Trip to the Philippines, Story and Pictures

[Edwin]

Yes, I wish to be very happy and i hope that there are lots of people will be very happy to visit here too.
Welcome and have fun while here in the Philippines.

I know I will be very happy during the visit, part of the time with our friends and part of the time with Carol's brother and his filipina wife. Carol said they offered to show her the sights, but she was not interested, only interested in visiting, but I will see the sights if I have a chance. I don't want to impose too much, but Carol said they would be insulted it I didn't stay with them. He has had several rounds with cancer, but now I think he is supposed to be completely free. He is very happy with his filipina wife and where he lives on Guiamaras Island, and he wants to live forever.

Thank you for the good wishes, and good wishes for you too. People should visit the Philippines more. When Carol went to the Philippines in 2006 I was obligated with my employer, and also I was involved in moving our belongings out of our house. We thought we were leaving the Valley then, but it turned out that we lived there an additional 2 years as the new concessionaire wanted us to work for him for two years. It worked out okay. Carol wished I could have gone with her at that time, but it just didn't work out. She is afraid of flying, and she said that she was so scared on that airplane that she swore she would never do it again. I piloted airplanes years ago, so I pretty much lost my fear of flying.

We will be landing in Manila, and then flying to Dumaguete, and staying near there where our filipina friend's brothers are building them a house. I will be one week with them, and then one week with Carol's brother and his filipina wife. I would love to stay longer and wish I could, but I am fitting in with their vacation time, this time around. I may plan another trip to the Philippines some time shortly later and plan to stay longer if I can figure out how to do that.

[red]

Mabuhay!!!! Welcome to the Philippines, Sir. Enjoy your stay... Do you like rains? There's plenty of that this season...heheheheh

[Edwin]

Mabuhay!!!! Welcome to the Philippines, Sir. Enjoy your stay... Do you like rains? There's plenty of that this season...heheheheh

Thank you, Red, and yes I love the rain!

[m&m]

Its been raining everyday especially after work. I always in a hurry to go home because of the heavy rain.

[Edwin]

Its been raining everyday especially after work. I always in a hurry to go home because of the heavy rain.

It is funny because I was born and raised in Eastern Washington where we get 10 or 11 inches rainfall each year. Years ago I was driving throught Montana, and a person pumping gasoline near me replied, "Oh, you are from Washington; you get a lot of rain." On the coast near the ocean they do get a lot of rain, but we don't. Where we lived for 10 years in the Stehekin Valley we got about 50 or so inches a year, but a lot of that was snow. One of the years we were there we got a total accumulation of 21 feet of snow. That doesn't mean the snow was 21 feet deep, it means that every time it snowed they measured the snow and it added up to 21 feet. We had anywhere from 10 to 15 feet on the ground. The snow slid off the roof of the school and the school children climbed onto the roof of the school from the snow that was piled up against the building. When we got 21 feet of snow where we were, there was a village just a few miles away and at higher altitude that got 42 feet of snow. That winter I had to shovel and snow blow a lot of snow. One day when I went out on the boat I got on one of the roofs and shovel snow as fast as I could because it was raining on the snow incleasing the weight, and we were afraid the snow would get so heavy with the rain that it might cave the roof in. On the west side of those Cascade Mountains they get rain instead of snow, and they get lots of it. In that Valley it didn't get very cold in the winter because we had air movement that came off the ocean that kept our valley 10 to 15 degrees warmer than elsewhere in Eastern Washington. We had a 55 mile long lake that helped moderate the weather also.

We were near the ocean some years ago when it rained so hard that it seemed like someone was dumping buckets of water. We spent one winter around 1982 on the Coast, and we got lots of rain, but we loved it. It is not fun to get wet and cold though, and if that happens it is best to dry and warm quickly.

[purex]

Despite of odd news about the country still there are lots of foreigner visit the Philippines. It is because there are lots of nice places to visit. Hope you all enjoy while staying here in the Philippines.

[Edwin]

Despite of odd news about the country still there are lots of foreigner visit the Philippines. It is because there are lots of nice places to visit. Hope you all enjoy while staying here in the Philippines.

I can hardly believe that it is less than a month when I will be coming to the Philippines! I am really looking forward to it!

[crisipicada]

I hope you enjoy your stay in the Philippines. I wish you all the good stay and enjoy your trip here.

[Edwin]

I hope you enjoy your stay in the Philippines. I wish you all the good stay and enjoy your trip here.

I am sure I will enjoy my trip and my stay in the Philippines. It is funny because Carol really wanted me to go badly with her when she went in 2006, but there were a couple of things that kept me from going. For one thing when I work for someone I work hard, I put everything I have into my jobs, and I am loyal. Carol wanted me to bail out on them to go, and I can understand her perspective, but I couldn't do it. The concessionaire had quit business and laid all of us off, but needed me to help him finalize his business. He had been good to me for 8 years, and so I didn't feel right leaving him in the lurch.

The other thing was that because of being laid off we were in the middle of moving out of our place. I had already told the landlord we were leaving, and our reefer trailer was more than half full with our things, and our house was half emptied out. The moving needed to be completed, and I needed to clean the place after leaving as well. So I didn't feel right about going to the Philippines at that time, although I badly wanted to go.

Carol has been after me ever since saying, "Get your passport so that you will be ready for when Al and Claire go to the Philippines, so that you can go with them." So finally November of last year I got my passport. Then Carol saw on Facebook that Al and Claire were planning a trip to the Philippines, so they are such good friends that I knew I would be welcomed, so I called them and ask them if I could tag along with them, and they said that they would be glad to have me, and it would be fun, so the Middle of October I will be on my way!

I am fitting into their vacation time, and that is okay this time, but I would have liked to have stayed longer than 2 weeks in the Philippines, but it will be fun to go with them; they are both fun people. Next time I think I will plan my own trip and hopefully stay longer than two weeks; I don't know how, but I will figure that out. I am digging a root cellar, but I will leave that job any time to go to the Philippines. I need to take 8 more hours of college course work 100 or above, and I am going to do that between January 1st and April the Lord willing,and as they say if the creeek doesn't rise, and I doubt it will as that time of the year everything will be frozen. But after that "Look out Philippines here I come!!!!"

[Edwin]

Wow!!!! October is here, and I am coming to the Philippines on the 16th to stay until the 31st, which is not long enough to suit me, but I am fitting into my friends' vacation time. Now the hard decisions begin. Do I stay with my friends for the first week or the second week? I might should go with Carol's brother the first week, and then stay with my friends the second week, or maybe do some exploring on my own. It would be fun to see Cebu Island, which is very close, maybe take the bus ride up the coast from Dumaguete, after crossing on a ferry, and perhaps go see the orphanage at Danao. It would be fun to attend church while I am there also. My friends are church attenders, but my brother-in-law isn't, so I don't know how that will work out. I read that someone said that when you ride those buses, you will do your own praying! I guess that is for safety!