment for my kids was an essay about what they learned about our trip around the world. I told them that Gregory and I had to do it as well. Here I am, in front of my laptop and not knowing what to start with. I know it will be me who has changed and not the people or the places around me. I know this by experience because I have been away before and I know that the biggest changes happen inside you, in the way you see things, your perspective changes and I believe that’s where the growing happens. Right now, we might not be able to see it because it is too soon, but once we go back to our routines and our daily old lives, we will see, feel and live the change. I’m happy to say that one of my biggest dreams was to travel around the world. I always wrote in my journal that I wanted to visit more countries or just travel more with my family, but I always wrote them as a wish, a dream and I never really worked to make ...

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2019 What a night! I hardly slept and woke up at 5:50am. I rested in bed until 6:15 and then I got up. We got ready and I went downstairs to check on Daniel. For some reason, I got lost so I came back upstairs to ask Gregory for directions and their room number. I finally found their room and was able to check on my baby. I could tell that he wasn’t feeling great but at least he didn’t have temperature and hadn’t thrown up. Sunshine and I brought their suitcases downstairs but of course, first we got lost, somehow we ended up on another floor. The whole hotel was weird, so we went upstairs to get Gregory and then, we finally made it to the first floor with the suitcases and then went by foot the last floor because the elevator didn’t go down all the way. That was the reason we got lost and ended in the garage! (Editor: I have no idea what she was trying to say there) Anyway, while we were bringing down the suitcases, Gregory called a Grab Taxi that came very fast an...

Monday, July 1st, 2019. Today we got up, had breakfast, and headed to the airport at 10:00am. The hotel staff was so sweet and wanted to take a picture with us before we left. We thanked them and then we got our free ride to the airport which was only 15 minutes away. We got there too early, but in Manila it took a while to get to the airport and go through security. This time everything went fast and smoothly. We sat in the waiting room for a while but the wait wasn’t bad because there was actually decent WiFi. At the airport, we saw a Spanish family that we had seen in El Nido and in the Butterfly Sanctuary in Puerto Princesa. Small world. The flight was pleasant and quick. Arriving in Manila is never fun because traffic is horrendous and we had to wait for a quite a while for our Grab taxi to pick us up even though the hotel was less than 1km away. Gregory got a hotel near the airport because we leave early tomorrow morning. Plus, we are not interested in seeing anything in Man...

Sunday, June 30th, 2019. Oops, we woke up at 8:40am, breakfast is served until 9:00am but like Gregory pointed out, they normally leave it until 10:00am so he never rushes. We don’t touch the Philippino food because it is mostly meat. The kids only have cereal and fruit. We have never been excited about the food since we got to the Philippines but it is nice when breakfast is included and we don’t have to go out looking for food. In the morning, Gregory did some work, I caught up on the blog and the kids stayed in their room. I can’t believe that I had to force myself to go swimming but it is my only exercise and I have been feeling very lazy about it, so I did it. Once I’m in the water, I feel like a mermaid or a siren which is the same word in Tagalog and Spanish. At night we asked our driver to take us to Giligan's for dinner. It was just ok, Daniel was the only one who enjoyed his boneless chicken teriyaki. Have I mentioned that they served most of the meat with bones in the P...

Saturday June 29, 2019 Today we took Sunshine to the hospital because I was really worried about her legs. She never complained but I saw her scratching nonstop. When I saw all the bites that she had on her legs and one that looked like a little dot in the middle, I worried. I read last night on the internet that female sand flies lay their eggs under the skin and they hatch 3 weeks later. I also read that when that happens, the flies normally die but I did read 4 severe cases in Colombia. Of course, the circumstances were extremely different [ Gregory's note: different insect, different continent, different diet, etc. Gotta love the Internet] but I was still worried and I needed professional reassurance. I had suffered a lot from bites in Port Barton and I was miserable. I actually spent one day taking cold showers and staying in the room because the heat activated the itchiness. We took her to the Adventist Hospital which was more expensive but recommended by and for forei...

Friday, June 28th, 2019 Today we didn’t do anything special. We felt lazy and stayed all day at the hotel. We swam, read, napped, etc. We didn’t even want to go out for dinner. We had noodle soups that we had bought in a convenience store for dinner. Gregory did go out with the masons. They took him out for dinner and he came back happy. He said he had a good time and got to know more about the life of the Philiphinos. For pictures please click here https://photos.app.goo.gl/vbHosXMuvye53onY8

Thursday, June 27th, 2019 Today I actually had to go upstairs to the kid's room to wake Sunshine up for breakfast. She is normally the one who come knocking on the door for breakfast. We woke her up singing happy birthday. At breakfast, they had banana bread so we pretended that that was her cake. The staff heard us sing happy birthday to her and after we ate, they approached me and said that they wanted to do something special for her! They wanted to bring something to her room but she was still sitting at the breakfast table. I told the staff to just bring it to the dining room where we were hanging around. The cook and staff brought 3 special cupcakes on a plate that had her name written in chocolate. That was so sweet of them. They sang happy birthday, we took a picture, and we were all happy. I asked Sunshine if she wanted to spend her day at the beach, but she wanted to go to the movies and then have pizza for dinner! I don’t know what my family did in the morning, I spend m...

