Hello Famliy.

David & i are safe and sound in Hong Kong - Kowloon really, which is where our condo is. Just out side of downtown Hong Kong & 20 minutes from Disneyland Hong Kong. That is on the schedule for Monday.

We hope you are all well.

Beijing (north capitol as Bei means north & jing means capitol) was amazing. We will show you pictures & there are too many stories to tell @ 11:45 at night our time. We bought many great souveniers and visited the great wall. Adam said: " it was great... and it was a wall."

We are fighting a bit of the good battle against the cockroaches in china. Adam ran into 2 in the urinal in the 4 star hotel in Beijing & we seem to have them almost everywhere in the Condo. We have opted out of cookling in the kitchen as it is scary but the fridge works & there is lots of bottled water there.

The views are amazing & the people in the Hong Kong area are great. We will meet up with Adam's co-worker Deborah tomorrow to get the bag he left with her in Hong Kong while we were in Beijing (weight restrisctions) and enjoy downtown Hong Kong for the day before a rest & out on the town for a Saturday night.

Our driver in Beijing was Mr. Foo (Mr Rich in the translation in chinese) & he has a two year old little guy whose picture we saw a couple of days ago. As a "tip/thank you" we went to a store & bought baby Foo a fire truck as a gift. He was very appreciative & it was a great way to send off our time in Beijing.

All is good & we will talk soon.

Love,

Us

A nice weekend in Cebu

Hello everyone,

The picture you see here is from the top of the Marco Polo Hotel in Cebu. Cebu City's only 5 star hotel. We visited the Blu Bar for dinner on Saturday August 22. We had reservations to eat on the roof top (Penthouse) patio but the weather was not predicted to be very good so we were transferred inside to the Continental Dinning Room.



The View of the City is beautiful and the evening was so clear that we could see forever.

Dinner was nice, a little slow on the service as thier system went down when we needed the bill but there were a few mentionable items.

The Blu bar finished second in an international drink competition. Their drink is called "Tropical (something)" and looks kida like a mojito but has pinapple juice, what looks like cilantro, a large number of alcohols & tabasco sauce. It was AWESOME & not just because i enjoy an occasional drink, but because it was actually good and it comes with a cherry & pinapple slice - nice!

Also, as an appetizer, the chef sent us watermelon with goat cheese on top & caviar. It was a very unique idea. I was being polite & tried although not everyone was even able to try it. The melon was nice, the cheese was stinky & the caviar was salty. Not my favortive but it was a nice gesture & I am sure it was expensive & meant well. The meal was nice & we headed home for bed as the next day held plans to visit the beach.

We visited Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort the next day. I am sure they are online & worth looking at the pictures. The rooms are little 4-plex huts that walk right out onto the beach, hence they have little foot wash jars outside the doors so you can wash your feet & try to leave the sand on the beach; good luck.

1000 Peso's gets you admition to the resort for the day & 700 pesos in credit for food or beverage, so it costs $7.50 to use their facility all day - someone commented we could not get into the local pool for that cheap. This is the view from the beach accross the bay to the island. Occasionally the tide goes out so far that you can walk to the island without getting wet.

I heard a comment from someone: "If you can get past the fake 'tropical' feel & palm trees, it feels like a real beach." We all laughed; since when do Edmontonians get to go the beach on the ocean 30 minutes away! It was beautiful & i got sunburnt - suprise, i am see through.

For lunch we visited the live seafood restaurant where you can pick you lunch from the tank; it has been there for only an hour or so as we watched the fisherman haggle over prices as they sailed right up to the restaurant to sell their goods. Very cool, and funny.

This picture is from off the side of the restaurant, the water is soooooo blue/green & you can see the scuba divers searching for small shell fish to sell right beside you.



So to cap off the day 3 off us went parasailing, something i have always wanted to do & will be sure to do again. What a cool experience. Here is me taking off. You sit on the back of the boat connected to the chute & when they let out the slack you lift up.



They took us up to 150 meters above the water. The view was brilliant and all you here is the wind & the motor of the boat; and some loud echoing from the shore.

The feeling is so peaceful & so relaxing. They "dipped" us into the water on the way down so you got a feel for that too & it was cool to sort of float over the water with your feet in & then go back up into the air. I told David, if we have the chance, we should go again together. They do tandem as well.


After this full day it was aftersun lotion & sleep until work on Monday.


I move to nights here on August 27th & look forward to being on the same schedule as most people so i have someone to have dinner with & to chat with. Things are good, i am super busy & the class is going quite well - 94% average on their midterm.


Hi to all, enjoy what little good weather Edmonton is getting. Send me an email if you are bored or leave a comment here.


Hope fringe ended well.

Love


Me - Herb - Adam

Also, if any Charlie Brown folks are ready, i showed Veronica's photo of everyone & they loved it. Peter was by far their favorite as he is Philippino, but they were actually more excited by seeing me in a silly outfit.

Tomorrow i am bringing in the music for them to listen to as they love music and they all sing, all the time & are quite good.

