Flu in the Philippines

---

The guide book advises that Cebu City is a little less chaotic and easier to get around than Manila - well, we flew in to Manila and flew straight out again to Cebu, hoping that the guide book wouldn't let us down... We were shocked at the chaos, poverty and fumes that hit us in Cebu. If Cebu is meant to be any indication, we are pretty scared for our last night in Manila. The guide book says "At least the Cebu taxi drivers don't work for Satan". Well they do.

But rewind a bit, we left Hong Kong on an early morning flight, landed in Manila and bought an onward ticket for the next flight to Cebu. Jumped in a taxi and decided to find somewhere to stay uptown, which we were advised by a strange American guy on the plane, was a little more civilised. Our taxi driver was very put out that we had insisted he use the meter, and proceeded to take us on a ride from hell. We spent most of the journey trying to frantically find the buckle for the seat belt, but since having been in several cabs since then we can now officially advise that there are no such things. The actual seat belts are there for show. We were both pale, shaken and relieved to get out of that car when we finally dropped us off in the middle of a chaotic traffic circle. Needless to say we found a clean bed to sleep in but uptown was not somewhere you wanted to be for long. There were so many poor people, litter, stray dogs, beggars, taxis and tricycles that don't know what a red traffic light is there for.

Next morning we managed to get to the ferry port and boarded the modern ferry to Bohol Island. Once there, we jumped on to a tricycle (really a motorcycle with a side car) and somehow the driver managed to squeeze both of us and our luggage into the side-car and we were off. Half way down the road he stopped at a petrol station and asked if he could borrow P100 to buy petrol! Anyway, we actually enjoyed that ride as the bike couldn't go very fast with the load and going uphill, Keith was ready to jump out and push. 40 minutes later we were on Alona Beach - Panglao Island, as it is joined to Bohol by a bridge, and we found a great room in a big traditional house - Peter's House. The room had 180 degree views of the white sandy beach and the big windows meant that the sea breezes reached us, along with the sounds of the waves lapping at the shore. Unfortunately it also meant that the sound waves from the local pub behind came right at us too, and we had our ear plugs firmly in place! We spent 3 nights on the island and went diving on 2 of the days. Our local haunt was Trudy's - a restaurant on the beach run by a local family who make the best meals on the island. We treated ourselves to an hours massage on the beach under the palm trees. It was such a welcome reprieve after the chaos of Cebu and the two days spent travelling to get to Alona Beach. We really enjoyed our time on this beautiful beach despite the rain we experienced. They have had a lot of rain during this year's "dry" season.

Our day trip to do two dives, turned into rather an adventure. The weather was stunning on the way out to sea, the water bright turquoise and the sea calm. As we came up from our second dive, the wind had come up, there were huge swells and the dive boat was miles away from where we surfaced. Our dive master signalled to the boat and we eventually worked out that they were not coming to get us - the engine had stalled. So we had to swim, with all our dive gear, tanks etc for a few hundred metres in rising swells. Getting on the pump boat was even more of a mission as we were tossed around, trying to hang on to a rope without being smashed against the boat, and without losing fins, tank, weights etc etc. We eventually got on board, the rain was lashing down at an angle and we were exhausted and frozen to the bone. The skippers managed to jump start the engine from another boat so we prayed we would get back to dry land that day. Lisa's teeth were chattering all the way back to the island, and she dreamt of a hot bath, knowing the humble accommodation had only a cold, saline shower!

Alona had a really laid back feel to it and we enjoyed it there. It's unfortunate that some of the resorts on the western end of the beach have become quite ramshackle and that they built huge concrete verandas over the sand, so there is very little beach on that end of the island. The diving was good, we saw so many anemone fish (Nemo's) of all colours and types and turtles. The coral is very pretty and we saw lots of fish we had never seen before on a dive.

Our next destination had to be one we could reach without flying, so we boarded an early morning ferry back to Cebu, then jumped on to a public bus and spent the next 5 hours hoping we would get there alive. The bus driver had a serious problem staying on his side of the road and after a while we stopped watching and tried to distract ourselves by looking out the window. Cebu sprawls out from the city up north and there was just as much poverty, litter and disorder along most of the north coast. We finally reached Maya and jumped on board a public pump boat to get a lift across to the island of Malapascua. Well, it was not to be our lucky day, and our boat was once again cursed. The anchor had just been lifted and we were drifting from shore, when the skipper pulled on a long piece of rope, to start the engine we presumed, and instead a large, rusty piece of the engine flew up, just missed Keith's head and landed in the sea. The crew thought this was hilarious and we had to laugh! They spent the next hour trying to fix the engine, one of the crew stripped down to his undies to retrieve the missing piece from the ocean floor, and all this time Lisa's bladder was about to burst, so eventually she had to squat off the back of the boat! (Luckily Keith did not have the camera ready!) Eventually the locals gave in and were towed across by another boat, arriving 45 minutes later at white beach, Malapascua.

