Bohol and Malapascua

From Puerto Pricessa on Palawan we flew to Cebu City where we stayed for one night before heading to the pier early the next morning to catch a ferry to the island of Bohol. At the ferry terminal, we were pretty suprised to hear cockadoodledoos as soon as we sat down - various passengers had cardboard boxes with holes in at their feet and were constantly fussing over their prize fighting cocks. The ferry turned out to be another fine example of "Filipino Time" (the philosophy in the Philippines, similar to the Spanish "manjana" but more extreme, ie meaning maybe sometime soon / later / never!), by the 9am departure time there was no sign of a boat, it hadn't arrived by 9.30, there were no explanatory announcements and no one seemed remotely bothered! People here seem to arrive ridiculously early for public transport and then are not at all phased when the bus / boat / plane is late however rush and crowd to get on board when it arrives! We didn't leave til 10am but the boat was comfy enough - luxurious compared to the bus transport! Bon Jovi Live was playing on a TV so Phil was content!

On arriving at Tagbilaran pier on Bohol, we were inevitabley hassled by lots of taxi and tricycle drivers. Eventually we negociated the price down and got a lift to Panglao Island (a bridge connects it to mainland Bohol). We arrived at Alona Beach and walked to the cheapest accommodation we could find. Alona Beach is a little bit resorty but is a lovely beach with beautifully white sand and rows of palm trees. We spent the afternoon on the beach, swimming and sunbathing and then after a walk along the length of the beach we sat on the sand and watched an amazing sunset with a San Miguel. We ate down on the sand in a swanky looking restaurant where you choose your fish before it is grilled in front of you down on the beach - Phil had tuna steak and Elly huge tiger prawns and including a G+T and a beer the meal came to 3 pounds 50!

The only way to see more of the island was to get a tour so a car picked us up (in Filipino Time!) to drive us to the Chocolate Hills. On route we stopped at various tourist "sites", the first was a statue called the "Blood Compact" - it didn't mean lot to us as there was no explanation as to what it depicted (it's actually a monument to the signing of a treaty of friendship between the Spanish and the native Filipinos). We moved swiftly on to the Baclayon Church, apparently the oldest church in the Philippines and from there we drove to a place where Tarsiers were kept - they are such tiny creatures, only 10cm tall and their huge eyes make them look so vulnerable! It was not a sanctuary however, and these endangered beastlets weren't very well treated, just lifted up and plonked in places where visitors could see them better and they didn't have much greenery to explore. We drove on to Loboc where we went on a river cruise on a floating restaurant. The place was awash with tourists, more than we've seen anywhere else in the country. While we were waiting for our boat, we got talking to a lovely Filipino lady from Bohol (she was a housewife in her 60s but spoke excellent English) who thought that the two of us must be brother and sister as we look so alike! We chatted about all sorts of topics, mainly comparing England and the Philippines in terms of weather, food, job opportunities etc. She was so interested in England, asking "what do you eat in England, rice or potatoes?", "is England in London?" and commented that "England is beautiful with all its castles and kingdoms". We boarded the boat and dug into the tasty buffet lunch. The boat was mainly full of Filipino tourists, we were the only Westerners on board as we cruised along the river lined with willow and palms. The peaceful scene was ruined somewhat by the extremely loud guitarist singing classics like the Carpenters "On top of the world looking down on creation" which was astonishingly a real crowd pleaser! The boat also pulled up to the bank for us to watch a performance by the local people of dancing and eukalaly playing, which was good in itself but then lots of people were invited off the boat to join in and the Butlins cabaret feel ruined it a little!

Back on dry land, we drove on to the Chocolate Hills where we climbed the steep steps to a lookout point for the unique views over endless rounded hummocks stretching into the distance in all directions. To get the "perfect photo", lots of tourists were having their photo taken in front of a huge picture of the hills instead of looking at the real thing!

