Vacation, game over!!

A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia. ~Author Unknown

I knew that you have been hearing about this vacation for a long time in my blog. Always filled with so much anticipation and excitement. Simply because it is our first vacation after my one year pause of pregnancy. And secondly it is our first official vacation as a family (my husband plus my 6 month old baby girl travelling with us). I never realised that spending vacation as a family is never this fun and yet tiring and demanding.

But let me be honest with you. I don't consider this last vacation of ours as one perfectly featured in a travel brochure nor the best that we had. But it is indeed an unforgettable one filled with good laughs, tears and misadventures. When I used to work as a tourist guide (that was long time ago), our favorite expression was "always expect the worst". For we believe that when we travel we tend to encounter problems one after the other.

Well I guess you have enough hint already? Let me summarize it for you:

Our first week started with me loosing all our passports and wallets when I accidentally misplaced them between the first hotel we slept and the condo unit we stayed. All my friends are asking me how "stupidly" I could have done that. But between jet-lag, lack of sleep, fatigue and a baby girl to take care of things weren't easy for me. I would admit that I have completely forgotten where I put it. So as you presumed we spent the next days going to the police station, declaring the incident, getting that "crime report" and having an impromptu rendezvous at French Embassy. (Whew, not really an interesting week to start this vacation with). If you think these days of trouble weren’t over yet, well you are mistaken. Since day one we arrived, I barely refuse a luncheon and dinner invitation of families and friends (I am a food lover afterall) and without counting of course the wedding and baptismal parties we feasted on, the result was an early stomach and diarrhea problems for me and my husband. Good thing we anticipated this one so we brought along the good medicines against these. So when we finally headed off to our vacation destination for a one week sejour in the island of Palawan, we thought « No more stress, no more problem that is all behind us now ».

Stone fish anyone?

Well that’s what we thought. We were optimist for this is actually where our real vacation begins. Anyways, If you were thinking that probably we just had booking problems with our reservation or probably some substandard amenities in the hotel well you were mistaken. I’m pretty sure you haven’t heard of this yet. When we arrived the island and the weather was perfect. And we could only think of doing island hopping, snorkelling and swimming. Unfortunately, while enjoying the beach of the first island (I insist, the first island during our first day) one of my friend was stung by a stonefish (one of the most dangerous venomous fish in the world) I suggest you read the link. Well the rest is history : as expected we rushed him to the nearest hospital. The doctors gave him 2 shots of anti-tetanus, 1 shot of anti-inflammatory and 1 shot of anti-allergy. The list of our « malheurs » starts to be long but I tell you it’s far from over (ATM and credit cards not working in the island, underwater camera broken, etc.)

Million dollar and colgate free smiles.....

When the night falls....

But don’t get me wrong. We all had so much fun. Our days were spent snorkelling the colorful coral reefs, fishes and World War II sunken ships or bathing in the pristine beaches of this beautiful islands of Palawan. We spent countless days eating only fresh fruits and seafoods and delicious dishes and delicacies. Our menu : Red snapper « Lapu-lapu) simmered in spicy and sour soup (using local green lemon), very very fresh Tuna sashimi, Stingray cooked in coconut cream, Grilled Calamares, Steamed Crabs in lemon grass and onion, Garlic flambéed in tons of garlic, Pork barbeque, native chicken stew, Green mango salad, native steamed rice, mango tiramisu and lots of bananas, star-apples (kaimito) and sweet mangoes for dessert.

Our vacation is already over but I still have the taste of all these goodies, I still have the images of our funny anecdotes and all those magnificent moment in the beach and our underwater exploit . It was afterall a fantastic vacation!

Yummylicious.....