Bye Philippines :(

White witchcraft in Siquijor? Not really. But still a reason as good as any to go there from Apo Island. We didn't have any other plans anyways. So another trip with a boat, a bus, a boat and a tricycle. Smooth.

Siquijor has formerly been famous for unorthodox healing practices but that's all in the past nowadays. But it's still a nice cozy island a bit out of the most touristy way. Though if you want you can stay at Karlssons Guesthouse or at Norwegian dream and have some schnitzel at Fischer's.

Tanja chose Irwin over me. 

And that made Irwin very happy.

We stayed three days mostly driving around the island with a scooter. The roads were quite good, except in the middle of the island where it was more mud than sand/concrete. I got stuck only once so no worries. The road around the island is about 70 km long, nice scenery, beautiful beaches and some nice small towns with good eateries. BBQ!!! We found chicken sticks almost as good as at Junior's place in Malapascua. But only almost.

Mostly we hang out in Larena, a small town where were loads of eateries & beer stalls in the port area. Nice & cheap! We also considered diving but ended up biking & eating instead. As after three days we did another boat, bus, boat, tricycle and bus -trip to Moalboal which is one of the most famous dive spots in the Cebu island.

This time we decided to dive with a 100 % local shop, which had the best prices, nice office girl, and the oldest gear. Argh. I had to change to the 2^nd stage on the first dive as the 1^st stage was leaking so much. Also the bcd's weren't from this century. But they still kind of worked and the dive masters were really good. Also on drinking... We (me & the crew, Tanja luckily behaved) had maybe a bit too much rum on Saturday evening. 

On Sunday I did one dive, felt absolutely shitty and canceled the 2^nd one. Never again! And such a shame, as Moalboal really offers excellent diving. There's a huge school of sardines around Pescador Island and the reef in front of Moalboal is full of the most beautiful corals, small caves, turtles, frog fishes etc. A shame we only had a few days there as on today it was already time to leave the Philippines :'(

Tanja entering a cave.

Sardines, anyone?

Skeleton shrimp!

Happy Pia.

There's many countries in Asia who should take an example of the Philippines. They don't dump the rubbish in the waters or down the slopes, the traffic is not crazy, you can actually use toilets in the boats without suffocating, the people are really friendly but never harassing you. Basically anywhere you go to you can manage with english and not once we were fooled with money or overcharged. I just love it there!

All in all, we had fantastic time, met some cool locals, had excellent food and are for sure coming back! Next time Palawan! But now to Malaysia and Taman Negara!

Apooooo

During traveling in Asia I had heard a lot of good stuff about Apo Island in Negros Oriental, especially from other divers. So that was the next destination after Bohol. We took a ferry from Tagbilaran to Dumaquete, then a bus for maybe half an hour to the south and then again a small boat to Apo. Mario's homestay & dive shop came highly recommended and I really understand why. Great staff, excellent prices, the best room so far for little money and omg the grilled fish!!!

The island is quite small, it's easy to walk around and there's a nice small village with a few shops. It's for sure not a party island. And I hope it stays that way. Though we did try to find a party and ended up drinking baby beer in front of a shop with some ladies & dogs. Why not. So Apo was all about diving, once again. A typhoon a few years ago had destroyed some of the corals but the diving is still world class. Really good drift dives, beautiful wall and lots of macro. And snakes... pfff.

Anyways, I'm lazy once again and rather let the photos speak.

From Apo we took a boat, bus and boat to Siquijor island. Been there done that already but more about the mad biking later. It's beer o'clock in Philippines (Moalboal) again.

Sharks & tarsiers

MANGOOOO!!!

We stayed a few more days in Malapascua and were basically diving all the time. And having some beers in the evening, occasionally also some happy hour coctails. Tanja did the refresher dive and became a good buddy for almost all the rest of the dives. The dives at Gato Island were absolutely fantastic: beautiful corals, lots of small stuff and white tip reef sharks sleeping in caves!!! In the first one were 2 quite big ones and we found a baby shark in another small cave. Sleeping beauties!

Tanja looking mad. Or actually she looks like Meri.

Shitty pic, didn't wanna flash & wake them up...

Spanish dancer! Fantastic!!!

Sea horse playing dead :)

I also went to look for hammerheads 4 am in the morning in another sunken island (Kimud Shoal). The island was just a small sandy area and from there we disappeared to deep blue and waited, waited, waited. And there they were, 2 hammerheads cruising under us in maybe 50 meters. We dropped to 42 m and watched them hunting for quite a while. Amazing creatures!

And I just had to go back to see the thresher sharks at Monad Shoal once more. This time I decided to leave the camera behind and just to enjoy watching them. Shit. I'll never do that mistake again! I was the only one diving with air (others were on nitrox) so it was just me & Gibb, the dive master. We found ourselves a bit more remote place and waited for maybe a second before spotting the first ones. And this time they came soooo close! It felt like touching/hugging distance. 3 big ones were circling in front of us for a long time, sometimes coming directly towards me. What a video it would have made :( Nevertheless, I'll for sure never forget that dive. Breathtaking moments. No wonder a lot of divers are going back to Malapascua again and again. I will too.

