China Life 10
January 8, 2026
(Happy birthday to my Mom!)
This is actually an "in-and-out of China" post because we just returned from our Christmas holidays.
After my last update December kind of passed by in a blur. The school hosted the International Festival of Light and my little choir sang a few songs which actually went quite well. I went to a very fun Christmas party hosted by my friend Amy, where we ate fabulous food and laughed quite hard at our White Elephant gift exchange.
Finally after what felt like a very long last week of teaching, we were done for 2025 on December 19th. The school hosted a staff luncheon (complete with wine and bubbly!) for the afternoon.
On our first day of holiday, I had arranged to take the kids to a nearby hot spring resort which boasted 12 different "soda pools" and had a great rating on the travel sites. I thought it would be a nice way to spend our weekend together before leaving China on Monday. So on Saturday morning when we were packed up, I opened our DiDi app and booked a car to take us the 70km north. The DiDi app said that our driver was a mere 4 minutes away, so we raced down to the meeting point on our compound and I watched the little car icon veeerrrrrrryyyyy slowly drive around the compound. After about 15 minutes, the car pulled up but would not come up right beside us. The driver got out and started saying something to me in Mandarin but of course I had no idea what he was saying so I used my trusty "ting bu dong" expression ("I don't understand") and he kept repeating himself and raising his voice because in some parallel universe people learn languages if they are just spoken more loudly. I quickly typed into my translation app that he could text me whatever it was he needed to say, and he was frustrated that I was showing him a screen. So he ran up to some people who live here on our compound and asked if they could translate. Fortunately, they did speak a bit of English and could get the message across to me that the driver thinks the trip to the hot spring was too far and so I would have to cancel and find someone else. (This took about 20 minutes so I was frustrated). I asked why he didn't just cancel it from his end (happens all the time....) and according to him, he was unable to.
OK, whatever. I opened up the app and canceled the requested lift.
Then I asked Judy (my new neighbour friend) how we could get to the hot spring. The driver was still standing there, and after much back and forth discussion in Mandarin, it was decided that I should just try someone else. So as I was about to look for another car, the driver told Judy that he would take us for just 30 rmb more, which was reasonable, so I agreed and we put our stuff into the car and headed off.
We knew before we had made it to the gate that this was a bad idea. Not because the driver was ill-intentioned or over-priced, but because he was hands-down the WORST driver I have ever been with. 14-year-old Kieran texted me from the back seat within 30 seconds: "I am pretty sure that I drive better than this guy..."
Then the driver coughed, deeply snorted, opened his window, and spat out a long gooey blob. Luckily Noémie’s window was closed. She was sitting behind him and looked aghast. This unfortunate experience carried on about every five minutes for the rest of the trip.
We were lurching because he had one foot on the gas and one on the brake and was very much using both at the same time. He stopped about 10 metres back from lights and stop signs (I have no idea why) and I had to tell him when the light had changed. I was following along on my navigation app and we missed the first exit, then missed the turning lane for the second exit so he just kind of turned when he was not supposed to. We did not go faster than 52km/h the entire trip, and he was drifting in and out of lanes randomly. Everyone was honking. I looked at him (incredulously-- because it was really like something out of a bad sitcom) and he was blinking rapidly. I am pretty sure he was mostly blind. After an hour... when I saw that we were well over an hour behind schedule and still had SO far to go, he went straight past the exit for the toll highway, which added another 26 minutes to our journey (if we had been driving at a normal pace, which we weren't). I quickly got onto Google Translate and said, "Please take the toll road. I will pay." and played it out loud for him to hear. He nodded and kept lurching.
But then we missed the second exit for the toll road.
Again, I hit play on my translator and he got aggravated. He hit his steering wheel and said, "OK OK!!"-- however, despite the third exit for the toll road being at a red light where we were stopped, he ignored the exit and went straight through again. If our bags had not been in the trunk I would have told the kids to just hop out at the next light. Unfortunately by this point we were on a freeway, so despite chugging nauseatingly along slowly, there really was not a good place to get dropped off.
