Bohol Philippines

Our final big outing while we were overseas was to the island Bohol in the Philippines. Bohol is located about an hour away via another (not as glamorous) ferry ride. Bohol is famous for a few different things.

First is the Chocolate Hills. During most of the year, these hills aren't covered in green plants and look like big mounds of chocolate, hence the name.



Here are a couple other shots from the lookout:




Here's a shot of Mushna with our friends Lizzie (left) and Marilyn (middle):



Here I am with Mushna and her Dad:


These are Mushna's Classmates from college who came along on the trip with us:


One of my favorite things about the Philippines in general was some of the sings. I only got a couple pictures of the more interesting ones. I'm curious if people actually do deposit their firearms here:


The next stop was a butterfly sanctuary. Here's Mushna with a butterfly on her head.



Mushna took this shot of a butterfly on her Dad's face...


And this shot of me holding one:


This is a really bizarre flower I've never seen before. That's about all I know about it.



We made a quick stop for photos in this large, man-made forest:


For lunch, we hopped on these boats with tables and a full buffet on them. You float down the river as you eat:



These kids were diving into the water for us:


At one point you pull up to a dock and some local people put on a show for the tourists:









Once we got back to shore, we head down a bit further and visited the Tarsiers. Tarsiers are extremely endangered. These people obtain licenses to care for a designated number of the animals. While in the cage, you can't touch them or use flash photography. Since they're nocturnal a bright camera flash would probably put them in a coma it would hit them so hard.


Mushna got this shot of me right next to one:


After the Tarsiers, we visited Prony, the world's largest snake in captivity.





I'm not sure what this guy is, but I really liked this shot.



While there, I found my second favorite sign:


We stopped by this old church on the way back to the docks:







I got a couple good shots of the sunset on the boat ride home:





Bohol was fun, but it was very hot that day and we were outside a lot so I was feeling pretty beat up by the end of the trip.

Hong Kong - Day 3

On our third day in Hong Kong, we checked out of our hotel and hopped on the MTR to go wander the city. Our first stop was the famous Ladies Market. This stretch of road is about three blocks long and is full of small shops selling random crap... From craft supplies to knock off watches, you can get just about anything. We were after a Mahjong board for Mushna's Dad. After wandering around for a little while, Mushna finally bought one... The big, heavy one. I gave in and bought a backpack to carry it around in, too. The funnest thing about the Ladies Market was haggling prices with the street venders. I've never really tried it before, so it was a lot of fun.







After the Ladies Market, we headed down to the Nan Lian Garden. This is a garden in the center of the city.













This is the Tea House:








Before leaving Hong Kong, I really wanted to get out to get some shots of the streets at night.















That ended our tour of Hong Kong and Macau. We really enjoyed our time there. I would love to go back at some point, but I also really want to visit some other Asian countries and cities, too, so we'll see.

To end, here are a few shots of the hotel lobby we stayed in: