The Philippines: Testing All That Max Learned In Nepal

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Hello blog followers.

Well here Max and I are, in a new country, our last country together for our trip. Well, that's a half truth, we're meeting up in Australia later on but I got a couple of places I want to go see first.

Anyways, We flew into Manila without a hitch and found a place to crash for the night. The Philippines have a heavy US influence which means we were back in the land of fast food, coffee shops (starbucks), and shopping malls. Like drones we went and watched a movie in the movie theatre. We watched the Hurt Locker for $3, it was a pretty decent flick we gotta say, thoroughly enjoyed it!

We didn't want to stay in Manila since we were in the Philippines for one thing only; scuba diving! Also, Manila is a BIG city, which we have found not to be too fond of, it has almost 12 million people! So off we went and bought some tickets for a Super Ferry to take us south to a small town called Coron. Coron (pop. 35,000) is located conveniently close to 12 large (and I mean large) WWII wrecks. These wrecks were part of the Japanese Navy but were sunk by the US during the war. More on them later, we had to get to Coron first.

First attempt: So we were told to be at the ferry terminal 4 hrs in advance, the ship was suppose to leave at 5 and take 13 hrs. We decided to get a couple of beds in the air conditioned giant room with 200-300 beds in it. So we checked out of our guesthouse and went down to the pier in good time for the boat. Now these ferry ports have more security than international airports! First, there's the guards at the gate which check your tickets and search the car for bombs, then you get to the port where you're greeted by armed police/guards and ticket checkers. After passing that check you are almost inside the waiting area because then there's the x-ray machine and metal detector to go through and then you line up in a row with your bags in front of you while a bomb sniffing dog takes one last whiff. Finally, you reach the last ticket checker and you get to go sit down and wait for the boat. We waited, and waited, and waited...
We were entertained by 5 card. This game is a simple card Max got taught in Nepal and it's a fun game to kill time. We later learned it was called Yannif in Israel by the two Israelis we met in Vietnam. Once the score reached the 500's and it was 6 pm we were told that due to the typhoon that was incoming the ferry would be delayed till 11:30 pm that night. Luckily we were allowed to leave the terminal and either go to a neighbouring gymnasium (which would be safer when the typhoon hit) or back to Manila. We chose Manila and hunkered down in an internet cafe.

Second attempt: So 10:50 rolls by, the wind s howling outside and it's just pouring but we decide; "hey, lets check anyways" so into another taxi down to the pier to try to catch the boat. Luckily/unluckily we were stopped at the first gate and told there would be no boat today. Apparently ferries can go on through category 1 typhoons/hurricanes but not category 3 (which typhoon Mirinae was). We were told that it would go at 9 am the next morning, so we turned around in the cab and back to the same guesthouse we checked out of for another nights sleep.

Third attempt: We drag our butts out of bed and down to the ferry again only to be told to come back at 4
for its 8 or 9 pm sailing. So back we went to the guesthouse, again, dropped our bags off and went to the mall to hang out like teenagers. Max was under the weather so he went to the doc and got medicated up. Oh yeah, the typhoon I would compare it to the windstorms that hit Vancouver not too long ago. Some trees and branches got blown down potted plants blown over, and some signage broken. We picked up or bags and headed down to the pier, again. This time we were rushed through all the security points since the boat was already almost fully boarded and ready to go! Luckily we got on with no problem and found our beds. The highlight of the ferry trip had to being the only two people eating in the cafeteria during the transition from cafeteria to karaoke bar. While Max was finishing his food the strobe light went on and we enjoyed a video of a very familiar landscape while a Philippine woman sang Shakira's "Underneath your clothes" perfectly, it was of Vancouver! We saw the Lions Gate bridge, gas town, everywhere, awww home, we miss you.

