Advertisement
Published: April 6th 2008
Edit Blog Post
The Philippines has hit a new low on transport - pre-recorded karaoke on buses! Yes, it's not enough to listen to the stuff live. A recent bus across the island of Bohol played it full blast for much of the trip. Horrendous! As if that wasn't enough, they then changed their music to boy bands. I couldn't quite decide which one was more painful!
I have also learned a new life skill - sleeping while sitting completely upright. For the two years I spent living in Japan, I never did quite understand how people could sleep while sitting upright or even standing on public transport. Well, after our 5th almost consecutive day on the road, I have finally mastered it, and for a whole 30 minutes - hoorah!
Anyway, back to that busride with the pre-recorded karaoke... We were really trying to head to Panglao Island, but realized that our bus went right through the Chocolate Hills. It was just too tempting not to stop. Escaping from Boyzone, we disembarked in the small town of Carmen and got a tricycle up to the visitor center and viewpoint. The road was so steep that we had to stop and transfer
our backpacks from the back of the tricycle to the inside with us to stop it from tipping up backwards in a wheelie! Once there, we left our luggage with the driver and sprinted up the stairs to the viewpoint. Given our low expectations, it was quite a nice surprise. Hundreds of grassy mounds stretching out before us as far as the eye could see. We took the necessary photos, took a quick walk around the top of the viewing station, and then headed back to our waiting tricycle driver and his son, who had come along for the ride. There are two main theories as to how the mounds formed. The traditional view is that they are the solidified tears of a lovesick giant. Another opinion is that they are caused by the uplifting of ancient coral deposits. Hmm, let me think...
As we pulled back into the outskirts of Carmen in our tricycle, the driver spotted our bus just pulling out of town and flagged it down. It stopped for us and let us jump on. Fantastic timing! We had managed to see the Chocolate Hills in only 45 minutes - must be some kind of record!
We then carried on to our intended destination of Panglao Island. A lot has changed in the last few years. First, accommodation quoted to be just 350 pesos in our book is now going for an outrageous 3,500 pesos!!! We found a decent room, though, and went to talk to some dive shops before dinner. There came the second big change. Our dive book mentioned that there were lots of turtles, mantas, and even hammerhead shark in the area. Excited about this, we were keen to sign up for the appropriate dives. After speaking to several dive shops, however, the response was always the same: there are no turtles, mantas and hammerheads any more as they have all been eaten or otherwise fished out! It's so sad as they are ruining their own reef and consequently one of their biggest tourist drawcards, but with 33% of the population currently surviving on less than $1 a day, I guess they have very different prioroties to us.
We spent the next day doing very little but sunbathing and snorkelling. The day after we went diving to Balicasag island. Although the "big stuff" is gone, we did have two great dives
and saw lots of cool little stuff. The highlights were a teeny tiny pygmy seahorse (about 8mm long), a pure white frogfish, some big Napolean Wrasse and a huge school of Jacks. Although it kills the budget, scuba diving is most definitely one of our favourite activities!
***N.B. Again, underwater photos have been "borrowed" just to liven up the blog with things we saw on the dives - hope no-one minds! ***
Advertisement
Tot: 0.377s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 19; qc: 79; dbt: 0.142s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.3mb