Advertisement
This year for Golden Week (basically a week of national holidays in Japan) we decided to travel to the Philippines. Originally it was just going to be Casey and I, but we ended up travelling with two of Casey's friends from Berkley, Mischa and Ryan.
DAY 1:
Our adventure started early Saturday morning with a trip to the Fukuoka airport where we barely made our plane. Luckily, China Air was nice enough to come and pick us out of the customs line-up and rush us to our gate. After that was settled we were on our way to Manila (after a quick stopover in Taipai, Taiwan)!
Upon arrival in Manila we were hit with the kind of air that is hard to breathe due to a combination of heat and pollution... it was just what we had been waiting for! (Well, maybe not the pollution part!) We collected our bags and went to begin the bargaining process of securing a safe and reliable mode of transportation to our hotel.
Our first night in Manila was spent touring the historic region of Intramuros. This walled city has been invaded by Chinese pirates, threatened by Dutch forces, and held by
Me in Taiwan
This picture was taken while Casey and I were being geeks and trying to entertain ourselves during our 2 hour stopover in Taipai, Taiwan.the British, American, and Japanese at various times. While touring this historic city we learned that just about every building had been destroyed and then rebuilt at one time or another. The rest of our evening was spent wining and dining in the Malate district of Manila... oh, and a lot of the wining took part in a public park... it wasn't very classey, but it was cultural!
DAY 2:
Sunday morning we woke up bright and early and were off to the airport by 7:30am. Our destination: Alona Beach, Panglao Island (via Cebu and Tagbilaran). Upon arrival in Cebu we planned to take a highspeed ferry to Tagbilaran, the main access point for Alona Beach. Once at the ferry port we learned that we had a 3 hour wait until the next ferry, so we decided to explore the local neighbourhood. What we discovered were a bunch of houses (actually, more like shacks) that were poorly made of thin wood and consisted of 2-3 rooms at most. However, the people we met who lived in these houses were very friendly and eager to talk to us, and our walk ended up being a very memorable experience! The local
Malate Pensionne Courtyard
This was the hotel/hostel we stayed at in Manila. I would recommend this place to anyone interested in going to Manila. kids were so happy to play and sing with us that they followed us around the entire time we were walking. We took numerous pictures, which pleased them because they loved being able to see what they looked like our on digital cameras! After playing with the kids we were challanged to a game of pool in what seemed like the men's local hangout. While Mischa played pool against the men of Tagbilaran Casey and I entertained the kids... good times!
Sunday night was spent searching for a hotel (for 2 hours!), and then, (once we finally had a place to stay) dinner and drinks on the beach. Adventure of the night: scorpion rice wine from Vietnam! This was possibly the most disgusting liquid I have ever tasted, and after one shot both Casey and I refused to drink any more! (However, the guys managed to polish off the bottle! Sick!)
DAY 3:
Monday was our beach day... and it was fabulous! In the morning we met a really cool family from the Philippines who befriended us by supplying gin with lime juice (about a 90-10 mix, gin to lime juice!) on the beach. We spent an hour
or so talking to them, and then made plans to meet up with them later that evening for more drinks on the beach.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing on Alona beach and drinking cocktails of rum and mango smoothie. Yum!
DAY 4:
Tuesdays adventure was a tour to the neighbouring island of Siquijor. Our tour began bright and early at 6am with a boat ride into the middle of the Mindanao Sea to go dolphin watching! We were all pretty excited to see the dolphins, but I think we were all a little too tired to fully appreciate them once we finally saw some and were content to continue on our tour to Siquijor.
Throughout the Philippines, Siquijor has a reputation of being a spooky place - its mountainous interior being the traditional home of healers. So, we were basically on a witch hunt in search of some witchcraft!
Once we arrived at the island we were introduced to Charlie, our Filipino driver for the day. Charlie was a nice guy but his English skills were a little limited. He took us the 72 km around the circumfence of the island, stopping at
The early morning streets of Malate
Seeing the streets this early in the morning gives you a completely different perspective of the area. (It also revealed just how many rats scurry around camoflauged by the usual hussle and bustle!) a national park to go rock jumping, a waterfall in the middle of the island to swim at, and then a fancy resort at noon for lunch on the beach.
The rock jumping was by far the scariest part of the day. Mischa jumped first, then Ryan, and then after a lot of pursuading, Casey and I jumped. Everyone laughed at me because it took sooo long to jump, but once I finally did it, I was happy that I had! (Side note: video taken of everyone trying to get me to jump is filled with some pretty funny comments. They range from the expected threats of trying to pressure someone into doing something they don't want to do, to comments about the camera running out of battery and countdowns which they run out of numbers for... I guess I am lucky I had a patient audience!)
The Gambughay Falls were really pretty and although we had to climb down a really steep hill to get to them, were really worth the visit! We swam in a little pool beneath them for an hour or some, and then feasted on "candied freezies" (which I think we just frozen
condensed milk.. but really good!) before climbing back up the steep hill and on to our next destination.
Our last sightseeing stop on our Siquijor tour was to a fancy resort where we had lunch on the beach. I feasted on a watermelon shake and a really good toasted cheese sandwich. (Maybe I was really hungry, but I think it may have been the best cheese sandwich ever!)
After lunch we were driven back to the Kiwi Resort where we met back up with our boat driver and began the 2 hour ride back to Alona Beach. Although it was a pretty uneventful trip back, we were entertained when Ryan's stomach became upset and he was not permitted to go into the Mindanao Sea to do his business due to the danger of "big fish" a.k.a sharks! I guess I have never really thought about how dangerous the deep waters of a sea can be until I was told by the boat driver that he carries around metal/chain boots to wear in the event that he has to go into the water to fix the propellor! Crazy! Poor Ryan... due to danger of shark he had to settle
with balancing off the back of the boat while we all faced the front and yelled rude comments at him! Haha!
