After leaving Malapascua, we headed for Leyte via a brief overnight stop in Cebu. We hadn't heard much about Leyte, or really met too many other travellers who had been there, so we thought why not check it out.
As we stumbled off another beautiful, calm, safe boat trip we found ourselves at the small fishing town of Ormoc. We were not sure what to expect or even where we were going, but as usual, we just followed our noses, smiled and before we knew it we were at the bus station. As it was already early afternoon most of the transport in Ormoc had stopped and as, by this stage, all of the locals were telling us about the beautiful beaches south in Padre Burgos, we decided that we must get there and by any means possible. Which in this case, meant taking an over-crowded mini van to the southern capital of Massin. As we hadn't eaten yet,we quickly found some food in a plastic bag with some rice (always the best kind of travel food – salmonella what?) I ended up with freshly cooked pork with crackling, and Rob got a vegetable mix.
A good several hours later and after passing by countless stunning beaches, endless rolling valleys and stunning green fields we fell out of the van at Massin in the middle of a very cute marketplace. We were not expecting the capital of Southern Leyte to be so small but it only consisted of a dozen streets and of course an oversized cock fighting arena.
After finding an empty jeepney (one of our favourite ways to travel on land - a converted jeep with room for up to 30 passengers) with a driver adamant that he was leaving straight away (which we all knows means in 30 minutes or when it's full), we put our bags inside and waited. After about 20 minutes of the driver doing laps of the dozen streets trying to fill the van up we finally left. Nathan and I opted for the air-conditioned section of the jeepney and clambered our way on top of the roof for another fantastic jeepney adventure. After about an hour we fell from the roof of the jeepney outside of a little dive shop in Padre Burgos.
We had been told to check out a dive shop called Pete's that had accommodation and organised diving, and to our surprise, we did so to find a very familiar face behind the counter! One of the instructors who worked there had just completed his instructors course with me only 2 weeks before (I had forgotten to take down his details but as the universe would have it, out of all of the diveshops we ended up at his!). We grabbed a room and checked out the area for food. The next morning we talked about doing a dive, but before we committed to it Nathan and I decided to go for a snorkel and see if it was worth it, and we were stunned by the quality of Pete's house reef. It was shallow, and from the shore just looked like a rocky beach, but it was probably one of the best house reefs I've ever snorkelled on. We came out of the water and jumped straight on the dive boat. The plan was to do one dive at a special location that was a protected fish sanctuary with strong currents. The moment we hit the water we fell in love with this dive site. Stunning 30mt visibility, millions of fish with fantastic healthy coral, we were all blown away by the different species we had seen in our 70 minute dive, from sea horses to turtles and even a small manta ray. Upon surfacing our guide sheepishly asked if we wanted to do another dive?....our answer.... DAMN STRAIGHT we did. And it was just as good! Without a doubt, one of our top 5 dive sites ever! And to think, we even missed the star attraction – Whale Sharks!! We simply MUST go back!
As we stumbled off another beautiful, calm, safe boat trip we found ourselves at the small fishing town of Ormoc. We were not sure what to expect or even where we were going, but as usual, we just followed our noses, smiled and before we knew it we were at the bus station. As it was already early afternoon most of the transport in Ormoc had stopped and as, by this stage, all of the locals were telling us about the beautiful beaches south in Padre Burgos, we decided that we must get there and by any means possible. Which in this case, meant taking an over-crowded mini van to the southern capital of Massin. As we hadn't eaten yet,we quickly found some food in a plastic bag with some rice (always the best kind of travel food – salmonella what?) I ended up with freshly cooked pork with crackling, and Rob got a vegetable mix.
A good several hours later and after passing by countless stunning beaches, endless rolling valleys and stunning green fields we fell out of the van at Massin in the middle of a very cute marketplace. We were not expecting the capital of Southern Leyte to be so small but it only consisted of a dozen streets and of course an oversized cock fighting arena.