We really liked Malapascua. White Sands was a good place to stay at. And big thanks to Junior, our chef in the village. We tried the food at the main beach a few times, thought it was tasteless and too expensive and started to eat only at Junior's place in the local village. Great lunch, fantastic BBQ in the evenings and nice chats with the chef and some other locals. I'm gonna dream of that chicken and sword fish. Eat and have some beers there if you go to Malapascua! It's also much more fun to watch the local kids dancing to bad disco music than other tourists in the beach bars.

My office at Malapascua. Stealing wireless from the neighbours.

But time to move on and stay out of water for a few days. We left early in the morning after the last shark dive and went to Bohol via Cebu. The plan was to visit the chocolate hills and to see some tarsiers. We stayed at Nuts Huts near Loboc. Hmmm... Maybe a small mistake. The place is quite nice, some huts near a river but it's a bit pain in the ass to get there and if you don't plan actually to stay there it's waste of effort and also money. It's not the cheapest place. You have to walk a muddy small road from the main road for about 1 km and then take a lot of steps to the river. We really liked Loboc so it's a shame we didn't stay directly in the town. It has a lovely small town/village vibe, good bbq & nice people. There's nothing really to do or see there, we just enjoyed sitting somewhere watching life go by.

Lovely Loboc

In the tarsier sanctuary we found 3 funny eyed creatures sleeping in the trees. It's a recommendable place to visit as they don't feed or capture the animals but provide them a secure place to live. They can also leave the whole area if they feel disturbed. Afterwards we took a bus to the chocolate hills and walked around a bit.

After 2 nights in Bohol it was time to move on, towards Apo Island. High expectations! More about that later. 

(Actually we already left Apo but I feel lazy and can't be bothered to write another update. Now it's beer o'clock anyways)

One more thresher shark please

Back to Asia! About time to board Lufthansa's A380 again and fly to Singapore. After “boarding completed” announcement the running competition began towards the back of the plane where a few empty rows were waiting for the fastest ones. I probably was a sprinter in the last life and secured a 3 seat row just for myself. What a luxury on a 12 hour flight! One movie with dinner, 8 hours lying down and pretending to sleep, one movie with breakfast and it was already time to land. Why can't it always be like this?

Lufthansa had also messed up my food pre-order and as there was no regular veggie option they brought me the food from first class. Not business class but FIRST CLASS. Wow. I would have gladly paid for that set of asparagus. I'm not vegetarian but meat doesn't fly well.

Rain = beer o'clock!

I had a 8 hour stop over in Singapore and met Tanja in chinatown. After some hawker center food action we headed back to Changi and took another night flight to Cebu, Philippines. Landed at 4 am and towards bus station -> 4,5 hours in a local bus to Maya. We had a ridiculous double seat designed for mini people, the one sitting on the aisle was dropping to the floor all the time. We tried our best but no sleeping in the bus :(

The plan was to draw out money in Maya and to go to Malapascua for some immediate hammock action. New plan was to jump back to a bus and to drive 1 hour to the nearest city with an ATM. Then back to Maya with a jeepney which took 2 hours. Blaah. And it's low season so we had to wait almost an hour for other people to satisfy the boat driver and to make him to move the pangka to Malapascua island. That was a long day!

We had pre-booked accommodation, a lovely bungalow by the beach. It has 2 floors, one for each, luxury! And an own bathroom! With tiles! Sometimes it does make sense to travel together with somebody, if I would have been here just by myself this place would have been out of my budget. But 9 e each it's more than ok! The place is called White Sand, highly recommended! It's also located out of the party zone in a peaceful corner next to the local village but still very near to the main (tourist) beach where the dive shops are.

After arrival it was time to go dive shop shopping: comparing prices and checking the vibes. The dive shop has to have a nice vibe. The shop with the best vibe didn't wanna take me to Monad Shoal (THE thresher shark spot) on my first dive so we chose Thresher Shark Divers instead. Okay, I do understand that they want to check how people dive before they take them to some really difficult&deep dives, but this spot is only slightly advanced. Some small current, otherwise a really easy & enjoyable spot.

The sightings of thresher sharks on Monad Shoal are more than common, they are seen on 95 % of all dives. We were 5 divers divided into 2 groups. The other group saw one shark, we maybe 10. Lucky!!! And wow, they are amazing! I've never seen smiling sharks before! I hope the sharks also saw my smile!

Taking photos was almost impossible, the visibility was quite good but not good enough for no flash underwater photography especially as the sharks weren't posing for me. And we were in 30 m so not much daylight there. Sometimes it makes sense to forget the camera and to enjoy the moment.

The better one of the 2 photos I took...

