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Published: January 1st 2009
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We landed outside Manila at the former Clark Air Base which turns out to be a 2.5 hour bus ride into the city. As we approach the city through the rice fields into the city itself you get a feel for how poor it is here. The shacks turn into the shanty towns as we approach the city. About 200,000 people live in an area 1.5 sq km. It’s estimated 1.5 million people live in slums of Manila. I have seen a lot of poverty on this trip but I think Manila is the worst.
We stay in Malate, in an area called “the tourist belt”. There really aren’t many tourists in the area. There are the usual hostess bars and ladyboy clubs geared to the older single traveler, with a few touts selling Viagra and Rolexes. We spend a couple of days checking out this side of town and getting a feel for the people. One of the highlights of this area is the Intramuros; a walled city built 200 years before our country was getting underway. It was wiped out during WWII and many of the buildings were rebuilt in the same style as prior to the war.
It’s an ongoing process where the rebuilding has to look like it was in the past, similar to the French Quarter.
From Manila we headed to Subic Bay and Olangapo City former home of the US Navy’s 7th fleet. I had been here several times almost 20 years ago. It was quite a bit different than it was back then, but it was also the same (the Thai people say “same same but different”). I was able to get in a dive on one of the wrecks, the USS New York an old battle cruiser. After a couple of days, we moved back to Manila for a brief stopover on our way south.
We made our way by bus and pumpboat (big outrigger type boat) to Mindoro Island briefly stopping in Puerto Galera on our way to White Beach. This place had been mentioned to us by “The Russian” after a meeting down a dimly lit alley. It was supposed to be a quiet little beach where you just go and chill. Its true there was no one there but that didn’t make it quiet. The empty bars/restaurants pumped out crazy music at very loud volumes, all while being
next door to each other playing completely different tunes. It was our first encounter with a karaoke concert. You have two entertainers/singers !? singing for a cheering crowd for about 6 hours. It seems that Kenny Rogers is a national icon here. Everywhere you go his music is being played, on the bus, in the restaurant, in the street and in the bars. You walk into a restaurant they immediately pop in a Kenny Rogers CD, get in a bus the CD starts on a continuous loop with the locals providing the vocals. I managed to get in a couple of really good dives here, nice micro dives and some giant clams included.
A well spent week later we were on our way again. This little trip consisted of a short walk, a ride in a tricycle (moto with sidecar), a jeepney (jeep with bus added), a minibus, a RORO (truck ferry), a pumpboat, another tricycle, and finally another walk to get to our next room 14 hours later. Travelling is an adventure, sometimes it’s a lot of work but it’s also fun travelling with the locals, practicing the language, eating and drinking with them and laughing at them laughing
at us.
We arrived in Borocay at night and didn’t get to see where we were. The next morning was an eye opener. This place is beautiful, its picture postcard perfect with white sand beaches, sandy lanes, palm trees on the beach, beach bar-b-ques, and crystal clear waters. We had a really good stay here and enjoyed ourselves, it’s no wonder they call it the “Pearl of the Philippines”.
From here we travelled down to Iloilo for a stopover on our way to Sipilay on Negros. After the usual methods of travel we ended up at Sugar Beach. This a small beach with 5 small resorts and few people running around. We made it a couple of days before Christmas and had time to sign up for the “1st Annual Traditional Special Swedish/German Fondue Christmas Eve Supper”. It was not our typical Christmas fare. We had 5 different sauces in fondue pots that we cooked beef, pork, chicken, fish, potatoes, cheese, bread, and chickpea balls in. Yeah, I know it sounds odd and it was, but it worked and it was really good. Ruthie and I were the only English speaking ones there, so our hosts would announce
Facade
Intramuros the food to the other guests then translate for us to let us know what was going on. After supper we played games on the beach with everyone and called it a night. We had a real good time with these folks and the food was tasty.
Travelling over the holidays can be tough, so we decided only to make a short trip. We made it about 40 minutes further down south to Punta Ballo before we stopped. It is a small cove and there are five places to stay here. We found a nice spot up on a hill and been here for almost a week. I have managed to get in some diving and Ruthie has managed to get in some sun worshipping. We had a real good New Years Eve dinner, once again with a group of Swiss/Germans. The dinner included local entertainment with a three piece Filipino band. We had no idea what kinda music we were going to hear, but we never expected to hear “Americana”, Bluegrass music and folk songs including “Rocky Top” and of course Kenny Rogers. The locals had been setting off these massive bombs and firecrackers all day and at
night it intensified with fireworks from a couple of the dive resorts which made for a great finish to 2008.
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melissa
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Happy New Year
Hi Ruth Happy New Year. Melissa