Philippines – Padre Burgos to Donsol

Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte, Philippines Day 80-82 (April 20-22)

We spend three days diving around Sogo Bay; two days with Sogo Bay Scuba Resort, and one day for a whale shark trip with Peter’s Dive Resort, next door. Unfortunately, we don’t have any luck on the whale shark trip. It seems we just missed the whale shark season in Southern Leyte. We are kind of whale shark crazy now, because all the divers have been talking about it since Thailand. They say seeing a Whale Shark is like a dream come true.

We find out that Sogo Bay Scuba Resort flipped their big Bangka boat on Good Friday, a week back. They were packed with Chinese tourists, and after mooring in front of the resort, everyone went to one side to get out. Once the boat started going over, the staff couldn’t stop it. Fortunately, no one was hurt, as there was enough time to jump in the water and swim away. It must have looked funny going over with the staff hanging on the opposite outrigger trying to stop the boat from flipping. The owner said they reported the accident to the Coast Guard, who didn’t know there were three dive operators in Southern Leyte.

Morning sun shower

can I go dive with you guys? Sure, hop on the Bangka!

hmm…I wonder what kind of dog food they have down there

See you underwater

lots of fish to see

the longest Sea Cucumber I’ve ever seen

camouflage Goby

mama puffer fish – she is due anytime now!

Tose Commenssal Shrimps

Scorpion fish hiding in a coral leaf

Chasing the snake for a priceless shoot

Sea Star

White-eye Eel

Nudibranch

Nudibranch egg

look, underwater Micky Mouse, it’s like a Disney down here

red Anemone

White scorpion fish

Schooling fish

Clown fish

Pipefish

pink scorpion fish hiding underneath the coral

he’s got his jail outfit on again

Cigar Wrasse

Orange brain coral

Clown fish

Nudibranch

Video – clown fish

Video – pink skunk anemone fish

Video – Pregnant puffer fish

Peace out

Our divemaster Pedro – Good times!

Click Below to see more diving pictures:

• Day 1 – Zack’s Cove and Adrian’s Cove
• Day 2 – Napantao S. & Lar’s Hole, Panaon
• Day 3 – Whale Shark dive

While Kevin naps in the afternoon, I took my camera out to play with local kids next to our resort.

Hello there!

What are you guys looking for?

Sand crab?

What is it?

a pregnant crab

fun!

fog bank coming in the late afternoon

CLICK HERE to see more Padre Burgos picture.

Padre Burgos to Donsol, Philippines Day 83-5 (April 23-25)

Philippine Map – We traveled from Padre Burgos to Donsol. It took 2.5 days

Since we missed the whale sharks in Southern Leyte, we take the two and a half day trip to Donsol, in Southern Luzon. Donsol is famous for consistent whale shark viewing. The visibility is poor from all the plankton in the water, but the whale sharks consistently hang around for feeding from January to May. We travel with Eric, who was on our whale shark trip boat in Leyte. Eric is from the south of France, but currently teaches Spanish in Hong Kong.

Eric – our travel buddy for the next 3 days. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and French. Once a while, he will speak to me in Chinese, which caught me off guard.

It’s a long adventurous journey; tricycle > public bus > air con van > medium distance bus > tri-cycle > Fortune Hotel in Catbaloganon Sumar > tricycle > 11 hour long distance air con bus with ferry to Southern Luzon > Jeepnie > Legaspy Tourist Hotel > tricycle > air con van > tricycle, and finally arrive at the Casa Bianca resort in Donsol.

In two days of travel, we don’t see any foreigners. We now realize that before the Philippines, our entire trip through Southeast Asia has been on the gringo trail.

Anyways, we have a good experience because the Filipino people are helpful, friendly, polite, and pleasant. You see families of five or six traveling together, and nobody complains. The kids seem really well behaved. They love to look, smile, giggle, and have their picture taken. The kids don’t have a lot of material things, but they are super happy to have so many young friends to play with.

