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THE KID’S SIDE OF THE STORY
My son has his very own blog. Go check out Kidventurer.com for his side of the story.Archives
Philippines Archive
Farewell to Manila
Posted on May 21, 2010 | 4 CommentsThere is such a thing, when playing hide and seek, as being too clever for one’s own good. In which category I would have to place depositing oneself in the...
The Museum of Doctor Rizal
Posted on May 21, 2010 | 3 CommentsManila is not a spiritual city. It’s one of those big, dirty, urban sprawls, expanding organically, growing without control, the beating heart of an archipelago, maybe, but a cancered one...
The Inflatable Waterpark
Posted on May 16, 2010 | 9 CommentsThis technicolour dream palace is indisputably special. Possibly a little “special needs” too. What is it? You may well ask. For this, my friend, is an inflatable waterpark. Occupying 5000...
Working Girl
Posted on May 16, 2010 | 1 CommentMJ’s been working bars since she was fifteen. Standard shifts. 6pm to 6am. She was an Avon Lady before that, but this pays better. She’s seventeen, now, she says, almost...
Full-Contact Management
Posted on May 14, 2010 | 2 CommentsWe have Doc McGhee, the rock ‘n’ roll svengali who kept Motley Crue, Jon Bon Jovi and Kiss on the road, to thank for the term full-contact management. That’s punching...
Assertiveness Training?
Posted on May 14, 2010 | 9 CommentsIn most of South-East Asia, haggling, in its various shapes and forms, is part of everyday life. And I’m really impressed by how Z has mastered this vital skill. If...
Full Fathom Five…
Posted on May 13, 2010 | 6 CommentsThere is a sepulchral magic to a shipwreck. Viewed from underwater, with russet filigrees of sea ferns flourishing on the fractured edges of a shell hole in the side, lettuce...
Learning to Dive
Posted on May 9, 2010 | 3 CommentsWe are still in Coron. That’s Coron Town, the meandering if unbeautiful little port of Busuanga Island, not Coron, the island, across the way. As is the thing to do...
Kirche Kuche Kinder
Posted on May 9, 2010 | 12 CommentsEvery so often, while eavesdropping — or, perhaps, a more polite term is, err, “people-watching” — one comes across conversations that one, quite literally, couldn’t make up. Ever since we...
Cargo Boats and Commandos
Posted on May 8, 2010 | 8 CommentsI’m a great fan of authenticity in travel. Travelling, where possible, as the locals do, which, given the wealth divide in the Philippines, means either with the driver(s) in the...
A Serpent in Paradise
Posted on May 3, 2010 | 4 CommentsThe labyrinth of reef-fringed karsts around El Nido, Palawan, must be one of the best island-hopping destinations in the world. Whether above water or under it, we’ve had the most...
El Nido
Posted on May 2, 2010 | 12 CommentsAfter a few weeks in the Philippines, one becomes almost inured to beauty. Almost, but not quite, for El Nido, in the north of Palawan, really does take your breath...
Sweet Madeleines
Posted on April 30, 2010 | 16 CommentsIt’s a wonderful thing, being a child. Who would have thought a palm tree could have provided pretty much an entire day’s amusement? Scaling it. Monkey-climbing it. Swinging from it....
Maritime Woes
Posted on April 29, 2010 | 2 CommentsThere are many things unique and wonderful about the Philippines. But the boatmen here are phenomenal in many of the wrong ways. Right now, sat in utter serenity on a...
Here Comes the Rain…
Posted on April 28, 2010 | No CommentsMaybe it’s El Nino. Maybe it’s climate change. Maybe we’ve brought the English summer with us. But it feels like the rains have come early this year. And Z is...
Desert Island Caveboy
Posted on April 28, 2010 | 3 CommentsEven with my spawn noisily constructing a hand-axe from fossil coral and driftwood and a six-year-old channelling his inner T-Rex, there’s something about caves that speak irresistibly of mortality. More...
Short Trousers…
Posted on April 26, 2010 | 12 CommentsWhy is it that someone capable of the Wildean (or Timmy Timpson-esque) remark — “I’ve just been stung by an aquatic delicacy; I am hardly in the mood for seafood?”...
Light Effects
Posted on April 26, 2010 | 1 CommentWe were in Tabon, last week, in the south of Palawan, where the sunsets are amazing. But this, I have to say, I have never seen. These flattened cones, in...
Calamansi Butter
Posted on April 22, 2010 | No CommentsSo these little fellas are calamansi, Filipino style, tiny, spherical citrus fruit which experts believe originated as a cross between a mandarin and a lime. They are, along with ube...
Butterflies and Mimosa
Posted on April 22, 2010 | No CommentsI’ve always been a fan of provincial museums. Which probably comes from growing up in an era when the Thomas the Tank Engine road show meant one man, a trainset,...