Our longing for home evaporated once we got to Coron. It's a small island south of Luzon (the island which Manila resides on) and north of Palawa island. It's a small place full of guesthouses and dive shops. The reason we were here was simple: to get into those WWII Japanese wrecks. Twelve wrecks have been found and, sadly, stripped of all that isn't bolted down (and even then some of that is gone), but according to US army records their airplanes attacked upwards of 24 ships. So there might still be 12 untouched ships! The ships are mainly transport ships but range from 90 meters to 150+ meters. After seeking the help of the local social butterfly and travel agent Dolorise, we were hooked up with Mammita and her guesthouse. Much like my Europe adventure with Peter, Mammita is the mom away from actual mom, she's like Anka or the nice lady in Bled Slovenia. She not only took us in but she checked Max's medicine to make sure he took the right ones for his cold and gave him tea, she fed us, and made sure we had a good time here. She was truly wonderful.

Now Max ended up being under the weather for 3 days and rather than going through our day to day routines the next fed days while Max was resting I had the dive boat to myself (no joke, it was me, Gern, my German dive master, and two Filipino staff). The first two wreck dives I did was Olympia Maru and Morazan. Now a quick and brief history of these wrecks: The date was September 24th, 1944, when an unsuspecting Japanese cargo fleet, hiding to do some repairs, were attacked by US planes of Task force 38. It's reported that there were 24 ships attacked; however, only 17 wrecks have been found to date, 12 being dive able. They are all beautiful dives!

I took the next day off so I could go to class. Max and I decided to go for our Enriched Air, or Nitrox, PADI course. When diving, you breathe 21% Oxygen - 79%!N(MISSING)itrogen mixes (similar to normal air) but with enriched air you can alter the amount of Oxygen in your air mix to extend your time under water. Basically, you get to dive longer. The next day Max was still under the weather so I was by myself and this time we hit up Irako and Kogyo. Irako you can read about, it is the deepest of the wrecks ad apparently we had the worst conditions! 2-3 m visibility (42 m down) and 1-2 knots in current, but it was amazing! The second dive, which ended up being my favourite wreck of all, was Kogyo. It was a construction ship and when it sunk it landed on its side. Inside some of her cargo holds are bags and bags of concrete, metal meshing for fences, and a bulldozer. Most of the wrecks have had everything of value taken out (engines, propellers, everything!) of them so it was fun to see a wreck with something in it. When I finished my diving I found a healthy Max at the dive shop doing his Nitrox course!

The next day I was joined on my dive by Max and Patrik. Patrik is a swede living on Coron and running his own Guesthouse. Patrik also happens to be a former world number 2 kick boxer so he was a tough mother, but one of the nicest guys we met! We also rented a camera and got to take it down on our 3 dives. Our first dive was Akitsushima which was another fun dive considering it still had a full anti aircraft gun (with a live anti aircraft shell right beside it). Sadly, the camera was fogged up so the photo's didn't work. But we got some great pics! The next dive was Okikawa Maru, an fuel ship which had its bow blown off by a well placed torpedo. The highlights of this dive was a swim through the propeller shaft and a head first drop into one of the oil tanks (flashlight turned off of course to get the feeling of the eerie darkness engulfing you). Brilliant, brilliant dives!

The third and final dive of the day Max and I were allowed to dive the East Tangat wreck by ourselves. This was a small Japanese patrol boat which was only 3m - 14 meters underwater so we took the camera down and messed around for an hour. After our dives we were invited out by Patrik to dinner and beers. It was nice to get a 'local's' input on life on the island and where to go and what to see.

Our final day of diving also turned out to be our favourite day of diving to date! Due to some choppy weather we went back to Kogyo (Max's first time there) and she put on a show for us. Amazing visibility (15-20 m), no current, and not a single other diver! Max loved this wreck dive. Not only is the wreck itself easy to swim through, lots of light shining through, and the aforementioned things in the cargo holds. We penetrated the wreck via the propeller shaft, all three of us swimming in silence just listening to our own breathes. It was truly relaxing, until *DONG!!!* I smacked my tank into the side, damn it. The other fun part of Kogyo is that since it's laying on its side, its port side has been covered in coral and fish life, making the last part of the dive quite enjoyable.

