ahoy pinoy summer!

pinoy = filipino.  summer = oven-baking hot.  first trip to philippines.  read about butandings (whale sharks) in donsol few years back and been wanting to go.  finally booked budget flight on cebu pacific air to manila! woo hoo, watch out butandings!  

planning for the trip was pretty challenging.  the resorts we wrote to were not forthcoming with information, and appeared bent on fleecing tourists.  internet search proved futile as well, as there wasn't much information about donsol, besides the famed whale sharks.  our flight was for 6 days stay and we weren't about to spend a whole week swimming with whale sharks, no offence to the gentle giants.  we eventually decided to book the first two nights of accommodation at donsol and make plans along the way when we get there.  

our adventure started at the manila airport.  arriving at 4am, we had around 4 hours before our domestic flight to legaspi.  we heard that the resorts world manila was right next to the airport so we thought that might be a good place to catch a snooze.  it was right next to the airport alright, but..... separated by an expressway.  there was a macdonald's across the road, too.  very enticing at 4am.  for a joke, someone built a half bridge from the other side of the road.  well, jay-walking across shouldn't be difficult, but.... the trouble is getting out of the airport grounds.  the architect for the airport was given a brief to make it impossible to get out without taking a cab.  the design was very successful.  the airport grounds was barricaded with a wall + fence that stretches for a kilometre or more on both sides - see the graphic below.  it may be more than a kilometre, it looked endless. 

they were charging an arm and leg at the cab counter in the airport.  if you just walked out and hailed any cab, it would be much cheaper.  can't remember how much it cost exactly, but you can ask random people hanging around.  ask at least 5 people as each may tell you a different story.  

be warned that if you stepped out of the airport, just as much as one step outside the auto sliding doors to ask the security guard for directions, you cannot step back in.  you will have walk to another entrance door to queue, and walk through a metal detector gantry to get back into the airport.  also, at the building apron, you cannot get from basement to ground floor.  you have to get back into the airport building and take the elevator/escalator up to ground floor.  don't say i didn't warn you.

the adventure didn't stop there. the check-in counter at the airport wanted to charge us for overweighted luggage.  we said we'll hand carry some of our heavy dive gear but they insisted that it's a policy that dive gear cannot be hand carried and we would surely be stopped at the immigration counter.  bonz insisted that was nonsense, and then we proceeded to transfer some stuff out of the check-in luggages to the hand-carry bag.  they didn't stop us and we eventually passed the immigration without any fuss and we didn't pay any excess baggage charges.

the flight from manila to legaspi was less than an hour.  plane-eye view of legaspi - check out the chocolate-like hills.  don't have to make special trip to bohol to see chocolate hills! 

    

    

airport with foothills in the background and very blue skies.


many touts at the airport clambering for business.  we negotiated for a tricycle to bring us to the bus terminal for i think 50 or 60pesos. there are a few bus terminals in legaspi so remember to tell the tricycle person that it is the terminal to donsol.  quite near, around 10 minutes.  

the passengers + 4 huge luggages overwhelmed the little tricycle.


street in Legaspi adorned with election flags.


tricycle dropped us off at the waiting area for minivans bound for donsol.  we have to wait for more passengers to join the van before it sets off.  price of the ride to Donsol is 60peso per person and takes around 1.5 hours.     


before they demand additional fees for our huge luggages, which could take up 3 seats, we quickly suggested that the luggages should go into the boot and proceeded to stuff them in.


while waiting for other passengers to fill the van, we took turns to amble around the terminal.


the famous philippines' jeepneys!




i like!



the van dropped us off in a nondescript place in donsol which got us a little worried about how to get to our booked accommodation.  


luckily there were some tricycles that rode by.  we stopped one and negotiated for price (around 60 pesos) of sending us to our accommodation + some others to check out prices before we make our decision on where to stay.  after checking out one or two other resorts, we decided to stick with the one that we pre-booked - vitton beach resort (T: 0927-9126313).  looks clean, comfortable and has hot shower facilities plus it is right next to the Tourism Office, which is the place to book the whale shark interaction tours.   


