7100 islands and rocks of which about 4600 are named, the remaining 2500 unnamed since there existence. That's still 2500 rocks and islands that still need to be explored! Yey!!
With so many islands one would wonder why we haven't found the postcard perfect beach yet, we found one which came close, but it only came close. Certain experts told us that the perfect beach is to be found in Boracay (gasp), we swore not to go there, but their arguments were convincing enough that we would have broken our oath, but luckily, or not, it was time which saved us. With so many islands in the Visayas we had to do some slashing in our itinerary. In the end we set foot on (only) 20 islands which equates to 0.43% of the 4600 with a name!
But hey, of course Philippines is not only about beaches. It's the quirks that linger, like the roosters making noise at any given time of the day, the way people would say yes (a reverse wink), pointing not with fingers or thumb, but with their lips, as if giving a peck in the air, it's the way employees stick to you when doing shopping or the way they almost run to the stockroom when you ask if they have your shoe in size 39, even the dance with touts or overpricing taxi drivers get amusing after while. It's just like dancing on the same song every time and again, but then with different partners, some partners you can dance with very well and have a chat with afterwards (give the driver a tip) and sometimes you just want the song to finish as soon as possible (terrible driving, hardly tipping).
The Philippines also, and actually for the biggest part, is about the people. They are just wonderful, what ever happens they just keep on smiling. I can see that they didn't understand my bestest Filipino or English or Taglish, and they keep on looking at me, maybe waiting for something to happen, but they stand there.... smiling, even while saying 'we don't have a coke light' or 'all rooms are fully booked' they manage to sneak a smile in there, I bet they even smile while sitting on the loo. The smiles is what I'll miss most.
Tonight we leave for Taipei, yet another island. Philippines is done. But only for now :)
Friday, April 30, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Owh.. these two islands!!
I really didn't know what to expect of Siquijor, it is supposed to have witches and Filipino voodoo shizzle going on (don't know what the shizzle is all about ), I saw some travel stories about the island and to be honest they weren't inspiring, people doing folkloristic dances in folkloristic clothing, it just didn't catch me. But somehow we ended up there and I wouldn't have wanted to miss it a bit!!
Our first inn wasn't really all that and as we already booked for the other nights at a dive resort, we headed to Sandugan some 30km east of Siquijor Town. The driver knew the resort and of course immediately tried the lets-see-what-I-can-charge-these-tourists act, which didn't work by the way, but at the end of the ride he helped our luggage down a flight of stairs and that earned him an tip. In hindsight I discovered I'm not handicapped so next time I'll faint a limp leg and make him carry me as well, purely to justify the tipping. Yes, I'm making fun of them. They are still overcharging us.
Raul, one of the managers of the resort and also a very very good dive guide welcomed us and made us walk up the same flight of stairs again because the room we booked was not a beach front one, alas it was only cliff front. No help from the driver this time. The room turned out to be a fully equipped cottage with fridge and cooking facilities. Imagine our joy and slight step up to independence. We could cook our own meals and make our own tea and instant coffee!!
Inspired by the site of complete families riding a single motorbike, I suggested that we also try riding one. After a crash course in semi automatic gear shifts and a note about road rules, or the lack of, we explored the eastern part of the island. Finally I can say I can join the league of traffic participants known as 'grown ups', at least in the Philippines. It's kinda fun, throttling up, acting important, honking the horn to warn dogs, cattle, chicken, inattentive pedestrians and other road users. I found out that I officially need a drivers licence but then again the small kids that over took us frequently couldn't be 18, nor any older.
There we went, up and down the hills, riding on coastal roads and visiting beaches, passing the villages with there friendly adults and even friendlier children. The whole island vibe wanted me to go slow, take my time, enjoy the scenes, but... the bike was stronger, doing 60kph on empty roads was just too tempting.
The people and seemingly the whole island wanted me to stay longer, I might have been voodood, a little, but time is running out on the Visayas and I feel other treasure islands need to be explored. With a promise to visit again we boarded the ferry, bringing us closer to other destinations... like Apo Island (only pictures) ... Woohoo!!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Water is not only for fish :)
Hey all! Thanks for visiting again :D Enjoy the read, unfortunately not so many different pictures this time, but still have fun with the images!
