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Published: December 26th 2009
Stopping off in Valencia (on the road to Apo)
This was the first time we put up our mosquito netThe journey from Hanoi to Cebu, Philippines was a grueling one. We lost our wallet about two hours before having to get our flight which added an interesting and intense challenge to the day. The journey itself was overnight via three separate flights. It was a total hassle! We even had to bribe a Vietnamese passport official because we'd mislaid our health declaration booklets. It was a nasty way to finish things off in Vietnam.
Cebu City was OK. The jeepneys were there en masse but it is mostly just roads. We spent quite a lot of time in the mall buying essentials before going to Apo. We also spent too much time in the video arcade honing our skills on Time Crisis 2 (the best of the series in my opinion) and we completed the arcade version of Silent Hill with only three continues each which we reckoned was pretty good going. We were mainly waiting for the weather to improve so we could get the ferry to Dumaguete which is the final stop off for Apo Island.
Once we FINALLY got to Apo, we're stayed in a VERY basic but large house right on the shore. When
the tide has come in up to about 10 metres from our house and, we see sea turtles every time we snorkel in the bit of water outside our house. O once saw 7 in one snorkeling session. There are puffer fish of varying types, clownfish (or rather anemone fish), parrot fish and a host of other 'classics' to be seen when snorkeling. I have even seen a couple of lionfish dotted around and a sea snake (black and white banded and poisonous up the arse but have very good natures so pretty harmless unless you get into a slapping match with one. Whilst diving, we saw an octopus which i spotted. I THINK it was a Giant
Pacific Octopus
due to it's size (5kg and mid size according to our instructor, Mario). Anyway, it changed colour and texture an generally looked magnificent. Another high point was a rare sighting of a moray eel (very high up on my shopping list, it's a bit of a coral reef bad boy) and it gaped and looked menacing with aplomb. We also saw a scorpion fish which is often mentioned with the stone fish. It looked pretty hardcore whilst remaining barely visible. The coral condition is immaculate. we went up a coral slope which was encrusted with coral that looked like fallen autumn leaves. Dotted around this coral was numerous mushroom corals which look like a flat capped mushroom turned asunder (they aren't attached to anything and slowly rather air underneath them which eventually flips them over). So - we had an autumn after all, albeit 15 metres under the sea. I've seen attack ships on fire on the shore of Orion. Great schools of jacks (big fish) which collect in shoals in their thousands. No sharks yet, granted but we'll get to them. Our adventures in Apo underwater are finished but there's the rest of the Visayas to go.
After a week or so sizing us up, the islanders finally took us under their wing and we've had a
few drinks with them. Coconut wine, namely. It's pretty hardcore, can be made overnight using bamboo somehow and has to be drunk when its ready or it'll just get used as vinegar. Our dive instructor is the
chief of the village and invited us for dinner and also took excellent care of us when
we needed help to get here when our resort where being, frankly, crap. Everyone on the island is related. I wouldn't be suprised if i found i was in some way related to, say, our neighbour, a young chap called Lub Lub whose
cousin owns the place we're staying in now - a lovely chap called Harold.
We left Apo Island because of the ear infection (if you can't scuba or snorkel then the charm of the place diminishes a lot!) and have since been in Dumaguete, staying in a backpacker hotel called Harold's Mansion. We were due to stay here till the 21st December but i then ended up getting Dengue fever and had to be hospitalised for four days. We have now booked a nicer place on Siquijor which is a bit more luxurious in order to make up for the miserable time in the hospital.
Christmas day started badly... I had to get up and go to the hospital for a final blood test to determine everything was OK after the fever. I felt pretty low after that and sent some very depressing emails to people (sorry about that!). In the evening we had some
drinks with Harold and and some of the guests. A few of Harold's friends also turned up, including my ear specialist, Dr Simon Flores M.D. I drank too much rum and coke and now feel rough.
What's next? A week or so on Siquijor Island before heading to Pangloa Island, just off Bohol and then we're meeting up with Tracey and Paul - something we're really looking forward to!
***PART II - Updated Wednesday 27th January 2010***
A wise man once said, 'Wherever you go, there you are.' Well we're still in Philippines, tying up the loose ends of a two and a half month spell that was as enjoyable as it was tumultuous.
It took as till the the 28th December to finalise what we needed to in Dumaguete. Much of this was related to my health (needed all clears from ear doc and infectious illness man).
We got the ferry to the quiet island of Siquijor (I've included a more zoomed-in map of our travels around Philippines for ease of reference). And quiet it was - VERY quiet indeed. On our stretch of the beach there were two other resorts and not a
handful of people staying in each one. Our nipa hut was very overpriced seeing as it had no sea view and was a bit manky. We did have a gas hob to cook on however and happily set around cooking strange vegan concoctions. Oriel's favourite was spicy chickpeas in tomato served with new potatoes, bashed up with olive oil and black pepper. Mine was a very nice pea soup which Oriel made. We had a fair few mung bean soups/curries etc which were very nice. The mung beans here are excellent.
