My next destination after Sri Lanka was another new country - The Philippines. Just looking at the map of this country gave me a travel headache! Most countries have a logical loop to travel round incorporating the good places - the Philippines is an archipelago that consists of 7,641 islands which makes navigating your way round not so straightforward. I spent a month there and in retrospect a lot of that seemed to be spent on various forms of transportation!
First stop (and last stop) was the crazy capital Manila. It's not known as one of the world's great capitals but it was worth a couple of days. Manila was my first introduction to the wonderful world of the Jeepney - these are colourful elongated jeeps that act as communal taxis running up and down Filipino streets. For a few pesos they can take you right across the city - the only problem is knowing where they are going! - the destination is on the front of the vehicle but for a foreigner there is no way of knowing the route! Also getting on them is tricky as well as there are no set stops - in the end you just you flag them down, jump on and hope for the best!
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| If the jeepneys are full you can always travel by trike - bottom right - the driver may have to be woken though! |
View of Manila from rooftop bar
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| Manila has some fine old churches (Catholicism is the main religion here - handed down from the Spanish colonialists) |
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| Cock fighting is not only legal but a national sport - a one billion dollar a year industry! There are 2500 arenas like the one in the picture and every Filipino man seems to own a cockerel! |
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Like all Asian countries the Philippines has drug problems - their president Rodrigo Duterte has a novel way of dealing with them - illegal Police death squads who assassinate drug dealers - well let's hope they are drug dealers...
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The Philippines saw major action in World War 2 - some of the toughest fighting was on the island of Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay - it made a fascinating day out and a reminder of the sacrifice so many made for our freedom today.
From Manila I hopped on an overnight bus and headed down the Luzon peninsula to Legazpi - home to an impressive volcano and also to the brilliantly named Bob Marlin fish restaurant!
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| Legazpi |
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| Mayon Volcano |
Then it was onto Donsol on the coast for beach time and some scuba diving - a few firsts on the dives...
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| one of these... |
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| ...and one of these...!! |
The backpackers was pretty nice too!!
A few days of lazing around and I soon got itchy feet - I had heard of an island called Malapascua and it caught my fancy - little did I know that the journey there would be quite traumatic!
Like many of my journeys in the Philippines it took all day - from 7am til 10pm!
First a trike from the backpackers to the local town - then a bus to the port - then a ferry to another island. Then I had to catch another ferry to another island but of course it didn't leave from the same port - the bus was going to be too slow to make the connection - so it was a mad dash on a motorbike taxi across the island - that's where it got interesting as my driver crashed about half way there - thankfully at low speed and only a scraped knee for me and a grazed arm for the driver. Of course it was in the middle of nowhere so I had to climb on another motorbike and get to the port - I managed to get the ferry and 7 hours later arrived in Cebu island - I eventually found a bed for the night - albeit still a trike, bus and ferry ride followed by a 2 km hike to reach Malapascua the next day!!
But as you can see from my pictures it was worth the effort!!!
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| Malapascua....worth the effort!! |
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| Malapascua as well as a tourist destination is a working fishing island... |
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| It has the most incredible sunsets .... |
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| ...and some pretty cool places to enjoy them... |
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| The beach dogs like to hang out on the sand too.... |
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| Beautiful seascapes here... |
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| Island life... |
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| My favourite photo from Malapascua - local guy gathering shellfish at dusk |
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| Even leaving the island was an adventure - top right walking trough the shallows to the outrigger... |
Another big travel day (2km hike - ferry - bus - taxi - ferry - motorbike taxi) got me to the island of Bohol. Very different from Malapascua this island was more about the internal scenery than the coast...I hired a moped and made my way round the island...
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| This island is full of old Spanish churches - unfortunately quite a few were badly damaged in the 2013 earthquake |
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The so called Chocolate Hills of Bohol - more green than brown when I was there but an impressive sight in the dawn mist
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| My bike trip took me down to the lovely Loboc river... |
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| This guy was older than me and scaled this palm tree twice a day to collect the sap to make the local drink "Toddy" |
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| A beautiful coast but tsunamis are a risk in this area |
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| Rural life in Bohol goes on unchanged... |
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| Everyone helps with the rice harvest... |
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| Transportation using a water buffalo hauled sled - it's been like this for centuries... |
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| A modern form of transport but an unusual passenger... |
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| Sleeping dogs lie... |
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| Not your usual ice cream flavours!! |
Another huge journey ( moped - motorbike taxi - ferry - taxi - flight - minivan ) took me to the island of Palawan - the town of El Nido has some beautiful rock formations but is suffering a bit from tourist over exposure - flights into El Nido bring in the masses and it's popular with locals as it's not too far from Manila by air. A beautiful place but just too many people - I've cropped them all out of the photos so it looks idyllic!!
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| El Nido |
Another day and another ferry...this time to Coron - known mainly for it's amazing wreck diving
When I wasn't under the sea Coron had some pretty nice scenery to keep me happy - these huge mangroves on the coast were great to explore by canoe - was grateful for my GPS though - it was a maze in there!
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| Coron from the top of Mount Tapyas |
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| Was nice to hang around for the sunset... |
Well that was pretty much it for the Philippines - I crossed over to Mindoro (ferry bus taxi...etc :-)) had a few days on the beach before heading back to Manila for my flight to Hong Kong
The Filipinos are a friendly people - always ready with a smile & happy to help a stranger - a trip to the Philippines is highly recommended before it gets too touristy... already starting to happen and like a lot of places in Asia it can get out of control and spoiled...traveling around takes planning, time, stamina (and bandages!)
That's it for now ...Cheers WanderVet