After finding an empty jeepney (one of our favourite ways to travel on land - a converted jeep with room for up to 30 passengers) with a driver adamant that he was leaving straight away (which we all knows means in 30 minutes or when it's full), we put our bags inside and waited. After about 20 minutes of the driver doing laps of the dozen streets trying to fill the van up we finally left. Nathan and I opted for the air-conditioned section of the jeepney and clambered our way on top of the roof for another fantastic jeepney adventure. After about an hour we fell from the roof of the jeepney outside of a little dive shop in Padre Burgos.
We had been told to check out a dive shop called Pete's that had accommodation and organised diving, and to our surprise, we did so to find a very familiar face behind the counter! One of the instructors who worked there had just completed his instructors course with me only 2 weeks before (I had forgotten to take down his details but as the universe would have it, out of all of the diveshops we ended up at his!). We grabbed a room and checked out the area for food. The next morning we talked about doing a dive, but before we committed to it Nathan and I decided to go for a snorkel and see if it was worth it, and we were stunned by the quality of Pete's house reef. It was shallow, and from the shore just looked like a rocky beach, but it was probably one of the best house reefs I've ever snorkelled on. We came out of the water and jumped straight on the dive boat. The plan was to do one dive at a special location that was a protected fish sanctuary with strong currents. The moment we hit the water we fell in love with this dive site. Stunning 30mt visibility, millions of fish with fantastic healthy coral, we were all blown away by the different species we had seen in our 70 minute dive, from sea horses to turtles and even a small manta ray. Upon surfacing our guide sheepishly asked if we wanted to do another dive?....our answer.... DAMN STRAIGHT we did. And it was just as good! Without a doubt, one of our top 5 dive sites ever! And to think, we even missed the star attraction – Whale Sharks!! We simply MUST go back!
Diving in Leyte
Once we finished our diving and our boat had pulled in we jumped straight back into the water to snorkel the house reef yet again, and again. We then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and just loving life. The next day we decided to rent motorbikes and try to do a lap around southern Leyte (we slightly over-estimated the size of the island...).
After our first massive day of riding through stunning mountains, quaint villages and epic beaches with protected fish sanctuaries every 5 km we were in love! We felt like we were the only foreign people to have ever seen what we were seeing at that point, it was so magical to feel like we were so far away from the rest of the world, and we felt so honoured to be where we were.
That night we found ourselves in the super small village of Hinundayan.
We managed to find some cheap, clean rooms for the night, so we left the bikes at the motel, and set off to explore the one street of town. Getting food proved to be the biggest mission we had faced in a while. Lets just say that after eating at 3 restaurants and getting all 3 meals as take-away, there were some very well fed dogs in town that night! We opted for beer and crisps instead.
We woke early the next morning to the sounds of bells ringing, strong wind and even stronger rain.Yup you guessed it, a mini typhoon was rolling through town drowning everything and anyone game to go out in it...and that turned out to include us.
We were at the half way mark of completing a southern lap of the island but the temperature had dropped from a lovely 35 degrees to a rather chilly 15 degrees, and we didn't have anything warm to wear let alone keep us dry! Our choice was to push on or turn around, so being men (and with Robyn not really having a choice) we pushed on... After about 30 minutes we came to the conclusion that, we were wet, we were not happy because we were wet, we were cold because we were wet, and that maybe Robyn had been right... The rain was that strong that we had to resort to wearing our snorkel and masks just so we could see while we were driving.
It was at this point that we decided it was probably better to just turn around and drive the 6 hours home the way we had come instead of going the rest of the way around the island.
We spent most of the morning shivering and not saying a word as we were all cold and wet to the bone and we hadn't eaten since our crappy dinner disaster the night before.
Around 11am we managed to finally find somewhere to eat breakfast and Nathan and I devoured pretty much everything they had. It was yet again another tiny village so they had probably never had foreigners eat there before, and probably never want them back again! Lol. In 10 minutes, Nathan and I ate 4 bowls of rice, 4 fried eggs and a dozen sausages (it came to a total price of around 100 pesos or 3 dollars).
Naturally, upon our wet, miserable and depressed arrival back to Pete's, the sun decided to pop its head out and say hello......shit footy sun, shit footy.
What were we to do but go for another snorkel?
Alas, our time was up and we reluctantly said goodbye to our new friends at Pete's and secretly hoped to one day return and live in that beautiful bay.
Road-tripping around Leyte
From here we jumped on a jeepney and cruised back up to Maasin to get a midnight boat to the port of Ubay on Bohol.
From Ubay we jumped on a crazy overloaded bus to Tagbilaran (again) and then squeezed us all into a habal habal (tricycle) to Panglao (we had previously stayed here on the way to Malapacscua and enjoyed it so why not see it again?).
The plan was to do a few road trips with Nathan around Bohol and to just have some fun, and decide where to go next. We decided to stay at a different accommodation to last time, away from the main beach that threw in free motorbike rental. But, after 2 days in a dirty, grimy place near nowhere, lets just say getting a free motorbike to use, doesn't always make up for crap rooms and shitty owners. Lesson number 164 learnt.
We did learn another lesson aswell(actually it was Nathan who learnt the lesson). Don't ride a bike without a shirt on through a wet sand puddle.... The result = hilarious for others= painful to yourself. Good times Nathan, good times..
Desperate to leave Panglao as soon as possible, we decided to venture to another nearby island called Camiguin. To get there required yet another habal habal to a different port, then a slow car ferry across. Of all of the different boats we took, we by far prefer the slow car ferries. They are slow, comfortable, stable and you can sit outside in the fresh air.
From Ubay we jumped on a crazy overloaded bus to Tagbilaran (again) and then squeezed us all into a habal habal (tricycle) to Panglao (we had previously stayed here on the way to Malapacscua and enjoyed it so why not see it again?).
The plan was to do a few road trips with Nathan around Bohol and to just have some fun, and decide where to go next. We decided to stay at a different accommodation to last time, away from the main beach that threw in free motorbike rental. But, after 2 days in a dirty, grimy place near nowhere, lets just say getting a free motorbike to use, doesn't always make up for crap rooms and shitty owners. Lesson number 164 learnt.
We did learn another lesson aswell(actually it was Nathan who learnt the lesson). Don't ride a bike without a shirt on through a wet sand puddle.... The result = hilarious for others= painful to yourself. Good times Nathan, good times..
Desperate to leave Panglao as soon as possible, we decided to venture to another nearby island called Camiguin. To get there required yet another habal habal to a different port, then a slow car ferry across. Of all of the different boats we took, we by far prefer the slow car ferries. They are slow, comfortable, stable and you can sit outside in the fresh air.
The beautiful beachfront accommodation we found!
We met an expat on the boat who gave us some info on the island and told us of a nice place to stay. So we bargained with a local Habal Habal driver to take us from the port of Balbagon further north to Mambajo. If you believe what the LP says about our accommodation it was meant to be a dive with rude staff, below average rooms and a grubby garden. But as we learnt many years back, don't believe everything you read in the LP..... The grounds were beautiful, the staff were amazingly friendly and the rooms were clean and with stunning views of the ocean.
We spent the next few days drinking litre beers and great local rum, doing exercise, relaxing in hammocks and watching Nathan eat balut ( 20 day old chicken egg including the chicken inside the egg)and puking it back up again. We also went on an awesome road trip around the island with the bosses daughter and her girlfriend – yet another beautiful, quiet island with stunning beaches, clear water, and even hot springs! Not to mention the great and friendly people who always want to help you or just say hello. This island really made us feel at home yet again and, as was becoming a regular occurrence for us, we found it hard to leave.
But alas it was time to move on again. Another early morning Habal Habal back to the port and another ferry saw us back on Bohol (AGAIN).
The next morning we said our goodbyes to our great friend Nathan who was now heading back to Oz and for us, a new adventure and island awaited..
After saying goodbye to Nathan in Bohol, we jumped on another slow car ferry to Dumaguete on the island of Negros. After a quick lunch, we boarded yet another boat to the island of Siquijor – this time via the scariest boat ever – truly a suicide boat..
How to best describe a suicide boat? Hmm. Try to imagine an aeroplane minus the wings, stick a motor on the back of it, over-fill it full of spewing, crying children, adults and roosters and you have a suicide boat. Add to that 2m swells of course. These boats have been known to completely roll over and right themselves, but they are also one of the most common to sink.
We promised to NEVER EVER take one again.
