Back To The Philippines

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Getting from Singapore to our hotel in Manila turned out to be more interesting than we’d envisaged. First off, a basic error with the terminal (reading the arrival terminal rather than the departure one) resulted in a dash across the building to the sky train, then a shuttle bus to the budget terminal. Luckily, we’d left enough time. We had sandwiches at O’Brien’s Cafe which also offered such mystery Irish items as Aran Island Sauce, Dublin Cheesecake and Irish Recipe Muffins. On our flight with Cebu Pacific we had the pleasure of playing Seat Bingo because ‘Happy passengers make for a happy flight’ (according to Enervon Multivitamins). The air hostesses stood at the front, one with 2 bags of tiles (one for the row number & one for seat letter) and the other had the task of drawing them out and announcing a winner. It was all very exciting and everyone was laughing. On the final draw Ash won an inflatable orange pillow! Once we landed we had to extract local currency from an ATM. This was simple enough but all the notes we had were now 1,000 peso (approx 25 USD) and the shuttle bus we needed to take was 20 pesos (approx 0.5 USD) each. One would imagine that one note would not be almost impossible to break, but it was. Ash tried every stall and restaurant on the ground floor of the airport to buy something small but they wouldn’t take it. Finally, she bought an ice-cream from a McDonalds stall and the problem was solved.

Our stay in Manila was brief, only one electrical stormy night. Our hotel was extremely close to the airport, less than 5 mins from one of the four terminals. It was very basic although it did include breakfast where we met George the monkey chained to a tree, which was linked to a climbing frame for him to play on. The stay was long enough to remind us of how little we like Manila and we were soon our way to Boracay. As the arrival airport is so small there are restrictions of 10kg per person of checked luggage; we had in total 18kg over this. Not to despair though, we were quickly dispatched 2 plastic bags which we stuffed full of heavy stuff and only paid excess on 8kg – a whopping $20. The airline offered a shuttle to the port and a complimentary boat ride to Boracay although the tourism and port charges we had to pay ourselves. The sun was out, the sky was blue and Boracay sparkled before us looking exactly as it did 4 years ago.

We spent 5 days revisiting our favourite dive sites, restaurants & bars (Mongolian BBQ, Aria, Nigi Nigi Nu Nu’s) and meeting up with some of our old friends from the dive shop where we spent a month on the previous visit completing our Divemaster course. They are now spread out across 3 dive shops so one day was spent walking up the beach and surprising them all. We learned that Boracay had already suffered 14 typhoons midway through the season when normally their seasonal average is 16. We’d asked because huge wind breakers blocked all the views of the beach and the wind was very strong while we were there, much to all the kite surfer’s glee. It was a great week, although we had many mornings with sore heads and thankfully we managed to avoid any severe weather (or any wayward kitesurfers). One of the best nights out involved all you can eat ribs and all you can drink local beer & spirits for 680 pesos (17 USD).

Our journey to Malapascua Island took a whole day and many (10!) legs of transport: moto-trike to Boracay port, boat to the mainland, moto-trike to the airport, flight to Cebu, taxi to the bus stand, bus to Maya port, little boat to big boat because tide was out, big boat to Malapascua Island, back to a small boat and finally a walk through the dusky, mosquito infested centre of the island to our accommodation.
The bus portion of the journey, which lasted 4 hours, was remarkable enough. First stop was a mechanic warehouse where we were winched up - full of people & luggage - and maintenance was performed for 15 minutes (i.e. pneumatic tools in operation) before riding off with no explanation and with more anxious passengers. The windows of the bus were all open and Ash’s arm hung out getting incinerated all day. After a few hours the heavens opened and she got soaked and wind blasted but it made a pleasant change so the window remained open. The seats weren’t wide enough for two westerners and poor Ade fell into the aisle after a few sharp bends. A lady read the bible in Tagalog for awhile walking up and down the aisle before seemingly giving up after a few local people put their headphones in or asked her to stop. Many of the villages we passed through were holding some sort of festival. Little by little the bus emptied and we were one of the few remaining passengers to arrive at Maya Port. As we had read, we got fleeced by the boat people, turns out we paid 150 pesos each, another Irish girl paid 300 pesos alone and a Chinese guy paid 540 pesos for the 30 min ride. A local woman was incensed that we westerners were being overcharged and had a big argument with the captain (the real fare is 80 pesos) but it all came to nothing and we were all happy to just be moving as it was getting dark.