The food is the major downer. We buy something to take along after breakfast, because there is nothing to eat on the road. The food in the Philippines seems universally terrible. Catbaloganon (where we stayed the first night) is the provincial capital of western Sumar, but there are only a few hotels, and almost nowhere to eat.

None of the hotels in town include a toilet seat, so I ask the nice fellow at the Fortune Hotel for instructions; do you sit, squat, or hover? I suggest that he should give us a demonstration. He laughed and smiled after my request. In the Philippines, it’s kind of funny, because instead of water closet, bathroom, or toilet, they call it the comfort room. I didn’t see too many that were comfortable, but I did feel more comfortable after using them.

We stayed in Legaspy the second night. Legaspy is the provincial capital of Southern Luzon, and we have access to ATM, internet café, pharmacy, and cell phone refill for the first time in a week. We are glad to make it because the long distance air con bus stalled several times, pulling over to restart the engine. Also, in the evening the driver had a hell of a time getting it into second gear. I don’t know how they are going to make the remaining 10.5 hours to Manila.

The big bus drops us in Daraga around 8PM, and we take Jeepnie into Legaspy. With the mood lighting and groovy tunes blasting, you almost think they would be serving cocktails on the Jeepnie.

We are sitting in the back near the driver, so we pass him the money and pass back the change as people load and unload over the next 20 minutes. We have a productive and quick stop in Legaspy; booking air tickets back to Manila, and searching chat rooms for hotels in Donsol, since most of the Lonely Planet numbers don’t work. All the hotels use mobile phones, and I book our second night in Donsol by text message. The hotel clerk doesn’t want to answer the phone and pay cell phone minutes; since texting is much cheaper.

Calling ahead, we are lucky to find an available room at Casa Bianca Beach Resort, as everywhere near the Visitor’s Center is full. The place is strip down basic, and the food is terrible; although the flaming chicken looks pretty cool. The second night we stay at Villa Joli, which has better rooms and an interesting village behind the hotel.

Here some pics from the road:

crossing street

Motorbike fits three size small

house next to the road

Catbaloganon city, where we stayed the first night

Kids dive for coins if you throw them from the ferry

On the air-con bus, this little cute girl keeps looking back at Kevin. It’s love at first sight! can you blame her?

This 11 year old boy at the bus stop shop followed us around smiling. He says he is top of his class and plans to be a doctor. We told him to practice his handwriting.

Kids playing next to the road

After 2.5 days of travel, we’ve finally arrived the resort in Donsol.

The resort made us their famous flaming chicken. Look cool but the taste is so-so.

Philippines – Alona Beach 2 (Chocolate Hill)

Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Philippines Day 77 (April 17)

Philippine Map – We are in Alona Beach, Bohol

Today we take hire a car for the tourist day trip in Bohol; see the Chocolate Hills, take the lunch riverboat cruise, and see the tarsier – the smallest monkey in the world. (a kind of cute and creepy cross between a gremlin and ET).

man-made rosewood forest

Chocolate Hills – It is composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills of about the same size, spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi). They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name.

Bamboo bridge

Tarsier

The smallest monkey on the planet – about your palm size

Fruit bats

lunch boat

Happy time entertainment – Filipino dance, but very Spanish

Church

Sculpture in the Church front

Historical sculpture from when Philippines still Spanish colony

CLICK HERE to see more picture from this trip.

Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Philippines Day 78 (April 18)

Today, we take the day off, relax, wait for our laundry, and plan travel to our next destination.

Sleeping sounds good

Travel to Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte, Philippines Day 79 (April 19)

We travel from Alone Beach to South of Leyte island. It’s a long day!

Today we take a bit of a travel adventure; from Alona Beach to Padre Burgos on Leyte. We start at 7AM in the morning, and arrive 9 hours later at 4PM. We travel by private car, air con van, tricycle, Bangka boat, tricycle, public bus, and jeepnie. The travel is chaotic, but it works. Only the boat really has a set schedule, and everything else leaves around the hour, or when they are full; which doesn’t take long.