And that was our day trip to Siquijor!
DAY 5:
This day was perhaps my favorite day of the entire trip.. everything went smoothly, and we had a great driver (Pancha again) who showed us many sites around Bohol.
Our day started at 8am when Pancha came to pick us up from our bungalow at Banana Land. Our first stop of the day was at a local cave, which seemed to be a pretty happening tourist attraction, but wasn't all that exciting, so we didn't stay very long. But, for a mere $0.50 CAN it was worth the visit!
After the caves Pancha brought us to a really pretty lookout near Tagbilaran city where we took some pictures (check out the Spanish monument pics) and enjoyed the scenery before continuing our tour to the home of Prony the python. Prony the python was a very interesting attraction! Not only did we get to see a 23-foot, 200-kilogram python, but we were visiting a python owned by a very obvious cross-dresser named Sofronio! I couldn't decided
The neighbourhood surrounding Cebu's port
A little intimidating at first, but once walking around this neighbourhood we found all of the locals to be really nice! which entertained me more! As soon as Sofronio discovered I was Canadian he/she went off about what fabulous divas Shania Twain and Celine Dion are! LOL, good times! Anyways, I found the information about Prony pretty cool, so I am going to share it.... Casey decided to ask the interesting question of "What does the sh*t look like?"... Answer: Cake-sized mounds of white powder! It was hard to believe that a snake which ate a 40-50 kilo pig once a month, digested everything (bones, hair, teeth, etc.) and only pooed out white powder! What a digestive system!
Our next destination of the day was the highly anticipated Chocolate Hills of Bohol! With its 1268 mounds of dry, brown vegetation, the Chocolate Hills are a fascinating place to visit! Pancha first brought us to the main hill where tourists are able to climb man-made steps to the top of one of the famous hills (which is surrounded by tourist shops at the bottom) to take pictures of the natural, yet unexplainable, surrounding hills. After our descent Mischa came up with the idea that he was not satisfied and had to climb a non-tourist hill... so our next adventure began.... first
selection of, and then climbing of, our very own Chocolate Hill! Once he had selected "the hill" Pancha drove us over to it and we all began the anything but easy climb. Actually, this climb reminded me of a little Mt. Fuji becuase the footing was so difficult. It was completely loose sand, and there wasn't really anything to grab onto except for the sharp blades of grass that were not always so reliable. Anyways, we all managed to do it (even Pancha, who I think secretly really enjoyed it!), and it was a blast! Not many people can say that they have climbed one of the non-tourist Chocolate Hills!
Afterwards Pancha drove us back to Alona Beach and after naps and showers we all went out for our last dinner on Alona Beach. Highlight of the night: Casey (who was completely sober) having her chair sink into the sand in the restaurant before it collaspsed beneath her! Haha.. we just told everyone it was her 28th birthday and that she was drunk, they found it quite funny!
Great day!
DAY 6:
Due to the fact that we had a flight back to Manila at 5ish, we
Happy for an audience
This boy was 16 years old and entertained us for a while with his "singing" on the rooftop... wasn't much of a guitar player though! only had until about 3 to do our sightseeing, so we headed into Cebu city and straight to Magellan's Cross, which was the number one thing to see on our lists. Unfortunately, it turned out to be disgustingly hot in the city, and Magellan's Cross was not all that special, so instead of seeing the traditional tourist attractions (churches, etc.) we (actually, more so the boys) decided we were going to see a cock fight.
Although I was intially opposed to supporting an event such as a cock fight, I honestly have to say that I really enjoyed the experience and I would do it again if I was guaranteed the same kind of experience! From the moment we stepped out of the cab we became the main attraction, the locals seemed quite surprised/excited that we had chosed there cock fighting stadium to vist, and right away we were ushered into the VIP seating! It was great! We were an hour early which gave us plenty of time to talk to everyone and figure out just what to expect during a fight. Turns out, the fights are usually less than a minute long, but are not finished until one
of the birds is dead. In the Philippines they put blades on each bird by their foot so they are able to stab their opponent. Pretty gross, but hey, if it means a faster and less painful death, I am all for it!
Anyways, After watching 1 or 2 fights Casey decided to spice it up a little and start placing some bets. This made it even more exciting (although I didn't really see much of any of the actual fights since my hands were over my eyes!), and we ended up winning both of the 2 bets she placed! (For a total of 200 pesos in her pocket! ... $4 AMER) However, we didn't feel right taking the money of the men around us who had been really cool about teaching us the rules, so Casey ended up buying them all beers with her winnings.. I think the locals REALLY liked us after that!
Thursday evening in Manila we met up with Marc and Karen (two friends from Japan) and went out for pizza... something we all miss while in Japan! Afterwards, we called it a night.
Highlight of the day: Being VIP at a cock
The local kids and I
This was the first group of kids that we met while waiting for our ferry. I am pretty sure that the highlight of their day was having their pictures taken, and then checking them out on our digital cameras... they loved it! fight!
Anyways, that is the first part of my trip to Philippines! I will be posting the second bit of it sometime within the next week.
Next up: Banaue, the 8th Wonder of the World!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.132s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 16; qc: 84; dbt: 0.0834s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Mom
non-member comment
No You Were Never A “Basin” Baby How About A “Laundry Hamper” Baby LOL The bougainvillea’s are awesome, the ocean reminds me of Majorca, the beaches of Thailand ahh one of these days!