Manila (last time), 28 – 31 Jan 2014

Jo on a bus

Got to our new hostel, Where 2Next at around 7am, pretty tired, but more grubby than anything. Sadly couldn’t go back to Our Melting Pot as they had no room. No great loss however, as a new hostel and area gave us a new place to explore. We were given breakfast by the staff very kindly, and we sat around reading and doing not much until our room was ready for check in at 12. As per normal, we dumped bags and toddled off into the sunshine. We found some grub in a local place around the corner, which served the “delicacy” balut, which is a fertilised and salted boiled egg. I found one with my meal and gave it a sniff and a small nibble, but my fatigue had weakened my stomach and I wimped out, eventually not even being able to look at it.

We carried on wandering, ending up in another mall. Eventually made it home much later, absolutely shattered, and glad of the private room.

Jo and I at the top

We got up at a reasonable hour, and following th advice of an American guy I spoke to in the hostel the previous day, made our way to a bus terminal to get to Lake Taal. This is the thing I really wanted to do, but wasn’t willing to go on the organised trip (surprise surprise) to see. Turned out to be quite easy, and after a fair bit of haggling, a taxi, bus, and loooong trike ride, we were on a boat, heading out across a lake, to an volcano island, which has a lake in the centre of it, and another smaller island in the centre of that! Quite the geographical Russian doll.

The hike up

View from the top with Lake Taal in distance

The hike was only short, but very arid and in the late morning heat we were burning through our water pretty fast. An alternative way to get up to the top is on horseback that the locals keep on the island. As with a lot of the Philippines, there are a lot of Korean and Chinese tourists, and they are more than happy to hop on one of these exhausted, often lame animals. Was quite a pity to watch, and each horse had a handler that on the way up would constantly be pulling back on the tail. Whether this was to control the animal or to pull the handler up the hill I don’t know, but it looked even more discomforting.

Clever google stitched together pic of sulphuric lake and island

Poor horseys

We trudged up, me stopping constantly to take photos. Jo stopped close to the top, where a lot of huts had been built for shade and to sell you drinks. She thought this was it, so she got a nice little surprise when I took her a few more feet up to the crater edge to look down at the sulphuric lake and island in the centre. We took a load of photos, drank the remains of our water and wandered back down to the boat. Cheeky bloody boat-driver (he doesn’t deserve the title “captain”) said it was customary to give the man who put the “bridge” up for us 50 pesos. 50 pesos to put a rickety stool in front of the boat that we didn’t ask for or need, and that the boat man used first anyway! I told he was taking the piss and off we went. I took the front seat, and got bloody soaked on the boat, but was nice and refreshing. When we got to shore, the cheeky sod then asked for “tip?” Needless to say he didn’t get anything. These guys are used to seeing rich and gullible Asian tourists, and obviously expected the same from us. Backpackers pockets are nowhere near as deep, so we haggle harder!

A goat

We went for a walk to dry off, and got shouted at by everyone trying to get us on a boat or in a trike. One bloke followed us for the whole time in his trike, adamant to get our business. True to form he gave us a silly price, and we had to walk away from him 3 times before he came down, but we eventually got back up to the town, and packed away on a bus back to Manila. Decided to jeepney it back from the terminal, and arrived home happy.

£2.30.... for 6 ice cold beers!!!!

We went out to a place across the road for dinner and drinks. I was over the bloody moon as a bucket of 6 San Miguels was £2.30. They were ice cold, and the food was cheap and good too. There was also loads of locals all in there too, so the craic was great. We got chatting to two girls and one guy next to us who were local, although the guy was off his face, and asked me the same questions over and over again!

Church near Where 2Next

Kids smoking in Manila

Following day was our last full day in the Philippines and we wandered around Rizal park again, and found ourselves in another mall for some lunch and meandering. We found our way back to the hostel, chilled out for a bit, then went back across the road when we heard the Chinese New Year celebrations outside, and sat drinking and eating, with me drinking lots to make the most of the beautifully cold beer. Had a great time, with dragons dancing all around us (I wasn’t hallucinating, they were Chinese dragons).

Next morning, I was a little worse for wear, but we only had to pack, eat, and make our way to the airport to leave our Philippine adventure and start our Malay!