The air con van is packed; with 19 people stuffed into a 15 passenger mini-van, including bags, mail, and a live chicken. Our baggage occupied one of the “seats”, and we had to pay for an extra person. Special thanks to the tricycle fellows, who were really helpful transferring us between the boat dock and bus terminals.

The public busses and jeepnies are pretty cool. They pickup anywhere along the road, and you tap on the roof or whistle when you want to get off. In one of the bus terminals, we are disappointed that we actually have to wait, but before long, a jeepnie drives by with a sign of our destination. We think it’s odd that the jeepnie is empty, but one loop around town solves that problem.

We finally get to see the real Philippines, which feels to us like an Asian tropical Mexico; perhaps from the historical Spanish influence. The roads travel along scenic coast, and the villages are attractive and have a proud look. We didn’t have any negative experiences like Manila or Cebu. For some reason traveling here made me think of the story in the gospel when they pass around the bread, break in half each time; but there’s enough to feed everyone. Likewise, when the jeepnie looks full, people keep piling in, everyone moves a little bit, and there’s always room.

Private car

Air con Van

tricycle

Bangka boat

tricycle again

public bus in bus terminals

jeepnie (are we there yet?!)

It’s a ferocious speed demon

Kid playing in the empty Jeepnie

We arrive and stay at Sogod Bay Scuba Resort, recommended by some a German couple we met in Alona Beach. It’s a small quiet place, on a pebble beach consisting of dead coral, with a beautiful view of Sogod Bay.

Sogod Bay Scuba Resort (it’s a cute guest house own by a English retiree and an Australian guy)

I’ll show you your room sir

Short beds good for smelly feet

Beach in front of our hotel

dead coral beach. so pretty! It makes a crispy sound when you walk on it

Sogod Bay View

Sogod Bay View

Local kids playing on the rock

with 7,107 islands, surprisingly, only few Filipino know how to swim

Bus station – pretty chill

Philippines – Alona Beach

Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Philippines Day 72-76 (April 12-16)

Alone Beach, Bohol, Philippines Map

We spend a day to visit all the resorts and dive shops in town, and decide to stay at Cherrys House Too and dive with Sun Divers, which is just up the street. Sun Divers is run by a friendly fellow from Austria, and they have the best boats; small speed boat for local dives, and larger Bangka for day trips. You know you’re on the right boat when everyone is speaking German. We spend four days diving; each day with a different guide; German, Filipino, Swiss, and English divemasters.

Sun Divers’ Bangka

Transport to Bangka

The first day is at Puntod on the south of Panglao Island. We drop in over the flat, and then descend besides a deep vertical wall which is inclined in several spots. The visibility is really clear. Kevin feels some disorientation and a touch of vertigo, with the wall on our left, and deep blue everywhere else. The wall is elaborately decorated with colorful coral and fans, and the current pushes us along without swimming.

KR, wall on the left shoulder

On the second day, the Bangka cruises to Snake Island; a sunken sloped island with lots of sea snakes. We see a handful of snakes less than 40 mins. Vana spots snakes making out and shots a great video! The second dive site is at Watch Tower on Pamilacan Island, and then the Bangka parks on the beach for a BBQ party with another snorkeling Bangka. The food is amazing; German and meaty.

Swimming up for air every twenty minutes

Snake head

Filipino divemaster holding poisonous snake

Two snakes making out

Don’t be armed

Snake making out video

Every time the Bangka beaches it, the local children swim out and turn the Bangka into a water playground. They love to climb up and then jump off the boat.

On the third day, the Bangka cruises to Balicasay Island. The visibility here is amazingly clear and the water is glassy. We see lots of things; school of Barracuda, turtle, colorful sea slugs, shrimps, crab, lionfish, and pipe fish.

Clear day with amazing visibility

Schooling Barracuda

Nudibranch (sea slug)

Paliid Chelidonura nudibranch

Common Lionfish

Does our bangka look like a lion fish?

