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Richard writes…
We have been in the Philippines for a few weeks now. For me, this is probably the country that I have been looking forward to the most, and has been on my mental "to visit" list ever since I heard other backpackers raving about it during my post-university travels 7 years ago. Has it lived up to expectations? I'll answer that at the end…
Frankly, our trip didn't get off to a great start. The city of Manila does not have a great reputation, and the most charming thing we found was a big shopping mall. We didn't find a single taxi or tricycle driver (more on tricycles later) who didn't try to rip us off, although the methods they used were sometimes entertaining. One taxi driver, having agreed to take us to our destination and honour the price on the meter (which requires an intensity of negotiation which makes the Greece-EU debt issue seem like child's play), drove 100m down the road before telling us to transfer to another taxi. The driver explained the reason for this: "The meter on my taxi is too slow, but the new vehicle has a much faster meter". We certainly appreciated the guy's blunt honesty, but his hustle probably needs a little refinement. We got out and walked down the street to talk to the next guy, where we agreed to pay what we knew was about double what the fare should be (if you are going to be ripped off, it's at least nice to know the extent of the rip off in advance).
We had made big plans for getting out of Manila, involving renting a car for 5 days or so, and driving north into the mountains to see the world famous, UNESCO listed Banaue rice terraces. We spent an evening planning our route, stopoffs, bail-out options (there was a typhoon moving in from the Pacific) and accommodation. With these plans made we confidently headed to the airport to pick up the car. Unfortunately, we were greeted by the news that they don't allow cars to be taken north of Bagio, which is a town about half way towards our intended destination and didn't hold much appeal. Cue some angry phone calls to Holiday Autos.
In the end, we rented a car for one day, and drove to Lake Taal, a very nice area somewhat overrun by the Manila weekend tourist crowd. The major draw is Vulcan Point, an island in a lake in an island in a lake in an island in an archipelago. I'll explain that by gradually zooming in (imagine the opening of the film Contact or one of those scale of the universe animations):
- The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7000 island in the Pacific, in the volcanic "Ring of Fire" area.
- The biggest of these islands is called Luzon.
- There is a lake on Luzon called Lake Taal. It's about 20km across.
- There is a large island in the middle of Lake Taal, which consists of a number of volcanic cones of varying age.
- The largest of these is Taal volcano, which has a massive crater lake about 100m above the level of Lake Taal.
- From this crater lake, the youngest part of the volcano protrudes - Vulcan Point, which is about the size of a tennis court.
- I like to think that after it rains, there is sometimes a puddle somewhere on Vulcan Point.
- When this puddle is at a certain depth, there is probably a stone or something that protrudes from it.
- Etc…
We took a boat ride across the lake then trekked up to the rim of the crater; it was pretty impressive scenery, but to be honest we were still licking our wounds a little having had our plans to go north scuppered so badly. It was clear that we needed to plan our movements a little better, so spent most of the day sorting a schedule and booking flights.
After one more night in Manila (hint: don't try to visit a mall at the same time as the Pope; you won't get in) we decided to fly to Palawan, an island far to the west side of the Philippines (another hint: don't try to take off at a similar time to the Pope, you will be sitting on the tarmac for 1 ½ hours waiting for the no-fly-zone period to finish).
Palawan is dramatically less developed (read: cheaper and less touristy) than other parts of the Philippines, was not being visited by the pope, and had no typhoon bearing down on it. Much more like it! We had a great time working our way north through the region, and gradually became much, much happier. The scenery is utterly stunning, with some of the prettiest little beaches, turquoise waters and dramatic cliffs we have ever seen. It felt a lot like Ha Long Bay, but more tropical. We did plenty of snorkelling (I got lucky and saw a small reef shark, Nic was unlucky and picked up a few jellyfish stings), and took boat trips out to visit the numerous islands (mostly great, but near the main resort town of El Nido, we could hardly see the sand for all the selfie sticks being swung around by hordes of tourists).
