Philippines

Our flight to Boracay really got us in the mood for more beach time as we had fun spotting numerous desert islands from the plane. The key attraction on Boracay is White Beach where we were busy relaxing approximately 30 minutes after touch down.

The sand really was beautifully soft and white and the waters were perfectly clear. All 4km of White Beach are covered end to end in bars / restaurants / shops....so we took it for what it was and spent a relaxing couple of days lounging round pretending we were on a package holiday....sipping cocktails at sunset and scoffing down all you can eat seafood buffets.

We then travelled down to Guimares (via a stop in IloIlo) a small island in between Panay and Negros. We ended up at the Valle Verde Mountain Resort in the middle of the island which is set in a lush jungle valley complete with it's own spring fed swimming pool. There's only 5 huts there so it was very peaceful and we got plently of reading and DVD watching done. It was a lovely family run business and their home cooking went down a treat.

We did set out on a walk into the jungle one morning before breakfast which didn't bode well for future walks!! Within 15 minutes we were covered in sweat, had lost the trail and our heads were spinning.

After Guimares we got the boat over to the large island of Negros where we planned to climb Mt Kanalaon which is in the top 6 active volcanoes in the Philippines. We visited the Department of Environment Office in Bacolod where we were able to get a permit to climb it. They only allow one group per day so we felt lucky to get our permit. We spent a busy day in Bacolod buying provisions for the trip and equipment. We needed our own tent so Bargain Bryn picked us one up for $12. For some reason we were in charge of providing food for our guide so we picked up a load of tins and hoped we'd be able to whip something up with them. We stayed the night before at a thermal hot springs resort on the slopes of the volcano.

The alarm clock buzzed into life at 5am and to be honest shouldering our full 75 litre packs (we hadn't opted for a porter) at that time in the morning seemed very hard work. We were puffed and sweating by the time we'd crossed the resort for our rendez-vous with our guide! The first couple of hours were extremely tough going....quite steep uphill and with the biggest packs we'd ever walked with in our lives. When we'd booked the trip they hadn't been too keen to let us walk this route due to the thermal power company activity in the national park. Unsurprisingly they have a few issues with green activists upsetting the ongoing activity. However, we passed by the works unscathed and the security guards even smiled at us. A definite blot on the landscape however as we could hear the hum of the thermal plant most of the day. As we ascended though it did gradually get cooler.....and after a long old day walking we finally hit an old crater at the top....1800m higher than we'd started that morning. Our campsite was inside this old crater which is now full of swamp. We explored the swamp swinging through the trees between the dry spots...

We got an early night as it was so cold - and got into our sleeping bags to scoff oreos and try out our new headtorches

The next day was less uphill but provided more jungle challenges for us. But it did give us our first view.....

We spent the whole day ducking, weaving and climbing over things.

At some stages we even had to conduct vertical ascents with our packs on!!

We passed by many pretty lagoons.....

Before we came upon our target.....Mount Kanalaon

We had to camp in the trees near the crater so that they would provide shelter from any ash that was erupted during the night. We tried not to think how our $12 tent would hold up in those circumstances. By this stage the guy ropes were all frayed and the poles were splitting! Goodness knows how Fi managed to fit in there too......!

However, after setting up camp, we made our final ascent up to the crater's edge. It really was a breathtaking moment looking over that crater rim for the first time.

Over the edge it dropped vertically off....straight down a few hundred metres to a pile of ash....and then a large tunnel ominously heading off into the bowels of the earth. We stood staring down at this for quite some time.....it was truly awesome.

Successful team on the top of Negros Island.....

Heading down to our camp for dinner there was a truly spectacular sunset over the crater.....even Bryn was impressed

The next day heading downhill our thoughts had turned to getting to the beach as quickly as possible. Tracker Fi spotted our first wild snake (which Bryn has since identified as a deadly Black Mamba) slithering across our path before settling behind a foothold. We scuttled quickly by! We were back in Bacolod for lunch where we amazed the McDonalds employees with our burger eating capacities before heading to Dunkin Donut for desert. We have built up quite a penchant for donuts - Dunkin Donuts, Mister Donut, Krispy Kreme Donut etc etc!

We then had to spend a whole day on a bus before we arrived at Sipalay where Sugar Beach is billed as Boracay without the crowds. Bryn quite rightly pointed out that it was more like demerara sugar but either way it was pretty nice.

We were staying at Takatuka Lodge which is run by a couple of Swiss guys with an eclectic sense of interior design. We were in the Superstar Suite.....complete with a pink cadillac bed with working headlights

And a movietime balcony

Yes, the light is a video camera and the light switch was a camera!

However, keen to do some diving we soon headed on...spending a night in Dumaguete complete with it's floral wastewater treatment works in the centre of town. Definitely puts Thames Water to shame.

