Advertisement
Published: March 11th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Philippino Coffee
We have gotten very spoiled with good coffee during our travels, but we must say, the Philippians have the best looking coffee maker Singapore had been loads of fun but as any city of its size and modernity (not that there are THAT many) it had also proven rather frenetic, and we were excited at the prospects of the next stage in our travels: two weeks in the Philippines, where we had allowed ourselves to only choose two major destinations without any flying in between, and where the only major thing on our schedule was not having anything on our schedule. These, of course, were hard rules to abide by when each island seemed, upon closer inspection, to provide its own brand of endless activities, be it snorkeling, mountain climbing, driving around, or even sorcery. But we had decided this would be our «vacation» before heading to Australia (and completely changing our way of travelling), as well as of course marking the end of the Southeast Asia part of our trip, which we had to celebrate by taking advantage of all the cheap niceties and the fact that, yes, white people can get away with almost anything (even being lazy).
We were lucky enough to get a direct flight to Cebu, so we managed to bypass the madness of Manila completely. We had
We agree
No doubt, the pig in Cebu was fantastic, and it filled not only our bellys, but also our hearts heard it was madness at the airport, people trying to scam you at every turn, porters ripping the bags off your back and demanding payment for carrying them accross the road. However, the marked-up flat fare taxis were easy to avoid and there was a (signposted!!) ramp to where the regular taxis were waiting. Also the porters, though descending upon us in hoards, took a polite no as an answer. We suppose this could be considered extremely treachorous, if, for example, you have never left your house before.
We used Cebu City as a place to collect ourselves and plan the next two weeks. It had what we needed, fast internet, a clean room and access to delicious food. It also had a lot of other things. The Philippines has a lot in common with some parts of South America (as opposed to the rest of Asia), and this you can surely blame on the Spaniards (I'm from Spain, so it's OK for me to say it out loud. There are small pockets of luxury (strip malls, malls, restaurants) dotted throughout what is otherwise extreme poverty. These areas are patrolled by an endless supply of armed guards (with rifles
Arriving Bantayan
This sweet port was what met us when arriving from Cebu to Bantayan. We were in for a treat no less) who for the most part are not over 20 years old. People (mostly the rich ones, and these are often more «Spanish» looking than the average, are driven or drive back and forth between these luxurious oases without giving a thought to what is between them. The rest travel in jeepnies, a much cheaper option, jam-packed into the back until you can see their back fat rolling over the open side-windows. What strikes one most about this situation is that, even in the poorest areas, people don't seem to trust each other. It is one thing for the rich not to trust the poor, but when the poorest of local shops, which does not have much on sale to begin with, sells everything through a tiny little opening in a thick metal grate, you can't help but think something is off. The people, however, are extremely friendly and speak, literally, the best English in Southeast Asia. And they are really not as dangerous as they apparently believe.
We booked up our next two weeks (who knew everyone from the mainland also wanted to get away from the Chinese New Year by coming to the Philippines?) and ate some of the best pork of our lives (soon to be contested) at Zubuchon. Yeah, the Spaniards did a lot of things wrong, but they sure left their appreciation for meat behind....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0312s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb