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Departures - Philippines
After a long workday mixed with a strange brew of anticipation and boredom , Chanel and I boarded a 1am bus bound for Incheon Airport to begin our backpacking trip through the Philippines. We knew we had a lot packed into a quick five days, but we were up for the challenge. We arrived swiftly and without incident in a record 3 hours because of the sparse late night traffic. The bus ride was rather fun because Korea was playing Nigeria at 3am and the bus driver excitedly turned the game on at 3am sharp. The fans here, by the way, in Korea were crazy with world cup fever, most walking around the city sporting some sort of red tshirt with a grammatically incorrect slogan splattered across their fronts. "The Shouts of Reds", or "Let's together in 2010!" for instance. A few of us watched the first game a few days before outside at an amphitheatre on 4 or 5 big screens packed with about 30 000 fans. You wouldn't believe the pandemonium reverberating through this place. The atmosphere was absolutely infectious. Everyone wearing their emotions on their sleeves; anxiety, happiness, fear. The Koreans certainly love their
team and aren't afraid to display their loyalty publicly. Many of them draped themselves with South Korean flags, those at the back, too far to see the screens, watched the game on their slick TV phones. The smell of fried squid was wafting through the air. It was definitely a novel experience to the say the least.
Anyways, we arrived at the airport 4 hours before our flight was to depart. The # 1 rated airport in the world with all its massiveness and advanced technology was completely empty at this time, with the only few inhabitants crowded around the LG flat screens down in the arrivals area to catch the end of the game. Chanel and I had been up for almost 18 hours at this point, pushing an all nighter, and we were looking to catch some shuteye, but found it rather difficult with the echoes of screams and shouts peaking our interest every few minutes. After killing some time in a comfortable lounge we found much too late, we boarded our first of two flights and eventually made it to Mactan International Airport just outside Cebu City in the Central Visayan islands in the Philippines.
The first thing to catch my eye were both the jeepneys and tricycle taxis littered throughout the streets, the latter basically an old motorcycle outfitted with a cheap hunk of plastic for a roof and two wheels to carry passengers. Jeepneys, on the other hand, are old leftover war vehicles that have been extended and pimped out with colourful designs, stereo systems, and lights. Basically hipped out people movers that cost only a few pesos to ride. The second we walked out of the airport a sketchy man quickly whisked us away to his waiting cab and took us to pier 4 to catch the Supercat Ferry bound for Bohol Island, our first destination. Cebu city is a bustling crowded city that I would imagine takes on the appearance and personality of a pint sized Manila. It's very busy, poor, and the streets are absolutely mad with traffic; a fact not helped by the lack of traffic lights, even in large intersections. Despite the hundreds of bikes, tricycles, jeepneys, motorists passing on solid double lines, and that happy yet reckless Philippine spirit, we made it to the pier alive and well. We were warned prior to leaving that ferries are
absolutely not a safer means of transportation than flying with high-profile accidents a relatively common reality, as well as to keep a close eye on weather conditions, especially in the rainy season. Luckily for us, the weather was cooperating and the ferry was not even close to capacity. We boarded and arrived in Bohol around 6:25 pm.
Immediately we were greeted at the pier by our soon to be good friend Jo Jo who offered to take us around the island for an all day excursion the next day in his brand new Toyota sedan (he was very proud) for 3000 peso, or about 50 bucks. He took us to the Tagbilaran city metro hotel where we showered, grabbed some street mangoes for 10 peso, and simply walked around and took in the sheer rawness city that is Tagbilaran City.
The next day Jojo picked us up and we began our tour. First stop was the memorial site where the very first treaty was ever signed between Europeans and Asians, a pretty big deal. The first highlights of the trip included walking around a rickety man-made bamboo bridge crossing over top the beautiful Loboc river, cracking open coconuts
and drinking the refreshing milk, and visiting the world's smallest monkey, the tarsier. Jojo knew just about everyone on the island and the owner of the sanctuary was of no difference. We held the primate and watched in amazement as the little guy seemingly stared off into nothing. On a side note, the tarsier is an extremely endangered species, and thus kept in a very generous sized outdoor sanctuary. After spending some time with the saucer eyed critters, we made our way to one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Chocolate Hills. There are 1268 of these tomb looking structures that were supposedly created from pressure at the base of the ocean and slowly rose over centuries of falling sea levels. They are an absolutely breathtaking sight and called the chocolate hills because the tops of them are brown during the dry season and thus look like chocolate kisses. After the chocolate hills Jo Jo took us through his small hometown to try the local drink of choice, Tanduay Rum, after I expressed my interest in the tasty beverage. Along with the caramel tasting rum, we tried some Alupe, which is rice cake wrapped in Banana leaves;
nothing too special, but unique. One fact that seemed to have stayed with me was when Jojo mentioned that unless you are involved in Tourism or Agriculture there really aren't jobs for anyone, so most of the locals are simply left to just bum around. This was quite an odd concept for me to wrap my head around. Coming from a developed country where jobs are plentiful and 'its just the way it is', this is a relatively self-sustained island where there's no need or room for the corporate world. It's construction, farming, and tourism. That's it. The farmers still use water-buffalo to pull their ploughs because they can't obviously import a fancy combine or afford a John deer tractor. It was like going back in time. I bought a 26'r of rum for $1.20, had it 1/2 and 1/2 coke, and rum, with two ice cubes as told to by the locals with Chanel, and left the rest for the friendly locals to enjoy. We hopped back into the Toyota, blasted some ACDC, Peter Cetera, and other adult contemporary, which by the way is EVERYWHERE in the Philippines, and checked out the oldest coral stone church in the Philippines,
dated 1602. Our last place to go was Panglao Island which was, by far, the most incredible beach I have ever visited, or even seen. The tide was out and what was left was probably 100 meters or so of the whitest sand meeting turquoise water I've ever seen. The uneven sandbars left pockets of scorching clear ocean water filled with trapped fish and other sea critters. Small fish, Starfish, and Sea Urchans lazed in the heat and the water was like nothing I've seen before. Simple paradise is the easiest way to describe it. The time was about 4:30 and we had to make it back to the Pier to catch the 5:00pm ferry to Siquijor, the island where our resort was located, and where we were to spend the next 3 nights.
