Philippines Pt. 3- Imperial Palace

Wow, this already feels like so long ago. February is flying by!  Since getting back we did some apartment hunting, found a flat, set the move date for March 8, and had Rita visit for about 10 days. I almost forgot to post the last section of our pictures of the second half of our trip when we stayed at Imperial Palace. 

 This was our first lunch at one of the restaurants at the resort. We hadn't initially planned to stay here at all, but there was a mix-up in the booking at Plantation Bay where they were all booked up for one of the nights we were there, so we ended up splitting our time between this one and Plantation Bay. Even though we hadn't planned for that, I think that's a good way to go so that you can see more than one place- I may try and do that more in the future. 

 Checking out the new room. Very Best Western-ish.

 We were a little bummed we didn't have a view of the ocean, but actually it was neat to have a "local" view of Cebu from the 11th floor.

 Picture perfect weather!

 Even though Mike and I preferred the beauty of Plantation Bay, the girls were completely opposite. Imperial Palace had this water-park, water-slides and a lazy river. No competition in their minds! 

 These guys liked to get the Koreans (I hadn't mentioned yet, but Imperial Palace is owned by Koreans and I would imagine that 85% of the guests staying there were Korean. Random, eh?) to get some exercise and have some fun doing aerobics. Annika was eager to join in... it was so funny!

 There was a swim-up bar, and the girls thought it was the coolest thing ever to have lunch while swimming in the pool!

 We took advantage of the kids club and paid for the girls to spend a couple of hours there one afternoon. The girls were excited to play, and we enjoyed relaxing by the pool without any worries. It was lovely, but we were excited to pick them up when the time was up. Annika said it was the best day ever! 

 We also tried leaving the resort to see more of Cebu. It was pretty crazy with traffic and sights and sounds.

 We found a Korean restaurant across the street and had lunch there. It was so Korean! We really had no idea that there was such a Korean presence in Cebu. 

Good-bye, beautiful Cebu! Wish we could have seen even more, but thankful we were able to visit!

Philippines Pt. 2- Bohol Day trip

 After a fairly hurried morning trying to get to the pier on time to catch the ferry to Bohol Island, we finally got to relax! This ferry was pretty decent and it was a two hour-long trip to get to the Island of Chocolate Hills and Tarsiers!

 Once we got to Bohol, Uncle Ma-Eng- our personal hired driver for the day picked us up at the pier. This is not a picture of the vehicle he drove us in all day. This is a "jeepny" that is basically larger than a taxi and smaller than a bus. It is all open air and you enter the jeepny from the back I believe.

 Another jeepny loaded to the max. "Hold on!"

 After about a 40 minute drive through winding roads we arrived at the tarsier sanctuary. "Hold on!"

 These little guys are kind of cute and kind of strange looking. But very small and peaceful.

 Annika trying to get a closer look at the tarsier. "But that's Mommy with the camera!"

 There were lots of concrete steps to walk up and down to get around this sanctuary of tarsiers. There were several tarsiers that we saw throughout our time there. I'd say at least a dozen. And there were dozens of people taking pictures with the tarsiers, of the tarsiers, and around the tarsiers.

 Someone even took a picture of us in the same vicinity of the tarsiers.

 This was on the way from the tarsiers to the Chocolate Hills. This is a man-made forest of mahogany trees. It really reminded us of Canada. There's lots of mahogany forests in Canada. All over the place. Just kidding - but the look and feel of the forrest reminded us of Canada.

 See what I mean?

 And here's a field of rice. Also, just like Canada.

 Some rice drying on the side of the road. A cow sidestepping the rice.

 Here's that cow I was talking about.

 Ahhh - the famous Chocolate Hills!

 We had to hike up one of the hills to take in the scenery.

 Did I mention it was kind of sunny out? A really beautiful day. It looked like it was maybe going to rain earlier in the day, but the rain held off for the day.

 The view from the other side of the hill. There in the corner of the picture is the restaurant we had great lunch at.

 I forgot to mention - the reason they are called "Chocolate Hills" is because in the summer they are brown. So they look like chocolate. We were there when they were a healthy green.

"I can't believe they're not made of chocolate!"

 "I can."

A little place etched into the side of the hill for the Catholic pilgrims.

 The Janzens feeling pretty fed up after having our lunch at the restaurant. Our nice driver took this picture.

 It was quite the hurried drive back to the pier to catch our ferry. We managed to board the ferry within minutes of it taking off. A little too close for comfort for us, but our driver seemed to be really confident that he'd get us there on time. Even though he kept suggesting more touristy things for us to see on our drive back to the pier!

"We love you Pacific Ocean blue
Yeah we love you Pacific Ocean Blue
Oh we love you Pacific Ocean Blue
Oh we love you Pacific Ocean Blue
It's no wonder the Pacific Ocean is blue." - Dennis Wilson of "The Beach Boys"