Our last dive in Coron was Barracuda Lake. It is our most unique dive of our trip. Barracuda Lake is like an enclosed lagoon; for example, we had to climb over a 5-7 meter tall cliff wall (luckily it had some shaky stairs built) to get to the lake, oh, in full gear by the way. Well, almost full gear, we ditched our wetsuits since the lake is located above a thermocline making the water warmer than the air at a 30 m depth. It was 35 C in the air and 37-38 C in the water, it was almost too hot. Now there is very little fish life but the rocky cliffs, the warmth of the water, and the pure relaxed feel to the dive made it a prime last dive for Coron. It was our longest dive to date 63 minutes! Another unique aspect to the dive is that the lake bottom is comprised of broken up and decayed leaves and branches from the trees surrounding the lake so it is very very fine silt. Very soft mud like texture. After our two amazing dives we met up with Patrik for another dinner together and afterward we went back to his guesthouse to see how he lived and for some brews.

Getting up the next day was a little tough but we had to since we had to do our Padi Enriched Air/Nitrox test! It was no problem and we both passed it easily so now we're certified Nitrox divers! Woo! So after being congratulated by Gern and Karen we decided to celebrate by going to the local watering hole, no not a pub, but a river/pool with Patrik. I don't know how to explain it but the picture I will post should do it some justice. After a quick swim we checked out the thermal pools that are one of Coron's non-diving hot spots for a nice evening dip. It's heated to a nice bath tub, or rather, Barracuda lake temperature. However, we had no time for a swim since we needed to get to the airport for our flight, I mean we didn't want to be late!

.... right?

Well we got to the airport in great time. The one runway, one gate, one airline airport wasn't much to brag with but we settled down and started playing 5 card. Last time we played this was waiting in Manila's Super Ferry Port, now it was Coron's airport. The clock ticked and the close game became a one sided domination with Max taking a 100+ point lead. We were kindly entertained by a movie they put on for us, it was Steve Austin's 'Damaged'. A fine flick; however, we were unable to see the end since the flight was canceled on us by Cebu Pacific (our airline of choice). Luckily, we got free dinner, a free room, free breakfast, a free ride back to the airport at 11 am, and even a coupon for a free flight* with Cebu Pacific (more on that later). So the next day, back we were, waiting at the airport, and waiting, ..... , and waiting, for another 6 hrs we waited, or until Max's 5 card lead reached the 400's. This day we were also entertained by a movie, I jokingly hoped for a Steven Segal movie, Max a Chuck Norris movie, it was the only thing I won. We watched Steven Segal in 'The Keeper', then we were treated to a badly pirated version of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' feat. Keanu Reeves, finally we started watching the recently released China's 60th anniversary propaganda film feat. every Chinese actor ever. Mercy was given to us as we didn't get far into the 3rd movie before we got to hop on the plane and fly to Manila and then Cebu where we stayed the night before catching the bus up to Maya and then took a 1 hr boat ride to Malapascua. But just to throw another bump in the road, Max's bag was left in Manila and he was bag-less for our adventures in Malapascua. It was a very long journey to say the least.

Now Malapascua island does not have many people living on it, it hardly has roads, hell, it hardly has electricity (only on between 6pm-12am only). Why were we going here? Well, it was a very nice break from Manila and Cebu, and it had some pretty great diving from what we understand so with the recommendation from Gern, we went to Dan's Diving to get two days of diving done on Malapascua.
Dan is an American guy from Philly, who's been in the Philippines for years, with tons of character. He set us up with gear, guide, and even our own possy we nicknamed. We had 5 guys take care of us 2 divers for our dives. Dan's theory was that you can give all your employees a little work and not fire them rather than fire some of them (since it was low season).

Due to our waiting in Manila and Coron, we had only two days of diving here. So the first day we decided upon Gato island and a night dive at "lighthouse" to try to spot some Mandarin Fish. Gato Island is off of Malapascua and boasts sharks, lion fish, moray eels, and loads of other fun fish. It was a nice dive and Max got to see his first sharks! A couple of sleeping white tip reef sharks.

Now Malapascua is famous for it's Thresher Shark. It's a 2-3 meter long shark with a huge tail which it uses to stun its prey with. Sightings are 50/50 at best and you have to be in the water between 5:15am and 6:15 am to have a chance of seeing one. So up we were, bright and early, out to the dive spot, whatever sleepiness we had left in our bodies quickly disappeared when we hit the water. After patiently waiting for half an hour we saw a shadow in the blue which eventually turned into the figure of a shark, could it be? For a glance the Thresher Shark made its appearance! We saw it! But as quickly as we realized it was a Thresher Shark, it was gone.