Ow, how fun is it in and on the water! We finally did some surfing in San Juan, La Union. Both locals and visitors alike were waiting for ages for the surf to come. El Nino is not only causing a lot of drought, but is also no friend of waves, so when it was on everybody had a great time and shared the fun, three hoorays for the good vibes! We were at Majestics, Catanduanes as well, but the surf was too rough, had to be content with Dutch weather!! Not yet, not yet!!
Marlies and I went up for our Advanced Open Water course in Mindoro to improve our underwater skills, we saw rock fish, frog fish, really teeny weeny sea horses, tons of butterfly fish, a stargazer, lion fish, ghost fish, trumpet fish and lots more we couldn't identify. The course we finished with a penetration of a wreck at 30 meters below sea level. Yes, that's what you do with wrecks and no it's not my choice of words.
We also did some unplanned wake boarding. Who would says that hanging on on a rope and falling on water could leave one with a painful neck, sore muscles and wanting for more? Respect for you guys and girls! Unfortunately I'm more injured than I thought, there is definitely something wrong with my shoulder, neck, arm and wrist, the pain kinda keeps me awake at night, I really need to have looked at :(
With the wake boarding adventure finished, we payed a visit to the gentle giants of Donsol, the whale shark. They are the biggest fish in the world, have a huge mouth which they only use for plankton, but that doesn't mean a careless diver can't enter the mouth...... The biggest one we saw was around 9 meters in length, there were sightings of 12 meters sharks, but not where we were... come to think of it, how do you not spot a 12 meter long fish, they should be easily spotted, right? But then again the sea is big.....We planned to swim with manta rays, but unfortunately the dive shop was a not well organized and there was a diver lady who kept on b*tch!ng about not wanting to dive with beginners who can't handle the current, the negative vibes were not a fun way to start a day of diving, so we canceled it. We had to be content with watching whale sharks again and again...oh, the agony ;) The result is a grand total of 19 sharks in three days!!
Where to next? Supposedly the Visayas is a marine sanctuary and the biodiversity underwater is... very diverse, as explorers we probably want to confirm that. More underwater love to come then, which reminds me of this song!! See you the next time!!
Ow, how fun is it in and on the water! We finally did some surfing in San Juan, La Union. Both locals and visitors alike were waiting for ages for the surf to come. El Nino is not only causing a lot of drought, but is also no friend of waves, so when it was on everybody had a great time and shared the fun, three hoorays for the good vibes! We were at Majestics, Catanduanes as well, but the surf was too rough, had to be content with Dutch weather!! Not yet, not yet!!
Marlies and I went up for our Advanced Open Water course in Mindoro to improve our underwater skills, we saw rock fish, frog fish, really teeny weeny sea horses, tons of butterfly fish, a stargazer, lion fish, ghost fish, trumpet fish and lots more we couldn't identify. The course we finished with a penetration of a wreck at 30 meters below sea level. Yes, that's what you do with wrecks and no it's not my choice of words.
We also did some unplanned wake boarding. Who would says that hanging on on a rope and falling on water could leave one with a painful neck, sore muscles and wanting for more? Respect for you guys and girls! Unfortunately I'm more injured than I thought, there is definitely something wrong with my shoulder, neck, arm and wrist, the pain kinda keeps me awake at night, I really need to have looked at :(
With the wake boarding adventure finished, we payed a visit to the gentle giants of Donsol, the whale shark. They are the biggest fish in the world, have a huge mouth which they only use for plankton, but that doesn't mean a careless diver can't enter the mouth...... The biggest one we saw was around 9 meters in length, there were sightings of 12 meters sharks, but not where we were... come to think of it, how do you not spot a 12 meter long fish, they should be easily spotted, right? But then again the sea is big.....We planned to swim with manta rays, but unfortunately the dive shop was a not well organized and there was a diver lady who kept on b*tch!ng about not wanting to dive with beginners who can't handle the current, the negative vibes were not a fun way to start a day of diving, so we canceled it. We had to be content with watching whale sharks again and again...oh, the agony ;) The result is a grand total of 19 sharks in three days!!
Where to next? Supposedly the Visayas is a marine sanctuary and the biodiversity underwater is... very diverse, as explorers we probably want to confirm that. More underwater love to come then, which reminds me of this song!! See you the next time!!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
People and the mountains
I'm back! Also check out the pictures and most of all enjoy!