We got the ferry over to Bohol Island where we had a short tuk-tuk transfer over to Panglao Island and the diving. We found the cheapest dive operator in town and headed off in a boat the next day to Balicasag Island where we did two amazing dives spotting the black coral which is a local speciality and also 2 turtles which was an amazing moment The next day saw a spectacular wall dive, us swimming through a coral arch and also our first drift dives where Bryn enjoyed sitting in his Buddha position, not moving a muscle, showing excellent buoyancy control and watching the coral pass by.

We transfered back to Bohol Island and hired two motorbikes the next day and set out on a day trip to see the local sights. It's great that everyone speaks English but a few road signs wouldn't go amiss. Within 10 minutes we were lost and were directed to our destination via some pretty small pot-holed roads. Bryn had to regularly stop for 15 mins or so to wait for 'Hells Angel' Fifi to come roaring round the bends....putt putt putt putt! The child riding the BMX was even suprised to be overtaking her down a hill!

Note the unplanned matching biker outfits........

We made it to the Tarsier Centre mid morning and had a personal tour around the Tarsier enclosure. Tarsier's are one of the world's smallest primates and can fit in the palm of a human hand....their heads can turn almost 360 degrees and their eyes are 125 times bigger in relation to their head size than a humans. All in all pretty cute.

We stopped at the Butterfly Farm for a quick tour. Didnt realise you could touch moths' wings - but we touched this one's............

Before heading to the Chocolate Hills which are a spectacular formation of coral deposits which have eroded into perfect little chocolate drops - during the dry season the vegetation roasts to a chocolate brown colour. Having spent some time negotiating some pretty tough roads we were glad to find a nice flat straight road with perfect tarmac.....but unfortunately the heavens opened and we were completely soaked by the time we arrived at the viewing area! Luckily though we were pretty impressed by the views

Then it was time to leave the Philippines where we'd felt pretty at home for the last month. We hopped on a ferry to Cebu - admiring the wonderful nautical scenery?......

Played a couple of games of bowling and had our first starbucks for nearly 6 months - caramel machiatos all round!

And jumped on our plane to Borneo!

Sadly enough, getting on our Thai Airways flight was an exciting experience for us. We thought our meal was amazing and we loved the unlimited wine served with it even though it was 10am.

Arriving in Manila, we took a taxi to Malate – a relatively salubrious part of town where we hoped we could get a cheap room. No such luck…we viewed some of the smallest coffins of the trip before finding a relatively OK one above Starbucks. It was just a pity that it was Saturday night and and at times it actually felt like some carnival was processing through our room.

However, the next day we were still up bright and early for our city tour.

We walked to Intramuros, the Spanish walled town, and had a potter round a few churches and the cathedral which had been rebuilt about five times due to earthquakes.

Then we went over to Fort Santiago which the Spanish had originally built but had been occupied by the US, the Japanese and even the British for a short period.

The Filipinos don't believe in wasting a good castle moat...and have turned it into a golf course....

Then in classic Bryn and Fi style we decided to walk to China town ignoring the numerous taxis and jeepneys that were beeping us for a lift as we proceeded over a huge multi-lane bridge which clearly wasn’t used to seeing many pedestrians. We then found ourselves in the middle of a slum next to the port. However, people were very friendly and Bryn had an offer to play basketball.
We were very excited to catch a jeepney later in the day. Jeepney's are modified US Army jeeps - but now the jeepney drivers try to outdo each other competing for the gaudiest decorations...

We then spent the rest of the day camped out in Burger King which offered free wifi and tried to decide which way to go from Manila. Eventually after an awful lot of trauma we got a flight booked to the Calamian Islands off the coast of Palawan so that Bryn could do his PADI course. But not before a day spent chilling out and watching more movies inc popcorn…..note the rather unusual lights in our room!

The next day we boarded our tiny plane for the 40 minute hop over to Busuanga Island.

We met up with Gerd from Rocksteady Diving who had agreed to take Bryn on. It’s a new dive operation so we were the only customers of the day and had a great time on the boat on the way to the dive site. We were really lucky to not be just one of the crowd with the other ‘fastfood dive operations’ on the island. After a few basics it was time to put the kit on! Bryn seemed to have a lot of fun doing this....the regulator providing particular entertainment...

Then the wetsuit...

Fins...

And mask...

Before preparing to jump...

And then jumping!!

We both had a fantastic 4 days. Fi joined in on day 1 as she was having her refresher course. Gerd couldn’t believe that she actually hadn’t dived in the sea before having only done 10 dives in England’s dark and cold reservoirs and quarries. Bryn got his Open Water PADI qualification on day 4 - he did very well, although our instructor did admit to us that he didn't think Bryn would make it after the first day. Unfortunately Bryn's biggest problem on day 1 had been the fins - he'd been given the biggest clown feet fins you've ever seen and as he’d never snorkeled before his pin legs struggled somewhat with them!

