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On my left, sat Tabby. She had just told me the story on how she just had a baby seven months back and that she had not seen her baby girl since. It was the golden hour. We were watching the sun set on the top of the hill and the boys had their guitars out singing karaoke to cliché songs like "Wonderwall", "Take me home", and "Somewhere over the rainbow". The scenery was picturesque, absolutely stunning, as the sea mirrored the rainbow-coloured sky and the waves crashed on the sharp cliffs of the island. I could hear the dogs barking on the beach below and Aldo had just mixed the perfect island cocktail for us. Tabby was used to it. After all, it was her home country and a part of her job to show off this beautiful nature to stressed-out foreigners who come to the island. We had a long talk about Ayla Marie as we were sipping on our jungle juice. Tabby had left her daughter home with grandma Moh shortly after giving birth to take on the job as an expedition leader for the authentic Filippino island hopping boat crew. She considered herself lucky, she said as the boys continued their discordant "Hotel California" cover. Her philosophy of life is something that I brought back with me. As I am sitting at my desk, with gray buildings and an even grayer sky glooming outside my window, I think back to what she said. How little we actually control in life, at the same time as we control, or think we control, everything. Tabby meant that every action and every decision we make, are controllable and come with all sorts of consequences. Yet, it is our emotions steering us towards our decision making. And almost no one can control emotions fully. She did have tears in her eyes talking about Ayla Marie. But she was smiling, so the tears were filled with love and hope rather than sadness. We also talked about the whole island hopping experience. How truly breathtaking the Filippino nature is in all its simplicity and how amazing it feels to leave civilisation behind. Our cellphones, our friend/enemy the Internet and even electricity were completely out of reach. The only thing to focus on was the sunset. And the jungle juice. The moment was happy and beautiful. The boys had stopped playing and the sun had set. We stayed up on the hill until it got dark chatting, laughing and enjoying each others´ company. Aldo and Tong told us stories about previous travel groups they had brought up there, and about how much they enjoy to learn from others. Such a positive look on life, even though they knew they they could never afford going abroad themselves. If only I could, I would buy them all tickets to come experience my world, I told them. Aldo raised his glass to me and with a big grin on his face, he hollered "No worries ! At least we got jungle juice!"