Baguio was fun, and although there were not very many mind boggling sights to see, it was still entertaining and way much cooler than Manila (the temperature cool). The highlight of the stay was the family gathering one of my many aunties arranged at their place. It gave me the opportunity to add faces to the many names my dad, mom, sister and brother talked of back in NL and also I could finally place many members of the clan in some kind of mental family tree. The stories told tells me how prolific the family is. This family of bunnies will not die out soon....
Sagada and Bontoc came next. Both are reached via a long and winding road, which of course reminds us of this song. Sagada is famous for it's trek's and sights and is somewhat a touristy destination, but because it's 12 hours from Manila not many day trippers from the capital are spotted there. No members of the family in Sagada, but coincidentally the curator of a local museum used to live next to us in Baguio! You can do a lot of trekking here or you can just relax and detoxify your lungs after the pollution of Baguio and Manila. We did all three.
Bontoc is where we stayed a couple of nights after Sagada. It's just an hour's ride from the mountain town. As it was the birthplace of my mom we of course have relatives living here and where relatives are there is care. One might think that sometimes there is too much care, but it's all with heart and love in mind. Seeing the uhm... interesting preparation of pinikpikan was one of my major wishes while being here, luckily we have members of the family still residing nearby, so we set out to Alab and thus 'swatted two flies in one go'. Yey!
Kalinga, infamous for it's former day head hunters and still famous for it's rice terraces was our next stop. We met a terrific guide, well actually he 'met' us, and for our trek through rice terraces and villages in mountains near Tinglayen he hooked us up with John and Johanna, a wonderful couple from Sweden. Later Charlie, a great Brit who travels the world on his mountain bike, joined our band of merry women and men and we climbed even higher mountains, swam at a thundering waterfall, relaxed at a hot spring and met even more people who lived lives very much like there ancestors. Our stay in Kalinga we finished with a meal, partially prepared by yours truly, I bbq-ed a hen meant for boiling only..... Thankfully we had enough beer and rum to wash away the chewing gum chicken.
The sights were great and the hikes fun, but the people I met meant the most. Our guide Francis showed us a Kalinga not many see. Over there we couldn't have wished for better company than John, Johanna and Charlie. The softly killing of a chicken skillfully done by a relative in Alab and the gathering of clan members in Baguio was an excellent up beat to this wonderful part of the Philippines.
Baguio was fun, and although there were not very many mind boggling sights to see, it was still entertaining and way much cooler than Manila (the temperature cool). The highlight of the stay was the family gathering one of my many aunties arranged at their place. It gave me the opportunity to add faces to the many names my dad, mom, sister and brother talked of back in NL and also I could finally place many members of the clan in some kind of mental family tree. The stories told tells me how prolific the family is. This family of bunnies will not die out soon....
Sagada and Bontoc came next. Both are reached via a long and winding road, which of course reminds us of this song. Sagada is famous for it's trek's and sights and is somewhat a touristy destination, but because it's 12 hours from Manila not many day trippers from the capital are spotted there. No members of the family in Sagada, but coincidentally the curator of a local museum used to live next to us in Baguio! You can do a lot of trekking here or you can just relax and detoxify your lungs after the pollution of Baguio and Manila. We did all three.
Bontoc is where we stayed a couple of nights after Sagada. It's just an hour's ride from the mountain town. As it was the birthplace of my mom we of course have relatives living here and where relatives are there is care. One might think that sometimes there is too much care, but it's all with heart and love in mind. Seeing the uhm... interesting preparation of pinikpikan was one of my major wishes while being here, luckily we have members of the family still residing nearby, so we set out to Alab and thus 'swatted two flies in one go'. Yey!
Kalinga, infamous for it's former day head hunters and still famous for it's rice terraces was our next stop. We met a terrific guide, well actually he 'met' us, and for our trek through rice terraces and villages in mountains near Tinglayen he hooked us up with John and Johanna, a wonderful couple from Sweden. Later Charlie, a great Brit who travels the world on his mountain bike, joined our band of merry women and men and we climbed even higher mountains, swam at a thundering waterfall, relaxed at a hot spring and met even more people who lived lives very much like there ancestors. Our stay in Kalinga we finished with a meal, partially prepared by yours truly, I bbq-ed a hen meant for boiling only..... Thankfully we had enough beer and rum to wash away the chewing gum chicken.