Then came the construction zone-- where everyone was bottle-necked into one lane and of course kept cutting in front of our very slow and very distanced driver, who then started sighing loudly, mumbling and probably swearing. Long story long... it took us just shy of 3 hours to travel 70km for what was meant to be a relaxing trip away, specifically chosen for it's proximity to Guangzhou.
We then entered the hotel (which was quite lovely) and the staff could not find my booking despite me showing them the confirmation. Check-in was long and tedious and no one spoke English so I was needing to translate everything. We had also missed lunch because of our nightmare trip, and it was shortly after we had gotten settled into our room that we learned that the only restaurant at the resort is closed between 2-5pm. It was 3:30.
We went for a walk— good news is that it is in a really pretty area beside a river and everything was very green. Then Kieran and I decided to go check out the hot springs, which were actually quite lovely. There was a variety of smaller pools (they could easily fit 10-12 people) which each had their own scent: rose, jasmine, chrysanthemum, etc. and two larger pools which were not heated. The smaller pools were tucked into trees so it was kind of like sitting in a hot pool in a jungle.
Dinner was another cultural experience, of course. I guess this resort is not used to foreigners because the menu was only written in Chinese and there were no pictures. Thank goodness for translation apps… despite the very weird ways they translate sometimes, at least we had some idea of what we might be getting. I think we accidentally ordered enough food for about 15 people (no joke) and the dishes just kept coming and coming. I was actually embarrassed. However, we were fed. And there were a couple of dishes that even my less-adventurous-eater Kieran was willing to pack up and take back to the room for later.
After dinner we went back to the pools and Noémie joined us. It was quite nice being there in the dark and with hardly anyone else around.
The next morning none of us really felt like soaking again, so we went for another walk and then packed up. I booked a car (promising the kids this time that if the driver was at all dodgy, we would get out right away). Fortunately, our return trip was in a clean, smokeless car and took less than an hour. That, of course, was what I had anticipated the previous day.
December 22nd was our fly-out day, so we went to the airport together. Kieran was headed to Europe to see his dad, and Noémie and I were off to the Philippines (except that she did not yet know that).
We walked Kieran to his gate and said our goodbyes, then Noémie and I went to our gate. She still had no idea where we were going literally until our boarding call when they said the flight number in English and she heard “Manila”. She looked at me and said, “Um… isn’t Manila in the Philippines?!” (She had thought that we were going to Vietnam).
Upon arriving after a quick 2.5 hour flight, I went straight to an ATM to withdraw Philippine pesos. It rejected both of my cards. So I went to a different one. It was out of money.
So was the third one.
The fourth (and last) ATM in the airport had a lineup of people at it, many of whom cheered when money actually came out of it. We soon discovered that this would be a theme throughout our entire trip. In a country where Cash is King, very few ATMs actually had cash— and many of the ones that did had a rather small limit. So I paid a lot of unwanted transaction fees.
We had a quick, rather sleepless night in a cheap hotel near that Manila airport. I am pretty sure that the walls were made of cardboard and the hotel was literally on the runway, because every 15-20 minutes all night it sounded like a freight train was going through our room. Fortunately we were excited enough that the lack of sleep was tolerable.
Our morning flight was 1.5 hours and took us to Puerto Princesa, in the province of Palawan. We immediately took a van transport up the island to El Nido, which took about 6 hours after it picked up all of the passengers. So that was a long day, but totally worth it. El Nido is a fun, vibrant little beach city that reminded us of a much smaller Puerto Vallarta. Lots of great restaurants, happy people, beautiful beaches, and overall just the perfect place for us to start our holiday. We loved our hotel. The food all over was amazing. The streets were full of vendors, parades and music. It was hot and humid.
On Christmas Eve we spent the day in the spa, getting our hair and lashes done. That night we lucked out in finding another beautiful spa which had openings for “traditional Philippine hot banana leaf massages” so we took advantage of that and it was absolutely lovely.