after checking in, we immediately headed out to book our whale shark 'tour' for the next day and also fireflies tour that evening.  we were told that we could only go out with the 3rd batch for the whale shark tour, i.e. later in the morning as the early morning batches were fully booked.  they asked us if we would like to wait for 3 other tourists to join our boat and share the cost or pay for 1 whole boat ourselves.  so happened that there were another 3 persons who just booked the tour so we joined up with them. 

we had an entire afternoon to waste after that so we ambled around to check out if there is anything else to do in donsol.

the 'main road' in donsol - no one!  only a few cows mooing in the padi fields! 





we've come to ulu town! and stuck here for 2 days... groaaaaannnn.... nothing else to do so we walked down to the next resort, amor farm beach resort, for lunch.

this is not lunch, its chicken feed.  so attractive looking.


this is also not lunch.  whale shark decor in fish tank - for tourists who are so unlucky that they don't see the real one.


the vacuum cleaner under the dining table.  will clean up any scraps that fall off the table. 



lunch is.... butter prawns. 


and chicken adobo (chicken in dark soya sauce) and calamari.  quite yummy, even though the butter doesn't taste like butter.






after lunch, more ambling around.  stroll down the black sand beach.





then back to room cos nothing else to do.  very spacious and quite clean, plus the hot shower works. 


nice balcony with sea view.


at dusk, we made our way out to amor farm beach resort for fireflies tour.

random shot of padi field along the way.


the good thing about booking the fireflies tour with amor resort is that they head out from the beach in front of the resort.  so we don't have to take a tricycle and make our own way to the head of the river ourselves.


gorgeous sunset.


mt mayon in the background simmering away.


random shot of mangroves.  that's all.. no shots of fireflies tour cos too dark!


after fireflies tour, dinner at amor farm then back to room.  nothing else to do!
next morning, we headed to the Tourism Office an hour ahead of our set off time, cos i was paranoid that the tourism officers were pulling a fast one on us when they told another group to report at 9am and told us 10am.  i was thinking maybe they want us to miss the boat and then we would have to pay for one boat all by ourselves!  well, that didn't happen so we spent our hour shopping for souvenirs.

finally, after the long wait and watching the introduction video 3 times, it was time for the tour.  one pinoy tourist sneaked up on our boat without paying!  yup, it's the big-bellied man in red t-shirt.  we thought he was part of the crew.  

the whale-shark spotter who's perched on a bamboo pole.




















we geared up with our mask, snorkel and fins and pricked our ears for the Interaction Officer's command of "NOW, NOW, NOWWWWWW!!!"  with that command, we were s'posed to slide off the side of the boat without hesitation and swim towards the whale shark.  the Interaction Officer will be swimming ahead of us so we just have to follow closely and the whale shark will come into view.  Visibility was about 6-8m so the whale shark comes into view pretty suddenly, it's huge mouth usually the first thing we see, causing a 'woaAAHH' effect.  tourists from all the boats will be zero-ing in on the same whale shark so it is quite a frenzy of legs, fins, bubbles and a lot of thrashing about near the surface, while the whale shark swims slowly and calmly about 3-6m below.  you can get closer by free-diving below.

each interaction lasts a few frantic minutes and then the boat circles around to pick us up when the whale shark swims too far away from view.  the boat then brings us to another area and when another whale shark is spotted, the whole frantic process of jump-off-boat, swim-to-whale-shark, gawk-at-whale-shark is repeated.  after a few more jumps, it felt pretty silly and touristy.  we shared boat with a young ang moh couple who were very kiasu, snatching pole positions (front-most position) for each launch-off and jumping off the boat in split seconds when the command was given by the Interaction Officer.  like a SWAT team on a very important mission.. 