Minor question/rant: When did selfie sticks become a thing? Do they exist back in the UK? I hadn't seen one until we got to Asia, is it just something we missed until now? I am sometimes concerned that it is illegal to travel without one over here, like breathalysers when driving in France or "same same but different" t-shirts in Thailand.
Getting around Palawan, unlike Manila, has turned out to be very pleasant. Most public transport in the Philippines seems to be modelled on vehicles off wacky races. 'Jeepneys' do the medium length routes. These are old American army jeeps, with the army stuff ripped out and replaced by long benches, then covered in whatever colours of paint are nearest, polished chrome, additional exhausts, multiple spare wheels, body kits, sound systems, and extra horns. Finally, they generally write something nice about God across the windscreen (usually over the bit that the driver ought to be able to see out of). They are dirt cheap, have a capacity of n+1 (where n is the number of people currently on board), and have broadly reliable timetables. There is seemingly nothing in the world that cannot be transported on the roof of a jeepney. The (thankfully short) journeys we have taken on them have been pretty enjoyable really.
For smaller trips, tricycles are preferred. These are basically motorbikes with sidecars, but the sidecars also have a capacity of n+1 and cover both passengers and motorbike with a roof and windscreen. They maybe look like sideways tuktuks.
Finally, for longer trips, there are air-conditioned minibuses. These are extremely unimaginative (aside from the hateful "4th seat": a stool placed in the middle of the aisle to provide the magical capacity of n+1) but much quicker and more comfortable.
From the northern end of Palawan, we took a boat to the island of Coron. Ferries in the Philippines are fairly notorious for poor safety and comfort, and we were prepared for a bit of an ordeal. However, we set off on time, enjoyed a 7 hour trip over calm seas, with plenty of room on board to lie around in sun or shade, watched the beautiful islands go past, and arrived ahead of schedule (the day before the same journey had taken 13 hours due to winds). After the stress of Manila, our feelings towards the Philippines have improved dramatically!
We have now been in Coron for almost a week, enjoying some more beach life, and really surreal diving. Coron is famous for its World War 2 wrecks, the result of a massive surprise attack by American forces on the 24th September 1944 which sank a fleet of Japanese military and supply ships in a shallow bay. Most of our dives focused on these wrecks, and included some quite intense exploration of the huge inner spaces within the ships. This got pretty spooky due to the darkness, sudden darts of fish shoals not used to being disturbed, and only really being able to see what was in front of our torches (at times the sediment in the sea made it feel like we were waving lightsabers around). I think that we have both satiated our desire to see wrecks for the rest of our lives - I can't imagine these ones being topped!
Another dive we did, which was far more lighthearted, was in nearby Barracuda Lake (apparently named after the lone Barracuda which has got stranded in there). It would take a diagram and science lecture to explain fully how the lake is made up, but (in short), due to an underground link to the sea, a river flowing in, and volcanic activity, the lake has sharply distinct layers. The first 14m or so is warm, fresh water, but below that is hot (37 degrees!) salt water. The boundary between the two, called a halocline, looks like a bizarre second surface. We had great fun diving without wetsuits, swimming up and down between the layers, partly to avoid getting too hot or cold and partly to enjoy the "swimming above water" feeling around the halocline. There were also a swarm of very friendly little catfishes we could play with while ascending back to the surface.
Today we are taking a relaxing day in Coron, before we fly to another area, the Visayas, in search of tarsiers, chocolate-drop hills and those elusive whale sharks during our final week in the Philippines. While we are not leaving yet, I think that the Philippines (post-Manila) has met my massive expectations and might be my favourite destination so far (though in Nic's eyes the wildlife of Botswana is yet to be beaten).
Before I relax too much however, it is time to call Holiday Autos and chase our long-overdue car rental refund!
- comments
Amy McIntyre Loads of museums across Europe have apparently now banned selfie sticks so I guess they were a thing there and there was talk of banning them in the UK too but don't know what happened. Jealous of your diving and volcano experiences - they both sound pretty awesome.