Christmas Day was our island-hopping day. We went on a boat with 28 other tourists (no choice… it’s high season) and did the “lagoon tour”. Our first stop was “Secret lagoon” which really was very beautiful: it meant climbing through a small opening in a rock wall to get to a huge, hidden lagoon surrounded by dripping moss and palm trees. Unfortunately that day it was full of dozens of other tourists doing exactly what we were, but I could appreciate why it was such a sought-after place. Big lagoon was another stop, which involved taking kayaks up a shallow channel to a big lagoon (surprise) with sheer, spiky rock walls. It really was stunning. We also made stops at a couple of postcard-perfect white sandy beaches, and had a yummy lunch at Seven Commandos Beach.
I had left Boxing Day as a free day just in case we needed to rest. Which we did. We slept in, did some laundry, and lingered over a yummy brunch. In the afternoon I decided to rent a scooter so that we could explore a bit more. We had an absolute blast zooming along the island highway, and ended up at a small side-road advertising a waterfall and a cave. Why not? So we bumped along the dirt a bit until we got to a gate. A nice man named Raymond came and offered to give us a cave tour (with hard hats and flashlights) for a small fee, so we took him up on it. The caves he took us to were actually quite extensive and I was glad for the head lamp. We saw lots of bats and spiders. Afterwards we went to the “waterfall” which was more of a swimming hole, but absolutely beautiful and very refreshing. We had a great swim.
The following day was another travel day: we were taking the ferry north to Coron, on Busuanga island. It is advertised as a “beautiful and easy 3.5 hour ferry ride past lush tropical islands”. This was partly true. Namely the second part.
Our first adventure was arriving at the ferry port and discovering that none of the check-in was done with computers. Two very busy women were going through piles of paper looking for each passenger and using pens and scissors to mark our tickets and cut them out for us. It was all outside, in the sun, with very little shade. It was 32 degrees. We were some of the first to check in, and when they could not “find” my ticket, they suggested that I just go and buy another one. Umm… no… they were not cheap, and I had the confirmation visible on my phone. We were told to sit and wait, and somehow awhile later they procured the right paper and let us go.
The ferry ended up leaving about 45 minutes late. It was absolutely full, and we all had assigned seats like on a plane. Noémie and I were downstairs across the aisle from one another. The windows were so salt-sprayed that we couldn’t really see out of them anyway. I was in a middle row, and between Noémie and the window there were 2 other people. Luggage was brought in and lined up down the middle of the aisle so people literally had to climb over suitcases and boxes to move around. As soon as we pulled away from the port I knew that this was not going to be a good ride. In fact, I knew that somehow, did not matter how, but I absolutely was going to HAVE to get outside and find some fresh air. We were absolutely rolling. The hull was slamming down between waves, and I could see why the windows were all salted. The crew stumbled through the cabin, grabbing seats, and sometimes sitting on the luggage in order to toss paper barf-bags out to everyone. Noémie had leaned her head onto her arm which was draped on the seat in front of her, and I did not want to tell her what was going on. We were not 15 minutes into the ride before the guy behind her tapped my arm and said, “BAG!” and pointed at my paper bag which was tucked into the seat pocket in front of me. I grabbed it and threw it at him. He quickly handed it to the lady beside him, who had started puking into her baseball cap. I was frantically looking around for a way out. Her boyfriend, who was between her and the window, was absolutely green. And the guy who had asked for the bag had sat back down but was choking and burping loudly. When Boyfriend By the Window tapped Burping man who was directly behind Noémie so that he could get out, and when Burping man held up one finger to say “Not yet, I cannot move at this moment”, I made a run for it. I quickly leaned across the suitcases between us and told Noémie that was going to find an outer deck.
I then clambered over suitcases and desperately searched for an exit. I made it up some steep stairs into a smaller room that had a door. There was a crew member manning the door, and thankfully he saw me quickly and let me outside. It was hot and there were a lot of sick people up there too, but at least I could see the horizon and breathe. I got a seat on a big box at the back of the ship, and immediately texted Noémie and told her to come join me. She did. She said, “Oh Mom! It was so gross downstairs! The guy behind me kept burping and I thought he was going to be sick!”