3 hours later, we were sent back to shore.  goodbye butandings...

although we booked 2 nights accommodation at donsol, it was just waaaaaayyyy too boring to stay one more day, so we asked to cancel one night and asked for directions on how to get out of donsol.  the resort person was very helpful and gave us directions on getting to cebu via masbate.  after shower, we were out of donsol. 

took a tricycle from our accommodation to the Terminal, takes 10 mins and cost around 20 pesos each person.  From the Terminal (which was yet another nondescript place) we asked and were directed to the Jeepney to take to Pilar (15 mins, around 20-25 pesos each).  we told the jeepney driver to please inform us when we reach the Pilar jetty where we could take a boat to Masbate.  they dropped us off along the road and gave us directions on how to walk to the jetty.  it was 15 mins walk but with our heavy luggage, felt like forever.

arrived at the jetty and bought our Fastcraft ferry tickets - must write the names down on the notebook at the counter.  nobody said so, but i saw everyone else do it and had the common sense to do so too.  the Fastcraft departs everyday at 4am, 12pm and 4pm.  takes 2 hours.  we had some time to kill before our 4pm ferry, so went to have late lunch.  had instant noodles + rice + fish in spicy sour soup.




random shot of village at pilar jetty.



time to set off on our ferry.  we were allocated with seats at different areas in the ferry.  mine says 1E, but....



there is no 1E!!  there's only 1A, B, C, and D.  luckily i wrote my name on the notebook at the ticket counter so they confirmed that i had bought the ticket and directed me to an empty seat.



reached masbate about 6pm and were negotiating with some tricycle riders for good price to send us to a nearby hotel.  a middle-aged guy who also arrived on the same ferry asked us where we were headed to and assured us that he was a policeman (showed us his card) and said we can trust him.  wah lau, actually, the police pass made me distrust him!  anyways, we asked the small group of people who had gathered around us, where is a good place to stay that is near and not expensive.  the 'policeman' gave some suggestions and said it should cost us around 60pesos for a tricycle to send us to one of the hotels.  we negotiated with a tricycle rider to bring us to a few hotels for our consideration before we decide on the one to stay at.  the first hotel that we went to was pretty dodgy.  we asked the tricycle rider where we should go that is near, cheap, clean.  he brought us to Balay valencia.  looks kinda sad from the outside, but bonz went up to the room to check it out and it was good.  after settling down, we asked the hotel receptionist for directions to reasonable restuarants.  we took her suggestion and it was good - filipino chinese style food.  we ordered sinigang - a sour soup, very tasty!


after dinner, back to our very nice room.  very quaint, like homestay.


breakfast was a lovely spread.


toast served in a basket - nice touch.


common filipino breakfast - corn beef!


fresh fruits + orange cordial...


and what's a filipino breakfast without rice?  we didn't eat it though.  way too much food.







to digest our food, went out for a walk.  random shot of masbate street.


lechon (roast pig) - on my to-eat list from nina.  but i don't dare to eat.  looks scary. 


our boat to cebu was at 6pm so we were stuck in masbate for a day. we read in a magazine at Balay valencia about a Buntod sand bar/marine park and thought of heading there to snorkel.  based on the map in the magazine, we took a tricycle to one of the resorts along the coast, off the Buntod sand bar.  we thought we could probably rent a boat from the resort or something.  but, the resorts people looked at us like we were asking for the moon.  they didn't have boats for rent and suggested that we try the local jetty.  the tricycle rider took us there.   

local jetty. 


again, the boat people thought our request was ridiculous and suggested that we looked for the Mayor (say mah-yore)!  we thought the magazine was kidding when it printed the Mayor's contact details in the advert for the Buntod marine park half day tour!  anyways, it was sunday and the mayor's office was closed.  so we asked the tricycle rider to bring us to the beach after a tough negotiation on the price - he said it was very far away, and indeed it was.  we travelled through kampong area and palm plantations.


finally arrived at the beach and found out, we had to pay an entrance fee!  what????