We arrived to Coco beach resort which I have to admit felt a little lavish for our 'backpacking' adventure. This resort was five stars. Most of the three days were filled with your typical resort activities: hammock lazing, drinking tropical cocktails in our sunken bar dug into the side of an Olympic sized swimming pool, massages, and eating excellent food while listening to the waves
slowly creep onto the white beach, and then watching them fade back into the depths of nothing. The highlight of the trip was renting an old motorcycle and heading into 'real' Siquijor; away from the white people, to get a glimpse of spooky Siquijor (the island is notorious for their witches, black magic, and other mystical healing powers). We set off for Cambugahay falls, a point of interest we wanted to go, slightly challenged however by the fact our only means of locating it was left to a hand-drawn map created by the kind desk girls at the resort. Anyways, we took off and were immediately greeted by the locals along the side of the highway smiling and happily yelling, "mabuhay!" as if witnessing a white person visiting their island created in them a feeling of pride and conquest. They all seemed in such fabulous spirits despite their poverty. What choice do they have I guess... I'm now reminded of a young guy, probably around my age, on the bus who told Chanel and I with a smiling face, "when we can't eat, we just smile and laugh; it's just the way Filipino’s are". After 30 minutes or so of
bumping along the side of the road taking in both the good things like the beautiful and charming villages as well as the tougher things like the stray dogs with their ribs jutting out ready to break skin, I suddenly felt my back tire reacting a little strangely when veering right or left. I asked Chanel to get off the bike and check my rear tire. Sure enough, I had a flat. So here we were with about an hour left of daylight, no idea where we were, surrounded by ostensibly friendly locals but who were clearly dirt poor and who may be simply viewing us as vulnerable rich white folk. Oh ya...and we had literally no money. Now with my 20/20 hindsight, I realize this was a dumb move, leaving with no money, but I had no intention or foresaw no circumstance where I would need money. This island is poor, and we were simply setting off to visit a natural waterfall. Anyways, drama aside, we luckily broke down a few minutes from a run down old motor shop, and this middle aged gracious Filipino man changed the tire, no questions asked. I can't even express the generosity of
these people. The grandma sitting there daydreaming; the grand-kids laughing and playing in the dirt, entertaining themselves with the simplicities of life; something so completely removed and foreign to myself. He gave us a big smile when we did our best to assure him we would return the next day with money, and off we drove to the falls. Nothing I can say will capture the feeling of swimming in that natural waterfall and lagoon. Natural, serene, completely alone, picturesque.
One unrelated side note I'd like to mention is the peculiar inconsistency of time between my Ipod, watches, and the random but sparse clocks dotted throughout Filipino cities. It was an odd phenomenon and feeling when I literally did not know the time. I had never felt that before. I always knew the time back home. Now, its widely understood that Filipino's run on Italian time structures; that being very lax and often frustrating standards, but these different time-pieces all varied wildly throughout the entire trip. My Ipod says, "2:54pm", the bus drivers watch says, "2:29pm" and the side of the road clock says, "3:35pm. What time is it? Nobody knows. Ah well, who cares. Live and be happy.
After our few days at the resort, we bid farewell to the few friends we made during our short trip and took on a 22 hour trip back home. The Ocean Jet ferry we were supposed to take was having familiar engine problems so we had to backtrack to Cebu City over land which was a long, frightening experience. First we boarded a one hour ferry to Dumaguete, where I must mention, Chanel handed what couldn't have been more than a 4 year old beggar 5 pesos or about a quarter Canadian, and absolutely made his day. It warmed and saddened the soul, giving something so insignificant, so pointless, so unnecessary, to a young boy and watching as he excitedly played self-catch with his coin, beaming with this jovial spirit that couldn't not warm your heart, as if he just inherited a fortune that could buy the whole world. Next was a 30 minute drive to the pier where we boarded a 30 minute packed ferry ride to Li-loan in which we felt like a couple Cubans making a run for Key West. The last leg consisted of a three hour bus ride from Li-loan to Cebu city that
was packed with beautiful scenery that lifted our spirits, but were however quickly dampened by the fact I couldn't get an article out of my head that a friend so kindly posted on my Facebook wall explaining that a bus had just ploughed over a cliff and into a ravine killing 13 on the same road we were taking, with the same bus company, merely days earlier (nice one Joel) If the brakes had failed on our bus, that was it for us. There was nothing but a small guardrail around hairpin turns 200-300 meters above sea level. Luckily for us we made it back to Cebu City without incident where we boarded our two planes and made it back to Incheon airport in time for our 2 hour high-speed KTX trip back to Daegu. A fabulous trip with a fabulous girlfriend. I can't wait to get back.
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Janice Taylor
non-member comment
INSPIRING!!!
SOUNDS LIKE A TOTALLY WONDERFUL TRIP. AS YOUR MOTHER I AM GLAD I HEAR OF SOME OF YOUR ADVENTURES AFTER THE ADVENTURE IE: BUS RIDE FROM LI-LOAN TO CEBU CITY!!!! JER MY SON AND CHANEL :) TAKE CARE