Philippines Part 9 (Naga, Caramoan Peninsula, Olongapo, Subic Bay and Angeles airport)

We arrived in Naga and got ourselves a cheap place.  The policeman had said it was a great city and while that may be a stretch I would say it could be the third best city we went to in the Philippines.

We watched the Boston manhunt on the tv today.  Was quite a shock, but all the news channels were totally focused on the event.  Bicol food is really good.  We just spent the day bumming around and I did a lot of writing.  We had decided not to go to the watersports park.

In the morning we got the bus and boat combination to the Caramoan Peninsula.  It was much smoother than we imagined, but be warned.  There is a lot less infrastructure there than I had even anticipated.  There is no sense of selling tours or even of really organising them.  South of Thailand this is not.  We grabbed a jeepny from the jetty to the local hotels.  They were all pretty expensive.  We had to wake up the owner of the pink hotel (who was sleeping like a pig).  Best value place, though the food is best in the expensive looking place just down the road.  I wanted to go down to the beach, but I suddenly came down with a violent sickness and too weak to do anything.  Hopefully I would recover the following day.

We took a tircyle for 100 pesos (he had wanted 150) down to the port.  It was a total rip off for what is at most a 4km walk.  Shitty.  He also hooked us up with a boat for the short trip around the islands for 1500 pesos.  It was steep but we had already come all the way here and there was noone to bargain or negotiate with.  They kept pushing us for the longer trip, but I feel the shorter one is more than  sufficient.  Get a group together if you can to cut the costs like the locals do.  Its hard to judge this trip.  I would say it was a rip off, but that it was really nice.  If you love beaches and especially deserted ones then you may love it, but if like me you don't especially love beaches, then even if you can appreciate the beauty, you will find yourself getting bored a little easily.  Even Cannelle was getting tired of perfect beaches in the Philippines.  There are just so many of them that they stop feeling special.  The beaches here are stunning though.  Like you see on google image and you get them to yourself.  At least until the Filipine families rock up an hour or so later.  The only incident was a little jellyfish swimming around us.  Just one though.  They say its a day trip.  Its more like a half day of 4 hours.  Enough for me, but be firm if you want longer.  If the trip had been 500 pesos it would have been perfect.  They wanted us to take a tricycle back.  Fuck them.  Even though my sandal had totally broken, I wasn't going to surrender anymore of my money to these vampires.  I tied a t-shirt around my foot, to stop the heat and limped 4km all the way back to the hotel.  Its an easy walk if you have two shoes.  We got some good chicken curry and prepped ourselves for the last leg in the Philippines.

In the morning it was back to Naga on the same boat/bus combo where you pay 10 pesos for the artificial bridge, but at least they are working for it.  We walked to the boat harbour so a tircycle eventually offered us for just 40.  I love the power walking has to see prices tumble.  We got a night bus to Manila for 680 pesos as the train was sadly not running anymore and we kicked our heals in an internet cafe while we waited to leave.

We arrived and got a connection straight to Olongapo.  We decided to stay next to the bus station rather than going into Subic Bay and it was a much. much better decision.  Then we decided that we wouldn't climb Pinatubo as they wanted too much money and we knew that we were heading to Sumatra afterwards.  That evening we walked all the way to the bat kingdom in Subic Bay.  Its a fair walk.  Around 12km and it took its toll as the bats had moved around and we climbed a hill for no reason.  The locals were really cool as always though and directed us towards the bat's new home.  We hiked down and heard them a long time before we saw them.  Thousands and thousands of the giant fruit bats hanging off loads of tress.  What a tremendous noise and impressive sight.  We waited until sunset to see them leave and swarm off over the trees.  It was almost as if they made the sky go dark all on their own.   Super impressive and well worth it.  Then we walked back in the dark and it was a b it scary, replete with creaking doors and fantasy horror sounds.  Eventually we grabbed a ride with some workmen who had been preparing for a competition in the back of their truck.  Yet more nice locals.

Olongapo is a nice town in and of itself and doesn't really smell of shit.  It does have a seedy side that you can see without looking too hard.  It was our penultimate day and we decided to do nothing except watch Ironman 3 (which was not bad) and then went to Texas Joe's for dinner.  What a top class restaurant.  Not quite a true Texas barbecue but a really fucking good approximation and definitely somewhere you have to eat if you are in the area.

We lay in the next day and took a bus to Dau for Angeles airport.  It was so slow.  They wanted 100 pesos for a special jeepney to the airport.  Taking the piss for about 8km walk.  We grabbed an ordinary jeepney to the SM City in Angeles and apparently from there you can get a public jeepney to the airport.  None of them wanted to take us though and were asking for charters, so we walked and luckily a policeman took pity on Cannelle and stopped a truck to take us to the airport turnoff.  From there it was a 2km walk to the terminal.  Saved us some money for food though and we still weren't sure what the departure tax was for Angeles airport.  I can't remember now but its the lower one of the prices you will read online.  The plane was delayed and seemed to take ages with a little bit of turbulence.  Eventually we arrived back in Malaysia. I had read Voltaire's Candide on the flight and was exited do be back in Malaysia, to go to Nandos, get a roti, horlicks and biryani and sort out the Indonesia visa.  The Philippines had been a great country for us, but we were happy to go now.  Too many perfect beaches gets tiring lol.  We were ready for jungle.

Philippines Part 8 (Tacloban, Calbayog, Allen, Biri Islands, Legazpi and Mt Mayon)

This proved a bit of a sprint through these areas as we were running low on time.  We had got the slow boat across to Leyte and in Bato we were able to get an even slower bus to Tacloban City.  They had a giant jehovah's witness conference on in the city at the time, but we were able to get a cheap hotel.  The quality of accommodation relative to the price is so much greater in Leyte and Samar than it is in the touristy parts of the country.

