After a month in Borneo, we were pretty excited to be finally leaving and heading off again into unknown territory – The Philippines! The first thing that struck us as we crossed through customs in Clark, north of Manila was the friendliness of the people.. After hearing from pretty much everyone who had ever been to the Philippines and even from some filipino friends to be very careful because the Philippines were very very dangerous, we were convinced all this niceness was a trap.. But if it is a trap, how can EVERYONE be nice? Even the taxi driver who we just turned down? Hmm.. Tentatively we handed over our money to the bus ticket lady, dubious as to whether she was secretly charging us 5 times the actual amount and followed her to the bus, where the smiling bus driver put our luggage underneath. That smile must mean that he is going to steal our luggage before we arrive into downtown Manila. Clutching our daypacks and valuables we boarded the bus and handed our ticket over to the yet again smiling bus conductor. He must be smiling because he knows we have just been ripped off and are about to have all of our valuables stolen. That has to be it. I mean, it's meant to be really dangerous here – not really friendly...
You can imagine our surprise then, when upon arriving at the bus station in Manila, we found that we had paid the right amount, that our luggage was still intact, we still had our kidneys and that, the smiling bus attendant had already found and bartered with a taxi driver for us to get to our friends house.
The idea of the Philippines being dangerous, must just be a clever way of keeping all of the hordes of tourists away, because if everybody knew how lovely, smiling, helpful and friendly the people were, the place would be overrun! Maybe thats what they mean by dangerous – that it is just such a beautiful, happy place that you will be in-danger of wanting to stay forever.
Safely in our taxi, we arrived at our friends Grace and Susan's apartment in Alabang to find that they had left us with a welcome note (they were away in Mongolia for a couple more days) and a fridge full of 20c beers!! That's right, 20c per beer and $1.50 for a litre of Rum. Another possible danger - dangerously cheap and good alcohol!
Manila turned out to be a pretty fun city. A bit like Bangkok in that things of interest are spread out all over the city and that the public transport is pretty reliable, but also very raw and random – with a brand-new shopping mall built directly next to a slum area with houses barely standing. We spent days wandering around various areas of Manila, sometimes visiting tourist areas such as Intramuros, sometimes just jumping in a jeepney and seeing where it took us. Never once did we feel endangered. Unlike the rest of Asia, the only beggars we encountered were the genuine poor, and even then more often than not they just wanted to say hello or ask where we were going.
After a couple of days Grace and Susan returned and took us out to see Manila at night. The multiculturalism of Manila astonished us as we ate delicious falafels from a tiny little whole in the wall restaurant, then drank mango daiquiris in a funky bar, whilst listening to the loud tunes of a Videoke bar close by.
Feeling the need for sand, we jumped on a CebuPacific flight to Cebu – often marketed as an idyllic island like Hawaii. Hmm.. There must be another Cebu somewhere because what we found was a little sister sized Manila, complete with pollution, noise and its own array of funky restaurants, cafes and the inevitable videoke bars, and not much sand at all.. We spent 2 days exploring, plotted our escape, and headed for Bohol.
The boat from Cebu to Bohol only took 2 hours and was surprisingly comfortable and, again, not dangerous at all! We had originally planned to stay in Tagbiliran, the capital of Bohol, but after 2 sleepless nights in noisy Cebu, decided instead to head to tourist central – Panglao Island, where we could hopefully atleast find a quiet beach to chill out on. Panglao was to our surprise not as terrible as we were expecting but that is maybe because it is quiet season here now. I cant even imagine how hectic it must be there in the busy season. But either way, even though it is like a smaller version of Koh Samui complete with all the tourist necessities like Italian restaurants and massages on the beach, it was devoid of videoke bars and noise, it has a beautiful beach, and our super cheap accommodation even had a pool so we were happy campers!
Eager to see what else Bohol had to offer, after a night in Panglao, we hired a motorbike, packed a daypack and headed out for our first Filipino road trip.