Wednesday, June 26, 2019 Today the breakfast was much better and had plenty of fruit for us. The first time we stayed here, the fruit was normally gone because we are the last ones to eat. How strange! We had a good breakfast. Afterward, we took advantage of a good WiFi connection to call my mom. We chatted for about an hour, finally! After that, the kids and I went for a nice swim in the sun. We could see the clouds coming so we took advantage while we could. After a while, we had some snacks by the pool and then we went to our rooms to take a shower. I took a nice nap while Gregory worked on getting things ready for our return. I told him that I wanted him to relax and enjoy his last days of vacation, but he said he can’t. After my nap, the hotel staff wanted to move the kids to another room and then move all of us the next day. I got kind of upset because the last thing we want now is to change rooms every day. Can't they understand that we just want to stay in one place? We su...

Tuesday, June 25th, 2019 Today the trike came to pick us up closer to 11:00 to take us to the bus station. We were supposed to leave at 11:00 but the driver was waiting to fill up the van. There is space for 12 people so they won’t go anywhere until they fill every seat. At one point we left with two empty seats but the driver stopped along the way and got two more passengers. One of them sat in our row of three so we were a little bit cramped and the fourth passenger had to share Sunshine’s backrest. Gregory made the driver stop the van and move the passenger to the back seat when he saw us. The ride was not pleasant because the road was super curvy and the driver was driving fast. Sunshine, who switched with Gregory and sat on the front seat after the only break, said her head was moving from one side to the other  like a dead chicken . No wonder her neck hurt afterward. We thought the ride was going to be 6 hours but it took less than five! The driver offered to take us to our ...

Monday, June 24th, 2019 Today we set up the alarm for 7:00am because they are coming to pick us up at 8:30 for the tour. It is not fun to wake up and have to hunt for your breakfast, and it's even less fun when you have a budget. We walked around a little bit and all the breakfast seemed expensive and far more of what we were paying in Port Barton. Luckily the night before we had found a little stand where they told us they would make egg sandwiches for a dollar! We went there and brought our sandwiches to a restaurant where we bought the coffee for 35 pesos. After that, we went back to our hotel to wait for our ride who was 15 minutes late. The trike came to pick us up to take us to the tour office. I honestly thought that we were going to walk mostly because I had seen many boats from the house balcony, just behind our rooms where we are staying. I was wrong, the tour agency was like 15 minutes away. When we got there, we actually met Ryan, the guy who sold us the tour ...

Sunday, June 23rd, 2019 We slept in. I thought that if I had the beach a few steps from my room, I would go for an early morning walk. Well, that didn’t happen. Our back room was dark and quiet so we slept very well. We got ready for breakfast and went to our usual place where we can order two European breakfasts and one omelet and it is a good amount of food for four. We hung around in our hotel until it was time to go. Gregory arranged a trike to drive me to the bus station because my toe hurt yesterday. Of course, Daniel stayed with me and we took the trike and Gregory and Sunshine walked to the station. The van was full of passengers from Spain and one girl from Argentina. The ride wasn’t bad at all. It was only three hours long, but the path was curvy. I only slept a little bit because my head kept bouncing from one side to another. We arrived in El Nido at 4:00pm and well, it wasn’t much bigger than Port Barton. We took a trike to downtown where we started our search for hotels....

Saturday, June 22nd, 2019 Gregory was not happy in the room with an ocean view. It's true that it was small and dark but it was quiet. [Gregory's note: and you couldn't enjoy the ocean view unless you knelt on the bed.] Yesterday we moved to another room, next to the kids. The curtains were  so  dark  we slept in until 9:00! Our hungry kids woke us up to go for breakfast. Today we didn’t have hot water so we went to our usual restaurant. We ordered European breakfast, which includes 2 eggs, 4 pieces of bread (it was 2 buns but I guess it depends how you count), coffee or tea, and fruit (bananas). Not bad for less than $2.50. I have been feeling very uncomfortable and itchy with the sand flea bites. I have no idea when they bit me, I think it was the day that we took the tour but I had a reaction and the itchiness doesn’t go away with anything. We stopped at a convenience store to buy snacks and mosquito repellent. We also found another decently-priced restaurant for din...

Friday, June 21, 2019 Today, as usual, Sunshine woke up at 8:00am. Time for breakfast! We were still not ready, but we got up and had our little breakfast outside our room with an ocean view. We had boiled eggs from yesterday, coffee and sugar from different places, we bought cookies, peanut butter, and bananas and voila! After breakfast, I was super uncomfortable because I think I got bitten by sand flies and my whole body was very itchy, especially my arms! I stayed inside most of the morning, reading and resting. As much as I want to enjoy the outside, I don’t want more bugs bites. We didn’t do much for the rest of the day. Gregory and Sunshine went looking for a better hotel, this one is basic but we like being by the beach. We also moved to another room because Gregory wasn’t happy. I feel that now we are closer to the workers (did I mention that there is a construction going on) but oh well, I don’t want to move anymore! We went out for lunch to the same place we have been going...