There wasn't a lot to do so we got a buffet breakfast and took a van to Calbayog.  This took forever as well, but the scenery was really beautiful.  If you want to see a really pretty area with not many tourists then I would recommend spending some time on Samar.  We regretted not having much time to look around there. Hire a motorbike and enjoy the scenery.  In Calbayog we got a late van to Allen and found a shitty but cheap hotel in this shitty little town.  Allen really is a dump.  I am not sure why LP recommends you should stay this side if you arrive late, because the other side doesn't look any shitter and the buses and ferries are 24 hours.  I doubt LP goes anywhere they say they do after what we just found out in Kerinci Valley but thats for later when I catch up with myself in Sumatra.  We decided to visit Biri for the day in case we got trapped there.  It was somewhat of a mistake.  I would definitely recommend staying on the Biri Islands if you come here.

In the morning they wanted us to take a tricycle for 150 pesos to the local town with the boats to Biri Island. We had also been told that the boats went at 6am.  Both of these are bollocks.  The town is 10km from Allen and I called their bluff by deciding to walk.  Sure enough 5 minutes later a jeepney comes by and we paid only 10 pesos each.  I would advise setting off at 7am and insisting on the jeepney and the price of 10 pesos per person.  The public boat is 50 pesos each, but naturally they wanted a 'special trip' fare for only 1000 or so.  I feel so special with all these 'special trips'.  We stood our ground and about 8am or so we left for 50 pesos each.  When you land head left to the main town and follow the road round to the rock formations.  They try to sell you cheap motorcycle trips and tell you its miles away.  Be careful.  You have to pay a fee to see the rocks and you pay an additional fee for transport so that cheap fare stops being cheap.  Its only about a 4km walk maximum to the rock formations from the town and with the additional walk it took us just over an hour from the boat landing.  The scenery is impressive, but the rocks are stunning.  One of the prettiest places we have seen on our trip.  The rocks have been carved up into stunning vistas by the sea.  You can swim over to the rock formations on your left when you arrive, but the ones on the right can be waded to after walking across the bridge and are probably the more impressive of the two.  We met a local woman and her Australian husband to be and naturally were invited for food and drink.  It was nice but rushed as we were wary of missing the last public boat back around midday or 1pm.  Its another reason to stay on the island.  When we got back to the port they told us there were no more public boats and that we would have to pay 200 each and wait an hour.  I had my suspicions so I walked about 100 metres further and got offered a public boat for 50 each.  You can't trust boatmen in this country.  Overall it was well worth the trip.  Even the ordinary islands on the way back had stunning beaches and water, but this was just becoming par for the course in the Philippines.  We had to break some money and came back to Allen.  We wanted to find out what time the boats went, but the people were fucking useless.  Allen was one of the most annoying places we stayed in the Philippines.  The boats just leave when full with no fixed timetable.  Great.  We met a German couple in the evening and they seemed to be the only other travellers not going to Palawan.  They had travelled all over South East Asia many times and lamented the fact that there weren't many genuine travellers anymore.  Shit.  Maybe it wasn't a difference between  Asia and Latin America.  Maybe it was just a universal change in traveller types.  They said it had been cool to meet some real travellers and once again we were heading in the opposite direction to some cool people.

There was a delay with the ferry the next day.  Of course.  We then had a fight about taking jeepneys on the far side and eventually had to settle for a fee to Sorsogon.  From there we got a bus to Legazpi.  We were getting tired of transport here.  If only we flew lol.  Most of the hotels were full and we had to wander around for a while before we found somewhere.  Mt Mayon was covered in clouds but it is still a perfectly formed volcano.  Really pretty.

In the morning we visited the Cagasawa ruins by jeepney, which are not as tacky as LP says and worth a detour.  We then took our bags up to Danaga church for a beautiful lunch overlooking Mt Mayon.  This time there were no clouds.  We tried Bicol food for the first time.  Its spicier than the normal food here and done with a lot of coconut.  The dishes are truly tasty though Naga is where we would really see the level of food. When we finished we went down and got a bus to Naga.  We chatted with a local policeman all the way there and it was onwards to the final part of our time in the Philippines.

Philippines Part 7 (Alona Beach, Balicasag, Tagbilaran, Chocolate Hills and Anda)

We bought our ticket for 100 pesos to Tubigon from Cebu City.  So far, so easy and a tiny bit slow.  We slept all the way over and on the far side managed to grab a bus to Tagbilaran for 50 pesos.  There we jumped straight onto another jeepney for 25 pesos each to Alona Beach.  So much for private transport.  Door to door, Cebu to Alona, we paid just 175 pesos each. We went looking for a cheap hotel and most were full.  We eventually got a place in Casanova Gardens for 700 pesos, but it had wi-fi and a swimming pool.  We found a cheap local dive centre for 1100 a dive to go to Balicasag.  Sadly they had dived one of the two best dive sites at Balicasag the day before in Black Forest.  Still they were cheap and we liked them.  Good first impressions.  They have some kick arse local barbecue places in Alona Beach and we opted for that for dinner.

