From Perth to the Philippines

There has been a considerable time lag between this post and the last one.  Our life in Malaysia has kept us very busy.  Both of us have been coaching teams.  I coached a U11 Girls' Soccer team.  This age group always brings some interesting experiences.  Maureen took on two teams this past term, despite everyone warning her against it.  She coached the Jr. Boys' Basketball team again this year and took up the post as senior coach of the Girls' Varsity Softball team.  The end result was that she exhausted herself trying to run different practices and games on the same day.  The softball team provided some fringe benefits as she traveled to both Singapore and Bangkok for tournaments with the team.  The concept of 'fringe benefits' is used loosely here, as accompanying a group of 15 to 17 year old girls to a foreign country is no holiday. Despite the coaching and the rest of the work related to school we did manage to make a trip to Perth, host Bruce and Lois Morrison, get in a rafting trip, lead a group on a high ropes adventure in the jungle, and head to the Philippines for a convention and beach holiday.  I also took a quick trip home in mid-February as my mom had developed some complications after falling and breaking her hip.  Things looked a little grim for her for a few days but she has now perked up and is on the road to recovery.  It was nice to get home and see her, as well as Cole and Alana, my brothers and their families, but the 5 day turn around left me rather exhausted.


We left KL for Perth as the festivities for Chinese New Year were heating up in Malaysia.  Perth seemed rather sedate and western after the pace of South-east Asia and this brought a nice relief for us. We went to see a high school friend of Maureen's who had traveled to Australia soon after high school and stayed.  Barb and her husband, Kevin, proved to be great hosts and we had a good time getting reacquainted with them and some other transplanted Nanaimoites in Australia and discovering Perth and the area around it.

Maureen and Barb on a Perth beach in Scarborough.  The weather here was perfect.  Warm but no humidity,  I didn't have to change shirts three times a day.

On our second day in Perth we took ferry to Rottnest Island, rented bikes and road around exploring beaches.  Perth is located in South-West Australia where there is a lot of mining happening.  We found things to be rather expensive compared with cost of living in KL.

The biking was easy as it was fairly flat.  We got to see quokkers (sp??) here.  Tiny little things that look like some sort of cross between a rat and a kangaroo.

Barb and Kevin keep a house boat at Mandurah, a toney resort community south of Perth.  We spent an evening on their house boat and then went out the next day to go crabbing in the Peel Inlet.

Sunset shots on the dock.  The marina was full of very big and expense boats.  As we cruised out of the harbour to go crabbing we seemed to pass thousands of million dollar homes. 
 

Hauling in crabs.

All of our visitors are taken to the Sky Bar now.  It has an incredible view of the twin towers.  We dragged Lois and Bruce here a couple of nights after they arrived.  The lounge is on the 33rd floor of a neighbouring hotel and is dwarfed by the towers.

The other place we like to take people to is Malacca. Her Maureen is walking with the Morrisons along the canal in the older Chinese section of the town. St. Francis Xavier Church is in the background.

Another stop on the tour of Malacca is the place where St. Francis Xavier was entombed for a few months before he was shipped to his final resting place in Goa, India.  Here are some local school girls hamming it up for photos by the tombstones.

Bruce, being helpful as ever, is filling out a questionnaire for some school girls on a scavenger hunt, inside La Formosa, an old Portuguese fort.

Manila is a shoppers paradise.  The goods are plentiful and cheap.  Here at Green Hills there were about 200 pearl stalls all vying for the ladies' business.

Hannah, the one in the yellow dress, is from Manila and so she led the assault on the stores.  Assembled here are the teachers from MKIS ready to take on the shops at Green Hills.

Maureen and I did take time to do a little site seeing in Manila.  We went to the old section of town and explored around the Spanish colonial area of Intramuros, built in the late 16th century.  Manila is overpopulated and polluted with sections of extreme poverty.  Despite this the people are welcoming and friendly.  English is widely spoken so it was easy to get around and communicate.

After the conference was over we hopped on a bus and headed south to catch a ferry to one of the 7107 islands in the Philippines to spend some time at the beach.  Nine of us from the school rented a house in Puerto Galera.  It was superb, sitting on a point overlooking one of the many bays.  It came with a maid who cleaned and cooked for us.

We were  about 1 1/2 km from the town itself and so enjoyed the hike into the village for groceries or meals.

This was the little local beach just down the steps from the house we rented.  The weather was perfect.  The temperature was about 32 degrees with a slight overcast and a nice breeze to keep the mosquitoes away.

We could go down the beach and watch the local fishermen haul in their catch for the day.  They never seemed to have much in their boats but what they did have was shared with everyone on the beach.

The boys went to watch some cock fighting, which was being held in an arena right next to the rental.  Here one of the winners is being sewed up for the next time.  It is a rather brutal affair.  There are no draws only ones that live through it and ones that die.

Some of us spent an afternoon sailing.  Peter, our guide, dropped us off at one spot to go snorkeling.  The snorkeling was actually very good but unfortunately the current at the time was so strong it was a little tricky in the water.

Sunset from the sail boat.  We did have a great day with strong winds ending with a beautiful sunset.  The only thing we missed was seeing the dolphins that abound in the waters.

There are two main forms of public transportation on the island, tricycles, as shown above and jeepneys, extended jeeps with bench seats.  Here Maureen and I are on our way to Sabang a diving area on another part of the island.

The little tricycles were used for hauling both people and goods.  Here they are stacking up a load of furniture but you would also see them loaded down with produce and other goods to be shuttled from one part of the island to another.

We want to go back to the Philippines again sometime.  We explored one area besides Manila and of course while we were there learned of lots of other places to see.  That kind of reflects our whole experience outside of  Malaysia.  We have a taste of South-East Asia, just a nibble.  Just enough to whet the appetite.
We spent the first day on our return to KL dealing with passport renewal.  We've used up all the available pages in our passports and need to renew.