Back at Alona Beach, we repeated the previous night's San Miguel and sunset combination, though this time we were interrupted by "Jonathan", a local diving instructor, who we assumed wanted to sell us something but as it turned out he just fancied a chat, which we did for a while and so experienced more of the Filipino friendliness! That night we also tried a "Halo halo" the typical Filipino dessert of tinned fruit topped with crushed ice then vanilla ice cream, it looked like an amazing sundae but it was absolutely hideous: the ice watered down the ice cream and there were various disgusting hidden layers including foul tasting hard jelly lumps, sweetcorn and beans!

First thing the next morning we got a lift to the Tarsier Sanctuary where we were taken into the forest by a guide to look for the tiny furballs! We were accompanied by a really loud group of Filipino tourists who did everything they could to terrify the shy tarsiers, so we were surprised that we found any at all! But we came across one almost straight away, though we didn't get a look as the tourists at the front of the line shoved their mobile phone cameras right into its face so it wisely jumped into another tree to hide. The next one that the guide spotted was a mother carrying her baby on her front and we were lucky enough to see a couple more. It was great to see them in their natural habitat with biologists looking out for them and a successful breeding program in place. However, it made us really angry to see other tourists putting cameras in the notoriously timid creatures' faces, even using flash and touching them to get their attention, with the guide making no effort to stop them!

We were woken up at 7am the next morning by the sound of "Good morning Sir" being shouted outside our hut. Once we realised that it was directed at us, we opened the door to find our taxi driver who we should have been meeting in the village at 9am, not at our room at 7! He told us that he couldn't drive us to catch or ferry unless we packed and left straight away as he'd agreed to take some other people on a tour. We said we'd rather wait til 9 so he said he'd get "Brian" to arrange another driver and he left, leaving us dazed and confused wondering who Brian was! After a little more sleep we checked out but the staff had never heard of Brian either... We needn't have worried though, as a taxi pulled up, presumably arranged by the mysterious Brian, but driven by Alan - the first obese Filipino we've seen! He asked where we come from, we replied England, and he asked "what dialect do you speak, English or French?"

At the ferry terminal we were "entertained" by an extremely loud Filipino band playing lots of old English songs including, you've guessed it, the Carpenters' classic which again went down a storm and the entire waiting room sang along! Once we were back in Cebu City we went to the bus station caught a bus to Maya, a little town at the North of Cebu island where to ferries leave for Malapascua island. Catching the bus was very simple and stress free (as one was waiting and we set off almost straight away) with one small hiccup... we'd reversed out of the parking space and were about to set off when the driver of the next bus reversed and swung his bus round without looking and smashed the front into the rear of our bus where we were sitting! Chaos ensued outside and although we didn't think any real damage had been done, all of the passengers were dashing off the bus and changing buses. We followed the crowd and boarded the other bus but in the sudden surge of activity there apparently wasn't enough time to open the boot so one of our big rucksacks had to come on the bus with us. Once we'd set off, the bus stopped frequently to pick up extra passengers and we were soon joined on the back seat by a woman and her two children - they all had to share one space and inevitably the 5 year old boy and his baby sister ended up sliding onto Phil's knee! Again though, all the children on these long haul bus journeys have an amazing ability to sit / stand still and quiet with nothing to entertain them.

We were dropped at the pier in Maya and caught a banca across to Malapascua where we were punted ashore in a little rowing boat and then immediately greeted by Mike, who wanted to guide us to some accommodation "at no cost". We were sceptical, so tried to pleasantly turn down his offer but he was hard to shake off! In the end he did come in useful as he found us a little hut set a few metres back from the beach and so costing half the price, and he genuinely wasn't after any money! We walked along the beach - it was already dark so it was hard to get a feel for the place other than the fine sand between your toes. We ate dinner at a beach restaurant (Elly tried Kinilaw, the local speciality of raw fish and vegetables in lime juice) and were asked why we weren't at the disco further down the beach. We went down to take a look and there was a group of people, mainly Filipino boys, dancing the night away on the sand. We sat on the sand with a beer - we were joined by a few of the locals of our age and we joined them in some of their local concoction 'Nestea bombs' which involved them mixing a litre of local 'Tanduay' rum, a sachet of powdered ice tea flavouring and some water. It tasted really good and continued to chat away into the early hours.

