Our Vanuatu Holiday

A few months or so ago, our little miss started telling us that we should go on a holiday. Not sure if she understood what that meant and considering where we were financially, we told her to talk to God about it, pray and find out what He thought. After a few seconds of her usual "God, can we ...." she came back with a very excited tone saying - "mum, God said YES!"

A Story of Answered Prayers

It turned out that while our little miss was praying, somewhere in the Pacific Islands just happened to have purchased some equipment that needed hubby's help. Never mind that in all his years of employment, he and his boss never travel at the same time, let alone be away for a week! For some reason his boss sounded adamant that the whole family travel along - it is mostly paid for anyway.


A few days after everything was arranged, my shifts at work got changed all of a sudden. Instead of missing one shift, I had to miss two. While I had someone agree to cover for me, I was left with two shifts and no one covering for me. After much prayer, my boss whom I emailed replied,  "enjoy! don't worry it will be sorted!" And so we went ahead, what with a little girl's prayer getting answered, bosses who did not know they were being answers to someone's prayers, and an awesome God who delights to weave things together to see to it that a prayer, no matter how random it seems, gets answered.

So with our faith full to bursting, I thought we'd see how it goes and believe for an upgrade. The thing that came to mind was our flights - to which my darling husband laughed. But when I told him that the kids are on board, he agreed, especially when I joked that the three of us will take the business class seats and leave him in economy. By the time we arrived at the airport, we had forgotten about our prayer of upgraded seats. While we did not get that upgrade, to my surprise, God did not forget, even if that prayer was on a whim!

 Port Vila, Vanuatu

I have to be honest and admit that I did not have high expectations going to the island. A few years ago, we went to another Pacific Island and having seen the ads, I went with really high expectations, only to be disappointed because not only did I find everything ridiculously overpriced, I couldn't help but think that I have seen way better from my beautiful home country and I did not have to pay so much - but that is another story altogether.

I found Port Vila just beautiful. It is a great place to relax, unwind and de-stress. Voted the friendliest place on earth, it certainly rubbed off to the kids as they would say hello to just about anyone they meet. A classic display of their friendliness was when we went to a local church one Sunday. During the service, the guests were asked to stand up and briefly introduce themselves while everyone else was being really warm and welcoming. At the end of the service, the guests went out together with the pastor and waited outside as the rest queue to shake their hands!

Food is great and cheap and ice cream made from local produce is just delectable.Did I mention the massages and summer dresses being bargains?


I was going to say that I was a bit surprised to find a Filipino restaurant advertised on the inflight magazine that we had to go and see for ourselves. But being Filipino and how we take the command to go to the ends of the earth literally, I was just happy to see the familiar and meet some Cebuano speaking folks at that!

a little bit out of the way, eratap beach resort is worth the drive

Iririki Island Resort

One can't help but fall for this beautiful island resort. Refreshing is written all over the place! We met the lovely rooms division manager who gave us a little orientation about the island, our rooms and the beautiful facilities. When asked why our room was not close to kids club or the poolside, she casually replied that we have been upgraded. WHAT? So God's idea of an upgrade was not a 3-hour flight but an 8-day ocean view room! Sweet! Even our little miss squealed in amazement and asked "can we live here forever?" The rest of us was quick to tell her that we were only staying for a few days but not fast enough before it was labeled "our holiday home".

Kids club was a really fantastic idea especially that both little miss and little mister are qualified to go! Open from 10am to 6pm everyday, they beg me to take them everytime but some days the teacher is nowhere to be found. While they get a bit disappointed, the pool or park play or ice cream always manage to console them. Sometimes spa or some tv time works too.

I love that the poolside is very kids friendly, even for young kids that I can even leave them to play on their own while I stay close to the shade. What a great place for anyone and everyone! We did not even go anywhere, except for a daily trip to the mainland for ice cream treats and walk at the main street. We even skipped a paid tour around Port Vila because the kids find it more fun to hang out and feed the fish, or play by the pool or go to the beach side.

The room has its own kitchen and laundry, that from a housekeeping point of view, it was really perfect. I did not have to worry of having a luggage full of dirty clothes because I washed and dry them at night while waiting for my hardworking husband to get back.

All four of us felt overwhelmingly blessed with the whole experience (including the one who went to work!). We thank God for the gift of rest. Our faith has certainly grown leaps and bounds! Indeed the scripture that says with God, nothing is impossible, is for real.