The sights were great and the hikes fun, but the people I met meant the most. Our guide Francis showed us a Kalinga not many see. Over there we couldn't have wished for better company than John, Johanna and Charlie. The softly killing of a chicken skillfully done by a relative in Alab and the gathering of clan members in Baguio was an excellent up beat to this wonderful part of the Philippines.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
There is fun to be had in Manila.
The last post was quite long, so here is a short one for you. Enjoy!
Manila is skipped by many travelers we've met . How come? Might it be because it's dirty, grimy and smoggy? Because first timers and even locals find the 'public transport' so uhm... challenging? Maybe it's because Manila so blatantly shows its wealthy sides as well as its poorer sides while smiling down at you and saying 'I'm all of that, It's all here, I'm the Poor, I'm the Rich, I'm Loud, I'm Fun, I'm Big. You are here by no mistake. Make use of it!' And so we did.
Thanks to a relative of mine we were able to see the many sides of the capital. Thanks again for that kuya! We experienced and enjoyed, both just briefly, the life of the big majority while staying in the safe and comfortable home only known to few. We used the jeepney and we used the private cars with driver. We ate simple meals and we had feasts. We walked through luxurious commercial areas and we got to meet, albeit just briefly, people in ramshackle homes. We bought credits for my mobile at a small simple store fronts but we also visited the humongous Mall of Asia.
Yes, you might easily feel lost and not welcome by the city, but then again, it's a big city. Show some balls and you might just get the hang of it and linger longer than you had planned. Marlies showed some and it brought us home from our first jeepney ride in the capital and that was at night! Check out the pictures for image-like impressions on this city.
Baguio and Sagada are next on the menu. As always your comments are welcome!
Manila is skipped by many travelers we've met . How come? Might it be because it's dirty, grimy and smoggy? Because first timers and even locals find the 'public transport' so uhm... challenging? Maybe it's because Manila so blatantly shows its wealthy sides as well as its poorer sides while smiling down at you and saying 'I'm all of that, It's all here, I'm the Poor, I'm the Rich, I'm Loud, I'm Fun, I'm Big. You are here by no mistake. Make use of it!' And so we did.
Thanks to a relative of mine we were able to see the many sides of the capital. Thanks again for that kuya! We experienced and enjoyed, both just briefly, the life of the big majority while staying in the safe and comfortable home only known to few. We used the jeepney and we used the private cars with driver. We ate simple meals and we had feasts. We walked through luxurious commercial areas and we got to meet, albeit just briefly, people in ramshackle homes. We bought credits for my mobile at a small simple store fronts but we also visited the humongous Mall of Asia.
Yes, you might easily feel lost and not welcome by the city, but then again, it's a big city. Show some balls and you might just get the hang of it and linger longer than you had planned. Marlies showed some and it brought us home from our first jeepney ride in the capital and that was at night! Check out the pictures for image-like impressions on this city.
Baguio and Sagada are next on the menu. As always your comments are welcome!
Monday, February 1, 2010
From rivers to longhouse to caves
First of all, thank you for the nice comments on my posts! They are very much appreciated. I'm enjoying writing/blogging much more than I thought and reading your comments makes it even more fun! Thank you all for visiting and enjoy!
Ok, Marlies and I will be wrapping up Malaysia soon, to be precise we are leaving for the Philippines on the 2nd of February. I've never been to Malaysia, heck, I've never been to any of the countries I'm going to visit in this trip except for the Philippines, which I've only visited once since 1985, but it was full of surprises. We kind of rushed our stay on the mainland of Malaysia to spend more time on the Borneo part of it, in hind sight a choice well made. Check out our route found on the map link to the right.
Kuching is the capital of Sarawak an it's weird, it has half a million inhabitants, but where were they?! Anyway, Borneo is known for it's flora and fauna so we stayed over night in Baku National Park. It has some great walking trails through pristine jungle, we spotted the proboscis monkey with it's weird nose in it's natural and only habitat! Yey!
