More of the Philippine Islands

Sabang was great, but I had to get on the move. It was such a sleepy little town, until the 'Discos' got kicking about 10pm!
I met two girls from Denmark that were also going to the next hot spot, Boracay. The trip down was a long hard road, well path actually. It started on the Jeepney to Puerto Galera, not a bad ride about 20 min. The next leg was a Jeepney to Calapan. Well, the Jeepney was FULL before we got in, three Westerners with large backpacks! It was quite the spectacle. I sat on the rear tailgate with an older Filipino guy. He would switch from hanging off the back to sitting when the monsoon rain got too bad for him! The road was not paved for much of the journey and I'm pretty sure we almost slid down the mountain a few times. The views were beautiful though. Next was a minivan from Calapan to Roxas, uneventful but long. In Roxas we were to take a ferry to Caticlan, but the ferry was leaving as we were getting out of the minivan. Oh well we weren't planning on catching it until 6pm, we arrived at 1pm. Well the guy at the port said we were better off taking the 12am boat because it was a four hour ride and once in the smaller town of Caticlan the ferry to Boracay didn't leave until 6am the next morning. Had we taken the 6pm ferry we'd have to sleep there in Caticlan. We waited, and waited.


Well, 11pm rolls around and I decide to find out about tickets. Well, the same port guy, after a few minutes of deciphering, said the midnight ferry wasn't running due to the rains knocking a bridge out. It was a roll on roll off ferry so no cars/buses, no ferry! We waited and took the 6am ferry to Caticlan. Then got the 9:30am or so ferry to Boracay. Moving around the Philippine islands is difficult.

I found a room at a place called Sander's White. Near Boat Station 2 on White Beach. It is P500 a night, so roughly $12.

I went kiteboarding for two days at Isla Kiteboarding
I got level three IKO certified! It only took 4 hours for me with instructor JoJo. It was a great time!

Another pic of White Beach.

The weather hasn't been great, so I'll take more when the sun comes out and there's actually something to look at!

I will stay here in Boracay until Tuesday, probably. There is a group of kitesurfers coming from around the world to film a video starting Sunday. Hopefully the wind will pick up while I'm here in Boracay.

Diving and Trekking

I'm still in Sabang. This village is magnetic. It seems like people who come to Sabang come for the diving and stay for weeks on end! I'm leaving on Saturday to head to the tourist destination of the Philippines, Boracay.
I've met quite a few people here from Filipinos in town to travelers from around the world. Two guys, Nick and Graham, from UK and South Africa went on a trek with me to the nearby lighthouse. The views up and around were amazing. The lighthouse wasn't much due to construction of a new one by the Philippines Port Authority. We found a small trail that led from the road down to a beach that was amazing. There were kids hanging out so we didn't linger long.
Some views around the area.




I also went on a dive with the VIP Dive Shop, there are so many here, but Jamie at VIP hooked me up with my room when I first got into town. Real laid back drift dive along some coral. It was a good dive, but nothing compared to the coral around the BVI.
Tomorrow I'll head to the local Tamaraw Falls and hopefully the Python Cave. There is supposed to be a 2m python in a cave 2km off the road along a trail. If we can find the trail I'm checking out the cave!

Out There

Well I finally did it! I'm no longer in Manila!! The Philippine Islands are beautiful. What I've been doing... Thursday or Friday I did laundry back at Edna's. All of the Filipinos on the block were laughing at the American doing his laundry 'manually'.

Saturday morning I got on a bus to head to Batangas City where I got a ferry to bring me to Mindoro Island. I was initially going to Muelle's pier, but I met a group of Filipinos that all worked together at a Verizon call center. They invited me to join them for there weekend at White Beach. I hung out with them for the evening took a ride on a banana boat, and had another Filipino Drinking session! I ended up sharing a room with the guys Sat. night.

Sunday I went to the town of Sabang and going to do two dives today and check out the area around here. Beautiful place! More pictures to come!

More Pictures of around Manila

I haven't done too much in Manila. It's just another big polluted city. There are so many people! I'm slightly scared to pull out my camera like a tourist in the streets. I get stares from just about everyone! I have only seen a handfull of other white people here in Manila, and I'm pretty sure they weren't even American. I also feel like a giant. I have to duck to go through some doorways. Here are a couple of pictures from around the city. Most are from going to Intramuros, the walled city within Manila and Fort Santiago.

Me in my room at Edna's, around the city, Pasig River, and Edna's daughter Dheena.

Pictures

Philippines and Balut

I arrived in Manila a few days ago. My first night was spent at Mabini Pension on Mabini St. It was a decent budget hotel with a fan and private bathroom (WITH OVERHEAD SHOWER! AND HOT WATER!) The next day Redie came to fetch me and brought me to Edna Sotomayor's home in Pandacan, Manila. This is Julious' family, who is in Guam with Jakobe. They are super nice and have helped me so much already!

My first room at Mabini Pension.

Balut, well, in short it is a delicacy and also known to be an aphrodisiac here in the Philippines. The balut is a half developed embryo of either chicken or duck that is boiled and served hot. Last night the Chicharon Boyz put me to the test! A street vendor came by rythmically chanting baaaLLUUT! BaaaaLLUT. The Boyz put down the pesos to give me a real Filipino initiation, as if the many liter bottles of Red Horse Lager the night before wasn't good enough.
The egg is peeled half way just like a boiled egg, then salt and vinegar is added. The entire embryo should be eaten at once, which made me think of an oyster but larger.
I did it! As featured on Fear Factor.