Fi also got in on the action for a few of the dives once Bryn had qualified and we loved Barracuda Lake...which is a really special dive. First of all, you have to do a 25m ascent in full scuba gear over big jagged boulders to get from the sea to the lake.

Everyone was impressed that Fi managed it as normally the boatmen carry the gear for the women - but we explained that 17kg of scuba gear is nothing compared to our rucksacs! Once we made it over to the lake we descended down into brackish water and at about 10m we hit a layer of hot seawater....about the temperature of bathwater. Just as we were about to overheat we found a layer of much cooler water. It was so wierd swimming through all the different layers...at times we couldn't see due to the heat haze. It was really quite amazing.

The main reason divers come to Coron is to do wreck diving - and after a day of rest we were off to dive two of them. The wrecks are mainly the Japanese fleet which was seeking shelter in WWII when the US bombed and sunk most of them. Unfortunately the warships are all mainly at a depth of 30m+ so being novices we decided to give them a miss. The 2 ships we got to dive were auxillary ships mainly carrying cargo. Despite being stripped by salvage teams there was still plenty to look at on them. It really was spine tingling seeing them looming up for the first time. Visibility wasn't great but it kind of added to the eeriness of the situation. They were both covered in coral with lots of bright fishes eyeing us up as we explored. We were able to penetrate the second wreck and were amazed to swim along corridors and into the engine room. We felt quite James Bond, brandishing our torches, as other dive groups would suddenly loom out of the gloom. With both dives reaching a bottom point of 25m it was an impressive set of dives for Bryn’s sixth and seventh dives of his career.

One evening we visited the local hot springs where Bryn was befriended by the local youths who wanted him to sing love ballads with them. Filippinos love to sing and in Coron Town there is a constant background noise of karaoke bars and they think nothing of striking up in public…..

We were sad to leave Coron as we’d grown quite at home there after a week but we were also glad to board our first Philippines ferry which seemed to exist just to ferry backpackers to El Nido. We were glad to get off the Jessabel after 8 hours on board and arrive at the picture postcard town of El Nido which is the gateway town to the Bacuit Archepelego - a series of jagged limestone karst islands just off the coast interspersed with beautiful beaches.

We had two days of activities lined up courtesy of Gem and Phil’s wedding present. Day 1 was spent on a small boat touring the local sights such as lagoons, beaches and snorkel spots…..the seascape really is stunning……

Promising to keep the Secret Lagoon secret…..

On Day 2 we had our own two person kayak and set off on our own into the open sea.

We headed over to a tiny island with a beach and had thought we had it to ourselves before a boat of Filippinos turned up to cook their lunch! We pushed on and found a picture postcard beach for our lunch complete with coconut trees and hoardes of scuttling crabs. It really was a treat to kayak along the island coast and to spot an enticing beach and to paddle over and pull up! Only a handful of people live on the island so it really was our own piece of paradise for the day! Sea kayaking is particularly tough against the waves and by the afternoon we were knackered!! But we needed to push on as otherwise they’d send out the rescue boat. Fi was glad to not be left behind as usual and will lobby for a two person kayak in future. We did make it back to El Nido and quickly turned around to head out for a slap up meal, including a bottle of wine, to celebrate a fantastic two days – thanks Gem and Phil!!

We got the bus down Palawan to Puerto Princesa in a rush to find the Immigration Office so that we could extend our visas. After 7 hours on our bus there we realised it was a Saturday....doh!

So we went off on a day trip to the Sabang caves....the longest caves in the world which we were able to take a boat trip in them for 2km. They were pretty amazing....and home to lots of bats. It was slightly disconcerting to feel drops of water or bat poo land on us throughout the trip.

When we came out of the caves we were amazed to find monitor lizards roaming the picnic area and gangs of ninja monkeys making raids on people's lunches....

Surprisingly we’ve almost stayed three weeks in the Philippines and it’s totally whizzed by. We really are enjoying the country and its people. It’s a strange mix of contrasts….some of the nicest people we’ve met on our trip so far but also a country with a security guard stationed outside each and every shop in the cities. We're starting to get used to the politeness - everywhere we go we are greeted by Ma'am and Sir which makes a change from the snotty nosed teenagers in the UK. Christianity is big here and instead of commercial billboards lining the road on the way to Puerto Princesa it was nice to see the Lord’s Prayer spelt out….phrase by phrase over a kilometre. The American influence is strong and the malls in the cities are full of American fast food chains. It’s also really nice being able to chat with people, something we were really starting to miss on mainland SE Asia….as everyone speaks great English (not just people working in tourism).

But anyways.....off to catch our flight to Boracay.....one of the top 10 beaches in the world. Backpacking is a tough life