Okay I have to explain the title. One of the most interesting things we have noticed about the Philippines is that they love puns and play on words. Literally everywhere they replace the word everyone with “Every Juan” or someone with “Some Juan”. Even on the side of malls, or business billboards:
In the photo you might also notice the thick layer of pollution in the background. That is Manila. We have spent only as much time in Manila as time between flights. The few moments we have spent outside the sweet, acrid smell of burning plastic cascades through our tracheae. Not the most pleasant place to be; glad we avoided it. Anyway, on with the blog!
12.29.2013
Yet another travel day!
The ride from El Nido back to Puerto Princessa started at 5am. It was just as bumpy and curvy as the way there. Nothing in particular of note; on arrival we dropped off a bunch of clothes at a big industrial facility to clean off the sweat, soot, and seawater of the last few days.
The day was spent being lazy, using internet, drinking a few beers, eating some sizzling squid and bone marrow soup. Every meal has to include squid or I am thoroughly disappointed. We were just killing time until our flight at 5pm, which unfortunately didn’t board until 11pm. 6 hours we sat in plastic seats of a crowded, tiny terminal with babies crying, and romance shows in Tagalog to watch and make-up what was going on, finding some joy in the ridiculous over drama of it all. In the end they gave us free fastfood from either McDonalds or Jollibee, the local, slightly crappier McDonalds.
We finally landed in Cebu, and after a quick taxi were in the hotel we would sleep the next 4 hours before waking up for our early flight.
12.30.2013
A piece of paradise
The flight to Camiguin was far less painful; up at 5am, on-time flight at 6am. Out the tiny oval window were a series of beautiful green islands, we landed on one surrounded by baby blue waters and towering with dormant volcanoes. Our hosts Cocoy and Elden picked us up in their van. They are friends of Joanna from Washington DC where her and Elden worked together. As we were soon to learn, they have carved out a perfect piece of paradise to live on!
We checked in at a very pleasant, hammock strewn beach hotel around the corner where we dropped off our bags, had a quick breakfast and headed over to Elden’s place for our first pressed coffee of the trip (everything else has been Nescafe instant coffee, which actually grows on you if you are desperate enough). Their place is under construction, but even now it is absolutely gorgeous! Right on the beach, teeming with beautiful rows of bright flowers and coconut trees. The house pulls from Indonesian, Chinese, and traditional Filipino architecture. They plan to live in the main house, and build smaller bungalows for guests. Here is just a hint of one finished part, a beautiful pagoda in the middle of a lake. These two have style!
A family of ducks lives in the lake which sometimes peck your ankles as you walk by, begging for food; just a random fact. Elden and Cocoy treated us to a full day of scenic views, waterfalls, hot springs, island history, and an absolutely magnificent meal of local fish and pork.They are incredible hosts, and very funny guys; Elden originally from Western Australia, and Cocoy originally from not far from Camiguin Island. The waterfall they took us to first was especially beautiful, and we got to swim in the nice cool waters, though for once it is not an escape from the sweltering humidity as here it is rather cool for a change.
The island is covered in Christmas decorations still, as each of the 5 main villages on the tiny island compete for the best decorations. We pass small groups of people along the tiny roads having BBQ’s and listening their music as most celebrate time off between Christmas and New Year’s. Rice terraces are everywhere, always with a water buffalo or cow wading in the water, and speckling many grassy hills are roosters separate from one another so they don’t attack before the planned cockfight they are to partake in; a common island past-time. Overall the scenery is just beautiful.
As mentioned earlier, we received a late lunch of magnificent food. Cocoy and Elden literally have their personal chef to prepare their meals, and wow, can she cook!
The day was topped off with likely the most spectacular beach sunset views of the trip. A 5 minute boat ride from their property took us to an island of powdery white sand which could probably fit a total of 100 people. The island grows and shrinks and changes shape over the seasons; now it’s like a little snake-like white ‘W’ surrounded by baby blue waters. We drank beers, local rum with coke and the native baby ‘calamansi’ lime and watched the sunset turn to fiery orange over the ocean.
Amazingly the night was not yet over. We went to a very nice restaurant run by an ultra-laid back Californian dude with his Filipino wife as the head chef; best prawns ever! An extremely enthused, kind of crazy, shaved-head Australian man kept affectionately head butting everyone in the shoulder and asking me to have drinks with him. It was good and a bit weird.
12.31.2013
Clams!
The high point of the day was most definitely going to the giant clam sanctuary. Giant is almost an understatement; these things get to 4 feet long! The facility is run by a research university and managed by a co-op of young teenagers who are very knowledgeable. Someone involved is particularly Christian as every few feet there is a manger or depiction of Jesus out of clam shells next to signs with sayings like “Please Respect Morality”.
