Hellobee

I’d been wanting to do a Day in The Life post for a while, but we’ve had so much going on (lots of travel, lots of friends visiting). But that’s our new normal since our lives don’t have much of a consistent schedule here anyway, so I guess this glimpse into a week in our lives is pretty accurate. This is what my life looked like over the past week running Hellobee while helping out at the family resort in El Nido. (Warning picture overload!)

W E D N E S D A Y

7:30am – Wake up, walk over to resort with the kids. Mr. Bee wakes up by 4-5am so he’s never home when I wake up. We live on an adjacent private lot a minute walk away. One of Charlie’s closest friends from New York is visiting (they started daycare at the same time when they were both 1 1/2). I have breakfast with my friend, her son, Charlie and Olive at the resort.

9:00am – Come home and feed the dogs. Prepare everything for island hopping – rash guards, sand toys, life vests, snorkel masks, sunblock, hats, snacks, and towels.

9:50am – Charlie, Olive, their friend, his mom, and our nanny leave on our bangka (boat) to go island hopping. There are 2 tour guides to help out with the kids because Charlie is fearless in the water, and Olive is increasingly becoming so! I usually go too, but need to do some work so I stay behind.

pic from when we went island hopping last month. we’ve had 4 sets of friends with families visiting for pretty much a month straight so we’ve been island hopping twice a week! 

Charlie can snorkel for hours

10:45am – Wednesdays and Saturdays are wet market days when the most variety is available, so I get a ride from the resort top-down (retrofitted motorcycle with an open sidecar) to the market about 15 minutes away. I make 3 stops – the wet market for produce, a dry goods store, and a rice store to buy rice for the dogs (no dog food here).

my big market basket

in the topdown on the way to town

The stand with the most variety where I buy most of my produce and eggs

the food my kids miss most by far is fruit — berries of every kind most of all, kiwi, grapes, peaches, and mandarin oranges! 

12:00pm – Get home, wash eggs (they often have chicken poop on them), put away groceries. Our housekeeper comes Monday – Saturday 8am-12pm. There are a lot more chores here since everything is done manually, gets dusty daily, and we spend most of our time at home. She also helps with food prep by washing and chopping veggies so it takes me less time to cook. Yesterday she chopped up cabbage and radish for kimchi, so I have to make that today. I prep the cabbage by salting it, and have to let it sit for about 3 hours. I also make radish water kimchi and pickled garlic with chayote. The vegetables are available locally (though not always), and I can get the spices I need from a little Korean market in the island capital 5 hours away.

left: salting cabbage for kimchi  |  right: water radish kimchi

left: garlic + chayote for pickling  | right: washing eggs

1:00 – 4:00pm – Go to resort and work. Internet has been down at home the past 2 months, but almost always works at the resort since they have both carriers (similar to cable modem) that are available in the Philippines. I’ve learned to work in chunks and be flexible here — it makes me super productive when I can get online!

the thousands of tadpoles in a water drainage trough on our property that we inspect daily. when the thousands of frogs were mating a couple of weeks ago, the sound was absolutely deafening!

4:00pm – Everyone returns from island hopping (the kids on one boat and resort guests on another boat). I chat with guests about the tour, give dinner recommendations, and help out with anything they might need. Mr. Bee usually does this but he’s home sick. Our nanny takes the kids home to bathe them. I stop by to rinse my salted cabbage and make kimchi, then work at the resort until 6pm.

our bangka

Left: All three attended daycare together! |  Right: One of the resort yorkies, Taro

6:00 – 8:00pm – Nanny leaves at 6 so I go home to start cooking dinner. I make meatballs and mac and cheese that the kids devour. They’re always hungry on island hopping days. The adults eat chicken stir fry and the kimchi I just made. Hang out, clean up. Charlie is sleeping over at his friend’s room on the resort.

this only lasted 3 days!

8:00pm – Come back to resort to work. Mr. Bee has been sick the past couple of days so it has been crazy busy for me with him completely bedridden, me helping out at the resort a lot more, a big work project due, and friends visiting from America. He puts Olive down (texts me at 8:17pm that she’s asleep).

9:40pm – Go home. Got a good 6 hours of Hellobee work in today. It’s been a long week! Reward myself with a beer.

Challenger never leaves Olive’s side for 12+ hours every night no matter how much she harasses him… and she harasses him a lot!