We woke early the next morning and spent the day relaxing on the beach - Bounty Beach is a long stretch of dazzling white sand with such a bright turqouise sea. The sun was beating down, but the palm trees offered welcome breaks in the shade. The beach was perfect for swimming as it dropped steeply, so you could swim only a few metres from the shore. Other than getting lunch, we were set for the day, sunbathing or lying in hammocks watching bancas come and go. When we went out in the evening, the sky was lit with a purple glow from a big moon that we watched seemingly rise from behind a cloud and reflect in a shimmering band across the sea. Occasionally a little banca would pass through the stip of white light illuminating the figures of the night fisherman.

We woke early to the sound of cockerels crowing incessantly - all seeming to want the last word! After a pancake breakfast, (which in the visayas appear to be nothing like the victoria sponge cakes of Luzon and Palawan, they appear to have much more of a crepe like quality!) we set off for a walk around the island. The sun was scorching hot even at half nine in the morning! The roads are dirt tracks no more than a metre wide, the only vehicles on the island are motorbikes whizzing through the coconut groves. Throughout the walk every child who saw us including tiny toddlers, all shouted 'hello' and waved excitedly. The whole island is only about 2.5 by 1.5 km and pretty flat, so doesn't take too long to complete a loop. After luch in 'the cheapest place to eat on the island' we spent the afternoon lazing on the beach and cooling off in the sea, before heading off to take advantage of happy hour and treating ourselves to a couple of 50p G+T's on the beach.

Another lazy day on the beach to soak up the last of the sun, sea and sand in the Philippines! We did nothing but relax in preparation for our next bout of travelling. In the evening we went for our last San Miguel in a beach bar and watched the sunset turn the clouds and water of Bounty Beach pink. We dashed around to the village beach to see the sun go down, and watched lots of local children playing on the beach. Their game looked like a cross between British Bulldogs and Dodgeball: girls and boys all lined up opposite each other, all armed with their own flip flops taken off their feet and held one in each hand, then on someone's count they all charged at each other and throwing flips flops amd if you were hit, you seemed to be out. There's such a sense of community about the place - everyone not only know one another but really gets along - all the village children are out playing together, groups of men all help each other to lift one another's banca down to the water.

A travelling day that went suprisingly smoothly! After breakfast (breakfast has become essential as we have no adverse effects of the malaria tablets, as long as we eat something when we take them, otherwise we get incrediably nauseous. We headed straight to the 'ferry terminal' - a few benches at the back of the village beach with a man sat at a table. We arrived just time a 'locals' passenger ferry was about to leave and we were punted out to the banca in little boats. We were soon back in Maya where there were already buses waiting to go back to Cebu City. On route we pulled into various bus stations where vendors would try and sell us dried banana chips from baskets on their heads through the open bus windows. Though the bus journeys are a bit gruelling at times, they seem to be a great way to see lots of the country as you travel through the villages, travelling as the locals do gives an interesting insight into their daily life. After being dropped off - somewhere in Cebu City? (not at the bus terminal) we made our way to the airport and caught a flight to Manila. We woke at 4am the next morning for our flight to Kuala Lumpur via Singapore!


Some Misceallaneous Observations about the Philippines......

- Calamansi fruits appear to be tiny limes teeming with pips, with an even stronger taste
- Basketball is played everywhere in the street using makeshift hoops
- The roadside is littered with Yaks, Cows and goats - which often venture into the road
- All of the toilets feature a bucket of water and scoop, even the flushing ones!
- At school, kids are taught classes in Tagalog and English as well as their local language eg. Visayan
- 24 hour Electricity is a rarity, it generally runs between 6pm and midnight
- Ice cream is sometime served in a bread roll!
- Packs of dogs patrol the beaches, often getting themselves into mass brawls
- A loud kissing sound is used to gain someone's attention equivalent to an 'OI'
- Lots of skin whitening products are advertised - ironic in contrast to tourists tanning themselves!
- There appear to be more pawn shops than ATMs
- Filipino people can't pronounce 'F' so Elly visited the 'Pilipines' with 'Pilip'

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