Snorkeling in the Philippines, January 19 - February 3/2015

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Sometimes I wish I was the pope. I see his laughing face. It is on an enormous billboard facing Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. 'The people of the Philippines welcome pope Francis', it says. For us though there is nobody. Not even a single Philippino with a tiny caption saying 'Airport Hotel Manila welcomes Linda and Andre'. No, we have to stand in a 100 meter long queue, waiting for a cab, sweating and watching the pope. Who is still laughing. Two hours it takes. Then it is our turn for a cab.

'Airport Hotel Manila', I say to the taxi driver, expecting him to turn around and look at me with wide open eyes, saying 'Are you crazy? That's just opposite the terminal. You can walk that.' But no. We drive along slumps, get stuck in jams, pass road constructions and begin to wonder where the driver will bring us. 'You know Airport Hotel Manila?', I ask after half an hour, as I suppose an hotel with that name must be somewhere at the airport. 'Yeah, yeah, Airport Hotel Manila', he says, steering his cab at an inch between a jeepney and a tricycle.

After an hour we arrive . Three hours it took in total. As much as our flight from Bangkok to Manila. 'Miss Linda and mister Andre?', the young woman at the counter asks. We nod. 'Welcome!', she says. She smiles. Like the pope, but better.

Watching whalesharks at Donsol (Luzon)


Everything is perfectly fine. There are no typhoons today. No floodings. No earthquakes either. And even Mt Mayon, one of the most dangerous volcano's in the world, is puffing little clouds, as if it is peacefully smoking a pipe. We watch the treacherous pyramid from a safe distance. From 800 meter high Ligñon Hill.

Thousands of people have been killed by the monster. During an eruption in1814 1200 people fled to the Cagsawa church. Just to pray. It didn't help. They were swallowed by lava, buried in the foothills of the volcano. To visit Cagsawa ruins we took a tricycle. It's a motor with a sidecar. Very narrow, but also cozy with curtains against the rain and the sun. My tricycle is my castle, the drivers think. Ours had reggae music, flickering disco lights and plastic flowers and Sponge Bob and Jezus.

So everything is perfectly fine. We cannot find any excuse to skip our trip to Donsol, where we are supposed to snorkel in between whale sharks. Whale sharks are not particularly dangerous; the only thing is that they are so terribly big. The biggest shark in the world. The biggest fish in the world. Even the biggest non-mammalian vertebrate. And because they are ovoviviparous (the young ones develop within the mother, so she gives birth to them) you might think it is a whale.

So there is no any excuse. We are going to snorkel between whale sharks. There is only one problem. We cannot find them. 'We didn't see any whale sharks in the last two days', says our guide. It's because water visibility is almost zero. It's extremely difficult to spot them. 'But if we spot them', he continues, 'we'll turn the bangka, so that we are in front of its enormous mouth. And then you have to be very quick, put your snorkel things on and jump.' Oh, my God.

Four man are watching the sea continuously. One at the prow, one in the mast, one in the middle and one at the poop. They look in all directions, like Poetin's bodyguards. Little fishes jump up. Once we see a shoal of tuna's. But no whale sharks. Six other bangka's are crossing the sea. They go in all directions like ants which lost their trace. After four hours crossing the sea everyone turns in one direction. Back. No any whale shark has been seen.

Some people were angry. But you cannot force animals to show up as soon as you want to see them. Yes, you can feed them as they do near Cebu, where encounters are guaranteed. Luckily they don't do that here in Donsol. It would interfere with the natural behavior of the whale sharks.

The other side of the coin is that we paid 'Bicol Adventures' a ridiculous amount of money to see them. We admit we had an excellent guide, but we didn't come to see her. So if you have plans to do this trip, you better can do it on your own and wait till April, when you hardly can miss them.

Puerto Princesa (Palawan)

In september 2014 president Benigno Aquino addressed the United Nations summit on climate change. 'If you look at the map, especially for storms coming from the Pacific side, it seems we're a gateway to the rest of Asia', he said. Nine months earlier Typhoon Haiyan had hit the Philippines. It was the strongest typhoon ever.

More than any other country in South East Asia Filipino's are aware of environmental questions. In Puerto Princesa you don't get plastic bags anymore for your shoppings. It's one of the cleanest cities in South East Asia. Littering is forbidden. From here we made some nice trips into Palawan.

The subterranean river at Sabang (Palawan)

The Filipino's love to say that the subterranean river at Sabang is one of the seven world wonders of nature together with Halong Bay in Vietnam, the Amazone forest in Brazil, the Iguazu falls in Brazil and Argentina, Komodo Island in Indonesia, Jeju Island in South Korea and the Tafelberg in South Africa. And they are right. The road from Puerto Princesa to Sabang is already a feast. It curves across the mountains covered with a green carpet of primary forest. Along the road little villages, bright green rice paddies with white egrets, coconut palms, banana trees, abacá trees, which look like little banana trees and which produce the strongest natural fiber in the world.