The next day we did two dives at Balicasag Island.  I can only say that a dive master is almost unnecessary here.  So many fish.  Just wow.  Like an aquarium.  The most fish I have ever seen on a dive site and Cannelle thinks it is the most beautiful coral she has ever seen.  I'm not such a coral lover, but I'd take her word on it.  I can understand why some people preferred it to Sipadan.  Especially if you can't go deep at Sipadan.  They are different and I would still put Barracuda Point, our first dive at Dauin and the Mandarin Fish sunset dive in Malapascua as my favourites so far, but it all depends what you like.  I saw a stunning green nudibranch, tuna, a school of jack, a school of angelfish (so many schools of fish I had only ever seen in small numbers before) and so many small reef fish.  Its not a big fish site, but if you like the small stuff you'll love it.  There was a Dutch instructor with us and he told us that the PADI courses were mostly a waste of time and money.  He said get your advanced as quick as possible and then its only worth doing rescue, deep and wreck (ice and cave if you have the interest as well).  Those seem the best to me.  He said that Bali and Gili were great places to dive and the Americans in Malapascua had told us that Komodo was the best they had ever dived.  We shall hopefully see on the remainder of this trip.  We had an American dive with us on the second dive and he kept annoying the fish and at one point he was even carrying a bit of the reef with him.  Random and stupid.  We had been warned about the titan triggerfish.  Its very aggressive and territorial.  At one point he was swimming along and I saw a fish swim behind him.  I thought it must be this fish as it went above him and bit him in the head.  I was laughing so hard I must have used a lot of oxygen.  Too funny.  Revenge of the fish.  It then came for us as well but we used our fins to fend it off.  Interesting fish.  I loved these dive sites though.   Would have dived again, but Cannelle was having ear problems so we figured we would take some time off diving until Pulau Weh.  Spurs drew 2-2 that night and we lost on penalties to Basel.  Shit.  Only consolation was it meant no more really late nights watching the European football.  We spent the afternoon hanging out in the swimming pool with a Dutch/English couple who also told us we would make shit tons of money in Australia and that a target of 24,000 Aussie dollars in a year was more than doable.

In the morning we had some laughs with a moto driver who was surprised we didn't want to rent a motorbike.  We told him about the police problems and then another moto driver wanted to take us to Tagbilaran.  We said we were taking the jeepney but he told us there wasn't one.  The other guy told him not to lie and look like an idiot as we clearly weren't stupid tourists and we all had a laugh at him together.  We got into Tagbilaran and found a really nice hotel.  We decided to stay there and use it as a base to visit the centre of Bohol.  It was even cheap for laundry.  We took a jeepney to the tarsier sanctuary and got into a debate with some local women about which cuddly animal was the cutest.  We both thought the rabbit.  The second woman was not so sure so we told her to ask the kids in the jeepney.  They all picked the rabbit.  Unanimous lol.  The first woman invited us to her hometown village after the tarsier sanctuary.  She said just ask for her name and we'd find her.  I fucking love the Philippines for the people.  Best place.  The tarsiers are impossibly cute and small.  Was a really nice centre to visit.  Then we took a jeepney to this tiny village and went door to door asking for her.  Eventually her niece pointed us the right way and a local kid took us. Meanwhile someone had texted her to say some foreigners were looking for her lol.  We were invited into someone's house for a wake and they made us eat loads.  Such nice people.  Then she got some people to get some coconuts for us.  We had had fresh buko with the school teachers in Malapascua, but we had some again here.  We stayed for a bit and then had to get the last bus back.  She said next time we had to come and stay with her.  We met quite a few travellers who never seemed to meet locals.  I think you have to try hard not to in the Philippines.  We watched Oblivion at the cinema which is not bad, but nothing special.  Seems to be my summary of most films we watched here.

The next day we took the bus to Carmen to see the famous chocolate hills.  The ride is pleasant and the hills are nice.  We should have taken a motorbike to fully appreciate the scenery.  Lots of people were taking stupid photos there.  They are sort of like their photos.  Its a weird one.  They are very pretty, but at the same time underwhelming.  Worth the trip though.  On the way back we stopped off at Loboc.  It is very tacky, but it is very pretty.  Another hard one to judge.  We opted against the overpriced river cruise and just enjoyed the very picturesque town on the river.  You definitely have to visit, but I am not sure you need to stay there.  We took a jeepney back to town and Cannelle chatted with her sister and father.  Tagbilaran will probably go down as our second favourite Filipino city.

We realised that we could get across to Leyte from near Anda as we had suddenly decided not to go to Camiguin.  Our planning and route was really a mess in the Philippines, but it can be such an infuriating country to travel around.  Wonderful, but a pain in the arse.  Everyone says Sumatra is difficult but its a picnic compared to the Philippines.  They were trying to get us to take a van to Anda for a lot of money, but we eventually found a direct Ceres bus for 100 pesos and found a room in Anda for 500.  Its a really beautiful beach area and so chilled. So much better than Alona Beach, though Alona Beach has a lot more life.  While looking for a cave pool, we found a picture perfect, stunning beach with noone else there.  That is the Philippines.  Everywhere there are stunning beaches.  The 1500th best beach here would be most countries number 1.  Why anyone goes to Thailand for beaches and not here is beyond me.  I hate beaches and this place is stunning.  Even I am happy to spend time on them.  We met some drunk local guys and then just bummed around on the beach all day.  It seemed like the thing to do lol.  Wish we had had more time here but we were starting to run out of time to make Clark Airport by land.  You wouldn't think it though by how much time we would waste in the next two weeks.

This time wasting began the next day.  We grabbed the local bus to the main road with the hotel owner, who was going to the dentist for his son.  He told us how he had had people stay with him who got dengue on Palawan and others who had lost their passports.  He always helped them out and seems like a really nice guy.  In Anda they want tourists to go there, but they don't need our help to sell it.  Just google image it and go.  We got a local van to Ubay (again they thought we wanted a private charter.  I must make a note to look more hobo like) and then the super, super, super slow boat to Bato on Leyte.  Let the bum numbing journey begin.