there was a lot of floating debris and seaweed in the waters and i spotted one of the 'debris' was swimming.  had a closer look and realised it is a sargassum frogfish!



he came with some other friends.  seahorse.

black frogfish.


pipefish.


demonstrating how the frogfish clings to the sargassum seaweed.



close up of the seaweed.


now closeup of the debris.





there was also debris in the turtle pond.


turtle swimming with prawn crackers bag, in very smelly waters.  so sad.



ok, enough of swimming/snorkelling among trash.  time to go.  on the way back, our tricycle broke down!  luckily, in the middle of a village.



villager who came out to help.


while we went around taking pictures.





election fever on the tree.




phew, repaired.



back to balay valencia with nothing else to do.


before long, it was time to head to the jetty to catch the boat to cebu.

it's a 'luxury' cruise!



we were going to share the boat with some cargo.


ship's crew who helped us with our luggage because they pitied us - the girls with luggage larger than ourselves and who refused to pay the porters the mere 20 pesos (S$0.60) to carry the luggage. 


our 'luxury' cabin.

even has tv and attached toilet and basin. 


outside the cabin was rows of bunk beds.  many kids and they were very noisy.  luckily we paid more for the cabin room.


non-airconditioned bunk beds.


alarm clock was provided on the ship - the cockadoodle doo.


shot of jetty taken from the ship.

as we had some time before the ship leaves, we went out to buy dinner. passed by a green mango vendor and bought some to try.  a bit siap-siap and sour, not to my taste.


then headed to the eatery we went to the night before to have halo-halo (ice kachang) and beer.

setting off for cebu at dusk.





right after the dusk photo-taking, we headed back to the cabin for our packed dinner.  a huge cockroach scurried out and had 3 screaming ladies jumping up and down the bed.  the events that followed were fuzzy but the cockroach soon became mash.  we threw the rest of the dinner in the bin outside the room, scared that the food smells will attract more cockroaches....

14 hours later....

arrived at cebu!

bridge that connects cebu and mactan island.







we hadn't made any pre-arrangements for travel to cebu and we thought we could book a tour when we reached cebu.  first of all, finding a travel agent is a challenge.  someone suggested that we try the SM mall which was very close to the jetty (around 5 mins drive) and we decided to take a cab there cos there was no way of dragging our heavy luggages anywhere.  we joined a cab queue and the guard gave us a slip of paper that notes down the cab license no. before we got on.  cabs that pick up passengers from this queue had to charge by meter.  when we got near the mall, and i noticed the cab driver didn't keep to the left lane although the mall is on the left, i told him to Turn Left NOW.  he mumbled under his breath, made a left turn then turned off the cab meter! bonz, who was sitting in the front seat started yelling at him and demanded that he turned the meter back on and when he refused and asked for more than the metered fare, she screamed at him to stop the car immediately but he continued driving. she said 'we've got your car no. to make a complaint' and opened the door slightly.  that got him scared and he stopped the car.  we got off and demanded that he opened his car boot so we could take the luggages out - he said hah, he's got our bags.  bonz continued shouting at him, drawing the attention of other drivers around.  he got scared again and opened the car boot - we took our bags out and paid him only the starting fare!  tough luck.... one of the reasons why we dared to show such aggression was because he was quite old and fragile and we felt confident of pinning him down if necessary!  bad girls.. tsk tsk... poor guy has to go back to join the taxi queue which had a long line of cabs but few customers.  he must have queued for a long time only to get these customers who want to go to such a nearby place.  too bad.... but it's not our fault. 