This island has a rather neglected feel about it, as if it was meant to be the next best holiday destination, or maybe it was. The beach is really beautiful, white sand and blue sea, but there are so many boats you have to pick a spot in between to swim. We spent a few hours exploring the island by foot, and discovered there were more children, stray dogs and roosters than even boats on the island. And boy do those roosters know hot to keep you awake. They know no time limits and they simply crowed all day and all night... So much for getting some sleep! We managed to find a resort that had some English novels we could exchange on, so happily spent the next two days reading in the shade of the palm trees. Keith ventured out early one morning to do a deep dive in the hope of seeing some thresher sharks which are rare and the island has become famous among divers as they appear regularly at the Monad Shoal dive site off to the east. The sharks and other large fish show up at this site which is an island 20 metres below the water which drops off all around to about 450 metres. As we arrived at the site we were treated to a thresher shark launching itself out of the water on four occasions. This is extremely rare for threshers to breach and the local dive master told us that he had never seen it happen. Anyway, Keith, a girl from Norway and the dive master descended into the early morning gloomy water and were lucky to get closeup to a 4 metre thresher before it disappeared into the depths below.

Our journey back to Cebu was pretty uneventful and we stayed nearer the airport in a better hotel, and left this morning on a flight to Palawan island. We are now in Porto Princesa and will leave early tomorrow to try and head up North, eventually getting to El Nido and the spectacular lime stone caves and the Bacuit Archipelago. There is very little, if no infrastructure in place for tourists here. I spent most of today trying to find out if we could travel north by boat, as it was once possible, according to our guide book - the latest version! It seems now the only way is to travel by local jeepney (bus) for 8 hours, so tomorrow we will see... Keith has been in bed most of the day with flu but was happy that Lisa returned in one piece after venturing into town alone. Actually, Porto Princesa is a lot more of what we imagined a Filipino city to be like. It is much cleaner and the people are friendly. There are still lots of stray dogs about and hundreds of tricycles, but we feel a lot safer here. Lisa was a very happy camper tonight as she found what must be the only Vegetarian restaurant in the Philippines and ate enough to make up for the lack of food over the past few days! We took a few rides on the tricycles and stood in the blazing sun for ages to try and draw money from an ATM. Yesterday was pay day and this morning all the ATM's were off line! Our biggest lesson learnt so far is that no matter where we are or what we are paying for, there is never any change available - "Sorry no change sir!"

---

Photos

Stop breathing, you're breaking my ribs!
Our first trip on a motobike tricycle. All our luggage is on the back!

Tricycle in front of us
These things are everywhere and like the other vehicles they don't obey traffic rules!

View from our room at Peter's House, Panglau
This was a great place apart from the music from the pub next door which pumped thru the night.

Being towed to Malapascua
A long days travel ends as we are finally towed by another pump boat to Malapacua.

Malapascua
Church/Chapel on the beach in front of our room

A book at last!!
With so much free time on our hands we almost resorted to reading one of the many German books to be found. But at last we came across some English ones to trade for.

Paradise
As the postcards would have you believe. No shacks in sight!

Refreshed after a dip now back to the book
Water has been cool at 27 degrees. After all it is winter.

Ging Ging's - a fairly typical eatery
We ate most of our meals here as the prices were good. The service here was probably the worst we have come across this journey.

Friendly fisherman on Malapascua
He takes a break from repairing his boat to pose for this picture.

Rubbish burning
Burn and bury is the main policy in SE Asia. Makes for good sunsets.

Keith relaxing in the rooftop pool in Cebu
It was good to get away from the hustle and buslte of Cebu City below

Comments

[Michel]

Stalled boat...
It's quite a dive story! Can't believe that the boat was stalled and that you had to swim all the way back. Glad you made it safe and sound. Your trip sounds amazing. Cheers, Michel

[joseph]

tnx
tnx 4 da information.......without dis i cannot do my research in english...... tnx