Malapascua, Philippines

Manila is only a 2 hour flight from Macau, with Cebu being only 1 hour more. So hypothetically you could be in Cebu in 3 hours, except as with everywhere in the world, travel is not that simple. We took a bus, 2 planes, a long nap on the Manila airport floor, a 3 hour car ride, and a 30 minute boat ride to a tiny little island blessed with no cars or even bungalows higher than 2 stories.

Over the last 11 years, we've visited many islands and beaches around the world, with each being unique and beautiful. However, not until we arrived in Malapascua, had we seen such a "calendar worthy" tropical escape. You know what we mean, an arching palm tree, stretched over a image of turquoise and blue waters, with azure colored skies, and emerald mountains as the backdrop in the distance. Of course it must be photoshopped... Except it isn't in the Philippines. It was the most picturesque place we've ever been. We floated on our backs in the nearly 90 degree sea for a week, looking around, saying "I can't believe this is real". Yes, the diving was amazing too and we had the opportunity to dive with the infamous thresher sharks which only come up the the depths of the oceans in this one place on earth. Malapascua is a pretty special place!

While there we experienced not only the incredible seas and beaches of the Philippines, but the people too. Of the people we met and spent time talking to, they all were working towards a better future, not for themselves but for the generations to come. They spoke of ending the cycle of poverty by working grueling hours for minimal pay in order to put their children through college, so that their grandchildren would never know what it's like to bail their bath water from a dirty well and run around barefoot because they have no shoes. But the most amazing thing we noticed about being surrounded by poverty in the Philippines was the tight knit community, the smiling faces, the people singing and laughing on their way home from their 15 hour work day, gathered around eating together. For as little as people had, they made the best of it and they didn't let it interfere with their overall happiness. Kids without iPads, itouches, iPods, nintendos, and televisions were playing outside with their friends. A group of  8 year old boys got together on the beach every night we were there. Sometimes they would take turns throwing mismatched flip flops at a pile of plastic bottles to see who could move them the furthest; other nights, they would play leap from over each other, adding one more boy to the length after each successful jump. One of our other favorite groups of kids met on the beach during the heat of the day. There were several boys between the ages of 4 and 6, with just one girl no older than three. Their bare little bottoms would swim and splash for hours, all paying the closest attention to the little girl. She was always the lucky one who got to balance on the boys shoulders as they pretended to walk a tight rope through the water. While on another occasion, she was the reason that the bare bottom boys climbed up a coconut tree to get her a treat. They were happy and laughed until their hearts were content.