We headed east along the southern coastal road, passing by such interesting sites such as the “blood compact site” - where the Spanish governor and the local chieftain drank a cup of each others blood as a sign of mutual respect in the good old days; we passed numerous amazing beaches (we stopped and swam in them every hour or so or whenever we got the urge) and even got to participate in a local fiesta – with competitions such as skulling warm beer through a straw (500ml for the women, 1litre for the men), bamboo climbing (where little kids grapple to climb to the top of a greased up piece of bamboo about 30ft high) and of course, a 3 legged race. It was amazing to see the whole town having fun and joking around – something I wish happened in Australia more often.
With sore bums, we found accommodation at a dive resort in Anda, literally overlooking the water, found ourselves some 1litre beer of our own, and settled back to watch the locals playing, bathing and fishing in the ocean as the sun set. The owner of the resort convinced us to go for a dive (damn that rubber arm!) and so, bright and early the next day we kitted up and had an absolutely amazing dive along a newly discovered wall – we saw a pigmy seahorse and 2 normal seahorses, aswell as about 5 types of nudibranch we hadn’t seen before, and so, feeling totally relaxed from our dive, we decided to grab ourselves some more beer and watch the sun go down in Anda for another day.
With our arses fully recovered, we jumped back on the bike and rode, and rode. We passed more beautiful beaches, drove through stunningly green countryside, saw some quaint little towns, and eventually, with our bums being able to take no more, found another guesthouse beside yet another beach to stay. More beers watching the sun set, and more exploring of another awesome un-touristy little village and another amazing nights sleep down, we headed into the centre of Bohol to see the tiny little Tarsier monkey.
The Tarsier is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and has huge big eyes and is simply adorable. Unfortunately the fact it is so cute is driving it to extinction as people take them from the wild to sell as pets or to let tourists pose with for photos. Being such a delicate little creature, when taken out of its normal habitat, the Tarsier is lucky to live 6 months (compared to 25 years), which means more and more are then taken to keep up with demand. We visited a rehabilitation centre for them and were lucky enough to see them close, but not enough to stress them out. And they really are adorable!! Sooo cute!
We also went to see the Chocolate Hills – promoted as the prime tourist destination of Bohol. In reality, it was impressive to see sooo many perfectly round hills side by side, and to think that they are made of coral was surreal, but they definitely are not the most amazing thing to see in Bohol thats for sure! Needing to rest our bums again, we found a fantastic guesthouse right by the river in Loboc and spent the rest of the afternoon, and the entire next day, recuperating and chilling in hammocks as we read old National Geographic magazines, listened to the animals and the rain, stared out at the green mountains around us and fell in love with Bohol a little bit more. And then it was time to leave, to leave Loboc, to leave Bohol and to head back to Cebu to start to make our way up to Malapascua.
You can imagine our surprise then, when upon arriving at the bus station in Manila, we found that we had paid the right amount, that our luggage was still intact, we still had our kidneys and that, the smiling bus attendant had already found and bartered with a taxi driver for us to get to our friends house.
The idea of the Philippines being dangerous, must just be a clever way of keeping all of the hordes of tourists away, because if everybody knew how lovely, smiling, helpful and friendly the people were, the place would be overrun! Maybe thats what they mean by dangerous – that it is just such a beautiful, happy place that you will be in-danger of wanting to stay forever.
Safely in our taxi, we arrived at our friends Grace and Susan's apartment in Alabang to find that they had left us with a welcome note (they were away in Mongolia for a couple more days) and a fridge full of 20c beers!! That's right, 20c per beer and $1.50 for a litre of Rum. Another possible danger - dangerously cheap and good alcohol!
Manila turned out to be a pretty fun city. A bit like Bangkok in that things of interest are spread out all over the city and that the public transport is pretty reliable, but also very raw and random – with a brand-new shopping mall built directly next to a slum area with houses barely standing. We spent days wandering around various areas of Manila, sometimes visiting tourist areas such as Intramuros, sometimes just jumping in a jeepney and seeing where it took us. Never once did we feel endangered. Unlike the rest of Asia, the only beggars we encountered were the genuine poor, and even then more often than not they just wanted to say hello or ask where we were going.
After a couple of days Grace and Susan returned and took us out to see Manila at night. The multiculturalism of Manila astonished us as we ate delicious falafels from a tiny little whole in the wall restaurant, then drank mango daiquiris in a funky bar, whilst listening to the loud tunes of a Videoke bar close by.