We spent the next few days drinking litre beers and great local rum, doing exercise, relaxing in hammocks and watching Nathan eat balut ( 20 day old chicken egg including the chicken inside the egg)and puking it back up again. We also went on an awesome road trip around the island with the bosses daughter and her girlfriend – yet another beautiful, quiet island with stunning beaches, clear water, and even hot springs! Not to mention the great and friendly people who always want to help you or just say hello. This island really made us feel at home yet again and, as was becoming a regular occurrence for us, we found it hard to leave.
But alas it was time to move on again. Another early morning Habal Habal back to the port and another ferry saw us back on Bohol (AGAIN).
The next morning we said our goodbyes to our great friend Nathan who was now heading back to Oz and for us, a new adventure and island awaited..
After saying goodbye to Nathan in Bohol, we jumped on another slow car ferry to Dumaguete on the island of Negros. After a quick lunch, we boarded yet another boat to the island of Siquijor – this time via the scariest boat ever – truly a suicide boat..
How to best describe a suicide boat? Hmm. Try to imagine an aeroplane minus the wings, stick a motor on the back of it, over-fill it full of spewing, crying children, adults and roosters and you have a suicide boat. Add to that 2m swells of course. These boats have been known to completely roll over and right themselves, but they are also one of the most common to sink.
We promised to NEVER EVER take one again.
Camiguin Island
Once we arrived at the sleepy port of Siquijor we used our bartering skills to get a Habal Habal to a guest house we had pre-chosen from the selection we had on offer to us, but were quickly reminded that even the best laid plans can change at a drop of the hat.
As it turned out the place we wanted to stay at was fully booked and more expensive than we could afford anyway. So off we trotted to the next guest house..... nope fully booked....and this went on and on. We were in the middle of nowhere and quickly running out of guesthouses.. As the sun was setting and we were all out of options we decided to try the most expensive place in the LP....And it just goes to show that good things come to those who wait... or are tight arses willing to turn over every stone looking for a bed... This place offered us a great super discounted deal on an amazing room that was cheaper than the cheapest guest houses, and the food was awesome. The room was one of the fanciest we have ever stayed in and just aswell!
Because as luck would have it we were about to be hit by another typhoon (the 3rd for our trip so far) and what better place to wait out a typhoon!
Great room, check. Internet, check (but sometimes sporadic due to the typhoon). Great food, check. Our days here consisted of waking up, eating, robyn working on the internet, me drinking rum and relaxing till lunch, then eat again. The afternoon was a repeat of the morning except I'd be a little drunker..
After a few days the typhoon passed over and we decided to ride a motor bike around the island we were told it could take all day and that we should reconsider because there was so much to see, but a few short hours later our mission was complete and we were back at our hotel. Lets just say this island wasn't the most amazing island we had seen, but then again it did just get hammered by a typhoon so that may have had something do do with it.
As it turned out the place we wanted to stay at was fully booked and more expensive than we could afford anyway. So off we trotted to the next guest house..... nope fully booked....and this went on and on. We were in the middle of nowhere and quickly running out of guesthouses.. As the sun was setting and we were all out of options we decided to try the most expensive place in the LP....And it just goes to show that good things come to those who wait... or are tight arses willing to turn over every stone looking for a bed... This place offered us a great super discounted deal on an amazing room that was cheaper than the cheapest guest houses, and the food was awesome. The room was one of the fanciest we have ever stayed in and just aswell!
Because as luck would have it we were about to be hit by another typhoon (the 3rd for our trip so far) and what better place to wait out a typhoon!
Great room, check. Internet, check (but sometimes sporadic due to the typhoon). Great food, check. Our days here consisted of waking up, eating, robyn working on the internet, me drinking rum and relaxing till lunch, then eat again. The afternoon was a repeat of the morning except I'd be a little drunker..
After a few days the typhoon passed over and we decided to ride a motor bike around the island we were told it could take all day and that we should reconsider because there was so much to see, but a few short hours later our mission was complete and we were back at our hotel. Lets just say this island wasn't the most amazing island we had seen, but then again it did just get hammered by a typhoon so that may have had something do do with it.
Random architecture on Siquijor Island
Leaving Siquijor, our options were limited - suicide boat again (no thanks not after a typhoon and while the waves were still massive) or a car ferry guess which one we picked? Yep car ferry. No questions about it.