An other worthwhile 'activity' was a stay at a longhouse, there we got to get a feel of how the 'natives' live. To get to the longhouse we had to take a boat upriver over the Amazon of Borneo, the Rejang River. No, we didn't need to row, nowadays all transport over the river is motorized, but the trip was interesting none the less: rough currents, green lush jungle to the left and right and the occasional longhouse all made the the boat trip worthwhile, but the stay at our longhouse was the icing on the cake. The family we visited, one of about 30 under one long roof, was reserved but warm and our local guides were very kind and knowledgeable, their lack of proper English only adding to the joy of the experience.
The next destination which brought us nearer to the capital of Sabah, was Miri. Not so far from Miri lies Niah National Park. One of the caves in the park is the second largest cave in Borneo, apptly named 'The Great Cave'. All the caves together were huge, big enough to house half a million bats and half a million swiflets. Swiflets are birds that make nests from their spittle, the nest are then collected by collectors, get processed and in shops in the city we could buy 48 grams of the processed birds nest for the equivalent of 250 euro! That's 5000 euro for a kilo of dried bird spit!
Kota Kinabalu is our final destination before departing for the Philippines. We got to snorkel in the waters of a nearby island and we ate some fresh seafood from the local market. Speaking of food, the food in Malaysia stays interesting, it's not always to my taste, but then again, I've only scratched it's culinary surface. The food alone would make me come back!
That's two weeks of parts of Malaysia in one post. I'll do my best to post in shorter intervals, but connection kind of sucks. As always, comments are welcome! Dutch or English, both are just fine.
Ok, Marlies and I will be wrapping up Malaysia soon, to be precise we are leaving for the Philippines on the 2nd of February. I've never been to Malaysia, heck, I've never been to any of the countries I'm going to visit in this trip except for the Philippines, which I've only visited once since 1985, but it was full of surprises. We kind of rushed our stay on the mainland of Malaysia to spend more time on the Borneo part of it, in hind sight a choice well made. Check out our route found on the map link to the right.
Kuching is the capital of Sarawak an it's weird, it has half a million inhabitants, but where were they?! Anyway, Borneo is known for it's flora and fauna so we stayed over night in Baku National Park. It has some great walking trails through pristine jungle, we spotted the proboscis monkey with it's weird nose in it's natural and only habitat! Yey!
An other worthwhile 'activity' was a stay at a longhouse, there we got to get a feel of how the 'natives' live. To get to the longhouse we had to take a boat upriver over the Amazon of Borneo, the Rejang River. No, we didn't need to row, nowadays all transport over the river is motorized, but the trip was interesting none the less: rough currents, green lush jungle to the left and right and the occasional longhouse all made the the boat trip worthwhile, but the stay at our longhouse was the icing on the cake. The family we visited, one of about 30 under one long roof, was reserved but warm and our local guides were very kind and knowledgeable, their lack of proper English only adding to the joy of the experience.
The next destination which brought us nearer to the capital of Sabah, was Miri. Not so far from Miri lies Niah National Park. One of the caves in the park is the second largest cave in Borneo, apptly named 'The Great Cave'. All the caves together were huge, big enough to house half a million bats and half a million swiflets. Swiflets are birds that make nests from their spittle, the nest are then collected by collectors, get processed and in shops in the city we could buy 48 grams of the processed birds nest for the equivalent of 250 euro! That's 5000 euro for a kilo of dried bird spit!
Kota Kinabalu is our final destination before departing for the Philippines. We got to snorkel in the waters of a nearby island and we ate some fresh seafood from the local market. Speaking of food, the food in Malaysia stays interesting, it's not always to my taste, but then again, I've only scratched it's culinary surface. The food alone would make me come back!
That's two weeks of parts of Malaysia in one post. I'll do my best to post in shorter intervals, but connection kind of sucks. As always, comments are welcome! Dutch or English, both are just fine.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Four days, only four days...
Time for the next post! Although I had a minor delay of 2 hours the trip from Amsterdam to Singapore was surprisingly good! Food on board was filling at most, but luckily I had Singapore to look forward to.