Now, sadly we had to go back to Cebu because it was time... well there was no time, it was nearing the end of our trip together. Two and a half months, they seemed to just have flown by! So on the boat back to Cebu and then the bus down to Cebu. When we got there we decided to go straight to the airport to cash in on our free flight* with Cebu. We went to their ticket office and waited. We got helped by a nice lady who said we would be able to get our flight. We figured it would be no problem, our Coron - Manila - Cebu flight got canceled, surely they can get us to Manila (half of the original ticket) for free.....right?
We got the first bad news from the ticket office lady, she said she couldn't do it do to a glitch and that we would have to call their ticket operators. We did, we were greeted by another nice lady who put us on hold after we explained our situation. Again, we were told that due to a glitch in the system we couldn't get the free flight. Max reiterated our point and we were put on hold again. Again, we were told that though we were right and that we should get a flight, they couldn't do it because of a glitch in the system, Max reiterated our stance again and we were put on hold. When they came back onto the line Cebu said that it was the people at Coron who gave us the wrong vouchers for our free flights and that they couldn't get us to Manila, Max asked to speak to a manager, we were put on hold. After two and a half hours on the phone Max got them to agree that our argument was valid but there was nothing they could do until tomorrow morning. So we went and crashed, Max a bit frustrated with the events that occurred. But a smile was put on his face and mine when a guy we met on the street offered totake us to his cheap guesthouse. We agreed and hopped in a cab with him, which proceeded after about 15 mins of driving to continue driving into the stopped car infront of us. We laughed, not out of joy, but out of 'what's going to happen next?' Well that question was answered not 5 mins later when we were rear ended by another car. No, they weren't big crashes, mere love taps, but it was the explaination mark at the end of the day. The guesthouse turned out to be quiet good, which was nice.

The next morning Max went in for round 2 against Cebu Pacific and rather than boring you with the details I'll tell you that after another hour and a half on the phone with Cebu Pacific (and finally a manager) we got to these points: We couldn't get a free flight to Manila, we could get a free flight to Coron via Manila but not to Manila. We could just jump off in Manila but our bags would be checked all the way to Coron, and no, they couldn't conveniently leave the bags in Manila like they did on the way over, we asked. We could however pay almost double what we paid for our whole trip to get on the flight to Manila. Max was about to explode at this point so we said screw you Cebu and went with Philippines Airlines. We had no problems.

After crashing for the night in Manila, we woke up the next day to our last night in Manila, last day in the Philippines, and last night of our trip. So to celebrate, we went and watched 2012 starring John Cusack. Max absolutely loved it and I hated it. The special effects were cool though. Our last day of our travels which had taken us from the beaches of Koh Tao to the tubing in Vang Vien, the ruins of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap to the biting monkeys of Halong Bay, the sand dunes of Vietnam to the tiny Island of Malapascua in the Philippines, and now it was finished. Now I know this was a long blog, but it is to represent the roughly two and a half days of waiting we did in this country, that and I felt like writing it all in one blog.

Max still had about a day or so, I was the one leaving, I had to get to Paradise for a week. Which I'll explain to you in the next blog!

Things we learned in the Philippines:
- All law enforcement is armed, including mall cops (and fast food joint guards!)
- Ferries can go on through category 1 typhoons/hurricanes but not category 3
- getting sick when your in some of the best wreck diving in the world really really really sucks ...
- and so does Cebu Pacific
- but typhoons blow
- 5 card, yannif, or monkey monkey is the official waiting game och Max and Kif

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Photos

The boat
We had a few room mates

Mammita!
Mammita and Joselito (who was mute but who we had hilarious conversations with)

Lionfish
Beautiful but dangerous

Geared up for Barracuda Lake
With the temperature reaching 37C in the water! Who needs a wetsuit?

Max diving
Up to 29 dives now!

Mmm, dinner
Fried fish heads? Not as much meat as you would think.

Coron friends
Karen and Patrik

Freshly caught fish
Enough to feed the whole island!

Beach
The view from a Malapascuan beach

Dive Map
All the sites off of Malapascua

Comments

[Aries and Rinka]

nice!