Thank goodness she had not witnessed what I had seen. She spent pretty much the entire rest of the journey curled up in the fetal position lying on the floor at my feet.
Because of our late departure and the rough seas, our picturesque 3.5-hour ferry ride took slightly longer than 6 hours and we ended up arriving in Coron after dark. This was not exactly a problem (we were just thrilled to get back onto dry land!) except that our BnB was 35 km away and I had rented a scooter to take us up there. Driving in the dark to a new location on an island I am not familiar with was not exactly what I had intended, but oh well!
The guy renting us the scooter, John, was fabulous. He met us at the ferry terminal with helmets and the paperwork to rent a practically new Honda scooter. Once I had signed what was needed, he wished us luck and took off. Noémie and I had a comical time trying to figure out how to fit both of us and our loaded backpacks onto the bike, but we managed. We then had a bit of a wobbly turn-around before heading off down the street.
Before we could go to our BnB, we had 3 things to accomplish: first, I needed to find a working ATM because I was running very low on money. Second, we needed to get gas because the scooter was running low and John had warned us that as soon as we were 2km away from the port, there was nothing for miles. Third, we were VERY hungry and needed dinner. So. we decided to eat first. I found a restaurant and proudly parked the bike and got our gear all off of it. Turns out that it was a very poplar restaurant and high-season… so there was a 20-minute wait. I was about to turn around and find somewhere else to eat, when I saw that Noémie had slumped into a chair and said, “Can we just wait the 20 minutes? You go find an ATM and get gas, I’ll stay with the bags and wait for a table.”
Brilliant idea!
So I headed out again on my own. The closest ATM was 110 metres away, so I walked.
No cash.
The next one was another 110 metres away. I walked further.
No cash.
I was starting to panic a bit. Without cash I could not get dinner or gas.
Luckily near the second ATM there was another one that could spit out half of the amount I had requested, but it was enough to feed us and get us to where we needed to be that night.
Ironically, the same scenario happened with my search for gas: one station that was suggested on the map was clearly no longer there, and the second one was closed. I missed the turn for the third one (and by this point I knew that Noémie would be wondering what on earth had happened to me) but by some stroke of luck I managed to take a different turn and end up at the third gas station I had been looking for. I put about $5 worth of gas in, which filled the tank. Then I zoomed back up to the traffic-filled street and found another little parking spot near the restaurant.
After we had eaten, the sea sickness was behind us and the gas tank was full, we were ready for our next adventure. It was now already close to 9pm and we had an hour of scooter-riding ahead of us to the GPS coordinates of our BnB which was in the middle of nowhere. Yahoo!
The ride was actually really lovely. It was cooler, but very comfortable, and there was hardly any traffic. The road was well paved and we could see stars. We were very tired, but Noémie was good at keeping my morale up and we laughed a lot along the way. When we reached the turn-off for the BnB the road got a bit gnarly; it was dirt and very pot-holed, and there were 2 steep sections where rainwater had clearly eroded it into deep ruts. It would be rough enough in daylight. At night, especially when we really were not 100% sure of where we were going, it was actually quite scary. At one point I stopped the bike and said that I was going to try to get ahold of Alexia, who runs the BnB. We could hear that there was a house nearby because there was music playing, but we could not see anything. Then a guy showed up out of nowhere and asked if we needed help. I said, “This may sound crazy but I am looking for a French bakery”. (Alexia runs a bakery and has a BnB suite as well).
The guy was not at all surprised that we would be half a kilometre from a highway in the middle of nowhere on a little island in the Philippines looking for a French bakery at 10pm. He said, “Oh! Alexia! Right there. Go 20 more metres. I’ll tell them you’re here.”
And sure enough, before we had time to pull into the next driveway, Alexia and one of her employees were there with flashlights and helped us carry our stuff up to a beautiful bamboo treehouse. It was SO great to be off the bike, and we were given cold lemongrass tea and some little sweets that she had made that day. Our room was wonderful: it was open to the jungle with just a mosquito net around the bed, and there was a trap door on the balcony which led to the bathroom underneath. We had a wonderful sleep.