Philippines Part 6 (Moalboal, Oslob, Malapascua and Cebu City)

Boy have I been slack with the blog.  Time to make up for some lost time.  We finally tore ourselves away from Dumaguete and took a minibus up the coast to grab the pumpboat across to Cebu island.  Its so much cheaper than any of the tourist transport they were offering.  We arrived at the other end and none of the public buses wanted to pick us up.  Annoying.  We walked a bit and jumped one to the transit town and took a bus up to Moalboal.  Go with the non aircon buses as the aircon ones have a fixed minimum price of 60 pesos.  I have no idea why.  Damn Ceres.  We were off to dive with the sardines in their bait ball or at least we thought we were.  We walked the 5km down to the Moalboal dive resorts and settled in to a cheap place.  A quick visit to the cheapest dive shop revealed that the sardines had not been to Moalboal for some time now and our main reason for coming all the way here was gone.  In fact it seems that tourism in the town is down in general as the local tricycle drivers have that half starved, desperate for tourist money look touts in former boom towns tend to have.  Sad really.  Also means the liars come out.  Anyway no sardines meant no diving as we had a limited budget (on hindsight I really think we should have done one dive and if you get here dive Pescador, but I am not sure its worth heading out of your way for.  We decided to snorkel instead.  The drop off is literally just offshore and the variety of fish is cool.  In about 30 minutes of snorkelling we saw and followed a turtle and I saw a sea snake as well.  The only downer was the large number of jellyfish that were in the sea.  Painful in a bothersome kind of way.  In a break between being stung we got chatting with an English kid.  I told him they no longer had sardines here and his quite astute answer was 'well if you want sardines you can go to the market.'  Very true, but I think it misses the point lol.  There was a weird old German guy in our hotel and we had some good French crepes and Italian food in town.  Spurs drew 2-2 with Basel (with Gallas, Bale and Lennon injured).  We thought it was the end of the season right there and I am sitting here typing now while I anticipate the last day of the season.  Can we pip Arsenal to 4th.  We can always hope.  Maybe they will eat some shitty lasagna.

We were up early the next day to walk out of Moalboal and get the bus to Oslob for the whale sharks.  We were attempting to get there and onwards to Bohol in one day.  Ambitious but doable, so we thought.  We hadn't factored in the shittiness of the local transport mafia.  They waved away the 6am bus when we got there (Cannelle disagrees with me on this) and then tried to sell us transport to Oslob for 400 pesos.  Ridiculously expensive.  They were chancing it, but we were worried we would miss the whale sharks.  Pressure and stress were cranked up.  Eventually we got a public bus around 7am after fighting off the parasites for an hour.  With the change it cost us less than 100 pesos each, even though they tried to stick us on the aircon bus for 60 pesos to go 15km and we had to leap onto the non aircon for them to stop and let us on properly.  We drove to Oslob.  About halfway along Cannelle saw loads of signs for watching whale sharks.  I figured it was just copycat villages we had read about.  I figured wrong.  We got to Oslob and had to go back the way we came.  Of course they had a helpful tricycle for us.  Cebu people are not as nice as those on Negros.  We opted for a local bus and they wanted 30 pesos.  I laughed until I realised he was serious.  We settled on 9.  About right.  If you come to Oslob be aware that its a different village you have to go to though I've forgotten the exact name.  Its 10 pesos maximum from Oslob though and in Oslob they can give you a business card with the village name.  They want 500 pesos to watch the sharks, 1000 to snorkel and 3600 to dive.  Unlike Donsol (where the sharks have now disappeared) here they are guaranteed (I think these may be Donsol's sharks who now stay here for the free food).  Don't go expecting a real wildlife viewing experience, but neither is it totally fake.  Its sort of like Bukit Lawang, Semenggoh or Sepilok for orangutans.  They are free to come and go as they please, but they hang around for the free food and they don't follow the patterns they would in the wild.  They do swim a bit, but they spend most of their time almost upright next to the boats eating.  Its a bit weird.  Its magnificent to see them, but I definitely wouldn't dive.  A Spanish friend of ours did and said it was boring.  You have to decide what option you want in advance unless you have your own snorkelling equipment.  Then you can choose to pay 500 pesos to watch and if you later decide you want to snorkel you pay the 500 extra.  This option is not available if you don't have your own equipment.  We opted to watch and were never tempted to snorkel.  Due to them being fed they are right under the boat most of the time, near the surface and the water is crystal clear.  I didn't see any benefit to getting in the water for the extra money.  Not in this controlled environment.  If you really must be in the water, just to say you have been in the water with them then do it.  If not, then wait for a more real experience or at least give yourself the option to decided once you are on the water.  I think my semi zoo experience was really cool, but I will wait to enter the water when its a more genuine experience.  We went to Argao by bus to catch the boat to Bohol.  Only it goes at 4am.  Shit.  He offered that we could sleep in the boat house.  I was suspicious of the truth, but not suspicious enough to call his bluff.  There was the fast boat from Cebu City for 'just' 1000 pesos.  Ah how I love the just in the Philippines lol.  You can go to Bohol, for just the price of one arm.  Everything seems reasonable when you use just.  We decided to change plan, load up on cash in Cebu City and take a bus up to Maya for Malapascua.  When we arrived in town it was too late for the public boat, though we could cross for 'just' 1600 pesos.  Cool.  Fuck you.  We decided to stay the night in Maya where they told us it was 1600 pesos (It was 600) and they didn't factor in that we would have had to get a place to stay in Malapascua anyway.  Idiots.