Another nudibranch

crab hiding behind soft coral

Nudibranch video

Lionfish video

On this dive there is a minor incident. The drop off is gently sloped with really good visibility. While Vana is chasing the fish with her camera down to 30m, Kevin looks back at the guide, who is making lots of nasty looking signs. It looks like she’ll be down to 40m in another 20 seconds. Kevin chases her down, and brings her back to our planned dive depth of 25m. Back on the boat, everyone gives Vana a friendly but firm lecture about staying with your buddy, and being careful with depth.

It’s an easy mistake to make on a gentle slope with good visibility. At depth the percentage change in pressure much less than near the surface, so you don’t feel depth change as much. For our remaining dives, the Swiss divemaster lends Vana a dive computer, which gives her a new distraction; aside from the camera, blowing bubbles, buoyancy, and looking at the fish. Vana just loves distractions!

Vana looking embarrassed while everyone’s giving her a hard time

We take the smaller speedboat for two local dives on the fourth day; Arco Reef and BBC. The visibility is not as clear, but there is a lot to see on these two wall dives. We see a heavily camouflaged scorpion fish, and a really cool flounder in the sand. Also, there is a Jeepnie wreck; which is a bit humorous, because the Jeepnie is the funky Filipino truck used by all the locals. How did that thing get down here?

find the scorpion fish

KR pointing out the Jeepnie wreck

What are you guys looking at?

oh…it’s a Flounder

We had a really awesome time. Thanks to everyone in the dive shop at Sun Divers.

Also, thanks to the German chef at the Bistro on the main intersection in Alona Beach. He serves some of the best food I’ve had anywhere on the Planet, which is worlds away from everything else we’ve eaten in the Philippines. Vana describes Filipino food as something you make at home for the first time that turns out so bad; you toss it and then order pizza.

We’ve been eating at the German restaurant everyday

More pictures from Alona beach and diving below:

Alona Beach

Alona Beach

Local fisherman

Let’s go diving!

One small step for man, one giant step for diving

Vana with the scissor kick

Hello~ little guy

White sea worms just love sponge

making a feeding noise to attract fish

Horn Sea Star

Leaf scorpion fish

Sea Pen

Arco Reef, some expert diver descend through this whole

Mimic filefish

Elephant-Ear Coral

Horn Sea Star

Small fish hanging around table corals

Bubble coral (I think the brown dots are Nudibranch eggs)

Red soft coral

Feather Star

Dive Buddies
Hungry from all this diving? We are invited to a Birthday Party on Pamilacan Island

Armed and dangerous

Water fight!

Filipino pinata
Fighting for the last toy

German sausage – Yummm...

Sunset at Alona Beach

Sunset at Alona Beach

Sunset at Alona Beach

See you next post!

Click Here to see Puntod diving pictures
Click Here to see Snake Island diving pictures
Click Here to see Pamilacan Island diving pictures
Click Here to see BBQ party pictures
Click Here to see Alona Beach pictures

Philippines – Manila to Cebu

Manila, Philippines Day 69 (April 9)

Manila, Philippine Map

Our timing is not so good, because this is Easter Holy Week, and all the travel agents and most stores are closed. Manila is mungbucket, and we can’t wait to leave. The book says there lots to like if you dig a bit deeper, but we spend the entire day between the hotel, convenience store, and internet café. Vana absolutely hates it; especially the children begging on the street. With every other business employing a security guard in front, I am guessing they have a crime problem.

With 7104 islands in the Philippines, Kevin’s head is ready to explode from reading the travel book we bought in Hong Kong. On facebook advice from Norwegian friends we met in Ko Phi Phi, we buy plane tickets to Cebu City, and book hotels to visit an outlying island for diving.

On the plus side, we make a lot of progress with our travel blog posts.

Manila City

Filipino breakfast – garlic rice, beef jerky and egg

Manila to Cebu City, Philippines Day 70 (April 10)

Philippines Map

We spend the morning in the internet café, and then fly to Cebu City, in the middle of the Visayas islands. Cebu is a large island, and manufacturing center. It’s a bit less mungbucket than Manila, but not by much. It’s Good Friday, and the ferries are not running, so we stay at the Fuente Pension House in uptown Cebu City. The only thing open for dinner is McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and a fast food Chinese chain restaurant.