Manila & Legaspi, 24 – 27 Jan 2014

Landed in Manila late, and made our way in the obscene city traffic back to Our Melting Pot hostel again. We were in a dorm, so we got in, dumped the bags and went straight back out in search of Chicken Inasal (barbequed chicken with rice and some shredded radish, lime and  chilli). After some grub we were in a lot brighter mood, but still knackered, so we made our way back and planned the bus trip to Legaspi for the next evening.

Market

Following morning we packed up and left our bags with reception while we went wandering around a local market. The market was like a farmers market you get back in the UK and obviously set up for the rich locality in which its set, as there were a lot of nice things, but also some standard things we saw for sale in every market stall, but here those items were three times the price.

We carried on our walk around the Ayala mall, which lead into the Greenbelt malls. It’s pretty confusing the way all these huge places feed into one another, so you go in on place and come out miles away! It easily ate up most of the day just moseying though, and by the time we got back, we were ready to cool off and then head on our way.

Manila

Just as we left the hostel, as we were putting on our flipflops, we overheard a guy sat talking on Skype saying he and his mate were off to Legaspi on the nightbus tonight. Jo and I looked at each other, and walked straight back into the hostel and sat down. Easy way to half the taxi fare to the bus station, and fellow travellers to chat to. When he was done on the phone, we said hi and asked if that was his plan (excusing our eavesdropping). It was, so Dean, and his mate Tom, along with Jo and I made our way to the bus terminal together for a fun filled trip South-East down the island towards the tip of the main island Luzon to the city of Legaspi. For our first night bus, it was a bit crap. It was freezing cold, with the driver throwing it around corners like a rally car, and in upright seats I barely slept at all. The others fared a little better, but I was actually glad to be arriving at 5.30am, and got a great view of sunrise next to an active volcano just a couple of miles away.

Legaspi is a city at the foot of the active volcano Mt Mayon. It’s reportedly one of the most active in the world, and the plan for this place was to hike up it, and go to Donsol, 30km away and snorkel with Whale Sharks (or Buntandings as they’re known locally).

Mt Mayon from the centre of Legaspi

As we left the bus station, another white face looked a bit lost, so we said hi, and adopted another traveller to our ranks, Frank from Germany. After a lot of walking around, we found places to stay, and got a feel for how much it would cost to hike Mayon. For some reason, you needed a lot of guides (6 people required 4 guides) and this was keeping the already stupid price high for multiple people to hike at once. It also transpired that you could only hike just over ¼ of the full height due to some movement last October… but the price was still the same despite only going to 1100 instead of 1800m. This didn’t interest me in the slightest anymore, and Jo wasn’t keen in the first place, so change of plan, and we decided to hike up a hill that overlooks the town and volcano, go see some ruins and a 300 year old church that afternoon, then I would go to Donsol in the morning, and we’d get the nightbus back to Manila the following night. We did well, despite getting lost trying to find the start of the hill hike, got a few photos despite the volcano trying to hide in the clouds, and then Jo and I broke off from the pack and took a Jeepney to the Cagsawa ruins, which was a town destroyed by an eruption 200 years ago, only the chapel and tower still remains, then onto the town of Daraga to see the church, which is 300 odd years old, and should have Mayon in the background, but unfortunately by this point it was hiding proper, so my photos could only get the Baroque church.

Jo in front of Daraga church

We headed back late, pretty exhausted by this point, and I passed out for an hour. We then headed back out to find Dean, Tom and Frank, but we were late, but they’d left us a note. We left them one back to organise meeting the following evening for the bus back, then found a street filled with food vendors where we got a host of local foods. I’m not sure what we got, but there was some chicken with onion and coconut, some pork with peppers and corn, and some butternut squash that tasted fishy (not weird-fishy, literally fishy).

Cagsawa ruins

Bumped into Dean and Tom on the walk back, and confirmed we’d see them tomorrow, then went to bed.

I was up 5.30 next morning to get to the bus to Donsol. Jo has no interest, and indeed a fear of deep water, so she was going to stay in Legaspi for the day. I got chatting with a group of Swiss on a 3 week holiday taking in a few bits of the Philippines, and Macau (weird mix I thought, but they liked gambling) who were also going to  Donsol, but sadly not shark hunting that day as they’d only just got off the nightbus, and needed to find somewhere to stay. I got to the tourism office, booked onto a boat with a spare seat, and off we went, with our snorkel gear in hand, and 3 blokes standing on the boat looking for signs of the buntandings. We chugged around the huge bay for 2 ½ hours, and could see a few other boats doing likewise, but sadly to no avail. The Italian dude and his Philippino wife, and Japanese couple with their child, and I were not to be lucky and see the whale sharks today. I was pretty gutted, but I knew this was a high chance, and resolved that I would try and see them here and not in Oslob just off Cebu, as here in Donsol they were on their natural migration pattern, whereas in Oslob they are fed and penned in, and can be seen the whole year round.