Up early the next day we went for the 6am public boat to Malapascua.  They only leave when they have 15 people.  Shit.  We were in for a long wait.  Of course for 'just' 1600 pesos we could have a private boat.  Very generous when the public boat is 80.  We stood our ground until about 8am.  Most tourists in the Philippines (especially divers) have money but no time.  We were the exception with the opposite problem.  They kept pushing us and pushing us, but eventually a bus load of locals came and we could take the public boat.  They claimed no change so I said I wouldn't pay them until we were in Malapascua.  That worked out fine.  Be aware that you will have to pay another 20 pesos for the privilege of being ferried 20m from the boat to the beach.  I love a good scam.  We figured Malapascua would be as shitty as Moalbaol for local hustlers but that was the only problem we had.  We stayed at Purple Snapper where they wanted us to sign a piece of paper that we would dive exclusively with them.  Luckily Cannelle saw it and we refused to sign as they are the most expensive dive shop on the island.  We checked dive companies and went for a swim in the sea.  Its a really cool, chilled island, though the food is overrated at Purple Snapper and overpriced.  Arsenal won and we watched the third Harry Potter.  I kind of want to see the ones I have never seen now.  A local guy bumped into us on the way and took us to the cheapest restaurant on the island and probably the best as well.  We ate there every day.  Its in the LP.  Next to them is the cheapest local dive centre as well but they needed two divers to do the thresher shark dive and Cannelle had decided that she didn't want to dive with the sharks.  We decided to dive with Evolution divers, but more on that tomorrow.  Kicking back in the afternoon with a cocktail we had the usual sunset experience of watching a Japanese woman have a heart attack.  As she gasped for air, her friend/travel buddies/relatives seemed to look on unconcerned.  Naturally we assumed she was handicapped and having a minor fit.  Only 10 minutes later did we realise that wasn't the case, when her companions finally decided it might be serious.  Christ I hope I never have a heart attack with that group of people.  A bunch of useless people came to their aid and luckily some doctors arrived off one of the dive boats, recognised some shallow breathing and took her off to hospital.  It took about 40 minutes for a boat to come to take her to Maya.  My advice.  Don't go to Malapascua if you are feeling sick at all, as 'rescue' is not a great option here.  Nice end to the day.

4.30am and the alarm goes off.  Fuck it.  Why did I decide to do the thresher shark dive at 5am.  Sod it.  Off we went.  I was worried as this was my first dive without Cannelle as my buddy.  I was paired up with an English family and a Swiss guy who was to be my buddy.  In the end I didn't really look out for him, so it was me who was the shit buddy.  I knew my belt clasp was loose but I said nothing.  Rookie error.  We all jumped in at the only site where thresher sharks are almost guaranteed and I can't descend.  Why?  What the fuck.  The divemaster comes.  Where's your weight belt.  Ah bollocks.  The clasp had broken and sunk down.  I had to get a new one and then swim down.  I was sure I had fucked up everyone's dive.  Not the calm diving environment you want and awful for the breathing.  This is not a dive site if you like corals or fish.  It is just for the sharks.  Everyone was looking one way and someone pointed past me.  I spun around and a a thresher shark was coming right at me.  Cool, but intimidating.  My oxygen was going quick and we watched the shark circle and circle.  The Swiss guy said it looked like a moron.  Quite true.  We were back up on the surface after 36 minutes.  Shitty.  I don't normally go through oxygen that fast.  The Swiss guy was ok with it.  The dickish English family were pissed.  I figured it was the panicking from the lost weight belt.  Oh well.  They wanted me to pay extra for a larger tank on the afternoon dive, but I didn't see the point as there was one left and Cannelle ate oxygen at the same rate as me.  Weird.  It left me feeling low for the afternoon dives at Gato Island. The afternoon we went out with some Americans and a dickhead English guy.  He thought he was God's gift to diving.  Newbie with super professional equipment.  You know the type.  Overall Gato Island was disappointing.  The coral was fantastic but we saw almost no fish.  Really none.  Just some squid, a few seahorses and a large white tip reef shark.  The first dive they had fixed my tank wrong and it came off mid dive.  They readjusted and they must have hit a valve as my oxygen dropped really fast.  I went from 120 to 60 in 10 minutes and I signalled to surface and was at 20 on the safety stop and surfaced with no oxygen left to inflate the BCD.  It was only on the third dive that I realised my regulator was leaking as well.  Not massively, but enough to explain why my underwater time was so short.  On the second dive we came up round the wrong side of the island and floated in the water for about 20 minutes with no explanation of what was happening.  Poor.  The dive master didn't seem to give a shit on the second dive either and the Americans said the same thing.  Three expensive dives for not much, though the local dive masters were better than the Scandinavian guy.  Overall I wouldn't recommend them as they are overpriced, we had our dive instructor not giving a shit, a weight belt clasp break, a leaking regulator and a poorly fastened tank.  Sad.  Spurs drew 2-2 that evening and Arsenal were gaining on us.

The next day we went to the North of the island to go snorkelling.  Its stunning up there.  Superb white sand beach and so much better than the tourist end of the island.  We had wanted to go snorkelling, but instead we met some teachers from Bohol and invited us to lunch.  We had sea urchin and a local dish like ceviche.  Delicious.  Such nice people.  We had a great afternoon just hanging out with them and then we went for a sunset dive with Sunsplash divers to see the Mandarin fish mating dance.  Such a contrast to the day before. Much cheaper, great equipment and a great dive master.  We watched the mandarin fish, which are stunning and smaller than I expected.  Then we saw seahorses, frogfish and many types of crab.  Its so much fun to search for stuff with your own spotlight.  Wonderful experience.  I would definitely night dive again.  The only down side was that they had asked us if we wanted to take a dive boat back to Cebu and we had asked for the price.  They hadn't told us before we left and seemed to presume we would just go.  When they got back and told us the price we knew it would be too expensive.  They seemed annoyed at us for that.  Damn dive companies.  Still much better than Evolution.  After here and Bohol, we decided we would only dive with local dive companies now as they are cheaper and their divers always know the reef better as they spend all their life there.  In the afternoon we had also hung out with an Aussie guy in the pool of our hotel.  He seemed a total waster but a nice guy.  He told us working in the mines was the best way to get cash, but that if we didn't drink and smoke we would make a lot of cash in Australia.

