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.