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Published: February 24th 2009
Dejan and Gordon
Gordon, his family and Dejan from couchsurfers. Dejan has biked around the world for three years so far, has done over 90000km and is going for another 2yrs probably!Hey folks! I know, I know....long time no update! What can I say--it's nice to get away from it all! A lot has happened since I last left off. I got a little sick of the rain in Borneo and decided to head back to the Phillipines. I decided to go by boat from Sandakan,Borneo to Zamboanga,Phillipines. The only problem was that with all the bad weather the ferry had been delayed four days. They finally decided to 'go for it' even though not much had changed weather-wise. I decided on the fastcraft which takes 14hrs instead of 24. I knew that the ride would be 'rough' so I prudently and confidently popped a motion sickness pill. Well, I guess I should have taken two pills( and half of the other passengers as well) as an hour and a half in I partook in pukefest '09! I've always been a pretty tidy puker and conveniently used a spare ziplock to deposit my stomach contents. I remember thinking to myself that it was going to be a tough trip as there was still another 12.5 hrs to go! In the end it wasn't so bad! I managed to sort of sleep(with ziploc
Dejan
Dejan with his trusty steed---no flats for the last 12000km! in hand all the while) some of the time and there was nothing left in my stomach so I just had a few dry heaves. The trickiest part was avoiding deposits on the floor that were rolling around from other not-so-tidy yackers! There was a stop on Tawi-Tawi island where I was hoping to just stay aboard but it was where you had to get your passport stamped. The rest of the ride was better and they even cleaned the floors! My bike was below deck and got absolutely showered with salt water--good thing I had my covers on! Needless to say, I was reasonably pleased to get off that boat. I cycled in the dark to a hotel near the airport(only a few km) and caught a flight the next day to Cebu island after spending 45mins convincing them to take the bike on board(it was a small plane). They were even weighing each passenger! Biked into Cebu city from the airport after taking pics with the airport security staff and promosing that I'd post it on here. Checked out the town and had some good food and then caught a ferry to Bohol island the next day(the charges
Airport Security-Cebu
The boys made me promise to post this one---hey guys!! for bikes on the ferries vary but are sometimes as much as the passenger fare! Spent some exc. days on Bohol admiring old spanish churches, checking out a tarsier sanctuary(very cool-see the pics), and just some great riding! I aslo met a local from the couchsurfing website who took me around on his motorbike. Oh, I also stopped in at what the sign said was a "Python Sanctuary'. When I got ther it was just a massive snake in a cage that they charge you to see. It was pretty massive---10m long and 220kg-apparently the largest in captivity. The ladyboy(for those of you who haven't been to Thailand or the Phillipines they are basically men in drag--who by the way are very accepted in society and also very aggressive at trying to pick up western men---story for later!) who was the guide/snake-handler(no pun intended) asked me if I wanted to go in the cage and get pics with the snake(again--no pun here--c'mon guys!) yet there was a sign on the cage saying that going in the cage is very stressful to the snake so please donate generously! Anyway, I declined. I stayed at a really place called nut huts that's
Tarsier Sanctuary-Bohol island
These little guys are the size of your hand! run by a Belgium couple--nice rustic bamboo nipa huts in lush rainforest on a nice river! The guy there is a mountain biker and actually had copies of a 'Cycling the Philipines' guide written by a couple of buddies of his--very cool..I bought a copy and it's really come in handy. From Bohol I took a very smooth 4hr ferry ride to Camiguin island. What a perfect little island paradise! It's only 67km to bike around it. It's got more volcanoes per square area than any other island and some beautiful white sand beaches with the requisite leaning palms and super-friendly laid back people! I had thought that I'd only spend a few days but ended up staying for a week and riding all over the place checking out pristine waterfalls, doing some wicked climbs on the bike, some of the best snorkelling I've ever done on tiny Mantigue island at a marine sanctuary(giant clams-up to 2m, beautiful coral and an awesome variety of fish--was surrounded by hundreds of jack-fish at one point!). I also was staying at a funky treehouse lodge run by a super-cool artist lady who I met on the couchsurfing website and was my personal local
Mud!
This is my foot in mud...I bike
d through about 300m of this...my drivetrain was coated! Had to go o a slaughterhouse to wash it.... tourguide which was great! Anyway, I eventually reluctantly left Camiguin vowing to return and went back to Bohol, biked for a day and then caught another ferry that same night to the isand of Negros where I find myself now! I spent a few days riding around Dumaguete area checking out another waterfall and some beautiful scenery and then spent a couple of days south of ther on Apo island--a VERY tiny island that's one of the world's top dive/snorkelling sites. It was nice because there is limited capacity on the island(two lodges) so there aren't tons of people. There are two beaches and a really nice little traditional laid back fishing village. Wow! More amazing snorkelling! There was actually more variety of coral than in Camiguin and it's a protected sanctuary as well and a great variety of fish but I didn't see as many big schools as on Camiguin. The other beach is known for it's turtles and I snorkelled around with a big boy up close and personal(he really wasn't bothered by me--I could have easily touched him) for 20mins! I got to watch him feed and do his thing-tres cool! I left there yesterday and biked
75km(with a three hour lunch stop in Dumaguete where I again met up with some local couchsurfers who refused to let me pay for my lunch-super nice people--one of whom was a mountain biker) or so up the east coast of Negros to Bais where I stopped for a sleep and a good meal before doing a challenging 87km crossing to the west coast today to Kabankalan which warms you up with 5km of flat before about 17km of climbing. The flats was all sugar cane fields which they're harvesting now and the climb was mixed with rice terraces--gorgeous views looking back on the coastal plain and the ocean! Then it was sort of rolling hills for the rest of the day but it's just SO hot! I've had days where I drink 6-7litres and never need to pee! I stopped at a little barangay(sort of village/area) for a drink and a rest and literally had probably the whole school from across the street come to see me--so we of course hacky sacked! There were so many of them that I couldn't get them all in the pic.! I left early to try and beat some of the heat so
Me at same waterfall
Chillin' at the w-fall! I was here by 1pm and just walked around, hacked with some hubel-hubel(trike) drivers and had a little nap and a meal. Tomorrow it's off to Sipalay and sugar beach---a popular white sand beach with some more good snorkelling. After that, up to the north of the island to Bacolod to try to hook up with some local cyclists and then do another island crossing that sounds awesome! I could probably ride on this island for weeks! After that it's just continuing to work my way up through the visayas(the island group I'm in) towards Manila--probably stopping in Guimaras isand, Pany island, and the Romblon islands.....I'll just ride til I run out of time and if I'm not near Manila yet I'll just take a boat the rest of the way. Taht's it in a nutshell--I keep thinking of cool little cool experiences that have happened but I'd be writing forever! My tagalog(nat. language) was coming a little bit but since I've been mainly in the visayas I've been mainly learning it(visaya) which has been a blast and the locals love it!! More later!
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Vince
non-member comment
Phils.
Now that's what I call an adventure!