the mall only opens in 2 hours time so while bonz guarded the luggages, nor and i walked around to check for information on how to get to malapascua.  we passed by the mall's bus terminal and i asked the guard how we can get to malapascua.  after a lot of hand gestures, globish and notes on my scrap paper, i figured we needed to take a jeepney to the Noag bus terminal (for north-bound buses).  he gave directions to take the jeepney from the big road junction ahead.  we went back to get bonz and dragged our luggages to the road junction.  when the jeepneys stop behind the red traffic lights at the junction, you are supposed to quickly hop on to the correct one.  the number at the front-top of the jeepney tells you which route it plies.  it was frenetic, cos we weren't sure if the jeepney driver understood when we asked if it was the correct jeepney.  we had realised early on that the filipino man-on-the-street would simply nod his head when you asked a question or said something, even if he didn't understand it.  anyways, as the light had turned green and all the jeepneys and other cars around were starting to move forward, we quickly went up one of the jeepneys which the driver said is the correct one.  being kiasu, we asked the passengers on board to confirm if it was going to the north bus terminal and were somewhat relieved when they confirmed it.  it was quite near, maybe around 20 minutes or so.  the bus terminal was quite chaotic too.  we asked around and were directed to the bus bay for buses bound for maya - the town at the northern tip of cebu, opposite malapascua island.  we verbally booked seats in one of the buses.  the buses leave only when it is around 1/3 full.  i think we might have waited around half hour or so.  fare is 100 pesos and trip takes 4-4.5hours.  

view of the bus terminal.





the bus picked up many more passengers along the way to maya.  some food/drinks and even a sunglasses vendor boarded the bus to peddle their stuff then alighted a few stops later, while the bus was still in cebu city.

shots of the city and the eastern coast of cebu, taken from the bus.





halfway stop for buying snacks or for toilet break.








near to maya, we were the only passengers left on the bus!  no one else on the full bus were going to maya... makes me a little nervous....



reached maya jetty around 2pm or so and the only tourists there were those who had arrived there from malapascua.  we hadn't booked our accommodation so had to figure out a way to get a boat transfer to malapascua.  a group of j-tourists said they stayed at Bantigue Cove which was 'very nice', but we don't trust them, cos j-tourists are known to be a prime target for getting fleeced.  at the jetty were several advertisement signboards on various resorts.  we called a few up to check rates and asked if they could send a boat to pick us up for free.  tough luck.  they said if we had pre-booked the accommodation they could have arrange for that but if we wanted them to send a boat now, that would cost an arm and leg.  enter the boat scammers.  they told us that there were no more boats heading out to malapascua but they could arrange for the special transfer if we paid for the whole boat at 1500 pesos (S$45).  we said no thank you, we will wait for other passengers.  they told a very convincing story about our bus being the last one to arrive in maya (oh, how unfortunate) and so there will be no other passengers arriving.  refusing to be fleeced, we were all ready to spend the night at maya.  after fierce bargaining, i think we settled for 100 pesos per person, which is double the normal fee of 50 pesos.  not wanting to give singaporean tourists a bad name for driving such a hard bargain, we said we were from malaysia, heh heh...       

as it was low tide, we had to take a small sampan to the bigger boat. 


we thought it was a free transfer and happily hopped off the sampan to the big boat.  the sampan man motioned to us and mumbled something.  another passenger, a filipina, told us we needed to pay the sampan man 10 pesos each.  the sampan man mumbled something to her and she immediately turned around and said it's 20 pesos each.  what the....??  she didn't have any vested interest in the boat, she was just another passenger and yet, without hesitation, colluded with the sampan man to cheat us tourists!  not wanting to create a commotion over 20 pesos (S$0.60), we paid up. 


glad to have secured a banca-boat transfer.  actually, there were a few other filipino passengers on the boat, which is contrary to the story that the scammers told us that there were NO other passengers and we had to pay for the WHOLE BOAT ourselves.  grumble grumble....




the banca dropped us off at the Bounty beach, which is on the southern side of the island, where most of the resorts are located.  getting off the boat is a balancing act down a wooden plank, which was especially precarious with our heavy and huge luggage.  we headed to the nearest resort Blue Water Beach resort.  the resort staff offered to carry our luggage but we said No thk you, even though our faces were turning blue, until they said, don't worry, no charge.  hahahaa....  again, we claimed to be malaysian tourists.  the resort manager said she thought we were singaporeans because the caller ID showed a singapore number.  we said we were all working in singapore hahaha (nervous laugh).  we asked to see the room before we confirm the booking.