The beach where we were, near Larena, is very open. The tide goes out miles and comes right in to engulf the sand. The sea itself is, therefore, very shallow. Oriel and I set off on a three day expedition straight towards the horizon and the sea didn't even get past our knees! A disappointment, yes, but after the hecticness of my illness and the bustle of leaving Dumaguete, the quiet was more than welcome.
Time slipped by and before we knew it, it was New Year's Eve. As if attempting to wash away a whole decade, it rained solidly all day. We didn't mind so much
as we hadn't really experienced any bad weather up till then, seeing as we're used to holidaying in Wales, we relished the freshness that the rain brought with it. We had a celebratory bottle of red at around 12.30pm which was a bad idea really. We had a long way to go till the strike of 12! At around 6.30pm we wandered down to our favourite of the other resorts (we didn't like our own because we felt our hut was overpriced), Kiwi Dive Resort. Part of our decision lay in that it had lights on. The island was suffering from one of its numerous power cuts and Kiwi Dive was the only one not stingy enough to forgo turning on their own generator - on New Year's Eve for heaven's sake! Upon chatting to the staff at Kiwi, we asked if anything fun would be happening, you know, for New Year's Ever? The reply was polite but firm: No. It is simply too quiet. It was suggested that we go to our own resort as there would be a party and a buffet. It beggared belief! Undeterred (mostly in light of the lights) we hung around there and had
a few beers whilst making keen eye contact with any guests that wandered past. We were like enthusiastically social trapdoor spiders. Eventually, we'd managed to ensnare five French girls (bolshy, Parisian), an older Japanese couple (uncomprehending, surly) and an Irish couple (fey, well meaning). A rip roaring round of cross cultural charades ensued and carried on going for perhaps that little bit too long. The Japanese couple left early on, the French girls were mostly picking very obvious film choices and the Irish girl kept trying to convince me to do annoying best sellers like 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' and 'The Time Traveller's Wife'. Somewhere in the chaos, I gained the knowledge that the French call 'Chinese Whispers', 'Arabic Telephone'. The bubble burst at 11.30pm which was probably best, and so we waded through the high tide back to our own resort. We were in bed just past 12 midnight.
The next day, Oriel was suffering badly with a hangover where I mostly got away with it. I went out at about 12 noon and rented a motorbike from the resort. I had seen the roads on Siquijor as we'd travelled to the town to get food
etc. The main coastal road is, on the most part quiet and wide and boast beautiful views of the coast and the hills inland.
Bearing in mind my most recent encounter with a motorbike, I was understandably pretty cautious at first. It did not start well. Relieved that i had survived the rocky journey to the main coastal road, I steeled myself and set off down the wrong side of the road. Seeing an oncoming bike I panicked only for a second and employed a valuable tool gained from my experience of being A Man: I styled it out. Oh yes. I was merely driving down the wrong side of the road for a bit, before finding a satisfactory place to stop and fidget with my box seat. This clearly foxed the other motorcyclist whom passed by with a nod. I shook myself mentally and set off on my way again, this time on the right side of the road. Then i was shouted to a halt by a bloke who said i still had my bike stand down.
I persevered and I'm glad I did. Not straying much over 30mph, I tootled along, greeting the locals whom
all called out 'Hello!' and 'Happy New Year!'. Other motorists passed me by with plenty of space and the scenery was gratifyingly lovely. It was, I think, the most pleasant New Year's Day I have spent in memory... cruising along the coast, waving at the local children, drifting past huge sound systems (the highlight in that respect was hearing a rumbling Rhythm & Sound track roll around me as I freewheeled past), stopping for a drink and exchanging misunderstood pleasantries. Lovely.
It was during our stay on Siquijor that Oriel decided to up the pace of our travels. We had found ourselves feeling trapped in a few places on our travels (in some instances we were, literally, unable to leave). We left Siquijor a couple of days after New Year's Day and set out to Pangloa Island. Pangloa is a small touristy island which is attached via bridge to the island of Bohol. Bohol would serve as the base for the next few weeks of travel (see map). Spurred on by our desired change of pace, we decided to fork out for a pump boat (or 'bangka') to take us straight to Pangloa, rather than get a passenger ferry
which we aren't fond of. It cost us about fifty quid for the two and a half hour trip to Pangloa but it was worth it. We were travelling on a boat that was the same size as those which took us to Apo and back to the mainland of Negros. I have already harped on about how enjoyable I found these trips amd this one was no different. We both fell in to a happily contemplative mood as we bobbed through the waves, keeping an eye out for flying fish whilst cloud-capped islands slipped by in the distance.
