The Holidays...Filipino Style

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Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! We arrived in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia the night before my birthday-so I had a Bornean Birthday. Matt brought me breakfast in bed (the backpacker lodges' complimentary toast and milo), we toured the Sunday market, and read our books on our hotel's roof deck. After our Malaysian dinner (Mee Goreng) we even found some chocolate ice cream cake for a birthday dessert!

Back to the Philippines. After our introductory week in Siargao, we made our way over to Dumaguete, Negros to spend the holidays with our friend Wilson. Wilson is a friend from Miami, who is originally from the Philippines, but is now studying for his PhD at RSMAS. When we were talking about our prospective travels last summer he mentioned that he would be home for Christmas and New Years and that we would be welcome to join him-so we decided to include the Philippines in our itinerary.

To round out our friend/family-filled holidays, my mom and step-dad decided to join us for their Christmas vacation-so we weren't lacking in familiar faces! It was great after so many months of being on our own to be with people we knew again!

Wilson kept us busy with a jam-packed itinerary. We attended no fewer than 6 holiday parties-Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, 3 Kings Day and Wilson's Goodbye Party. The parties were filled with delicious buffets of food, games, karaoke (throughout our entire time in the Philippines it never failed to amaze us how incredibely popular this is), swimming in his aunt's pool, playing badmitton and lots of other activities. His family was incredibely welcoming and we soon felt right at home playing with his cousins and joining in all the fun!

Between the parties, Wilson planned many excursions-here's a few of the highlights...

Cassororo Falls- a tricky habal-habal ride, then short hike away from Dumaguete. The falls were goregous-much taller than we anticipated, and made for a very refereshing swim! After the hike, we went to this place called "Forest Camp" where there are tables along the river that comes down from the falls where we enjoyed a traditional Filipino dinner (Adobo Chicken).

Apo Island- one of the HIGHLIGHTS of our entire time in the Philippines!!! We took a small banca boat from the town of Malatapay out to Apo Island (it was a very wet ride!). Through Paul's diving-a connection of Wilson's- we did a two tank dive that were the most fantastic we've ever done. Despite cloudy weather, the corals were gorgeous and vibrant! There were more fish and a greater variety of corals than I have ever seen in my life. On both dives we didn't want to surface we were so mesmerized by the colors.

Bais- Despite inclement (to say the least) weather, we attempted a trip out to a local sandbar with Wilson's family on a large banca boat to have a picnic lunch and a swim. Through rain and tropical storm force winds, we made our way out to the sandbar, to discover it entirely covered by turbulent water. We anchored, ate, then started to make our way back-but the propeller shaft was broken, inhibiting our ability to turn around. So we started drifting, making attempts to call the mainland to request the tools needed to fix it. Our attempts failed, and we drifted for a few hours. However, miraculously just before dark, another boat passed by and was able to loan us the needed tool. We made it back, soggy and tired, but it was definitely an adventure!

Twin Lakes- Just out of Dumaguete, these lakes are gorgeous. They were mist-shrouded on the day we were there (maybe because of the rain), and had eerie trees growing up out of the middle. The views on the drive up were fantastic as well.

Dauin- another dive. This was a shore dive from a town just south of Dumaguete. Our first dive was on a sunken Jeepney (the Filipino version of a mini-bus). We saw many lionfish! The second dive was in the sanctuary, and was a better snorkel than dive because most of the live corals were about 10 feet. As a snorkel spot, this place is great!

Besides our day trips, we had two overnight excursions as well....

Siquijor Island-a short, one hour, ferry ride away. We stayed at this interesting Japanese-run guesthouse (Villa MarMarine) and spent both of our days there making our way around the island by motorbike. We found some great little beaches that we had all to ourselves, the best being Kagusua Beach. Matt and Michael played some quirky, night tennis games with the Japanese owner of our guest house.

Sipalay (Sugar Beach)- This beach was on the other side of the island of Negros from Dumaguete. The beach is brown sand, but is very wide, backed by thick palm trees and has calm water great for swimming. We stayed at Driftwood Village, a great collection of beach huts with cool lounge areas and hammocks. We did a great wreck snorkel (and got attacked by jellies), lounged on the beach and played some beach volleyball games (jungle-ball style). There was another hotel next to ours called Takatuka (named after the island in Pipi Longstocking) that was incredibely artsy and creative. Every light switch, door handle, etc was hidden in some piece of artwork or machine-definitely a trip.

After two weeks in Dumaguete we started to feel really comfortable there and settled in as if it was our second home. We were able to navigate the city in the end without consulting our map and found our favorite spots (Why Not? had great breakfasts-big fruit, yogurt, and museli bowls, Mama Mia had good snacks, and Wilson's house served up the best dinners-and best entertainment.) Wilson was an awesome host and it was so nice to hand over the responsibilities of planning the next few days to someone else. Even after two weeks, it was hard to move on and leave him and his family. (We'll never forget some of his younger cousin's awesome sayings-taken straight from American television-"Time's-A-Wasting Bro," "You must admit defeat," "Saved by the bell," etc.) Thanks Wilson for being our Philippine Host!

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Photos

Sunset at Sipalay
with our Filipino host/friend, Wilson

New Year's Eve fireworks
we bought a bunch of fireworks (roman candles, rockets, daisy chains, etc) in town and set them off at midnight. The entire city honks their horn just before midnight too-quite a noisy affair!

Casorroro Falls
with Wilson and his cousins

Matt and Wilson
before our dive at Apo Island

Crown of Thorns
picture from our Dauin snorkel

Falls in Siquijor
...and Matt found another spot to jump from (luckily he hasn't been doing this as much as in previous vacations (ie. NZ)!)

rice field in Siquijor
and the site of one of our few motorbike spills...luckily all have been very mild-this one involved the bike sliding out from under us while we were barely moving because of gravel on the road.

Snorkeling in Sipalay
on our way out to the snorkel

Jeepney
at this point in time we thought this was a packed jeepney...in our next blog we'll post a picture of a really packed jeepney!