A Quick Note

Hey everyone.

If you are fringing, have a great time. If you have a show, Break a leg & make lots of money - send me reviews.

Oma!! I am so glad i was able to speak with you, so sorry that the internet phone cut out. Have a great & safe trip, god bless.


For those who have read earlier, I posted a photo of the birthday gift Pat & Charlie allowed me to buy. Here is a photo of the gift that mom & dad allowed me to buy (Karl & Nikki). German made Fossil sun glasses! I scored 2 soft glasses cases as they did not have any hard cover cases, don't be afraid to bargin!

Don't worry, David is getting this bag too!.


Love to everyone.

P.S.

A member of my class lost a family member last night & that has been hard for all, but we are working together & we will support them fully.

My wishes are with the family & prayers follow the departed.

Love

Me - Herb - Adam

Weekend 1 in Cebu is in the books

WOW, how did my first week in Cebu go so darn fast? Teaching all day, working like crazy and all of a sudden, it was Friday afternoon & class was done. Most of the "Super Crew" as we call each other, work over night here in Cebu so they are lined up with Edmonton business hours. I have not switched to that schedule yet, which is good & bad. I miss everyone & when you are so far away from your loved ones, we are a second family to each other & it is hard to be away from them too. We had to plan a team dinner Thursday night I believe just so we could all see each other.

As i mentioned last time, the Hotel sent a cake as a belated birthday gift which was very sweet. I rounded everyone up on the pool deck Saturday night to chow down. There was no way i could eat all the Chocolate cake by myself. As it turned out, i didn't have to eat any of it, people were more than happy to help. Better for my waist line that way. Not that there is any hope of loosing weight here. Everything is covered in sauces & butter & anything else bad for you that you can think of. The gym here is nice but i will nto be able to keep the pounds off i have been told.

Other pictures seen above include Charlene & i at the Spa on Saturday. We went for Mani/Pedi's & I ended up with a hair cut too. This guy was amazing. He used an electric razor, an old school barber shave razor on the edges of my hair, cut it , texturized it & then i got a whole head, face and upper back massage; for $145 peso!!!! That convert to $3.50 or so Canadian. I will be going every 2 weeks & will so spoiled by the time i get to Canada.

Anita's husband Mike arrived this weekend to join her before they left for vacation to Boracay. The photo is from lunch at TGIFridays after the previously mentioned hair cut. The little girl wandered past & i asked if i could take a photo. Her mother agreed but by the look on her face she just wanted Canadian money from the white guy.

Speaking of kids begging, wow what a zoo here. Matt, Charlene & i went for pizza on Saturday night & he was picked out by the same kid on the way there & back. This kid would stand infornt of him with his hand out, beggin "I'm hungry, i have no food, give me money."

Matt had made the mistake of tipping a guy who helped us across the street the "frogger" stlye & i thnk the kids saw it. Charlene & i just put Matt between us & fended off the kids begging. It feel terrible not to give them something but who knows what they are using it for & most i am sure are being told to beg by their parents. It sucks & is very depressing.
The last photo i have added here is a view from our pool deck which gets beautiful sun every morning, but is constantly across form the crazy construction here in Cebu. This has been in the works since 2006 i think & is far from being done. It is all done by hand, & very few people where hard hats. There does not appear to be much in the way of safety regulations. They work most of the time, it is loud, dirty & the smell form the hole in the ground at the corner rivals anything i have ever smelled, even in Amsterdam.

Hope everyone is well. I am into my second week of teaching & it is going very fast.

Can't wait to hare from everyone. Drop me a line.

Me - Herb - Adam

1st Shot - Hello From Cebu

Hi everyone,

Thank you for visiting. I have been trying to type emails, send picutres & even talk on the phone to so many people and rather than pull my hair out and swear (scaring the verry polite people in the Philippines) i have decided to blog, in the hopes it will work better & i can post pictures that everyone can see.


I will still email regularly but here is one central place to see what is up in Cebu etc.

Above is a picture of the Sign on the hotel we spent our 12 hours in Hong Kong at. It was amazing, and humid. Wow!

My day in Hong Kong and 1st day in Cebu was my 30th Birthday, crazy old I know. My wonderful in-laws, Pat & Charlie sent me to buy shoes, see picture (David gets the bag).

They are awesome comfortable - Thank you mom & dad.

Also, my friend Deb arrange for a belated birhtday cake from the Hotel, they left me a message that looks like an old style telegram to alert me, how cute!

The traffic moves constantly here, & we play "Frogger" to get to work or across any street in the city. This picture is the view from the pool desk (4) on to the street below at around 10 at night on a Thursday.

And lastly for today, below is the beer of choice in Cebu, of the Philippines for that metter. I am told it is 7%, sounds like a good Canadian style beer. Evan & Ethan are checkiing to see if it can be imported in Canada.

My class is going great, the food is good, the time change is weird, everyone is ver nice & i miss everyone

Me - Herb - Adam