The trip of my life - Philippines

Philippines

I met one of my friends (met him a couple of years ago when I was on travelbuddy.com) from Philippines there and together we went around. I took 10 days to visit two slightly larger islands, as well as Manilla.

I obviously took the cheapest ticket from my Taipei to Manila which was with the Philippine airlines (around 80 EUR) and I arrived in Manila around 8pm and eager to explore this lovely place since I heard mix stories of Philippines from my friends and the only thing I know about them is that THEY LOVE DRAMA! A couple of my friends from Ningbo, China were also from Philippines and whenever I felt Beilun was a place where nothing happened, I would just talk to my Philippine friends and discover that magic of drama. Whenever I was with them I felt like I was living in my own little drama! Despite the drama they are also very friendly, can speak English (a huge plus when you live in a country where no one speaks your language), love to share food and make you feel like one of them.

My decided where we were going and so I left him in charge of planning which island to go to and I took over the small things, like basic everyday things, since I was living the last two months’ day by day. After arriving at the airport I had to get to the city center cos my friend booked a room there. Little did I know the airport was full of people trying to scam me, but luckily I knew what the exchange rate was and since traveling in SE Asia, I knew the price range. After everyone trying to offer me a car for 20 to 30 EUR to the center (20 min away) I knew I had to go out of the airport and hopefully find a cab there and so I went to buy a Sim and off I was on my way out. As soon as I got out there was a taxi waiting for people and at the end I only payed around 5 EUR to get to the city. While I did hear numerous people pay 30 EUR for the ride to the city. Be careful about this scam!!

I spend the night in the area of the city that did seem like a beginning to a porn movie, but even all the dirty old people were very nice. The next morning, we flew to Dumaguete where we began our journey and already you could see many difference from the other countries I visited earlier. For example, there were many more people wanting to offer you a service, bargaining is more common here, some even lied and would tell you their way is the only way even if in reality there is another way to get somewhere, were very Christian, loved to listen to 90’s music and seemed to be poorer than other countries. 

From the airport we took a ride in a taxi, shared with a Swedish woman that owned a club there, to a “port” where the boats were going to a small island “Apo island”. The island is known for turtles. We took an old, falling apart looking canoe with a balancing rod on each side, a motor in the back to the island. The ride was quite an experience and definitely not for those who have sea sickness or are afraid of drowning! Somehow we got to an island (I think it was around 10 EUR per person). The island is around 1km long and 200m wide and there was everything you needed to survive on the island. You had a local village with a primary and high school, small shops, a big fancy house that was called “hotel” and a people were either living out of fishing or tourism which included boat renting and showing tourists turtles and coral reef. We found this nice family that had a couple of room in the attic for guest. Together with the room, breakfast and dinner it was around 9 EUR a day and the food the cooked was really good! We stayed there for one night and returned the next afternoon.

The island has a nice path that takes you to some places on the island which have nice views, as well as some “hidden” beaches. We rented a boat to take us out snorkeling and turtle watching (8 EUR together). The corals themselves were nice, but the hundreds of colorful fishes were took all the attention away and not to mention the main thing, which was swimming with the turtles. Turtles were huge and there were more than 10 there just eating away and really not caring about all those pesky tourist trying to take pictures of them. I really like that the guides there were concerned about their safety and there were basic rules you had to apply in order to keep them safe! Thumbs up for preserving the natural habitat!

Next stop was the Cebu island and we first went to the west of the island to Moalboal where we went to cannoning. It was one of those in spur of the moment thing, we woke up late and I started calling around to see if there are any we could do the same day and of course all the companies had it free and after 10 calls and bargaining we finally found the cheapest deal and took a jeepney to the place in the hills. Once we arrived we made it just when another team was going out, we suited up fast and jumped on one of the motorbikes that took us to the drop off place. In our group we had a couple of University students who were always taking selfies. At the beginning we were making fun of them but it wasn’t long till we joined them and soon we became friends and taking selfies and asking others to take pictures of us. It was soo much fun hanging out with them, really relaxing and not a single moment that wasn’t filled with laughter. The whole cannoning experience was good too, with a couple of high jumps and a lot of sliding.

The next adventure was at Oslob, so we took a couple of Jeepneys and 2h later there we were. Oslob is a small village, but it is very known for whale shark watching. It is cheaper if you book directly at the place where the watching happens, but even in the places close by they sell tickets with the same price and you can rent a GoPro camera for a couple Euros as well. Once there you are taken into the boat with two locals guiding you and you have 20 minutes. You dive and swim around the Whale sharks as they are being fed by other locals. After around 20min you return back and they will burn a CD with your pictures on them. This is nice and pretty, but if I had an option again I would definitely not go. Why? Once again I felt like in China, the whole thing is just being rushed and you don’t get one moment to enjoy, basically like a monkey in a zoo. Take a picture here, swim there, the other side, go in fast, faster, … and after 10 min I told the guy to shut up and not to take any more pictures!! At least I had like 5min of enjoying. But the whale sharks were surrounded by hundreds of tourist swimming and trying to touch them. Basically no respect for animals, or humans for that matter.  Anyways after that we went slowly to the capital (cebu city) and stopped in a couple of small town on the way to the historical buildings and some beaches on the way. We arrived at the Cebu city at night and in the last moment decided to watch the second part of maze runner in the theater and it was the best decision so far. Philippinos are amazing at making a great movie experience, I mean there was screams, loud expressions of every emotion and even popcorn was flying when there was something scary. It was simply too funny to be true!

