The Philippines Part 1

Regretfully I must start with some very sad news, as yesterday the most disasterous event possible occured, I lost my beloved camera and with it all 700 pictures I have of the Philippines so far! I shall explain the tragic story later, but now, a nice story for all to enjoy!

A few nights ago, I was lieing in bed in a quiet mountain top village in the Northern Philippines, when I experienced one of the greatest moments of my life. There I was peacefully reading my 20th anniversary sepcial edition of GQ, when I turn over to the GQ Style Shrink pages, and find my question, that I had emailed some months previously! Now this may sound sad, but for someone who has been a devout GQ reader for the best part of ten years, this was truly a fantastic moment. Sadly due to unforeseeable events, or to put it more accurately, the rain, the magazine is now somewhat ruined, so is no longer worth posting home, but at least it provided me with such pleasure!

Today I feel refreshed and energised after a fantastic night's sleep, a proper shower, albeit cold, and an intriguing day spent touring around a tropical island. It is with this that I return to my blog, to tinker with yesterday's somewhat weak entry, and to tell all the details of my adventures so far.

This morning I headed to Basey, in Samar, to join a tour group on its way to Sohoton Natural Bridge National Park. There was only one slight flaw to this plan, and that was the lack of a tour group. Sadly I was unable to afford the trip alone, not without trying, I quite simply had too littlle cash avaliable. After bypassing this slight hiccup, I took a boat, well raft really, to a quaint little island nearby, which supposedly possessed a beach. While on my trip over, I met Angel, a local school girl, who then offered to be my unofficial tour guide. I then had the rather strange experience of touring a tropical island, with Angel, and her friends Sara and Frieda, in a mission to find a beach, that was sadly never accomplished. I must admit having a tour guide half my age was slightly unusual, but proved to be quite amusing, particuarly when I made quite the tit out of myself slipping over while scrambling over some rocks.

It was just another example of how fantastic filippino's are, always helpful and immensely friendly. A perfect example being Roey, the young owner of an internet cafe in Sorsogon. I met him while attempting to make the bus trip south, however finding a bus was proving quite a challenge. He made some enquries, and discovered I was waiting in the wrong place. At this he grabbed his scooter, and gave me a lift out of town to the correct stop. A fantastic help, even if the ride was slightly terrifying. To anyone who has visited, and to those who have not, to describe the roads as chaotic, is something of an understatement. So picture travelling along them at 80kmph, sitting on the back of a scooter, with a 20 kg rucksack on your back, and another in your hands, at night! Let's just say the lessons I learnt from the back of John's Harley proved most useful. While then waiting for said bus, I found myself invited to join the local's in a glass of rum and some karoke, I sadly declined, as I could not bring myself to sing in public, to those that have heard my voice, I am sure you can understand why.

I should probably return to my first day, but it was largely uneventful. I arrived in Anegles after dark, and found myself to be the only westerner in my hotel, to not have a young filippino by his side, a rather strange situation over breakfast the follwoing morning. My only other memories from their were the cockroach I found in my room, which to this date still remains the my most expenisve room by some distance.

I then headed north, on the first of many coach trips. The coaches, even the deluxe one's, are not quite European standard, but do make for an interesting trip. The scenery is often breathtaking, the passengers are always smiling, and with any luck you may find yourself sitting next to a chicken or two. Most of the coaches have enormous monster tyres, as particuarly in the north, you find the trip is largely offroad!

Bagiuo was just like any other city in the Philippines, lots of car fumes, insanely busy, hundreds of street sellers, who have some very reasonably priced fruit, speaking of which, the banana's here are just delightful, I am even eating some vegetables, although the stuff I had for dinner earlier, more closely resembled snot than anything else.

Kabayan was next on the agenda, a sweet little town, in the middle of nowhere really. I met a Dutch couple, Chris and his girlfriend, whose name is immensely challenging to spell, along with Pauline, the first Swedish girl I have ever met with Black hair, and then Elvis, a filippino, who proved useful as a translator. I, along with the Dutch couple made the foolish mistake of choosing to take all our luggage on the trek, and to continue past the mummies and catch the highway. The trek proved to be quiet challenging, particuarly with my 20 kg rucksack in tow, it was a continuous 5 hour trek uphill to the mummies. Which were fascinating, even if a little more skeletonal than I had expected. The views along the way were magnificentand the vegetable lift looked to a rather tempting swing, but a little on the small side for me. We then trekked for a further 2 hours to make it to the highway and catch our bus to Bontoc. That night I had quite possibly my cheapest meal ever, only 60 peso's, for shredded beef steak, vegetables, rice and a beer to wash it down, all for about 90 pence - bargain.

That will do for now, as it is getting somewhat longwinded, and considering next week I plan to spend sipping San Miguel on the beautiful white beaches of Borocay, I best save some stories for my next update.