In the morning I could see that we had a sliver of ocean view over the trees, and Alexia’s bakery is fantastic. It is also in a wooden/bamboo structure tucked into a steep slope, and consists of a long wooden counter, 2 brick ovens and a big gas stove. She runs a restaurant as well as furnishes all of the local boats with baked goods, and also has a three year old and a five year old! She blew me away. Somehow in between gorgeous loaves of sourdough being pulled out of the ovens, she made us fancy coffees and delicious breakfasts as she chatted about her life and told us that she had also lived in Guangzhou (studying wine?!) for 2 years. She was also a wealth of information about what to do on the island and I was thrilled to discover that there was a dive centre just one kilometre away at the marina. We hopped back onto the bike and went to check it out. I arranged a full day of diving for the following day, and we rented a kayak to paddle around the bay a bit.
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| Alexia hard at work in her cool outdoor bakery kitchen |
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| Our beautiful treehouse BnB |
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| Wonderful view from a helipad we kayaked to |
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| Exploring a derelict plane across the bay |
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| Such a beautiful swimming hole! |
That afternoon Noémie and I scooted up further north on Busuanga and found a lovely beach with hammocks where there was hardly anyone around.
On December 29th I spent the day diving while Noémie did some studying back at the treehouse. I was fortunate to get the whole boat (and wreck!) to myself in the morning. The divemaster, Greg, was phenomenal and took me down to the Taiei Meru Okkikawa wreck. It was a Japanese oil tanker that was bombed by the Americans in 1944. We got to go inside the big oil drums and really penetrate quite far. The reef life was also very uplifting: lots of fish, corals, and colours. It was beautiful.
In the afternoon we went to another interesting wreck (Akitsushima), this time joined by a couple of Australian guys who were kayaking through the islands. They went through air pretty quickly so we did not end up getting to go into the bridge as I had hoped, but we did explore most of the hull and it was cool seeing some bottles and ropes down there.
That night we said goodbye to Alexia and rode back to Coron because our ferry was booked for early the next morning so I had arranged a hotel near the ferry terminal for that night. It was interesting walking around Coron town that night; much busier than I had expected. We poked into a few shops and had a delicious Philippine dinner.
Our ferry ride back was as advertised: calm, pretty, and less than 4 hours. Hallelujah! Once back in El Nido we caught another van and did the 6-hour drive back to Puerto Princesa. Needless to say, after that long day (which started at 5:30am for us) we were VERY happy to find our hotel. This time it was a floating bamboo hut on the beach. The neighbourhood around the hotel was very poor and run-down… lots of houses made of corrugated tin and built over mud puddles. Potholes, street dogs, barefoot kids… but when we arrived at the hotel they were having a big beach party. The owner, Jonathan, came straight to us with a big smile and handed us plates before leading us to a huge buffet complete with a roast pig. Our bags were taken off to our little hut, and we had a huge meal. Soon thereafter there were instruments procured and people started playing and singing for hours. Lots of laughing, happy kids, guests from all over the world, and we felt like we were part of a family.
