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Published: March 3rd 2008
Because of laziness and lack of computers we haven't been able to write for a while. It's been an eventful week since our last blog and we're deeply sorry. We'll begin at the beginning.
As you might remember from our last blog, we were planning to go to a lagoon on Bantayan to do some snorkeling. The way there was a bit more rough than we expected, Erik poor flip-flops got penetrated by a lot of inch-long thorns. Hannes just like Achilles was wounded in his heel, though this time it was a mighty thorn. We snorkeled for half a day, discovering a very fun current we could flow with into the lagoon. Erik found a crabs' nest beneath a rock which he had fun playing with. Whilst he was having fun a one metre long water snake sneaked up on him, which he thought was the coolest sight that day. When we tired of snorkeling we, as usual, relaxed by the beach, played some Uno and drank some shakes.
The next day, after having changed to a cheaper hotel, we finally went to the Swedish Floating Bar. Hannes got to experience his first Mexican Omelet (after daring Erik to buy him one), though hopefully not the last. We spent a good noon there and then went into town for lunch. At the barbecue wagon we had a couple of chorizos, sausage-like pig intestines on a stick, which were great. Later this day we met our third Canadian English teacher, Ted, who had the room next door. Our other neighbours were a Finnish couple who had spent five weeks(!) on Bantayan, celebrating they'd lost their jobs. They hadn't even been to the lagoon or the Floating Bar...
Whilst Hannes was laying in bed, reading (he got a bad sun burn at the lagoon), Erik went out snorkeling. In the water he met some local dudes who seemed nice. They invited him to join them in their sand-throwing war and afterwards they sat down on the beach drinking rhum and ice tea. Later that evening we also met two Taiwanese girls who were, like us, going to Bohol the next day. We decided to travel together.
As previously arranged we met the local dudes on the beach where we drank more rhum and ice tea and talked about the future. Quite a lot of them actually wanted to become nurses abroad, instead of their usual laid back life on the beach. Their usual day was spent strolling, swimming in the ocean and drinking rhum.
We woke early that Tuesday to catch the ferry, together with the girls (Pinchun, called Jenny, and Anchi), to Hagnaya. We took the bus back to Cebu and took another ferry to Tagbilaran on Bohol. During the trip we got to know each other a bit better. They are two foreign exchange students in Singapore, studying journalism. They were spending their holiday in the Philippines, as apparently is common among the Singapore foreign exchange students. In Tagbilaran we went to the Nisa Travelers Inn and tried to get a room. It proved quite difficult; in the first room we encountered three big cockroaches and after Hannes made the receptionist feel really bad about it, we got another smaller room at a discount.
Waking up in Tagbilaran we packed up our stuff and left for the jeepney station. From there we went to Loboc where we chose to not pay the ferry rate and, not knowing there was a bus, walked uphill for about 50 minutes. Sweating like pigs we arrived at Nuts Huts and had to descend their extremely long flight of steps. We got a couple of huts and then headed for the Chocolate Hills, which are about 1200 round hills that during the dry season turn the colour of chocolate because the grass withers. It was a very nice view but unfortunately it is not the dry season now so they were green.
Well back at the Nuts Huts we met Calle, a Swedish student in Singapore whom the girls had arranged to meet there. We spent the rest of the evening celebrating Hannes' birthday with a nice dinner, beer and rhum.
With a lot of help from Calle, the following day was a bit more structured than usual. We woke early and ate what they said was oat porridge, though it was a lot more runny than expected, for breakfast. We met our jungle guide and trekking companions, a Swedish couple in their thirties. He was a policeman and she was a marketer of some sort. All of us set out into the jungle in the boiling heat. The trail was very slippery and devious, and we had to help the girls quite a lot, since they had bad shoes. After almost an hour with spiders, snakes, millipedes and treacherous walking we came to the first cave, almost at the summit of the little mountain.
The cave was pitch black and completely filled with bats. Cave exploring has been a childhood dream of Erik's so he was exhilarated. Our guide told us the cave had been occupied by both Japanese and American soldiers during WWII, and that the Japanese had left treasure hidden there. With guano on our feet and monsoon rain outside we went to the much smaller second cave nearby. It was just as black and filled with bats as the first. After a fruit break we began the descent with newly cut palm leaves as umbrellas. Hannes was really happy about his hooded jacket right then.