10:00 – 12:30am –  I haven’t watched tv in over a month because our tv was out of load (you have to preload cable boxes here and the plan we usually get isn’t available to buy locally). I watch my favorite Korean reality show 3 Meals a Day followed by I Can See Your Voice.

12:30 am – Mr. Bee wakes up and we hang out for a while.

2:30am – I usually go to sleep earlier, but it’s a late night for me.

T H U R S D A Y

8:00am – I wake up when I hear our housekeeper arrive. Get Olive dressed in her swimming suit since it’s another beach day, and head over to the resort.

saying hello to the 2 pigs that live on the resort. alas they will be Christmas dinner for the staff!

8:30am – I have breakfast with my friend and the kids at the resort.

9:00-9:45am – Answer most important emails.

9:45-10:15am – Taking half the day off. Get ready to go to Nacpan Beach!

10:15am – 2:15pm – Go to town and take a van for the 45 minute drive to Nacpan, which was voted the #10 best beach in the world this year by Tripadvisor. The powder soft beach stretches for miles, and is largely deserted. The waves are also big because a storm system recently passed through, so I have the kids wear life jackets in the water.

the “busy” side

the completely deserted side

traditional filipino foods: eggplant omelette (tortang talong), pork adobo, pancit, shrimp sinigang, fried fish, barbecue chicken, and steamed crabs

I always feed the beach dogs our leftovers, and give the most to the thinnest dog. The dog on the left lost her eye and recently had puppies so I feed her most of our leftovers.

3:10pm – Arrive back home, take a shower, kids eat because they didn’t eat much at the beach.

4:00pm – Mr Bee’s mom comes to our house to show us the 2 baby horseshoe crabs she caught in front of the resort. They are so cool! (This is a super interesting article about how important horseshoe crab blood is for all of us!)

4:30pm –  Set all 3 kids up with a movie. I go to the resort and work on Hellobee while helping guests with anything they might need.

7:30pm – Go home. I pack a bento box and some snacks for my friend, Charlie and his friend to eat in their room. Charlie has slept over the past 2 nights there and this will be his third night sleeping over.

kimchi, rice, potatoes, ground beer stir fry, oranges, dragonfruit, apples, bananas, and boiled eggs.

8:00pm – Come back to resort to work. It’s tough when friends are visiting because I want to spend as much time as I can with them, but I still have to work too. Got 4 1/2 hours of work in today.

9:00pm – Go home, read books to Olive, and lay in the other bed next to her while she falls asleep.

9:30-10:45pm – Lay in bed making notes on my iphone for the things I need to do over the next 2 days.

10:45pm – Turn on a podcast and fall asleep quickly listening to it.

F R I D A Y

7:30am – Wake up. Go to resort, spend 30 minutes catching up on emails and Facebook (the only social media site that loads somewhat well here) to save articles for my weekly link roundup post.

parts for our bangka. You can’t just go to a store to buy most things, so everything is usually built by carpenters

9:00am – Come home and hang out with friends for a while. Feed dogs. Challenger (brown dog) has asthma and was abandoned by his former owner, Bambi (cow dog) literally came to us on death’s door and we saved his life, and Alko belongs to our housekeeper who lives next door but he was born on the resort and we’ve known him since he was a week old. Dog rescue is truly one of my passions and callings in life, and it’s been one of the best parts of living here in El Nido.

It took me months to gain Bambi’s trust because he’d been through so much even though I fed him daily. Now he is so loyal and follows me wherever I go.

Alko likes to sit atop our slide and act as our security guard. He’s the alpha male of our neighborhood and largely a loner compared to most other dogs, but definitely the pack leader. He is a mysterious dog!

11:30am – Everyone leaves to go up Taraw Cliff (an easy 20 minute hike of stairs and bridges built into a mountain), but Olive opts to stay behind. She’s done it before and she’s tired from all the beach days she’s had in a row.

image from the first time we went a couple months ago

I go buy souvenirs with Olive and Mr. Bee in town. I make a gift bag for all my friends that visit with a tote bag, matching El Nido tank tops, toys and snacks for the kids and locally made souvenirs.

afterwards we get some ice cream — caramel Oreo for Olive!

This is a small town and our friend has breakfast at the restaurant upstairs every day, so we go up to say hello and hang out for a little while.

1:oopm – Go to hiking trail, have everyone picked up by a tricycle (retrofitted motorcycle – no cars here), and come back to the resort.

1:45pm – Cook lunch. Dumplings, miso soup, and potato salad.

