Blogs from Sorsogon, Philippines, Asia

I’m having a staring contest with my breakfast. Quite literally. Two sausages for the eyes and half a fried egg for the mouth. That’s all I picked from the hotel buffet. And even then, I don’t feel like eating at all. Truth is, I only served myself this food to take a picture of it. “You’re not going to eat it?” Sam finally asks me. He’s a colleague, a music teacher. “I’m still full from last night,” I tell him. “After we had dinner, I went to check out this restaurant I’ve been dying to try since I read it in a magazine. And it turned out that I ate more than I can handle.” He shrugs. “Too bad. You shouldn’t have stuffed yourself full last night. You’re missing on all these great, free food.” For ... read more

Not just one sighting. Not just two whale sharks (or butandings, as they are called here). Today is my lucky day. Three whale sharks. Three sightings. Each time, the butanding "stayed" with us at least a full minute before bidding us goodbye with a gentle flip and dive . What an adrenaline rush! You think I'm a diver? To tell you honestly, I am perennially jealous reading about diver-bloggers narrate their undersea adventures. Them seeing the undersea world . The colors. The tranquility of the deep blue sea. The anticipation of meeting and encountering unknown, unnamed species. I never dreamed of doing what they do. Thought I'd never have the nerve. I'd be quite content seeing a few colorful tiny sea creatures with my grandchildren and enjoying a boat ride on a clear, peaceful day. Besides, ... read more

Here we are in 2010. For Paul it started on the 2nd as the 1st was almost entirely spent in bed, as the San Miguel Red Horse is rather strong. For us the Philippines was always going to be about diving and some of the most exciting sharks in the world. Malapascua is one of the few places where Thresher Sharks can be seen near the surface so we took the opportunity ... ... first dive 2 sharks! If you look really closely at the first video you might catch a glimpse (we need some practice with the underwater videography) before Nicola's head and bubbles obscure the view. But it wasn't all about the sharks as we also saw some fantastic Sea-horses and the elusive but stunning Mandarin fish. The rest of our time on Malapascua ... read more

second day of our stay in albay. our next destination... donsol, sorsogon. im a sorsoganon, specifically from barcelona. to be honest, this is my first time to be in donsol. what a shame!!!! where can u find a person from sorsogon, but never never ever been in donsol, sorsogon...........onli in the pilipins and that's me.... anyway, we travel to donsol at around 7 a.m. Donsol is approximately a one-hour drive from legazpi city. the travel is not boring because of the scenic view we saw. green green all is green.. what a site.. as we arrive in donsol, we immediately proceeded to the tourism office for registration and attended the brief orientation session which is required prior to heading out to see the whale sharks. we pay for P3,500.00 for boat rentals and crew. afte ... read more

First, a caveat - this event took place many years ago. …. It was like I was transferred into the movie called “Fern Gully”. All the plants around me were of all kinds of ferns and that they seemed to fill my whole vision. That moment was so magical that I wished I could take it all in. I found a big rock and sat on it, and with a half smile filling my lips, I scanned the whole area. I felt like I was in the middle of God’s lovely creation. Then they started coming. I saw one on my boots. My chinky eyes widened. Then another suddenly jumped on my wrist! Leeches! Lots of them! That panic-filled moment made me realize that I was in the middle of a leech country. The one on ... read more