We grabbed breakfast early and took the return boat to Maya.  No hassles this was round.  We also chatted with an Israeli diver and the most exciting thing he had seen was a turtle.  I don't think we missed out on much.  I am a bit worried that we are being spoilt by our first real diving being only in top class sites.  We took the bus to Cebu City and decided to stay the night.  600 pesos for the room, but no interesting films on at the cinema.  We visited the basilica, the cathedral, Magellan's cross and the cute little fort.  I think Cebu is a pretty little city at its core, surrounded by some crap.  Cannelle remains unconvinced.  She still believed that Dumaguete is the only city that's not too shitty.  We managed to find a boat to Bohol for just 100 pesos to Tubigon.  You have the option.  480 pesos or so to go to Tagbilaran direct or 100 to Tubigon and then a bus for 50.  No brainer.  Some tourists really do get fucked up the arse for convenience.  Onwards to Bohol.

Philippines Part 5 (Bacolod, Silay, Mabinay and Dumaguete)

Easter Friday was even more dead than Thursday.  We wanted to take a boat across to Bacolod, but they were all cancelled and there was only one left for the day.  We had to wait around a while for the boat to leave and Cannelle got chatting with a Filipino who was now living in Seattle.  Of course he gave us some fruit.  We then got chatting with another local guy who was heading back to Bacolod with his dog.  The dog had to stay outside the boat on the trip.  He was telling us about his woman troubles, but he gave us a lift into town with his girlfriend.  Nice people.  Everything and I mean everything was shut.  Wow they really shut down everything for Easter week.  Both Iloilo and Bacolod are meant to be cool student towns.  We saw none of this as both of them just seemed to be ghost towns.  We got yet more bad news as we found out that we could not climb Mt Kanalaon because all the permits were booked up until a week later.  Dammit.  We weren’t having luck in this country.  They have a nice church in the middle of the town and then we watched their crappy parade in the town centre.

We got a shit breakfast in the hotel.  Really, really shit.  Then we decided to head off to the ruins.  It’s a short jeepney ride to the turn off and then you get swamped with people offering cheap tricycle rides to the ruins.  Seems like a catch.  There was one.  We decided to walk the 2km or so to the ruins and they have a checkpoint where you have to pay 60 pesos for a tricycle to use the road.  They use this trick in a few places in the Philippines.  You hire a tricycle for cheap, you ride around the corner and are hit with road fees for the tricycle, which you either pay because you have already paid for the tricycle or you walk and waste the money.  Anyway the walk is nice enough.  The ruins themselves are very atmospheric and different.  A mansion without any roof and holes for windows.  Very impressive.  Its very romantic as well.  We then headed to Silay which is like a mini Louisiana.  Loads of wooden colonial houses that you can wander around.  It was all from the sugar plantations that made a lot of money.  Most things were shut again.  Seemed a shame, but it was still very nice to wander amongst the old house and one of them was open to take a mini tour around the insides.  We ate in the old vintage bakery and it’s a relly pleasant double trip out from Bacolod.  In the evening we watched GI Joe 2, which was ok and I spoke to my mum and sister.  Spurs won 2-1 against Swansea and Chelsea lost to Southampton which was a nice bonus.  Some local guy even said ‘nice tits’ to Cannelle as she was walking down the road.  Bacolod itself is nothing special, but the day trips around it are really nice.

The next day we took a bus to Dumaguete, but decided to jump off halfway in Mabinay, where we got an excellent lunch.  Barbecued chicken and the best mango I have ever had.  I don’t normally like mangos, but the mangos in the Philippines are like a totally different fruit.  Its so juicy and so sweet.  Delicious.  They have a small natural pool in the town and it makes for a nice break between the two town, as we were beginning to get very tired with taking so much transport.  We got back on a bus to Dumaguete and checked into Harolds Inn in town.  They only had single fan rooms left so we shared the smaller bed as we hate air con.  The hostel is the first real hostel we have seen in the Philippines, with a rooftop chill out area and pool table.  They also have a very average free breakfast, but at least it was a place to meet people.  We even bumped into the Spanish guy from Baguio randomly and he told us Siquijor was nice, but not worth going out of your way for.

In the morning we wanted to rent a motorbike, but they don’t let you take one without a driving licence here.  Cannelle has one, but doesn’t want to drive.  I want to drive, but I don’t have a licence.  So we decided to take a jeepney to the turn off for Twin Lakes National Park and then walk the 15km to the lake.  I figured it might be an exaggeration, but it seems like it is.  About 3km of the walk in a family in a truck stopped to give us a lift.  It was a local family, but there was a Belgian kid whose mum was from here and his dad was Belgian.  They had come to see the local area.  We joined them at the lake and of course they fed us.  We even joined them on a boat trip across the lake to see the local waterfall (its not really worth it apart from the trip) and the lakes are a very relaxing and different place to the what we had seen in the Philippines.  The paddling was also quite therapeutic.  After the lakes the family asked us if we wanted to see Casororo Falls as they were near where they lived.  So we got a ride out to the falls and they were closed.  No worries.  The family just effectively bribed the guard we went down to see them, scrambling through the rocks and water to see an impressive drop of a waterfall.  They gave us a lift back to the hotel and we chilled out in the rooftop bar.

