Thrilla in Manila

(NB: I started out giving credit to Sarah and Matt for their pictures, but I soon after had to abandon this practice because posting pictures in any coherent order on this damn blog is a huge BITCH--just spent the past 4 hours putting them up >_< --so in any case, although most are my pictures several were taken by either Matt or Sarah. Also, as I can't bear to work on this any longer please excuse the misspellings, grammatical errors, etc. I may go back and proof read this, but probably not. Enjoy the pics.)

Let me preface this post by saying that the Philippines is the most beautiful country I have ever been to.
We arrived in Manilla on 4/47 and flew to Tagbilaran Airport the next morning. Then we took a taxi to our resort, actually a little house, on Alona Beach. Flower Garden Resort was a charming place run by an overly-tanned, but very friendly, Swiss man. We had a small house all to ourselves and a pool at our disposal.


picture credit: Sarah Houston

After taking a dip in the pool we headed to the beach, which was amazing, to check out dive shops.






picture credits: Sarah Houston

We wound up at Genesis Divers and got beers and chatted with the friendly instructors and other divers--all either German or Dutch. Because everyone was so easy-going we decided to sign up for a dive with them the next day. Later we got a wonderful oil-massage on the beach (since they were only $5 for 1 hour, this became a daily routine). Then we went for dinner at Oops! Bar and met up with one of the divers, Ane from Germany, and a diving instructor, Sander from Holland. We ate and drank "Ladykillers" and eventually stumbled home. Unfortunately I got caught jumping the fence of a different resort and was reprimanded by the machine-clad security gaurd.
The next day I went for an easy house-reef dive with Djany, a cool German guy who was an air-traffic controller in Munich, and Luer, the German dive instructor. This dive wasn't particularly spectacular, but it was easy and Luer helped me get reaquainted with the whole diving process (and I definitely needed some reminding as I hadn't been diving sice the year before in Thailand). After the dive, Sarah and went for a leisurely lunch that turned out to be more work than I expected, but the 3 crabs I eventually consumed were well worth the trouble. Then we relaxed on the beach and I got a pedicure, manicure and massage from Lyn-Lyn.


photo credit: Matt Wheatley

Tough day. That night Ane, who ended up staying with us, took us all out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, and then we hit up the disco at Oops! Bar. Unfortunately I had to cut the Tanduay rum and coke drinking short as I had a dive trip the next day. Since we could no longer hop the fence, Sarah and I tried to walk back but got lost and ended up getting a scotter ride back to our resort from a nice Philippino girl.
The next day Sarah and I went on a dive trip with lots of Germans. The visibility was good and we saw some cool coral.
That night we went into Tagbilarn city to see some local cover bands. The first band we saw was awesome: they had three female singers, two guitarists and a drummer, and they sang everything from cheesy love ballads to rap to funk. We danced by ourselves until we were eventually joined by the rest of the all Philippino crowd.
The next day Ane and I did another dive day trip, this time to Balicasag. This was by far the best day of diving; the second dive we just floated by, letting the current take us litterally through schools of snapper, barracuda and butterfly fish.
That night we had a wonderful torch-lit dinner on the beach with all the excellent people we had been hanging out with.


(Sander, Sarah, Me, Ane, Matt, Simone, Djany)

Afterwards we all wanted to sing karaoke Philippino style (*karaoke is huge in the Philippines--bigger than life in fact. People can be heard belting out ballads at all hours of the day from almost any corner in even the most remote beach locale*), but surprisingly the karaoke place was closed; however, the woman who was closing up suggested we go to the local disco instead. So Matt, Sander and I checked it out and had a blast. The "disco" was being held on an outdoor basketball court and was almost uncomfortably reminiscent of a middle school dance. In fact, at one point dancers went shrieking off the dance floor; I asked what all the commotion was about and was told that the Philippinos were embarrassed to dance with each other during a "slow" song. The place was packed with Philippinos aged 6-80 and although the music was standard-issue Philippino cab music, the bass was pumped way up and everyone was happy and dancing.





