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Published: June 10th 2007
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Spanish colonial cathedral and McDonalds in Vigan Our trip to Manila from Coron was quite interesting. We got a bus to YKR airport which is on yolo king ranch in the middle of the island. It is a cattle ranch but we didn’t see much livestock, however it is flat enough to have a dirt airstrip which perhaps is more lucrative than cattle. We went through security (a man peered half heartedly in our bags) and checked in with SEAir which involved paying excess baggage as they allow a measly 10kg check in (although gave us 15kg each on presentation of our dive cards) then weighing us and our carry on together(most embarrassing!).
We were waiting for the plane when we were told the plane was delayed, 2 or 3 hours. Another plane bound for Manila from a different airline was there and about to leave so we hoped perhaps we could switch onto that one. Then they announced it had engine trouble and that when OUR plane came from Manila it would bring the mechanic to fix it. An hour or so later, with no sign of a mechanic, the other plane started up again, they reboarded everyone and decided it was good to go.
This time, we weren’t so keen to get on board… our plane finally arrived, (a 17 seater LET410 for the plane spotters), we jumped on and the pilots greeted us with “hello, sorry about the delay, we don’t have enough pilots” then they shouted at the remaining passenger who was taking a photo to hurry up and get on, they were late, slammed the door and off we went!
Manila was uneventful, we only had a couple of hours there as we were getting a shuttle bus up to Angeles City which is where we depart the Philippines from. Our impression was that it was hot, busy and dirty. Our trip to Angeles City was quicker than expected which we were grateful for because our bus driver was a little bit psycho and liked playing chicken with oncoming traffic. The bus was funky and retro with brown crushed velvet seating and chandeliers. We spent the night in Angeles City which to be honest is seedy and strange. It’s near to Clark airport which was the old US airbase now redeveloped as an economic boom zone. It’s also made up almost entirely of girlie bars and the majority of the
Small plane
Our flight from Coron to Clark on a 17 seater people there are older western gentlemen and their girlfriend of the day. There is a nice new shopping centre there though which is where we passed the time.
We then caught a bus north to Baguio which is in the Cordillera Mountains. Our bus wound its way up past some lovely scenery and into the clouds and rain. Baguio is the summer retreat for manila as it’s at least 6-7 degrees cooler than manila (a welcome change!) We arrived on a Saturday and it was incredibly busy, the traffic was horrible. It was a nice enough place and we wandered the market -one of most diverse town markets we’ve seen. It rained and rained so we decided to abandon our plans to go further into the mountains for some trekking and head north along the coast instead.
We got a bus to Vigan which is in the Illocos region of Luzon. It’s an old Spanish colonial town, one of the oldest towns in the Philippines and UNESCO heritage listed. They have preserved some of the old cobbled streets and only pony traps are allowed on these streets. Vigan is gorgeous and our first impression was “wow”. It took
Vigan street scene
Lisa bought a new hat in Vigan us a while to track down accommodation, we walked in the heat (back to scorching again) for what seemed like forever. Later when we looked at a map we managed to navigate almost every street in town that didn’t have accommodation on it. We had high hopes for our time in Vigan but after walking around for a while we felt really uncomfortable- we are used to being stared at while walking around and feeling like celebrities but here it was almost seedy and leering, we felt like animals at a zoo. Because of this and also the incredible heat (no breeze at all) we decided to leave the next day.
We were intending to return to Baguio to the cool weather but in our few scrappy pages from a travel guide we found a description of a beach at San Juan which is a small town about three hours back south from Vigan. We rang one of the resorts listed, spoke to a friendly German fellow and jumped on a bus. We told our bus conductor three times which resort we were going to- it’s been here for 20 years, but still the bus drove straight past. Never
Busy trike park
Colourful trikes on the road near San Juan mind, a short tricycle ride brought us back. San Juan is not a white sand beach but it is very clean and the water is lovely and warm although it had stinging things in it which liked Lise. It’s supposed to be known as a surf beach but we didn’t see a lot of evidence of this. Still, splashing around and relaxing for a few days was perfect.
At the moment it’s coming to low season so there were hardly any other people around and on our walks along the beach we saw lots of huge but desolate resorts. We ate almost our own body weight in mangos too, the fruit in the Philippines has been amazing, mangos and bananas have been a staple food. Mangos cost from 20-50 pesos per kg (20-50p or 50c-$1.20) The food in the Philippines has been a little disappointing - the local food is alright, but the amount of fast/junk food is incredible. The US influence is evident- everywhere you go there is a cart selling burgers, hotdogs, waffles, donuts- dunkin donuts is everywhere! We’re getting a bit sick of it, wandering around looking at chain restaurants everywhere is a bit depressing and
More of Vigan
The main square in Vigan - beautiful but we didnt stay for long from that perspective we’re looking forward to Malaysia. The other huge US influence is that every village has a basketball court or stadium, even if it’s just a dirt square with a basketball hoop at each end.
Overall our time in the Philippines has been really enjoyable. In most places we’ve been, the local people have been friendly, often curious towards us and mostly helpful. Quite often when we were standing looking lost, someone would come up and point us in the right direction. We hardly met any other western travellers, which we didn’t expect. Whether that’s because we didn’t go to the main tourist destinations or because the Phils in general isn’t a main tourist destination, or even because it’s not the right season we don’t know. We did a variety of diving and loved it all. The Philippines is also not a country built for people as tall as Al. His signature move became to thump his head on something at least once in every place we went and in a jeepney he couldn’t even sit up straight.
Our top tip for anyone who visits the Philippines is when you get to a destination, buy a
6lt water bottle and then track down a local water refill place. It saves a fortune on buying bottled water!
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Duncan
non-member comment
Is it twinned with Wigan
?