Of course the reunion with Marlies was very happy ('masaya' as we would say in tagalog), it's really good to see her again! Now let's see if we can stick together for the coming 4,5 months :)
Singapore was great! I didn't really know what to expect from it. I knew that it would be clean, cosmopolitan-like, very organized and that the food would be good (all true), but I knew little of the people, which, by the way, is still the case. Four days is just not enough! Some things stuck out though. The food, oh the food!! Good food is never far, looking in any direction a food court or hawker center is always near, if not follow your nose. Unfortunately (fortunately??) the capacity of my stomach is finite. If it were up to me I would have sampled everything Singapore offers, but four days is just not enough! China Town and the Muslim Quarter were very.... well, Chinese and muslim, but the most surprising of all ethnic groups were the Indians in Little India! The people and district were just teeming with life and energy!
All groups seemed to live very well next to each other, they all visit the different areas, but they do seem to stay with their ethnic group, none the less we didn't see any tension between any of them! A song from Louis Armstrong comes to mind. Why, oh why can't we all live like this?
Here is where you can find us, the receptionist is a transvestite, she (he?) keeps a lot a fish, the paintings and murials make its very homely (very 'gezellig' in Dutch), in 2 days will take the plane to Kuching.
One last thing before signing off. I had a lot of replies on a non-functioning comment box. It seems fixed, here is the deal: Click on either the title of the post or on 'comments', write your comment and comment as either Anonymous or with your name. Dutch and English are both welcome.
Malaysia will follow. Thanks for reading!! Byebye!
Of course the reunion with Marlies was very happy ('masaya' as we would say in tagalog), it's really good to see her again! Now let's see if we can stick together for the coming 4,5 months :)
Singapore was great! I didn't really know what to expect from it. I knew that it would be clean, cosmopolitan-like, very organized and that the food would be good (all true), but I knew little of the people, which, by the way, is still the case. Four days is just not enough! Some things stuck out though. The food, oh the food!! Good food is never far, looking in any direction a food court or hawker center is always near, if not follow your nose. Unfortunately (fortunately??) the capacity of my stomach is finite. If it were up to me I would have sampled everything Singapore offers, but four days is just not enough! China Town and the Muslim Quarter were very.... well, Chinese and muslim, but the most surprising of all ethnic groups were the Indians in Little India! The people and district were just teeming with life and energy!
All groups seemed to live very well next to each other, they all visit the different areas, but they do seem to stay with their ethnic group, none the less we didn't see any tension between any of them! A song from Louis Armstrong comes to mind. Why, oh why can't we all live like this?
Here is where you can find us, the receptionist is a transvestite, she (he?) keeps a lot a fish, the paintings and murials make its very homely (very 'gezellig' in Dutch), in 2 days will take the plane to Kuching.
One last thing before signing off. I had a lot of replies on a non-functioning comment box. It seems fixed, here is the deal: Click on either the title of the post or on 'comments', write your comment and comment as either Anonymous or with your name. Dutch and English are both welcome.
Malaysia will follow. Thanks for reading!! Byebye!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
One more night
Ok, this is my first public blog, I've been toying around somewhere else to get a hang of the mechanics, but of course it's the content that matters, by the way to post a comment you have to click on the title of the post, the rest should be easy.
This Tuesday I finally am going to meet my girlfriend again, it has been 10 weeks!! Oh, the agony and suspense! But first I need to spend 13 hours in-flight o_O. Some sacrifices need to be made, add to that the fine weather of the Netherlands which has given me a bit a cold, sneezing, shivers and a headache, hope it doesn't progress to anything worse. For the people interested and with time on there hands, check out this site, I leave on the 11th, that's tomorrow, at 21.00, flight number is KL 0837, destination is Singapore, Malaysia. Ah, yes, just one more night! The great Phil Collins wrote a song about 'one more night', but I guess the lyrics don't really apply to me.
The plan is to spend a few days in Singapore then travel up north, catch a plane from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching, that's south in the Borneo part of Malaysia, move up north again to Kota Kinabalu and take a flight to the Philippines. Total time spent in Malaysia and Singapore: roughly 3 weeks. We plan to visit the Philippines and Japan afterwards. We might do Taiwan as well.
So that's it in a tiny nutshell, I will keep you posted on the things seen, felt, smelt, tasted and experienced. Have a look at the links in the right column as well.
Comments are always welcome, preferably English or Dutch, whatever tickles your tummy. Banzai!! To post a comment you have to click on the title of the post, the rest should be easy.
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