Gap Yahhhhh Travels

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Cebu-Malapascua

Hello People!

This is probably the penultimate blog of 2010 and it saddens me! We've just spent an awesome week on Malapascua island and are about to head to Palawan for our final two weeks of this trip!

In the last blog I complained about the weather not permitting us to go up to Mt Mayon...When we left the internet cafe the weather was perfect so we rushed by bus, jeepney and tricylce up to the observatory halfway up the volcano. The view was nice and we were in the clouds so was worth the wait. Ideally would have liked to have done some sort of walking on the volcano but it was late in the day and the weather was threatening to close in so we headed back to Legaspi for our flight to Cebu.

We arrived in Cebu, did nothing but eat (Jen got a manicure.) and then got a bus to Maya the next day. From Maya we got a Bangka to Malapascua. We got the usual hassle from the boat drivers who took us away from the waiting crowd to tell us the boat wasn't going to run as there weren't enough people and they'd take us for the special price of 600 pesos...We said we'd wait. 5 mins before the departure we got a last ditch offer of 200 each and were informed the boat definitely wasn't going to run...Then the same drivers unashamedly inform us to buy our 50 peso tickets to get on the scheduled boat...

Malapascua is a beautiful island 8 miles off the coast of Malapascua. It's little more than 3km long and 1 km wide. There are no roads and if it wasn't for 10 years ago whilst dynamite fishing that the locals noticed the frequent presence of thresher shark there wouldn't be any tourism development at all. Malapascua today has a smattering of upmarket dive resorts and a couple of more budget backpacker type places. We stayed in the latter. We ate all bar one of our meals in the islands budget restaurant Ging-Gings. I really enjoyed their food to be honest and have resolved to cook with coconut milk far more...

We spent our days snorkeling, exploring the island and diving. The day we went diving I was lucky enough to see a couple of Thresher Sharks, Jen unfortunately missed them. We hired a boat to take us around the island and we went snorkeling in a number of places including a Japanese wreck. The snorkeling is incredible. The excellent visibility means that even reefs 15m deep aren't out of reach. In addition to the thousands of tropical fish I saw a couple of banded seas snakes, numerous eels and a positively huge barracuda. Getting back to Cebu took an age today and we've got an early flight tomorrow to Puerto Princesa in Palawan. I've not yet managed to get the photo i'm pining for: a Filippino man holding his cock....Cockrels are really a mans best friend here; men just walk around holding and stroking the cocks. The cocks are all really placid, but bloody annoying in the mornings...

We've both built on our tan and I think i'm in a good position for a strong finish and pip Jen at the post. You can all be the judge over Christmas!

Lots of love to All

Alex

Ging-Gings: We were convinced the staff had a pool running on what time we'd arrive for each meal...

Just the one topless shot to show off my tiny shorts, the local girls that worked in the bars seemed to be fans...

With this much light even Jen can look like a swimwear model...

Too close to call I think in the tanning war...

Calamanga Island

Early 4.45 start for our dive to Monad Shoal

Dive master Neil

Girl washing dog

They look cute, but followed us everywhere for 3 hours until i sternly told them to bug off...

All IC physicists - The team that won research interfaces 2009 proposed this exact machine and I remember Lesley 'Storming Fit' Cohen talking about some scandal of the idea being stolen before the patent could be filed. It ended up in Cebu.

Mayon

Sunday, 28 November 2010

Philippines - South Luzon

Hey All
After the success of my last pictorial post, i'm going to do the same again!
We touched done in Manila and headed into town for a couple of hours kip before heading back to the airport for our flight to Legaspi. We got back to the airport at 7.30 the following morning only to be told that our flight had been moved to 1.30 and we hadn't been informed. When we finally got to Legaspi the weather was nice and we went to a travel agency to ask about the whale sharks in Donsol. They had not migrated there yet and so we thought we'd go somewhere else and come back in a few days. We went to the island province of Cantanduanes, home of the world famous 'Majestic wave'. A kind of surfers Mecca. Getting there was fun as it involved getting soaked on the top of two jeepneys (Philippino local transport) and a tricycle. Our accommodation was 'basic' much to Jens dislike, but it was all there was. The next day the weather was great and we spent time snorkeling and watching the surfers. In the evening we ate with our host and I organised to go surfing in a bay away from Majestics after being assured that it was 'no beginners wave'. I was super chuffed with my attempts at surfing as I got up and rode the wave in on first two attempts and the waves were pretty big. I had a dry spell of about an hour after my first two attempts when the swell got really big and getting out with the longboard was proving difficult. In the end I had to swim around the break to get out which took a while. Good exercise though. I got one last good wave which I rode about 100m. Low tide was approaching and the waves were getting smaller so we headed back. But it was fun, definitely going to look out for more surfing opportunities on the way round. The weather closed in and we were in a storm for 36 hours, when there was a break in the weather we headed back to the port of Virac and to Legaspi. On the way the whole island was one mass of flowing water! The weather isn't great today so no mount Mayon and no Donsol. Our flight is in a couple of days so hopefully find something interesting to do if the weather doesn't break...We managed to watch Harry Potter in English and without subtitles which was good.
The Philippines is like nowhere i've been before. As a result of numerous colonial influences there language is a medley of Filipino, Spanish and English. On the TV the presenters will be talking but half of it is in English?!??Everyone seems to speak a little English as well. Another amusing thing is that nearly all the street food I've come across has been burgers or hotdogs and the odd piece of grilled chicken...The country is majority Catholic (80%) and all the Jeepneys have names like Jesus is our Saviour and are decorated in colourful murals. Loving it at the moment as there are very little travelers and everyone is super friendly...no ones trying to rip you off except the odd pickpocket (My camera was attached to trousers but it didnt stop him from trying...). Cannot wait to get to Cebu and to go diving!

Love to All and bring on Christmas!