The following day we dived in Dauin.  It was our first beach dive and our first macro dive.  Cannelle had said that she wasn't sure if she really liked scuba diving.  Both dives were on the wrecks of jeepneys that had been sunk and some tyres.  They had created artificial reefs and it was almost much easier to see the fish against the black background than when they were on coral reefs.  We saw giant lionfish in open water, when usually they are hiding around rocks.  We saw a dead sea snake, lots of small stuff, some even requiring a magnifying glass.  We saw jacks fighting with a couple of groupers, a free swimming moray eel, one turtel (apparently the only one there) and our first seahorse.  They were both really nice dives.  Cannelle really loved it and was finally excited to go diving for the next time.  We met a local guy for lunch and he told us that Dumaguete was a cheap place to buy a laptop.  We took his advice and picked up the laptop that I am writing this on for just 200 euros.  We then went looking for haircuts.  Cannelle paid 2 euros and I paid less than 1.  I think those were the cheapest haircuts that we had ever had. The local guy then took us for dinner at a local barbecue place that was really good and cheap.  Everyone hammers Filipino food, but we find it really good.  Best in Asia for Cannelle.  Second best for me.  I think its only great if you eat with locals as the stuff aimed at tourists tends to be a bit shitty.  Back at the hostel we played pool with a Swedish couple and we realised that we were the only travellers that were not going to Palawan.  Everyone goes there.  Cannelle had also decided that Dumaguete was by far her favourite city in the Philippines and would be the one she lived in if she had to choose.

The next morning we were picked up by the family we had met at the National Park.  They took us to go to Apo Island for the day.  We got there early and they fed us again.  We then waited and waited and waited for a boat.  It was about midday and we started to think it was too late to make it worthwhile to go.  So we pulled out.  The family were very apologetic for the delay and I think we ended up insulting them really.  It was a colossal mistake and a stupid one as I am sure we would have had a nice afternoon.  Instead we hung around and did nothing in Dumaguete.  Of all our decisions on the holiday that was the stupidest and the one we regretted the most.  We went to an excellent cake place in the evening for dinner, but that was a big regret.  We should have gone.  Or we should have dived it as it was only 3300 pesos for 3 dives including boat and lunch.  At least we had dived Dauin for 1000 pesos a dive.  Now we were heading to Cebu for some more diving.  Negros probably has the nicest Filipinos we met on all of our trip.

Philippines Part 4 (Puerto Galera, Boracay and Iloilo City)

In the morning we took a bus to Batangas for 133 pesos.  It’s the only country I have been to where the transport prices are routinely less than LP says.  I guess LP likes air con and big bus companies.  We were swamped at the port and led to a boat to Puerto Galera for 310 pesos, including a 50 peso environmental fee.  While I am sure its bollocks, it’s a good way for them to fleece some tourists.  We eventually made it across and had reserved a hostel bed for 150 pesos a night.  It was basic and a long walk over the hill from town.  We had wanted to dive here, but we decided to hold back for later on.  We met a German guy who said that he couldn’t dive Apo Reef because there was no one else around.  We didn’t want to waste time going there so we gave them a ring.  I could not understand much but it seemed like they wanted 6900 pesos each for 3 dives joining a snorkelling group.  That seemed a little steep.  We decided to change route again and not go there as we were still burnt from all the time we had wasted going to Laoag.  I was then informed that my dad had received another letter from the student loans people.  Fuck sake.  I do exactly what they ask for and they still keep coming back for more information.  I had to ring them again and this time they told me that I needed to send proof of funding for my trip.  Wasting my time and money.  Apparently it should be fine this time because my dad sent copies of 6 months of bank statements proving my travelling.

The next day we picked up a picnic and decided to go snorkelling.   We went by one of the dive centres and asked them to look after something for us.  Then we went snorkelling with a buoy.  They wanted us to dive with them, but they wanted us to do a check out dive before they would let us dive the only site we wanted to go to.  The canyons.  We didn’t see the point.  The snorkelling was nice and afterwards we bumped into the German guy.  He had just been diving and said the canyon was great, but that the other sites were not so amazing.  We hesitated and decided not to dive.  The Danish guy running the place was upset when we said we wanted to prioritise our diving and dive sites.  A few dive places tend to get pissy with us with when we say we have to prioritise money.  I guess most divers are not gypos.  We decided to head to Boracay next and then it was a bitch for the route.  The Philippines is really difficult to get around so you have to plan in advance if you want to maximise your time.  We grabbed some pizza in the evening and decided we would make a stab at getting all the way to Boracay the following day.  Only the accommodation was really expensive there.  Always problems lol.

We took a bus in the morning to Roxas.  From there we got a clunky old ferry to Caticlan.  We got a super shit British film called UFO on the way across and part of the beginning of Flight that had been censored in Malaysia.  Too many kids on the boat though so they cut off any sex scenes, but left the sound on.  Very surreal.  We arrived in Caticlan and it looked like a nice enough town.  We even managed to find a cheap hotel by the airport for 400 pesos a night.  As we planned to visit Boracay for just one day it seemed like a really good place to base ourselves.

The boat to Boracay is a bit expensive.  They claim its only 25 pesos, but if you add the 75 peso environmental fee and the 100 peso port tax it adds up.  We walked to the white beach from the port and got a German breakfast.  We then went for a walk along the white sand beach.  Its really stunning.  The beach is the prettiest we have seen in South East Asia, although Koh Phi Phi still has the best overall location.  Between boat stations one and three it is quite touristy, but still nothing like Thailand.  On the South and North end of the beach it was almost deserted.  There is a beautiful cove at the North end.  They do have some weird green algae over some parts of the beach, but it doesn’t detract too much.  We couldn’t find the viewpoint on the island and no one seemed that inclined to help us out.  We got some lunch at the American pub, which is very good and even got some quiche from there for dinner as Caticlan has limited food options.  In the afternoon we chilled out on the beach and went for a swim.  It’s a beautiful place.  I don’t like beaches, but this place is stunning and given that we were there during Easter week it was still relatively tourist free.

The next morning we took the bus via Antique Province to go to Miagao.  It is famous for its church.  The road on the way is really picturesque.  Its worth the diversion.  The Philippines has such great scenery that you can head to relatively unknown places and its still really pretty.  The church in Miagao is one of the prettiest churches I have seen and well worth the visit.  The carvings on the front are truly impressive.  After we headed into Iloilo City on Easter Thursday and the place was totally deserted.  Two of the hotels were shut for the holidays and the third one was our only option.  They had walkways to cross the traffic, but there seemed to be only about 5 cars on the road.  I didn’t think we were going to see the city in full flow, but I don’t think the Philippines has great cities anyway.  With everything shut, we watched the Croods which was ok and then Goon on tv (a bit shitty).  We decided not to head to Guimares island the next day as we didn’t want to get trapped.  At the cinema I asked them if they had a toilet and they replied that they weren’t showing twilight.  Made me laugh anyway.