quite spacious and clean and the hot shower was working.  but, there was a funky smell which they assured us was coming from some rubbish outside the room - we found out eventually that the smell arose after each flush of the toilet. grosssssss...

room + dive package rate was pretty reasonable.  i think it was 3000 pesos per night for the triple share room so each paid 1000 pesos (S$20).  dive - can't remember but i think was about S$50 per dive.

spacious room.


but disturbing sight - houseflies everywhere.







bright, airy balcony with beach view.  nice and great for sunning wet clothes!


first dive was pretty uneventful.  we went to the cleaning station of the thresher shark @ Monad Shoal and waited and waited but no luck... there were some mantis shrimps scurrying around but otherwise, nothing much else.  disappointing.... 

second day, we dove Monad shoal again... within minutes into the dive, an eagle ray came by... followed by a manta ray.  felt lucky already.  we headed to the cleaning station and the divemaster pointed frantically to the blue and everyone quickly got into kneeling position and watched as the thresher shark zipped by and in a moment he was gone.  we waited some more but he didn't re-appear. everyone came up smiling from cheek to cheek... dive checklist completed!  

after that dive, nothing else mattered.  can't even remember much about the other dives.  i think there was one with very strong currents and we dived ping-pong style behind the rock.  the divemaster didn't brief the old angmoh couple from australia about the ping-pong style so they dived around the rock, finning like mad against the currents.  poor things.  the old man came up deathly pale.  i think the divemaster didn't like them very much..

lovely beach at dusk.



kids harvesting sea urchins.

nice beach bar around 5 minutes walk from Blue Water resort.













dive sites map.



quaint resort, divelinkcebu, in the village.

hanging around in the village, which is at the back of the row of resorts fronting Bounty beach.








sunset was incredible. not photoshopped.  the colours were really this brilliant.  nice finish to our short stay in malapascua. 






as the jetty is quite a far walk from our resort (about 15mins), we arranged for porters to carry our darn heavy luggage weighing more than 20kg each.  i think they didn't expect two pint-sized girls to be have such heavy baggage so when they came and lifted the bags, can see regret on their faces.  they never could have imagined how we could lift up those bags on our own when we first arrived and refused to let them carry it for 20 pesos.  

poor porters...

last shot of boat in very blue waters.




waiting for banca transfer to maya (cost 40 pesos).




husky wannabe.






another sampan transfer to banca.  we learnt early on that you must get small change ready so you can pay the exact fare.  not sure, but we guessed that you will not get any change back if you pay with big notes.




random shots.









on bus on way back from maya to cebu.  very very crowded and very hot like a sauna.  cost is about 80 pesos.



we asked the fellow passengers + the bus ticket issuer person (remember the rule: ask at least 5 people as they may tell a different story) how to get to the airport and they said we should get off at blah-blah-blah and take a taxi and told us how much it roughly costs.  so when we reached blah-blah-blah, they all told us we should get off NOW.  it was in the middle of nowhere along a main road but there were a few cabs that came by and one stopped for us, who agreed to charge by the meter.  we told him we wanted to go to the cebu airport.  along the way, we ('Malaysian' tourists) chit-chatted and at some point, he said this is the bridge built by/for blah-blah-blah and is the bridge that crosses over to mactan island.  mactan????? we were very alarmed and told him that we wanted to go to cebu airport to fly back to singapore, why are we going to mactan???  we thought he was bringing us on a merry ride.  he was very amused and said there is only one airport and it is in mactan.  he seems like a honest guy so we trusted him.    



arriving at mactan international airport.  at least it has an 'international' in its name.  after checking in, felt relieved that we got to the correct airport. 



end of the philippines adventure!