3:00pm – Go to our cafe in town to work (faster internet), wait for delivery of Korean groceries being shipped from the island capital.

5:30pm – Go buy some snacks for friends since they are leaving for Taiwan tomorrow morning and get pizza to go for dinner.

a wood burning pizza oven is one of the best things that has happened to El Nido!

5:50pm – Korean groceries arrive as I’m walking back to the cafe. A resort tricycle picks me up and I head back home.

6:00 – 9:15pm – Friends are over. Charlie is feeling a little under the weather and goes to sleep around 8:30.

9:15-9:30pm – Write instructions for housekeeper and nanny since I’ll be gone the next day. Tomorrow is also payday so I prep that as well.

9:30-9:45pm – There are so many ants in the bathroom and kitchen lately. I put ant poison in those rooms and as I’m showering, I see thousands of ants devouring the poison. I throw water on them so they go down the drain. Insects of all kinds are a constant problem here.

9:45pm –  Olive says she’s hungry and wants to eat mango. I cut up two and she finishes them (they are absolutely delicious here), brushes her teeth, and I read her 2 books.

10:10pm – I’m on the other bed in her room typing notes into my iphone preparing for my trip waiting for Olive to fall asleep. Once she’s asleep (in 10 minutes) I check on Charlie and put a blanket on him that will probably be kicked off in the next 10 minutes.

10:20pm – 12:30am – Internet at home has been broken for the past 2 months, but it got fixed today hooray! Pour myself a glass of wine and work until 12:30am. Got 5 hours of work in today.

S A T U R D A Y

5:50am – Mr. Bee wakes me up to say bye to my friends. After seeing my friends off to the airport, I come home and pack for a trip to the island capital 6 hours away by bus. Most things are not available in El Nido, so we make regular trips to the capital. I usually take the kids, but this will be a super short trip to buy some things I need for a work project.

outfit of the day every day

6:20am – Leave for the bus terminal 20 minutes away.

7:00am – The bus leaves at 7:00am on the dot and arrives in the island capital at 1:00pm on the dot! I haven’t listened to many podcasts lately because I’ve been passing out so hard at night, so I catch up on them during the 6 hour drive. I listen to WTF with Marc Maron; Death, Sex, and Money; Freakonomics; and This American Life.

Puerto Princesa Bus Terminal

1:00pm – Take a tricycle to the hotel 5 minutes away that I’ve stayed at before. I haven’t made a reservation but it’s low season, so I’m sure I can find a room. Bonus – it cost me less than the published rate and is $35 for a nice room with a fridge, which I need since I’ll be buying a lot of groceries. There’s also a great pool but I don’t take advantage of it.

1:20 – 4:30pm – The mall is across the street. I come here regularly so I know it very well. I haven’t eaten yet so I go straight to the food court and order Korean food.

ddukboki and bibimbop. ordered too much because I was so hungry!

There is a small Daiso here where I buy bento supplies for a post I’m working on with Pinterest for back to school. I love Daiso! I also stock up on art supplies and random home goods like a steamer.

My next stop is a used bookstore with children’s books from British and American libraries and elementary schools. I can spend hours here and have found so many gems! Books range from $1-$3 and our entire library has been stocked with books from here. Then it’s the hardware store to buy some spray bottles, ant poison, and dog treats.

4:30pm – Return to hotel to rest a little. Throw away packaging on everything I’ve purchased while watching Project Runway All Stars.

6:00 – 9:00pm – Back to mall to hit the office supply store (art supplies), drugstore (thermometer, toiletries), department store (sheets, towels, board games, toys), and the market (cheese, fruit, feminine products).

9:00 – 12:00am – Return to hotel, throw away all packaging, put perishables in fridge, pack. Snack on cheese and grapes, catch up on emails, plan out a post on paper since my laptop broke this week, watch a little tv then go to sleep.

S U N D A Y

7:20am – Wake up, pack food in fridge into cooler with ice, leave for the bus terminal (5 min away) on the free hotel van service.

over 10 kinds of cheese since we can’t buy it locally – cream cheese, string cheese, Babybel, blue, gouda, brie, parmesan, cheddar, mozzarella, swiss, emmental, pepperjack, havarti !

8:10am – Buy a cup o noodles and chat with a friendly vendor about how to say certain words in Korean. He already knows several and wants to know more. Now that I’m so tanned, every local assumes that I’m Filipina until I speak unaccented English (ha but my Filipino accent is pretty good and I get the local tricycle rate!). Filipinos are naturally very warm and friendly, and they are genuinely interested in and like foreigners.

there is never free wifi on board!

