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Published: March 29th 2011
For the past three weeks we have been island-hopping around the Central Philippines. Its somewhat ironic that we have had no rain virtually for our entire trip but as soon as we get to the amazing beaches it starts to belt down!
We first arrived in the capital of the region, a city called Cebu, and then got the first bus up to an island off the North Coast called Malapascua. Its a bit of a paradise, what with the golden sands and turqouise waters, and strangely it even had an Irish pub. Sarah did her first dive since qualifying way back in Indonesia (she saw loads but can't remember what they were), and we just relaxed, playing cards, drinking beer and chilling out.
We also had our first introduction to the ladyboy scene. Seriously, half of these trannies just look like men in bra's. One night we were eating, having a few beers with a couple of Swedish lads when suddenly we noticed probably the ugliest guy in the world miming along to some tune. He had long hair, loads of make-up the world's biggest adams-apple and possibly the tiniest mini-skirt. It was scary as hell. Him (her??
It??) and four others started singing, dancing and gyrating...when it was over they told us they were raising money for a "beauty contest", and perhaps we would like to contribute. Hell no, i've never been so traumatised in my life.
One we tore ourselves away from Malapascua, we made our way to Maolboal, another dive resort. Sarah did another dive, and Paul got stung by billions of tiny jellyfish. Its amazing though, Sarahs dived some of the best sites in the world but its in Maolboal that she had her best experience when she was surrounded by...sardines! She seems serious but i'm still not certain she's not pulling my leg
Next stop was Damaguette, on the nearby island of Negros. It was while we were here that the Tsunami hit Japan and there was a warning put out for the Philippines. We were a bit tempted to get to higher ground but nobody on the streets seemed the slightest bit bothered so we decided to go with the flow. Its a bit stupid, but we actually wandered down to the sea-front at the time the tsunami was due to hit to see if anything untoward happened. Nothing though.
In Damaguette we had a minor incident when our window pane almost fell three stories to the street below after Paul tried to get it back on its runner. Fortunately we caught it in time and got the hotel staff to help. They took the offending pane away, leaving us exposed to the elements just as the mosquito's came out to play and would have quite happily left it like that all night until Sarah got on the case and gave them a piece of her mind.
From Damaguette to Siquijor, an island which was just too chilled out for our liking. Each hotel is miles from the next so you're stuck. It was a lovely place and our beach hut was literally 5 meters from the sea but after two days of not seeing anyone else we realised we wanted a little bit more action so left . And from there to Bohol, where the main attractions are the smallest cutest monkey in the world (the tarsier), and the Chocolate Hills, which, not suprisingly, are mean to resemble lumps of chocolate. They don't, at least at this time of year, the rains make them look like any
other hill in the world.
In Bohol we also stayed in a place called Nuts Huts, which all the guidebooks rave about - its right in the middle of the jungle, next to a green river. At night the sounds are amazing, and you also get the assorted jungle creatures trying to enter your hut. Whilst here, we did some trekking where we met possibly the worlds largest spider, swam to a waterfall and produced around three gallons of sweat.
It seemed to go ridiculously quick but the three weeks in the Philippines was up - on to Vietnam next.
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Anne B
non-member comment
Hi
Hi Paul and Sarah - I am so jealous!! The beaches look amazing. I want to spend a month on a quiet beach in Jun away from the madness of the UK and those beaches look just perfect. You both look so well and Paul you look like the bloke in An Idiot Abroad.