Whilst we were grateful for the bustle of Alona Beach, the main stretch on Pangloa, the price of food and drinks was expensive. Accommodation was also a bit much, so after a night in an unsatisfactory place (again, overpriced and manky) we took a walk up the road away from the main beach front and found a much cheaper place with shared bathroom (kept very clean, mark you) and a big kitchen area. There were also two green grocers to choose from very close by. We whiled away 4 or 5 days snorkelling (we are now the proud owners of
our own snorkels and masks!), cooking and having a drink here and there. On one day we opted to fork out and head for a private beach resort, similar to that which we visited in Dubai (the Jebel Ali resort). This one was obviously far cheaper. The entrance fee was 250 pesos (about 3.50 squid) each and 150 pesos of that goes towards your food and drink. It was lovely in a typical white sand, swimming pool and cocktails kind of way.
After Pangloa, we got a taxi to mainland Bohol and to the city of Tagbilaran ('Tag-bil-AR-an') in order to extend our visas and book in to a place called Nuts Huts, situated on the Loboc River. After a happy night in the city (we watched Avatar in 3D - we thought it was very pretty to look at but otherwise a passing fancy, although the big blue lady did flounce around with her norks out for most of the film) we travelled to the much talked about and highly recommended backpacker's resort of Nuts Huts.
The main restaurant and reception in Nuts Huts is situation fairly high up the gorge of the Loboc River. Guests then
plod down numerous steps to the bottom of the gorge, level with the river, where the eponymous huts are situated, in a long line, parallel with the water. Nuts Huts' whole ethos is very health driven (blatantly because of the steps that guests must battle with constantly during their stay). On our first day we swam 650m upriver to some waterfalls and back and instantly felt heroic. It's not often that a swim up a jungle river is on offer as an option for a spot of exercise! The next day, we went on a grueling 36km mountain bike ride to the Tarsier Sanctuary. Tarsiers are monkey/lima bushbaby jobs and very cute. They became endangered due to the large number that were poached for pets as well us such quibbles as the male tarsier's habit of killing any young they encounter which they don't recognise (females rear one offspring a year). Other foibles such as the destruction of their habitat are also a factor to take in to account.
At night, the river would be intermittently lit up in garish greens and yellows for the benefit of tour boats which travel up and down the river, blasting naff music
and offering passengers All You Can Eat deals.
Our stay in Nuts Huts was very damp. Our hiking sandals have never been the same since and the laundry service was overpriced and took yonks. The management were also pretty rubbish; a dutch couple whom openly complained every time someone booked in and had very little time for the likes of vegan. Having said that, four nights in the jungle will always be an experience!
Back to Tagbilaran. We got our clothes washed (all of them) and waited for the arrival of Paul and Tracey whom we picked up from the airport before we all travelled to the small island of Cabiloa together (see map).
Still with me? Excellent! We stayed on Cabiloa for five nights. It was wonderfully peaceful and idyllic. There was also a dive school and we were charmed to find the diving instructor knew Mario T. Pascabello of Apo Island very well. His name is Bobet (rhymes with 'Hobbit'). If there something distinctly leonine about Mario, then Bobet is a small, happy-go-lucky, fishing cat. During our stay, we wracked up certifications to go on deep dives of up to 30m, partake in drift dives
(diving in strong currents) and night dives. The sea life wasn't a patch on Apo but we did see some oddities. Oriel attracted the attention of a shark sucker, named as such because it is a sucker fish, around 1m long, which resembles a shark. It attached itself to Oriel's leg for a spell and followed us around for the remainder of the dive. We saw more scorpionfish, LOTS of lionfish and we were lucky enough to spot a Spiny Devilfish. A close relative of the scorpionfish, the Spiny Devilfish mostly hides under the sand, with a coral-like appendage sticking out. They are awful swimmers and have developed spikes where their pectoral fins should be which enable them to walk along the sea floor. Incredible animals!
Tracey (Oriel's sister) and Paul (effectively my brother-in-law) had a wonderful time on Cabiloa. They took a tour around Bohol and Paul and I rented motorbikes on a couple of occasions, driving around taking photos.
We all travelled back to Tagbilaran together where Tracey and Paul got a plane straight up to Manila; Oriel and I had to book a flight the following day.