(As I didn't see any whale sharks, I have painstakingly taken hours preparing the artists impression of what it would look like if I went diving with one... and I was black... and quite badly disfigured.)

Artists impression of me and whale shark

I got a trike back to the bus station, and in my impatience jumped on a jeepney instead of a bus as it was leaving sooner. I should have known better to get in as I had to help push-start the bloody thing, so when we reached the port town Pilar I jumped off and had a wander, got a very late breakfast from a bakery, and hopped on a different jeepney heading for Legaspi. This one kicked me out at Daraga for some reason, so I jumped on yet another, and finally got back to the hotel at 3.30pm, exhausted. I was happy though as I knew this would just help me sleep later.

(L-R) Frank, Dean, Tom, Jo & me

We met up with the lads again and had some dinner together before we left Frank as he was going to stay another day and head to Donsol the following day.

We got on the bus, and to my joy, the drivers were brilliant and not driving like they’d nicked it, it wasn’t arctic cold, and I managed to stretch out and actually sleep! Arrived in Manila, and went our separate ways as Dean and Tom headed to one hostel in one area of the city, and us to another.

Borocay/Kalibo, 17 – 23 Jan 2014

Landed safe and sound in Kalibo in the evening, proceeded to get a bus, then boat, then trike to our hostel. Stayed at MNL Borocay which is big, lots of places to lounge about and socialise, and comfy bunks a bit like your own pod in those Japanese hotels.

The first morning we were up early as I was adamant we were going to get all the way back to Kalibo for the Ati-Atihan festival, supposedly the biggest and most celebrated in the Philippines. After a long walk along the beach up to the port, boat and bus, we ground to a halt in traffic trying to enter Kalibo about 3km out of town, so we jumped off and walked. When we got there, we found why traffic was so bad; about 70% of the roads were shut, filled instead with people, stalls selling drinks and food or toys and masks, and loads of processions with people dancing, wearing masks and costumes and banging the crap out of lots of drums. Each procession had its own banner, and at first we thought this individual churches, but there were companies and shops with their own too. A bit like your corner shop having all its staff dressed up and veering for your business to get your Sunday paper there by smashing a load of drums!

It was great fun, and we got loads of great photos of us dancing with the people in processions. It seems we were a bit of a rarity too, as quite a few people asked us to pose in photos with them, which we happily obliged to. We got away from the immediate noise for a bit in the park which had loads of food and drink stalls, then plunged back in. When we were done, we wandered in the direction the bus would travel in hope to flag one down. Quite a few locals had the same idea, and it didn’t seem to be working, so we walked back into town and found a minibus station, and hopped on one. Every bus had about 3x the capacity trying to cram themselves on, so this was why none were stopping for us before; they were already crammed to the gills.

Got back to the island and walked home, stopping for some food and few beers en route.

In the morning, we had high hopes for the weather, and were pleasantly surprised to see some big breaks in the clouds, so we headed to the beach where we spent the day.

Chilling on the roof

Happy hour Mango Daiquoris!

What 30seconds exposure, a torch and some sweet wrappers can produce.

To be honest, we pretty much repeated this every day. Due to its abundance of tourists, everything is priced to the hilt, but we found a local place serving a 3 course meal for £2 each, and happy hour cocktails made with loads of liquor and fresh fruit for little over 50p each, so we returned a lot. We went wandering a lot, I looked into kite surfing, but found balked at the £100+ they wanted for 3 hours, and met a few nice people and few douchebags (the latter sadly from England), but on the whole it was a good time mostly spent sunning ourselves and enjoying the weather! At night we drank cocktails, wandered along the beach watching fire shows, and pissing around with the camera, a gorillapod, a torch, and some sweet wrappers.

Jo (shot at f2.0)

The beach

Flip-flops died

On our final day, we took a trike back up to the port, boat, then bus to the airport, which all went the smoothest it had in the 4 times we’d done it, so we got to the airport too early and they stuck us on another flight, but after delays, we left at the original time. Time to go back to Manila! 

