San Miguel and sunshine
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2004
1
17
20
Trip End
Ongoing
Manila, Philippines
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Well it's been a long time since we last wrote but as usual we've been running around everywhere and not had time to sit down and write.
Since our last entry we have been to the Philippines, England, Singapore and Australia (just a few stops!!!!).
Philippines
The Philippines is one crazy place, probably the craziest out of everywhere we've been in Asia, which is saying something!! We spent nearly a month there visiting my dad, celebrating his 60th birthday (old bugger!) and visiting different places. One thing that really stands out that you see more of then anything else there is guns - everywhere! Security guards with guns outside Macdonalds, Starbucks, service stations and everywhere you would least expect it. I think they're scared someone might steal the coffee beans! Another thing that you see everywhere but which we loved was the jeepneys - brightly painted "taxis" made out of old American jeeps left over from the war and used to pick up up to 15 people at a time. Much more fun then buses as long as you keep your eyes closed when in the traffic because the roads there are a law unto themselves!!
Anyway, when we arrived we went straight to my dad's house in Manila and then after a couple of days of settling in we took a 9 hour bus journey up to the North of the country to the rice terraces of Banaue. This was a beautiful place that was almost completely untouched by tourism, which is something hard to find these days! The local elderly people still lived in tribes and some wore traditional costume of brightly woven fabrics and animal bones. Over the three days there we visited many rice fields, walked along mountain roads and visited a traditional village where Luke and I were dressed up as the Chiefs of the village! In some places we visited the customs were so upheld that they even still had headhunters (although the government likes to cover this up!).
After Banaue we took a flight down to Borocay - the gem of the Philippines - a beautiful island with white sand, sun and lots of shops! We spent about 4 days there topping up the tan, drinking lots of San Miguel (dad mostly!) and swimming in the warm sea.
Another lovely island we visited was Malapascua just North of Cebu. Luke and I spent almost a week there on the beautifully peaceful island where we stayed right in the heart of the local village, which was a real privilege (apart from the cockerels in the mornings!). There wasn't much to do on the island so we both went scuba diving most days and I got my PADI Open Water Diver qualification. Whilst on the island one day we decided to take a boat ride to a neighbouring island with an infamous local - Captain Jeff. We met this guy drinking a bottle of Red Horse (Filipino equivalent of Stella) over breakfast but failed to take this as a warning sign! Anyway, we ended up on this boat trip with about 10 other travelers (mostly girls) and Jeff proceeded to drink and chat up all the women the whole way to the island. When we arrived we went snorkeling then came out of the water for lunch but Captain Jeff was no-where to be found. Anyway, we found him passed out on an old chair behind a beach hut and had to wake him up so we could get back on the boat!!! This continued throughout the day as we visited different beaches and came to a head when we tried to get back onto the boat to go home and he was too drunk to climb the ladder ending up with him falling backwards into the sea!!! It was very funny and all the local village children ran out to the beach to see what was happening and almost wet themselves laughing!
From Malapascua we went back to Manila and spent a night at our friend Manolo's house who had a hot springs swimming pool in his garden - not bad hey! We also went rafting down rapids and under waterfalls in Pacsahan and visited a nearby volcano.
Whilst in the Philippines we found out that we had to go back to England for a funeral so we took a flight to KL (9 hours delayed of course - the Filipinos couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery!), then back to England. From home we flew back to KL then took a connecting flight to Singapore.