Cebu city plane view

Cebu city – street scene (reminds me of of T.J., Mexico)

We look for it on the TV, but we don’t see any Good Friday news. In San Fernando Pampanga, volunteers are nailed to crosses and whipped until they bleed. We could have traveled there easily from Manila, but it didn’t sound that appealing to us.

Cebu City to Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Philippines Day 71 (April 11)

We take the 9:30AM ferry to Tagbilaran on Bohol, and then taxi to Alona beach on Panglao Island. When exiting the ferry, scores of naked children paddle to the dock, and unload to beg. This is the most shocking display of begging we’ve witnessed. The children look more like Monkeys than people, and we are speechless.

begging children with their parents

I realized two things after this experience.

1. Birth control is one of the most important modern inventions.
2. As the heavily Catholic influenced Filipino government shuns birth control, birth rates exceed economic growth, and the Philippines are in for several difficult decades.

On advice from our Norwegian facebook friends we stay at Cherrys House Too. Although five to ten minutes walk from the beach, it’s a very pleasant and clean hotel with swimming pool. Unfortunately, the food in the restaurant is really bad, aside from pancakes. I even throw up a ham sandwich and fries from lunch. This is the first time either of us gets sick from the food in Southeast Asia. We heard the food in the Philippines is really terrible, and so far it is true.

We’ve had several unpleasant travel days, but we catch up on our blog posts, and feedback from our friends makes us feel much better!

China – Hong Kong

Hong Kong, China Day 66 (April 6)

South East Asia Map

We spend the entire day running between the internet café and the travel agent handling our China Visas. We are shocked to find that China visas cost $250, which is a lot more than the $110 they charge from the consulates in the US. We go back and forth about ditching China, and going back to Thailand. We decide to go because Tibet just opened to foreigners, and Vana’s Uncle sourced a very reasonable tour.

Later, we find that Vana is denied by the PRC Visa office. They want to confiscate her old China passport, which we no longer have. This is the last straw, so we buy one way tickets to Manila, in the Philippines, for April 8th.

Hong Kong, China Day 67 (April 7)

We spend today sightseeing in Hong Kong. We take the subway to Hong Kong central, and then take the peak tram for city views. Afterwards, we ride the mid-level elevators around SoHo, before taking the Star Ferry back to Kowloon. The loop involves significant walking, and tires us out good. Again, we are amazed by riding subway, tram, elevators, and ferry in just a few hours.

It’s impossible to get lost in HK. Street signs are everywhere in both English and Chinese

We said HELLO to Jackie Chen

then quickly jumped on the tram to the hill top

City view

Star Ferry back to Kowloon

SOHO

famous market where Jackie Chen did a food tour on Food channel

our hotel district

Cantonese are good at making roasted tasty duck, chicken, goose, pig, you name it. Even KR loves it!

Can’t leave HK with an authentic Dim Sum! Yes, Dim Sum is a famous Cantonese cuisine, not Chinese. A lot of my western friends are confused about Cantonese and Chinese cuisine. I always say, if there is seafood involved, then it’s most likely Cantonese. If there is Kong Bao chicken or Orange chicken on the menu, then it’s an American restaurant.

CLICK HERE to see more Hong Kong pictures.

Hong Kong to Philippines, China Day 68 (April 8)

It turns out that buying one way tickets to Philippines was a bad idea. Their immigration requires proof of your flight out, so we miss our flight while figuring out what to do. Fortunately, the Hong Kong airport has free WIFI internet, and we book flights to Japan.

It takes a lot of time, because finding cost effective flights is complicated without Orbitz. The proof is a lame exercise, because immigration doesn’t check when we land anyways.

We arrive without trouble, pick a hotel from the airport booking service, and stay at Hostel 1632 in the downtown area of Malate in Manila. It’s a business style hotel with function, but no personality. I can touch opposite walls with my hands in the narrow room.