After about 6 months Peter arranged to fly to the Philippines for the first time and meet Gina and our story starts in the United Kingdom, one day it just happened, Peter is at London's Heathrow Terminal 3 on a bright Friday Morning of March 2004, as he waits apprehensively for a long 12 hour flight to Hong Kong's Chep Lap Kok International Airport, onboard a Boeing 747 I remember being very apprehensive about the whole thing, having being corresponding on Yahoo chat, and e mails, lots of thoughts passed through my mind, but it was of course worth it when I took my connecting flight from Hong Kong to Manila arriving in Manila at around 14.30pm in the afternoon on the following day, to be greeted by this lady I had been corresponding with for nearly 6 months.

My first impression of the Capital City in the Philippines was mixed, firstly my head felt like it had just been shoved into a steam house, and I hate steam houses, that was my first impression of the CIty,

I sheepishly made my way following the crowd down to Immigration and was quite suprised what a formality that was, although getting my bags was funny, in that I was even more nervous and nauseous, the bags seemed to take forever, and I had never seen so many Filipinos in one place, they all looked so different to me, eventually I saw my bags and thought oh great, any minute now, I have to go and find her, when I made my way outside, my head was spinning people shouting, taxi touts, hotel greeters, and the heat was incredible, my face was perspiring, and then I had to walk across down through the tunnel to the meeting area.

At First I didnt know what to expect, I presumed that she would find me, rather than the other way around, I was always told by other guys that had been to the Philippines, that a Filipina can spot her BF a mile away, well that was sure to be true enough, I was amazed that she had seen me, what made me feel so happy, was that she waved to me just like she had done it a thousand times before, and she was just like she was in her photo, photos and just like on the web camera. I thought "Just pinch yourself" to check that you are really there.

I then thought oh my God she is so beautiful, after Gina kissed me on the cheek, she introduced me to her Aunt who was really nice and kind to me, when Aunty spoke to me (I knew it was ok, as she said "I am all for this" I thought Her Aunty likes me, I am a winner here !!) we took some time to get a taxi downtown to the Hotel, Aunty came with us, and eventually left us and departed, in the taxi going downtown we just stared at each other, I dont know who was staring the most, me or Gina, I think our eyes kept meeting, then when she spoke to me, I think her Filippino accent just made me go weak, but she always laughs at that, we talked and talked for hours into the night, it was a perfect night, we just clicked, there was a chemistry between us, like we had known each other all our lives.

After breakfast, we went to the Shopping mall and spent 2-3 days hanging around Manila, and we decided to go to get Gina a passport, so we had to go the DFA in Ilo Ilo City, so the story continues there

This photo was actually taken during our first week together in Manila. Peter was looking a little red as it was so hot in March, the Intercontinental hotel is pretty well located for a first visit, and I would recommend that you allow your loved one to make your hotel booking arrangements,although the rooms are expensive by local standards, there seems to be two rates on offer, first the foreighners rate, and secondly then their is the Kababayan or balikbayan rate (local resident or returning Filipino's), my tip is as follows: get your loved one, or a relative to pre-book your room, then you will attract local rate, this has been known to save visitors lots of money in hotels, taxi's and other methods of transport, the Intercontinental is also very conveniently located next to Shoemart,and Glorietta Shopping mall, one of the more exclusive shopping malls in Manila. You will also find the Jeepney restaraunt in Intercontinental has one of the best breakfast buffet experiences in the city, the cost of a breakfast is around 700 pesos, expensive by local standards, but the cuisine is suitable for all foreign visitors and well worth the cost.

The photo above and over to your right was taken during our 1st week and look love had really blossomed, trust me it doesnt take long with a Filipina, the photo to above and to your immediate left is Gina and I in Ilo Ilo City, Well one day we got back to the hotel, and we had talked about marriage before, we were "Sparring" or Tuksuhan (teasers) about the prospect of marriage, (Maybe I was just sounding her out) and it just happened, I popped the question to Gina And she honoured me by accepting the proposal with a resounding YES, i knew by then it was time to go and look for an engagement ring for Gina although I had it in mind to propose to her on Boracay, on White Beach, but sometimes when the time is right, its right di ba ? We spent a couple of days in Ilo Ilo city, before then making our way to Boracay, in this case, taking a hired car, all the way to Caticlan, which is about a 5 hour drive up some of the most bone shaking roads you will ever come across, but sometimes its best just to accept the Philippines as it is, and dont complain, actually its sometimes a novelty in many ways, what do you need to complain about, when you have a lovely Filipina lady on your arm

We were driving across the Island of Panay which is the Province of Aklan, when the taxi driver was continuously honking his horn, so I asked Gina to ask him if he had many freinds in the area, and Gina said well "Why do you ask that honey", I said "Because he keeps honking the horn, maybe he has freinds by the side of the road who live in those houses", she laughed and explain this to the taxi driver, he replied "No its to keep chickens off the road" and there you are, thats the difference in our two cultures, they are in fact worlds apart, so if love can blossom between a British Guy and a Filipina, well there is hope for the whole world then We only expect to see chickens in farm yards, or in supermarkets ready to eat, not running around the roads, another sight I saw and thought was funny was the Water buffalo along the side of the road, we are used to seeing Fresian cows and Herefordshire bulls, but not on the road, they are normally in fields tethered or in herds, such is life in rural provinces of the Philippines.

If you look to the right, you will see good map of the Island of Panay, you can also see Bacolod City, Capital of Negros Occidental, you will see the 2 islands are seperated by a large stretch of water, we did take the Supercat (High speed marine Passenger Vessel) and this takes about 1 hour, the cost is around P550, arriving at Ilo Ilo City, as you can see driving across Panay can take hours, in fact the trip is around 5 hours, and thats far quicker than trying to take a van or bus, which can be even longer, up to 7 or 8 hours, trust me your legs dont shake, "They shatter", we then checked into the Boracay Regency Resort Hotel, please Go to our Boracay Vacation page If you are interested in taking your girl there

This photo is of the very lovely, Gina Bennett posing outside the Hong Kong Cultural centre in Kowloon Hong Kong, very close to our hotel, at the Grand Stanford Intercontinental, Moby road, Kowloon.

Although I had worked in Hong Kong for 3 months back in 2001, I really did enjoy the thought of taking my honey with me to see the former British colony its an ideal place to take your loved one to give her a chance of leaving the Philippines, and going somewhere different, and of course, as many of you will know its your stopoff point on the Cathay Pacific London to Manila long haul, what you do see of course is a capitalist little peice of mainland China, although the former colony is referred to as the Special Administrative Region (SAR) You don't really notice too much difference apart from the Odd Chinese flag here and there, Hong Kong still has its British feel, and that is recognized anywhere, in fact when I travel to Hong Kong, I dont see it as Chinese at all although we left in 1997, 8 years on, the SAR still has the largest British Expat community anywhere in the world, most of the Hong Kong government departments are staffed by British Expats, (I used to sell financial services to the Expat community and have seen the telephone lists) so I know this to be true, Hong Kong is truly Asia's World city, and a great place to take your girl for a short break or honeymoon, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Go to our Hong Kong Honeymoon page, if you want further details or would like to see some photos and research for other information.