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| Our first night in Puerto Princesa |
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| Our little floating room |
Getting to our room was always interesting. If the tide was out it was no problem (except that it smelled)— but when the tide was in we had to get wet: sometimes it was right up to the tops of our legs and we would tip-toe to try to not get our shorts wet. The people at the Bamboo House hotel were quite the mix: there was Chris, who is from an island tribe south of Puerto Princesa. He talks a LOT but his English is not very strong so I was really struggling to understand a lot of what he said. I did, however, catch that in a dream his grandmother had come to visit him and he is on a quest to run some kind of business on some tiny island that was left to him by his family. He has lots of strong dreams and visions and they seem to guide his life. Then there was Flucky, who is a fabulous artist. He decorated the entire hotel (and the other hotel that Jonathan owns a few km away) not only with canvas art, but also light fixtures made of bottles, sinks built out of old boats or burls, beach furniture from repurposed boats, etc. He has dreadlocks and a peaceful smile. He was almost killed in a car accident a year ago so was feeling a bit solemn on New Year’s Eve. The most exuberant character was Andre, the German guy who moved to Switzerland and had not planned a check-out date so kind of had established himself as a permanent guest at the hotel. He apparently lost his wife very suddenly about 15 years ago, then he went crazy with depression and ended up going to a monastery somewhere to study buddhism. (His English was hard to follow so I don’t have details). After he left the monastery, he decided to go to a cave in Tibet to meditate until he died. So he went to Tibet, found a cave, and stayed there for over 9 months. Until he realized that he had not died. So he came out, and was detained at the border for having over-stayed his 90-day visa. Apparently he called someone at the monastery who claimed that he had “been meditating and lost track of time” so he was allowed to go. That’s when he decided he needed to do some good in the world. So he decided to go to India to build schools for impoverished children and their single mothers. He teared up as he told me that on Christmas Eve he had received a video from that first school, which had opened for 18 kids, and now had 250 students. All learning, all fed, and all in uniforms.
He has since opened multiple other schools in multiple other countries.
Now he is in Puerto Princesa because during a meditation he was led here and he claims to now know why: because he met Klaus. Klaus is the next oddball character— another German with long scrabbly white hair and a bowler hat. He lives nearby but appears to be an alcoholic who spends most of his time on the beach in front of Jonathan’s hotel drinking beer. Klaus claims to know of some tiny little island waaaaaayyyy offshore that has buried treasure. He just needs a big machine operator who is willing and crazy enough to get a machine to this little island and dig in the middle of the night. Guess who was a professional excavator operator? Yes. Andre. He is certain that he has been called to this exact place and that now he and Klaus are going to make millions on Spanish galleons.
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| Klaus and Andre plotting their midnight treasure hunt |
New Year’s Eve was interesting: the Philippinos like to take the mufflers off of their motorbikes and rev them up really loud in the streets. They would put lights all over their bikes and bring them all together and rev them up to a deafening roar for hours. I watched for awhile (definitely plugging my ears), while the local kids and teens stared at Noémie as though she was a movie star. They were all asking her for photos and holding her hand and hugging her. Chris, Flucky and Buddy (another hotel employee) were ushering us through the streets and noise, trying to keep us safe— and they started calling Noémie “Taylor Swift” because she was so popular it was hard to get her through the crowds. At one point we were all invited into a private home where they had set out a huge feast. It was after midnight by this point, but saying no to food was not an option as they kept pushing the plates at us regardless of our reactions..,. so I took a small piece of cake and nibbled at it in order not to offend. The karaoke machine in this house was going hard and people were taking turns loudly crooning into it. Very fun.
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| Noémie with a few of her fans |
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| The private home we were pulled into after midnight |
Our last day there was spent on one last tour, this time to the underground river, which is deemed one of the “New Seven Natural Wonders of the World” by UNESCO. Getting there was a bit of a gong-show as we were dragged through tourist traps of zip-lining and drink stalls for a few hours before we were actually taken to the cave entrance by boat… but the river itself was phenomenal and extremely well protected. We were forbidden even from talking inside, so that the bats would not be disturbed. Some of the chambers in the caves were absolutely immense and the rock formations were mind-blowing. It was absolutely lovely.
Early the next morning we were taken to the airport. We had most of a day in Manila, where we explored the Intra-muros area before going to a mall and doing some shopping. That night we flew back to Guangzhou and had a rather unremarkable return to our apartment until Noémie discovered (at 2:00am) that a jar of salsa had exploded in her bag and all of her clothes were stained and smelly. Fun. I did not get to bed until almost 3:00am.
Kieran returned from his trip the following afternoon. He says that he had a good time and was rather cheerful when I picked him up. I’m glad to have my little family back together again.
Now we’re back into the swing of things. It’s Thursday night of the first week back at school. We have lost quite a few students over the break and gained some new ones— such is the life at international schools.
I’m off to bed. This was a long one!
xo
Shannon