At this point we were able to meet up with our friends Suzanne and Grace who we had been staying with in Manila. They had managed to score a week off work and wanted to do some fun stuff with us. The plan was for us to stay in Dumaguete and watch the rugby, eat good food and drink beer..... but as it turned out there was a public holiday that coincided with us being there... (crap) and every room in town was full, EVERY ROOM!! Let's just say, it's really not fun spending 3 hours running (literally running) around town to find any room available. When we did finally find a room on the outskirts of town we discovered that none of the bars would be playing the rugby. Well why be in a town when we could be at the beach? And so we grabbed our bags again, jumped on a bus and got the hell out of town. Our plan was as sporadic as plans generally are that are made on a random spur of the moment... We would get the bus to Zamboanguita a small non existant market place on the side of the road several hours out of Dumaguete. From here we would get a boat to Apo island, a very small island with allegedly epic diving.
At this point we were able to meet up with our friends Suzanne and Grace who we had been staying with in Manila. They had managed to score a week off work and wanted to do some fun stuff with us. The plan was for us to stay in Dumaguete and watch the rugby, eat good food and drink beer..... but as it turned out there was a public holiday that coincided with us being there... (crap) and every room in town was full, EVERY ROOM!! Let's just say, it's really not fun spending 3 hours running (literally running) around town to find any room available. When we did finally find a room on the outskirts of town we discovered that none of the bars would be playing the rugby. Well why be in a town when we could be at the beach? And so we grabbed our bags again, jumped on a bus and got the hell out of town. Our plan was as sporadic as plans generally are that are made on a random spur of the moment... We would get the bus to Zamboanguita a small non existant market place on the side of the road several hours out of Dumaguete. From here we would get a boat to Apo island, a very small island with allegedly epic diving.
Crazy times with Grace andSusan while waiting to board the bangka to Apo Island.
Taking a break from carrying our luggage from one side of the island to the other...
But even with random adventures, occasionally there comes a point where you question if you made the right decision... This happened when we were dropped off on the opposite side of the island after a pretty choppy ride on a tiny raft. No big problem you would think, it's a small island of only a couple of square km... We will just get a taxi. What is that I hear you say? It's a vehicle free island? Okay, no worries, we will walk. What's that? There are no roads? The only way to the other side is to climb that huge mountain? Actually, make that 2 huge mountains?? So off we went, carrying our 20kg backpacks plus our 8kg day packs plus me with another 20kg dive bag over 2 ridiculously large mountains... By the time we crawled into the village where we were going to stay about an hour later, we were totally rooted!! We checked into our bungalow grabbed a cold beer and sat on the shell beach watching the sun go down.
It's these times that make you realise that you create your own adventures and destinies. We could have been unhappy and stuck in a small crappy town back in Dumaguete but instead we were on a beautiful remote island with good friends, cold beers and watching the sun go down. And the random bus and boat trip and extreme hike just made the beer taste even better! These moments really make us appreciate where we are and where we could be instead.
So, a little about Apo island: it was a small fishing island for many years but then the villagers realised that they were living an unsustainable life. So with the help of Mario (the great great great grand son of one of the first people to inhabit the island, and whom we stayed with in his family bungalow and also dived with) the villagers decided to make the island into a marine sanctuary and it is now home to some of the best diving and snorkelling in the Philippines. The locals still fish for food but on sustainable levels and only in designated areas and most of them now benefit from the tourism industry. Definitely a win for tourists, a win for the villagers and a win for the environment!
The next morning with our masks and snorkels we headed down to the main beach and jumped in, and after only a few minutes we were swimming with turtles. Literally surrounded by them. Bliss. We then walked to another smaller beach where the marine sanctuary was located and spent most of the morning just swimming around this pristine coral and just enjoying the warm tropical water and hot sun on our skin. Over the next few days we did a lot of snorkelling and lying on the beach and also decided to do some diving, which much to our surprise, turned out to be one of the best drift dives that we have ever done. It was a stunning slope with giant coral, and even bigger fish and was just so peaceful with no other dive boats to be seen. We were in heaven, and the flexibility of the dive company allowed us to make each dive around 70 minutes long which gave us great bottom time and made us want to turn into fish so we could stay there!
