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Within An Inch Or Two Of Death…
Ever had a near death experience, one where the danger you’ve just been in doesn’t really dawn on you till afterwards? Sipping a beer later, you start to think, “actually, that could’ve been curtains for me”, followed quickly by, “guess I better get another beer then”. Well, it happened in the Philippines. And went something like this. We’re in Sagada, on Luzon, the Philippines’ biggest island, dodging rain showers and soaking up the unusual town which is Sagada. The rental car is parked somewhere up behind the church, to be left untouched for the next few days – Sagada is for walking. Walking is what we are doing today, meeting…
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The Dusty Roads Of Incompetence
Something strange is happening. We’ve been back from the Philippines for 17 days now and we haven’t seen a drop of rain – and I mean, not a single drop. And this is late March and early April, a time of year which historically brings in England the characteristic blustery winds of the former and the sharp, soaking showers of the latter, usually with a helping of hailstones like ping pong balls and often with the winter’s last throw of the snowfall dice. But no, none of it. Not even a day of drizzle. Not a drop. The earth is dry, the garden dusty. The cricket season has started in…
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Philippines: Time To Reflect
It was a journey in which we set foot on 21 different islands, passed through many of the country’s 82 provinces, slept in 18 beds in 15 different locations and enjoyed a host of experiences. On the long journey home we find ourselves debating whether this has been our most varied single country trip so far. It probably has. There was without doubt one constant, something which never changed – the Filipino people. It’s hard to relate the harsh lives in the rice terrace villages of northern Luzon with the tourist trade workers of the holiday islands, yet, whatever their background, whatever their lives, Filipinos are consistently amiable, happy and…
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More Glimpses Of Paradise: From Palawan To Coron
As we have done every evening in El Nido, we fall asleep to the sound of waves breaking just beneath our balcony almost but not quite drowning out the throbbing beat of club music. The terrific position of our room right on the seafront comes with a disproportionate price premium, these are by far the most expensive digs of our entire trip yet are a long way from being the best, in serious need of some of that premium being spent on a bit of TLC. Cracking view though. A second boat trip – Tour C this time as opposed to our earlier sortie on Tour A – and a…
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Funny Moments: Smiles From The Philippines
Again again again again again, see you again…. Every journey brings its funny moments, little encounters which we will always remember with a smile. We don’t always put these in our blog posts – sometimes they don’t fit with the narrative, sometimes they aren’t relevant to the remainder of the text, sometimes we demur just in case someone finds them offensive or insulting. But there’s been quite a few here, so here’s a sample…. It’s customary at tourist sites in the Philippines for those employed in the tourist trade to wear T-shirts with their name and job title on the back – you might get, for instance, “Archie – BOATMAN”…
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El Nido: Paradise Lost, Then Paradise Regained
There are bars in El Nido with bean bags. There’s a point in life when, and for me it was probably around ten years ago, bean bags become a no go area, impossible to get down to, impossible to get up from, impossible to enjoy beer in whilst perched there like a sleeping dog in a favourite basket. The fact there are bean bags here should be a warning: El Nido is a young person’s place. Both Boracay and El Nido describe themselves as paradise locations – maybe somebody somewhere would attach that particular moniker to the town of El Nido but, as we saunter through the streets here, it’s…
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Puerto Princesa And Another Of The World’s Seven Wonders
Tempted fate now, haven’t I? I really should have known better than to instigate a conversation about the fact that the Philippines has been kind to our tummies with not a hint of an upset in over six weeks. Michaela wakes up in Puerto Princesa with all of the warning signs; by breakfast she can only manage half of her omelette and by lunchtime her body has gone into that “I am going to force you to lay down and sleep while I work on curing this problem” mode which we all know from travel. But she’s blessed with what we in football circles call bouncebackability and by Monday we’re…
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Moving Through The Islands: Bohol-Boracay-Palawan
It so often seems to be like this, both in travel and in life itself. The things you think might go wrong, don’t – and the things you think will be smooth, aren’t. Even before we start, our journey from Alona to Boracay doesn’t look straightforward, what with seven separate segments through the day. What kind of things might go wrong? Well, what if the 6:30am taxi is late? It’s not. What if the ferry is delayed, or affected by bad weather? It’s neither. What if it’s hard to find a taxi from Cebu ferry port to airport? It’s easy. So we’re at Cebu airport maybe an hour earlier than…
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Alona Gain, Naturally
Well, it’s fair to say that after our gratifyingly varied journey through the Philippines we’ve definitely arrived in the holiday market tourist bit. Down at the bottom of the island of Bohol lies the small island of Panglao, and down at the bottom of Panglao lies the village of Alona, where it’s impossible to walk any distance without enjoying exchanges with tour operators, tat jewellery sellers, hair braiders, boat owners and boys selling fresh mango. Nobody’s pushy but everybody wants business and there seems to be plenty to go around. It looks like Alona is booming too. Construction sites are a major feature, whether a new chunky hotel, spaces between…
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Car To Carcar, Boat To Bohol, Pigs In Between
Our driver is here early and we’re off, leaving Moalboal behind feeling like it’s a little too soon to be making our way back across Cebu Island to our next destination, Carcar. As we drive away from our digs, the driver heads towards White Beach, which we know is a dead end road on a peninsula. He must know a cut through. His Google Maps satnav keeps telling him to do a U-turn, he ignores it every time. He must know a cut through. Eventually when he stops and asks directions, the guys at the roadside point back the way we’ve come. “Oh”, he chuckles, “wrong way!”. So, it seems…
