Dearly Beloved Family, Friends and Colleagues.... Well we have been away quite a while now ~ exactly 3 1/2 months which is longer than William and I have ever been away from home before (not counting leaving the family home). Every so often some one of you says something about our long "vacation" and we sort of blink or flinch because well, sometimes it sounds like a put down (but it's probably just envy)... Other times people say "how lucky you are!" And truly, we do feel very blessed to be able to travel and participate in the world this way. [View Full Entry]

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We did the whirlwind tour through Cambodia ~ about 10 days which is par for the course for tourists mainly interested in Angkor Wat. This seems to be the big draw these days (since the movie Tomb Raider came out about 6 yrs ago and was filmed in Angkor Wat) and Siem Reap - the town near Angkor Wat is becoming very built up with many, many! hotels (from big and fancy to nice looking newer guest houses). In the off season after March when it is hotter you can definately negotiate a good rate! There are some restaurants we liked, [View Full Entry]

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We flew from Cebu City Philippines to Bangkok. We spent a few days there enjoying our old haunts from last year (2007) before moving on by bus to Cambodia. Even ran into some friends that remembered us. [View Full Entry]

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My desire to visit the Philippines was based entirely on wanting to experience healings from psychic surgeons here. There are only a few places in the world where this kind of healer can be found and the Philippines is one of the most notorious. Usually the reaction I would get when I mentioned seeking a psychic healer (while there or in Indonesia) was skepticism/cynicism or amusement, as if to say these are all scams. But that didn't bother me. My response would always be "I have reliable information and referrals to the best ones". And this came from the church where [View Full Entry]

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William and Christina write: This is the island of Palawan in the Philippines. Did you know that the Philippines is over 7,100 islands (many of them quite small)?! It was not easy to chose one to explore! In the end we extended our visa here and stayed an extra week so we could go to another 2 islands ~ Cebu which was our gateway to the tiny island above it called Malapascua. We decided to come to Palawan after spending about a week on the larger Island of Luzon where we went to visit a psychic healer which was our main [View Full Entry]

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Manila Scam Alert: For you folks visiting Manila beware of the many street scams. The one we fell for is when we went to Chinatown. We were approached to hire a horse drawn buggy to show us around by a buggy driver. We agreed on a price before getting in. After about 15 minutes of riding around the area, another man got on and took over the reins and the original driver slid over. The original driver said to us "don't worry this is my boss". After about 5 more minutes the "boss" pulled the buggy over and told us we [View Full Entry]

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This is the story of our experience going to Wayan, traditional healer (the one mentioned in the book Eat, Pray, Love) in March of 2008. After being in Bali less than a week I got very, very sick from something I ate. Even after one or two weeks and using everything that I had with me to recover I still felt 'off'. We knew about Wayan and had heard positive things and so I thought it might help me to go to her. There are various options that she offers from simply massage or a 1 hour assessment, prayer healing and [View Full Entry]

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Not to Nyepi? this was our question as we were considering exactly when to leave Bali. We had a general plan to stay for 5-6 weeks ~ till the end of February but we didn't realize then that there were more interesting holi-days coming up in Bali that were beconing us to stay longer. Of course if you've been to Bali you know that there is some religious festivity going on somewhere almost everyday. Nyepi is an island wide yearly event of great import. According to an Ubud tourist guide booklet Nyepi "is the first day of the Caka Year, one [View Full Entry]

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Everywhere we have been in Bali we have had many opportunities to interact with the people. Even when few words were exchanged William was there with the camera and people were willing to let us photograph them. People were interested in talking with us no matter how much english they could speak and liked to practice with us. We enjoyed their interest though it was often motivated by their need to promote their service or product. It amazed me that they never had an attitude about our not speaking their language (only in France, right?). In Ubud and other populated areas [View Full Entry]

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The kids in Bali have been one of the highlights of our experience here! Overall, they are so happy, and at least smile if not overflow with enthusiasm toward us. As you will see below we had a good time photographing them. They are not shy. [View Full Entry]

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