Philippines Part 3 (Vigan, Laoag, Manila and Taal volcano)

Not sure if I mentioned the bitch of a journey we had to get to Vigan.  The lying bitch in Banaue wanted us to pay 450 pesos for the bus to Baguio even though the price was 330.  She told us the bus was bigger and so the price was higher.  We found the original jeepney driver who took us to Solano for only 100 pesos.  From there we jumped onto another jeepney to Buyombang for 30 pesos.  It was a complete waste of money as we could have just stayed in Solano and waited for the bus to come by.  After around 30 minutes of waiting, the original bus from Banaue came by.  Low and behold the price was now just 200 pesos to go all the way to Baguio.  So we had paid the 330 pesos that was the price and not the 450 like all the other tourists who were on this bus.  I would recommend grabbing the jeepney to Solano and just waiting there for the Banaue bus to pass through.  Should be 100 and 220 more or less.  We went back over the mountains by Kabayan and grabbed a noodle soup.  We grabbed a McDo and I found out that Spurs had lost 1-0 at home to Fulham.  Shitty as that was going to hurt us in the race for 4^th.  For 80 pesos we got a local bus to San Fernando and after a bit of a wait we finally picked up a bus for 202 pesos to Vigan.  So instead of the 800 pesos we had been quoted to get to Vigan, we ended up paying only 612.  The last bus even gave us a 1 peso discount because we started off without a seat.  How generous!  We found a cheap room in Vigan for two nights and finally got some rest.

In the morning we took a bus out to Santa Maria church.  Its UNESCO and its nice, but its somewhat overrated.  Not really worth going out of your way to see, but it’s a nice morning trip.  Then we visited the historic old city.  The centre is very cute.  Reminded me a lot of Latin America.  Its definitely the prettiest town in the Philippines, although the historic centre is very small.  It does not take very long to visit the city.  Only around a couple of hours.  You could almost day trip it from Baguio in a long day.  I did some writing and that was the last time I came back to this blog.  There was some shitty tv about Alaska gold mining and that was about all we did that day.

The next day we got an early bus to Laoag.  We grabbed a hotel and set off for Pagudpud for the day.  We’d heard it was a really nice beach town.  It was 100 pesos for the first bus and 60 for the second.  This turned out to be a disappointing trip.  The famous windmills are just a bunch of wind turbines along the coast.  Underwhelming.  The famous lighthouse is so-so and not worth going out of your way to track down.  When you arrive it’s a very long walk down to the beaches as well.  We stopped for lunch at a great German restaurant and had schnitzel.  They wanted 40 pesos to enter the private beach and I didn’t want to pay so we ended up just going back.  Laoag the town itself is quite nice.  Nicer than we expected.  Yet we couldn’t help feeling that it was a waste of time coming to the North of the Philippines.  We have felt that we could have had the time again to change our decisions with where we visited here.  So much to see and not enough time.  Everything in Vigan and Laoag was nice, but they weren’t worth the three days we lost to get there.  Pagudpud was especially not worth it, because we would see many great beaches in the Visayas.  We watched Oz which is a good film, but not great.  Very apt for the North of the Philippines.  We found some people to climb Pinatubo with and so we decided to head back to Manila for a couple of days.

There were no morning non-aircon buses to Manila.  Shitty.  So we grabbed a bus to Vigan and from there we picked one up to Manila.  The people texted us about the Pinatubo climb, but we had no credit and we were trapped on the bus ride from hell.  So fucking long.  So fucking long.  I don’t wish this trip from Laoag to Manila on anyone.  When we finally arrived in Manila we couldn’t find a cheap hotel.  Everything in Malate was either closed or no longer cheap.  After a long slog we eventually went to the Adriatic Hotel for 3 nights.  It’s a bit of a sexpat den, but it’s the cheapest there is.

The next day we headed to Taal volcano.  On the bus a local guy started chatting with us.  The usual Filipino friendliness.  He told us that its not worth visiting the volcano itself and that the most impressive thing is the view from the crater.  We got mobbed by tricycle drivers the moment we stepped off the bus and everyone wanted us to take a boat tour with them.  We navigated the swarm of touts and the local guy invited us for cakes and coffee in a really nice place.  Amazing apple crumble.  He also invited us to come and stay at his house in the mountains.  Its frustrating sometimes to travel with a time limit.  It should be easier next trip when we only have a money limit.  The local guy gave us a ride to the park from where you get a great view over the volcano.  Its really beautiful.  Immense.  We just chilled out while watching it.  In the evening we grabbed some schwarma  and now had a spare day in Manila.

What better way to spend a spare day than doing a laundry.  We sorted that out in the morning and it was long overdue.  Then we watched the Silver Linings Playbook, which is much better than I was expecting.  The end also made sense now.  We had seen just the last 5 minutes in Krabi and it had made no sense whatsoever.  We then went for dinner with Mike again.  He again was super generous and at his restaurant he bought a huge feast for us and an American and Italian couchsurfer.  Again it was amazing food.  Following the meal we went to his brother’s place for drinks.  It was another good night in the Philippines and another illustration of the generosity of the people.  When we finished we walked back from Malati to Makate.  Some teens sent us the wrong way and that added an hour to the walking time.  If you don’t know where the place is can you stop giving fucking directions.  People say that Manila is a dangerous city, but its not really.  Bad air, bad traffic yeah, but dangerous no.