9:00am – 3:15pm – Take the 6+ hour bus ride back to El Nido. The return trip takes longer because it is raining. The driver blasts his mix of songs. The music you most commonly hear in the Philippines is American love songs from the 70’s and 80’s and I love it! Catch up on more podcasts — NPR’s Fresh Air, Slate’s Mom and Dad Are Fighting, 99% Invisible, TED Talks, Planey Money, and another WTF with Marc Maron which is my current favorite podcast.

The view the entire way is lush rice fields, water buffaloes that plow the fields, and coconut trees. 

3:15pm – Arrive at El Nido bus terminal and call Mr. Bee. I find out that our vet from the island capital that I just came from is at our house neutering one of our dogs. We canceled the appointment with his assistant but I guess he didn’t get the message. Since there are no land lines here and cell phone service is often spotty, miscommunications are frequent. In fact my phone is broken and the phone I borrowed is just horrible, so Mr. Bee and I have a miscommunication about my pickup and I end up waiting 45 minutes at the wrong place.

El Nido bus terminal

4:30pm – Finally get home. Unpack everything I bought, give the kids their gifts (Monopoly Jr., books, floam), say hello to everyone at the resort, make a snack for the kids from what I bought (yogurt, cheddar cheese, kiwi, grapes). Hang out with kids.

6:00pm – Nanny leaves. The vet had to go back to his car in town (10 min drive away) to pick up painkillers and antibiotics for my dog that got neutered, but he had to take off for his next appointment and left 2 injections for me to administer! Luckily Bambi is still under the effects of anesthesia and doesn’t even notice that I’ve stuck him with two syringes – one antibiotic and one painkiller. There are no vets in El Nido and I am so thankful for my vet who comes regularly from so far away to spay/neuter/vaccinate/treat all the dogs we’ve rescued (15+!) since we’ve lived here.

6:30pm – Work at home while Charlie and Olive eat boxed Pillsbury yellow cake they made earlier with their nanny. This is a huge treat since I can only buy it in the capital. Make myself a cup of coffee while the kids watch Phineas and Ferb (one of their favorite cartoons).

7:30pm – 8:00pm – I bought shower gel to use as bubble bath in the island capital (no bubble bath here as there are no bathtubs). I fill up a big rubber tub that serves as Olive’s bathtub. Charlie usually takes showers, but the kids really miss taking baths. Charlie takes a very long bubble bath while Olive does a page in her Paint by Stickers book and I continue to work.

8:00pm – Olive gets in the bath while Charlie does a page in the Paint by Stickers book. I really want more of these! Wash her hair, rinse her off, and she’s done by 8:30.

8:30pm – Olive goes back to her Paint by Stickers page of a T-Rex while Charlie draws. They continue to entertain themselves while I work.

9:30-10:00pm – Mr. Bee goes back to work — he has a midnight check-in at the resort. I tell the kids to pick 4 books from the stack I just bought and read to them.

10:10pm – The kids cannot fall asleep in the same room by themselves because they always stay up for hours talking! So I tell Charlie to go read books by himself in the other room and Olive falls asleep snuggling Challenger within 10 minutes. Charlie is tired so he’s asleep by 10:30 too.

10:30pm – Go outside to check on Bambi. He has been in a great mood considering he got neutered earlier today. He is right outside the front door with this female dog that’s been hanging around him, begging me to adopt her. It’s really hard not to rescue all the dogs. I feed him a big can of tuna because he didn’t eat much dinner earlier.

10:30pm – 1:20am – Work. Got in about 6 hours of work today.

1:20am – 3:00am – Have a lot of anxiety so I can’t sleep even though I’m really tired. Probably wired from my short trip. Surf on my phone until I finally fall asleep.

MONDAY

8:00am – Wake up. Housekeeper arrives. Olive says her head hurts and she has a slight fever, though she refuses to let me take her temperature (with an oral thermometer) or take medicine. She is very stubborn. Charlie is up a couple minutes later. Feed dogs.

9:00am – Make the kids breakfast but Olive doesn’t eat. Kids entertain themselves with activity books I bought in island capital while I work.

10:00am – Nanny arrives. I make coffee and continue to work on Hellobee. 10:30am Olive is laying in bed absolutely refusing to take Advil no matter a bribe of videos and gummy candies.