Shennas, where a 3 course meal is 2 quid!

Jos special skirt-hat-top!

Selfie on the beach

Bohol, 13 - 17 Jan 2014

We left Puerta Princesa and arrived in Cebu on the 12^th. Cebu is a large industrious city, developed out of the huge port they have. We got a cab to the hostel expecting to only be a few mins away… over an hour later we arrived, and we were still in the middle of the city. Luckily we spotted some celebrations going on for Sinulog festival near to our hostel, so we dumped the bags and hopped in a jeepney to go join in. There was a big roundabout with a park in the middle, covered in tents serving drinks and all manner of foods, mostly barbequed unthinkables and unidentifiables. I happy knawed away on some… I don’t know, but it was similar to pork. Also tried some sausage thing which we couldn’t figure out if it was raw or not. Found some chicken which Jo was happy with, so sat down with that, some beer and listened to the locals warbling away on the stage in the centre.

Following morning we got up early and to the port for a ferry to Bohol. Managed to nail a bargain on the boat, but bit bemused that not a single other backpacker was to be seen in the terminal, but as we’ve discovered; the Philippines is not on many backpackers traditional South-East Asia route.

Bohol is an island which was hit by an earthquake October last year, and also got affected by the typhoon in November, but the damage was really quite limited. Nothing was visibly closed or shut off or deserted. 

We decided to base ourselves in the main city, Tagbilaran. This has no beaches or anything, but is more central as opposed to where most people go to on the Southern Island of Pangyao, making reaching places on the island a little easier, and also meaning we were paying a lot less for a room and getting a lot more for our money. Found an amazing guesthouse called Nisa, with free breakfast and huge areas to chill out and mingle in. Just to be on the safe side we spent the afternoon exploring the island of Pangyao, and after seeing the expensive resorts and pretty heavily developed beaches, we were happy with our choice.

On our first full day, we rented a motorbike. Normally they take your passport as deposit, but as I refused the guy was happy to take my PADI Open Water card, bit weird, but off we went! First stop was the Tarsier Sanctuary which is a big swathe of jungle fenced off (to man anyway, the tarsiers could escape easily if they wanted) where the staff go out every morning to spot them, then take the tourists round for 10 minutes pointing them out. Very quick, but this isn’t a zoo, and these little furballs are tiny and fragile, so it is the morally and environmentally right way to do it.

Next stop was Loboc for a bite and then onto Chocolate Hills. Well, that was the plan. We found that the most damage of the earthquake here where several buildings had partially collapsed, as had the bridge across the river, so it had been made good and only open to foot traffic. To get across the river was now going to require either a different route or getting a group of locals to lift the bike across the bridge. As getting lost is a big hobby of mine, we opted for the former. We spent the rest of the afternoon flying around paddy fields, jungle, man-made forests and tiny villages, occasionally stopping for photos and debating whether we’d lost the road and were now completely off-piste. Great craic, I loved it. Didn’t find the Chocolate hills proper, however, at one point we did appear to be riding around some hills very similar.

Next morning was more of the same, but taking another route, this one along the coast to cross the river at a different point. Made it to the Chocolate Hills in drizzle, took a few pictures, bought Jo an amazing jumper because she was cold, and got back to the important job of getting lost. Didn’t take long, and before we knew it we were slewing all over a muddy track, covering ourselves in mud. Thank god the bike was only a little 125cc, any more weight and I’d never had kept from dropping it! This lead to what the map showed as a major road, but in reality was a rocky track, incredibly steep, but thankfully dry. Tentatively we made our way down, and found the coastal road again. Got back and chilled out and had the same Chicken Inasal for 3^rd time in a row, which is barbequed chicken leg and breast, rice, shredded radish and chillis and lime.

Our final day in Bohol was boring and rainy. Aside from overpriced places serving bad immitations of western dishes on Pangyao, there is very little cuisine here at all. In fact, the 2^nd best place recommended on TripAdvisor is Pizza Hut… so that’s what we did. We got takeaway pizza, went back to our hostel and ate it watching Harry Potter on the laptop. Rock n roll. Did a bit of wandering about, but with intermittent rain, and little to see, we played a lot of cards and drank a fair bit of coffee.

Following morning we got the boat back to Cebu and cab from there straight to the airport for our flight to Kalibo for hopefully some sun!