Everywhere nipa huts on stilts, the walls made of bamboo, the roofs of nipa palms. Some huts are hardly bigger than 6 m². Everything happens here: cooking, sleeping, making love, raising kids, dying. Some are surrounded by taro plants with their big leaves. Elephant ears as they call them. Apart from the tubers, the Filipino's eat the dried leaves in their delicious Liang together with coconut milk. Others have mats outside with rice grains, drying in the sun. Due to lack of space the mats lay often on the road. Cars try to pass them, but not always.

The last part of the trip goes by a bangka, a little boat with a wooden construction at both sides to keep the balance. We arrive at a beach with monitor lizards, almost as big as komodo dragons, which walk like sumo wrestlers in the sand. Some long tailed macaques show up. They are supposed to eat crabs, but chips will also do. After a short walk through the forest we arrive at a laguna and see the entrance of a tunnel. With a little bangka we go inside. Thousands of bats populate the ceilings. Now and than tsjik tsjik sounds echoe against the walls. Swallows which have their edible nests inside. After 1500 meter the boatman turns and peddles back.

Snorkeling at Bacuit Archipelago

The trip to El Nido in the North of Palawan takes six hours by minivan. El Nido sits at a bay with views on karst rocks rising up from the South China Sea. Everywhere are restaurants, money changers, hotels, travel agencies, dive shops. Everywhere are backpackers. But there is not a single ATM. Though full of tourism it is still a charming place. No Hiltons, no Centara's or other big hotels. From here we made several snorkel trips to the Islands of the Bacuit archipelago. The scenery is amazing. Rocks like gothic cathedrals, grown over with green bushes as if Bob Ross has used his finest brush. Like Bryce canyon, but than with crystal clear seawater around.

To come at some lagoons we have to swim through tunnels. One lagoon was discovered only in 2005 by a fisherman. A sea river between two Islands. A church left behind by its people and now a touristic attraction. Young ladies in sexy bikini's stroll through it as if it is a James Bond movie. Dr No or something. A sea eagle circles over the rock formations. Dolphins splash up out of the water. When I stand in one of the lagoons a sting ray is swimming around my legs. 'Last week someone was stung and died', tells our guide.

I don't know what I like more, the thousands of coral fishes under water or the rock formations above it. The stalactites hanging down from the rocks overgrown by barnacles and dipping now and than in the ocean or the corals, brain corals, blue corals, red corals.

The Caves of Quezon

Everyone goes to El Nido. Almost no one goes to the South. To Quezon. We do. Because we want to see the Tabon cave, where 47.000 years ago people lived. They were the first men who entered the Philippines. Probably coming from Borneo, where the Niah cave is in Sarawak. There was a land bridge between Borneo and Palawan during the Ice age. So people could migrate into Palawan over land.

It is about three hours driving to Quezon. There is a little museum which shows a skull cap found in the cave, flints, jars which contained human bones. With a little bangka we cross the bay to come at the cave. Actually there are hundred of caves. The Tabon cave was the only one which was inhabited. It is called after the Tabon Scrubfowl, which lives in the surroundings and which makes molds to lay its eggs in. The other caves are burial caves.

There is a path along the caves. It takes several hours to see them all. But it begins to rain and the path becomes slippery. So we take a shortcut to the beach. While walking along the beach we see all kind of shells. Unfortunately it is forbidden to take them with us. Just before we climb in the bangka again we see a Portuguese warship floating upon the water. Deadly. It has a sail and the wind has blown it to shallow water.

Back in Manila

The last day of our trip we spend in Manila. We visit Intramuros, the Spanish settlement from 1571, Fort Santiago, San Agustin Church, Casa Manila. The bells of the cathedral sound. It has been long time ago we heard that. With a taxi we go back to our hotel. The driver is very talkative. But I hardly can understand him, because every sentence ends in a high giggle. He is longing for the time Marcos was president. 'Maybe his son will become the new president', he says. Giggle, giggle. He shows us the modern part of Manila with shopping malls, casino's, restaurants, cinema's.

Back at the hotel we eat at a Chinese restaurant. A boy is hanging around. He has holes in his clothes and bare feet. I have ordered dumplings. When it arrives I get some fried chicken feet. I share it with the boy.

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Comments

[Playagal]

The Pope / Manila
Your blog had me chuckling over the pictures of the Pope and the frustration waiting for the taxi and your whale shark (or lack of) adventure! Well done, great photos.

[Adventures of Philnsonja]

Great Blog
Thanks for a wonderful blog. We are hoping to go to the Philippines in May this year, so it was great reading a recent blog. Our plan is Coron. Happy travelling.