11:00am – Mr. Bee returns from the resort after the morning rush of getting guests out to their sightseeing adventures for the day. He can’t convince Olive to take Advil and she just falls asleep.

11:30am –  I go to the wet market, dry market, bakery, a minimart (which has more American/European goods) and the rice store (bought doggie rice last week now we’re out of people rice). I buy potatoes, apples, watermelon, eggs, whole chicken, canned tuna, mayo, milk, bread, banana bread, chili powder, cereal, cornichon, wine, toilet cleaner, bathroom cleaner, laundry detergent, and rice.

12:40pm – Get home, put away groceries. Make myself an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich.

1:00pm – 7:30pm – Eat at desk while on computer. Haven’t been able to work at home in a while (internet was down) and I really missed it! Olive wakes up around one and I’m glad that I was able to be nearby since she is feeling a little under the weather.

Nanny leaves at 6pm. Mr. Bee comes home at 6:30 and he’s home for the night. His schedule is different every day so I usually put both kids down every night. He watches a Harry Potter movie with the kids. Charlie is obsessed with Harry Potter.

7:30-9:00pm – Saute ground beef to make chili in the crockpot overnight. Olive eats the breakfast she never touched and Charlie eats half a bagel and a yogurt for dinner. I take a shower. Realize that I didn’t brush my teeth today. Such is life.

chili is a treat because I just bought a gallon of canned tomatoes in the capital

9:00-10:00pm – Work some more. Got at least 9 hours of work in today woohoo!

10:00pm – Put the kids to bed and fall asleep myself around 11.

TUESDAY

7:05 am – Wake up. Walk over to resort. Talk to guests, chat with Mr. Bee about the busy day (lot of new guests checking in). Tuesdays are our nanny’s day off, but we asked her to take Wednesday off instead. I help out at the resort when we have busy days like today. There are surprisingly many parallels working in the hospitality industry to running an online community.

island hopping tours are cancelled today because of the weather which makes guests (and us!) sad

7:50am – Come home, brush my teeth, put on sunblock, feed the dogs, go back to resort. Mr. Bee is going to our booking office in town because someone broke the glass door last night and he needs to get it fixed. I man the front desk helping guests with whatever they need.

We have so many fruits growing on our property I thought I would share!
Left: alugbati (similar to spinach)  |  Right: mallungay as it’s known locally, moringa as it’s known in the states now being hailed as the latest superfood.

coconuts and papaya are our most abundant trees

also lots of guyabana (soursop) and bananas

left: pomelo  |  right: one of our many kalamansi trees (similar to lime but slightly larger than a kumquat), also green oranges not pictured since they look the same as the kalamansi

one of the many bird nests in our trees.

10:00am – 12:30pm – Stop by the house because our nanny will be arriving by 10. Kids are still asleep. Olive comes over to the resort with me for a bit. One guest from Holland wants advice about social media so I spend a good amount of time chatting with her. She tells me about the educational system in the Netherlands and living and raising kids in America vs. Europe (she’s American). I want to move to Europe after we leave the Philippines more than ever!

Alko and Bambi happily greet Olive

12:30pm – All the guests are out sightseeing so I come home and eat the chili I made last night at my desk. im with Mr. Bee. Read up on the Netherlands. Work at my desk.

1:45pm – Mr. Bee comes home and we have lunch with the kids.

2:45pm – Back to work.

3:40 – 6:30pm – Pop over to the resort a couple of times to help out with a couple of things, but come back to my desk to work for most of the time. Make seaweed soup for dinner.

7:30pm – Mr. Bee comes home and we eat dinner together.

7:45-8:15pm – We all go over to the resort to hang out with Mr. Bee’s mom.

8:20pm – Come home and sit at the table together while the kids eat dinner.

8:40pm – I go back to work, Mr. Bee watches Teen Titans (another of their favorite cartoons) with the kids.

9:30pm – I shower, read the kids 4 books, and fall asleep with them before 11pm.

this is one patient dog. he doesn’t mind Olive laying on him every day!

.  .  .  .  .

Our lives aren’t any less busy living on a remote tropical island vs. a bustling metropolis because we always have a lot of different projects going on at once. But it’s busy in a different way. Everything takes longer to do here because island time is a real thing, and most things are not easily accessible. It’s not always easy, but we’re very lucky for this opportunity to travel around Asia, homeschool the kids, and give them a childhood similar to the one we’re all nostalgic for with lots of free play.

Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into our lives!