The next day we took a ferry to Tubigon, which was much cheaper than a direct ferry to Tagbilaran city and a Jeepney from Tubigon to Tagbilaran was only one hour and listening to old 90’s songs was so worth it! After arriving in the city we quickly found a place to stay and went to explore the city center and there were two bigger shopping centers there and everything else was small local houses and some “taller” buildings that were surrounded by concrete/gravel streets with rickshaws and motorcyclists everywhere. Inspired by the motorcyclists we decided to rent one and drive around for two days. The best decision we made during the trip! The nature in Bohol is simply breathtaking and looking at the rice fields and palm trees over them, people working on the fields, small local houses and kids waving at you is really something special! I’ll let the pictures do the talking J

For the next two days we decide to visit the chocolate hills. This was especially nice when on the bike, because when you are getting closer to the spot you start noticing hills that look like little brown chocolate candy, the shape of a boob :P. When you arrive at the entrance of the park you can see some hills that surround you, but when you reach the top of the observation hill there are hundreds of hills with more or less the same shape and size that go all way an eye can reach! When you get down from the main one you can stroll around by foot or bike to the other hills. There are also many small villages that are worth seeing when wondering around there!

From there we continued down to Loboc, where we found some Nipa huts, or bamboo houses for spending the night. These were really in the middle of nowhere, around 10min from the city. Going by the river thought holes bigger than myself and because of the rain also very slippery! But once you arrive there it’s really beautiful and each small Nipa has a bed, bathroom, small porch with a hammock and there is a big gathering place where you can eat, hang out and mingle with others. It’s quite an experience to sleep in one of those! While there we also went zip lining through a scary high valley with more than a 150m drop. Going from one side to the other is quite cool and the beginning scary feeling is soon replaced with an awesome feeling. This place is between Loboc and chocolate hills on the side from the main road. We also went to see Tersier, the world’s smallest primate. They are super shy animals, are usually hidden on the trees and very hard to spot. They are also quite scary at first site, but they won’t do anything expect look directly at you in a really scary way! After spending a night in the Nipa huts we slowly returned to Tagbilaran, stopping on the way and see where the biggest snake in the world used to live and also seen some pythons there. The road back, next to the sea is very beautiful!

From Tagbilaran we also took a local “bus” to the close by island of Panglao. After riding for around 90 min on the bus, which is an experience of its own! We arrived at the main beach (Alona beach), quickly found a super cheap hut and spent the rest of the day walking around the beach and in search for a cheap ticket for the tour of the nearby islands. The rest of the day consisted of drinking avocado shakes, eating good Philippino food and walking around the beach. The next day we went on the tour with the boat, and first we went to see the dolphins swim in the sea and to a small island where we had an option to either see the turtles or the coral reef. We decided to see the turtles, which turned out to be really nice and this time no tourists anywhere! We saw many small turtles as well as some cute small nemo fishes and their homes protected by their parents. We returned back to the boat one hour earlier, so we decided to go to the other side of the island and see the coral reef as well. Passing through some small villages and 5 min later we arrived there. There were some boats close to the beach and we decided to go and see what they are up to and we got there it was the best surprise I had on the trip. There were huge fishes and more than 100 different type, from fluorescent to completely black ones with vivid yellow stripes. I haven’t seen anything like this before, but the best was the huge coral cliff. You swim between the huge fishes and all off a sudden there is nothing else but beep black sea under and hundreds of large animals hiding in the wall. I saw things I’ve only seen in the movies, huge stingrays swimming in the deep sea, sea turtles chilling around and so many more I can’t name. It was such a surprise when once you can stand on the ground and the next you have sea 100’s meters deep. After this amazing experience we went to Zanzibar called Virgin Islands where you could only see the white sand going from one place to another and in between you might see some trees in water and a small piece of land here and there, but simply stunning. Let the pictures do the talking.

We went back to Cebu city where we went to try their sky experience, you basically walk on the edge of a 40^th story building. The experience isn’t that good, because you feel to safe and after a while it feels boring and you are guided so you can forget anything remotely dangerous. We actually stayed there too long and arrived at the airport too late to catch the flight, however we were lucky enough the flight was delayed for 3h!! YESS!!

The last two days I wondered around Manila and on the last day there we went wakeboarding in a park. It was a really cool experience to try that!

I think I will definitely come back to Philippines since there are so many island to explore and wonder around, the rules there are not so strict which means you can really let loose and have fun there. For the whole trip I felt really safe and didn’t have any problems with anything going wrong. Transportation around depends how talkative you are and if you are afraid to ask others. Basically you have to keep asking people where to go and where the bus goes etc., but once you get over that you can enjoy in the way the locals live. For manila I do recommend you search around to find different scams and what to be careful of, but it’s definitely not a dangerous place. I was a little disgusted by how many older white guys go there (mostly for sex or to find a partner) and them getting drunk every day and each day with a younger model. Not something that’s really nice to see! People in general are quite nice and friendly. Haven’t had any bad experiences, so I give a big approval to Philippines.

Next are the last two place on my tour around Asia, Korea & Japan.