We dived and stayed at Exotic Dive Resort on Malapascua. As it was low season we got a fantastic rate for both room and the diving. As it turns out, this year, for the peak season it actually rained for 3 months and then, for it’s low season, the sun has been shining non-stop. We had pretty decent visibility for the diving, flat water mostly and no rain for the whole week. The diving was fantastic, the resort was right on the beach (as are most on Malapascua) and we met some cool people. We even experienced a local disco in the centre of the island on our last night. We took rides on the back of motorbikes driven by, what looked like, children to the fenced, outdoor dance floor filled with boogeying grannies and other locals topped with many rotating colourful disco balls. Stalls were set up all around selling Red Horse (very strong beer – 8%) and rum & cokes. One of the waiters at our resort introduced us to his wife and we met some people staying at different resorts. It was a very funny night. On the ride back we both hopped on to the back of one bike and managed to arrive back safely.

Our departure from Malapascua was less eventful; a local boat was waiting for us and took us for the proper rate immediately to Maya port. An air-con bus arrived shortly and ferried us to Cebu showing Jean Claude Van Damme movies the whole way at a marginally more expensive rate than the non a/c bus. Our taxi driver in Cebu tried to rip us off but we knew not to take a non-metered fare so his best efforts didn’t work. Our one night in a Cebu hotel wasn’t exactly bliss but it was fine.

The following morning we took our free shuttle bus and boarded a flight to Busuanga, Coron. Our first clue that things had changed during the past 4 years was the size of the plane. On our last journey to Coron we could see the pilot and touch most of the other 15 passengers. This time there were 30 rows, 5 or 6 abreast. The next clue was the terminal building was bigger. Next, we had air con mini-bus transfers to Coron Town rather than rammed local jeepney’s. The road was cement all the way, not bumpy on a dirt track. The town itself has grown a lot, much to the dismay of some of the locals. Ade had signed up to a week’s technical/advanced diving course so we went straight to Discovery Divers and met Gunther, his instructor for the week and the regional manager for TDI (the main certifying agency for technical diving). We caught a ride with him and his family to Conception Town where we checked in as the solo guests at the Pier House Palace and watched the sun set over a few beers. The owners were out of town so we had no running water or meals available. After a few nights we moved across the street to the far more basic but much more pleasant Ann & Mike’s Cottage where we’d been eating every day anyway. Here we stayed in a lovely wooden cottage in the garden.

Ade’s diving courses were really good and covered the basics of decompression diving, using twin tanks, using high % oxygen to help with decompression and advanced wreck procedures which included long swims inside the many Japanese WW2 wrecks in the area. Ash spent a few days just fun diving on the wrecks with another instructor as a guide and the rest of her days were spent chilling out at Puerto Del Sol resort enjoying the amazing view and catching up with people from home. Our luck with the weather didn’t last this far and finally we experienced the rainy season. It rained most of the time we were here, waking us up most nights and keeping us company on our dives, especially the morning ones. Drying clothes proved tricky in such humidity. Mosquitos seemed militant and the enormous frogs made more noise than you can imagine at night. For our last night, we headed back to Coron Town to spend a night at Sea Dive where we’d spent a week 4 years ago. Little had changed including the 3 course evening meal option which we had, hmm, yummy chilli crabs.

It was interesting hearing what people had to say about the development of the island. Apparently a lot of people in the villages off the main road don’t have to pay bills, taxes or get regular post. They send their shopping lists with the local bus drivers in little envelopes with money and on his return journey they get their shopping and change. Apparently this service can even include air tickets. With the building of the cement road right out to villages will come addresses, power lines and tax. Also, it brings tourism, which is a double edged sword here. They have the opportunity to earn more money but their way of life is changed, and more quickly than seems possible. We loved our return trip to the Philippines and hopefully it won’t be our last.


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Photos

Disembarking
On The Mainland Near Boracay

Burger The Size Of A Head
Old haunt - Nigi Nigi Nu Nu's

Comments

[Rachel]

Woo, Looks amazing, I want to go to Nigi Nigi Nu Nu’s just for the name haha. xxx