An awesomely friendly and bright young boy with a severe cleft lip swam with us to the clams. They are laid out in rows, hundreds of them for research purposes. The colors are incredibly varied, and as your swimming over them disturbs them, they snap shut, violently shooting a burst of air at you. My biggest fear was slipping a finger inside their snapping mouth and losing it!
In the photo above, these were the small ones! The big ones were after 30min of swimming and were much deeper.
In this photo I am still about 12ft. above these clams, seriously massive! I took some video which will be posted later to really capture their size. The rest of the day was spent exploring the island and lounging around, as one does in such places.
Evening came and we headed to our first party. The BBQ was very good, but some of the guests were a bit odd. There were just a few too many white 60+ year olds with their Filipino 30- year old wives, one girl looking as young as 18 with a guy looking more like 70. While the white guy/Filipino girl thing is incredibly common here, especially on the island, you can easily get a feel for when it is a mutual attraction, or a creepy old dude taking advantage of a submissive, poor young girl; this night there appeared too much of the latter.
The second event, the real New Year’s Eve event, was excellent. Lots of great food, people, dancing, and at midnight fireworks went up from all over the island as the locals had their own little shows competing with neighbors. The deck where we partied was right near a dark secluded space where you could watch the fireflies dance. It was a good evening.
01.01.2013
Happy New Year!
Up at 5:30am, way too early for New Year’s day, but the only flight off the island is at 7. Soon we were back in Cebu, but at a new hotel. After a nap followed by a taxi ride through the desolate city (everyone nursing a hangover) we were at the upscale shopping mall, Ayala, for some pressed coffee (finally!!!) and sit down brunch. We ate some delicious Thai food with curry, Tom Yum, and vegetables; a welcome break from the typical meat and rice of the Philippines. The shopping mall felt more like Orange County than a developing nation.
Our next stop was Magellan’s cross. Here is where Magellan landed and decided these dirty, heathen, local barbarians needed the sweet saving love of Jesus Christ. He showed them the light of Christianity by first placing a wooden cross in the sand, then over the next many decades slaughtering everyone who resisted, and rewarding those who converted, a pretty effective trick considering the staunch Catholicism still embedded in society today.
Next was the Cathedral de Santa Nino. Cebu city celebrates this tiny wooden figurine of child Jesus which was supposedly given to a Filipino chieftain by one of Magellan’s crew; it quickly became a relic of great importance and remains so today. Anyway they built an entire cathedral around this doll, and every house, hotel, business, and taxi in the city has a miniature Santa Nino.
We stood in line with hundreds of devotees to see the wooden child Jesus; it was rather impressive surrounded by pretty silver and gold, and bedecked with gemstones. The guard wouldn’t let us take a solid picture of it though. Funny thing, you always hear of adult Jesus and baby Jesus, but only here in Cebu is the childhood of Jesus really acknowledged.
Next we walked through a terrifying part of town, a stark contrast from the wealth of the Ayala mall, this place felt like a post-nuclear war, apocalyptic hell-scape. Crumbling concrete of abandoned buildings, the smell of human feces pervasive, people sleeping in gutters, and soot covered glue sniffers huddling in dark corners. Why did we turn down this street? Sometimes it is humbling to see the reality of a developing nation. Until this point, the poverty of the Philippines has been somewhat hidden, but the following picture does no justice to how terrifying the conditions of the impoverished can be.
It’s hard to take good photos of the severe poverty. 1) You fear for the safety of the camera, and 2) You feel like an ass showing any sign of wealth when these people have nothing, so trust me when I say that the part of town we walked through was simply awful.
Well on that depressing note we headed back to the hotel and grabbed literally the greatest meal we have had the entire trip. The place is called Zubu Chon and specializes in absolutely stunning pork belly, and sizzling squid stuffed with pork belly (remember what I said about every meal having to have squid). It was spectacular.
01.02.2013
Fond Farewell!
We bid farewell to Joanna for her flight to Taipei then home. Jess and I still had a whole day of exploration however. First stop was the national museum which would have been so amazing except it was closed because the recent earthquake made it structurally unsound. The recent earthquake is also why we didn’t do a day trip to Bohol from here. Where once stood dozens of 16th-18th century cathedrals built with local stone and decorated with seashells; all now crumbled to dust in the most recent 7.2 magnitude.
Instead we visited two traditional homes built around the 16th century, one in Spanish Colonial Style:
And one in traditional Chinese merchant style:
Both have survived massive earthquakes and roaring typhoons. Pretty impressive. We just bummed around the rest of the day simply enjoying exploring a big city, nothing too noteworthy really; the usual parks and shops and so on. We ended the day again at Zubu Chon (simply couldn’t resist), and indulged in the final delicacy of the Philipines, a multi-layered, ultra-sweet, syrupy rice/candy/bean/mystery drink called Halo-Halo. It was good, but felt like diabetus.
Our next flight is at an appalling 5am. Alarm set for 3:30am to make our way to Taipei!See you then. Make sure to check out the full set of photos at:
Dave and Jess Travel Blog. 