There's many other fantastic dive spots around the island, f.ex. a sea snake sanctuary. That's gonna be the place to test how it feels to panic while diving. And at Gato Island is a cave where white tip sharks sleep!!! Yayyy! So that's the plan for the next days. Tanja is doing a refresher dive today so I hope she'll join me for the snake & shark action. She might have to hold my hand and put the regulator back to my mouth if I react the same way when I see a snake in the forest: scream & run.

Angry lion fish & some nudibranch.

Kind of going to Pagsanjan Falls

From Anilao I took 2 tricycles, one bus, 4 jeepneys and finally came to Pagsanjan. A lovely small town by a river famous for trips to the Pagsanjan Falls. I met someone in the last jeepney who recommended me a nice place to stay, Willy Flores guesthouse. Fantastic small rustic house where's a few guestrooms and an extremely helpful and welcoming family.

First night I just strolled in the town, still trying to get rid of the hang over gotten in the last night in Anilao. The next morning I wanted to take a boat ride to the falls but due heavy rain in the night the boat men didn't want to go all the way, apparently the water was too high and the rapids too dangerous. So they took me only the half way, also nice and I got to see some Apocalypse Now shooting places. 

A bit later I jumped to a jeepney again and headed to Caliraya lake up in the hills. From there I actually wanted to walk back down so I was sweating & walking, sweating and walking... Until a car stopped next to me. They thought I'm crazy walking in the heat and the way in their opinion is also crazy long. So they wanted to give me a ride. Quick look at the driver, okay, looks  nice & friendly so why not. The ended up bringing me all the way (wrong way for them) to Twin Falls, where's some pools under small falls u can dip in. Quite a few kids there, got immediately company and had a nice stay. 

Typical location for some San Miquel :)

In the evening I had dinner with one of the dudes who gave me a ride earlier. And beers of course, in some quite weird locations. As he was working for a power plant we also drank beer up in the hills, on some power stations with great view down to the valley. And I found a horse!!!

And then in the next morning at 5 AM it was time to move on towards the airport. Snif. Too early, there would have been so much more to see & do in this great country. Well, there's always next time :)

All in all, what should I say about Philippines? Like always, it's not all about the surroundings. It's the people that make out the best/worst of the country. The filipinos are really a warm, welcoming and extremely helpful bunch of people. Also most of them speak excellent english. So I guess on my list is now one more country I have to come back to. Next time Bohol, Palawan and Donsol! And the rice terraces of course. I might need a month or two...

This is how you cross a river. Who needs bridges? Oh yea forgot about cars.

My house to be!

Or this one if I run out of money.

If there's a party, there's pig.

Xmas in Philippines

The decision to visit Philippines was quite sudden. I had a flight booked to Singapore and after that no plans for the first one week. Next booked plans were for new year. A quick look to the map and yeah, why not, it's quite near to Borneo where I am heading next. I booked a flight to Clark for about 8 hours after I was supposed to land in Singapore. So it was a long journey to get here. Basically no sleep for 2 nights.

My original plan was to try to get to Banaue to visit the famous rice terraces but then I re-thought things and decided to take it easy with traveling as I don't really want to sit in a night bus directly after all the flights. A good choice. I contacted in advance a local dude via couchsurfers and got some good tips and he also offered me his guestroom to stay in at Paranaque city, Metro Manila. I still hadn't completely given up on Banaue, but due to xmas all busses were full, over-booked or not existent. So why make life hard... After all, I am on holiday (though I do have to work a bit while I'm here. Thank you internet!).

My room! Own entrance, own bathroom, better than hotel.

The first 2 days I really took it easy, just some beers and hanging out with my host and his friends. And coz I'm in Philippines, I for sure have to go diving. My host JJ (thanx again for everything!) had a friend who's got an own diving business in Anilao, on the coast a few hours south of Manila.

Taal volcano.

A day before xmas we drove there with a short sight seeing stop at Taal Volcano. JJ had to bring the car back to Manila so I had the place all to myself for a few days! For some that might sound horrible but for a solitude loving finn that's heaven on earth! 

And this is what I call a holiday! An amazing house directly at the coast, no tourists, no hassle, just waves, cool breeze from the sea, palm trees and me! And a local family who takes care of the house and cooks me some fantastic meals.

A moment before the sea snake...

On xmas day I went diving, just 2 ppl, the dive master and I. No traffic jams under surface :) Anilao may not be the most famous dive destination in Philippines, but nevertheless for my standards as a beginner it was quite fantastic. On the first dive at Two Rocks we found a huge cloud of jack fish surrounding us and a baby turtle which made this turtle lover to smile so wide that I almost lost the mouth piece. The second dive at Guala wasn't that spectacular, great corals but I'm still more interested in finding funny looking fish. And turtles of course. 

I went diving a few more times the next day, fed fish in 18 meters and had a bit too much rum in the evening.

So this was my xmas :) One of the best ones I've had so far. I think this should be my new crimbo tradition.

Ppl going night diving.