It's these times that make you realise that you create your own adventures and destinies. We could have been unhappy and stuck in a small crappy town back in Dumaguete but instead we were on a beautiful remote island with good friends, cold beers and watching the sun go down. And the random bus and boat trip and extreme hike just made the beer taste even better! These moments really make us appreciate where we are and where we could be instead.
So, a little about Apo island: it was a small fishing island for many years but then the villagers realised that they were living an unsustainable life. So with the help of Mario (the great great great grand son of one of the first people to inhabit the island, and whom we stayed with in his family bungalow and also dived with) the villagers decided to make the island into a marine sanctuary and it is now home to some of the best diving and snorkelling in the Philippines. The locals still fish for food but on sustainable levels and only in designated areas and most of them now benefit from the tourism industry. Definitely a win for tourists, a win for the villagers and a win for the environment!
The next morning with our masks and snorkels we headed down to the main beach and jumped in, and after only a few minutes we were swimming with turtles. Literally surrounded by them. Bliss. We then walked to another smaller beach where the marine sanctuary was located and spent most of the morning just swimming around this pristine coral and just enjoying the warm tropical water and hot sun on our skin. Over the next few days we did a lot of snorkelling and lying on the beach and also decided to do some diving, which much to our surprise, turned out to be one of the best drift dives that we have ever done. It was a stunning slope with giant coral, and even bigger fish and was just so peaceful with no other dive boats to be seen. We were in heaven, and the flexibility of the dive company allowed us to make each dive around 70 minutes long which gave us great bottom time and made us want to turn into fish so we could stay there!
Snorkelling with turtles in the marine reserve.
But our time had come to an end yet again, and it was time for us to depart.
But the day turned out to be a wet day. from the beginning, our small 8 person bangka boat (like a trimaran with only outside seating) spent most of the hour long journey to the mainland being hammered by waves and ensuring that all passengers, including 20 or so women and children were thoroughly drenched.
After arriving back at the market of Zamboanguita looking like drowned rats we jumped on the next bus south and hunkered down for the 8 hour bus trip, sticky and salty and laughing at how one minute you think you will die on an over crowded bangka boat and the next you're sitting on a bus dripping salt water all over the person next to you while laughing out loud like a maniac.
We headed for the beach retreat of Sipalay intending on more strenuous lying on the beach activities. However what we found was far from what we were expecting. I'm sure in summer with the winds blowing in the right direction it would be lovely, but it wasn't very nice when we were there. So after 2 nights, we left and headed up north to the capital of Negros – Baclod.
You may have picked up on this from reading our blogs, but we don't really like cities very much. So when we arrived in Baclod in the late afternoon and realised that there were car ferried leaving for the island of Panay straight away, of course we bought tickets and jumped on board without really thinking it through too much or asking questions. Really, what could go wrong?
Wow were we in for a surprise!!
But the day turned out to be a wet day. from the beginning, our small 8 person bangka boat (like a trimaran with only outside seating) spent most of the hour long journey to the mainland being hammered by waves and ensuring that all passengers, including 20 or so women and children were thoroughly drenched.
After arriving back at the market of Zamboanguita looking like drowned rats we jumped on the next bus south and hunkered down for the 8 hour bus trip, sticky and salty and laughing at how one minute you think you will die on an over crowded bangka boat and the next you're sitting on a bus dripping salt water all over the person next to you while laughing out loud like a maniac.
We headed for the beach retreat of Sipalay intending on more strenuous lying on the beach activities. However what we found was far from what we were expecting. I'm sure in summer with the winds blowing in the right direction it would be lovely, but it wasn't very nice when we were there. So after 2 nights, we left and headed up north to the capital of Negros – Baclod.
You may have picked up on this from reading our blogs, but we don't really like cities very much. So when we arrived in Baclod in the late afternoon and realised that there were car ferried leaving for the island of Panay straight away, of course we bought tickets and jumped on board without really thinking it through too much or asking questions. Really, what could go wrong?
Wow were we in for a surprise!!
Another day another bus.