Our Visayan Adventure...

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Our second time in Manila was a hot and sweaty affair and we left as soon as we could buy bus tickets onwards. Our next destination was Donsol, a small town in Southern Luzon and we made it there following a 12hr bus journey and a 2hr mini van ride. Donsol is an absolutely tiny village on the coast with very little to do but we got lucky because the 'Butanding' festival was in full swing on our arrival.
"Butanding" is the Tagalog word for 'whale shark' and it was the whale sharks that brought us to the town. It is possible to go snorkeling off the shores of Donsol with whale sharks and go there at the right time of the year and it is almost guaranteed! The visibility isn't great, only a few feet, but some people say that that only adds to the excitement. You leave early in the morning when the boat is full and, numbers are limited as to how many people can go out into the bay each day. The boat 'captain' keeps watch over the waters and somehow manages to spot the sharks from many meters away and then it's all systems go! Everyone jumps into the water and swims in the direction of the shark so that your path intercepts his... of course, with the water being so murky and the sharks being so much more graceful and agile, it's all guess work. If you're lucky though and you're timing is right you will be in just the right spot to see the shark appear from the gloom within a meter of you and glide past! The sharks can grow up to 18m in length so if you happen to come across a big one, it's a little bit like having a bus driving (swimming!) directly in your path and trusting it will turn at the last minute!

The festival was little more than a basketball competition combined with a small parade (school children and OAPs as opposed to actual floats!) and a series of bands and dance shows in the little square but it was nice to be around for and it definitely injected a bit of life into what would otherwise be a very, very sedate town!

From Donsol we took a boat to the island of Masbate where i had my "WORST TOILET EXPERIENCE" so far and I am yet to recover from it. We had but a short lay over in a small port town before we were to embark on our first night boat journey. We found a surprisingly nice looking little pizzeria and settled in for the wait. Throughout the meal we could hear something moving about in the walls but we wrote it off as termites due to previous experiences... our first mistake.
The second mistake was my asking to use the bathroom. It was explained that they did not have a customer toilet but i could use theirs if I would like. My third mistake- and most heinous- was saying that i would.............

I entered a tiny hallway and the door closed behind me. The door to the bathroom was slightly ajar and just in front of me and i could see a very large cockroach on the floor inside. I then noticed three or four more cockroaches on the floor in front of me and i was immediately regretting my decision. I entered the toilet and saw that there were at least twenty cockroaches all over the floor and the walls and i was shocked at how large and numerous they were. I realised that i would not be able to use the toilet but was also a little scared to make any sudden movements! I scanned the room and then looked up- the ceiling was a thick carpet of huge cockroaches, at least a thousand of them. At this point i didn't really know what to do because i was afraid to startle them, in case they began to fly around or drop from the ceiling. I turned around slowly to escape and behind me about a foot away was a large rat... eating a mouse... So now i am penned in and my survival instincts are waning. I decide to take my chances with the rat and take a tiny step forward. Thankfully it is enough to scare him into the corner where it starts to panic and begins clawing at the wall and running in little circles and i take this as my cue to dart out. Of course, i don't want to offend the restaurant staff, so i just about manage to pull myself together enough to thank them kindly for their assistance and the lovely food (it had been quite mediocre) before running out!!!

I cannot believe that those people use that toilet all day long as if it is normal! And yes, it has occurred to me that the kitchen is likely to be a disgrace and those were probably cockroaches moving about inside the walls. But it is best that we don't dwell on these matters.
I still inspect the ceiling of toilets before i use them now...

So following an enjoyable and roach-free boat journey, where i convalesced over a bottle of local rum (80c for a liter!),we arrived at the large island of Cebu and headed immediately to Maolboal, a small beach resort on it's western coast. We were really pleased to be there and to finally get the chance to relax on the famed Filipino beaches. We rented a very special motorbike and used it to visit some of the local attractions, from waterfalls to beaches to a marine sanctuary. From Maolboal and Cebu island we headed south to a tiny island called Siquijor, that is famous for producing the country's finest witches and potions and checked into a beautiful cottage right on the beach, where we shared our bathroom with a crab for a few days. After that, we headed on to Bohol, our final destination in the Visaya's. Bohol is a large island south of Cebu and it is most famous for it's "Chocolate Mountains"; a quirky geographical phenomenon consisting of over 4000 small, conical and perfectly formed hills the colour of milk chocolate. We rented a motorbike and explored the hills and the surrounding countryside and took in a couple of dives in the infamous 'black forest' before sadly departing for Cebu City and eventually Manila.

The Visaya's have an awful lot to offer travelers with a lot of time and patience (the transport from island to island can be a little frustrating at times!) and unfortunately we only had a fortnight to see everything we wished to see. We were forced to choose between many places, all of which sounded amazing in their own way and, it was sad to leave knowing that there was still so much left to do. The Philippines was the first country that i really felt i had not done justice to and i would recommend that anyone going there set aside at least two months to do it right.

The Visaya's are an amazingly diverse region that encompass dozens of islands, large and small, inhabited and not and is the home to some of the friendliest and most helpful people that I have encountered on my travels. The beaches were not what i was expecting and did not live up to my expectations but then, the people and the culture far surpassed them, so i was not disappointed. The Jeepneys ("Jeepney": an old US army truck left behind by American troops, that the local people have outrageously painted and decorated and turned into a kind of private public transport system!) are fantastic, the rum is excellent and is incredibly cheap, the landscape varies on every turn and the villages are so untouched by tourism that it feels like going back in time. My only complaint would be the food, which was not to my taste, and the fact that take-away restaurants seem to really monopolise the hospitality industry. It was almost impossible to go a couple of days without frequenting a Jollibee, KFC or/and McDonald's and that was for want of better food!

So from Cebu City we flew up to Manila, where we traversed the city with enormous difficulty and somehow made it from the International Airport out to Clarke Manila for our flight to Borneo (it took a bus, a coach, four jeepneys and nearly five hours!)...

Next stop: Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo!...

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