We thought we’d seen quite a bit of the Philippines in the past 6 weeks. Until we found out that there are actually 7107 islands… of which we’ve now visited 5 (Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Panay, Palawan). That puts things in perspective 😉 Even though we have only seen a small portion of this amazing country, I’m very glad we went. The Philippines is a great place to visit with kids and it will remain on our bucket list. There’s so much to see and do!
Going back to Holland sooner than planned
We’re now in the ninth month of our Big Adventure and so far it’s been great. Of course it wasn’t always easy and there have been challenges, but we’re loving life on the road. If we could find a way to make enough money while traveling I think it would suit all three of us really well to travel indefinitely. However, due to the declining health of my mother in … Read more
Review Liquid Dumaguete Dive Resort
This is a review of Liquid Dumaguete Dive Resort in Dauin. Liquid Dive Resort was only the second resort we stayed at during our 10-month travel adventure. As a rule, we don’t stay in resorts. They simply don’t fit our budget and usually they don’t fit us very well either. Dive resorts are a class by itself, however. Most divers are social people, who love to talk about diving and … Read more
Diving in Dauin
Let’s start by saying Diving in Dauin is awesome! As a rule we don’t stay in resorts. We did it only one time before, and that was a very small resort (on Bunaken Island, Indonesia). Fancy resorts aren’t really our style and they certainly don’t fit our budget. But… while in Philippines you should dive, right? So we’re having a really good time at Liquid Dumaguete Dive Resort near Dumaguete … Read more
Review: Hotel Sisters Inn – Moalboal, Cebu Island, Philippines
Where to stay in Moalboal, Cebu? If you’re looking for Moalboal accommodation, we can highly recommend Sisters Inn. Hotel Sisters Inn Moalboal is great value for money, certainly compared to a lot of the higher priced resorts around. Our first night we stayed at Sea Turtle House in White Beach, which was ok, but a bit above our budget. Especially since there were no other restaurants around and the food … Read more
My first dives at Moalboal
Diving at Moalboal. After hearing and reading so much about this place in dive magazines I was really excited to go diving here. Yesterday I did my first two dives. Even though it wasn’t the best diving I’ve ever done, it was really nice. I guess we’re getting a bit spoiled with all the beautiful diving on this trip. At 8:30 we left for our first dive at Pescador Island … Read more
A visit to Kawasan Falls
On Saturday November 21st we did another motorbike tour. We decided to see if we could find the Kawasan Falls. They’re located on Bohol about 22km from Tagbilaran. According to our Airbnb host Sander they were nice for swimming. Sounded good to us! It was a bit of a drive, but quite scenic. We weren’t exactly sure where to find them, but armed with a little map we found on … Read more
From Bangkok to Bohol (via Manila)
After spending a couple of days in Bangkok, enjoying the Thai food and buying some stuff we couldn’t find in Sri Lanka, it was time to move to another country again. Next on the list: Philippines!! When we left Sri Lanka we knew we wanted to go to the Philippines next, but because the flight connection wasn’t very good we decided to make a stopover in Bangkok for a couple … Read more
Sharing a house in Unawatuna
After seeing each other around a few times in Kandy and later in Ella, we ran into Basti and Jenny again on the road to Little Adam’s Peak. They were coming down as we were walking up and we finally talked a bit more than just waving hi. Turned out they were travelbloggers as well, running a successful German travel photography blog called 22places.com. They were also looking for a … Read more
Meeting another traveling family
After sending Facebook messages back and forth and missing each other by one or even a half day a few times, we finally managed to meet up with Kelly and her family on the beach in Unawatuna. It was really cool meeting them! We haven’t met many other traveling families so far. The Facebook group ‘Families on the Move’ that both Kelly and I are members of is a great … Read more
Our first day in Kandy – checking out the lake
We traveled from Pollonaruwa to Kandy, a city in the center of Sri Lanka. I can’t really pinpoint how Kandy is different from the other places we’ve been, but it feels a bit less ‘foreign’ and has a nice vibe. Polonnaruwa to Kandy by bus was actually very doable! It was the first time we took a local bus and it was actually an interesting experience. Much better than we … Read more
Our visit to Wilpattu National park
The morning started really early. We needed to be in Wilpattu National Park just after sun-up to hopefully see some elephants, bears or leopards. So we got up at 5AM, woke Jace and got ready to leave. The owner of our guesthouse was already up. We thought he only arranged a driver for us, but to our surprise he was coming with us himself. Bevary Holiday Home is a nice … Read more
Our first two weeks in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka was the country that I had the highest expectations of. And to be honest, I didn’t really like it at first, but it’s starting to grow on me. There are so many awesome things to do in Sri Lanka! As you may have read (in our blogpost ‘Our introduction of Sri Lanka’) our very first impression wasn’t a very favourable one. But we’ve met a lot of nice … Read more
Anuradhapura to Jaffna by first-class train
From Anuradhapura we took a train to Jaffna up in the north of Sri Lanka. Because there was no second or third class train going there that day we ended up taking a first-class air-con train. The train was very nice but it was a lot more expensive than the lower class trains. The third class would have cost us around LKR350 per person and the first-class was a whopping … Read more
Our first introduction to Sri Lanka
On October 11th we left Vietnam and flew from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur and then to Colombo the next day. The disadvantage of booking flights in advance is that it’s hard to predict on beforehand where you’ll be at that time. Of course that doesn’t weigh up to the BIG advantage of getting the cheapest tickets. So we pre-booked our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Colombo, Sri Lanka and had … Read more
Six months on the road…
Pretty much unnoticed we passed the half way point of our Big Adventure a few days ago. Six months on the road with our little world traveler! And what’s even better… we have another six months to go! So far: 🙂 We traveled by plane, train, car, bus, boat, motorcycle, scooter, horse carriage and becak, 🙂 visited 5 countries, 🙂 went to 16 destinations, 🙂 took 11 flights, 🙂 and … Read more
From Nha Trang to Dalat as Easy Riders
We finally did what we talked about A LOT and never thought we would do on this trip. We drove a motorcycle from Nha Trang to Da Lat with an Easy Rider tour! We really didn’t think this was possible with a toddler and we’re so very happy we did it anyway. It was a gorgeous ride and all three of us had a really good time. The Vietnam Easy … Read more
A photo impression of Hanoi’s Old Quarter
There’s really no good way to describe Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Walking around your senses get attacked with so many smells, sights and sounds, you’re on complete overload. The streets are incredibly busy. Motorbikes weaving in and out of traffic, cars trying to find their way around all of the motorbikes, tourists on foot trying not to be overrun by motorbikes… I’m sure by now you get the idea… motorbikes everywhere. … Read more
Discovering Cat Ba Island by scooter
When we got to Cat Ba Island it was raining on and off and it stayed that way our first day there. We were reconsidering our choice to stay, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all… But the second morning it was sunny! Time to rent a motorbike and go exploring! We drove around the island for a few hours, went to Cannon Fort and had a really … Read more
Our Halong Bay experience
As I watch our son sleep in his travel bed I’m amazed by his ability to adapt. Just this morning we were in a hotel room in Hanoi, now we’re on a ship in Halong Bay. And he’s doing his afternoon nap, as if nothing has changed. Although I couldn’t join the cave tour this afternoon because we want one of us to stay with our little boy when he … Read more