The rain made the trail extremely slippery and with its sharp volcanic rocks jutting out of the jungle floor it was quite dangerous. Thankfully we only suffered minor injuries. Our jungle guide took us to his grandparents' estate, a hut halfway up the mountainside. He told us his grandfather was 88 years old and still climbed coconut palms, a feat we still haven't dared. He also let us taste star apples, one of the best fruits either of us have ever tasted and so far hadn't heard of.
Tired and sweaty we jumped into the river upon arrival to the Nuts Huts. Later that day we had herbal sauna, which was not quite like a Swedish sauna. As long as you breathed through the towel and had your eyes shut, it was really good.
After the sauna Erik and Calle had oil massage, from whence they came out looking like extremely relaxed zombies.
That Friday morning we took leave of our friends and went to the Tarsier enclosure at Corella. The Tarsier is the smallest primate in the world as well as the oldest now living mammal. It feeds on insects and can live up to twenty years. At the enclosure we got to see them up close and got some cute pictures.
We then went back to Tagbilaran and stayed another night at the Travelers Inn. In the evening we went to the garden cafe, a restaurant run by and supporting deaf people, where we got the best fries ever. We also tried some ube (a local purple sweet potato) ice cream, which was quite good mixed with other ice creams.
We then went to the cinema where we saw Waterhorse, which we really can't recommend, though it was nice to see a movie.
The day before yesterday we had planned to go to Alona beach on Panglao Island, but we got a message saying our flight had been cancelled. We literally jumped from the jeepney we were sitting in and ran to the nearest internet cafe. We found out our flight from Cebu to Manila had been rescheduled, which meant we would miss our flight to Brunei. After a lot of queuing on the telephone Hannes managed to rebook the flight to Saturday evening instead. We had another good meal in the Garden cafe, where Hannes got some seriously yummy fresh mango juice, and then took the ferry straight to Cebu.
We experienced some problems taking jeepneys to the airport and ended up taking a cab instead. The Cebu pacific flight was just as uncomfortable and bad as the last time, though they still had their wonderful getting-off-the-plane theme "Don't worry, be happy", which cheered us up a bit.
Lacking the funds for a taxi we were forced to walk between the domestic and international terminals (which is quite far). On the way we ate our supper at Jollibees (which seems to be the big McDonald's competitor in the Philippines, the same as KFC was in China), and can sum it up by 'better meat, worse burger'.
A third of the way to the international terminal we met some nice (?) guys that got us a free taxi the rest of the way. We were both very shocked when they didn't even try to rip us off and actually got us there safe and sound. We're still very suspicious why they even would consider doing such a thing.
We spent the night at the airport, trying to sleep on their hard steel chairs.
Well on the flight to Brunei we were very impressed by the aptly named
Royal Brunei Airlines. We got hot towels, had a good meal and every chair had its own entertainment system. And all this on a flight of two hours. It's the best service we've ever experienced on an airplane. We arrived tired, but happy in Brunei and spent most of the day resting. We also met a Swedish guy at the hostel and decided to spend the next day together.
Today we took our very first watertaxi for a tour of Bandar Seri Begawan from the water. It was very interesting to see their mostly worn down houses on stylts. We also visited a mosque which was very impressive. We even got to climb the minaret tower. The watertaxi also took us to see some monkeys, on the way passing by the royal palace. Hannes thought the monkey visit was very cool and has the pictures to show for it.
On the afternoon we took the bus to the extremely lavish Empire hotel. Erik was very impressed by their great service and magnificent, and expensive, buildings. Apparently the hotel was built for 1,1 billion US Dollars and we couldn't help noticing.
We haven't decided yet whether to stay in Brunei another day or go on to Malaysia but tomorrow will tell.
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Annapanna
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edgarsson_a@hotmail.com
WOW! låter härligt! vi har väntat länge på detta inlägg, och nu kom den och det va kul att läsa! ha det så bra! skriv så ofta ni kan och vill...kram Anna