Santa Rita

Another sleeper bus brought us back to Hanoi, where we spent our final days hanging out post-Tet. This being our third stay in the same neighborhood and on the same street, we didn’t do much tourist sight-seeing, but started to feel that comfortable “we live here” vibe. We truly loved our time in Northern Vietnam and will definitely visit again.

Everett, being an airplane enthusiast, was excited to fly the A330 on Cathay Pacific. In hindsight we should have taken a long layover in Hong Kong (for at least a day or two) but instead, we rushed between gates with no time to spare and boarded our flight to Cebu, Philippines.

After being in Vietnam the last few weeks we were thrilled to see and hear English again! The vibe feels very “Pacific Island” (everyone wearing board shorts and flip flops) so we had the first impression, “Are we still in Asia?” Since we arrived late in the evening we spent one night near the airport, intending to take a bus the next morning to the northern tip of Cebu Island. After calling a taxi to take us from the hotel to the bus station (5 mins drive), Ken jokingly asked the driver if he would take us the full distance to the north (3.5 hours one-way) and he agreed! Ken being Ken, negotiated a private ride all the way to the ferry port, avoiding the bus ride all together. Well, our $1.40 bus ride turned into a $55 private transfer (Survey: Is he even still a backpacker?!?)

The “ferry” was a large canoe with outriggers, taking us about 40 mins to the small island of Malapascua, known for its thresher sharks. Apparently, it’s one of the only spots in the world where thresher sharks are reliably accessible to humans. Everett was recovering from a head cold, so unfortunately couldn’t dive. Big Bummer. But Ken went solo and met friends on the dive whom we’ve hung out with since (Germany, Australia, and San Francisco)! Annette was named Hot Mess (she kept losing everything), Jenni was Mom (she took care of everyone), Mike was Miguel (we were drunk and insisted on his Filipino name), Bec was Saving the Children (our young optimistic sociologist – a group always needs at least one), I was Bec’s Pharmacy, Ken was Dad, and Everett was Annette 2.0 (he was ALSO a Hot Mess who needed Jenni’s constant attention).

In addition to homeschool, the events of the day included: beach volleyball, basketball with the local kids, fresh mangoes (sold from a laundry basket), sunsets (hit and miss), and floating in the ocean (thanks Jenni aka Mom!).

Unfortunately, the power here is unpredictable, so we spent our last day with an island-wide black-out for several hours. Since our room was unbearably hot, we took the opportunity to snorkel with baby sharks at a nearby beach. Yes, I said snorkeling with sharks. The sharks were cute, about one to two feet long and traveled in small packs. Everett said he counted eighteen.Lue lisää