Adventures in the Philippines

Last week, my roommate Lisa and I went to the Philippines, finally making use of the Philippine Air tickets that we had purchased months ago (the original trip had been cancelled due to a typhoon and a Philippine Air strike).  The original trip had been planned with a big group from Hong Kong, but the group plans fell apart after the original tickets were cancelled.  In order to best describe the Philippines, think Mexico! Very Catholic, beautiful beaches, poor, bright colored buildings, tropical climate, corrupt government.

We flew from Hong Kong to Manila and then straight on to Boracay… only there was a thunderstorm right over the Caticlan airport (closest to Boracay), so the airline diverted us to Kalibo (which is about a 2-hour drive from Boracay).  They then loaded us onto a bus and shuttled us 2-hours to the Caticlan port, where we boarded a boat to take us to Boracay. 

New friends

This was all a bit disorganized, which created a good environment for making friends with other travelers.  As it turned out, we were heading to the same hotel as a group of three Dutch guys. We had a great time with them for the next two days that we spent in Boracay.

Boracay beach

Boracay is only 6-7 km long, with a main road along the beach flanked by numerous hotels, restaurants and bars. The beach is absolutely gorgeous – tons of white sand, bright blue water and plenty of palm trees.  The ocean water is extremely warm and calm, full of sailboats, para-sailors and kite-boarders. The sunset over the ocean was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. When the weather cools off in the evening, the town comes alive catering to tourists looking for nightlife. Music is playing everywhere and bars are hopping. However, at night is also when the very poor people come out to beg for money along the main tourist strip, which tugs at your heart and reminds one of the dire poverty that many Filipinos endure.  These beggars actually appeared to be of a darker race, another reminder of the world’s inequalities. 

Boracay

Our hotel - Nigi Nigi!

Pure relaxation

 Sunset series in Boracay:

After Boracay, Lisa and I were off to Cebu. We flew into Cebu City, where we had a driver transfer us to Moalboal, a small diving town on the southwestern part of the island, 2.5 hours away from the airport. Moalboal was very different from Boracay – instead of the endless white beaches, the beaches in Moalboal were rocky, and the town was much less developed. Moalboal is known as a diving hotspot, and also offers many other outdoor adventure activities. 

The main highlight of Moalboal for me was learning to dive! I had taken a PADI e-learning class to take care of the classroom training, which meant I was able to skip this and head straight to the water.  Given the short amount of time we had, I was not able to get a certification, but I was able to learn enough to take an actual dive.  It was very nice of the diver instructor – Guillaume – to take me out in the ocean to teach me, rather than a pool! The idea of diving took a bit of getting used to, but I finally got it. Was able to go down 12 meters, and saw quite a bit of sea life!

My first (and only) dive center

Dive teacher Guillaume

Our dive boat which took us to Pescador Island

The Philippines are full of “tricycles”, which are basically the same as rickshaws – consisting of a little sidecar attached to the side of a motorcycle.  We took one of these to “white beach,” which was about 30 minutes away. It certainly wasn’t like a white beach of Boracay, but it was closer to this than the rocky beaches of Moalboal.  

Bread delivery in Moalboal

Moalboal

Funky Bottle Museum in Moalboal

We also went for a bikeride in Cebu… our goal was to make it to a certain waterfall, but this turned out to be much too far away. So instead we called our outing a bikeride to nowhere. Just through numerous little towns where everyone called out hello.

We had to tack on an extra night at the end of our trip in Manila due to Philippine Air re-scheduling our flights. The airline paid for our airport transfer and hotel. We didn’t get to see Manila because it was just for a quick night – but nor did we really have much interest in this.

Now back in Hong Kong catching up on life here!