Feeling the need for sand, we jumped on a CebuPacific flight to Cebu – often marketed as an idyllic island like Hawaii. Hmm.. There must be another Cebu somewhere because what we found was a little sister sized Manila, complete with pollution, noise and its own array of funky restaurants, cafes and the inevitable videoke bars, and not much sand at all.. We spent 2 days exploring, plotted our escape, and headed for Bohol.
The boat from Cebu to Bohol only took 2 hours and was surprisingly comfortable and, again, not dangerous at all! We had originally planned to stay in Tagbiliran, the capital of Bohol, but after 2 sleepless nights in noisy Cebu, decided instead to head to tourist central – Panglao Island, where we could hopefully atleast find a quiet beach to chill out on. Panglao was to our surprise not as terrible as we were expecting but that is maybe because it is quiet season here now. I cant even imagine how hectic it must be there in the busy season. But either way, even though it is like a smaller version of Koh Samui complete with all the tourist necessities like Italian restaurants and massages on the beach, it was devoid of videoke bars and noise, it has a beautiful beach, and our super cheap accommodation even had a pool so we were happy campers!
Eager to see what else Bohol had to offer, after a night in Panglao, we hired a motorbike, packed a daypack and headed out for our first Filipino road trip.
We headed east along the southern coastal road, passing by such interesting sites such as the “blood compact site” - where the Spanish governor and the local chieftain drank a cup of each others blood as a sign of mutual respect in the good old days; we passed numerous amazing beaches (we stopped and swam in them every hour or so or whenever we got the urge) and even got to participate in a local fiesta – with competitions such as skulling warm beer through a straw (500ml for the women, 1litre for the men), bamboo climbing (where little kids grapple to climb to the top of a greased up piece of bamboo about 30ft high) and of course, a 3 legged race. It was amazing to see the whole town having fun and joking around – something I wish happened in Australia more often.
With sore bums, we found accommodation at a dive resort in Anda, literally overlooking the water, found ourselves some 1litre beer of our own, and settled back to watch the locals playing, bathing and fishing in the ocean as the sun set. The owner of the resort convinced us to go for a dive (damn that rubber arm!) and so, bright and early the next day we kitted up and had an absolutely amazing dive along a newly discovered wall – we saw a pigmy seahorse and 2 normal seahorses, aswell as about 5 types of nudibranch we hadn’t seen before, and so, feeling totally relaxed from our dive, we decided to grab ourselves some more beer and watch the sun go down in Anda for another day.
With our arses fully recovered, we jumped back on the bike and rode, and rode. We passed more beautiful beaches, drove through stunningly green countryside, saw some quaint little towns, and eventually, with our bums being able to take no more, found another guesthouse beside yet another beach to stay. More beers watching the sun set, and more exploring of another awesome un-touristy little village and another amazing nights sleep down, we headed into the centre of Bohol to see the tiny little Tarsier monkey.
The Tarsier is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and has huge big eyes and is simply adorable. Unfortunately the fact it is so cute is driving it to extinction as people take them from the wild to sell as pets or to let tourists pose with for photos. Being such a delicate little creature, when taken out of its normal habitat, the Tarsier is lucky to live 6 months (compared to 25 years), which means more and more are then taken to keep up with demand. We visited a rehabilitation centre for them and were lucky enough to see them close, but not enough to stress them out. And they really are adorable!! Sooo cute!
We also went to see the Chocolate Hills – promoted as the prime tourist destination of Bohol. In reality, it was impressive to see sooo many perfectly round hills side by side, and to think that they are made of coral was surreal, but they definitely are not the most amazing thing to see in Bohol thats for sure! Needing to rest our bums again, we found a fantastic guesthouse right by the river in Loboc and spent the rest of the afternoon, and the entire next day, recuperating and chilling in hammocks as we read old National Geographic magazines, listened to the animals and the rain, stared out at the green mountains around us and fell in love with Bohol a little bit more. And then it was time to leave, to leave Loboc, to leave Bohol and to head back to Cebu to start to make our way up to Malapascua.