5/2: The next morning we went from Alona Beach to Loboc. When we got to Loboc we were able to see some of the famed tarsiers in a small "Tarsier Sanctuary". Tarsiers are the smallest monkeys in the world with freakishly big eyes, and they are endagered, in part due to the fact that they are impossibly cute and people like to sneak them into their pockets.




photo credits: Sarah Houston

We checked into our hut at Nuts Huts, which was in the middle of the jungle and right out of Apocalypse Now. Seriously, filming took place just north of where we stayed.

After we checked in at Nuts Huts we headed out to go see the famous Chocolate Hills.








Unfortunately we got caught in the rain while waiting for a jeepney to pick us up and take us to the Hills. But fortunately we found some really cute kids to wait with.

After waiting in the rain for an hour we finally got a jeepney like this to stop and just barely squeezed ourselves in. Luckily the people on the packed bus (including a woman with a bag full of puppies and a man holding a squwaking baby chicken) were very accomodating.





When we finally got to the Chocolate Hills, Sarah and payed a small fee to have a motorcycle tour through the Hills. One of the coolest experiences EVER. Our guides were extremely knowledgable about the area and frequently stopped to show us things.

These girls are cutting the grass by hand with a knife.

Amazing views every where we went on our motorcycles. You can begin to see why I was so struck by the beauty of this country.



Mud-slicked Caribou in the fields.

Our guides stopped so we could meet a family of peanut farmers. Here are some fresh picked peanuts.

After the peanuts are plucked from the ground the family members would pick the biggest peanuts and throw them into a bag. Peanuts straight out of the ground taste much different than the ones we are used to eating, which have been boiled or baked. The fresh ones have a woodier flavor.
The family of peanut farmers.

Their goats.


A local rice mill.

Allow me to present: The Chocolate Hills.
After tooling around the countryside with our gides we stopped at one of the hills and Sarah and I climbed up in order to get a better view.


Here the 3 of us are at another view point. OMG! We think we spotted Carmen Sandiego!


Relaxing in the hammock at Nuts Huts.

The view from my hammock.


Inside Nuts Huts. That night was had dinner with all Dutch speakers: the Beligian Dutch owners (Chris and Rita), a Dutch couple (Ruth and Reich-jan) that we had earlier met at Genesis Divers and then run into here, and two Dutch girls who were doing research in Manila but in Bohol for vacation.

After one night and one day in Bohol we travelled Philippine-style back to Manilla. First we took a boat from Nuts Huts to a bridge, where we then caught a jeepney to Tagbilaran. From Tagbilaran we got a cab to the airport, and then we flew Manilla.

That night at our hotel, Bianca's Garden, which was our base in Manila, we met David, a crazy American originally from LA. He had clearly been in the Philippines too long and was fond of making statements like, "I make money through various side projects...I had a great boat that I sailed around South East Asia in, but then my lawyer took it...My grandfather owns the hospital in town, those people fucking worship me...Catholic countries have the highest rate of prostitution in the world...Supposedly there's some hash hidden in my room and I'm gonna find it...I got lots of antibiotics if you need..." Needless to say he was an interesting dude. That night we went with him to The Hobbit House, so named because it is staffed entirely by little people. However, it was also known for good live music.

Live music appreciation.



Around Manilla. We saw some extreme poverty in Manilla. Right outside of our hotel many people slept on cardboard boxes on the ground, the children naked.

We met Sarah's friend Michael the next day in Manila, and then we all headed, Philippine-style, to Sabang Beach. To get to Sabang we first took a 3.5 hour bus to Batangas. From Batangas we took a 1.5 hour boat ride to Puerto Galera. And then, from Puerto Galera we took a tricycle (not an actual tricycle, but rather a scooter with a side-car that passengerrs ride in) to our hotel, Steps + Garden resort.
The view from our hotel in Sabang.



That night we got dinner and tropical drinks!



The next day we hired a boat and went to White Beach, which was about 40 minutes away. Although Sabang was great for diving, it's beach was almost non-existent, which is why we decided to make the boat trip.



At the beach that day we layed out, swam and drank beer.


The best bar ever??