We met up with them again, along
with Paul's nephew (despite being less than a year younger), Noel - pronounced like the French for Christmas. Noel is a very friendly, jolly type with a vast knowledge of Manila, having lived there all his life. We drive to meet up with Paul's cousin, Boyet and his wife Emma (and their kids whom we didn't see a lot of because they had homework - most Filipinos take studying VERY seriously). Paul, Tracey, Noel, Oriel, Boyet, Emma, and someone whose name I have forgotten all went to a comedy club which was miles away. Metro Manila is HUGE. Sprawling as it is, it is still home to over 8 million inhabitants. The comedy club was an oddity. Most of the acts where very gay indeed (one was a drag queen) and whilst there were some jokes, the main attraction was watching them sing from a big karaoke screen. I got singled out immediately - the drag queen spotted me in an instant and said 'hey guapo!' meaning 'handsome man'. In light our or blatantly westernishness, we all got it to some extent but an American got the worse of it.
It should be noted here that throughout our travels
in Filipino cities, we have seen evidence of a lot of Gary Glitter tourism as a friend of mine referred to it. In Dumaguete particularly, there were whole bars filled with Dirty Old Men (referred to as DOMs) and their very young looking Filipino companions. Lots of them are German (there are LOTS of Germans on holiday in the Philippines), some are British and some are American. They are a moral, cultural and (in most cases) a visual eyesore so it is understandable that the American chap with his Filipino 'wife' was the brunt of many of the jokes that evening.
The next day, Tracey, Paul, Noel (Paul's nephew), Noel's father (57 and Paul's cousin), Junior - that's right Sopranos fans... Uncle Junior! Currently waiting for moment to refer to him as 'Uncle Djoon' - Oriel and I all jumped on a bus and travelled for 10.5 hrs in arctic air conditioning to arrive at Cauayan ('Ka-why-an'), Isabela. We got there at 4.30am, freezing and very tired.
It is in Cauayan that you find me, writing this blog. We have been here for about four nights, visiting various members of Paul's family on both his Mother's (Connie) and
Father's (Roly) sides. They are all very warm and welcoming people. It has also been excellent spending time with my nieces on Oriel's side, Eden and Cyan. They are charming children but, it must be said, that seeing them tugged at my own desire to see our nieces on my side, Felicity and Isla (about whom, credit to my sister, I have been receiving delightful updates concerning their activities and development which has cheered me up at such times). An example of a day here: we went for a spot of lunch at one aunty's house, then we bundled back in to a van to meet up with a couple of Roly's sisters whom were at the local swimming baths. They were deeply in to a karaoke binge which was highly amusing. After spending some time there, we went to another relative's for dinner (forgive me! I forget the connection). Present at dinner was some well respected members of the community - one of which was Captain of the Barangay (village). Having finished eating, we were ushered down the road to visit Roly's childhood home where he grew up with his siblings and where his sister still lived. It is
a small but wonderfully cosey house. The house is filled with pictures of the family and the front of the house is taken up by a Sari-Sari (a shop attached to the house, much like a tuck shop but with a greater selection of stock). It was brilliant to see the inside of one of these houses in general as there are Sari-Saris everywhere in the Philippines. What was really amazing, however, was that there was a photo taken at one of the Christmasses at Oriel's mother's house. In the photo was Oriel's younger brother and sister, my niece, Cyan, Paul's parents, a friend of Oriel and mine - Safya, Oriel and me! How strange that a picture of me exists in a small house, in a small province, on a small Island, in the Philippines, effectively on the other side of the world. I truly hope i can go back there and take a few pictures of my own of that house.
Our stay here has not passed without event, however. In the spirit of the rest of our time in the Philippines, Eden contracted pneumonia and had to be rushed to hospital, bless her! It was a
worrying first night but she was discharged today and seems happy and closer to her old self. It was truly a marvel to watch how the family rallied round to drive errands and offer an abundance of support.
Looking back on our stay in the Philippines, I can say very honestly that I want to come back. We've visited 8 out of 7000 islands and have loads to explore in the places we have already visited. The warm, jovial and welcoming nature of the locals relaxed us deeply during our stay here and the landscapes on offer are truly gorgeous. It also seems that we have an abundance of family whom would be very disappointed should we not come back in order for them to show off more of their remarkable country. So, in light of the hardships - ear infection, dengue, little Eden getting sick and all the other annoyances with regards to food, travel and accommodation we may have faced - when spending time with the people and looking at the landscape and, by jove, partaking in a drink or two, I can't help but raise a glass and say, 'Touché, Philippines! It is rather good here,
nes pa?'
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Greetings...
Hey guys, or should i say John-bo...well done on the blog, think its fab! Just checked out the pics, looks like you've seen some awesome things. Sorry to hear about the Dengi fever, that must have been god awful! Anyho good luck on the next leg of your journey whereever that may be! Messaged Oriel but do let us know where you will be April/May, Jules and i would love to come out and join you wherever you are! xx