Big Decision « The Road To Simplicity

10May/090

Big Decision

: Obong Spring out to sea

My husband and I just had a one month vacation in the Philippines. We were working pretty hard in 2008 and we figured we needed to unwind from the stress of working in an extremely results-oriented company. We visited friends and family in Manila then went to visit his side in Dalaguete, Cebu.

This town is a sleepy coastal town with a surprising population of 61000 people. We enjoyed swimming in Obong Spring, walked along Tawi-Tawi in the mornings, had newly caught octopus grilled to perfection for dinner, we had "sikwate" (hot choco) and Dalaguete's unique bibingka for breakfast.

Obong spring is truly amazing, it changes color from clear green to dark blue depending on the tide. This is one of the site to see when you drop by Dalaguete. It's about 10-15minutes from the "poblacion" by tricycle. Then you just need to pay Php5.00 (or ~12 cents) for the entrance fee. At first glance, you'll ask yourself.. is this really a spring? or a pool?

This was something that we don't usually experience in Arizona. Every day, we wake early in the morning to reach the office by 7am to avoid the heavy traffic and then work till 4 pm, drive home, cook a quick dinner and then work from home at night. It's a never ending cycle of bills, work hours, more work hours, the Arizona heat, and of course, laundry! I guess anyone can relate to this predicament, it’s not a unique story.

I guess when you have too much time in your hands, like what we had on our vacation, you get to think what you want to do for the rest of your life. Do we follow the usual routine of most Filipino immigrants, work and live in the US for 20-30 yrs, then retire back in the Philippines when we're 65-70 yrs old? Do we bring back our retirement money, live like kings until all the money's gone? We realized as we were asking these questions that we didn't want to wait until we're 60 to go back and finally live life back home. We figured that if we go back when we're really old, our friends and families might not be there anymore. Then what's the point? Could we still dive or skim board or snorkel or the better question is.. would we even want to? With this answered, we set about planning our next adventure, to live life simply with friends and family. Join us as we work our way from the scorching heat of Arizona to go back to the humid heat of the tropics!

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