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Our Adventure as a Family of 6 to the Philippines! Part One…

Something about me and my Husband is that we LOVE to travel. My husband is Filipino and was actually born in the Philippines. He grew up in Canada since the age of two and has not been back to see his family since he was 12. Now that he’s 30 with 4 children we felt it was the golden opportunity to take our 4 little munchkins to the other side of the world and see them!

Crazy as it sounds we booked our flights, taking advantage of the fact that we only had to pay taxes on the twins since they were under age 2.

We flew from Edmonton to Vancouver, Vancouver to Manila on a Red Eye flight. The kids did fabulous on the way there. They slept for most of the flight and were fairly well behaved considering the length of time of the trip.

When we got there we were all wiped. We Left on a Monday – Arrived on Wednesday December 3, 2014. The Time difference KILLED us. We had to deal with jet lag in the worst way 🙁  Yet our flights were not over… for hours we tried to get through the crowds at the airport in Manila and make our way to the domestic Airport, and fly for yet another hour to Dumaguete.

My husbands family were all there excitedly waiting for our arrival at the airport. We went into town and stayed at a nice little house close to shopping and the markets.

One of our favourite things was to come to the boardwalk in Dumaguette on a petticab. The ocean waves would crash along the sea wall and the breeze was a welcome of fresh air.

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

We decided to take a family outing to see some of the local scenery. This area that the family took us to was breath taking. The steam coming out of the ground – the gorgeous wall of green forest and the beautiful river and rocks.

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

One of my husbands cousins owns this Jeepny (probably not spelling it correctly) and he took all of us including Gio’s Cousins, aunts, uncles and Grandparents. We squeezed all of us into the back and enjoyed the ride!

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

This is the road leading to the house we were staying at in a gated community. We booked the house for one month only and wanted to wing it for the month of January.

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

Cows roamed any bit of land that was without housing, and mango trees were everywhere. We would go for walks and try to escape the heat of the house.

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

Shockingly I’m in a Photo!! One thing I highly regret was not being infront of the camera more often during this trip. But i’m very grateful for the few shots that prove I was actually there:)

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

Sadly being a child of a Photographer – They are less then keen on being in front of the camera. Every time I wanted to snap shots of her – I got this happy face…. lol

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My husband Giovanni’s Family were excellent at helping with the twins. And the twins really enjoyed their company.

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Hunting Hermet crabs were an all time favourite activity for my children and husband. I was usually busy with the twins – but they would search for hours and fill up containers of them. Then once they were satisfied with their catch they would let them go – enjoying the little prints in the sand from their shells and claws.

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One thing Filipinos are good at is providing a feast! Food was never in short supply!

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

We are a very sun loving family. We enjoy swimming and the beach and our trips generally focus on these activities. Unfortunately the location that we were staying in Dumaguete didn’t have a great selection of beaches. So we had to travel usually for an hour and go to a resort to find a decent beach. Its more expensive that way, but we did enjoy ourselves when the weather was good to us.

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travels

For years my husband had told me about the amazing fresh bread in the Philippines that he remembered from his childhood holidays. Well I finally got to see it for myself and they were amazing! Fresh bread every morning was our ritual!

Dumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsDumaguete, Philippines, Family with twins travelsAll in all I would say that our First month in the Philippines was an interesting one with a Trip to the hospital for one of my twins, Enduring Typhoons (apparently we went to the Philippines at the wrong time of the year) Going to Forest Camp – A beautiful Fresh Water Resort with beautiful pools supplied from the mountain river. (will try and find pictures of that)

My husband learning to drive through the insane traffic on a motorcycle with me and my two oldest daughters, and learning to get to the markets on our own.

I’m a fresh fruit JUNKIE and the fresh Markets were my dream! I enjoyed the sweet delicious mangoes, pineapple and watermelon and my kids loved all of the mini bananas.

We really enjoyed taking the taxi cabs that they call Petti Caps or Tricycles.

There was ALOT of mosquitoes – so fast we would never catch them. We had to endure a lot of bug bites, heat rashes and colds in our first month of the trip. I think every holiday someone gets sick from the Airplane ride.

It was difficult to travel through the Philippines with 4 children simply because of their ages. My oldest being 6, and then my second only 3 and my twins were brand new 1 year olds.

My twins decided to teeth the entire trip and also learn how to walk!

I hope you enjoyed these photos. This is Part One of my blog Featuring Dumaguete, Negros Oriental – Philippines!

-Kathryn

 

 

 

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