My Last Week in the Philippines

I just posted up some new pictures of my last week in the Philippines. It is always so hard to leave, but I did have a great time. After we got back from Bohol, we were still very busy.

I went to the dentist while I was there. There was a dentist office in the same building as the hotel I stayed in. I had heard the dental work in the Philippines was on par with the United States, but a lot cheaper. I ended up getting my teeth cleaned, some cavities filled, and my front two teeth fixed. For the latter, I had previously gotten an estimate of $600 to fix my teeth. In the Philippines, it only cost me $40!

Also, when I was getting my cavities filled, the dentist did not use anaesthesia when drilling. I was very surprised at this. However, I was even more surprised that it did not hurt that much without it. When I asked the dentist why she did not use it, she told me it is helpful for her to know the viability of the tooth she is working on. She said if the patient cannot feel any pain, then she would have a harder time telling if the tooth was viable.

I also had an early 40th birthday party in the Philippines before I left. We reserved a private room at the Majestic restaurant. Glyn's family, including some cousins, aunties, and nephew were there. I think there was about 20 of us overall. The food was plentiful and we had a good time.



It was very hard to leave the Philippines as always, but I look forward to the next time I visit.

Pictures from My Birthday

I went to Alcoy with Glyn to celebrate my birthday. Alcoy is about 2 hours south of Cebu City by bus. We stayed at Bodo's Bamboo Bar (Triple B) Resort and went to Tingko Beach nearby. Two days before my actual birthday, we went to the Tinder Box to start the birthday celebration early with a nice dinner, wine, and a cigar (smoked by me of course :) ). Despite the rainy weather, we had a good time overall. Here are the pictures from Shutterfly.

Birthday in Alcoy

Well, my birthday is over. I tried to milk it as long as I could. Because the Philippines is 13 hours ahead, I started to officially celebrate earlier than I usually do. Even when the clock struck midnight here, I still tried to convince myself that my birthday was still going on the the United States. So at 1:00 here in the afternoon, my birthday as over in the east coast of the US. But....there was still the west coast! So at 4:00, my birthday ended there too. I guess it is still my birthday in Hawaii. :)

For my birthday, I wanted to go to the beach. Believe it or not, I have not really been to the beach during the whole time I have been in the Philippines. There are some private beaches nearby, but I really don't like having to pay money to sit on a beach. Of course, the more money you pay, the better the private beach. Back in November, Glyn and I took a hired taxi tour of Mactan Island which is part of Cebu. There are a lot of beaches there, but nothing that was really worth the money in my opinion.

I had heard about a public beach in Alcoy, which is about 2 hours from here. The beach is called Tingko beach and has a nice stretch of sand. We went down on Monday and stayed at a place called Bodo's Bamboo Bar (or Triple B) Resort. Bodo is a German who is married to a Filipina here. The resort was nice and very reasonably priced. We opted for a balcony room with no aircon (how they say air conditioning here). We had a nice view of the ocean (technically Cebu Strait). Air conditioning was not really needed as there is a nice breeze that comes in from the water.

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us. It rained all day on Monday, and on Tuesday it rained on and off. We didn't let the less-than-perfect weather stop us from having a good time as we headed off to the beach anyway. At the beach, there are cottages to rent for the day, so we were able to keep dry during the rain. Heck, we even got in the water when it was raining pretty hard. I guess you can't get more wet than you already are!

My birthday dinner was great. I had some champagne, a nice steak, and a banana crepe Amaretto flame. (Yes, my dessert was in flames!) It is nice to eat at Bodo's because they have outdoor seating where you can get the ocean breeze.

We made our way down to Alcoy by bus. It is a fairly cheap way to travel around the island. It cost the two of us 200 pesos ($4 US) for the trip down. Actually it cost us a little more than that because after checking in to Bodo's we were told that they did not take credit cards. I knew I was a little low on cash, so I asked them where the nearest ATM was. They said it was an hour back north in Carcar. The woman told me that businesses in that area do not usually take credit cards and there are not usually ATMs. I had been so used to being in Cebu City that I did not even consider it. So with little choice, we headed back up to Carcar by bus to go to an ATM. The trip was not all lost because we stopped by a little store in Carcar to get some bottled water for the stay in Alcoy. However, the great treat is that we picked up some banana chips while we were there. We ate them on the bus ride back to Alcoy and vowed to stop back by on our way back up to Cebu to get some more (which we did). They are soooooooooo yummy.


I actually started my birthday celebration on Sunday night. We went to a restaurant called the Tinder Box. It is one of the finer non-Filipino restaurants around. The best part about the place is that you can smoke cigars there. Also, the service is really great. Compared to US standards, the prices are very reasonable. (However, by Filipino standards, it is fairly expensive.) I picked up some cigars when I was there and brought them down to Alcoy to enjoy while I was there.


I will try to post more pictures soon. Shutterfly was doing maintenance when I started this post.